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DID PARADISE MOVE FROM THE GARDEN TO HEAVEN WHEN JESUS WAS RESURRECTED FROM THE GRAVE? 

There is no evidence in Scripture that the Garden eastward in Eden was ever perceived as a ‘heaven on earth’ called “paradise.”  Heaven was never ‘God’s dwelling place on earth,” (Gen. 2:8.)  Before the fall, the entire earth called Eden was in a perfect state without sin and brokenness, but it was not heaven.  The prophet said in Acts 7:48, “Heaven is [God’s] throne and earth is [His] footstool.”  Earth can never ‘become’ heaven, just as we can never “pull heaven down to earth.”  They are two completely different locations in two different dimensions. 

Þ The Spiritual Kingdom of God, (not heaven,) is inside His personally and sincerely born again believers, as they are His spiritual temple, fully indwelt by His Holy Spirit, (Lu. 17:20-21; KJV, Jn. 1:12-14; 3:3-5; 1 Cor. 6:15-20.) 

The idea of a ‘heaven on earth’ stems from the pagan notion that Shangri La or ‘paradise’ is an earthly place of heavenly peace and happiness.  Although God’s creation is so perfect and nature so beautiful that it can easily be associated with heaven, there is no comparison between earth, (a literal place,) and heaven, (a spiritual space that God occupies and from where He reigns over His entire universe:) Revelation Chapters 21 & 22. 

Although ‘heaven’ was translated in some verses in the Bible as ‘paradise,’ there is no confusion in the Scriptures between the physical garden in Eden and God’s eternal dwelling place in heaven or ‘shamayim’ in Hebrew. 

Þ When Jesus promised the man on the cross next to His, “Today you will be with Me in ‘paradise,’” He would have said “shamayim.”  Jesus knew exactly where heaven is seated.  It had been His dwelling place since “everlasting;” aeons before anything was created on earth.  So, Eden, (Gen. 2:7-15,) was never called “paradise” because “heaven” is where God lives, (Rev. 22:1-3,) while the garden in Eden was a perfect, physical place on earth. 

 

WHY WAS THE TREE OF LIFE PLANTED IN THE GARDEN BUT NOW WE FIND IT IN HEAVEN? 

We find the Tree of Life in the garden in Genesis, and in heaven in Revelation.  Doesn't it make sense that ‘paradise’ was moved from earth to become God’s spiritual heaven when Jesus died on the cross and was risen from the grave

No, it doesn’t.  God created heaven, His eternal, spiritual dwelling place, ages before He created the earth.  The literal garden itself, being part of earth, could not have been  ‘moved’ into the spiritual realm to “become God’s heaven.” 

No one knows exactly why the Tree of Life was planted in the garden and Scripture does not tell.  From Scriptural context, one can only believe the Tree of Life Is Jesus Himself.  The Tree of Life that was planted in the garden either symbolized or personified God’s constant, almighty presence there.  Wherever Jesus Is, there His presence Is.  God is also ever-present in heaven and all over the universe at the same time.  That is why both the allegorical Tree of Life and the River of Life are described as being part of heaven, (Rev. 22:1-2.) 

To eat of the fruit of the Tree of Life in this holy garden was NOT forbidden, (Gen. 2:16-17.)   Before the fall, Adam and Eve, being created perfectly on all levels of life, constantly lived in the full presence of God on all levels of life.  From this context, either symbolically or literally, they ate freely of the Tree of Life all the time. 

 

Scripture makes it clear that God did not remove ‘the garden’ at the fall; He removed humanity from His presence in the garden. If Adam and Eve ate of the most holy, eternal Tree of Life after they fell from God’s perfect state of eternal spiritual, soulical, (mind consciousness,) and physical life, sin would have lived in them forever, (Gen. 3:22-24.)  Thus, sin would have been mortified by combining their fallen state with God’s Eternal Being, (Gen. 3:22.)  All hope of regaining their redemption, salvation, and blessing by ‘taking in’ eternal life through personal faith in and acceptance of Jesus to experience the spiritual rebirth in Him, would then have been forfeited, (Jn. 1:1-14; 3:3-5.)  

That is why “God sent them out of the Garden in Eden… [and away from His Holy presence,] and placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden with a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the Tree of Life.”  This was for their own protection.  After the fall, no one could look upon God’s Holy Face and live, (Ex. 33:20.)   

