Thank you. Perhaps if the distinction between Heaven and Earth in the future becomes less distinct, the question of whether people are resurrected on Earth or go to Heaven becomes a bit less of a distinction.

Great questions. I'll do my best to answer them honestly. Our eternal state is definitely different from our earthly state, as is made clear in 1 Cor. 15.35-54. And, as you friend has correctly stated, there is no time lapse between life on this earth and life "on the other side."

We also know that the afterlife—the new world—is a place of material substance (Ex. 25.9, 40, et al.). Jesus' body after the resurrection is the evidence of that.

As far as the place itself, Rev. 21.1 (confirmed by Rom. 8.21) shows us that all creation will be made new: The very cosmic structure (including physical elements) will be transformed. As such, the lines between heaven and earth may be blurred and possibly erased. There is this popular tradition that Christians will spend eternity "in heaven," though I'm not sure there's a verse that says such a thing. The Bible says Christians will spend eternity with God, where he is. In Rev. 21.2, the Holy City descends from heaven; since the perspective seems to be that of an observer on earth, "coming down" implies that heaven and earth will be the same place. It will be a new, material place (Isa. 65.17-19), suited for life in a new imperishable body (1 Cor. 15.35ff.). All God's people will be together there (Mt. 25.33; Rev. 7.9-10).

So, my question is: what is the Christian afterlife, and when do people go there? Because I'm under two simultaneous impressions:

1. Paradise is Heaven, an alternate state from the temporal realm, to which people's immortal souls go swiftly after death, leaving their physical bodies behind.
2. Paradise is here on Earth, in the Millennial future, when Christ reigns as king and the dead are physically resurrected before the Last Judgment and live eternally in renewed physical bodies.

Is only one true, and the other a widespread misconception? Are neither true, and I've oversimplified or misunderstood things entirely? Or are they both true? If so, how? Is Heaven actually just a sort of second-best paradise, pleasant enough for souls to wait in, but not as great as Earth will be in future, so souls eventually come down from heaven back into physical bodies to live an even more glorious existence as perfected physical beings?

Incidentally, I have asked others about this before and have gotten several responses. One person wrote that the Resurrection is the beginning of the afterlife in Christianity, and wrote about the incorporeal-souls-go-to-Heaven idea as a sort of folk belief that most Christians wouldn't really claim to be real doctrine if you pressed them about it, but which gets talked about from time to time. Another person claimed that we are instantly with God upon death, so therefore a delay between death and resurrection in which we are not with God cannot be true. (He supported these claims by citing 2 Corinthians 5:6-9 and Philippians 1:23.)