Hello everybody, it's MrTall23 back with another video.
Do a quick sound check first to make sure that that's working.
All right, so it is working, so in this video I want to talk about a false and quite strange
doctrine which unfortunately many people hold to, even Baptists today, and that would be
the doctrine that in the Old Testament nobody went to heaven but instead they went to hell,
particularly a special compartment or a special part of hell called paradise, which was like
the good side of hell for the saved, and that only in the New Testament have saints and
believers gone to heaven.
Another name that believers in this doctrine give that good side of hell besides paradise
is Abraham's bosom.
Usually those who teach this doctrine are dispensationalists, so they'll say that only
in the dispensation of grace is there access to heaven, and before that it was Abraham's
bosom, before that it was paradise.
But this doctrine is taught nowhere in the Scriptures, and I'm going to prove today that
it is unbiblical, which shouldn't be very difficult to figure out because there's only
three verses in the entire Bible which even mention paradise, and one passage that says
anything about the bosom of Abraham.
So we're going to look at those passages today and see what they say.
Remember the people who teach this doctrine claim that this is where the saints went in
the Old Testament after they died.
Now one issue with that is that the word or phrase paradise and also Abraham's bosom never
appears in the Old Testament a single time.
It does appear in the New Testament when the Old Covenant was still in place, because if
you remember in Hebrews 9.16 it explains that the New Testament did not begin until the
death of the tester, which is Jesus Christ.
So prior to the death of Christ they were still under the Old Testament, under the Old
Covenant, so when Christ walked upon this earth that was part of the Old Covenant.
So when Christ was dying on the cross, he said to the thief on the cross next to him
that believed on him in Luke 23 verse 43, and Jesus said unto him, verily I say unto
thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
Now from this verse we can make our first conclusion, that when the thief on the cross
died he was with Jesus in this place called paradise.
But if we continue reading the scriptures into the book of Acts, it says in Acts 2 verse
31 to 32, He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was
not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.
This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses.
Now here the scriptures clearly state that when Jesus was dead he was in hell, because
it says his soul was not left in hell, which obviously implies that his soul was in hell
during the three days and three nights that his body was in the grave.
So when God raised up Jesus, he took him out of hell according to this passage.
But the dispensationalists, they'll see the promise in Luke 23 verse 43, where he says
that the thief will be with him in paradise, and they conclude well, if one verse says
he's in paradise after his death, and another verse says he's in hell, then that must mean
that there's a place called paradise that's in hell.
And since it's called paradise, and since they don't want to admit that Jesus went to
actual hell as what the Bible teaches what hell is, then they say well it must be a good
site of hell, it must be this little compartment, this little special place for the Old Testament
saints under the earth.
And I will address that later and explain why that's wrong, but first we'll look at
the different scriptures that are used, because they look at also the story of the rich man
and Lazarus to try to prove this doctrine.
I'll skip to the section of the story about the rich man and hell, there's a few verses
before this, but I'm going to start verse 22 and go to verse 26.
It says, And it came to pass that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's
bosom.
The rich man also died, and was buried, and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments,
and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and sent Lazarus that he may
dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame.
But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receiveth thy good things,
and likewise Lazarus evil things.
But now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.
And beside all this, between us and you, there is a great gulf fixed, which would pass from
hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us that would come from thence.
The dispensationalists, they look at verse 22, firstly, where it says that Lazarus went
to Abraham's bosom, and they say, well, that must be a place, that must be paradise.
It must be a special part of hell for good people.
Then they look at verse 26, where it says that there's a great gulf fixed between them
and say, well, there's a gap between these two sections.
So under the earth, there's a part of hell with all the fire and the brimstone, where
the unsaved people are.
And then there's this giant gap between that and paradise, where the Old Testament saints
were.
And that's also underneath the earth.
It's also in the same section of the world.
And of course, the Bible does teach that Jesus, when he died, went to hell in Acts chapter
two.
