Entering heaven alive
In various religions, certain individuals are believed to have entered heaven without dying first—through "ascension", "assumption", or "translation". Since death is the normal end to an individual's life on Earth and the beginning of the afterlife, entering heaven without dying first is considered exceptional and usually a sign of a deity's special recognition of the individual's piety.
Judaism
In the Hebrew Bible, there are two figures – Enoch and Elijah – who are said to have entered heaven alive, but both wordings are subject of debate. Genesis 5:24 says "Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, for God took him," but it does not state whether he was alive or dead nor where God took him. The Books of Kings describes the prophet Elijah being taken towards the heavens in a whirlwind, but the word can mean either heaven as the abode of God or the sky.According to the post-biblical Midrash, eight people went to heaven alive:
- Enoch, Noah's great grandfather
- Elijah
- Serah, daughter of Asher, son of Jacob
- Eliezer, the servant of Abraham who chose Rebecca to be Isaac's wife
- Hiram I, king of Tyre, who helped Solomon build the first temple
- Ebed-Melech, the Ethiopian
- Jaabez, the son of Judah ha-Nasi, who was editor of the Mishnah
- Pharaoh's daughter, sometimes called Bithiah
- Four Rabbis Visited Heaven. Four entered the orchard: Ben Azzai, Ben Zoma, Acher, and Rabbi Akiva. One looked and died. One looked and was harmed. One looked and cut down the trees. And one went up in peace and went down in peace.
Christianity
Jesus is considered by the vast majority of Christians to have died before being resurrected and ascending to heaven. Most Christians believe Jesus did initially die, but was then resurrected from the dead by God, before being raised bodily to heaven to sit at the Right Hand of God with a promise to someday return to Earth. The fringe views that Jesus did not die are known as the swoon hypothesis and Docetism. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is considered in Eastern Orthodoxy to have died prior to being assumed into heaven. In like manner, Roman Catholicism affirms that Mary, the mother of Jesus, suffered death prior to her assumption which has been "expressly affirmed in the Liturgy of the Church" and is expressly seen in paragraph 20 of the proclamation of this teaching. Protestants generally believe that Mary died a natural death like any other human being and subsequently entered heaven in the usual manner, though certain adherents belonging to the Evangelical Catholic tradition of Lutheranism and the Anglo-Catholic tradition of Anglicanism affirm the Assumption of Mary, while others in these traditions reject the Assumption of Mary.
Since the adoption of the Nicene Creed in 325, the ascension of Jesus into heaven, as related in the New Testament, has been officially taught by all orthodox Christian churches and is celebrated on Ascension Thursday. In the Roman Catholic Church, the ascension of the Lord is a Holy Day of Obligation. In the Eastern Orthodox Church the ascension is one of twelve Great Feasts.
In the Reformed Churches, which teach Calvinist theology, belief in the ascension of Christ is included in the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Heidelberg Catechism and the Second Helvetic Confession.
The dispensationalist belief in a "rapture"—a belief rejected by Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and most Protestants—is drawn from a reference to "being caught up" as found in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, when the "dead in Christ" and "we who are alive and remain" will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord, though Christians differ on interpretation.
Catholicism
The Old Testament indicates that Enoch and Elijah were assumed into heaven while still alive and not experiencing physical death. There is also an idea that Moses was assumed bodily into Heaven after his death; this is based on the Epistle of Saint Jude, where Saint Michael the Archangel contends with Satan over the body of Moses.The Catholic Church distinguishes between the ascension of Jesus, in which he rose to heaven by his own power, and the assumption of Mary, the mother of Jesus, who was raised to heaven by God's power, or the assumption of other saints.
On November 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII, acting ex cathedra, issued Munificentissimus Deus, an authoritative statement of official dogma of Roman Catholicism. In Section 44 the pope stated:
The doctrine is based on sacred tradition that Mary was bodily assumed into heaven. For centuries before that, the assumption was celebrated in art and in the Church's liturgy. The proclamation's wording does not state if Mary suffered bodily death before being assumed into heaven; this is left open to individual belief. Some theologians have argued that Mary did not die, while others maintain that she experienced death not due to original sin, but to share in her son's own death and resurrection.
It is a pious belief in the Catholic Church, but not a dogma, that Saint Joseph, too, was assumed into Heaven, since he is among a few saints who left no bodily relics. This pious belief is called the Assumption of Saint Joseph. Many Catholic saints, doctors of the Church, as well as several Popes, such as John XXIII, supported this belief.
When the tomb of John the Evangelist, located in the Basilica of St. John in Ephesus, during Constantine the Great's reign supposedly yielded no bones, this gave rise to the belief that his body was assumed into heaven. Augustine of Hippo spoke against the tradition in his Treatises on the Gospel of John, and Dante attempted to refute the belief in his Paradiso.
Altogether, the Catholic Church has taught by the universal and ordinary magisterium that Saints Enoch and Elijah were assumed into Heaven, and it teaches dogmatically and therefore infallibly that Virgin Mary was assumed into Heaven; that it is acceptable as a pious belief that Saint Joseph was assumed into Heaven; and that it is a pious belief that Moses and Saint John the Apostle were assumed into Heaven.
Eastern Christianity
The Eastern Orthodox Church teaches that three other persons were taken bodily into heaven: Enoch and Elijah entered without dying. However the Theotokos died, was resurrected, and taken to heaven, unlike the Western Assumption of Mary. However, the Orthodox also celebrate the Dormition of the Mother of God on August 15. The Orthodox teach that Mary died a natural death like any other human being, that she was buried by the Apostles, and three days later was found to be missing from her tomb. The church teaches that the Apostles received a revelation during which the Theotokos appeared to them and told them she had been resurrected by Jesus and taken body and soul into heaven. The Orthodox teach that Mary already enjoys the fullness of heavenly bliss that the other saints will experience only after the Last Judgment.Mandaeism
In Mandaeism, the Left Ginza mentions that Shitil, the son of Adam, was taken alive to the World of Light without a masiqta.Hellenistic religion
was said to have been assumed into Elysium by Philostratus.Hinduism
of the Mahabharata and Lakshmana of the Ramayana are believed to have been the only humans able to cross the plane between mortals and heaven while still in their mortal bodies.Nahusha was admitted to heaven in his human body, as were several other kings.
Tukaram is believed to have been taken to Vaikuntha on Garuda, an event that is reported to have been witnessed by villagers.