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One of the questions that go through the minds of many Christians is the confusion brought about by the teaching that Abraham’s bosom was the old Paradise of God. I believe that with God’s help we can find out the truth in this matter and realize that things are not as confusing as they seem.

First, I would like to go directly to the point and then explain what has happened to create such a teaching. I don’t believe that the Bible teaches that there was or is such a place under the earth called "Abraham’s Bosom or Paradise." Neither do I believe in a place called Purgatory where the souls of men are kept until someone can pray or buy them out. These teachings have come out of the minds of men in search of Biblical answers to scriptures in the Bible that were hard to understand.

In the past one of the ministers on television was teaching that Abraham’s Bosom was the old Paradise of God. He said that all of the church fathers believed this. I sat in my chair listening to this and wondered how many people would believe what he had to say without ever examining it to see if it were the truth or not. My first question concerning his statement is this: what books in the Bible did he get this from, and which one of the church fathers ever taught this? It is not found in any of the Bibles that I own. We have the truth of God’s Word wrapped up in the 66 books of the Bible that we are all familiar with and we do not have to draw information from any other books than these. A teaching that is taught separate and apart from the Bible would be a deadly thing to present to others as the truth. Everything that we teach must be based on Scripture.

Personally I believe that the teaching about Abraham’s Bosom and Paradise being a place under the Earth came from the desire to provide an explanation to some scriptures that were hard to understand. The root of the problem came from the place in Scripture that said that the repentant thief on the cross would be with Jesus that day in Paradise. And the parable that said that the rich man was in hell and looked across a great gulf and saw Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham. Because of ignorance and not wanting to admit our ignorance we have provided ourselves with answers that just don't float.

When the children of God end their journey in this world they go to heaven to be with God. They always have, from the beginning of this world until now. And they will until the time that Christ himself will return to this earth to gather the children of God home to be with him. Paradise and Heaven are the same place and we find that the location is "up".

Jesus said that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were already in heaven before he went to the cross.
Matthew 8:11: And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.

Another proof that Paradise is up is in what Paul told us.
2^nd Corinthians 12: 2: I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.
3: And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)
4: How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
Notice two things, one is that he was caught up into paradise. The other was that he didn’t know if he went in the flesh or was having a vision. In other words it is possible for us like the rich man and Lazarus to have a vision of such things and not be able to tell the difference.

The scriptures teach us that when a man dies that his body will go back to the dust that he was created from and that his spirit goes back to God that gave it.
Ecclesiastes 3:20: All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
Ecclesiastes 12:7: Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

Paul said that to be absent from the body was to be present with the Lord (2^nd Corinthians 5:6-9). He also explained that we had a spiritual body waiting on us in heaven. This body was made for heaven not this earth. Our spirit lives in a celestial body while it is in heaven in the presence of God. While on this earth we live in a terrestrial body or earthly body. When we die we go to be with God, not "Abraham’s Bosom."

Man never did go to a place called "Abraham’s Bosom." I will explain: When the rich man in hell was allowed to look across a great gulf and see Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham it was a spiritual allegory. There is a great gulf between heaven and hell that no one can cross to go from one to the other. God simply allowed the rich man to see Lazarus in heaven through a vision much in the same way that John looked into heaven through a vision in Revelation the 4^th chapter.

Abraham’s bosom was simply this: When the rich man saw Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham he was looking at Lazarus being embraced, or held in the arms of Abraham. Abraham was greeting one of his descendants into heaven. Abraham’s bosom is not a place, but rather the area within Abraham’s arms that he is able to reach around and hold to his chest the same way that people that love you hug you. Today we would say that Abraham was hugging Lazarus. This was an expression of the honor that the beggar Lazarus was receiving in heaven.

The other reason that people want to believe in a place such as "Abraham’s Bosom" is because of what Jesus said to the thief on the cross when he said this in Luke.
Luke 23:43: And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.
The problem that people have with this is the words "to day". Because they knew that Jesus would be placed in the tomb and would not rise until the first day of the week it confuses them. Placing the following scripture with this really causes problems unless we understand the terminology that God uses.

A simple solution to this problem is to believe that since Jesus went to the heart of the earth, then paradise must be underground. But the truth is that Jesus went to heaven when he died. His Spirit and Soul just as our spirit and soul goes back to God who gave it. This is the case of those who are righteous. Was Jesus righteous? Absolutely righteous, He was the Lamb without spot and without blemish. He was the perfect Lamb of God. In the story of Jonah in the scripture above the meaning for Jesus being in the heart of the earth for three days is to be explained like this. Jonah being entombed in the belly of the whale was a shadow of Christ being in the tomb or the heart of the earth for three days.

It appears to many because of certain scriptures that He went to hell to suffer as a sinner so that we do not have to go and suffer. This is not true because there was a great difference between His spirit and our spirit. You see His spirit was the Spirit of God, not man. The flesh part of Jesus was man but the spirit part of Jesus was God. He paid the full price for sin through the sufferings in His body, not His spirit. Before He gave up His life on the cross He said; “It is finished.” Did Jesus have to suffer spiritual separation from God and go to hell to suffer in our place? No, because He didn’t have to. Why? Because the work had been finished on the cross. Going to Hell had nothing to do with our redemption or atonement; this was not part of the sacrifice. In death Jesus could not be sentenced to Hell in the spirit. He was almighty God, the Son of God and it was impossible for his nature to change. He is the same today, yesterday and forever. It was impossible for His spirit to suffer because He was God. To make Him anything less would be to take away His Deity.

