Over the last decade, and a couple funerals, I've been thinking about our society's beliefs on the afterlife. There seems to be a universal belief both within Christianity and America's wider pop culture, that Heaven is the (righteous) soul's final destination. But my understanding is that Christianity actually teaches that our final destination is living in a resurrected body, on a renewed Earth.

If you attend a Protestant church, you're probably reciting the Nicene Creed every week, which states.. We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come

This pretty clearly refutes the idea of Christians awaiting Heaven as the anticipated, final destination..

I came across a valuable table of Bible verses, that expounds on the idea that Christians (and earthly creation) are awaiting a resurrection of the body, and not a disembodied soul that ends up in Heaven. 

And this understanding of Christian eschatology doesn't deny there is a Heaven, but it explains that Heaven is not where human souls are ultimately destined for.. We are waiting for perfected, resurrected bodies, designed for God's renewed planet. I guess there are different interpretations tho, because I even hear (some) pastors doing the bit about loved ones in Heaven looking down on us, awaiting our arrival in to that eternity.

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