Heaven is for real, but it is not how we think of it. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,” [i] not places, but realms. Most people say, “I want to go to heaven,” and their wishes will come about. Death translates the soul of the person, regardless of who they are, to heaven.
The beggar (Lazarus) 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 sees Abraham
afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. [ii]
Note that heaven is for real. The rich man saw Hell
and he sensed being in torments. Being is ‘existing.’ The rich
man existed in Hell after he had died.
Both men died, but one went one place and the other
another place, to Abraham’s bosom and to Hell, respectively.
Abraham, already in heaven, said
to the rich man, “Now he (Lazarus) is comforted, and you are tormented.” [iii] Heaven has two
environments: comfort in one place and torments in another.
We are a spoiled race; we know
what comforts are! Few, however, understand torments. Tormented, in a
biblical context, is extreme grief, for examples, “to cause intense pain, to be
in anguish, to torment or distress one's self”
Abraham comforted Lazarus in his
bosom. However, there was no comfort for the rich man. Lazarus was miserable during
his life in the world, and the rich man lived comfortably. In death, it was
turned around, indubitably because the rich man cherished wealth all the while
the poor beggar trusted God.
Nobody in Hell torments anyone
else. Hell itself is torment! The real torment, according to Strong’s, is
distressing one’s self.
Imagine that! Stress is
self-induced and it will be in Hell. Imagine the thousands of times you have
thought, If only I had done things differently! Eventually, that
conclusion is accepted, but that question will be played in the minds of
sinners billions of times for an eternity. That one thought will never be shut
off. It will loop and loop forever and ever in your mind! Hell is in your mind,
but it is also reality.
Jesus, in a moment when the public asked a pertinent question, described Hell; His answer:
If your hand offends you,
cut it off: it is better for you to enter into life maimed, than having two
hands to go into Hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: where their
worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched.
And if your foot offends
you, cut it off: it is better for you to enter halt into life, than having two
feet to be cast into Hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: where
their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched.
And if your eye offends
you, pluck it out: it is better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with
one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into Hell fire: where their worm dies
not, and the fire is not quenched. [iv]
Jesus was pointing out to them that the flesh is the offense
that results in Hell. Just think of the pain of amputation and having the eyes
gouged out! What is worse, is that you must cut off your own flesh and gouge
out your own eyes. Nobody will shoot you or otherwise prevent the pain.
Hell is much worse. Pain on Earth is temporary, but pain in
Hell goes on forever.
The Greek word ‘pyr’ is translated as ‘fire,’ but it
means ‘lightning’ as well in a figurative sense. Think about that; you that fear
the storms on Earth… that fear goes on forever and ever, and each moment will
be like struck by lightning, as if 300,000 volts of 30.000 amperes have gone
through you. You will know quite well that Hell is for real.
‘Abraham’s bosom’ is from the Covenant with him by God. Abraham
is the ‘placeholder’ until the coming and going of Jesus. Jesus is the very God
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. As Matthew chapter one reveals, Jesus through
Mary, is of the gens of Abraham. As
such, Abraham is the seed of God that the LORD GOD planted in His Garden that
would suffice until the Authentic Seed would come.
The first part of three parts of the Abrahamic Covenant is this:
I will make of you a
great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you shall be
a blessing: and I will bless them that bless you and curse him that curses you:
and in you shall all families of the Earth be blessed. [v]
Abraham rested before he died in Israel,
but once dead, he was translated to his real kingdom in heaven. Ironically,
according to the Testament of Abraham, as Abraham died, Jacob, renamed ‘Israel’
by God, rested in the bosom of Abraham. Now you know!
‘Abraham’s bosom’ was the place
of fulfillment of the Covenant. It was a place of blessings — a place of bliss.
