Paradise

Paradise is an English word of Persian roots. It is usually identified with describing any place of complete bliss, delight and peace. Historically it particularly denotes the biblical Garden of Eden, the place where the first man, Adam, and his wife, lived after they had been created by God until the Fall, or perhaps some imagined place of total tranquility, someplace besides the Earth, or even a new state of Earth without heavy labor, strife, war and death.

In the Book of Genesis, God shapes Adam from the dust of the Earth then causes Adam to go into a deep sleep and as he is sleeping He forms Eve from Adam's side. He then places them in this seemingly perfect garden, called Eden, where they then live. Unfortunately, Eve listened to the Serpent rather than God and her husband Adam, did too. Disobeying God's word to them, taking the bad advice of the serpent and eating the very fruit God told them not to eat, they were now destined to die.

Gen 3:17-19" And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. "

Disobeying God, judgment was pronounced for the serpent as well as Adam and Eve. Expelled from the paradise of Eden, they knew that they should have never listened to the serpent who beguiled them into eating the fruit God told them not to eat.

However, they were comforted that when God expelled them, he gave them a promise. God promised that one day there will be a seed produced of the woman, a redeemer, who would crush the head of the serpent.

Gen 3:14-15 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."

By believing the promise of God, they would one day see redemption.

In Luke 23:43, Jesus told the thief on the cross who believed that he was God, “Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.”