Many people say all the time that Christianity entails people going to heaven after they die or that heaven is the ultimate destination of the righteous and redeemed. Do they mean the new heavens and earth of Isaiah 65 and Revelation 21-22? Or do they mean the present abode of God, where his throne is situated (Isaiah 6:1-5, likely also referenced in Daniel 7:9-10 and Revelation 20:11-15)? Jesus says that no one had been to heaven but he himself (John 3:13), the Son of Man spoken of by Daniel 7:13-14). Later in the book of Acts, Peter says not even David ascended to heaven (2:29-35). Heaven is not a place where Abel or Sarah or any other Old Testament figure has gone.
At no point before Christ's incarnation does the Bible say anyone went to heaven before or after their biological death. Even now, the Bible teaches that we absolutely do not go to heaven as Christians after dying. The dead are collectively and without exception, the Bible teaches, unconscious in Sheol (Ecclesiastes 9:5-10, Job 3:11-19) before their resurrection (Daniel 12:2). Only at the resurrection are people restored to life, some to receive eternal life (Revelation 20:4-6, John 3:16) and some to die once and for all in hell, in a second death within the lake of fire (Revelation 20:11-15, Romans 6:23).
Christ is said to return at some future point, and from this time onward, his followers will be with him, not before (John 14:2-4). Before this return, the dead are not raised (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18) and those in Sheol remain unperceiving as their bodies are contained and decomposed by the ground or the water. The first resurrection occurs after the return of Jesus, and this is for the righteous. The second death, Revelation 20 says, has no power over those who partake. The righteous, after their resurrection, reign with Christ, and then comes the judgment of unrepentant sinners before God's throne (Revelation 20:11-14).
Once again, God is described as sitting on a throne. Other than glimpses of heaven in visions like that of Isaiah 6, and seemingly at the final judgment, no human so much as sees what the Bible often refers to by the word heaven. Attended by angels that are so alien or powerful that prophets might feel urged to bow down to them (Revelation 10:9-10), God in his majesty and residence is enough drive Isaiah to say there is woe upon him (Isaiah 6:5). The realm of God, where his throne is positioned, is not a place people are supposed to visit, in this life or the true Biblical afterlife, which is not a disembodied existence immediately at the time of death, but conscious and bodily existence at the resurrection.
Heaven comes to Earth after the old heavens and earth pass away by fire (2 Peter 3:7, 10-13). Isaiah 65:17-19 mentions how God will create a "new heavens and a new earth," the former versions being forgotten. Revelation 21:1-5 affirms this before the chapter provides a detailed description of various aspects of New Jerusalem (21:9-27), the city that comes down from the heaven mentioned in places like Isaiah 6 (Revelation 21:10). On this new world, those who have eternal life are at last free to enjoy life free of human death and the trials of a decaying creation, and God has a new throne (22:1). Far more than empty space inhabited by pure spirits or a single confined location, the new creation is a physical universe outside of New Jerusalem, the eternal city where the gates are never closed and nations can go about the world (Revelation 21:25-27). This heaven on Earth is what is reserved for the righteous or repentant after their resurrection (Daniel 12:13).
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