"Fullness of Joy": Did the OT Saints Believe in Heaven?

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Dr. Bob Gonzales

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For centuries, dying Christians have drawn comfort and hope from Old Testament passages like David’s Twenty-third Psalm. Many scholars today, however, are charging earlier generations with reading the teaching of the New Testament back into the Old. They concede the New Testament has much to say about a resurrection, a final judgment, and eternal life. But modern scholars argue that a correct reading of the Old Testament provides little if any hope for a blissful life beyond the grave. According to them, the Old Testament believer simply lived for this world. For example, E. F. Sutcliffe, has claimed,
There has been a tendency to take it for granted that, like ourselves, Abraham, Moses, and David, and the other great men of God of the Old Testament looked forward to a judgment of their lives by God after death with a consequent apportionment of reward or punishment. But an attentive reading of the Old Testament shows that this is a mistaken notion and that for many centuries the religious life of the patriarchs and the people of Israel was based exclusively on God’s government of the world during the course of men’s pilgrimage on the earth.
Similarly, Millar Burrows has dogmatically asserted, “Early Hebrew religion had no conception of judgment or salvation after death.” He then accounts for belief in the resurrection among the Jews of Jesus’ day by arguing that “contact with Zoroastrianism, the religion of the Persian empire … supplied the pattern for the Jewish hope of resurrection and judgment after death.”

I believe these modern Bible scholars seriously mistaken. In a post entitled "Fullness of Joy," I highlight three pillars of the OT believer's hope. What are some arguments or passages of Scripture that you would advance to support the OT saint's belief in life after death?
 
Job 19:25-27 (ESV)

25. "For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth." 26. "And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh, I shall see God, 27. "whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another."
 
Heb11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them,[c] embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14 For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. 15 And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.

While some would argue (and I would say wrongly) that this is a N.T writer imposing a N.T perspective into an O.T situation. This much is clear. Whoever wrote Hebrews was well aware of hebraic tradition. This N.T writer has no issue in suggesting that O.T believers understood the eternal hope to which they were called.
 
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Many, many verses in the Psalms, such as: Psalm 17 (From men which are thy hand, O LORD, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes. As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.) These verses make it clear that the verses in Hebrews ref. above are not simply reading back: that the people of God have always been over against those who lived for/had their portion in this world.

-----Added 2/22/2009 at 03:46:56 EST-----

(there is also the use of the word 'stranger' and 'sojourner' even while the Israelites were dwelling in the promised land: so David prays in 1 Chronicles 29 that the people are strangers and sojourners before God as were all their fathers.)
 
Heb11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them,[c] embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14 For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. 15 And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.
While some would argue (and I would say wrongly) that this is a N.T writer imposing a N.T perspective into an O.T situation. This much is clear. Whoever wrote Hebrews was well aware of hebraic tradition. This N.T writer has no issue in suggesting that O.T believers understood the eternal hope to which they were called.

Excellent observation, brother. Unfortunately, the author of Hebrews' testimony is often skirted or overlooked by some OT scholars.

-----Added 2/22/2009 at 04:23:09 EST-----

Many, many verses in the Psalms, such as: Psalm 17 (From men which are thy hand, O LORD, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes. As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.) These verses make it clear that the verses in Hebrews ref. above are not simply reading back: that the people of God have always been over against those who lived for/had their portion in this world.

-----Added 2/22/2009 at 03:46:56 EST-----

(there is also the use of the word 'stranger' and 'sojourner' even while the Israelites were dwelling in the promised land: so David prays in 1 Chronicles 29 that the people are strangers and sojourners before God as were all their fathers.)

Great passages, Heidi. Thanks for highlighting them!
 
In a post entitled "Fullness of Joy," I highlight three pillars of the OT believer's hope.

A clearly written and well articulated post. Highly recommended.

Geerhardus Vos', "Eschatology of the Psalter," appended to the Pauline Eschatology, provides some useful discussion as to how to maintain this traditional view of OT piety while still acknowledging the progress of revelation. Among other things, he notes that the Messianic hope enabled the nation of Israel to assume a corporate sense of its eschatological goal and that the typological nature of the land of Canaan as signifying eternal rest in God had the effect of eschatologically attuning the mind of the Israelite to think in terms of an absolute future.
 
No time for a long post.

I don't know if they believed in life after death... but regardless of whether or not they did... they should have! ;)
 
In a post entitled "Fullness of Joy," I highlight three pillars of the OT believer's hope.

A clearly written and well articulated post. Highly recommended.

Geerhardus Vos', "Eschatology of the Psalter," appended to the Pauline Eschatology, provides some useful discussion as to how to maintain this traditional view of OT piety while still acknowledging the progress of revelation. Among other things, he notes that the Messianic hope enabled the nation of Israel to assume a corporate sense of its eschatological goal and that the typological nature of the land of Canaan as signifying eternal rest in God had the effect of eschatologically attuning the mind of the Israelite to think in terms of an absolute future.

Matthew,

Thanks for your kind recommendation and especially for the resource. I wasn't aware of this work of Vos though I do own the Pauline Eschatology. Someday, I hope to develop this theme into a full-length book.

May the Lord bless your week. I'm off to teach Hebrew in Kentucky.

In Christ,
 
So they believe that David believed he would live in God's house (the earthly temple) forever without dying? I doubt they are that stupid but who knows. Saying that David didn't mean his eternal home with God in Psalms 23 poses two problems: they either cannot believe in the inerrancy and infallibility of the OT ( most likely they don't of the NT) and thus believe that David was saying this as a wish, or they believe that "forever" has a defined time limit. So if they don't believe in the inerrancy and infallibility of the OT, then really they have no hope either. If everything of the OT was based on man's deep wishes, then God isn't who He says He is. Puts them in a precarious position if they are looking for a God who would later send His Son to die for their sins....because really this would only be man's deepest wish..."if you wish upon a star makes no difference who you are it's just not going to come true!" If they believe that "forever" is just a certain amount of time, where do they get their Biblical definition of "forever" and does it match other verses that have the same Hebrew word for "forever" in their meaning. If "forever" is only 70yrs for David, for example, is "forever" only 70 years for God when He established His covenant with Abraham "forever"? We're all toast then! I don't understand how people like them get an audience. If I with a pea-sized brain can shake their statements in the most minute manner, why would anyone with a full-sized brain and who is a Christian be captured by what they have to say and toy with it as though it might have some possibility? I'm not sure that my atheist friend would find them very smart. Of course my friend would say that nothing about the Bible is true concerning God, but if you asked him to placed a Christian within this frame mind he would agree that it's rubbish! :2cents:
 
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