A common modern assumption is that the ultimate goal of the Christian faith is for the believer’s immortal soul to “go to heaven” forever. However, when we read the letters of the Apostle Paul through the lens of historical-critical scholarship, a much more complicated framework emerges.

Paul believed heaven existed. He could envision believers being with Christ after death. But Paul’s ultimate eschatological hope was not permanent residence in heaven. Instead, operating as a first-century Jewish apocalyptic thinker, his ultimate expectation was resurrection, transformation, Christ’s return, and the liberation of creation. To understand this perspective, we must examine Paul’s vertically structured universe, his complex understanding of Jesus, and his distinct expectations for the afterlife and the end of the age.

1. A Vertically Structured Universe

Paul’s cosmological imagination was vertically structured and relational rather than scientific in the modern sense. Like many in the ancient Mediterranean world, he conceived of a universe broadly divided into the heavens above, the earth in the middle, and the realm of the dead below.

Paul’s reference to a man being caught up to the “third heaven” (2 Corinthians 12:2) shows that he could conceive of heaven as a realm with distinguishable levels or locations. Exactly how he imagined those levels, however, cannot be reconstructed with confidence, as Jewish and Greco-Roman cosmologies of the period varied considerably.

What is clear is that Paul’s letters assume a cosmos populated by supernatural powers and organized hierarchically. Some of these powers are hostile to God and humanity, although Paul does not give us a systematic map of where every spiritual being resides. The Epistle to the Ephesians—whose authorship is disputed and which many scholars regard as deutero-Pauline—provides an even more elaborate picture of this, describing a struggle against “spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12). For Paul, the universe was a populated, contested space.

2. Who Is Jesus?

Within this cosmos, Paul’s understanding of Jesus is central, though it resists simple categorization. Paul does not give us a systematic doctrine of the Trinity; his Christology is expressed through several overlapping patterns rather than a later conciliar formula like Nicaea.

It is a misconception to view early Christian history as a neat trajectory from a “low” Pauline Christology to a “high” Nicene Christology. Paul’s letters contain both what scholars often call a “high Christology”—a view in which Jesus is accorded an exceptionally exalted status—and passages in which the Son remains functionally subordinate to God. On one hand, Paul places Jesus within his reformulation of Jewish monotheistic language (1 Corinthians 8:6), gives him an extraordinarily elevated position (Philippians 2:6–11), and applies scriptural language concerning YHWH directly to him (Romans 10:9–13). On the other hand, Paul can state that at the end of all things, the Son will be subject to the Father (1 Corinthians 15:24–28).

Romans 1:3–4 connects Jesus’ designation as “Son of God in power” with his resurrection from the dead. Through this exalted Christ, Paul argues that believers receive a new status. He uses the Greek term huiothesia, usually translated as “adoption.” This language evokes inheritance and family status in the ancient Mediterranean world, although Paul’s concept should not simply be reduced to a technical description of Roman adoption law; it is equally rooted in Jewish scriptural traditions concerning Israel as God’s son. Through this adopted sonship, believers become heirs with Christ. Importantly, this is about status, inheritance, and a participatory relationship with God, not humans becoming “divine beings” in the same sense as the Creator.

3. What Happens When a Christian Dies?

If the ultimate goal is not a permanent relocation to heaven, what did Paul think happened immediately after death?

In Philippians 1:23, Paul writes that he desires to “depart and be with Christ, which is better by far.” Similarly, in 2 Corinthians 5:1–5, he states that believers have a heavenly dwelling and expresses a desire to be “clothed” rather than “unclothed” by death. These passages indicate that Paul could envision believers being with Christ after death and could speak of a heavenly dwelling. Exactly how he conceived of this intermediate state, however, remains debated.

This creates an important distinction between the intermediate state and the final state. Paul can speak about being with Christ after death, but his ultimate expectation is resurrection. In other words, “being with Christ after death” and “the resurrection of the dead” are not necessarily competing ideas in Paul’s theology. In light of Paul’s emphasis on the future resurrection, this postmortem existence is best understood as distinct from the final state of salvation. Paul does not describe eternal residence in heaven as the culmination of his eschatological hope.

4. Resurrection, Not Escape

For Paul, the ultimate destiny of the believer is not to remain a disembodied soul, but to experience bodily resurrection. In 1 Corinthians 15, he provides his most extensive defense of this concept, arguing that just as Christ was raised, so too will believers be raised.

Paul introduces the concept of the sōma pneumatikon (the “spiritual body”). This phrase is frequently misunderstood. Paul’s sōma pneumatikon should not be understood as an immaterial ghost. At the same time, “spiritual” does not simply mean an ordinary physical body with supernatural upgrades. Paul is describing a transformed mode of embodied existence, animated by God’s Spirit and no longer subject to decay and death.

5. The Lord Comes Down

Rather than describing believers permanently ascending to heaven, Paul describes Christ descending from heaven and believers being transformed at his arrival. Paul does not literally describe heaven itself descending to earth; he describes the Lord descending from heaven. In 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17, he writes that the Lord will come down, the dead will rise, and living believers will be “caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.”

Paul’s description of believers being caught up to meet the descending Lord has often been compared with apantēsis—the ancient civic practice of going out to meet an arriving ruler or dignitary to formally escort them back into the city. If this background is intended, the imagery could suggest a meeting followed by the Lord’s arrival on earth, rather than Christians permanently departing for heaven. Scholars disagree, however, about whether Paul deliberately invokes the conventions of a civic reception.

6. Creation Is Liberated

The final act of Paul’s eschatological vision expands beyond human beings to encompass the entire material world. In Romans 8:19–23, Paul writes that creation itself is groaning, eagerly awaiting the revealing of the children of God.

Paul does not envision the physical universe as a temporary, disposable stage. Instead, he expects that creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay. The destiny of adopted humanity is intimately tied to the destiny of the cosmos.

Taken together, Paul’s surviving letters allow us to reconstruct something like three stages: at death, believers may be understood as being with Christ; at Christ’s return, the dead are raised and the living transformed; and ultimately, creation itself is liberated from decay. Paul believed in heaven, but heaven was not the final destination of resurrected humanity. His hope was resurrection, transformation, Christ’s return, and God’s total liberation of creation.