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On Paradise and the Divine Council

April 27, 2026 No Comments

This piece is written to address possible questions readers may have from reading the entry arguing that heaven is not the goal of the Christian life.

In this entry, I want to address well-known passages from 2 Corinthians concerning Paul’s vision and Jesus’s words to the thief on the cross. As we shall see, both Paul’s vision and Jesus’ promise rely on Second‑Temple Jewish categories that modern readers often flatten or misread. These passages, often isolated from their Jewish context, actually speak a common language about divine authority and the geography of the unseen realm. We begin with Paul:

2 Corinthians 12:1–3 (ESV)
[1] I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. [2] I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. [3] And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows—

This is one of three places “paradise” occurs in the New Testament. The serious Bible student might recall that part of the Corinthian problem Paul faced was that he was being compared to some “super-apostles.” In effect, the church questioned some of the things Paul taught them. So, Paul had to demonstrate in different ways that the things he taught the church are legitimate and divinely sanctioned. To do that, Paul arguably pulled a big card from the Hebrew Bible.

In the Old Testament, the only Bible used by all early believers and Jesus, there are two major ways to tell whether someone is a true prophet who genuinely hears from God. The first is obvious: if what you claimed you received from God came to pass, you very likely heard from God. This is especially so if what you prophesied was non‑obvious, complicated, or otherwise unusual. Of course, if what you asserted did not materialize, you were not a prophet. No do‑overs. Neither could there be do‑overs because the one you claimed to hear from is omniscient. He could not be wrong. The second way is different in that it is not verifiable, but it is weighty. True prophets often participated in the divine council. Isaiah saw the LORD and other members of the council (Isaiah 6). God himself directly speaks to this point in Jeremiah:

Jeremiah 23:17–18 (ESV)
[17] They say continually to those who despise the word of the Lord, “It shall be well with you”; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, “No disaster shall come upon you.” [18] For who among them has stood in the council of the Lord to see and to hear his word, or who has paid attention to his word and listened?

The point is that those lying prophets did not hear from God because they did not stand in the divine council. If they did, they would have known what was decreed.

If Paul alludes to this criterion of discerning a true messenger of God in 2 Corinthians 12, he would have conveyed that his teachings are divinely authorized and, hence, trustworthy. His claims will eventually come to pass. This is the same literary point John conveys in Revelation when he says he was summoned to “come up here” (4:1). Participating in a divine council meeting is a standard scriptural way of communicating that one heard from God.

This brings me back to the question of paradise. Paul uses the term to signal his participation in the divine council. However, its use in Luke is different:

Luke 23:43 (ESV)
And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

These are the famous words of Jesus to the thief on the cross. “Paradise” here cannot mean heaven, as it is usually assumed. Jesus did not go to heaven on the day he was crucified. As I mentioned elsewhere, Jesus went to Hades on that day. Peter proclaims:

Acts 2:31 (ESV)
He foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.

So, Jesus went to Hades—the realm of the dead—on the day of the crucifixion, from whence he was also resurrected. Also, in a famous post‑resurrection passage, when Mary saw the risen Jesus, he told her he was not yet returning to heaven (John 20:17). Indeed, his return to heaven was public in the ascension (Acts 1:9-10). So, whatever paradise means in Luke 23:43 is most likely a location in Hades.

Indeed, Second‑Temple era Jews believed there were two compartments in Hades. Everyone who dies goes to Hades, but the righteous and the unrighteous have separate areas. Luke preserves this notion in the Abraham’s‑bosom story:

Luke 16:22–23, 25–26 (ESV)
[22] The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, [23] and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.
[25] But Abraham said, “Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. [26] And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.”

Abraham, at the time of writing this passage, had long been dead. Since the resurrection has not happened yet, Abraham remains in the realm of the dead, Hades. So, Abraham, Lazarus, and the rich man are all in Hades, but not in the same compartment. Even in Hades, there is comfort for the righteous. This side of Hades is likely what paradise refers to in Luke 23:43.

So, though Paul equated “paradise” with “the third heaven” in describing a visionary experience – and this is important, rather than a literal journey – Luke’s use of the term is markedly different.