And the Bible even tells us that he descended into the lower parts of the earth in Ephesians
chapter four, verse nine to 10.
It says, now that he ascended, what is it that he also descended first into the lower
parts of the earth?
He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens that he might fill
all things.
The only question is then, is this talking about actual hell, a place of fire, or is
this talking about a special type of hell called paradise or Abraham's bosom as the
dispensationalists teach?
I'll get back to Luke 16 and also Luke chapter 23 in a moment.
But first I want to look at the only two other references in the Bible to paradise, because
if it's true that paradise is a special portion of hell underneath the earth, you'd think
that the Bible would teach this somewhere.
And since there's only three scriptures in the Bible about paradise, it shouldn't be
that hard to find.
We're going to look at all three of the verses.
We've already looked at one.
Here are the other two.
It says in second Corinthians chapter 12, verse two to four, I knew a man in Christ
above 14 years ago, whether in the body I cannot tell or whether out of the body I cannot
tell God knoweth such and one caught up to the third heaven.
And I knew such a man, whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell God knoweth
how that he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful
for a man to utter.
This passage is pretty clear.
We see exactly where paradise is.
It's not down, it's up, it says.
Firstly, it says in verse two that this man was caught up to the third heaven, which we
know if we compare it with other scriptures that this is where God is.
It's beyond the sky and beyond the observable universe.
It's beyond the lower heavens.
It's the third heaven.
Then in verse four, he uses the word paradise interchangeably with third heaven.
He changes out third heaven with paradise and says that he was caught up to paradise.
So that's up, not down.
Was he in the lower parts of the earth?
No.
Is paradise in the lower parts of the earth?
No.
Because this man that he's talking about in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 was caught up to
paradise, was caught up to the third heaven.
So it's the exact opposite of what these dispensationalists teach.
They'll say paradise is under the earth, it's down in hell.
The Bible says very clearly, no, it's in heaven, it's up, not down.
This can be demonstrated further by the third and last verse in the scriptures that use
the word paradise.
And that would be Revelation chapter 2 verse 7.
It says, he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst
of the paradise of God.
So here we have the detail that the tree of life is in the midst of the paradise of God.
And where is the tree of life according to the Bible?
Later in Revelation, it says in Revelation 22 verse 1 to 2, and he showed me a pure river
of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life,
which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month.
And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
From Revelation we see that the tree of life is in the city of God.
So it's in heaven, not down under the earth.
It's not in hell, it's in the heavenly city of New Jerusalem.
That's where the tree of life is.
So what Jesus says, those that overcometh shall be given access to the tree of life,
He is promising their place in the heavenly city.
He says specifically that's in the paradise of God.
So where is the paradise of God?
Again in heaven.
So there are three verses in the Bible that mention paradise.
One of them doesn't really say anything about its location, and two of them are very clear
that paradise is in heaven.
It's up, not down.
It's not in the lower parts of the earth.
It's the third heaven.
It's the city of God.
That's where paradise is.
And that should be enough to conclude that there's no such thing as this special part
or this compartment in hell that under the Old Testament believers in Christ still went
to heaven.
Remember on the cross Jesus said, today thou shalt be with me in paradise to the thief
on the cross.
Now the dispensationalists interpret that as meaning that believers did not go to heaven
before Christ rose from the dead.
Those who teach this doctrine know that Jesus went to hell according to Acts 2 31 and that
the thief of the cross was with him and therefore conclude that he was in paradise and hell.
But there's a key detail that they're missing and that is the omnipresence of God.
Jesus said in John 3 13, and no man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven,
even the son of man which is in heaven.
While Jesus speaks unto Nicodemus upon the earth, while he is bodily on the earth in
the flesh, he says the son of man which is in heaven.
He speaks in the present tense saying that the son of man, which is a common title for
Christ in the New Testament, is in heaven while he is physically there on the earth.
