At least three times, and maybe more, Jesus just appeared to people from out of nowhere. In one situation, Jesus appeared to the disciples while they were eating. (Luke 24:36). In another, the eleven apostles were gathered in a locked room and Jesus appeared to them, “And as they thus spake, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, ‘Peace be unto you, but they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed they had seen a spirit’” (Luke 24:26-37).
Throughout scripture, heaven appears to be right here in earth. Jesus said, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Mat 6:10), and “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” (Mat 5:5). Was not the one thief on the cross meek, and would not he be in Paradise that very day? It seems that the heavenly Paradise coincides with the earthly Paradise. With that said, the “Promised Land” was the “Promise of Heaven.”
Jesus died, but His “Ghost” was with the Father that day. As
Jesus lay in the tomb, His Ghost was with God delivering the repentant thief.
While Jesus was asleep, His Flesh and Ghost were independent, but after the
resurrection, His Flesh and Spirit moved together. At death, Jesus “gave
up the ghost” (Mark 15:37), but at His Resurrection, Jesus had His “Ghost”
return in bodily form just as when He was baptized (Luke 3:22).
The apostles were terrified because they thought they
“had seen a spirit.” Indeed, they had! Jesus’s body, although it still had the
scars, was of a different kind of Flesh. He had been glorified to the substance
that Adam had in the Garden of Eden. Adam said, “Neither is our bright nature
left us, but our body is changed from the similitude in which it was created
first, when we were created” (1 Adam and Eve 23:7). [1] If
that is correct, then Adam and Even had perfect (glorious) flesh in the
Garden and a bright nature. With sin, their bright nature was exhumed from
them, and when they were cast out of the Garden their flesh had changed. For that
reason, they were no longer perfect and safe, so God provided for them a coat
of flesh.
Original sin was a new spirit and a new flesh (from that in
the Garden). The Spirit of God which had been breathed unto Adam had been
exchanged for the spirit of Satan that had been engorged into them. Their flesh
was tainted, and they covered their new flesh with aprons of fig leaves. That
was not appropriate to God, so He provided new docile flesh, likely from a
gentle lamb. Hence, Adam and Eve got their Holy Spirit back but continued in life
in a changed flesh. “Born again” (John 3:7) is a regenerated spirit and
the rapture of the dead is a regenerated flesh. Baptism is symbolic of
that day… the day when those who believe shall become new creatures. Of course,
fully regenerated is back to the spiritual and physical condition at the
time of generation.
Adam and Eve apparently moved freely about the Garden and
with their bright natures and bright eyes could see unto the heaven. While in the
Garden, Adam and Eve had the bright light rest on them, but original sin
deprived them of that bright light (1 Adam and Eve 13:6-7). With the bright
light, Adam could see Eve and Eve could see Adam, and both could see unto the
heaven and commune with God. John speaks of a transparent “sea of glass”
beneath the throne. With their bright eyes in the Garden, Adam and Eve could
see God plainly. And it appears that the prophets of old could see God as well!
Jesus, when he appeared to the eleven, ostensibly from the
heavenly realm right there, “He opened their understanding that they might
comprehend Scriptures” (Luke 24:45). Jesus revealed truth to the apostles as He
had the prophets. With bright eyes given to the apostles, they like the
prophets before them, became the foundation of the Church (Ephes 2:20). Like
them before us, Christians can have the same bright natures and bright eyes.
Christians should be able to “see” what the prophets and apostles saw: “When ye
read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ. Which in other
ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his
holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit” (Ephes 3:4-5).
Adam and Eve had been perfect (glorious) in the Garden.
Outside in the wilderness, there was no “sea of glass” through which to see
clearly. Their semi-transparent “sea of glass” was “understanding.” They
finally got the Message from “the Angel of God!” They understood earth and
heaven but could no longer travel freely between them. A wall, or perhaps a “hedge,”
had been put between them and God. Travel between reality and the spiritual
world required perfect bodies and perfect spirits — the Spirit of God, not the
spirit of Satan. Hence, perhaps gravity kept them in their place. Perhaps
“gravity” is the “separation” between the heaven and earth — between the waters
and the waters (Gen 1:6).
Examine “gravity” for a moment. It pushes down not pulls toward
the Earth. It must be overcome and exists only where matter is present. It is
as a dome over the earth and is part of the celestial sphere.
