The answer is in the Apocrypha, in the second book of Esdras. It tells you exactly what you will be doing there.
First we need to understand the word "Paradise". Paradise is the place that both good and bad people reside. There is a gulf that separates "good" from "bad" (Luke 16:19-26).
The bad are held there until judgment day. There is not "hell" yet (hell is the death of your soul, not an actual lake that a bad person burns day and night ; the spiritual body does not burn, do not age, nor feels pain ; the lake of fire of Rev. 20:15 is a figure of speech).
LET'S GO TO II ESDRAS.
THESE ARE THE PEOPLE WHO WILL NOT MAKE IT TO ETERNITY.
THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THEY CROSS TO THE OTHER SIDE.
II Esdras 46 - 60 "I said then, Lord, and I say now, blessed are those who live and keep your commandments ! But about those for whom I prayed, who is there of those who live who has not sinned, or who is there that is born who has not transgressed your agreement ? And now I see that the world to come will bring joy to few but torment to many. For an evil heart has grown up in us, which has alienated us from these commands, and has led us off to corruption and the ways of death, and shown us the paths of perdition (to turn into ashes from within ; to be blotted out = this is hell), and removed us from life, and that, not just a few, but almost all who have been created !"
And he answered me and said,
"Listen to me, and I will instruct you, and I will admonish you a second time. It was on this account that the Most High made not one world but two. For because you have said that the upright are not many but few, and the ungodly abound, hear the answer to this. If you have very few precious stones, will you increase their number with lead and clay ?"
And I said, "Lord, how can that be ?" And he said to me, "Not only that, but ask the earth and she will tell you ; intreat her, and she will inform you. For you must say to her, 'You produce gold and silver and copper and also iron and lead and clay. But silver is more abundant than gold, and copper than silver, and iron than copper, lead than iron, and clay and lead. So consider which things are precious and to be desired, what is abundant, or what is rare?"
And I said, "Sovereign Lord, what is plentiful is cheaper, for what is more rare is more precious."
And he answered me and said, "Consider with yourself what you have thought, for he who has what is hard to get rejoices more than he who has what is plentiful. It is so with the judgment that I have promised ; for I will rejoice over the few who will be saved, because it is they who have made my glory to prevail more now, and through whom my name has now been honored.
LET'S SKIP TO VERSE 75 - 99.
"If I have found favor in your sight, Sovereign, show this also to your slave ; whether after death as soon as each one of us gives up his soul, we shall be faithful kept at rest until those times come when you begin to renew the creation, or shall be tortured at once."
And he answered me and said, "I will show you that also ; but you must not associate with those who have shown scorn, or count yourself among those who are tortured. For you have a treasure of works laid up with the Most High, but it will not be shown to you until the last times. For about death, the teaching is : When the final sentence goes forth from the Most High that a man is to die, when the soul departs from the body to return again to him who gave it (Eccl. 12), first of all it prays to the glory of the Most High ; if it was one of those who scorned and did not observe the way of the Most High, and of those who have despised his law, and of those who hate those who fear God (love - reverence), such spirits shall not enter dwellings but wander about thenceforth in torment (it's not torment in fire, but tormented because they know they didn't make it), always grieving and sad, in seven ways : The first way is that they have scorned the Law of the Most High. The second way is that they can no longer make a good repentance, so that they may live. The third way is that they will see the reward destined for those who have believed the agreements of the Most High. The fourth way is that they will consider the torment destined for them in the last days. The fifth way is that they will see that the dwelling-places of the others are guarded by angels in profound silence. The sixth way is that they will see that some of them will pass over to be tormented henceforth. The seventh way, which is worse than all the ways that have been mentioned, is that they will waste away in shame and be consumed in disgrace, and wither with fear (fear because they know they will be blotted out, ceased to exist after judgment day), at seeing the glory of the Most High before whom they sinned while they lived, and before whom they are destined to be judged in the last times.
THESE ARE THE PEOPLE WHO MAKES IT TO ETERNITY.
"But of those who have observed the ways of the Most High, this is the order, when they shall be separated from this fragile jar (flesh body). In the time when they lived in it, they carefully served the Most High, though they were in danger every hour (from persecution), so as to keep the Law of the Lawgiver perfectly (we all fall short, but we can have forgiveness after repentance, therefore, God considers it perfect). Therefore this is the teaching about them : First of all, they see with great rapture (a figure of speech, there is not going to be a rapture ; we have to be here to do work for Him) the glory of him who takes them up, for they will rest in seven orders.
