Expert: Pastor Don Carpenter - 8/31/2010

Question
I just read your bio and then perused some of your previous questions and answers. You said that if someone asked you a question they would receive a biblically based answer but I have a question regarding your answer to someone who asked about how many others have gone to heaven and who were they. If you truly believe the bible is the word of God, and it is without error, then how can you say that there were two others who have gone to heaven when God Himself has said that no man has gone to heaven except He who has come from heaven, namely the Son? Even after the Saviors resurection and assension, His apostles taught some 20 years later the very same message, that no man has gone to heaven except He who came from heaven AND that David, whom God Himself said is a man after His own heart, has not assended. How do you reconcile this?

Answer
Hi Robert,

Thanks for this interesting question.  I am not sure what question you are referring to.  We know that Jesus is in Heaven at the right hand of the Father.  We also know that Paul expected to be with Jesus imediatly after death... since Jesus is in Heaven, it is reasonable to believe that we go to Heaven immediatly upon death.

Hebrews 12:2
2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.  
The King James Version, (Cambridge: Cambridge) 1769.

Philippians 1:21-23
21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not. 23 For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:
The King James Version, (Cambridge: Cambridge) 1769.

2 Corinthians 5:6-8
6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: 7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) 8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
The King James Version, (Cambridge: Cambridge) 1769.

I hope that this helps you.

In Christ
Pastor Don

PS.  I am just trying to answer your question, but I do not want to get into a big debate or argument.