MMRRPP! WRONG!
Jesus himself made it plain that the souls of the dead go to hades. Remember His parable of the rich man & Lazarus. There's a great gulf separating 'torments' from 'paradise'. And Abraham was in paradise. He'd been dead awhile then. It was the same general region, as the rich man & Abe talked in the parable. And Jesus' parables always depicted actual places or events.
Plus, after His resurrection, He said He had not yet ascended to His Father. And we know He went to paradise upon His death. So, that's another thing that shows paradise is not heaven, nor do the souls of the righteous dead go to heaven now.
You obviously have a different Bible to the rest of us. You argue what you do as if Christ has not come and defeated sin, death, Hades and Satan.
Paradise
If we go right back to the beginning of time, we see that earthly paradise (in the Garden of Eden) was a beautiful reflection of heavenly paradise. It was basically heaven on earth. Man had perfect and unhindered fellowship with God. He was fulfilling the plan and purpose of God flawlessly. God and creation were at one. God testified repeatedly in Genesis 1 that everything He created “God saw that it was good.” This was a wonderful environment.
Man, himself, was created with the ability to live forever. But, unfortunately, sin changed all that. As a result of that, we learn in Genesis 3:23-24:
“Therefore the LORD God sent him (Adam)
forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”
When Adam partook of the forbidden fruit he was immediately separated from God and disqualified from living in paradise. It was Paradise lost!! In his sinful state, man was no longer welcome in the presence of God. He could no longer enjoy intimate unbroken fellowship with the Almighty. He lost his privileged position and He gave the devil rights over him which he never before possessed.
Interestingly, the Greek Septuagint uses the Greek word
paradeisos here to describe the Garden of Eden. It is from this word that we get our word “paradise” in the New Testament. The same word is used in Ezekiel 28:13 in the Old Testament to describe the Garden of Eden.
The angelic “flaming sword” was placed at the border of the Garden of Eden to prevent man from returning to paradise. Man was not qualified or worthy to return there.
As a result of the fall, man was separated from God physically and spiritually. He was forced out of the Garden of Eden and left carrying his own guilt, shame and condemnation. Romans 5:18 states,
“as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation.” Outside of salvation, this is man’s legal standing before the bar of God – guilty and condemned.
Throughout the whole of the old covenant, God’s people dead or alive had no automatic access to heaven because of sin. When believers died they went straight to Abraham’s bosom in Hades. This was a waiting place for believers anticipating being rescued by the Messiah.
Even with salvation in the Old Testament, it never secured man’s entry upon death into the heavenly presence of God. Man would rather go in spirit immediately into a waiting place in the center of the earth until the penalty for sin had been paid, the grave defeated, Satan spiritual bound from deceiving the nations and Hades decimated.
The Old Testament hope of the saints of God is seen in David’s words in Psalm 16:10-11:
“For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”
Jesus said in John 3:13:
“no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.”
Peter confirms this in his great sermon at Pentecost. Acts 2:34 records:
“For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand.”
Satan had access to heaven
A consequence of man’s fall was that it gave Satan rights and an open door to access heaven and God to accuse the people of God.
Job 1:6-11:
“Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them. And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it … Satan … said, Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.”
Satan held the power of accusation against the elect from the Garden of Eden right up until the cross. Satan knew the demands of God’s law, and he also knew the weakness of man and his inability to keep the law. The law was perfect and it demanded perfect obedience. Because it had not been perfectly adhered to by any man during the old covenant period the elect stood condemned before God. The devil accordingly used this as a stick to constantly bring charges against the elect before the throne of God.
Revelation 12:10 tells us that prior to the resurrection of Christ, Satan
“accused” the elect
“before our God day and night.”
The enemy could bring bona-fide legal accusations against the saints on the grounds of them breaking God’s holy and eternal law.
If the elect were not yet qualified to enter heaven/ Paradise, where were they?
Christ described Hades in Luke 16:19-23:
“There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.”
In verse 24
“he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.”
He continues in verse 27-28,
“Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house: For I have five brothers; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.”