So the Bible teaches that the spirit of Christ was in heaven even while his body was upon
the earth.
That's why on the cross he said, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit.
His body went to the grave, his soul went to hell, and his spirit was in heaven so that
Christ could say in truth unto the thief on the cross that he would be with him in paradise,
which according to the clear scripture in 2 Corinthians 12 is in heaven, not hell.
So that's what Luke 23 verse 43 means because Jesus is God, meaning that Jesus is because
of his spirit is everywhere, including in heaven.
So that's how the thief was with him in heaven after he died.
But he did not go to hell.
He went to heaven like all the other Old Testament believers, and we'll get to that in a moment.
But some still might point to Luke chapter 16 and say, well, Hera teaches that there's
a special compartment called Abraham's bosom.
Well, let's read the passage again, Luke chapter 16 verse 22 to 26.
And it came to pass that the beggar 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 seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may
dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame.
But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receiveth thy good things.
And likewise, Lazarus evil things.
But now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.
And beside all this, between us and you, there is a great gulf fixed, so that they which
would pass from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us that would come from thence.
For some very strange reason, there are people out there who say that Abraham's bosom is
a place.
No, it isn't.
It's a body part, OK?
The word bosom is not a difficult word to figure out.
It means chest.
This right here is my bosom, OK?
That's what it means.
So just imagine Abraham, like I don't, I guess we don't really know what he looks like, but
just imagine somebody who you think would be Abraham, and then Lazarus is resting in
his chest, in his bosom, OK?
That means he was resting his head probably on Abraham's chest.
And that should be obvious, because Abraham the person is actually in this story.
The rich man, it says, sees Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
So Lazarus was just resting his head on Abraham's chest.
That's all it means.
It doesn't mean that he was in some special place called Abraham's bosom.
That's ridiculous.
There's nothing in the passage that indicates it's a physical place under the earth alongside
hell.
And yet they also point to the statement that there is a great gulf between the two of them,
and interpret this to mean that there was a literal physical gap between them.
Now, there's several problems with this interpretation.
Firstly, it says in verse 23 that the rich man lift up his eyes, OK?
So where was he looking?
He was looking up, OK?
So he wasn't looking to the side or anything.
He was looking upward.
And it says that he saw Abraham afar off.
Then it says there is a great gulf.
And the word great, of course, means very large, very big, like the great fish that
swallowed Jonah in Jonah chapter 1.
And then the word gulf means a large division or chasm or space.
You have to remember Abraham and the rich man are speaking unto each other, OK?
They're having a conversation.
And when the Bible says Abraham is afar off, and when it says there is a great gulf between
them, I believe that.
But do you really expect me to believe that this is talking about a literal physical place
under the earth next to each other when they hold a conversation with each other?
Because the rich man is in hell.
There are people being tormented in hell.
He even mentions this in the passage where he says, I'm tormented in this flame.
Hell isn't going to be a quiet place.
There's not just one person there.
There's thousands or millions of people in hell.
And in addition, as shown clearly, the space between these two figures is great.
It's not like they're five feet away from each other or 10 feet away from each other.
Even if you're standing 100 feet from me, like just hypothetically, if you're standing
100 feet away from me, I wouldn't be able to hold a conversation with you, especially
not with noise all around me.
And even then, that 100 feet isn't really that much of a great gulf or being afar off.
So how is Abraham speaking to the rich man then?
Well, this is evidently a special occurrence in which the rich man looks up into heaven
and Abraham is able to speak down on the head.
We see examples in the Bible of angels speaking down from heaven, such as in, I think, Genesis
chapter 16 is the first example of that where an angel speaks unto Hagar.
So it's a supernatural event.
They're not physically across from each other underneath the earth.
And there's other ways to prove that as well.
For example, that the Bible always describes hell as the place of the dead.
Revelation chapter 20 verse 13, and the sea gave up the dead which are in it and death
and hell delivered up the dead which are in them and they were judged every man according
to their works.