John’s use of the term in Revelation offers a third distinct way the New Testament employs it. For John, paradise refers to the restored earthly Eden:

Revelation 2:7 (ESV)
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Etymologically, paradise is actually a borrowed Persian term meaning “walled garden.” So, John’s use is closer to the original meaning of the word, but none of the three New Testament uses requires it to refer to heaven in the usual sense. As I explained elsewhere, the New Jerusalem is an earthly city with a heavenly origin:

Revelation 21:1-2; 22:2 NRSVUE
[1] Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. [2] And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

[22:2] through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

The city comes down from heaven. It has a heavenly origin but is destined for Earth. So, the restored earthly Eden is the paradise of God in Revelation.

Once we recover the Jewish ideas behind these texts, Paul’s vision, Jesus’ promise, and John’s revelation stop sounding contradictory and instead reveal a single story. Paradise, the divine council, Hades, and the restored Eden are not competing ideas but pieces of the same biblical worldview—one in which God’s presence, judgment, and restoration move through heaven, earth, and the realm of the dead until creation is finally renewed.

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On Hebrews 12:1: No Human Witnesses in the Cloud

April 27, 2026 No Comments

Hebrews 12:1 NRSVUE
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,

Since I wrote the piece on humanity’s destiny being permanently tied to the earth, I have decided to keep putting out short posts to address the conceivable whatabouts bound to emerge. In this piece, I want to address the famous text above.

Hebrews has a long history of torturing exegetes, especially those who come to it with unyielding preconceived notions. This work is full of warnings and encouragements to believing Christians facing severe hardship. The author draws copiously on the Hebrew Bible to encourage believers. For instance:

Hebrews 2:1-3 NRSVUE
[1] Therefore we must pay greater attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. [2] For if the message declared through angels proved valid, and every transgression or disobedience received a just penalty, [3] how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? It was declared at first through the Lord, and it was confirmed for us by those who heard him,

The contrast here is that just as unbelieving Israelites perished in the Hebrew Bible, so will believers perish, even more severely, if they “neglect so great a salvation.” Of course, much of Western Christianity has strongly disagreed on the question of the perseverance of the saint – whether a believer can forfeit salvation. I’m not going to rehash the points, but I will include links to my entries on the various positions below. But if we read Hebrews on its own terms, there is no escaping the fact that the author believed and argued that a Christian can forfeit salvation. But that does not have to happen precisely because of Jesus. The first 10 chapters detail Christ’s priestly work, established on firmer grounds than the Levites’. Jesus has opened access to God in ways the old order of priestly functions only dreamt of. Indeed, Jesus is right now functioning as a priest on humanity’s behalf as he intercedes for us:

Hebrews 7:25 NRSVUE
Consequently, he is able for all time to save those who approach God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

Because he has an indestructible life, he can do what the high priests of the past could not do. He lives forever as a priest.

Hebrews 11 lists people who endured much but remained faithful to God’s plan. None of the people was perfect, but neither was perfection required. So, we have David who obtained the promise of an everlasting kingdom (11:33); Barak who, however imperfectly, carried out divine instructions with Deborah; Abraham, the man with whom the salvific plans were set in motion, even if his momentary unbelief complicated the plans; Moses, the first prophet to lead God’s people out of oppression and thereby foreshadowing the last Exodus; and many others. Quite interestingly, the author of Hebrews says two crucial things necessary for understanding the logic of his narrative. First,

Hebrews 11:6 NRSVUE
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would approach God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

God’s people must exercise faith; there is no alternative. But this kind of faith has two essential elements: it professes that God exists – we cannot have faith in a nonentity – and that God delivers what he promises. Second,

Hebrews 11:39-40 NRSVUE
[39] Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, [40] since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect.

Abraham, Jacob, David, Jephthah, Samson, Moses, Barak, and all others in the Hebrew Bible “did not receive what was promised.” So, a key element of their faith in God remains to be fulfilled. And the author of Hebrews says God has determined to combine that former group with believers in Christ to whom he wrote to perfect them all together. And this is one reason the suffering Christians must endeavor to endure:

This text links chapter 12 to chapter 11 with “therefore.” There is a cloud of witnesses metaphorically waiting and rooting for Christians to finish well. Now, notice that nothing in chapter 11 says the people went to heaven when they died. Even Enoch, who is said not to have experienced death, is not said to be in heaven: “he was not found, because God had taken him.” Where to? It does not say. And, concerning Abraham (and Isaac and Jacob), we read: “For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (11:10). This city, as Revelation makes clear, is not heaven. It is made in heaven for the earth (Revelation 21:2). The point of Hebrews 12:1 is to encourage Christians through the testimony of those who went before them.

