According to the post-biblical Midrash, eight people went to (or will go to) heaven (also referred to as the Garden of Eden and paradise) alive: Enoch, Noah's great grandfather (Genesis 5:22–24) Elijah (2 Kings 2:11) Serah, daughter of Asher, son of Jacob (Midrash Yalkut Shimoni (Yechezkel 367))
The Bible does not say in any part that it is only the 144,000 that will go to heaven. The revelation to John supports Matthew 8:11, which says that many will come from every corner of the earth to sit with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The number 144,000 that were sealed or chosen are not pre-chosen.
Among all Americans, 75 percent think they'll go to heaven. The rest include 5 percent who believe in heaven but don't think they'll get there; 9 percent who believe but aren't sure they'll get in; and 10 percent who don't believe in heaven.
You enter heaven by forgiveness and through the righteousness that Jesus gives you. You do not enter into heaven by the Christian life. It's always true that where faith is birthed, works will follow, but salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
Hear (Romans 10:17), believe (Hebrews 11:6), repent (Acts 17:30), confess (Romans 10:9, 10), get baptized (Acts 2:38) and live a faithful Life (Revelations 2:10). Obedience or non-obedience to God's word will settle one's destiny. So who determines our eternal destiny? Each person does.
Put simply, our salvation depends solely on the person and work of Jesus Christ. As we continue to trust in him, we will experience the power of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives to make us more like Jesus. When we see this happening, our assurance that we truly are one of God's children grows.
Either way, it is Christ who is taking you to the Father's house. Paul describes how this will happen: “The Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
One understanding is that the 144,000 are recently converted Jewish evangelists sent out to bring sinners to Jesus Christ during the seven year tribulation period. Preterists believe they are Jewish Christians, sealed for deliverance from the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.
You may have felt like your sins are too serious or that you have made the same mistake too many times. But no matter how much we have sinned, we can always repent and be forgiven. Some sins may be easier to correct than others, but Jesus Christ has provided for total forgiveness from all sins. He is eager to forgive.
One eternal or unforgivable sin (blasphemy against the Holy Spirit), also known as the sin unto death, is specified in several passages of the Synoptic Gospels, including Mark 3:28–29, Matthew 12:31–32, and Luke 12:10, as well as other New Testament passages including Hebrews 6:4–6, Hebrews 10:26–31, and 1 John 5:16.
Heaven and Hell
According to the beliefs of some religions, heavenly beings can descend to earth or incarnate, and earthly beings can ascend to heaven in the afterlife, or in exceptional cases, enter heaven alive.
Atheists are the only ones who say unequivocally that atheists don't go to heaven. Most heaven-believing religions seem to have a clause that allows even atheists to integrate the neighborhood. The road, however, is usually narrow and littered with obstacles.
In Ephesians, Paul talks about our citizenship in Heaven saying, “so then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household.” While we have only ever known life on earth, it is not our home.
In religious or mythological cosmology, the seven heavens refer to seven levels or divisions of the Heavens. The concept, also found in the ancient Mesopotamian religions, can be found in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; a similar concept is also found in some other religions such as Hinduism.
While Jesus told Nicodemus, “Amen, Amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit” (John 3:5), he did not set baptism as a hindrance to salvation but just the opposite. We so often judge things by human standards, but God is not restrained by our standards.
After this, John says the heavenly city is a perfect cube, each side being 12,000 stadia, or 1,400 miles. Then we're told that the walls were 144 cubits high, or about 200 feet.
ÇMurder, torture and abuse of any human being, but particularly the murder, torture and abuse of children and animals. These are more than unforgivable to me; they are incomprehensible. They violate the most basic dignity of the human person and, as such, deny God in our broken world.
Though Church teaching, in line with its Doctors, holds that God has no literal sex because God possesses no body (a prerequisite of sex), classical and scriptural understanding states that God should be referred to (in most contexts) as masculine by analogy.
Yes, God forgives divorce and remarriage like any other sin
Although God's view of divorce will remain unchanged, he absolutely can forgive those who turn to him in prayer for forgiveness for any decisions made surrounding their divorce.
chosen people, the Jewish people, as expressed in the idea that they have been chosen by God as his special people. The term implies that the Jewish people have been chosen by God to worship only him and to fulfill the mission of proclaiming his truth among all the nations of the world.
Jehovah's Witnesses teach that salvation is possible only through Christ's ransom sacrifice and that individuals cannot be saved until they repent of their sins and call on the name of Jehovah. Salvation is described as a free gift from God, but is said to be unattainable without good works that are prompted by faith.
The 2,604,381,000 estimate for mid-year 2023 Christian population total is a 44,506,000-person increase from the mid-year 2022 total. The new estimates of the worldwide Christian population for both 2025 and 2050 are higher than the 2022 report's estimates.
Catholicism. Sacred Scripture teaches that Enoch and Elijah were assumed into heaven while still alive and not experiencing physical death.
Galatians 5:20 says, “Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresie.”
The Lord has not revealed whether one specific angel is assigned to watch over each person, but you can be assured that divine protection and comfort are available. If you exercise faith, you will have God's help, including angels sent to strengthen and comfort you and give you courage to do what is right.