A synonym is “graveness”
and as such, gravity represents struggles and death. Perhaps, while Adam
and Eve were in the Garden, gravity was non-existent. There was nothing to
constrain nor restrain them but one Law and that was to revere God. (There was
no Newton’s Law.)
Lack of reverence is of grave concern. Outside the Garden
lied the graves of the two. They would need to work hard — against gravity — to
live. Likewise, when Jesus was Resurrected, or Regenerated, He too overcame the
world and gravity when He arose into the heaven and traveled freely between the
heaven and the earth.
Whenever Christians are entirely regenerated, or perhaps “glorified,”
then gravity will not restrict them, and the world will be overcome since the
world is matter. When New Jerusalem returns to the Garden Paradise at its
foundation (Jerusalem), there will be a new Earth and it will be as in Heaven.
(Now capitalized because they are places, although by then not discreet
places). Then meek Christians will have inherited the earth as is
written (Mat 5:5). There will no longer be a grave, grave situations, nor
gravity to impede the “new creatures,” who will be remade like the old — in the
image of Jesus!
Christians cannot see through the transparent “sea of glass” (Rev 4:6) like Adam and the prophets could, but they can understand what is in heaven through the Word. What Jesus spoke was scriptural. His Words were the very Words of God! Finally, the darkness was removed from the eyes of the apostles, and they too were willing to take up the Cross of Jesus and many did. John was preserved for the purpose of looking unto the heavens on behalf of latter-day Christians. (John 21:22-23).
Now for my personal experience: In my younger days, I could
read scripture but failed to understand. I was much like the apostles who were
blind until they saw the Spirit of Jesus in the Body of Jesus. For Paul, he had
only seen Jesus in bodily form (if that), but when he was blinded, he saw the
Spiritual Jesus. He knew it was Jesus because He looked like Jesus. I could not
see Jesus in the flesh nor Jesus in the Spirit. I was totally blind to Jesus.
Like the apostles who blindly followed Jesus expecting a
Revolution, I blindly followed Jesus because that was a natural thing to do.
God is not natural, and I had to cease thinking in a natural way. Saul never
asked for blindness. He was blinded and could do nothing about it! When he saw
the Ghost of Jesus, Saul was transformed. He understood. On the other hand,
only John could see clearly through the sea of glass.
Blind Bartimaeus, part way between blindness and vision, saw,
“men as trees; walking” (Mark 8:24). His eyes were on Jesus as he was healed.
He finally saw Jesus as the Tree of Life, and walking!
I was as blind as Bartimaeus. I failed to see Jesus at all
but only believed in Him, much as a child would the Easter bunny. I believed from
my infancy, but I had never experienced a face-to-face encounter with God. (It
may be that even Saul never saw God before either although his vision was quite
good. If he saw anything, it was the “man” Jesus. He had not seen God until he
was struck blind.)
One day, right out of the blue, as I focused on the road while
driving, I “saw” Jesus! No, I did not see the Flesh of God, but I understood
His Holy Ghost! I believed before, but at that moment, the regeneration process
started.
A veil was removed from my eyes much as the curtain of the
Temple was torn with the Purpose of Jesus fulfilled. I saw Jesus, not only in the New Testament,
but with new Spiritual vision, I saw Jesus nearly everywhere in the Old
Testament. My sight was made bright when God revealed to me that the fire of
Abraham with the sacrifice of his beloved son was as God would sacrifice His Son
on my behalf.
With new bright eyes, I began to see Jesus as the Tree of Life and Christian souls in he Garden. I understood that Adam “dressing and keeping” the Garden of Trees was serving and preserving his seed whose souls were already planted. I finally understood that Jesus actually did what Adam was assigned to do. I understood that Jesus is true Son of God and Adam a pretender. I understood that God took His prodigal son, Adam, and put a royal coat on Him to be a real royal priest someday. I understood men as trees; walking and that the Centerpiece who stood in the middle of the Garden Paradise was Jesus, the Tree of Life!
I write my commentaries as an exploration of Paradise. I think that I understand heaven and earth and glorification. I have the hope that someday I see what I think I now understand!
[1]
The Books of Adam and eve are canon in the eastern Church and seem to be scripturally
cohesive.
(picture credit: "sea of glass" from Pinterest)
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