In old Greek idioms, a “cloud” refers to a dense multitude, as in “a cloud of birds” or “a cloud of dust.” The author of Hebrews uses “cloud” to unite past and present believers in one unfinished story of faith. The verse does not depict humans in heaven, but a community still journeying toward consummation. Hebrews 12:1 calls readers to inhabit the same narrative of perseverance that began with the ancients and culminates in Christ. This is a serious call:

Hebrews 12:25 NRSVUE
See that you do not refuse the one who is speaking, for if they did not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject the one who warns from heaven!

If the covenant people who rejected Moses got punished, it is not going to look good for those who reject Jesus either. And yes, it is possible for a believer to reject Jesus.

****

Below are the links to entries on the various ways people have tried to understand the warning passage in Hebrews 6:

https://decolonizedchristianity.org/exploring-different-christian-perspectives-part-1/

https://decolonizedchristianity.org/exploring-different-perspectives-part-2-a-middling-approach/

https://decolonizedchristianity.org/exploring-different-perspectives-part-3/

https://decolonizedchristianity.org/part-4-free-grace-view-and-life-applications/

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Death, Sheol, and Resurrection: What Happens When We Die?

April 16, 2026 1 Comment

This piece is adapted from a longer entry investigating Word of Faith theology.

Generations of believers have been taught that they will go to heaven when they die. People, of course, know they will not go to heaven as they are on earth. Everyone knows that the body decays in the grave when someone dies. Hence, one tradition says it is the spirit of the person that goes to heaven. So, life after death is quite spiritual. In this piece, I want to show that this common view is mistaken by exploring biblical data on life after death.

Let us begin with this: Do humans continue to exist when they die—that is, when the spirit separates from the body? This is a remarkably complex question that we cannot do justice to in this short entry. However, we will make a few key points. First, the answer is both Yes and No. When people die, they obviously cease to exist in the way they used to be. Indeed, death seems to be the precise word we use to describe the cessation of the life of a person as we knew it. Properly speaking, a human life is an embodied life. So, once the body ceases to be animated, life as we know it ceases. But it is also true that the ancients in the Bible thought that a dead person continues to exist:

Ecclesiastes 12:7 ESV
and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

This text, made famous by its frequent use at Services of Songs for the deceased, suggests a reversal of the creation of the human in Genesis: the breath of life returns to God, and the body dissolves into the earth. This may lead one to think the dead continue to exist with God in some spiritual form. But as we shall soon see, this existence consists of almost nothing. Some other texts suggest that the dead go to the realm of the dead, characterized by inactivity:

Ecclesiastes 9:10 ESV
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.

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By God’s Design: Heaven is not the Goal

April 14, 2026 1 Comment

Introduction

For several decades now, Christians worldwide have been taught that the ultimate goal of the faith is heaven. Considering longevity, this idea has essentially achieved a canonical status in believers’ minds. Yet, Christians before the 1900s did not entertain such a thought. One major reason the notion became popular was the publication of the Scofield Bible in 1909, which presented the idea alongside the Bible’s text, not as one among many options, but as the only reading offered. Rapture theology became synonymous with eschatology. Other enabling factors, including the later rise of American fundamentalism and Cold War anxieties, contributed to the popularity of this idea.

I recognize that this can be an emotionally charged and potentially disorienting issue. There are people in their 80s who have believed all their lives that heaven awaits. So, I’m aware of the potential distress that this entry might cause. But I owe it to such persons to rigorously interact with Scripture to extract the truth. In this piece, I shall argue that the earth has always been and will forever be humanity’s destiny. Yes, there is a heaven, but it is not the residential home of humans.

In the Beginning

Let us take it from the beginning. Humans were not the first created beings. The Bible reveals that a host of heavenly beings were created before humans. For reasons best known to God, he made the angels, cherubs, seraphs, and others to reside in heaven. But when God made humans, he first prepared a cultivated portion of the Earth for them to dwell in. He could have made humans join the heavenly beings. Instead, heaven – that is, God – regularly comes to the earth to fellowship with humanity in the special spot he has earmarked for them. It was not long before things went south. The humans became corrupted, and God must act:

Genesis 3:22-24 NRSVUE
[22] Then the LORD God said, “See, the humans have become like one of us, knowing good and evil, and now they might reach out their hands and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever”— [23] therefore the LORD God sent them forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which they were taken. [24] He drove out the humans, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life.

