Paradise

Paradise names a place of glorified spirits — held above the visible world, entered by exception in vision, and offered to the faithful as the goal of their endurance. Two New Testament passages anchor the term: a man caught up into it, and a Spirit's promise to those who overcome.

Caught Up Into Paradise

Paul recounts an experience he can describe only in terms of being taken: "how that he was caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter" (2Co 12:4). Paradise is presented as a real location accessible to the human spirit, but not freely. It is reached by being caught up; what is heard there cannot be carried back into ordinary speech.

The Tree of Life in the Paradise of God

The risen Christ's word to the church at Ephesus closes a promise to the conqueror: "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God" (Re 2:7). The tree of life — last seen in the garden — stands again in the Paradise of God, no longer guarded but offered. Paradise here is the eschatological setting in which the original loss is reversed for those who endure.