Shalom, mishpachah (Peace, family)!
It is now "yowm richown," the "head day" of the week, or "Sunday." Last week, I talked briefly about the "church" and how it is a simple participle that acts like our gerund, meaning that it is treated as a noun. We also covered how it is a COLLECTIVE noun (or gerund), much like our words "flock," "herd," "pack," or "pride" (of lions), and that Yeshua` did NOT give Himself to die for an organization! He gave Himself to die for PEOPLE, like you and me.
In a previous post (long ago), I've mentioned that "heaven" simply means the "sky" or "skies." If anyone talks about "heaven" for any length of time, it usually becomes clear that he or she is actually talking about the "New Jerusalem," "Yerushalayim haChadashah," when they mention the "golden streets," "pearly gates," or the "river of the water of life." That city, in my opinion, is a quite literal city 1,500 miles long, 1,500 miles wide, and 1,500 miles high, consisting of an outside wall of jasper, the "BLOOD"-stone, with a first foundational level also made of jasper.
The other foundations I believe are foundational LEVELS to the city separated from each other by 125 miles of vertical building space, part of which is taken up by the thickness of each foundation.
The 144 cubits, or 72 yards, mentioned, I believe, is the THICKNESS of the walls, particularly at the gates. Only the foundations of the city are in the form of a square for the city "LIETH foursquare" or "covers a square area" or "has a square footprint." If the walls of the city are "great and high," literally "huge and high," then 72 yards or 216 feet or 65.8 meters hardly seems "high" compared to a city that is 1,500 MILES high!
If all four of the walls go all the way to the top of the city, 1,500 miles up, and meet at a point, the structure would be that of a four-sided pyramid, much like the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.
The "cube" theory of the New Jerusalem doesn't quite do it. The basic shape of the cube is a square on each of its six sides and a square, architecturally speaking, can be "squashed," that is, formed into a rhombus, by pushing in on one of its corners.
The basic shape of the four walls of a pyramid is a triangle, the most stable of the simple polygons. The triangle can't be "squashed" without breaking a side or an angle. This is why there are triangles embedded within rectangular-shaped buildings we have today. Strength is increased by cross beams, which break up the rectangle into two triangles, in such a structure. The more triangles, particularly 60-60-60 triangles, the more stable the structure.
This New Jerusalem is called an "epouranios" city meaning a city "of or from above-the-sky" or a city currently in space. That is where it is being constructed, and we have learned from our experiments in the orbital space lab, that crystals grow better in zero-gravity. When Yeshua` (Jesus) said, "I go to prepare a place for you," I believe He was talking about this city. Yochanan (John) then told us that he saw the New Jerusalem coming down from "ouranos," meaning the "sky," which would suggest that it will land upon the New Earth, whose surface is re-created after the Fire.
Thus, we are not instructed to anticipate "going to heaven" because "He will dwell with us and be our God." Instead, we are always admonished to anticipate the RESURRECTION of our bodies, and we are told to expect the resurrection (after the Fire) of a creation that currently "groaneth and travaileth in pain together" to be re-created!
Now, as far as the word "paradise" is concerned, if one were to look the word up in a Strong's Concordance, he or she would find that it is defined as...
NT:3857 paradeisos (par-ad'-i-sos); of Oriental origin [compare OT:6508]; a park, i.e. (specifically) an Eden (place of future happiness, "paradise"):
KJV - paradise.
(Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003, 2006 Biblesoft, Inc. and International Bible Translators, Inc.)
... and that the word is found in three places within the New Testament: Luke 23:43; 2 Corinthians 12:4; and Revelation 2:7:
Luke 23:39-43
39 And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.
40 But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?
41 And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss.
42 And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.
43 And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.
KJV
2 Corinthians 12:1-4
12 It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.
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
Revelation 2:7
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
However, notice, too, that Strong's says to "compare OT:6508." So, we look this word up and we find...
OT:6508 pardec (par-dace'); of foreign origin; a park:
KJV - forest, orchard.
(Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003, 2006 Biblesoft, Inc. and International Bible Translators, Inc.)
If one does an Englishman's Concordance search on this word, one would find an additional three verses: Nehemiah 2:8; Ecclesiastes 2:5; and Song of Solomon 4:13:
Nehemiah 2:7-8
7 Moreover I said unto the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river, that they may convey me over till I come into Judah;
8 And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.
KJV
Ecclesiastes 2:5
5 I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits:
KJV
Song of Solomon 4:12-15
12 A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.
13 Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard,
14 Spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices:
15 A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon.
KJV
So, what is a "paradise?" It's simply a "garden of trees" or an "orchard," much as was the original Gan-Eden or Garden of Eden.
