Our point is not that there is no spiritual paradise or that the righteous do not go there when they die. It is clear, however, that the Scriptures do not speak of Heaven as being our eternal home. Heaven exists. Indeed it does. Our personal belief is that Paradise will be a place of rest for the saint while the army of the Lord is being prepared for the invasion of the earth in the Battle of Armageddon. But eternal residence in Paradise is not the goal of the Christian salvation.

The true message of Jesus is that all the righteousness, peace, joy, and wonder of Heaven are coming to the earth. First, as an overcoming power that crushes resistance during the thousand-year Kingdom Age, and then as the permanent possession of mankind throughout the eternity of the new heaven and earth reign of Christ.

Notice the teaching of the eleventh chapter of the Book of Hebrews. The godly always are seeking the city that "hath foundations," a city that is coming to the earth.

The godly have died in faith. Assuredly, they are in Heaven with God. But have they attained the goal, the "rest" of God?

Speaking of the righteous who are with God in Heaven, the heroes of faith:

And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: (Hebrews 11:39)

If Heaven is the "rest" promised to the Lord's people, the "land of milk and honey," why, then, does the infallible Scripture declare that Enoch and Abraham have "not received the promise"?

Also, we are not going to live in the city that has foundations. The city that has foundations is coming to us.

For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. (Hebrews 13:14)

We are seeking a city that is coming to the earth.

But if Heaven is not the goal of salvation, then what is?

The goal of the Christian redemption is the "rest" of God. Canaan, the land of promise, the goal of our wanderings, is set forth in the Scriptures as the "rest" that remains to the people of God.

For if Jesus [Joshua] had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. (Hebrews 4:8,9)

It is obvious that the Spirit of God, in the Book of Hebrews, is associating the "rest" of God with the land of promise of the Jews.

The Israelites wandered for forty years in the wilderness. The events of the Exodus, the wandering, and the entrance into Canaan were real experiences of real people. However, they happened to the Israelites in order that we who are entering the true and eternal Kingdom of God might have examples placed before us of what to do and what not to do.

Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. (I Corinthians 10:11)

The various episodes associated with the history of the Hebrews, particularly their exodus from Egypt and entrance into Canaan, serve us Christians as types—the foreshadowing of spiritual realities.

To be continued.