Paradise was a Place in Hell

Note: This post was first published on ROOTSS on Wednesday, 19th December 2007

Back in the 1980s, there was a popular song entitled "Heaven is a Place on Earth". This is of course not scriptural, because we know that heaven is where we as believers will go to after we pass on from this earth.

What if I were to tell you that Paradise was a place in hell? Would you be surprised? Read on…

In Matt 12:40, Jesus said, “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

Here, Jesus was telling the scribes and the Pharisees that He would spend three days and three nights in hell. We of course know that He was referring to the time just after He would be crucified.

Yet, we also read in Luke 23:43 a verse that is often quoted at funerals. Jesus told one of the thieves, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”

If Jesus had spent three days and three nights in hell, and yet also told this thief that he would be with Him in paradise, then the logical conclusion is that paradise was a place in hell!

Before someone shouts “Heresy!”, please let me continue…

Jesus also said in Jn 14:6 that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and that no one got to the Father except through Him.

This is no problem for the believer today. Once a person accepts Jesus, He is guaranteed life eternal in heaven, where God the Father resides.

But how about those patriarchs of old such as Adam, Noah, Abraham or David, etc? When they were alive, Jesus was not yet made available to them, so to speak.

Aah.. when they died, their souls too went to the "holding place" called paradise, and they were there waiting in eager anticipation for Jesus to finally come and bring them up to heaven!

That place is also known as Abraham’s bosom or Abraham’s side, as described in the parable that Jesus told about the rich man and the beggar in Luke 16:19-28. Even though paradise and Sheol were both located in hell, we read in that parable that there was a great chasm that divided them, and no one could cross over from one place to the other.

Jesus died for all our sins, past, present and future. While the cross stands outside the dimension of time, we humans are bounded by time, hence the “past” sins that Jesus died for would refer to those that were committed by those patriarchs, and Jesus died for each and every one of them too.

So what exactly did Jesus do during those three days and nights in the depths of the earth?

(1) He went to get the keys of death and Hades back from the devil.

As a result of first Adam's sin, man had to die. The keys of death were effectively handed over to the devil. But the second Adam conquered death and Hades and redeemed mankind back unto the Lord. Consider the following verses:

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death--that is, the devil. (Heb 2:14)
I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades. (Rev 1:18)

(2) He proclaimed His victory over the fallen angels who during the time of Noah, had tried to corrupt the human race by procreating with the daughters of Eve

Satan had heard God prophesy in the Garden of Eden that a seed of Eve would crush his head. So he tried to prevent that from happening by getting his fallen angels to appear in human form to procreate with humans in order to corrupt the human race.

This extent of this corruption was so widespread that only 8 persons were purely human: Noah, his three sons and their wives. You can read more about that here.


Through whom also He went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water (1 Pet 3:19-20)

I can imagine Jesus saying to those fallen angels "nani nani poo poo", because God outwitted the devil by sending the flood to destroy them. We read in Jude 1:6 that "these angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode are now kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day."



(3) He went to "Abraham’s bosom" to release all those who were there and took them up with Him

Consider the following passage of Scripture

Matthew 27:50 - 53
50 Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.
51 And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,
53 And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.

Verse 53 is very interesting – it says that these saints appeared to many. Can you imagine how those in Jerusalem must have felt when they saw right before their very eyes their forefathers like Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob or David in flesh and blood before them.

So was there anyone the other side of the cross who went to heaven without having to spend time in this holding area?

Based on Scripture, there seems to be 3 persons: Enoch, Moses and Elijah.

Enoch and Elijah did not taste death but were raptured. We read in Gen 5:24 that "Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away", and also in 2 Kings 2:11 that "suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.".

The third person to have gone to heaven was Moses. Unlike Enoch and Elijah, Moses tasted death, but Jude 1:9 records that "But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!"

Here we see that Michael the Archangel and the devil fought over Moses' body, each probably laying claim to why he should have it. Satan's argument was that he had the power over death at that stage, but the fact that Moses appeared in glory next to Jesus at the Mount of Transfiguration shows us the outcome of this "Holy War".

So friends, paradise was a place in hell. It was a holding area for the saints who passed away before the cross. For us this side of the cross, we can go straight to heaven. Amen?

Afternote: A fellow believer who calls himself Oblivion has kindly given me a link to a Youtube video whereby Ps Prince talks about this very topic, which you can view below: