Believe me, one way to get a lot of folks fired up as a minister is to say, "I don't believe in a literal heaven or hell."  The evangelical church movement, inspired largely by the Rev. Billy Graham, may be caricatured as proclaiming this fundamental message (though their theologies are much richer):  accept Jesus as your personal Lord and savior and you'll go to heaven, reject Jesus as your personal Lord and savior and you'll go to hell.  I will not even begin in this first post to point out (a) how horrible that theology is and (b) how Scripture never says that (and I challenge anyone to prove it).  But that message has won the day, so that even lifelong, faithful Presbyterians (members of my church, the PC(USA)) believe it, even though our Presbyterian faith has since its inception with Calvin proclaimed a way of salvation quite different.  So in this first post, let me lay out systematically the differences.

A diagram:

I believe in:     an afterlife          for the soul          in heaven

vs.

I believe in:     everlasting life    for the body        in the resurrection

The former:  "afterlife" means just that, something that happens after this life, i.e. when we are bodily dead.  "Soul" means an immortal soul, which, following our Greek and Roman forbears, is a divine spark in each person that cannot be destroyed, only rewarded or punished (the Greeks believe souls were recycled, but that's a different matter).  "Heaven" means a realm, spiritual or physical, where God and Jesus dwell and where the soul will go to dwell with them.

In contrast, the latter:  "everlasting life" means just that, life that never ends in contrast to this mortal life that will end and in contrast to an immortal soul dwelling in heaven, which is not considered "life" in the same way as everlasting life.  "Body" means all that we are - mind, emotions, flesh, bones, blood, personality - like the Hebrew word nefesh which is usually translated "mortal soul."  "Resurrection" means that great day when God raises all those God gives faith and transforms their rotted bodies into immortal bodies - and all that they ever were in terms of personality, mind, emotions, flesh, bones and blood - and, in a major difference, God comes back to live with God's people forever.

To begin this discussion, here's the questions.  First, do you think my belief in the resurrection is found in Scripture?  Second, which of these two beliefs are more represented in Scripture?  Finally, if I can demonstrate to you that the resurrection is much more Scriptural, would that change your belief?

As a word of closing, some people say to me, "Jeff, if you shatter someone's belief in heaven and hell they will stop believing in God."  To which I say, "Believing in God is not a matter of the content of someone's belief, it is a matter of God's transforming them, giving them faith, which cannot be resisted or reversed."  And that, my friends, is one essential tenet of the Reformed and Presbyterian faith.