Eternal life in God's presence; resurrected believers reign with Christ forever
The AG affirms that believers who die are immediately in God's presence, and that at the resurrection they will receive glorified bodies and dwell with God forever. The SFT describes heaven as a real place of eternal blessedness where the redeemed will enjoy the presence of God and fellowship with Christ throughout eternity.
The AG's eschatology is strongly premillennial and dispensational, meaning it envisions a sequence: the rapture, the millennial kingdom of Christ on earth, and then the eternal state in the new heavens and new earth. Heaven, in the AG framework, includes both an intermediate state ('with Christ') and the final, embodied, eternal state in the renewed creation.
The AG's pneumatological emphasis — the conviction that the Holy Spirit brings the reality of the Kingdom of God into the present — gives AG worship a foretaste-of-heaven character. Joyful worship, healing, and Spirit-filled community are understood as present anticipations of the eternal life that is to be fully experienced in God's presence.
Key Distinctions
- Heaven nature:
- eternal conscious presence with God; beatific vision; transformed creation
- Access timing:
- at final resurrection and judgment (Last Day)
- Bodily resurrection:
- full bodily resurrection; glorified body reunited with soul
Scripture References
Sources
- Assemblies of God Statement of Fundamental Truths, §13: The Blessed Hope