Likewise, it became a place of rest for those who were of the seed, or gens,
of Abraham and his God! (Gens means ‘family’ in the Latin and hence is
the resting place for those whose seed was planted by Abraham; i.e., Christians)
Since that place is no longer subject
to Abraham, but to Jesus alone, it is ‘Christ’s Bosom’ in which Christians
rest. When the Bible uses the phrase, such as, “For to me to live is Christ,
and to die is gain,” [vi] as Paul said it, then ‘is
Christ’ or ‘in Christ’ is of the gens, or genetics, of Jesus Christ. It
means those who are ‘born again,’ [vii] not from the womb of
their mother, but the generics of Jesus found in His blood, to wit: Jesus, “Whom
God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare
his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past.” [viii] Sins that are past
are since original sin — genetic sin from the woman ‘Adam.’
Abraham rests in a very real
place. When he died, he continued in his resting place. Heaven is not far away;
it is as close as death. Entryway to Paradise in heaven is through a door, or
portal, that is managed by Jesus. [ix] It is Him that now guards
the Way to the Tree of Life!
The place in heaven that Lazarus
went in death is the same as the repentant thief on the Cross beside Jesus.
Abraham’s bosom is ‘Paradise,’
according to Jesus who told that thief, “Verily I say unto thee, ‘Today shall you
be with Me in Paradise.’” [x] Take a rest Abraham,
here we come!
The ‘directions’ to Paradise are on
the Cross on which Jesus was crucified. It is a ‘Decision Tree’ of sorts with
one thief on one side deciding his destiny, and the other thief on the other
side, deciding his. They both looked at Jesus, but one saw Him as a mere man
and the other as truly God in the flesh. That is the criteria to enter
Paradise. Who you are is of no substance; it is what you think about Jesus —
that he is who He claimed to be!
Jesus claimed to be God and Pilate
and the centurion found no fault in Him. Neither did the repentant thief!
Neither should we find fault in Jesus! That is the criteria for Paradise and is
as ergonomic as seeing Jesus as God in the flesh. Never complicate it further,
but out of gratitude for His Life, then the logical reaction would be to show
reverence and goodwill for Jesus’s sacrifice of Himself.
If there is no genuine gratitude
shown, then do you really understand that it was God who died in your place?
Imagine if you will… say you are
a child with fourth-stage cancer; enters your father. By some miracle or
technology, your disease is transferred to your father; and there on your
deathbed, your ‘Papa’ dies instead of you. How would you feel about your daddy?
You would love him as much as he loved you. That is what God did for you. It
was Himself that made the substitution. God shed His own blood so that you need
not!
“But,” you ask, “He sacrificed
His Son and not Himself, did he not?” Jesus was not the ‘Son of God’ as you
might think. He was the very genetics, or from the Seed of God, that God planted
in His ‘Garden’ on Earth. The seed of God was planted in the ground (‘Adam’
in the Hebrew) of Mary and grew there until God was fully man (‘The Last Adam’).
[xi]
Seth was the ‘Second Adam,’ Noah
the ‘Third Adam,’ Abraham the ‘Fourth Adam’ and so forth until Jesus was the ‘Last
Adam.’ He was the last time that a new Earth would be given one last chance,
each test before failing because of sin! Everyone before had sinned, but in
Jesus there was no sin. [xii]
Seth’s seed failed to grow the Garden
of God, and so did Noah’s and Abraham’s. The Seed of God — Jesus — never fails.
Therefore, heaven is for real, and
so is both Paradise and Hell. Both are in Heaven and separated from each other
by a ‘great gulf’ [xiii]or literally an infinite
abyss — a barrier so extensive or ‘concrete’ that is can never be crossed.
Indeed, death is once saved,
always saved for some, but once lost; always lost for others, as the
rich man found out! Therefore, lost or saved only applies to death and until
then, it is either safe or questioning, as the name ‘Saul’ means.
Hell is what Christians are saved from at death, and Paradise is to where they are saved!
Next, we shall examine the ‘Garden of God’ as our place of rest.
(picture credit; Art UK; "The bad place of visual history of Hell")
