A Christian author has defended himself against newspaper charges that he said that heaven did not exist in a Radio 4 Thought for the Day piece last weekend.

Brian Draper, an associate lecturer at the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, referred to the scandals at FIFA in the context of the 'footballing gold' seen in much of the game.

In his address, Draper said: "It's a spiritual principle, surely, that in a world of corruption, the incorruptible will ultimately outlast and outshine all else.

"That's perhaps what Jesus meant when he compared earthly riches, which can be stolen from us, with treasures in 'heaven'. By heaven, I'm sure he didn't mean pie-in-the-sky, but that soulful place within us and the life of our communities which is home to the incorruptible. Football, like all sport, at its best has to be heavenly."

He was reported by the Express with the headline, "Heaven is 'PIE in the SKY' - Leading Christian shocks Radio 4 listeners". According to the paper, his words "seemed to imply that Heaven was widely understood by Christians to be a metaphor".

Among comments under the story was one that said, "Absolutely no wonder that people of other faiths look down on we Christians when we have people like this who deny what is one of the basics of the Christian faith."

However, Draper told Christian Today that it was not true he did not believe in heaven. "I believe in heaven after we die and before we die," he said. "I just think the verse I alluded to is sometimes used to suggest it's all about being good 'down here' so we get rewarded 'up there'. I prefer to think Jesus was talking about something richer; the kingdom is within us, after all."

He said it was "disappointing" that his words had been misconstrued to mean "directly the opposite" of what he meant.