There was a time that I believed that Jesus suffered in the spirit in our place but with time I have come to realize that he couldn’t have. Our sins were placed on His body not His spirit. The separation that Jesus felt and only felt was at the time of His death. Jesus never died spiritually because His spirit is eternal He is eternal life.

Some teach that Jesus had to die spiritually as well as physically and that He was actually born again the same as us. They base this on the scriptures that says that He was the first born of many brethren and first born of every creature (Romans 8: 29, Colossians 1: 15). But these scriptures are not saying that Jesus was the first to be born again. They are saying that he is the first born. What this would mean to a Jew would be that He is the heir. The first born in the generations of the Jewish people was always the heir and all the other children in the family would look up to him. He would be in charge so to speak. If the father were to die the others would depend on Him for their answers, to resolve disputes and take care of family affairs. He also had a double portion over the rest, this Jesus has and more for sure. Once again to have Him being born again would have Him to be less than God, which He isn’t. But Jesus did not go to hell because just as our spirit goes back to God at our death, so did his. Him and the thief on the cross were in Heaven that day just as Jesus had promised.

Many people use the scriptures below as proof text to prove that Jesus went to hell. It is to my shame and dismay that I am guilty of preaching this very thing in the past. I thank God for his forgiveness. I will do my best to explain what each of these in reality mean. We begin in the Book of Acts:
Acts 2:
27: Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
31: He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.
The first thing to consider is that there can only be two possibilities for the meaning of the term "thou wilt not leave my soul in hell." The first is that we must realize that the souls of the righteous in death go back to God that gave it. So speaking in this view his soul would not be taken or left in hell because he was righteous and it would be impossible for this to happen. The second possibility would mean that his soul would not be left in hell in the sense that hell is the grave or Hades. As Christians we often fear to use the term "grave" for hell because the Jehovah's Witnesses and some other cults over emphasize this to promote their false teachings. But sometimes the word for hell or Hades in the Greek does in fact mean "the grave." There are three meanings for the word "Hades" in the Greek and that is hell, the grave, or death. Since we know that "soul sleep" or the soul staying with the body in the grave is not a true teaching we can also say that the soul of Jesus was not in his body in the tomb. So this could apply as well as the first meaning.

The next scriptures that seem to indicate that Jesus went into hell are the following"
Ephesians 4:
8: Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
9: (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?
To explain these scriptures we will break them down because it discusses captivity, gifts and the lower parts of the earth. Jesus has ascended on high and is seated at the right hand of God making intercession for you and for me. He gave his blood to save us. The idea that he led captivity captive is speaking of man's inability to keep his own self from going into captivity to sin. All of mankind was in captivity; there was none righteous no not one. When Jesus died he broke the power of this captivity through his death. We are now born again creatures of God and are free from captivity and it is Jesus that did it. The term "he led captivity captive" is speaking of being made free from the nature of sin that all of us had before the new birth. We were held in bondage to it whether we wanted to be or not. Because of this Satan was able to take us captive at his will. We are free from this and Jesus led us into this liberty.
"The lower parts of the earth" that many believe to mean speaking of hell is to be interpreted as lower destiny, or lower assignments that was given to him. The word "parts" is the key to this mystery. Read it in the Greek, the first meaning of this word is a part due or assigned to one, a lot, and destiny. In order for Jesus to ascend on high and be exalted he first had to be abased in humiliation and suffering this was his lower destiny. By this God exalted him above all and made him Lord over all things.

1^st Peter 3: 14: But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled;
15: But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
16: Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.
17: For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.
18: For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
19: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
20: Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
Basically these scriptures are not speaking of Christ going into hell and preaching to the lost souls that were not saved in the days of Noah. But is reminding the Christians that we should be long suffering towards those that do not listen to our message about salvation through Christ. As God was patient and longsuffering with the lost that are held in bondage to sin in the days of Noah, we should be the same way.
Noah preached to the lost during the days that he and his sons were building the Ark. It was the Spirit of Christ that was using Noah to preach to them and was patient in spite of their stubborn rebellious natures and preached none the less offering all an opportunity to be saved. This was a shadow of the day that we now live as we ourselves often speak to the lost around us by the Spirit of Christ that is within us to try and save the lost souls of our own time. We should always be long suffering and continue to do good even though our testimony of Christ may bring upon us suffering and persecution as it surely did in the days of Noah. The souls that we are trying to reach are held in a spiritual prison and cannot be made free until their hearts turn to the Lord in repentance. This is the meaning of these scriptures. Jesus did not go into hell and preach to the lost souls in hell. Judgement is fixed and final.

As we come to the end of this teaching we can clearly see that Jesus at the time of his death on the cross went to Heaven taking with him the thief on the cross. His body was laid down in the tomb and was resurrected by the power of God. He was the first born of the resurrection because his body was the first to put on immortality. We will also have this same blessing to look forward to as we patiently wait for his return. May God bless you, I hope that you have been able to glean some things from this teaching and that it will cause us to love Jesus more than ever.

Your brother in Christ
Tommie Spurgeon