I think I've said this before, but I had a pastor once who gave us a really rudimentary outline of the Bible:
I. What ought to be - Genesis 1, 2
II. What is - Genesis 3
III. How to get from what is to what ought to be - Genesis 4 through Revelation 22
If a perfect God looked at all that He had made on the six days of Creation and declared it all "very good," then why would we expect anything different for eternity than what He gave us in the Creation? If He started with mankind in a garden, the Garden of Eden, then why wouldn't we expect to find mankind in a garden in our future state of happiness?
Now, I know I've talked about this before, but look again at Revelation 2:7:
Revelation 2:7
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
So, where is this "tree of life" to be found? Well, Yochanan also said about the New Jerusalem in Revelation 22:1-2:
Rev 22:1-2
22 And he shewed 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
So, the tree of life is also within the New Jerusalem. Therefore, if the tree of life is "in the midst of the paradise of God" and it is also "in the midst of the street of [the city], and on either side of the river [of water of life]," then either the "paradise of God" is within the New Jerusalem or it IS the New Jerusalem! I believe that it is the PARK SYSTEM that exists within the structure of the New Jerusalem and will "spill out" onto the New Earth, once the gates of pearl have been opened after the city lands.
Finally, I'd like to talk about one more "holy" word: "angel." This is not that difficult; so, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it. The word is TRANSLITERATED from the Greek instead of being TRANSLATED from the Greek. When a word is totally changed from Greek to English, like "agapee" to "I love," that is translation, but when a word is changed letter by letter from Greek letters to their English equivalents, that is transliteration. Another word that was transliterated from the Greek was the word "Christ," stemming from the Greek word "christos," spelled "chi-rho-iota-sigma-tau-omicron-stigma," meaning "anointed." The "chi" is usually transliterated as a "ch" since it sounds like the "ch" in the Scottish word "loch." The "rho" is like our "r"; the "iota" is like our "i"; the "sigma" is like our "s"; the "tau" is like our "t"; the "omicron" (which means "small o") is like our short "o"; and the "stigma," and ending "sigma," is again like our "s." So, I transliterate the word as "christos." Recognizing that the "-os" ending was purely to identify a noun, the original transliterators dropped that ending and derived the word "Christ," capitalized out of respect because it refers to the Son of God.
In much the same way, the Greek word is "aggelos," meaning a "messenger," spelled "alpha-gamma-gamma-epsilon-lambda-omicron-stigma." In transliteration, the "alpha" is like our "a"; the "gamma-gamma" makes the "ng" sound and so was transliterated that way as an "ng"; "the "epsilon" is like our short "e"; the "lambda" is like our "l"; the "omicron" is like our short "o"; and the "stigma" is like our "s." So, I transliterate the Greek word as "aggelos," and again, the original transliterators dropped the "-os" ending, deriving the word "angel."
I bring all this up because it is important to remember when seeing the words "angel" or "angels" in the New Testament ("aggelos" or "aggeloi" in the Greek respectively) that they simply mean "messenger" or "messengers" and may be referring to HUMAN messengers as easily as supernatural messengers. In fact, if it was obvious to the translators, they would translate the words as "messenger" or "messengers" instead, as in the case of Yochanan the Immerser (John the Baptist) and others in Matthew 11:10; Mark 1:2; Luke 7:24, 27; 9:52; 2 Corinthians 12:7; and James 2:25. In my opinion, they should have ALL been rendered as "messenger" or "messengers" because there are a number of times when I feel that the words should have referred to HUMAN messengers instead of assuming they were supernatural messengers. An important instance is in 1 Peter 1:12:
1 Peter 1:6-12
6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
10 Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
11 Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
12 Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.
KJV
How many time have you heard messages preached in which the preacher says, "When the saints sing about salvation, the angels have to fold their wings." Or, he will say, "the angels desire to look into the things about the gospel and salvation." Both of these statements and statements like them stem from verse 12.
HOWEVER, let me give you another interpretation, using the word "messengers" instead of "angels." Look at verse 10 above! WHO "have inquired and searched diligently" about "salvation?" The PROPHETS have! So, what is a "prophet" if not a "messenger from God?" Thus, I believe that, in keeping with its context, verse 12 is about the prophets, not about the supernatural messengers! And, they desired to look into the "rescue of your breathers" ("salvation of your souls") not so much because they couldn't participate, but because the matter INTRIGUED them! They were given visions of the future about the RESCUE of Isra'el when Yeshua` returns ahead of schedule, and they wanted to see its fulfillment!
I believe that there are MANY more instances when the words "messenger" or "messengers" should have been used for translation than "angel" or "angels" because they refer to HUMAN messengers, like prophets, rather than supernatural messengers. Not all, but many more.
That's all for today.
In the Messiah's love,
Retrobyter
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