Those who are in hell, according to the Bible, are those which are dead.
And they're in this place called both death and hell and they receive the judgment of
God.
Yet the scriptures tell us that our God is not the God of the living, or I'm sorry, he's
not the God of the dead, but he is the God of living.
In Mark chapter 12 verse 26 to 27, and as touching the dead that they rise, have you
not read the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him saying, I am the God of
Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.
He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living.
You therefore do greatly err.
Now Jesus makes the point that when the Lord spake to Moses out of the burning bush, he
uses the present tense to say that he is not was the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob
because he is not of the dead, but he is of the living.
So where was Abraham when Jesus spake this when this is during the Old Testament, this
is before Jesus had died, was he in hell or was he in hell which is described in the Bible
as the place of the dead, just in some special compartment called Abraham's bosom?
Well, no, because according to the Bible, Abraham was with God even after he fell asleep because
it says in Ecclesiastes 12 seven, then shall the dust return to the earth as it was and
the Spirit shall return out to God who gave it.
When the Spirit departs from the body, the Bible teaches that the Spirit returns to God.
When our bodies return to the dust, when we fall asleep, according to the Scriptures,
when we gave up the ghost, it returns to God.
It doesn't go to hell, it doesn't go to some special place called hell, even in the Old Testament.
Ecclesiastes 12 is in the Old Testament.
When Jesus said he's not the God of the dead, but of the living, that was in the Old Testament.
Proverbs 15 verse 24 says the way of life is above to the wise that he may depart from
hell beneath.
So somebody who has found the way of life according to the Scriptures has departed from
hell beneath.
But did they go to the lower parts of the earth in the Old Testament?
No, because those who were saved in the Old Testament, likewise to us today, departed
from hell beneath.
Why?
Because they were saved, because they have been delivered from death.
Hell is always associated with death and fire and destruction and torment.
You can't find a single verse in the Bible that describes hell as a place of paradise
and a good place.
There's not a special compartment that's completely made up.
When they died, they returned to God who gave them life.
They went to be with Abraham upwards in heaven, in paradise, which is the third heaven.
So this doctrine that says there was a place called paradise or Abraham's bosom inside
of hell for the Old Testament saints is taught nowhere in the Scriptures.
It's simply made up.
Paradise is in heaven according to the Bible.
Abraham's bosom is just a body part and not a physical place.
And those who were saved in the Old Testament went to be with God.
They did not go to hell beneath.
They did not go to the place of the dead but the place of the living according to the Scriptures.
So that's it for this video.
Looks like I have Isaiah writer commented a few things.
Got to say this was always a difficult doctrine because too many people hold to it.
They say, how could people go to heaven before the cross?
Well, the thing is that the Bible teaches that in Revelation chapter 13, I think it's
Revelation chapter 13, it says that Jesus was the lamb slain from the foundation of
the world.
Okay, Jesus is, from our perspective, he only died 2000 years ago.
But the Bible says that God declared the end for the beginning.
I mean, he already knew everything that's going to happen.
That's why he speaks in a lot of Old Testament prophecies, even in the past tense.
Like you read Isaiah 53, for example, there's verses in there that are past tense, present
tense and future tense because from God's perspective, it's already as good as done.
From our perspective, it hasn't, or at least from their perspective during the days of
Isaiah, it had not happened yet.
But from God's perspective, it had already happened.
So just because he died from our perspective only 2000 years ago doesn't mean that he didn't
take the sins of all the world upon himself throughout all of time.
That's just faulty logic.
That just contradicts some scriptures.
A lot of these people also say there were works in the Old Testament age because the
Holy Spirit could not indwell believers.
A lot of other things must have been different too, they say.
Well, that logic is kind of silly because we can't even do good works anyway without
the Holy Spirit within us.
So yes, the scriptures do teach that the Holy Spirit is only a gift given in the New Testament.
