Paradise
aka HEAVEN, HOME OF THE SOUL,
BEULAH LAND
From page 21 in "12 Hours in Heaven"
From page 21 in "12 Hours in Heaven"
....the Lord came behind him and said, "This is Beulah Land, the home of the soul, Paradise and Heaven."
What
is Paradise? Where is it? To
understand one must go the Bible and see what is said
concerning it. In the Old Testament, it is the same
thing as the Garden of Eden. This is understood by the Greek
Septuagint and is seen through the Hebrew. In Ezek. 28:13 it says "Eden,
the garden of God.' In Hebrew, this is Eden Gan Elohim.
GOD DID WHAT ?
In Gen. 2:8 where it first mentions a garden (gan),
it says "God __?__ a garden eastward
in Eden." Do you think God put on overalls and came down with
a shovel and actually "planted" a garden? Or do you think it is
more like the literal Hebrew meaning of the verb which means to fix or establish something,
as opposed to the figurative plant ?
What and where was Eden? Eastward
from where? The word "garden" in
Hebrew means, fenced or hedged about. The word "Eden" means delight or pleasure or possibly a place of luxury where everything is provided, but should have the same meaning as another word,
"Hephzi-bah" (Isa. 62:4).
Superimpose means place or lay
(one thing) over another, typically so that both are still evident. God
superimposed, or placed the Garden of Eden itself, down here on the
earth, somewhere. (This was before the flood when
the land arrangement was totally different). Adam and Eve
could go in and out of it through that eastern gate or entrance, going in
and out of the supernatural, until God withdrew it from the earth,
thereby driving them out and leaving them standing here in the
woods permanently. That "eastern entrance" mentioned in Gen. 3:23-24 is the eastern gate or pearly gate entrance
to Paradise, within which lies the Garden of Eden,
immediately to the right. The entrance gate to Paradise is where the angels with the flaming
sword are stationed to guard. That is highly figurative and means
you must shed this vile body, or die before entering it or
"heaven."
How could the Garden of Eden have been a literal place here on the earth in the
natural?
(1) It
would be visible to us right now. In Rev. 2:7 we are told "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life,
which is in the midst of the paradise of God."
(2) The
flood destroyed everything (Gen.6:13).
(3) A river went out
of Eden, parting into four chief rivers which have already been named and
no one was even born yet from Adam.
(4) As evidenced by
Gen. 11 the whole earth was of one language, one speech (the descendants of
Noah were Shem, Ham and Japheth - 1 Chron. 1:4). How is the land of
Ethiopia (Cush- Gen. 2:13) even in existence yet, who isn't born until
after the flood?
It is obvious that the Hebrew meaning of Gan-Eden (Garden of Eden) is synonomous with Paradise in the Greek, in the New
Testament. So what you have are references throughout to the
"the Garden of God" (Ezek. 28:13), "the Paradise of
God" (Rev. 2:7), and even the "Mountain of God" (Ezek.28,
Isa.14, Psa.48, etc.). Paradise is
synonomous with Heaven. Not because of
2 Cor.12, but because of Luke 23:43, when Jesus tells the thief on the
cross, this is where they are both going. And you have to
understand Luke's Gospel from the Hebrew story of
the life of Jesus from which it originated, as to how Jesus would
have said it.
There is a Hebrew undertext of our Greek Matthew,Mark & Luke. The synoptic gospels were translated from an earlier Hebrew
original. That's why the Greek is poor Greek. It's poor English too. Look at
Luke 23:43 in Hebrew, and the way Jesus would have said it in Hebrew translated
into English: Yeshua said to him, “Yes! I promise that you will be with me
today in Gan-‘Eden.” -Luke 23:43 / Complete Jewish
Bible.
The place of spiritual reward for the righteous is often
referred to in Hebrew as Gan Eden (GAHN
ehy-DEHN) (the Garden of Eden). This IS the same place where Adam and Eve were; it is a place
of spiritual perfection. The Torah speaks of several noteworthy people being
"gathered to their people." See, for example, Gen. 25:8 (Abraham),
25:17 (Ishmael), 35:29 (Isaac), 49:33 (Jacob), Deut. 32:50 (Moses and Aaron) II
Kings 22:20 (King Josiah). This gathering is described as a separate event from
the physical death of the body or the burial. Cf. Gen.15:15
.
.
Paradise is flat, not round like a planet. In this supernatural
realm, it is hard imagining 4 directions in a dimension we're not capable of
understanding. Straight up would seem to be North, however when you're
there, you can see the earth below, which is South. So maybe the
natural Universe is something unique to behold, apart from the heavenly.
Has anyone else ever seen this? Yes, Dr. Richard Eby, in his book
"Caught Up Into Paradise" on pg. 204, mentions a VALLEY with foothills
on each side.
Paradise and the Garden of Eden, (or the Paradise of
God and the Garden of God), are two different places, although they are
essentially the same when seeing them through Hebrew thought.
Eden means "delight or pleasure." Pardec (par-dace) in
Hebrew means "park" containing fruit trees, forest, orchard,
plants, river and fountains. Everything God makes for his people is a
"Paradise" or park-like place of delight or pleasure, whether here on the natural
earth or in the new earth in eternity. This one was (made as) or
changed to a wilderness by the devil (Isa.14:17). The whole creation
has been affected by sin.
The second HEAVEN is where THE PARADISE OF
GOD resides, which also contains the Garden of God within it like a
"garden enclosed" in Song of Sol. 4:12. It is a
place within a place. (There is a holy city in Paradise also, whether it is the
same one or not, that settles down on the new earth in eternity. It
is unlikely that it is the same).
 |
| Paradise or second heaven is about the same height as the moon is, and is situated above the North pole. |
This picture represents what my Grandfather saw from Paradise in 1937. He said the earth looked to him then to be about the same size and had that same blue green look that the astronauts sent back in pictures (1969). The only difference was he was looking directly down at the North pole.
2nd Heaven--
A supernatural place above the earth's north pole. It is
about the same distance that the moon is from the earth. The
Paradise of God (Rev.2:7). The Garden of Eden is within it.
(Heavenly Zion looketh down) Fair, beautiful as the moon (Song
of Sol. 6:10) Fair, beautiful, for
elevation, height, situation (Psa. 48:1,2).
