Amazingly The Church isn’t what most think.  But its constitution is made clear from the teachings and events recorded in Scripture. 

The Apostle Paul is credited with much revelation concerning the Church.  Much is even now still debated in Theological circles.  Its mysteries are discussed.  And So, as is often the case with Doctrine we will begin our journey with Paul’s teachings. But before we get into Paul’s insights, I want us to hear from Charles Spurgeon, and his statement which seems revealing: I recently reposted a portion of one of his messages that Sherry had posted, from which I deduced the following thoughts concerning Spurgeon’s own thinking:

The Thief on the cross was in some way presented to be the first addition to Our Lord Jesus’ Church, which Jesus alone would  build.  This sparked the thought that within Scripture’s facts are the determining truths concerning the Church and who is in it (our doctrine is founded on Christ and His Truth).  In this message Spurgeon stated what must be his belief that the Church extended all the way back to Abel and included him.  This is made known, as Spurgeon stated him to be the Church’s first Martyr. 

That thinking took me back to something that I’m sure I’ve shared with you before. You’ve I’m sure read this before:

1 Corinthians 15:21  For since by man came death (speaking of Adam), by man (speaking of Christ) came also the resurrection of the dead. (KJV)

So the thought came as a couple of questions:  how and when would those who had been on earth and died before Christ came His first time ever have come to find a way to find out about and to accept Him? And does this have anything to do with the Church, and the one new man that Paul taught us about in Ephesians?  Apparently Spurgeon thought that it did. 

So, I want us to examine this section of verses thinking about the Church.  These. Erses tell us that only by this one man (Christ Jesus) will any man take part in the future resurrection leading to eternal life.  This life for all saved men would come only through Him.  For Paul’s scripture tells us that Christ’s action undoes what Adam’s sin had caused which was death through the fall.  But how can it be that Able would find the Christ, who died for him?  How can men living before Christ’s time know Him unto salvation, because that is what this certainly says?  I had asked God that question.  And I began to see how it all came about. 

Matthew 12:40  For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (KJV)

Luke 23:43  And Jesus said unto him [the thief on the cross], Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. (KJV)

What struck me first from these verses was the fact that,Jesus was now placed with the dead of the ages in paradise in the heart or belly of the earth at the time of the crucifixion.  He had gone back in time.  And that seemed correct because it is where Jesus had told us that Abraham resided when He was telling of the beggar Lazarus and the rich man’s location following their own deaths.  Jesus was now on a three day journey to find the dead awaiting Him. 

So then, on the very day of the crucifixion the thief entered with Jesus this space called paradise in the belly of the earth. 

Paradise had apparently been moved after Adam had sinned in order to protect future mankind from eating of the tree of life.  That fact is implied in Genesis following the fall.  We are given this scenario as a probability in Genesis surrounding Adam’s own story.  This tree of life needed guarding from living mortals, and it was then in the midst of the garden. But after the fall It was somehow put under the protection of Angelic beings, so that men could not eat of its fruit and live forever in their sinful state, not, that is, unless God Himself determined that hell was to be an appropriate judgment for all of mankind, which we know that He does not. He is a just God with just rewards and punishments. 

But here is an interesting fact; for we know from Scripture and it’s teaching that this tree is also seen as today being in paradise in the third heaven and it’s presence is not any longer beneath the earth as it was when Jesus was crucified.  Is this a contradiction with other Scripture ?  It can’t be, Scripture doesn’t lie. It’s truth.  So, by Jesus own statement we are informed where paradise was located at the time of His death. It was in the belly of the earth where He would reside for the next three days, and the thief would be with Him there. “Today Thou shalt be with me in paradise”.  And “today” in that context meant exactly that: “today”, as in this very day when they each would die on a cruel cross.  Now we are going to hear things about that time of which men don’t speak much:

Peter here tells us in these Scripture verses that Jesus went to a prison when He died. He preached there in the Spirit. This prison housed Paradise itself, where He was according to Peter in the Spirit?  He had left His body in the grave where He would later return and be resurrected.  But before it is here, in Paradise that He preached to the dead? This message by Him apparently, even reached all the way back to all, who had died before: even the lost of Noah’s day heard Him.  Even Abel would have heard as Spurgeon deduced, and the dead heard Him even those across the great gulf, which was hell.  But even though they heard we know that they if they heard still they had no faith to receive (they had died without such); but certainly those with Jesus in paradise did have ears to hear and it was for faith that they resided in this place called Paradise. They of whom Peter mentioned , that had preceded Noah were in the same place of torment that the rich man was seen.   This one, who had asked for Lazarus to bring him just a drop of water to relieve his parched tongue.  They the dead with no faith then were separated from Abraham and from those who were with him in Paradise. 

Jesus we must remember was the only One who could or would deliver those in Paradise from this prison in the belly of the earth, And we do find that this He did.  Remember Jesus is building His Church. 

