TWO GATES TO TWO PLACES

 According to Jesus, we get what we ask for (Key Verse): 

⁸ For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. ⁹ Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? (Mat 7:8-10)

 Ask, seek, knock >>>  find, receive, open. That sounds like discovering a door to a stairway to somewhere; does it not? Then the next two verses are about the asking portion.

Soon, Jesus identified the “door:” 

¹³ Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: ¹⁴ Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. (Mat 7:13-14)

 The “door” is a gate, and as it turns out the “somewhere” is to life, and that few will find the gate. The gate is straight, and the way narrow that leads to life. If the narrow way leads to life, its origin must be death. Implied is that the world is a place of death because beyond is a place of life.

Straight implies narrow, but its root verb in the Greek means “standing open” (Strong 2006). The “gate” comes from the Greek verb “to turn.” (ibid). It could be a gate, a turnstile, or even an escalator. Whatever it is, it is for one way; once through the gate, there is no turning back; it turns one way. It could even be a portal that stands open for any who would enter and with no turning back. Somehow it is a one-way entry point from Earth to Heaven. Where is that “portal” to eternal life?

Let’s look in the Old Testament for more about that portal.

Adam and Eve were in Paradise in heaven. How is that known? After sin, “He (God) drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life” (Gen 3:24).

“Out” in that verse is beyond heavenly Paradise; that is known because the destination is described by God. The consequences of sin were not paradisiacal: enmity, physical harm, sorrow, lustful desire, dominance, cursed ground, thorns, thistles, hard work, and death (Gen 3:15-19). Adam and Eve were the only two humans to go from Paradise to Heaven, excepting Enoch who went in and out of Paradise.

The “gate” to the world was open but guarded by angelic beings (Gen 3:24). Mankind cannot enter unworthily nor can other creatures from another realm live on Earth because the gate is guarded both ways.

“Death” was when Adam and Eve were driven from the heavenly realm wherein they had bright natures and incorruptible flesh to the world wherein there was corruption and a dark nature. God readjusted their image that was like His for their new habitation.

When Jesus was Resurrected, some of the dead in Christ were as well, to wit: “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. (Mat 27:52-53).

Calvary is the “place of Adam’s skull.” That place was for Adam and his kind. It was to redeem them. Reason has it that Adam, representing all mankind, was Resurrected alongside Jesus and all three adama (the man, the woman, and Jesus — the “last Adam”) went through the Portal together, back to their Paradise, as new creatures!

That portal was where Adam and Eve were. The Book of Enoch says that the bones of Adam were taken on the Ark of Noah to the new world by Shem and Melchizedek and buried where he was created — on the Foundation Stone in Jerusalem.

Consequently, for Christians, the portal is where Christ is and where we are… with Him or not!

Now to address the hard things: “If his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?” Jesus is the “Bread of Life” (John 6:35). Remembering that the subject at hand is the “Way,” then Jesus is the Way. Stones were always false images of God — idols. Implied in that narrative is that only Jesus should be asked for; that no other gods will suffice. Who to ask for entry? Jesus alone; no other gods, if they even existed, would suffice.

Next consider, “Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?” Both a fish and a serpent are images. The fish represents Jesus and the serpent the devil, Lucifer. There will be many Antichrists, ostensibly not at the same time, but in series. For each purpose of God it seems that there is a counter-purpose: The Serpent for God, Genun for Noah, Nimrod for Abraham, Saul for David, Judas for Jesus, and Nero for Paul, and so on.

Likewise, ages are represented by animals. The Chinese Zodiac even has the Age of the Serpent, and of course, the western Zodiac has the Age of Pisces the fish. The Age of Aquarius is the Age of the Serpent, Lucifer, and now that age is dawning after being in the Christian Era (Pisces) for over 2000 years.

There is a Serpent in this age as well. He or “it” is the one that undermines Christ. We must take great care who our “Fish” is that we are not asking for a “Serpent”! The Antichrist will appear to be a Christ. He cannot allow you to enter that gate! That is what he does.

Jesus knew they would not understand. He knew Enoch would not, so God allowed Enoch to go there himself so that mankind would know just what is on the other side of the door. He found a partitioned heaven with a great barrier between, just as with the rich man and Lazarus. There are two gates… the one is open for all who would enter and the other one leading to death. They are both in another realm but in very different places.

With that said, perhaps the Paradise of Adam in Heaven and on Earth were the same realm beyond the cosmos but two very different places. Not that heaven and hell are on Earth but far away from each other in substances, their economies, and certainly their environments!

(picture credit; deviantart.com)