The first order is that they have striven with much toil to conquer the wicked though that was formed with them, so that it should not lead them away from life to death (they did the best they could to serve the Lord). The second order is that they see the labyrinth in which the souls of the ungodly wander, and the punishment that awaits them. The third order is that they see the testimony that he who formed them has borne to them, because when they were alive they faithfully observed the Law which was given them. The fourth order is that they understand the rest which they now enjoy, gathered in their chambers, in great quietness, watched over by angels, and the glory that awaits them in the last days (when you pass you are not in a hole on the ground, but with God). The fifth order is that they exult that they have now escaped what is corruptible (the flesh is corruptible, feels pain, ages, and gets sick ; our spiritual body is perfect) and will possess the future as their inheritance, and besides perceive the narrowness and toilsomeness from which they have been freed and the spaciousness they are destined to receive and enjoy in immortality. The sixth order is that it is shown to them how their face is destined to shine like the sun, and how they are to be made like the light of the stars, and be incorruptible thenceforth. The seventh order, which is greater than all those that have been mentioned, is that they will exult boldly, and that they will trust confidently, and rejoice fearlessly, for they hasten to see the face of him whom they served in life, and from whom they are to receive their reward when they are glorified. These are the orders of the souls of the upright, as henceforth proclaimed, and the above ways of torture are those which those who would not give heed will henceforth suffer (suffer because they know they didn't make it)."
And I answered and said, "Then will time be given the souls after they are separated from the bodies, to see what you have told me of ?"
And he said to me, "They have freedom for seven days, to see on the seven days the things you have been told, and afterward they will be gathered in their dwellings."
LET'S SKIP TO VERSE 104-105.
The Day of Judgment is final and shows to all the stamp of truth. Just as now a father cannot send his son or a son his father or a master his slave or a friend his dearest friend to be sick for him, or sleep or eat or be cured, so no one can pray for another then, or lay a burden on another, for they must all bear everyone his own iniquity or uprightness then."
IN OTHER WORDS, EVERYONE WILL ANSWER FOR THEIR OWN SINS.
LET'S SKIP TO VERSE 105:42-45.
"The present world is not the end, and its glory is not lasting ; therefore those who were strong prayed for the weak.
But the Day of Judgment will be the end of this world, and the beginning of the immortal world to come, in which corruption has passed away, immorality is ended, unbelief is abolished, uprightness has increased, and truth as appeared. So no one will then be able to pity one who is condemned in the judgment, or harm one who is victorious."
IN OTHER WORDS, POWER AND MONEY WOULDN'T MATTER IN ETERNITY.
IMMORALITY WILL END, BECAUSE EVERYTHING CORRUPT OR IMMORAL WILL BE BLOTTED OUT.
YOU WILL NOT FEEL SORRY FOR THE CONDEMNED BECAUSE GOD WILL ERASE YOUR MEMORY (REV. 21).
IN OTHER WORDS, YOU WON'T REMEMBER THEM ; MEMORY WILL BE ERASED.
WHY ? BECAUSE GOD IS A LOVING GOD. IT WOULDN'T BE HEAVEN TO SEE AND REMEMBER A FAMILY MEMBER, OR A FRIEND THAT WENT TO HELL.
THE APOCRYPHA (TRANSLATED BY EDGAR J. GOODSPEED).
The Apocrypha formed an integral part of the King James Version of 1611, as they had of all the preceding English versions from their beginning in 1382. But they are seldom printed as part of it any longer, still more seldom as part of the English Revised Version, and were not included in the American Revision.
This is partly because the Puritans disapproved of them ; they had already begun to drop them from the printings of the Geneva Bible by 1600, and began to demand copies of the King James Version omitting them, as early as 1629. And it is partly because moderns discredit them because they did not form part of the Hebrew Bible and most of them have never been found in any Hebrew forms at all.
But they were part of the Bible of the early church, for it is used the Greek version of the Jewish Bible, which we call Septuagint (the Greek version of the Bible translated from older Hebrew manuscripts than King James), and these books were all in that version.
They passed from it into Latin and the great Latin Bible edited by St. Jerome about A.D. 400, the Vulgate, which became the Authorized Bible of western Europe and England and remained so for a thousand years. But Jerome found that they were not in the Hebrew Bible, and so he called them the Apocrypha, the hidden or secret books.
GOD BLESS
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