The following are two early Christian witnesses against the belief that the righteous go immediately to heaven upon death:
Justin Martyr
And Trypho to this
replied, “I remarked to you sir, that you are very anxious to be safe in all
respects, since you cling to the Scriptures. But tell me, do you really admit
that this place, Jerusalem, shall be rebuilt; and do you expect your people to
be gathered together, and made joyful with Christ and the patriarchs, and the
prophets, both the men of our nation, and other proselytes who joined them
before your Christ came? or have you given way, and admitted this in order to
have the appearance of worsting us in the controversies?”
Then I answered, “I am not so miserable a fellow,
Trypho, as to say one thing and think another. I admitted to you formerly, that
I and many others are of this opinion, and [believe] that such will take place,
as you assuredly are aware; but, on the other hand, I signified to you that
many who belong to the pure and pious faith, and are true Christians, think
otherwise. Moreover, I pointed out to you that some who are called Christians,
but are godless, impious heretics, teach doctrines that are in every way
blasphemous, atheistical, and foolish. But that you may know that I do not say
this before you alone, I shall draw up a statement, so far as I can, of all the
arguments which have passed between us; in which I shall record myself as
admitting the very same things which I admit to you. For I choose to follow not
men or men’s doctrines, but God and the doctrines [delivered] by Him. For if
you have fallen in with some who are called Christians, but who do not admit
this [truth], and venture to blaspheme the God of Abraham, and the God of
Isaac, and the God of Jacob; who say there is no resurrection of the dead, and
that their souls, when they die, are taken to heaven; do not imagine that they
are Christians, even as one, if he would rightly consider it, would not admit
that the Sadducees, or similar sects of Genistæ, Meristæ, Galilæans,
Hellenists, Pharisees, Baptists, are Jews (do not hear me impatiently when I
tell you what I think), but are [only] called Jews and children of Abraham,
worshipping God with the lips, as God Himself declared, but the heart was far
from Him. But I and others, who are right-minded Christians on all points, are
assured that there will be a resurrection of the dead, and a thousand years in
Jerusalem, which will then be built, adorned, and enlarged, [as] the prophets
Ezekiel and Isaiah and others declare. (Dialogue, 80)
Irenaeus
Since, again, some who
are reckoned among the orthodox go beyond the pre-arranged plan for the
exaltation of the just, and are ignorant of the methods by which they are
disciplined beforehand for incorruption, they thus entertain heretical
opinions. For the heretics, despising the handiwork of God, and not admitting
the salvation of their flesh, while they also treat the promise of God
contemptuously, and pass beyond God altogether in the sentiments they form,
affirm that immediately upon their death they shall pass above the heavens and
the Demiurge, and go to the Mother (Achamoth) or to that Father whom they have
feigned. Those persons, therefore, who disallow a resurrection affecting the
whole man (universam reprobant
resurrectionem), and as far as in them lies remove it from the midst [of
the Christian scheme], how can they be wondered at, if again they know nothing
as to the plan of the resurrection? For they do not choose to understand, that
if these things are as they say, the Lord Himself, in whom they profess to
believe, did not rise again upon the third day; but immediately upon His
expiring on the cross, undoubtedly departed on high, leaving His body to the
earth. But the case was, that for three days He dwelt in the place where the
dead were, as the prophet says concerning Him: “And the Lord remembered His
dead saints who slept formerly in the land of sepulture; and He descended to
them, to rescue and save them.” And the Lord Himself says, “As Jonas remained
three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the Son of man be in
the heart of the earth.” (Matt 12:40) Then also the apostle says, “But when He
ascended, what is it but that He also descended into the lower parts of the
earth?” (Eph 4:9) This, too, David says when prophesying of Him, “And Thou hast
delivered my soul from the nethermost hell;” (Psa 86:13) and on His rising
again the third day, He said to Mary, who was the first to see and to worship
Him, “Touch me not, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to the
disciples, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and unto your Father.”
(John 20:17) (Against Heresies, 5.31.1)
Of course, such should not be taken to support
a form of “soul sleep” that Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christadelphians, and Seventh
Day Adventists hold to. On this, see the discussion under the section, "
Response to Douglas V. Pond on Biblical and LDS Anthropology and Eschatology
