What if some of the Bible verses Christians most often quote about heaven do not actually mean what we think they mean?
For many Christians, the answer to what happens after death seems straightforward: we die, we go to heaven, and that is where we spend eternity. But in the latest Bonus episode of Ask NT Wright Anything, Tom Wright and Mike Bird challenge that familiar picture and ask whether the New Testament is pointing us towards something bigger.
At the heart of Tom’s argument is the distinction between heaven as an intermediate state and the Bible’s ultimate hope of resurrection and new creation.
Mike begins with one of the most famous passages of all: Jesus’ words to the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with me in paradise.”
Does “paradise” simply mean heaven?
Tom argues that it is better understood as a temporary resting place between bodily death and bodily resurrection. He describes a three-stage sequence that he believes many modern Western Christians have largely forgotten: “bodily death, intermediate state, and bodily resurrection.”
That changes the way we read some of Christianity’s most familiar verses.
The conversation then turns to John 14, where Jesus tells his disciples that in his Father’s house are “many rooms” and that he is going to prepare a place for them.
For generations, those words have inspired images of permanent heavenly mansions. But Tom points to the Greek word mone, translated as “room”, “dwelling place” or, traditionally, “mansion”. He argues that in the ancient world the word commonly referred not to a permanent home, but to somewhere you stopped and rested during a journey.
“It’s a waiting place,” Tom explains, “an area where you rest and are refreshed before continuing your journey.”
And what about “treasure in heaven”?
Surely, Mike asks, if our treasure is stored in heaven, we eventually have to go there to enjoy it?
Tom offers a characteristically memorable analogy. If someone tells you there is beer waiting for you in the fridge, that does not mean you have to climb inside the fridge to drink it.
In the same way, he argues, when Scripture speaks of salvation or treasure being “kept in heaven”, the point is that it is being kept safe in God’s space until the time when God brings his purposes to fulfilment.
The result is a strikingly different picture of Christian hope.
The destination is not simply humanity escaping earth for heaven. It is God renewing creation, raising the dead and bringing heaven and earth together.
This conversation is part of the Ask NT Wright Anything Bonus series, where Tom Wright and Mike Bird go deeper into some of the biggest questions raised by the Bible, theology and Christian life.
To hear the full conversation, you’ll need to become a Bonus subscriber.
And if this discussion changes how you think about heaven, send it to one person who needs to hear it. Follow Ask NT Wright Anything so you never miss an episode, and subscribe to the Bonus series for more deep-dive conversations with Tom Wright and Mike Bird.