 

However, God became a mere man to suffer, die, and be resurrected in the place of fallen humanity, (Jn. 3:16.)  Becoming the Perfect Lamb of God or the Eternal, All-sufficient sin-offering in the place of all true believers, the Man Jesus  Christ again opened up The Way to God’s presence here on earth and to eternal life in heaven, (Jn. 1:1-14; 3:3-5.)  Jesus the Son of God, God in the flesh, Is the Tree of Life.  Those who ‘eat His fruit’ will live for all eternity (Rev. 5:9-13.)  No one will ever “see” God or “enter” His presence without  allegorically “eating the flesh and drinking the blood” of Jesus, (Jn. 3:3-5.)  We do this by ‘taking in’ or receiving Jesus and the fullness of His New Testament Covenant, which  He established at the cross for all those who choose to sincerely believe in Him and follow Him, (Jn. 1:12-14; 6:54; 8:15!)   

This is why even the temporal Levitical high priest Aaron could not enter God’s presence “without blood” during the ousted Old Testament Covenant,” (Heb. 8:13; chapters 7-10.)  The blood and flesh of the Old Testament temple sacrifices were mere symbols, which showed believers The Way into the presence and life of God, through the establishment of His Eternal New Covenant in Christ, (Heb. 10:1-7; 1 Cor. 10:11.)  No one will ever be able to stand before God in this life and in the next and live — except on the terms of God’s eternal New Covenant in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Heaven is the perfect, unblemished place where true believers, who were utterly cleansed by the blood of Jesus from their fallen state or position without God, can again freely eat from the fruit of the Tree of Life,  (Rev. 5:9-13.)  

 

WHERE DOES ‘ABRAHAM’S BOSOM’ (Lu. 16:22,) FIT INTO JESUS’ SCRIPTURAL TRUTH ABOUT HEAVEN? 

While there are verses about heaven above and hell below in the Old Testament, (the Hebrew Scriptures,) the Old Hebrews, (and later Christians too,) personalized their perceptions on the afterlife – among other things.  So, during Jesus’ ministry among the Hebrews, (which was still during the Old Testament covenant before the cross,) He spoke to them in parables from the Old Testament Scriptures, in what appears to be the language they would generally understand. 

Accordingly, the Hebrews saw heaven, (‘shamayim’ in Hebrew,) as a place of eternal safety where Abraham, the father of faith, acted as a type of ‘gatekeeper’ to a place the heathen perceived as ‘paradise.’  For them, paradise was “a place of rest for the virtuous,” supposedly under the earth.  That is why Jesus, in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, referred to their perception of heaven as “the bosom of Abraham,” (Lu. 16:19-31.)  The ‘gatekeeper’ to heaven is also a tradition among Roman Catholics, and many name “saint” Patrick as the one who meets them at their arrival in heaven, because meeting God Himself at the moment of death seems too ‘overwhelming’ to people that were indoctrinated by church dogmas. 

Regarding hell, (gehenna in Hebrew,) the Sadducees believed in “annihilation” of the wicked and no resurrection.  But the Pharisees believed that sheol or the grave, (hades the Greek underworld,) is a place of rest where humans go at death to await the literal resurrection from the grave on Judgment Day.  Hence, the common reference to the deceased, “They are in a better place.”  Hades has been errantly translated ‘hell in most Bibles.  But hades is actually the realm of the physical and spiritual dead and sheol is hell, the place of eternal incarceration and punishment without Jesus Christ, (Lu. 16:19-31.) 

When Jesus said, “The dead will hear My voice and live,” He was referring to those who are now still physically alive but spiritually entombed in hades without His saving Truth, (Jn. 5:25.)  In contrast, those in hell [gehenna in Hebrew; sheol in Greek,] can never get out of that terrible place.  They were already “judged, because [their father] the ruler of this world is judged,” (Jn. 16:11.)  Their lives on earth are over for all eternity.  “The dead [whose bodies and souls or minds sleep in the grave and whose human spirits are either in heaven or hell,] know nothing [about what is going on here on earth.]  “Nevermore will they share in anything done under the sun.” (Eccl. 9:5-6.) 

