• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Worldwide Mission Fellowship

Reaching the lost, equipping the Saints

  • About Us
    • Declaration of Faith
    • Vision
    • Pastor Dennis Greenidge
    • Pastor Rosemary Taylor
    • Weekly Services
    • Archives
    • News
    • Safeguarding
    • Privacy Policy
    • Cookie Policy (UK)
  • Ministries
    • ESTHER OUTREACH
    • Sincere Praise
    • Discipleship
    • Men’s Ministry
    • Women of Destiny
    • Evangelism
    • Missions
    • Praise & Worship
    • Prayer
  • Media
    • App Media
    • WWMF Vimeo
    • YouTube Channel
    • Audio
    • Media Tracts
    • Video
  • Events
  • Blog
  • Contact Us
You are here: Home / Blog / Answers / Salvation / What Is The Difference Between Heaven, Paradise and Purgatory?

August 5, 2003 By Dennis Greenidge 1 Comment

What Is The Difference Between Heaven, Paradise and Purgatory?

When Jesus was hanging on the cross between two thieves, one of the thieves railed at Him and made fun of Him. The other thief admitted they deserved to be punished, but said Jesus had done nothing wrong. Then he turned to Jesus and said, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” Jesus said to him, “Today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:39-43). So paradise must be where Jesus is, because the thief was going to be there with him. It also must be a place that those who have faith in the Lord will enter immediately upon death.

Paradise is a place of bliss and happiness. But it would seem to be an intermediate place, as opposed to the final establishment of a new heaven and a new earth which we have referred to elsewhere (see II Peter 3:10-13, Revelation 21:1-7).

In certain instances heaven refers to the place where God rules. Heaven also refers to the final place where the spirits of the righteous dead will spend eternity after they have been joined with their resurrection bodies. Also, heaven can mean the space above the earth.

The wicked dead, as in the story of the rich man and Lazarus, go immediately to a place called Hades (see Luke 16:20-25). They are waiting for a final judgment when they will be cast into the lake of fire with the devil and his angels (see Revelation 20:11-15). So in a sense there is an intermediate heaven and an intermediate hell.

The concept of purgatory is not biblical. Purgatory is supposed to be a transition period of indefinite duration intended for the perfecting of those people who die in Christ. It is taught that they experience suffering to pay for the sins they committed in this life until they are ready to enter into heaven. The Bible does not teach that. The apostle Paul said, “I am hard pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you” (Philippians 1:23-24).

Paul knew only of two states of being. Either he was going to stay on earth, or he was going to be with Jesus. The concept of purgatory seems to have been unknown to the apostles and does not seem to have any biblical basis at all. The Bible teaches that there are levels of heaven, but there is no mention of a place of purging and torment that would bring us up to a point of being acceptable to God after death (see II Corinthians 12:2).

Share this:

  • Email
  • Print
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest

Filed Under: Salvation

← Will Babies Who Die Without Being Baptized Go To Hell? How Can God Send People Who Have Never Heard of Christ To Hell? →
Avatar photo

About Dennis Greenidge

The Senior Pastor of the Worldwide Mission Fellowship in London, England; a fast growing multicultural, multiracial church with members from over 20 nations which demonstrates a passionate commitment to the principles of God’s word.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Monday Attah says

    July 3, 2012 at 20:51

    I want to know more about heaven and hell

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Footer

Our Most Recent Media Item

Copyright © · Worldwide Mission Fellowship - Privacy Policy - Created by HM Media ·


Manage Cookie Consent
We use cookies to optimise our website and our service.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
Preferences
{title} {title} {title}