The Old Testament appears to state that when a person dies, he or she will go to heaven to be with his family already in heaven. The Old Testament writers use the phrase “was gathered to his people” or a close variant (Gen. 25:8, 17, 35:29, 49:29, 33; Num. 20:24, 26, 27:13, 31:2; Dt. 32:50; Judg. 2:10; 2 Kg. 22:20) to refer to the destination of the disembodied spirits of deceased believers, a place where their deceased believing ancestors are―in heaven.
When Elijah (2 Kg. 2:11) and Enoch (Gen. 5:24) were taken to heaven, they had the same appearance as they had on earth. When Jesus ascended into heaven (Acts 1:9), he also appeared as the earthly Jesus.
Jesus, speaking to his apostles, said “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:1-3). This tells us much about heaven. First of all, heaven (my Father’s house) will contain many places of abode (rooms). This means that there are places of habitation where the residents of heaven will abide. Second, Jesus said that he (a personal pronoun of the person Jesus) will come again to prepare a place for you… that where I am you may be also. Jesus uses the personal pronoun to indicate that individually identifiable persons will be taken to heaven.
Heaven is a real place with living spaces where residents of heaven will abide. And these residents will be individually identifiable human beings as they were on earth. They will be recognizable as they were on earth though in a perfect glorified state.
David mourning for his dead child said, “I shall go to him, but he will not return to me” (2 Sam. 12:23). David was talking about the place of the dead where believers’ disembodied spirits go at death. David expected to see and recognize his son in heaven.
The Bible also implies that in heaven we will be able to recognize people that we did not know on earth (Luke 9:28-36).
The Bible also states that “God is with man. That “He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore (Rev. 21:3-4).
Therefore, considering all this, heaven is a real place where the disembodied spirits of believers go immediately upon death and remain conscious in the intermediate state[1] until the general resurrection, judgment, and the glorification of believers in the new heaven and new earth.
Based on express statements and my reasonable inference from Scripture, the residents of heaven will know family and friends that they knew on earth, though without earthly relationships just as the angels in heaven have no relationships such as marriage (Matt. 22:30)[2] and they will also be able to recognize others whom they did not know on earth. And they will live in the new heaven and the new earth in their resurrected and glorious state as a community with other resurrected believers in the presence of the triune God for eternity.
[1] The intermediate state is not a real place like heaven is. It is merely a term that identifies that period of existence in heaven of the disembodied spirits of believers from physical death to the general resurrection at the second coming of Jesus.
[2] The MacArthur Bible Commentary. John MacArthur, Thomas Nelson, n. 22:30,1978. “Angels are deathless creatures who do not propagate and therefore have no need for marriage. “In the resurrection,” the saints will have those same characteristics.”
