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Transcript 410A — Understanding Paradise
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Good evening, Brother Camping. In Luke 23:43 Jesus tells one of the men who is to be crucified with Him that ''today you will be with Me in Paradise," Knowing that Jesus was to go to Abraham's Bosom, I'm not quite sure about the meaning of Paradise as it concerns the man who is to be crucified with Christ.
HC: Where did you read in the Bible that Jesus was to go to Abraham's Bosom?
CALLER: Obviously I'm wrong there.
HC: I'm not saying you're right or wrong. I'm only asking if you read that in the Bible.
CALLER: Probably not. I probably got it in a discussion group.
HC: You actually are not wrong, but neither are you right. In other words, it has to be explained a little bit
Let me see if I can help you. There are three places in the Bible where the word Paradise is used, only three. One is in this instance, the other is in II Corinthians 12, where the apostle Paul is speaking of an experience he had where he was caught up into the third heaven, which he calls Paradise. Therefore Paradise is where God is. And in Revelation 2, it speaks about Paradise as the place where the Tree of Life is. And the Tree of Life is a figure of Christ Himself. So we know that Paradise is Heaven.
Now Jesus also said, "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit." In His spirit Christ went into Heaven when He said, "It is finished," when His life ended and His body was put into the grave. He went into Paradise, or He went into Heaven, where the Father is. Now that's precisely where the thief on the cross went also. In his body he went into the grave. In his soul or in his spirit he went into Heaven. And we go into Heaven, if we're believers, upon death.
Now the reason that I said that you were right in your statement concerning Abraham's Bosom is that in the parable of Luke 16 God is talking about the rich man and Lazarus. Lazarus, who had nothing going for him on this side of the grave except that he was saved, went into Abraham's Bosom. And Abraham in that context is really a figure of God Himself. Abraham is called the father of all believers. And certainly this is the kind of a statement we would ascribe to God. He is the Father of all believers. Abraham is a figure in that context of God Himself. And to go into Abraham's Bosom means that Lazarus went into the highest felicity. He went into the divine presence of God Himself, where all is joy and wonderful. Abraham's Bosom therefore would have to be equivalent to Paradise. It would have to be equivalent to Heaven itself, where we go when we die.
CALLER: Okay. Then just one other question. There is no actual physical area within the realm of the earth as we know it which would be considered Abraham's Bosom.
HC: None whatsoever.
CALLER: Thank you very much.
HC: You're welcome. Good night. Let's just make a further comment on this. There are two destinations when we die, and only two destinations. If we are believers, we go to be with the Lord. We have eternal life. We continue to live and have conscious existence in a soul existence, of course, but nevertheless it is conscious existence. Christ said, "I am not the God of the dead but of the living. I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."
There is no intermediate state for the believer at some point between here and Heaven. The Old Testament believer when he died went into Heaven. Think of Elijah. He was caught up in a whirlwind into Heaven. If he could go to Heaven, in anticipation of the atonement of the cross, then so could all of the other believers of the Old Testament.
The unbeliever's ultimate destination is hell. But he will not be cast into hell until after Judgment Day, which is on the last day of this earth's existence. Therefore he in his soul goes to a place of silence, which is also called Hades in the Bible, a place of soul sleep, if you will, to await the resurrection of the last day.
There is no other intermediate position of some kind. That just is not taught in the Bible, I'm quite sure.