Who is the first to go to heaven?

Answer 1

Jesus was the first to come down from Heaven and return.

When you die you go to Heaven or Hell.

When Christians die now, they go to be with Jesus because The Bible says "to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord."

Abel was the first since it is recorded that he was a man of faith and that he was righteous. The sacrifice which he undertook involved blood atonement for sin, as a pre-figurement of the once for all sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Adam his father had been given the promise of the savior to come, who would bruise the head of the serpent. Undoubtedly Abel had been told of this and believed it else he would not have been classed as a man of faith. And of course he was the first since his was the first death.

So, like all Old Testament saints, he looked forward to the savior to come.

Hebrews 11:4 (King James Version)4By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.

If one is thinking in terms of going directly to heaven from the earth, without death, then Christians believe the would be Enoch, who 'was not; for God took him.' Genesis 5:2

John 3:13 (Jesus says) "No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man."

Since Jesus was speaking of Himself (Son of Man was one of his preferred titles of Himself) whether or not we understand that it is true.

My understanding then is that people were living and dying up to and through Jesus' ministry on earth and going to either 'Abraham's bosom (as opposed to Heaven) as Jesus spoke of in the story of Lazarus or they were tormented in Hell as the Rich man in the same story. Because of Jesus' statement in John 3:13 this is what I conclude:

He uses past tense "HAS ascended" so he already had done so somehow. My belief is that He was referring to His occasional incarnations in the Old Testament (OT) such as 1. his appearance to Abraham before he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, 2. when Jacob wrestled with an Angel of the Lord or 3. when Shadrack, Meshack and Abedneggo had someone who had "the appearnce of a Son of God" with them in the fiery furnace. Therefore, "No one has ascended into Heaven" means no one except Christ.

So, using Scripture to interpret Scripture: The dead of the faith (e.g. Abel) or the living (Enoch) went to be with Abraham the "father of our faith" until Christ's triumphant return to Heaven. From here on Paul tells believers in Christ that "to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord." Since He sits at the right hand of God in Heaven now that's where we believers go. While non-believers go to Hell now and later the Pit when Satan, demons, and non-believers stand before Christ at the Final Judgment at the End of the World.

The above helps to clarify this question. Also it is helpful to differentiate between what Christians believe happens to persons who are only men (in the generic sense) and the God-man Jesus Christ. Though all believers end up in heaven, they get there by a different 'route' than Jesus did. As the sinless and spotless Son of God death had no power over him and so He ascended strait to heaven and remains alive forevermore. Believers get to heaven by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and do not get there by ascending straight to heaven in any final sense.

First was Enoch. "And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; For God took him." Genesis 5:24

"Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him." Hebrews 11:5

Second was Elijah. " And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven." 2 Kings 2:11.

Answer 2

There is no definitive answer as beliefs vary among different religions and cultures. In Christianity, some believe that only those who accept Jesus Christ as their savior will go to heaven, while in Islam, those who lead a righteous life and follow the teachings of the Quran may go to heaven. Ultimately, it is not for us to judge, as it is deemed as a matter left to divine judgement.