Secrets from Beyond The Grave

Chapter 5 Secrets of Paradise--Abode of the Righteous Dead

What is it like in the heavenly paradise? It is doubtless not profitable for me to boast. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord: I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago--whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows--such a one was caught up to the third heaven. And I know such a man--whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows--how he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. --2 Corinthians 12:1-4 Christians have been hearing about heaven for centuries. However, few have heard detailed teaching about paradise. Heaven is the place where believers from both covenants will meet in eternity, but paradise is the place the righteous dead in Christ are resting until the moment of their resurrection. Under the Old Testament, the righteous souls went under the earth in a chamber Christ called "Abraham's bosom" (Luke 16:22). After the resurrection of Christ, these righteous souls were transferred from under the earth to a new location in heaven. The apostle Paul was the first person under the new covenant to actually see this heavenly abode, which he called "paradise" (2 Cor. 12:4). Paul was writing this revelation in the third person when he said, "I knew a man." Scholars indicated Paul was speaking of a personal experience but was writing in this journalistic form so as not to boast about the many visions and revelations he was receiving from the Lord. Paul wrote that the incident of seeing paradise occurred fourteen years earlier from the time he penned this letter to the Corinthian believers. If we go back fourteen years, Paul would have been in the city of Lystra, where he was stoned and left for dead: Then Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there; and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. However, when the disciples gathered around him, he rose up and went into the city. And the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe. --Acts 14:19-20 A Jewish stoning was not intended to intimidate or simply put a few bruises on the victim--it was intended to kill a person. It was permissible punishment for certain crimes, according to the Law of Moses (Exod. 21:28-32; Num. 15:30-36). Paul wrote that "once I was stoned" (2 Cor. 11:25), alluding to this event in Lystra. The remarkable fact is that as the disciples gathered around the bruised body of Paul and began to pray, he not only got up but also was physically strengthened to go into the city and travel the following day! Paul said he was "caught up" into the third heaven into paradise. This heavenly chamber is where the souls and spirits of the righteous go at death. Paul was uncertain if he was "in the body," meaning that he had a supernatural vision of paradise while he was unconscious, or if he was "out of the body," a term used to identify the departing of the soul and spirit at the time of death. If it was a vision, what Paul saw was so dramatic that he refused to reveal details in his letter to the church at Corinth. If he was stoned to death (the accusers thought he was dead) and