Your Redemption Draws Near! 1
And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. (Luke 21:28)
What Is the Nature of the Kingdom, the Redemption That Is Drawing Near?
Exactly what did the Lord mean when He said, "your redemption draweth nigh"?
Did He mean we all are going to die and go to Heaven?
If we are to understand the drawing near of our redemption we must adopt the frame of mind of the Lord’s listeners. The redemption that is at hand will not bring us to Heaven. The people to whom the Lord was speaking would not think in terms of making their eternal home in Heaven.
The Lord’s hearers, in Luke 21:28, were Jews. They had been taught the oracles of the Prophets. The Prophets spoke of the coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth. They declared also that Jerusalem and all Israel would be exalted.
Before the Lord: for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth. (Psalms 96:13)
And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. (Isaiah 2:2)
And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. (Luke 2:38)
When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? (Acts 1:6)
To our knowledge, there is no verse of Scripture in the Old Testament or New Testament that suggests we are saved to go to Heaven or to live in a mansion in Heaven. The concept of being saved in order to go to Heaven was added at some point after the writing of the New Testament.
Exactly when and under what conditions the idea of the believers "making Heaven their eternal home" was added to Christian doctrine would be an interesting dissertation for a candidate for the Doctor of Divinity degree.
When the Lord spoke of the coming of redemption the Jews who were listening would think of deliverance from the rule of the Roman Empire, of the restoration of the glory of the kingdom of David and Solomon, and also of the coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth.