The other realm, called “heaven,” was constructed as a place of bliss and reward; it was created and reserved for the virtuous, the saved, those who acknowledged “Jesus Christ as savior” and who were thus baptized. Please note that by adding the baptized and the “true believers,” the church thus added “belief control” to “behavior control.” One could not think outside the box of orthodoxy, the church was asserting, if one wanted to be “saved.”
