Paradise and Hell, Part 1
The Bible speaks of Christ preaching to the captives (in one of Peter's epistles). Comparing that to Luke 16, what do we find concerning Paradise and Hell?
Christ did not go to the hell where the rich man was and preach to the people there and get them out of that hell. "As the tree falls, so shall it lie." (Ecclesiastes). Our decision to go God's way or our way is made in this world and is irrevocable in the next.
"Hell" was separated into two compartments, as can be seen in Luke 16, and divided by a great gulf. No one could cross back and forth. The part where the lost were we commonly call hell. Those who are lost will be brought out of there and judged according to the deeds done in their body at the Great White Throne Judgment (Revelation).
Those who trusted in the Word of God and His covenant were in Paradise, also called Abraham's Bosom (Abraham is called the "Father of the faithful).
These were not yet in Heaven because redemption had not yet been accomplished. Born in the earth, they were legally subject to stay in the earth because of their sin on the earth. They still legally belonged to satan, the "god of this world". But they were not lost. They were saved by faith in God's Word, looking AHEAD to the Cross of Christ, even as we are saved by trusting Christ, the Living Word, looking BACK to the Cross of Christ.
The Law of God is that "the soul that sins, it shall die." Christ never sinned, and satan "broke the rules" by inciting men to kill the Lord Jesus (by God's design; the devil played right into His hands). Therefore, the Lord Jesus was legally entitled by God the Father's rules to go to the part of hell called Paradise and preach to the CAPTIVES there, bringing them the Good News that they had not trusted God in vain; He was there to bring them out to heaven. At His resurrection, many of the old saints were seen walking in Jerusalem before they went on to Heaven.
So Christ did not preach to the lost in hell, but to the saved in Paradise, bringing them the Good News that the waiting was over.
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