The Eight destinations
after death – Part 3 – Paradise - by
P.K. Odendaal – August 2019
We are continuing our excursion into places we might go to
after death and next it is Paradise’s turn, a name we associate with bliss.
The central theme of the whole Bible is Paradise Lost in Genesis
and Paradise regained in Revelation, but what a long and treacherous route that
is. Some of us lose our way there and end up in other destinations which I
write about in other parts of this series.
That is such a sorry state of affairs, but fully
understandable due to the fact that the way leading there it is so narrow and
beset with crooks and diverse temptations, most of all by our own choice and
making. We are literally the masters of our fate and it should not be difficult
to recognize the evil which meet us on our way to Paradise.
Invictus by William
Ernest Henley
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
We start off with Paradise and with Adam and Eve where they
lived in bliss and peace and without sin having dominion over it. Can you think
– having a life long lease over the whole planet! Happy were they when God visited
them at dusk in the evening wind as their guest on this planet to converse and
hold communion with them. Paradise indeed!
However, there were terms and conditions attached to it: they
had to dress it and keep it and was forbidden to eat from the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, which was not in the middle of the garden for then
you will die (spiritually).
And so it was not too long afterwards that, when they minded
their own business and forgot to guard the entrance to Paradise, when some evil
fairy entered the garden by jumping over the fence.
The above paragraph is not biblical language and this is for
sure not a fairy tale, but it is nearer to our own understanding of how things
go.
Death set in and we later find those who died in another
sort of abode – a place I described in part 1 which is called The Grave – and there
they had to wait for redemption.
Redemption came at great cost on a hill called Calvary as we
find three persons hanging on crosses for dear life and painful death – and more
terribly, the two crucified next to Him ‘cast the same in His teeth’. The
latter is mankind at its hypocritical best – making a laughing stock of people
superior to them.
But …
Tale as old as time
True as it can be
Barely even friends
Then somebody bends Unexpectedly (from
Beauty and the Beast)
And he says:
Lord, remember me when thy comest into thy kingdom.
Jesus Christ answers: To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.
What a lesson for us!
Our attention now turns to The Grave where people are
waiting for this day for millennia and we find that written in the apocryphal gospel
of Nicodemus:
AND while Satan and
the prince of hell were discoursing thus to each other, on a
sudden there was a
voice as of thunder and the rushing of winds, saying, Lift up your gates, O ye
princes; and be ye lift up, O everlasting gates, and the King of Glory shall come
in.
When the prince of
hell heard this, he said to Satan, Depart from me, and begone out of my
habitations; if thou art a powerful warrior, fight with the King of Glory. But what
hast thou to do with him? And he cast him forth from his habitations.
And the prince said
to his impious officers, Shut the brass gates of cruelty, and make them fast
with iron bars, and fight courageously, lest we be taken captives.
But when all the
company of the saints heard this they spake with a loud voice of anger to the
prince of hell:
Open thy gates that
the King of Glory may come in.
And the divine
prophet David, cried out saying, Did not I when on earth truly
prophesy and say, O
that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to
the children of men.
For he hath broken
the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder. He hath taken them
because of their iniquity, and because of their unrighteousness they are afflicted.
After this another
prophet, namely, holy Isaiah, spake in like manner to all the saints, did not I
rightly prophesy to you when I was alive on earth?
The dead men shall
live, and they shall rise again who are in their graves, and they shall rejoice
who are in earth; for the dew which is from the Lord shall bring deliverance to
them.
And I said in
another place, O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?
When all the saints
heard these things spoken by Isaiah, they said to the prince of hell, Open now
thy gates, and take away thine iron bars; for thou wilt now be bound, and have
no power.
Then there was a
great voice, as of the sound of thunder saying, Lift up your gates, O princes;
and be ye lifted up, ye gates of hell, and the King of Glory will enter in.
The prince of hell
perceiving the same voice repeated, cried out as though he had been ignorant,
Who is that King of Glory?
David replied to the
prince of hell, and said, I understand the words of that voice, because I spake
them by his spirit. And now, as I have above said, I say unto thee, the Lord
strong and powerful, the Lord mighty in battle: he is the King of Glory, and he
is the Lord in heaven and in earth;
He hath looked down
to hear the groans of the prisoners, and to set loose those that are appointed
to death.
We find this corroborated in:
Psalm 24:7 Lift up your heads, O ye gates;
and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
Mat 27:52 And the graves were
opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the
holy city, and appeared unto many.
But … it is not so easy to imagine Paradise, as it has two
sections called The Bosom of Abraham and the other Hell as we can learn from this
scripture:
Luk
16:22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the
angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And
in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and
Lazarus in his bosom.
And
he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he
may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented
in this flame.
But
Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good
things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art
tormented.
And
beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they
which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would
come from thence.
Then
he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my
father's house:
For
I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into
this place of torment.
Abraham
saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.
And
he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they
will repent.
And
he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be
persuaded, though one rose from the dead.
Intrigued by your article!
ReplyDelete