1. There is no kingdom of heaven yet.

From the sermon on October 9, 2005

I have been talking about an issue that may be highly confusing for Christians. There are words like the kingdom of heaven and hell in the Bible, but I have told you that the kingdom of heaven and hell have not been created yet. This issue is very controversial among Christians, because in Christianity it is believed that the souls of all dead people go to heaven or hell.

Christians pray, worship and then feel comfort at funerals by saying like, “This person is now with Jesus in heaven.” But if I said, “No one has gone to heaven,” people would question what is going on the Christians who have trusted in Jesus as well as the people who believed in God in the Old

Testament days.

You and all the people who believe in God may ask, “How do you know this? How can you truly believe that?” I would not dare to say that if I were not confident. Paul said, “I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ” (Gal. 1:12) and “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!” (Gal. 1:8). He preached that with confidence. Paul spoke to thousands of people at that time, but now there are billions of Christians. My words are for everyone, including both the Christians as well as all of the people who had died for believing in God.

Jesus’ beloved disciples did not believe all his words. They claimed Jesus is the Saviour, Messiah. But because they did not believe this with all their heart, they did not wait for him at Galilee after his death as he instructed them to do (Matt. 26:32, 28:7, 10). That is our faith. It is hard to believe in Jesus and his words, even though he performed miracles.

One day, Jesus went up a high mountain with Peter, John,