But the Bible talks about how it says, walk in the Spirit and you should not fulfill the
lust of the flesh.
Well, if the Old Testament believers did not have the Spirit, then they could walk in the
Spirit.
There's certain things that we can do now in the New Testament that believers couldn't
do in the Old Testament.
Now there's a difference between being born again and receiving the Spirit.
People were still born again in the Old Testament.
It teaches this.
It's called circumcision of the heart in Deuteronomy chapter 10 and also chapter 30, I believe.
And it talks about in Ezekiel chapter 36 verse 26 to 27.
There's other verses in the Bible that talk about God giving a new heart.
In the book of Psalms, I believe Psalm 32, David talks about having a new spirit renewed
within him, etc.
When you trust in God, even in the Old Testament, and just read the book of Psalms, there's
like probably a few dozen verses in there and passages that explain very clearly that
it's through trusting in God that we're saved.
There's no verse in the Old Testament that teaches that you had to do works.
It explains in the New Testament that that was impossible.
So everybody would go to hell in the Old Testament if that was how you would be saved.
But Abraham, according to Romans chapter 4, which quotes from Genesis 15 verse 6, and
also David, according to Romans chapter 4 verse 6 to 8, both of them taught and believed
that you would be saved only by faith.
That's why it appeals to the Old Testament, appeals to both Abraham and David to show
that before the law and even during the law, you were still saved by faith.
The law was not for the purpose of getting us saved.
So Isaiah also says, people who push Israel will become relevant in the tribulation also
say works will be needed to not take the mark of the beast, Abraham's bosom will return
in the future.
Yeah, that's ridiculous because Abraham's bosom never existed, as they define it, that
is.
And also the Bible teaches just that everybody who is saved anyway, who has their name written
in the book of life will not take the mark of the beast because taking the mark of the
beast involves worshipping the beast, according to Revelation chapter 13.
Anybody who is a Christian isn't going to start worshipping a false god and believing
on a false god and renounce Christ and all that.
It's not works, it's just they know whether or not you are going to confess the antichrist
or not, they're not just going to give away the mark of the beast for free for everybody
who just comes and just grabs it or whatever, I don't know how they will put it on or exactly
what it is.
Some people think it's a microchip, I kind of agree with that, but we'll see.
They also use Samuel being conjured up by the witch of Endor as an example for good
hell.
I don't understand what that has to do with whether or not he's in hell.
Just because the witch of Endor, whether or not it was actually Samuel that was there,
I don't know why that means that he's in some special kind of hell or anything.
Would you consider these things like raptures in heaven versus Abraham and bosom as fundamental
and necessary for salvation?
No, not at all.
The only thing that you have to do to be saved is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
There's a lot of false doctrine out there.
Everything that I talk about in this video, I know Christians who I know are saved who
believe this stuff.
I disagree with them on it, but I'm not going to say that they're unsaved.
I just think that they're misled.
But the people who came up with these doctrines, I'm not exactly sure where the doctrine came
from.
I read some stuff from some mystical Judaism and some false religions out there.
Maybe the Catholic teachers or something.
But there's just some false sects from Christianity a few hundred years ago or from Judaism or
something that teach this doctrine and it slowly got incorporated into Christianity
and started being taught in Bible colleges and seminaries and things like that.
And being published in books.
So people just started repeating it over and over again and it just spread around.
I think the people who came up with the doctrine were unsaved false prophets, but not everybody
who necessarily believes it's unsaved.
Just because you believe something wrong, as long as it's not about who God is and it's
not about salvation, then you're fine.
So if somebody believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and He's the Christ and
it's through Him alone that you say that He died on the cross for your sins and rose
again and they trust in Him alone and not in any of their works or anything else, then
they're saved.
You don't have to believe every little thing in order to be saved.
So that's it for this video.
I guess that was an extra six or seven minute commentary on the end there.
But thank you for the questions though and I thank you everybody for watching and that's
it for today.
God bless you and goodbye.