WHERE IS PARADISE?
2 Cor. 12:4
Morning Meditation 2/7/2013
2 Cor. 12:4 “How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.”
Paul is speaking of himself when he said in 1 Cor. 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.” The third heaven and paradise are used synonymously here. So when Paul spoke of paradise to the church at Corinth, paradise was in the third heaven where God is.
Paradise was not always where it is today. When Jesus died on the cross he said to the dying thief who prayed to him, “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom” (Luke 23: 42). And Jesus replied to him, “Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). Where Jesus went that day is not where paradise is today. Ephesians 4:8-10 says: “Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)” During the three days and three nights that Jesus’ body was in the borrowed tomb, he went to Old Testament paradise where the saints of God went when they died before the cross. It is called “Abraham’s bosom” in Luke chapter sixteen and verse twenty-two. There the Old Testament saints waited the promised Saviour (Gen. 3:15 and Isa. 53:1-12). When Jesus died, he descended into the place called paradise and said to them the same thing he said to the living as he died on the cross: “it is finished.” Those were victory words to those who waited under the old covenant.
Not only did Jesus go to the paradise that then existed but he moved it. When Jesus was raised from the dead, his resurrection was called the “first fruits.” First Corinthians 15:23: “But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.” Jesus raised others at his resurrection. It is the “firstfruits” of the main harvest that is to come.
Matthew 27:52-52 says, “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.” Here is where captivity is led captive. It may be objected that the Old Testament saints were not captive. I believe there is a sense in which they were until Christ came and set them free. Revelation 1:18 says, “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.” Where did Jesus get the keys of hell and of death? I believe this is recorded in Hebrews 2:14-16: “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.”
Paradise has been moved by the Lord into the very presence of God. Rev. 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.” You will find the place of that tree in Revelation 22:1-2: “And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” Remember the New Jerusalem existed in Abraham’s day: Heb. 11:10 says of Abraham: “For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”
I quote from a book on Heaven by Grant Jeffrey page 33: “Writings by Christians of that time have been collected in the Ante-Nicene Library. They describe that more than twelve thousand of these Old Testament saints walked through Galilee for forty days, appeared in Jerusalem before many, and later ascended into Heaven when Jesus Christ ascended to His Father.”(This book can be purchased in most Christian book stores. I recommend it highly. The Publisher is Frontier Research Publications, Inc.).
“These saints who rose from the dead when Christ arose were the “firstfruits” of the first resurrection to eternal life in Heaven.”
“These resurrected saints had bodies that were real. Several documents from this era claim that among those raised by Jesus were the Temple priest, Simeon, who had once waited in the Temple to see the baby Jesus, and his two sons who lived in Arimathea. The records state their resurrection was specifically investigated since they were well known to the Sanhedrin because of their Temple service as priests. After so many centuries, it is impossible to ascertain the documentary accuracy of these ancient texts, but it is interesting to note that they confirm the details of the event which Matthew recorded in his Gospel” (Page 34)” End of quote
Paul said of the saints who die in this age: “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8). If saints go to Paradise when they die, and if Paradise is in the presence of the Lord, this is where our departed loved ones are awaiting the resurrection. This is where Paradise is.
You say, “If our departed loved ones are already in heaven with God, why a resurrection?” We are not complete without a body. There are those in heaven now in a body. They are the “firstfruits” that followed Jesus out of the grave. The main harvest of the resurrection will be at the rapture. The gleaning of the main harvest will be during and at the end of the Great Tribulation. Revelation 20:5 says, “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousands years were finished. This is the first resurrection.” The first resurrection comes in three stages: the “firstfruits” the “main harvest” and the “gleaning” after the harvest of the Old Testament with it Feast of Firstfruits, the Feast of the main harvest and the gleanings left in the corners of the field for the poor.
