Heaven and Paradise

[sorianra]

1. Is Paradise synonymous with Heaven?
2. If yes, what was the Devil doing in paradise tempting Eve? Was he driven out of it together with Adam and Eve?
3. Also, if yes, this means that the Devil is in Heaven.
4. If no, does that mean that paradise is a temporary place for
   those souls bound for heaven on the Last Day? Or what is it for?
5. The Church teaches that saints are in heaven. If they are,
   they must just be the souls because their physical bodies are
   still here on earth. The Apocalypse teaches us that on the Last Day, the dead bodies will re-unite with their souls and then, go
   to their eternal destination - either heaven or earth. Please affirm.
   Meanwhile, are those souls in heaven, really? Could they be in
   paradise? Why would those souls be seeing God face to face now and then get their physical bodies later?
6. The Church also teaches that heaven is our eternal glorious end,as good citizens of God’s KIngdom. Why would those souls be in heaven now when the last day has not come and their corps are still on earth? If paradise is apart from heaven, then probably
   those souls are in paradise, but not heaven. But there’s another
   problem: there is the Devil in paradise, unless driven away by
   Saint Michael. Please clarify?

Thank you.

 

[teachccd]

First off we must ask ourselves if heaven is indeed a place and if so, where is it? Heaven is understood to be the state in which we are in the beatific vision. Since God is omnipresent, that “place” is not confined. Jesus did tell the thief on the cross that he would be with Him in paradise. Surely Jesus was not going back to the Garden of Eden. He was going to heaven.(which is what the Garden of Eden was before the fall) So are heaven and paradise the same? I would say yes in the respect that for both definitions we are in the presence of God.

Some theologians agree that heaven is here on earth and that when we die, and after purgatory if necessary, a veil is lifted that prevents us from seeing what is already around us.

Satan lives in God because God allows him to. God loves satan as much as all of His creation but satan vehemently rejects God therefore alienating himself from God. We would emulate that should we go to hell where the veil would be momentarily lifted and then eternally dropped for our eternal longing for the God we rejected. That is hell.

There are various theological opinions that remain within the pail of orthodoxy but we must believe that there is a heaven, purgatory and a hell. Paradise would best describe heaven.

God Bless…teachccd

 

[Benadam]

Paradise is a state of natural bliss. Heaven can be deifined as a state of union with God in which the vision of God beatifies and glorifies the soul.

Enoch and Elisha and perhaps Moses and the ‘blameless’ would be in paradise untill they beheld the soul of Jesus in Paradise.

Through Christ eternity entered the entire creation, land sky and sea, making all things new. Heaven opened for the pure , purgation, for the forgiven and hell.

Peace