The Paradise we think of, the children among the beautiful flowers, the trees, mountains, rivers, harmless animals, freedom from dread, sickness, pain, death, is not mentioned in the New Testament until we come to the new heaven and earth (verse above).

There are mentions of Paradise in the Old Testament.

The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:6-9)

And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed. And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. (Isaiah 65:19-22)

Notice that in the Old Testament accounts and in Revelation, Chapter 21, Paradise is found on the earth. Paradise, the garden of God, originally was on the earth. We know from what Paul said that Paradise in the present hour is in the third heaven. But Paradise was created to be on the earth and will return to the earth with the coming of the Lord Jesus and His Church.

Current Evangelical preaching stresses that the Lord Jesus Christ came to save us from Hell and to admit us to Paradise (which we call "Heaven").

Nowhere in the New Testament is the Lord Jesus Christ presented as being our deliverer from Hell—nowhere! There most certainly is a Hell! But escape from Hell is not set forth as the emphasis of the Gospel accounts.

We could glean from Paul's being caught up to Paradise that Christ came to bring us to Paradise.

Also, there is the following passage:

And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise. (Luke 23:43)

This verse often is used to show the possibility of a deathbed conversion. But the Lord Jesus did not bring the thief into the Kingdom of God or eternal life, which are the hope of the Gospel, but into Paradise.

To be continued.