What is the Biblical basis for the belief that a living person may visit heaven or hell?
Upvote:3
From an Orthodox perspective, this really depends on how you define heaven and hell. Are you referring to the intermediate state prior to the final judgment, or to our final place of blessedness or damnation? As our tradition (along with the scriptures) differentiates between Sheol/Hades (where everyone goes after death) and the final state after the last judgment, we would say that one may experience the intermediate state - but only those who have been bodily resurrected (second resurrection) have yet experienced the final state (i.e. Christ Himself, and many Orthodox and all Catholics would also include the Virgin Mary).
"No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man" (John 3:13).
"But, as it is written, 'What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him'" (1 Corinthians 2:9).
"But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells" (2 Peter 3:13).
Upvote:8
It happened before in the Bible, so I don't see why it cannot happen again. In 2 Corinthians 12:1-10, Paul the Apostle tells about a time when he is taken up to Paradise "and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter" (v4). He could not tell whether he was in a body or not (v3).
Perhaps the most famous occasion of a man going to heaven and coming back to earth to record the experience would be John, who wrote the book of Revelation. He saw much in heaven. It appears that he actually took notes while he was in heaven; at one point he was admonished not to write about the 7 thunders (Rev. 10:4). He was told to write what he saw and deliver it to the angels of the 7 churches (Rev 1:10-11).
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