 

JESUS’ TEACHING ON HELL OPPOSED THAT OF THE PHARISEES AND SADDUCEES 

The context of Jesus’ serious teaching on the Rich Man and Lazarus is not an ear-tickling sermon.  It defied the false beliefs of the Hebrews about the afterlife.  What Jesus mainly brought across in this parable, is that the Moral law of Love must govern our lives, eternal judgment occurs at the moment of death, every person goes either to heaven (shamayim) or hell (gehenna or sheol) at death; there is no escape from the torture of hell after death, and no one goes from hell or heaven to warn the livingHe concluded with the certainty that everything humanity will ever need to know about God and the afterlife is contained in the Scriptures — the context of both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, (Lu. 16:19-31.) 

In His promise to the man next to Him on the cross, Jesus confirmed His teaching of Lazarus and the rich man, who were judged, sentenced, and removed from earth at the moment of death.  He said, “Today [when we die here on Golgotha] you will be with Me in shamayim, [heaven in Hebrew.] ” 

Þ In contrast to common beliefs, Jesus’ description of hell is also the place where the pre-flood demons are chained, (Gen. 6; 2 Pt. 2:4-6; Jude v. 6.)  The Lord made it clear that everyone in hell was already sentenced to "eternal judgment.”  No one ever gets out of hell

Þ Also, no one can be shifted from hell to heaven as Jesus explained in the parable of Lazarus and the Rich ManThere exists no second chances after Jesus sends His angels to come and fetch us, either through death or when He returns on the clouds, (Mt. 24:27-31.)  The rapture dogma with it’s so-called ‘second chance for those who stay behind’ is a deadly deception, (Heb. 9:27.)  Paul wrote in 2 Ths. 1:7-10, “Jesus will give [His true disciples] rest when He is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who [chose not to] know God, and on those who do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.  These will be punished with everlasting destruction…”  When God judged Sodom and Gomorrah, He delivered Lot and his family, and on That [same] Day, He turned those cities into ashes because He made them an example to those who would afterward live ungodly, (2 Pt. 2:5-8.)  Again, only Lot and his family were taken from Sodom’s destruction, which disproves the second-chance deception.

 

HOW WILL GOD JUDGE THOSE WHO NEVER HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO HEAR THE GOSPEL AND REPENT? 

Paul explained in Rom. 2: 11-24, “There is no partiality with God. [Before the cross,] those [Hebrews] who sinned without [keeping the Old Testament law,] perished [through disobedience to the law — the symbol of Jesus’ completed atonement that established His everlasting New Covenant.  There is never a second chance after death.] For when the Gentiles, [the non-Jews,] who do not have the [written] law, by nature do the things in the [Moral] law, they… show the work of the [Moral] law is written in their hearts; their conscience also bearing witness…. in The Day [singular] when God will judge [men] according to [Jesus’] Gospel…”  This does not mean that people can be saved by pagan religions or the Christian church they chose to follow!  Jesus Christ, as declared in the full context of His Word, Is the Only Way, Truth and Life!  What’s more, the Holy Spirit came to “convict [everyone one earth] of sin, [their state of lostness without Jesus,] righteousness, [through His atonement in their place,] and judgment, [should they reject Him or disobey His real Gospel,] just as the ruler of this world is already judged,” (2 Ths. 1:6-12; Jn. 16:11; 8-14.) 

That is why those who never heard of Jesus, those who know of Jesus but never accepted Him, those who accepted Him but never obeyed His contextual New Covenant Word, as well as those who believe and follow Him, (2 Corinthians 5:10 KJV,) will all be judged according to their obedience to the Moral Law, which is contained in the whole context of the Lord’s Word and written on every human ‘heart,’ (1 Jn. 2:1-7; 14:15-31.)  Yes, Jesus Christ fulfilled it all for us.  Yes, the Lord completed our redemption, salvation, and blessing through His all-sufficient atonement, (Col. 2:9-15.)  But even after we have sincerely accepted Christ and His full atonement, (which is the ONLY WAY to the Father in heaven,) we still have to obey His Moral Law in Holy-Spirit leading, (Jn. 14-6.)  Not to ‘earn’ anything or  to ‘add to’ anything His did for us, but to glorify Him by understanding His Word to obey His “good, acceptable, and perfect will,” (Rom. 12:1-2.)  

