The people who deny that once a person is in the sheepfold of Christ they will never leave. When the Triune God chose the Elect before the foundation of earth and universe was laid out, they were elected for all eternity, never to become unelected. But those who don’t agree with this will say that a person can be saved but lose their salvation because they become apostates and walked away.

King Solomon was given the gift of wisdom by God. He became wealthy because God blessed him because he served God. He built the first Temple for God, and God blessed and approved the Temple Solomon built by filling it with His Presence. King Solomon had the full approval of God at the beginning of his reign. God gave to Solomon peace during his time on the throne of Israel, peace with his neighbors and peace within the kingdom.

Then Solomon’s wives turned his heart away from God and to the false gods of their homelands. Now, the wives are not to blame for what Solomon did. He is responsible for his own choices. 1 Kings 11 details it:

Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which Yahweh had said to the sons of Israel, “You shall not go along with them, nor shall they go along with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. And he had 700 wives—princesses—and 300 concubines, and his wives turned his heart away. Now it happened at the time that Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to Yahweh his God, as the heart of David his father had been. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites. And Solomon did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and did not follow Yahweh fully, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable idol of Moab, on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon. Thus also he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.

It could be surmised that Solomon became an apostate. He completely turned his back on the God of Israel, the God whose Glory filled the temple he built, who granted him wisdom to rule the people of God and blessed his reign. Solomon followed after other gods. He committed abominations that God had forbidden, making sacrifices at the altars of the false gods. More than that, Solomon built altars for these false gods in Israel.

He had apostatized.

The question that needs to be answered is will we see Solomon in heaven. Is Solomon now in the bosom of Abraham? Did he lose his place in heaven because of his harlotry with the false gods?

Some will say that this is the Old Testament and things were different. I say God never changes, He is immutable, always the same. If the New Testament teaches of the Elect throughout all of history then there must be some Elect in the Old Testament as well as in the Church age. The saints look towards the future work of Christ on the cross, including Solomon.

So, I ask the question again, is King Solomon in heaven?