I have written elsewhere that knowing good and evil is not, in itself, a sin. In his famous prayer when he became king, Solomon asks:

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Christian Marriage: A Fresh Look Beyond Tradition

April 11, 2026 1 Comment

I. Introduction: The Problem Behind the Debate

Christian marriage is often discussed as if Scripture handed the church a fixed blueprint—one rooted in timeless roles, divinely sanctioned hierarchy, and a “headship” model that places men over women. But when we look closely, much of what passes for “biblical marriage” is not drawn from the Bible at all. It is inherited from Greco‑Roman patriarchy, medieval canon law, and modern Western tradition. The result is a theological framework that treats hierarchy as sacred, even when the biblical text points in a different direction.

This essay asks a simple but disruptive question: What if Christian marriage has been misread through the lens of cultural tradition rather than Scripture itself? When we return to the text—Genesis, Paul’s letters, and the early Christian vision of community—we find not a system of gendered authority but a movement toward mutuality, shared vocation, and new‑creation identity. The Bible’s trajectory does not reinforce patriarchy; it steadily undermines it. To see this clearly, we must read the Scriptures on their own terms, in their own contexts, and with attention to the social worlds they address. Genesis offers a picture of partnership, not hierarchy. Paul writes within patriarchal structures but reshapes them around the self‑giving love of Christ. And the early church models a community where men and women serve, teach, prophesy, and lead together. This essay is not an attempt to modernize the Bible. It is an attempt to take the Bible more seriously; to let its own vision speak, even when it challenges long‑held assumptions. What emerges is a richer, more faithful understanding of Christian marriage: one grounded not in domination or role‑based authority, but in the cruciform love that defines the people of God.

II. Genesis 1-2: Humanity as Co-Image Bearers

As argued at length elsewhere, Genesis 2 does not teach that woman was created for man. We cannot rehash the arguments here but will give a high-level summary. Below are crucial points emerging from Genesis 2:

Hebrew Grammar Rules

Just as in English, a proper noun does not follow the definite article; the same is true in Biblical Hebrew. For instance, a competent speaker would not say, “I saw the Ade over there under the tree.” Ade, being someone’s name, doesn’t require a definite article. Why does that matter? In Genesis 2, the word “adam” serves multiple functions. Ordinarily, the word means “human.” However, the account also uses the word as a proper name for the male human in the story. Interestingly, this latter use of the word does not occur until verses 22-23 in the story. However, sloppy English translations, perhaps influenced by the patriarchal mindset, have given a misleading impression. Consider the following:

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Proverbs 8, Philo, and Early Christian Thinkers

March 10, 2026 1 Comment

The following piece is adapted from a longer entry that argues that the New Testament identifies Jesus as the cr eator.

Proverbs 8 is a highly influential text within Second Temple-era Judaism and its first-century mutations. Jews and Christians alike engaged with it, each trying to understand the passage’s contribution to the identity of the creator. Many great Christian thinkers have read this passage as descriptive of the Trinitarian Father-Son relationship. Justin Martyr and Origen were among the first to use Proverbs 8 in this way, a move that would later influence Nicene theology. They read the passage as saying that the Father created with the aid of, or through, Wisdom, later identified with the Son. Below is the relevant portion:

Proverbs 8:22-31 NRSVUE
[22] “The LORD created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago. [23] Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. [24] When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. [25] Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth, [26] when he had not yet made earth and fields or the world’s first bits of soil. [27] When he established the heavens, I was there; when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, [28] when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, [29] when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, [30] then I was beside him, like a master worker, and I was daily his delight, playing before him always, [31] playing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race.

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On the Identity of God in 2 Corinthians 4:6

March 10, 2026 No Comments

This entry is adapted from a longer piece that argues that New Testament authors identified Jesus as the creator of the cosmos.