But understanding where Paradise was (in the belly of the earth) impacts our understanding (our Church doctrine) concerning these events.  For Heaven would later receive Paradise but it was not there yet. Listen: 

John 20:17  Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. (KJV)  

This is what Jesus stated to Mary, after His resurrection. It was  now after these three days and nights in the belly of the earth (in Paradise).  And He had not yet been to Heaven. 

But there is proof of the relocation of Paradise into Heaven, and it is seen in Paul’s own later visit there. Listen:

2 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. (KJV)

These verses prove that Paradise at some point had been relocated  into the third heaven with its residents, and that account was soon after Jesus’ own resurrection, and before the time, when Paul was caught up similarly to how the Apostle John was later caught up to receive Jesus’ Revelation to him.  

Further, Scripture tells us how this all transpired:

Ephesians 4:8  Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (KJV)

 Revelation 2:7  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. (KJV)

These verses are some of the threads knitting the Scripture’s story concerning the beginning of the building of Jesus’ Church. They are informing us of the fact that all men in Christ from all of history will see one future day the resurrection to eternal life through the acceptance of the one man Jesus Christ, and this would occur because of the established New Covenant which was promised to Israel through Him.  A covenant found in Jeremiah 31: 30….   

He alone is the Son of man (the God man) provider of the New Covenant, through which the Church was born.  All who have died and gone before us on this earth and all who will come after us meaning all who are now dead in the flesh, yet alive in the Spirit of Christ are in Christ and thus all who ever will be born similarly of woman, and who are saved by Him in this same fashion: by accepting this one God man, just as Paul has told us will see first resurrection in Him.  There should be no question about this fact. Scripture is clear.  

  • So we will also as members of the Church see paradise if and when we die?  
  • Revelation 22:1  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.  2  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. (KJV)
  • Obviously Paul taught when we die we go there. For to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.  And since Jesus took the thief to Paradis on the very day of his death. In fact one could say that this nameless thief was the very first to be placed into Christ’s Church. Then afterward we have the Old Testament souls; each of them then in Paradise, but being added into Christ following His preaching to them while He was there in Paradise and He took them into God’s presence as He delivered paradise.  
  • These then up until that time were being held in prison in the center of the earth and they needed their savior and redeemer to release them.  Did they expect this release?They likely had come to know that Messiah was present on earth when Lazarus the brother of Mary and Martha died, and he then would have entered Paradise in the belly of the earth and shared the news of Messiah’s arrival on earth. This certainly would have been an effective way of awakening these prisoners to have hope for their deliverance; because then suddenly Lazarus was called away from them. 
  • Then there was John the Baptist the forerunner of the Christ, who likely also would have shared that news: the Christ has come.  And now following the crucifixion here was Jesus in Paradise with them. They hear His preaching. They see Him snatched from death in His Resurrection and they too are soon all delivered into the third heaven as Jesus has led captivity captive. This then is, (I Believe) the beginning of Jesus Church, which He stated to His Disciples that He would build.  This further is explained by two additional verses:

Jesus says that He will give to eat of that tree after this Resurrection that Paul had told us that Christ alone would initiate. Now, we need to see that we in this life (in Him) are destined for paradise where He will feed us from the tree of life.  Additionally: we must know that overcoming in this life means to live and to die obedient in the faith: 

Acts 2:36  Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. (KJV)

Peter made sure in his Acts sermons that Israel’s Jews knew that Christ was their savior and Messiah. From here on every man whether Jew or Gentile must be saved through Israel’s Christ. 

Acts 2:47  Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. (Acts 2:41 KJV)

Remember “Salvation is in no other”.  Jesus said: “no man cometh to the Father but by me”.

 So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls. (NASB2020)

These were added to the Church on the day of Pentecost. So we should see that this is also telling us that the Church had already begun even before Pentecost even as Peter and Paul have explained just how those in paradise were the first to be saved making them part of the New Covenant Church, even as the thief had been saved (placed in Christ) even before Pentecost. So then the wording 3000 “added” on the day: “Pentecost”makes sense.  Pentecost was only the beginning of being in the Church from these yet alive on earth then, and for those who were and who would in the future be still alive.  But those who had died and gone before were placed in His Church first by Christ. He took them to the third heaven when He ascended to the Father. 

Jesus had said: “no one comes to the Father but by Me” Jesus made no distinction between Old Testament and New Testament persons.  Or between ages as often is taught.  The Church age ends with a Tribulation period in order to add Israel the nation to her own promised New Covenant (the Church).  He made no distinction between Jew and Gentile. Jesus stated it even as Scripture has revealed it.  

During Tribulation’s coming men must be saved this same way. So if every man who is saved during the Tribulation is “in Christ”, and therefore most of these if not all will die at the hand of Antichrist before He returns, because they will not take the mark and worship the beast, then as such these all must be raised (resurrected) with those (even those), who have died and are in Paradise awaiting this first resurrection. And Paul says clearly that this will happen before the Lord will reveal His Church (His Bride).  “The dead in Christ will rise first” as the first Resurrection.  The Church without spot or wrinkle is now revealed.  One new man in Christ, who will rule and reign with Him in eternity; who will worship Him and the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit throughout eternity.