When did the idea that dead people immediately go to Heaven enter popular Christianity?

Don't forget that the official doctrine of most older forms of Christianity is that no one is in heaven or hell right now. That they wait in the grave until judgement day.

This is an interesting question.

Look at a topic like this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particular_judgment

And you can see it's not clear-cut, from Christianity's very beginning. Purgatory clearly defined arrives only in the high middle ages. I remember reading once about a certain riot when it was denied that anyone would go to heaven before the last judgement, but I don't recall now where. As for the Catholic Church in particular... it has a longstanding tradition of declaring certain people to be in heaven, the saints. I don't think they ever said "these people will be in heaven after the last judgement".

I was raised to believe that people go to heaven when they die, to await the resurrection in some kind of inexplicable spirit form. (Aren't all Christian ideas "inexplicable" when you get down to the core?)

The main reasoning for this position was based on three passages.

1. The rich man and lazarus, where Lazarus is supposedly in torment in hell while the OT saints are in "the bosom of Abraham". Most evangelicals believe this is *NOT* a parable, but an actual event that happened which Jesus clued us in to.

2. Paul in 2 Corinthians talks about the two states of the believer. He mentions either being in one's mortal body, or else being present with the Lord. He doesn't talk about a "sleep of the soul" which early Church fathers apparently believed in.

3. In Hebrews, the author speaks about the OT heroes of the faith. After listing a shitload of these guys, he says, "Since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses (or so many spectators) we should run the race with patience/endurance, yada yada yada" The inference being that all the people who have lived before the present time are sort of watching us, like we're competing in some big cosmic sporting event. And if these people aren't conscious and "looking down on us" then they can't be "witnesses". Hence, Christians who die must obviously go to heaven.

This teaching of evangelicalism is questionable at best, and is the product of an overly literal, over-systematization of the Bible which proclaims absurdly that every single chapter of every single book uses every single word in exactly the same sense and with the same connotation every time, and all the biblical authors are in perfect agreement on everything. This philosophy of bible interpretation picked up steam during the 19th Century and was in full bloom by the early 20th century.

Which is pretty funny when you notice that three Gospel writers can't even agree on what Jesus' last words were.

EDIT:

Oh, yeah. Tiger makes a good point, too. Evangelicals use that "criminal on the cross" passage as another proof text.

Come on, though, people. The biblical authors can't even agree on the facts of Jesus' life. How are they going to agree on metaphysics???

The teaching of the immortality of the soul was incorporated into "Christian" doctrine with the advent of the Catholic Church. It was a carry-over from pagan beliefs.

True Christians do not believe this false doctrine. They know that the Bible teaches that the majority of people who have died will be resurrected and live on earth after God's kingdom government restores the earth to a paradise.

Until then the dead are in the grave awaiting the resurrection.

(Acts 24:15) and I have hope toward God, which hope these [men] themselves also entertain, that there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.

(Psalm 37:29) The righteous themselves will possess the earth, And they will reside forever upon it.

(Romans 6:7) For he who has died has been acquitted from his sin.

(Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6) For the living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all, neither do they anymore have wages, because the remembrance of them has been forgotten. 6 Also, their love and their hate and their jealousy have already perished, and they have no portion anymore to time indefinite in anything that has to be done under the sun.

(Psalm 146:3, 4) Do not put YOUR trust in nobles, Nor in the son of earthling man, to whom no salvation belongs.  4 His spirit goes out, he goes back to his ground; In that day his thoughts do perish.

You make a grave error thinking that Purgatory is a place and also that it is within time. Neither is true. It is more correctly simply a process of purgation that the Bible describes that is akin to the purification of precious metal in that with the Christian heaven bound is cleansed of the dross of sin that remains after confession and repentance so that one is completely pure and without sin through Christ's blood when entering heaven. In heaven everything occurs in the eternal present as we live in time now that was created for us in life but not for our everlasting souls in the eternal present. This has always been the teaching of the Bible.

2 Corinthians 5 (KJV)

5 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:

3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.

4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.

5 Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.

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.

9 Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.

God bless!

In Christ

Fr. Joseph

The start of that would be in the 6th century when the emperor Justinian removed reincarnation from Christian teachings. Originally they taught that you only reunite with the source when you have achieved perfection until then you are stuck in the cycle of life and death.

There are still a few traces of this in the bible john 9 v1-4 being most well known but there are quite a few others if you look closely.

Christianity doesn't really make any sense until you take reincarnation into account.

