John 14:2-6
In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
John 6:53-55
Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.
John 10:27-29
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.
Heaven is where God dwells. The bible speaks of Christ coming again to take us home (He is from Heaven). Eternal life and crown of life both speaks of being with God forever but not on earth (for earth will be destroyed by fire). We are told countless times do not store for ourselves treasures on earth but store for ourselves treasures in Heaven.
Matthew 25:31-46
31 “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. 33 And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35 for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; 36 I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? 38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’
41 “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; 43 I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’
44 “Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ 45 Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46 And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
I am probably doing a poor job at connecting these verses, I just want to show you that the bible does say that the believers will go to heaven and that that eternal life is not merely the "cessation of suffering". There are tons more verse that connects it, but I'm not all here this morning.
By the way, I wanted to say that I do not know enough about Buddhism to try and have a long conversation with you, but I know Christianity and I am trying to showcase the passages in scripture because some of the things you said about scripture is not correct. And the reason why I am not answering your post all at once (even though it was not directed towards me, I just saw some things said that was not correct) is because I think some of your points requires a lot more than just one long post that would be too hard to read.
At this point, I am not all that interested in continuing the discussion as to whether it is possible to find and follow Jesus outside of Christianity. If you have sincere questions as to my opinion on that, I am willing to try to answer them. But, I'm not up for debate on that right now. Honestly, I am trying to learn to discuss and share opinions with other believers without engaging in prolonged argument that distracts from the work of the Kingdom. This has been a struggle of mine about which I have recently felt a lot of conviction from the Holy Spirit.
As for the statement about going to a place called heaven (apparently, when we die), I would like to provide explanation. The passages that you cite point to a common set of (incorrect, I believe) assumptions. These assumptions are along the following lines: Eternal life begins when we die and eternal life will be in a place called heaven, which is distinct from the place that we live now. Another common assumption, which I do not know if you embrace, is that only our "soul" goes to heaven. I don't believe that the early Christians embraced any of these assumptions. My understanding of Scripture and context is that the early Christians believed in a bodily resurrection that would take place here and would be the final fulfillment of the eternal life that begins at the moment that each of us surrenders to Jesus.
That being said, I will attempt to address each of the passages you cite
In John 14:2-6, Jesus appears to be speaking to the apostles. Perhaps, other disciples are present; the context is not completely clear. But, I am hesitant to assume anything about the context, especially when those assumptions would seem to contradict what Christ revealed to John in Rev. 21 (esp. vv. 2-4). Perhaps, Jesus was speaking about a special place in the restored Jerusalem (which is Heaven come to Earth, not earthlings to Heaven) to be prepared for his Apostles. Perhaps, he is speaking to all believers, and the preparation he is speaking about, is the restoration of all things, described in Revelation. The context is not clear as to what Jesus is going to do to "prepare a place" for (either them or all of us). Contextually, he refers to His Father's House immediately before saying that he is preparing a place. But, in terms of place it is unclear whether the dwelling places he is speaking of are for us to live in in heaven or whether they will be brought to their inhabitents on the Earth at the resurrection. Rev. 21, I believe, indicates that the latter is more likely.
John 6:53-55 and John 10:27-29 both speak of eternal life. They don't describe a place, only that we
have eternal life. The only way to intepret these passages as saying that "we will go to heaven when we die" is by importing our assumption that that is where eternal life takes place. Notice the present tense. It doesn't say "will have eternal life." Eternal life exists within the believer at the moment he or she chooses to walk in faith, not when the person dies (and leaves the Earth, according to a popular belief). Thus, even according to the popular assumption about going to heaven when we die, at least some of our eternal life is spent here on the Earth. I believe that, when the Bible is read in a proper context, we find that that popular assumption was not held by the early church and that all of our eternal life is spent here.
Matthew 25:31-46 speaks of a kingdom prepared for us and also about eternal life. I have already addressed "eternal life" so now I turn to "the kingdom." Many people assume that a kingdom refers to a physical place, but this is an incorrect assumption. The word kingdom refers to a structure of authority and those who are bound (whether by submission or force) to that authority. A king is an authority figure. His kingdom is the administration of his authority. When we speak of Britain as a kingdom, we are not speaking of its physical location (although its geography significantly defined the extent of the authority of the Kingdom). Rather, we speak of the structure by which authority is administered. In the same way, the kingdom of heaven is not necessarily a place, but is the authority of the King of Heaven (God) over his subjects (his followers).
I agree with you that Heaven is where God dwells. And, Rev. 21:2-3 indicates that God will come "out of heaven" to make His dwelling among men. When this happens, the Earth will become subject completely to the authority of the Kingdom of Heaven. This suggests to me that Heaven will exist on Earth.
As far as the Bible saying that Christ will take us to His home or that eternal life is not on Earth, I do not know the passages that you are speaking of, so I can't really comment on them at this point. I would be interested in knowing which passages you are speking of.
I also agree that we are told not to store up treasures Earth (but rather in Heaven). I don't agree, however, that this implies "place." When the Earth and Kingdom are one (which will occur, I believe, only after a period of intense destruction of old institutions, power structures, and physical things), we will no longer live in a human economy, but rather a God economy. In a God economy, those things that are of value to us now will be worthless. Think for a second about the economy of the U.S. Civil War. If you had had 10 million Confedarte dollars during the war, you would be very wealthy. However, if you had held onto all that money long after the war ended, you would be stuck with 10 million worthless sheets of paper. The difference is the authority. The U.S. Government did not recognize the economic authority of the C.S.A. Likewise, in God's kingdom, the economic systems we have created for ourselves are not recognized. So, Jesus is telling us that there will be a day when all of our possessions will be rendered worthless by a change in authority and he is advising us to begin cashing in our worldly resources (time, money, and possession) for God capital now, while we still have the opportunity to do so.
So, I guess this wasn't really brief (sorry about that). In short, the common belief in "going to heaven when you die" is based on a set of assumptions that are never expressed in Scripture. I believe that these assumptions are incorrect and that there exist passages in Scripture that cannot be reconciled with them. I hope this has helped to further explain my beliefs on that question.