Paradise On Earth or in Heaven?
Jesus had a few words with the thief who was crucified alongside him, as recorded in Luke 23. It ended with the Lord saying: “... today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43).
The essential issue is: Where will the righteous be rewarded? And, to a lesser extent: When? So it is a limited Scriptural teaching which is being considered in this short article. It is not the aim to discover what makes a person righteous in God’s sight, simply where are they to be rewarded – in heaven, or on earth?
SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES
A valuable method of Bible study on essential matters would seem to be; examine simple, clear, unambiguous passages and use them as a basis. This is what we are now about to do.
Firstly, we are told where the righteous will NOT be rewarded. Look at the following clear statement:
"No one has ascended to heaven but he who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven" (John 3:13).
So, subsequent to the life, death, resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ, the apostle John can record that NO ONE HAS ASCENDED TO HEAVEN. There was, by the time of writing, one exception − the Lord Jesus − and the writer is careful to include that in the record. (He was, of course, writing under inspiration and therefore the words are accurate.) The teaching of that passage is clear.
Other people who had died had not gone to heaven, however good they might have been.
The same teaching is found in the Book of Acts when the apostle Peter says this about David the good king of Israel. He was a man described by God as “a man after My own heart” (Acts 13:22), yet this is what the apostle Peter said:
For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself: “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand’” (Acts 2:34).
So, although he was righteous, yet David did not ascend to heaven but was (and remains) in the grave until the resurrection of the dead, as the apostle Paul later affirms (Acts 13:36).
WHAT THEN?
If people who have died are not in heaven, where are they? A clear Bible principle is established in one of the Psalms:
"The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s; but the earth He has given to the children of men" (Psalm 115:16).
This is a wonderful promise; that this beautiful earth, at an appointed time, will be taken from man’s misrule and, under God’s control, will be given to mankind. This is in perfect accord with the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples:
"Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10).
These well-known words of the Lord’s Prayer teach his disciples to pray for the time when God’s kingdom will again be set up on earth. Do you recall these words of Jesus?
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5). (To pursue this further look up the following passages: Psalm 37:9-11; Proverbs 2:21,22; Proverbs 11:31; Numbers 14:21; Psalm 72:19 and Isaiah 45:18. There are many others.)
GOD'S COMING KINGDOM
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