Very early. This is when suicide became a sin in Christianity. You see, many believed due to teachings that once you died you went straight to heaven. Wow, I don't have to put up with **** here, I can just die and go to heaven was the result. People committed suicide and/or provoked others to kill them so they could go to heaven. Realizing that this made the early church look like a bunch of whack jobs, suicide was declared a sin so simply dying was no longer a straight path to heaven! Dead followers don't make a good following!

Judaism also had this.

(2 Maccabees 39-46):

"39 On the following day, since the task had now become urgent, Judas and his men went to gather up the bodies of the slain and bury them with their kinsmen in their ancestral tombs.

40 But under the tunic of each of the dead they found amulets sacred to the idols of Jamnia, which the law forbids the Jews to wear. So it was clear to all that this was why these men had been slain.

41 They all therefore praised the ways of the Lord, the just judge who brings to light the things that are hidden.

42 Turning to supplication, they prayed that the sinful deed might be fully blotted out. The noble Judas warned the soldiers to keep themselves free from sin, for they had seen with their own eyes what had happened because of the sin of those who had fallen.

43 He then took up a collection among all his soldiers, amounting to two thousand silver drachmas, which he sent to Jerusalem to provide for an expiatory sacrifice. In doing this he acted in a very excellent and noble way, inasmuch as he had the resurrection of the dead in view;

44 for if he were not expecting the fallen to rise again, it would have been useless and foolish to pray for them in death.

45 But if he did this with a view to the splendid reward that awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought.

46 Thus he made atonement for the dead that they might be freed from this sin. "

You are an eternal soul... you have a body.

True saints go to be with the Lord when they die.. their soul.

"We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord." [2 Corinthians 5:8]

those that reject God go to a place similar to hell until the final judgement.

Many will be told by Jesus.. I never knew you.

Jesus said so to the criminal on the cross. It is His own words. We do not bother to look back to earth. There is nothing there anymore for those who are alive with God in eternity.

Within the Christian faith, there is a significant amount of confusion regarding what happens after death. Some hold that after death, everyone “sleeps” until the final judgment, after which everyone will be sent to heaven or hell. Others believe that at the moment of death, people are instantly judged and sent to their eternal destinations. Still others claim that when people die, their souls/spirits are sent to a “temporary” heaven or hell, to await the final resurrection, the final judgment, and then the finality of their eternal destination. So, what exactly does the Bible say happens after death?

First, for the believer in Jesus Christ, the Bible tells us that after death believers’ souls/spirits are taken to heaven, because their sins are forgiven by having received Christ as Savior (John 3:16, 18, 36). For believers, death is to be “away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:6-8; Philippians 1:23). However, passages such as 1 Corinthians 15:50-54 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 describe believers being resurrected and given glorified bodies. If believers go to be with Christ immediately after death, what is the purpose of this resurrection? It seems that while the souls/spirits of believers go to be with Christ immediately after death, the physical body remains in the grave “sleeping.” At the resurrection of believers, the physical body is resurrected, glorified, and then reunited with the soul/spirit. This reunited and glorified body-soul-spirit will be the possession of believers for eternity in the new heavens and new earth (Revelation 21-22).

Second, for those who do not receive Jesus Christ as Savior, death means everlasting punishment. However, similar to the destiny of believers, unbelievers also seem to be sent immediately to a temporary holding place, to await their final resurrection, judgment, and eternal destiny. Luke 16:22-23 describes a rich man being tormented immediately after death. Revelation 20:11-15 describes all the unbelieving dead being resurrected, judged at the great white throne, and then being cast into the lake of fire. Unbelievers, then, are not sent to hell (the lake of fire) immediately after death, but rather are in a temporary realm of judgment and condemnation. However, even though unbelievers are not instantly sent to the lake of fire, their immediate fate after death is not a pleasant one. The rich man cried out, “I am in agony in this fire” (Luke 16:24).

Therefore, after death, a person resides in a “temporary” heaven or hell. After this temporary realm, at the final resurrection, a person’s eternal destiny will not change. The precise “location” of that eternal destiny is what changes. Believers will ultimately be granted entrance into the new heavens and new earth (Revelation 21:1). Unbelievers will ultimately be sent to the lake of fire (Revelation 20:11-15). These are the final, eternal destinations of all people—based entirely on whether or not they had trusted Jesus Christ alone for salvation (Matthew 25:46; John 3:36).

MIMI

The mystery's of faith an GOD are beyond human comprehension.

I had the same thoughts as you but it cannot be answered by us.

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