Apart from the whole context of God’s Moral law, there exists  no other measure to judge the sin of anyone, (Jn. 13:36; Deut. 4:6-9; Mark 12:;29; Mt. 22:36-40.  It is a fact that everyone who ever lived on earth intuitively ‘knew’ that one may not murder, steal, lie, adulterate… so that everyone will be judged according to the everlasting Truth of His Word, (Jn. 12:48; 2 Ths. 2:6-12.)  Paul said in Romans 14:12, “[All believers] must [also] appear before the judgment seat of Christ, [either at death or at His return on the clouds if they are still physically alive,] to give an account of what we have done in the body, [according to the New Covenant Word of the Lord Jesus Christ,]  (2 Cor. 5:10; Mt. 25:31-46; 24:35.) 

 

WAS JESUS TORTURED IN HELL, PREACHED HIS GOSPEL TO THE LOST IN HELL, AND WAS BORN AGAIN THERE?

I can only say again, we must interpret everything in the context of “all Scripture,” (Ps. 119:160.)  And we must never forget to research the origin of all church dogma.  Clergies will always insert their false dogmas into God’s True Word to justify the false church system, (Heb. 9:8-12; 7:11-19; Rev. 18:4.)  They will always use uncontextual and once-off verses and passages to deceive and control believers.  So, Paul and John commanded, “Test all things... for many antichrists have gone out into the [religious and especially the Christian world,]” (1 Ths. 5:21-22; 1 Jn. 4:1-4; 2:1-7.)

Let’s start with the twisting of “hades” and “hell.” Jesus said in Matthew 16:18, “…The gates of hades [the grave; the abode of the deceased and the spiritual dead without Christ,] will not prevail against [true believers].”  Most clergies changed “hades” to “hell,” and say we war against ‘hell.'  This misconception is also found in uncontextual Scripture.  We cannot ‘war’  against the absolutely defeated devil whom Jesus utterly conquered at the cross, or the eternally convicted, incarcerated in hell, (Col. 2:9-15.)  We are in a “battle” or “fight” for the control of our minds where all the deceptions or “strongholds” of Satan are seated, which we can only ‘pull down’ [not ‘cast out’] by Gods True Word, (2 Cor. 10:3-5; Rom. 8:5-12.)

Then, Satan-controlled clergies blasphemously add, “When Jesus died He went to ‘hell.’ He died spiritually, was [immeasurably] tortured by demons to further our atonement, and got born again in hell!” [Joyce Myer; Kenneth Copeland, etcetera.] They also say in hell, the Lord preached to those who could not go to heaven before the cross, and took them to heaven when He rose from the dead. They take this incredible godlessness from uncontextual, once-off verses in the Bible. 

Þ But when Jesus died, He said, “Father [in heaven, ‘shamayim’ in Hebrew, ] into Your hands I commit My spirit.”     His victorious death-cry was, “It is finished!” [My full atonement for all believing humanity is now complete,”]  (Jn. 19:28-30; Col. 2:12-15; Lu. 23:46,43.)  Nothing makes it plainer that Jesus did not allegedly “finish” our atonement anywhere else than on the cross — and most certainly not in “hell!”  Furthermore, He promised the man next to Him on the cross, “Today, [as soon as we die here,] you will be with Me in shamayim” [or heaven.  While physically our bodies will we will be in hades, the grave, not in ‘hell’ where the lost of all ages are incarcerated. (1 Pt. 3:19; 4:6.)

So, it would be useless to ‘war’ against, pray for, or preach to those in “hell.”  Hell is the place where all the already judged and condemned spirits are kept.  The lost were already judged at death and Jesus said no one can ever return from hell, (Lu. 16:28-31.)  What’s more, Jesus did not suffer and die for demons but for all of humanity, who are physically alive in the darkness of the spiritual grave or hades; calling them “out of darkness into His Light,” (Jn. 3:16; 1 Pt. 2:9-10.)

It is impossible that while Jesus’ human body was in the grave, (physical death or hades,) and His spirit in heaven “in the hands of the Father,” that He would preach to demons or people, who are suffering in hell because allegedly, He Himself and [they] were ‘born again in hell.’  How could the Most High and Holy God Himself be ‘born again by believing in and accepting Himself, like sinful humanity must do? (Jn. 1:1-14; 3:3-5.)  These blasphemous dogmas are ludicrous.  Words cannot describe the sins these liars commit against Jesus the Almighty God!! (Heb. 1:1-14; Rev. 1:8; 4:8; 15:3; 16:5-7.) 

