Originally Posted by
dverna
Here is a thought. Before the death of Jesus, people did not go to heaven. Instead, they went to Paradise. Paradise was a "holding area" in Hades where those who were going to go to Heaven waited for their sins to be cleansed. John 14:6 "No man goes to the Father but through me".
Until Jesus died for the sins of man, no person would be worthy of eternal life with God in Heaven.
It is proposed that during the three days Jesus between his death on the cross and rising from the grave, Jesus was in Paradise. When speaking to the thief next to Him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” Luke 23:43
There is further evidence to support this interpretation. Luke 16:22-23
22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.
How could the rich man have seen Lazarus and Abraham from Hades if Paradise was not close to Hades?
One could infer that Hades, a place for the dead, held both those who were going to Hell and those who had been blessed and would one day be resurrected. There was a gulf between those two areas that could not be crossed, but there were adjacent.