Secrets from Beyond The Grave

his soul and spirit departed his body, then Paul was literally taken into heaven. The saints standing near his lifeless body actually prayed life (his soul and spirit) back into his body, and he was raised from the dead! If Paul was uncertain of what actually happened, then I refuse to speculate which of the two actually occurred. Whatever happened, he was taken into the heavenly paradise. When was this heavenly garden called paradise made accessible to the souls of the righteous departed? Based upon Luke 16, prior to the resurrection of Christ the souls and spirits of all people, both the righteous (those in covenant with God through Abraham) and the unrighteous, were carried into the Sheol compartment under the earth. The righteous were placed in one section, and the unrighteous grouped in another. Christ informed us there was a "great gulf" that separated the two groups. The word gulf in the King James translation is the Greek word chasma , from which we get the word chasm , or "a great impassable opening or canyon." When the early patriarchs died, the Bible says they "gave up the ghost" and were "gathered unto his people" (Gen. 25:8, 17, KJV; 35:29, KJV). Giving up the ghost is a phrase used to describe the departing of the soul and spirit from the physical body. The dying were gathered to their people, which is a term used in the departing of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Aaron (Gen. 25:8; 35:29; 49:33; Deut. 32:50). This same phrase is recorded by three Gospel writers the moment Christ breathed His last breath. He cried, "It is finished," and He "gave up the ghost" (Mark 15:37, KJV; Luke 23:46, KJV; John 19:30, KJV). Some suggest that this phrase simply means they ceased to be or quit physically breathing. However, let's examine what occurred with Christ after He died. Paradise Transferred First, one of the two thieves dying beside Christ prayed to Jesus that Jesus would remember him when He entered His kingdom. Christ replied, "Today you will be with Me in Paradise" (Luke 23:43). Both Christ and the thief died before the sun set that day. Christ had informed His disciples that "as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" (Matt. 12:40). Some who do not believe that the soul and spirit leave the body at death say this phrase heart of the earth means Christ would be in the grave for three days and nights. However, other scriptures tell you what Christ actually did when His "ghost" (soul and spirit) departed from His body. He descended to the paradise chamber (Abraham's bosom) to preach to those spirits imprisoned under the earth! (Now this, "He ascended"--what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.) --Ephesians 4:9-10 What was the purpose of Christ's descent into the lower chambers of the earth? Peter wrote: For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison. --1 Peter 3:18-19