About
Heaven, Paradise and Sheol
1. Heaven
and Paradise
From the beginning heaven is the sphere above us. So we
call heaven the sphere in which birds fly, clouds float and the sphere
of the stars and the planets. God and His angels live also in
heaven. The word 'heaven' occurs very often in the plural, 'heavens'.
According to
Jewish traditional believe (Talmud and the later Kabbala) is heaven seven
'stories'
high. Paul received the special privilege to have a look in the
heavenly
paradise. He wrote that he was inside or outside his body he did not
know - in
the third heaven, (2 Corinthians 12:3). Paradise could be localized in
the
third heaven, (2 Corinthians 12:2-4). The throne of God is in the
highest
heaven and Jesus went at His ascension through the heavens, (Hebrews
4:14,
Greek is plural) and sat at the right hand of God in His throne,
(Revelation
3:21). When Stephen died as a martyr he saw Jesus
standing at the
right hand of almighty God, (Acts 7:54). Revelation 2:7 supports
the
view that there is an heavenly Paradise, for in this verse the believer
that
conquers is promised that he will eat of the tree of life, which is in
the
Paradise of God. Because Jesus is God, He is omnipresent, that is He is
present
everywhere. When a believer dies Jesus gives him a welcome in Paradise
and
makes his presence very real to him, though He sits on the throne in
the
highest heaven. We must not forget that heavenly locations are not
subjected to
physical forces and laws as they are here on earth. This reality of
spiritual,
heavenly, nonphysical dimensions and realities is very difficult to
understand
or grasp for us.
We are used to speak about the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2 and 3 as
Paradise.
But this word is not originally Hebrew, it came in use after the Jews
had come
into contact with the Persian culture. Paradise is originally a Persian
word,
which meant a beautiful, private garden, surrounded by a wall. Rich
Persian
people and kings had usually such a paradise. When a Persian
king
received a special guest or friend he gave him as an honour an
invitation to
walk with him in his garden, his paradise. Immediately you will now
understand
the meaning of this promise to the crucified criminal beside Jesus when
He said
to him: Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise,
( Luke
23:43, RSV). Jesus promised him a very special honour after death.
So we
can be sure about it that there is in the heavens a very beautiful
location,
called Paradise.
We believe that born again Christians are after their death in
Paradise,
and meet Jesus there, (Revelations3 :21). They wil be judged, not to be
condemned but to be rewarded according to their work for the Lord for
their
eternal position in the eternal Kingdom of the Lord, (1 Corinthians
3:9-9; 2
Corinthians 5:10).
2.
Sheol, the grave and the underworld
Sheol is an old Hebrew
word, Sometimes it meant in the old Hebrew scriptures the grave of the
body -
there are many Old Testament Scripture references to
support this
and sometimes it meant the abode in the low regions of the earth, where
all the
dead are awaiting the judgement. In the Greek language in which the New
Testament was written Sheol was translated 'Hades.' In Luke 16:19-30
Jesus told
the story of the rich man and poor Lazarus. The Greek word translated
in many old
translation is 'hell,' but that is not really correct for the word is
'Hades,'
which can better be translated as'realm of the dead.' To think of Sheol
or
Hades as under us in the earth is really an old idea, for since the N.
T. we
realize that these regions are in a spiritual world, which we visualize
'above'
us., for Jesus is not in a world below us but above us, in the highest
heaven.
Gehennah
is the Greek name of the place of destruction of rubbish at the
south of
Jerusalem. The fire was kept burning. Sometimes, in days of the Old
Testament
children were burned there in worship to idols. Jesus used the word in
Matthew
23:33. We have the word 'hell,' the place of painful remorse, torture
and
eternal fire. As I wrote above, hades should really not be translated
as
'hell,' as is sometimes done in old Bible Translations.
3.
In closing
It is interesting to
add to what I said above about Jesus welcoming deceased believers in
Paradise,
to point to testimonies of people that experienced a near death
experience. For
instance, a person died on the operation table and surgeons observed
that the
heart stopped beating, but they were able to make the heart beat again.
Some
people that experienced this saw themselves floating outside their body
in the
operation room and when that lasted several minutes, floated further
away from
the body. Some even saw a bright light and Jesus. Some even were in
paradise,
where they saw beautiful flowers and birds. Saints have also seen Jesus
and
Paradise in heavenly visions.
4.
Invitation
Dear reader, in
case
you have had a vision in which you saw paradise or had a near death
experience
and saw it, I would be most interested to read your testimony, and if
you might
have questions I will do my best to answer them. Please write me,
preferable
per e-mail:
info.tjderuiter@telfort.nl
or info@tjderuiter.nll
Pastor
T. J. de Ruiter
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Site 'Inspiration &
Insight' (Global Ministries), since 1997 / published 7 November 2011 /
update 7 November 2011 /
Pastor T. J. de Ruiter / The
Netherlands