Chris

Thank you Christian faith does propose answers for some of the questions you’ve posed below … I’ll have a go at them one at a time if that’s ok:

Paradise, as promised to the thief on the cross alongside Jesus, was a Hebrew concept. It isn’t the final heaven, but it is a restful, spiritual and heaven-like state. A sort of waiting room if you like. The concept has most likely been borrowed from ancient Persia, as it seems to have come from a root word that basically means ‘game reserve’. Think of it as an immense, lush garden full of fruitful things and animals for the hunt (and imagine how good that would sound if you were a man of the ancient world - I know we don’t go in for hunting much now, but it’s the concept of abundant rest that’s important).

Hades, on the other hand, is commonly mistranslated ‘hell’ in many older English translations of the Bible, but in fact it’s important to maintain a distinction. It is a realm of gloom inhabited by disembodied souls after death. Its deep unpleasantness is enhanced by the fact that those within it are on some level aware of paradise in the far distance, but are unable to reach it. It is not anyone’s final resting place but the New Testament states in a number of places that it is where the faithless go immediately after they die.

The New Testament speaks of a physical resurrection and judgment by God for all inhabitants of both realms at a point in the future. This occurs for all at the same time, not immediately on death.

To quote Patrick Moore: we simply don’t know. . However, Jesus, once resurrected, had an adult human body and could eat and drink. However his resurrection body was also capable of passing through solid walls and travelling between earth and heaven. That’s what Christian theology teaches is the final state of all the faithful, however as we exist in a spiritual state right after death, I truly don’t know what I’ll look like!

The concept of paradise used by Jesus to describe where he and the thief were about to go is one that is heavy on the idea of rest.

Roman Catholics would say yes, because they believe they can ask the Saints in heaven to pray for them to God (so the saints would have to be able to hear their petitions from down on earth). Personally I don’t see how that’s compatible with the idea of true rest at the end of life, or faith in God who does continue to see and hear everything.

The problem with these questions (and this isn’t a dig at you personally, just the general concept) is that they always assume there is a line between misdemeanours that God doesn’t really worry too much about, and real offensive stinkers for which certain people ‘deserve’ punishment.

The further problem is that people asking such questions almost always see themselves as being on the ‘right’ side of that distinction and certain other people as being on the ‘wrong’ side of it.

Christian belief about sin is that every person, no matter how well intentioned, falls short of perfect holiness (which only God has). So we have messed up, and being imperfect are unable to rectify that ourselves. This is why Christians believe that Jesus, in coming to Earth, living a perfect life, suffering an unjust death, and proving he’s stronger than death by rising again to life, is the only one able to bridge that holy gap between humans and God. Christians believe that *every*single*one* of us, without exception, has committed behaviour that excludes us from eternal life and it is only faith in Jesus, believing and accepting his life within us, that makes it possible for us to attain that eternal life.

Jesus, as recorded in the New Testament of the Bible, claimed to be the answer to all of those questions, and the peace to accept we won’t apprehend all of those answers in this life.

I think I’ve given rather more than now.