Lazarus abode in Abraham's bosom after death. This was the lower earth and is known by theologians as a divided Hades. Believers remained here until after the cross. The reason being: sin had not been paid for, death had not been defeated, Satan had not been conquered, and Hades had not been overcome. These are all interlinked in Scripture. The first Adam had handed over dominion to Satan on this front. The Old Testament blood sacrifices could not remove sin, only temporarily cover it. Satan still held the power of death until sin was finally paid for at the cross. He also held a legitimate seat of accusation before the life, death and resurrection of Christ.
Heaven finally opened up to the redeemed
Paradise was lost right up until the cross. It only became accessible through Christ’s death on the cross. We see the great historic change in Christ’s promise to the dying penitent thief on the cross in Luke 23:43,
“Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise [
paradeisos]”
Here Jesus was anticipating His atoning death and His conquering of the grave. His Spirit would not be detained in Hades, but rather conquer Hades, releasing the spirits of the redeemed from their detainment in Abraham’s bosom and ascent into the presence of God.
How could Jesus promise this thief Paradise when every other believer since the fall went direct to Abraham’s bosom upon death?
He was about to secure the necessary victory that would open up the gates of heaven to the redeemed Old Testament saints to enter direct into Paradise. He was announcing a massive change in the location believers went to upon death since the beginning of time. He was revealing something absolutely new. Through the work of Christ, God’s people at death would now be taken into the holy presence of God. It took the transaction of the new covenant to realize that.
As soon as Christ died there was a mass evacuation from Hades.
Matt 27:45-53:
“Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour (this is from midday till 3pm). And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias. And straightway one of them ran, and took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him. Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.”
There is a lot happening here!
· Jesus acquaints Himself with our sin.
· He is enveloped by darkness.
· He is separated from His Father.
· He promised Paradise to a repentant sinner that actual day.
· He dies!
· The veil is rent in 2.
· The presence of God is released to the nations.
· The saints are released from Abraham’s bosom.
The renting of the veil immediately after Christ gave up the ghost spelt the end of the old covenant and the introduction of the new covenant. Right there, God stepped out from behind that curtain and embraced all nations. God required no more animal sacrifices as the temple’s purpose had been completed. The temple was rendered redundant.
Repeated Scripture portrays a victorious Christ since His all-conquering resurrection.
Jesus said Revelation 3:21:
“I … overcame.”
Revelation 5:5 tells us:
“behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed.”
Christ announced to His disciples in Matthew 28:18,
“All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.”
Our Lord's earthly assignment involved defeating every enemy of righteousness. It was a full package. But it all culminated in Christ defeating sin, death, Satan and Hades through His resurrection. But His sinless life, His atoning death and glorious resurrection cannot be divorced from each other, as you seem to be trying to do.
When Christ came, justice demanded:
· Christ had to defeat sin – the source of man’s enslavement.
· He had to defeat Satan the instrument used to tempt man to sin.
· He had to defeat death (or the grave) the penalty of sin.
· He had to defeat Hades (or Abraham’s bosom) the prison of the righteous dead.
· He had to defeat eternal punishment – the just reward for unrepentant sinners.
Paradise = the third heaven = the New Jerusalem
In the New Testament, Paradise becomes synonymous with heaven and the New Jerusalem. It was this same place that Paul the Apostle testified, in 2 Corinthians 12:4. After the cross, after the emptying of Abraham bosom, Paul testified in 2 Corinthians 12:2-4:
“I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth) such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth) How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.”
Paradise = the third heaven.
If we compare the location of “the tree of life” in Revelation 2:7 (paradise) and Revelation 22:2, 14 (New Jerusalem), we see that paradise is clearly the New Jerusalem. Revelation 2:7 says,
“He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; to him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” Clearly “the tree of life” in Revelation 2:7 resides within Paradise.
In Revelation 21:2
“John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”
In Revelation 22:2, 14 he further describes,
“In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life … Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.”
We can safely deduce that the word Paradise is used as another name for the heavenly abode, and particularly the New Jerusalem. No one would surely doubt the location of “the tree of life” here in Revelation 22:2, 14. It is located in the New Jerusalem.
Paradise = the third heaven = the New Jerusalem.
