.- There are two thieves hanging from a cross next to Jesus. One scoffs, the other shows a bit of faith and asks Jesus to remember him when Jesus enters his kingdom. “Jesus replies: ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise’”.
Why don’t you say, “Today you will be with me in heaven”? What is paradise and what is heaven? Is it a kind of tank where believers go before the resurrection? Or is paradise the place where the Old Testament saints went when they died, but after the resurrection, when people die, they went to heaven? Is paradise a different place than heaven?
Yes and no. I will answer this question by explaining a bit about the word paradise and where it appears in the Bible. But it is also important to understand a little about the sky and the new skies. Hopefully, in the end, you’ll understand why the answer is yes and no.
Where does the Bible speak of paradise?
Paradise is a word that was probably borrowed from the Persians. It means “garden”. The word occurs in the Hebrew Old Testament only in three places where it refers to a park ( Ecc. 2:5 ), a forest ( Neh. 2:8 ), and a garden ( Song of Songs 4:13 ).
The religious meaning, Garden of God or Paradise, entered Jewish thought and vocabulary after the Babylonian exile, was conflated with the hope of a blessed eschaton, and appears in the Apocrypha and frequently in other early Jewish writings.
Thus, in New Testament times, paradise became synonymous with resting in the presence of God. The word paradeisos only appears three times in the New Testament.
It is amazing that the word paradise only appears six times in the Scriptures. And yet, the concept of God’s presence with humanity is everywhere.
What is paradise and what is heaven?
If we use the simplest of definitions for paradise and heaven, we see that they are practically synonymous. They both refer to a place of happiness that is filled with the good presence of God.
In 2 Corinthians 12:4, Paul seems to refer to the “third heaven” and “paradise” as the same place. When Jesus tells the thief that he will be with him in paradise, it is certainly not wrong to connect this with Paul’s statement that “to depart” is to be in the presence of Jesus.
So, to answer what is paradise and what is heaven, we must ask ourselves, are paradise and heaven the same thing? I think the answer to that question depends on what you mean by heaven.
When a believer in Christ dies today, do they go to heaven? Yes. When a believer in Christ dies today, does he go to paradise? Yes. In that sense, the two are synonymous. But today’s sky will not be the same as tomorrow’s.
conclusion
What is paradise and what is heaven? Well, it depends on your definition. Are you talking about location? If so, does it refer to the new heaven/new earth or to heaven as it currently exists? If you mean as it currently exists, I think you can make a quality argument from Scripture that the two are synonymous.
But the paradise/heaven that currently exists is not the same one that awaits us for all eternity when Christ returns. We await the resurrection, our last blessed hope. Until then, when we die, we know that we are in the presence of Christ.
It doesn’t much matter if you call this paradise or heaven. What matters is whether or not you are with Jesus. If you are with Jesus, then it is a blessing. If you are not with Jesus, then it is anything but happiness. That is the most important question to be asked of paradise/heaven and hell. Are you with Jesus?
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Written by Mike Leake at Crosswalk.
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