Þ Heb. 9:17 states, "Man will die once and thereafter the judgment.”  Jesus assured us that there is no escape from hell.  So, the claims of visits to hell (and heaven) are just as false as these ungodly dogmas, (Lu. 16:19-31.) 

 

What then about Jesus’ “descent into the lower parts of the earth,” [not hell,] to preach to the spirits in ‘prison?’  This sounds like the beliefs of the Pharisees, not Jesus’ teaching on the rich man and Lazarus, which explained hell for all  unrepented people at the moment of death, from where there is no return, (Lu. 16:19-31.) 

►►► What’s more, the context of Ephesians 4:1-12 does not speak of Jesus suffering and preaching in “hell,” which is a complete impossibility as seen in the contextual Truth of Scripture.  It refers to the RISEN, ASCENDED CHRIST. 

It reads in the Spirit Filled Live Bible 1991 version, “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive and gave gifts to men.  Now this, ‘He ascended’ - MEANS THAT HE ALSO FIRST DESCENDED INTO THE LOWER PARTS OF THE EARTH, [THE GRAVE FOR THREE NIGHTS AND THREE DAYS,] FOR HE WHO DESCENDED [INTO THE GRAVE] IS ALSO THE [RISEN] ONE WHO ASCENDED FAR ABOVE ALL THE HEAVENS [AS HIS ASCENSION,] THAT HE MIGHT FULFILL ALL THINGS [THAT WERE PROPHESIED CONCERNING THE SAVIOR IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.]”  

· Where Peter wrote that Jesus went “to preach to the spirits in prison that were disobedient in the days of Noah,” the footnote in the S.F.L Bible 1991 comments, “This [totally uncontextual] proclamation might be part of Christ’s subsequent, [at His death on the cross,] sovereign, [all-sufficient victory]  over “every power and principality”] when He rose from the dead,” (Col. 2:9-10; 11-15.) 

This twisted, abused passage, the cause of terrible blasphemy against the Host Holy God, might also refer to Acts 24:25-30, where David prophesied, “[The Lord is always with me,] for my flesh, [deceased body,] will rest in hope [in the grave or hades to await the resurrection.]  For You will not leave my soul, [my mind and my body] in hades.  Nor will You allow Your Holy One, [Jesus in the grave] to see corruption, [but You will raise Him from the dead…”   (1 Ths. 4:15-18.)  

To debunk this blasphemous confusion in the Truth of Scripture is easy.  Jesus first had to [suffer, die,] and  [His human body] had to descend into the lower parts of the earth, the grave or hades.  He was then risen after three days and three nights in the grave, and after 40 days on earth “He ascended on high.”  After that, He sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, Who “led captivity captive;” by leading all true believers in Christ spiritually “out of darkness into His Light” and eventually, to heaven in His power through the truth of His Gospel, (Mt. 28:18-20.)  The Lord Jesus [also came to] give [the Holy-Spirit’s] gifts to men [after the once-off outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost, Who indwells true believers as His temple,]” (1 Cor. 12:1-11; Mark 16:15-18.) 

There is no other way to interpret this passage in the true context of the New Testament Covenant.  To my mind, the verses that supposedly teach that ‘Jesus went to hell to save the condemned and those before the cross,’ (who were actually saved by adhering to the temple-symbols that only had power because they all referred to Jesus’ full atonement,) were misinterpreted by the Roman Catholic Church and Protestant Bible translators, (Heb. 10:1-7; 9:6-12.)   

In this regard, Jesus warned the Pharisees in Mark 7:13, “You make the [truth of] the Word of no effect through your tradition, which you have handed down.  And many such things you do,” (Mt. 15:5-9; Col. 2:8.) 

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Satan, demons, hell 

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Are the Supernatural Angels of God Real and who are they? 

FAIRIES, ORBS, AND ANGELS 

Extra Scriptural Revelations of Heaven and Hell

Is Heaven a Real Place or just a state of mind? 

Þ Difference between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of heaven 

Astro Projection, Astro Travel, and Near Death Experiences

The first and most significant consequences of humanity’s disobedience to God in Eden  

Jesus’ Complete Atonement in the Place of all those who choose to accept Him, Conquered Eternal Hell 

 

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