In a recent entry, I argued that three New Testament authors see Jesus as the creator of the cosmos, including Paul. However, Paul also pens 2 Corinthians 4:6. Traditionally, commentators take “God” in this verse to refer to the Father. There are good reasons for doing so. Typically, when Paul says “God” in proximity to terms referring to Jesus (e.g., Jesus, Christ, Jesus Christ, the Son, etc) as a distinct person, “God” refers to the Father. For instance, “I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus” (1 Corinthians 1:4). If we apply the same reasoning to 2 Corinthians 4:6, “God” will refer to the Father. This may then imply that the Father is the divine person in Genesis who says, “Let there be light,” and hence the immediate creator. Furthermore, the same divine person would be shining “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God” in human hearts by the gospel that Paul preached to the Corinthians. However, in light of the christological saturation of the passage, I shall argue that Paul’s language in 4:6 allows “God” to include Jesus and that this verse does not invalidate the conclusion that Jesus is the immediate creator of the cosmos.

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Jesus as the Creator

February 27, 2026 4 Comments

Three New Testament texts by different authors explicitly claim that Jesus is the creator of the cosmos. For some strange reasons I do not fully understand, many in the church have historically been uncomfortable with the claim and have found ways to blunt the force of the assertion:

John 1:1, 3, 14 ESV
[1] In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
[3] All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
[14] And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Colossians 1:15-17 ESV
[15] He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. [16] For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. [17] And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Hebrews 1:1-3 ESV
[1] Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, [2] but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. [3] He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

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On Romans 10:17: Faith Comes By Hearing?

January 16, 2026 No Comments

Romans 10:17 NKJV
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

This is a popular text in Charismatic circles, especially the Word of Faith variants. In these settings, this text is generally understood as a divinely revealed secret of receiving and/or maintaining faith. If anyone lacked faith, an antidote would be to listen to the “word of God” continuously. There are two practical ways the “word of God” has been construed. In the days before audio Bibles became prevalent, the word of God was generally understood as a preacher’s sermon or his recorded reading of Bible passages. Nowadays, however, people are just encouraged to listen to audio Bibles and sermons. I do not want to invalidate this Charismatic practice, even though I have seen it abused. After all, motivational speakers have convinced us all that there is value in attending to positive speaking. However, I am convinced that this text is not about what some Charismatics have turned it into – a pretext for telling the people to return to hear a preacher’s sermon continually.

We should begin by pointing out some known problems with this text. First, some manuscripts say “the word of Christ” instead of “the word of God.” This, however, is arguably a trivial matter, since many New Testament texts slot Jesus into God’s place. It may serve as further evidence of how early Christians saw Jesus as God. Second, Romans 9-11 are probably the most hotly contested parts of the letter, with various interpretations on offer. In this piece, I shall argue that it is best to see Romans 10:17 as a conclusion of the idea begun in Romans 10:14 and that Romans 10:14-17 is itself a unit within the argument Paul crafts in 10:14-11:6.

We should inquire what Paul meant by “faith comes by hearing.” What sort of faith did he have in mind, and did he mean to say that faith unfailingly accompanies hearing the gospel message? It is unlikely that he meant to say faith always follows after hearing the gospel for two reasons. First, Paul was present when Stephen gave the longest and most comprehensive gospel sermon. Paul heard the message about Jesus, yet did not obtain faith. On the contrary, he walked away angry and approved of the death of the preacher. In fact, it was a post-resurrection appearance of Jesus on the road to Damascus that led Paul to faith. Charismatics are generally reluctant to allow experience to play a corrective role in a believer’s theology, and this is not utterly unreasonable. However, it must be said that a robust and comprehensive sermon did not save Saul of Tarsus; an experience of the divine did. When he finally did, as a trained Pharisee with deep knowledge of Scripture, he did not delay in boldly proclaiming that Jesus is the Lord. This is why Paul says he did not receive the gospel from any human, as we explored elsewhere. Second, Paul also discusses the thorny issue of many Israelites in his day not believing the gospel (10:16). This strongly suggests that the “faith” Paul had in mind is saving faith; the faith that turns unbelievers to believers. Paul says his fellow Israelites heard the message:

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God and Hagar: Abraham’s Evil Treatment of Hagar

October 23, 2025 No Comments

Abraham is a significant figure in Judaism, including the form that has evolved into the mutated form we know today as Christianity. The gospel of Jesus was first preached to Abraham as God sovereignly chose to set his redemption plans in motion through Abraham. Generations of Bible readers have also noted the atypical commitment of Abraham to perform what God required of him in the Aqedah story. This story raises many moral questions, as we discussed elsewhere. These points, along with many others, including Abraham’s mention in the “Hall of Faith” chapter of the book of Hebrews, have led many in the church to downplay his not-quite godly episodes. One of such episodes is how he treated Hagar.

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