H. Mt. Sion is not Heaven.

Hebrews 12:18, 20-24

For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, {20} (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: {21} And so terrible was the sight, <that> Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:) {22} But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, {23} To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, {24} And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than <that of> Abel.

Dr. Ian Paisley:

In this passage there are revealed the sevenfold realities of Heaven. The "ands" indicate the divisions of the text, forming a pointer to each one of the seven... There is no doubt about the reality of all the above.

"Oh yes there is," says this new breed of preachers.

All that are mentioned above are real except the blood. God places it at the apex. They displace it altogether. There is no blood in Heaven, they affirm...⁽¹⁰³⁾

The rebuttal to Dr. Paisley can be found by looking at the whole passage. Instead of cutting Hebrews 12:22-24 from its surroundings, one should include verses 18-21. It becomes clear that this passage was contrasting Mount Sion with Mount Sinai. Like many Fundamentalists, Dr. Paisley claims that Mount Sion is Heaven. What is the contrast of Heaven? It is Hell, of course.

What is the contrast of Mount Sion in this passage? It is Mount Sinai. What is at the apex of things on Mount Sion, according to Dr. Paisley? The blood of sprinkling is on Mount Sion, he claims. What was on Mount Sinai, according to the Bible? The Law was given on Mt. Sinai. God spoke to Moses out of Mount Sinai! If the blood is in Heaven, if Mt. Sion is Heaven, then God's Law is in Hell. Would God say that His Law is in Hell? Does it make sense that the perfection of God would be symbolized by Hell? Of course not!

Mount Sinai was the place where God gave His Law, the rule of perfect justice. By the Law of Justice, no flesh could live. It required perfection, but if a man kept it, he would live (Leviticus 18:5). This was symbolized by the command that no creature could touch the mountain and live, for the mount was holy. Instead of representing Hell, Mount Sinai represents the Law of God.

Hebrews was written to console the Jewish Christian, who was bemoaning his lost traditions. It did this by showing how much more the Christian has over the Jew. Instead of the fearfulness of the Law, we have many blessings from Salvation by Grace. Hebrews illustrates this by comparing Mt. Sion with Mt. Sinai. Since Mt. Sinai represents Salvation by Law, it would be logical for Mt. Sion to represent Salvation by Grace. Instead of representing Heaven, Mount Sion represents the Grace of God.

The Apostle Paul also thought that this was the case of these two mounts. In Galatians 4:22, Paul began a brief commentary on the matter, making the opinion subject to Divine Inspiration.

For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. {23} But he <who was> of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman <was> by promise. {24} Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. {25} For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. {26} But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

What were the "two covenants" mentioned in Galatians? Paul told us in Romans that the Old Covenant was the Law, which was our school master to bring us to Christ. The New Covenant is the covenant of Grace. Clearly, Paul considered Mount Sinai to represent the Law (bondage), while Mount Sion (Jerusalem) represented Grace (free). Since it is suspected that Paul wrote the book of Hebrews, it would not be unusual for this same sense to be used in Hebrews.

Doctor Paisley by-passed a problem in his reference when he categorically stated that the "ands" were connections of the sevenfold realities of Heaven. The verse says that we are come to mount Sion, AND unto the city of the living God. There is clearly a distinction between Mt. Sion and the city of the living God, which we take to be Heaven. Furthermore, verse 23 says that we not only have come to the saints, but that their names are written in Heaven. The structure of this sentence makes it appear that Heaven is a place distinct from the Mt. Sion, to which we have come. Since there is a distinction, they are not the same, and there is no need to believe that this verse means that Christ's blood is in Heaven when verse 24 lists it as one of the things to which we have come at Mt. Sion. Indeed, there is no need to believe that this passage lists the sevenfold realities of Heaven, an idea that seems to have been a human invention. As noted previously, Paul did not think that Mt. Sion was Heaven.

If "ye are come" speaks to us, who walk the Earth, then we have come to Mount Sion while we are on Earth. While one could argue that by faith, we are come to Heaven, the most straightforward explanation of this verse (for those without the need to prove that Christ's blood is in Heaven) is that we have come to these promises on Earth, and they are given to us while we are here. Much of what is mentioned in this passage happens to be in Heaven, at least some of the time. If we have come to Mt. Sion, as this verse says, it must mean Mt. Sion represents Salvation by Grace (we are not yet in Heaven). If Mt. Sion signifies Heaven, the Bible is wrong to say "ye have come," because we have not gone to Heaven.

Dr. Paisley, where does 1 John 5:8, 9 say the blood is a witness? Does it not say it is on Earth? There is no mention of the blood of Christ witnessing in Heaven.

This argument by Dr. Paisley is, oddly enough, another that was held by the Socinians. Mr. Owen commented that,

The Socinian expositor, who affects subtilty and curiosity, affirms, 'That by mount Sion, either heaven itself, or rather a spiritual mountain, whose roots are on the earth, and whose top reacheth unto heaven, from whence we may easily enter into heaven itself, is intended:' wherein he understood nothing himself of what he wrote; for it is not sense, nor to be understood. And the reason he gives, namely, 'That Sion in the Scripture is more frequently taken for heaven than the church,' is so far from truth, that he cannot give any one instance where it is so taken.⁽¹⁰⁴⁾

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