Rattigan350: Why does it matter what Paul said? He was not a prophet. He was a Jewish historian. That is what turned me off to religion. It is all about, Paul said, Peter said, James, John, Jesus, etc. They said something 2 thousand years ago. now what?
Critics of religion almost always state their opinions as absolute facts and I’ve never quite understood that. According to Christian dogma, Paul was indeed a prophet because he was an apostle, and all of the apostles were prophets. And the primary roles of prophets were to prophesy of Christ. He was converted because of an open vision and Jesus had spoken Paul’s name and had directed him to the local leaders of the day. The vision itself did not make him a prophet, or an apostle, for he had a great deal to learn; however, his conversion greatly unnerved both the Christians and their critics at the time, but Paul’s value to the cause was that as a radical Jew bent upon the destruction of the Christian faith; he was a witness of Christ’s resurrection and eventually gave his life for the cause.
Like anyone, Paul had certain predilections that raised eyebrows, but he was an apostle, a prophet, a theologian and a missionary of the church. His writings are invaluable to Christians living in all dispensations.
Friendaroonie: ...my question is: is paradise a metaphor for heaven lr is heaven a metaphor for paradise?
Paradise is simply a holding area for spirits. It’s a place where you review your life time and time again, learning from your successes and mistakes. You learn how you bolstered people and hurt them and review your decisions in life and the effects those decisions had on you and others. People who have had near death experiences have had what they call “life reviews.” Based upon your progress, you are judged and resurrected to a certain glory. Paradise, however, is primarily for decent, honorable people. It’s counterpart, Hell, does essentially the same thing, but is far less pleasant. Imagine someone like Hitler, Stalin, or Mao having countless reviews of their lives and experiencing the pain and agony they inflicted on others. By the time they’re finished, they’ll know their names, histories and lives as well as they do their own. That’s why Hell, though excruciating, is still remedial. Ultimately, it burns the evil out of people. It doesn’t mean they come forth in the first resurrection, the resurrection of the just; they will eventually be resurrected as well, but to a much lower glory. The notion that the righteous will simply be restored to a Paradise Earth is one of the more absurd doctrines of the Jehovah's Witnesses. Man had to fall, then be redeemed through the shedding of righteous blood, to become the glorious beings that Adam and Eve never could have attained on their own.
Eastern Orthodox scholar Mark Shuttleworth put it like this:
Add all these other motifs—sonship, being fellow heirs, union, being made like Christ, partaking of the divine nature—and we see that these describe the divine image, broken and marred (but not altogether lost) through Adam’s fall, being remade in us through Christ’s redeeming work, so that we become like God. Thus in Genesis we are created in God’s image; through Christ we are given the opportunity to acquire God’s likeness. In Ephesians 4:23–24 this very idea is reinforced: “be renewed in the spirit of your mind” and “put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.” And in 5:1 we are enjoined to be “imitators of God.” Source
In other words, the atonement was not intended to restore man to the glory of Adam and Eve, but to the glory of God the Father. (Besides, can you conceive of spending trillions and trillions of years in a garden Paradise?)
