You certainly have the right to believe whatever you want, but I disagree with you. Who were those gathered around the throne spoken of in Revelation 4? They were there BEFORE the final judgment. Who was Jesus speaking of when he taught about the beggar Lazarus and the rich man who both died? One was in paradise/Abraham's bosom and the other in torment. Where did Jesus tell the thief on the cross beside him he would take him THAT day? Where are the souls and spirits of those who have died in God's grace or those who died in rejection of it? What did Paul mean when he spoke of preferring to be absent from the body and present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:6,8)? There are a whole host of Bible passages (OT & NT) that speak of consciousness in heaven right now - though souls will receive glorified bodies at the coming of Jesus Christ. Unless you ignore them or allegorize them all, you really don't have Biblical support for asserting, "Nobody is in heaven, nobody is in hell.".
Let's not snippet hunt to try to prove something so essential to the Christian faith as eternal destiny. Here is the context for John 3:13. Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus:
We must ask what Jesus meant by saying no one has gone into heaven but Himself. There are passages in the Old Testament that use this phrase such as:
Paul goes into the explanation further in Ephesians:
But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says:
“When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.”
(What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Eph. 4:7-13)
Psalm 68:18 is referred to here by Paul:
Gill's Exposition of the Bible does a good job of explaining the meaning behind this:
when he ascended up on high; which is not to be understood of Moses's ascending up to the firmament at the giving of the law, as some Jewish writers (q) interpret it; for though Moses ascended to the top of Mount Sinai, yet it is never said that he went up to the firmament of heaven; nor of David's going up to the high fortresses of his enemies, as another of those writers (r) would have it; nor of God's ascent from Mount Sinai, when he gave the law, of which there is no mention in Scripture; but of the Messiah's ascension to heaven, which may very well be signified by this phrase, "on high"; see Psalm 102:19, and which ascension is to be taken not in a figurative, but literal sense, and as real, local, and visible, as Christ's ascension to heaven was; being from Mount Olivet, attended by angels, in the sight of his apostles, after he had conversed with them from the time of his resurrection forty days; and which ascension of his was in order to fulfil the type of the high priest entering into the most holy place; and to make intercession for his people, and to send down the Spirit with his gifts and graces to them, and to make way and prepare mansions of glory for them, and receive the glory promised and due to him: in the Hebrew text it is, "thou hast ascended"; there the psalmist speaks to the Messiah, here the apostle speaks of him; though the Arabic and Ethiopic read there, "he ascended", as here:
he led captivity captive; which is expressive of Christ's conquests and triumph over sin, Satan, the world, death, and the grave; and indeed, every spiritual enemy of his and his people, especially the devil, who leads men captive at his will, and is therefore called captivity, and his principalities and powers, whom Christ has spoiled and triumphed over; the allusion is to the public triumphs of the Romans, in which captives were led in chains, and exposed to open view (s):
and gave gifts unto men; meaning the gifts of the Holy Ghost, and particularly such as qualify men for the work of the ministry; these he received "in man"; in human nature, in that nature in which he ascended to heaven; , "in the man that is known above" (t), as say the Jews; and these he bestows on men, even rebellious ones, that the Lord God might dwell among them, and make them useful to others: wherefore the Jews have no reason to quarrel with the version of the apostle as they do (u); who, instead of "received gifts for" men, renders it, "gave gifts to men"; since the Messiah received in order to give, and gives in consequence of his having received them; and so Jarchi interprets the words, "to give them" to the children of men; and besides, as a learned man has observed (w), one and the same Hebrew word signifies to give and to receive; to which may be added that their own Targum renders it "and hast given gifts to the children of men"; and in like manner the Syriac and Arabic versions of Psalm 68:18 render the words; very likely the apostle might use the Syriac version, which is a very ancient one: it was customary at triumphs to give gifts to the soldiers (x), to which there is an allusion here.
(q) Targum & Jarchi in Psal. lxviii 18. (r) Aben Ezra in loc. (s) Alex. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 6. c. 6. (t) Zohar in Numb. fol. 61. 4. (u) R. Isaac. Chizzuk Emuna, par. 2. c. 91. (w) Pocock. not. Misc. p. 24. (x) Alex. ab. Alex. ib. ut supra. (Genial. Dier. l. 6. c. 6.)
When Jesus died on the cross, He descended to the lower parts of the earth and He opened the gates to heaven, emptying out Paradise and leading the redeemed souls into heaven. Until that happened, ONLY Jesus was able to ascend and descend to/from heaven. Now, though, we who are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ go to be with the Lord in heaven when we die and will receive our glorified bodies when Christ returns at the Rapture (see I Thess. 4).
First, I hold only to what the word plainly states, not to analysts that are not even likely to be among Yeshua’s elect.
Of course it was before the final judgment; the final judgment is 1000 years after the passage in question, which is described to be plainly at the first resurrection, the only resurrection unto life, according to Yeshua. This would then have to be right after the last trump, so at that time all of the elect are in heaven for sure, for the wedding feast.
When Yeshua speaks a parable, it would be foolhardy to assume that it is set in any particular time, unless that parable deals with the first resurrection, like for example the parable of the virgins.
Paul’s references are to consciousness, which could be at any time. It doesn’t mean that one is immediately in heaven, since especially that is denied in other scripture.
All of the scriptures are one! If an interpretation would make a contradiction, that interpretation has to be incorrect.
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John 3:18