Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohio
2 Corinthians 12 speaks of being taken to both Paradise and the 3rd heaven indicating they are not the same place.
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I would agree with you that they are not the same place, much like how the state of Ohio and the United States are not identical; however, one exists within the other.
Quote:
2 Corinthians 12:2-4 (ESV)
"I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows—and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter."
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Paul was caught "up" to both the third heaven and "up" to paradise, suggesting they are in the same realm above, not below.
If paradise were still located in Hades, Paul would have gone "down" rather than "up."
Scripture consistently describes Hades as below, whereas the third heaven and paradise here are clearly depicted as above.
Quote:
Matthew 12:40:
"For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."
Isaiah 14:9
"Sheol below is stirred up to meet you when you come; it rouses the shades to greet you, all who were leaders of the earth; it raises from their thrones all who were kings of the nations."
Ezekiel 31:16
"I made the nations quake at the sound of its fall, when I cast it down to Sheol with those who go down to the pit.
Numbers 16:33
So they and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol, and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly."
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