He led Captivity Captive

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EPHESIANS 4:8 “Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.”

Try to picture higher dimensions. We live in a 3-dimensional space and are surrounded by a wall of time that we cannot see through.

This stops us from seeing the spirit-world of demonology which is also trapped in time.

Picture Heaven as a higher 6th Dimension of the Spirit. God Himself is above it all as the 7th Dimension (Infinite and impossible to visualize).

In the Old Testament, you went to Paradise, not Heaven.

The only one who went directly to Heaven was Elijah and he needed a chariot and horses of fire as well as a whirlwind to get him over the gulf between Earth and Heaven.

What happened to the rest who could not pass that gulf?

The Old Testament believers went to the Old Testament Paradise which was pleasant but on the wrong side of the pit.

The unbelievers died and went to Prison, pictured as a much lower cave in the side of the pit. This was not so pleasant. They are in a holding cell awaiting the Day of Judgement. A flame of mental torment fills their minds as they realize they have no escape. This 2-dimensional picture cannot show the horror of their endless falling.

LUKE 16:23   “And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

:24   And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.”

“Flame” is singular. This refers to mental torments as they realize that they threw away eternal life when they pursued worldly wealth and pleasure. This is not the flames of a fire. That happens after Judgement Day.

When Jesus died as the Scapegoat, He carried our sins way down to the devil and dumped our sins on him. He beat up Satan and took the keys of death and hell from him.

On the way up Jesus stopped at the Prison and preached to the totally lost. They had mocked Noah and the prophets and now He was here to confirm their condemnation. The unbelievers have no hope after they rejected God’s Word and His warnings to them. They were offered mercy while they were alive and they turned it down, now it is only judgement. They had refused to repent of their sins.

Then He stopped at Paradise where the dead Old Testament saints had been kept captive. The scarlet cord of His Blood freed them from this captivity and they were resurrected up soon after His resurrection.

MATTHEW 27:50 “Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.”

:51 “And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;”

:52 “And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,”

:53 “And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.”

40 days later Jesus ascended to Heaven and took them with Him. Remember, Heaven is a higher dimension where the angels live.

The bottomless pit is where Satan and his demons live. The angels that fell from Heaven in the beginning were cursed and turned into demons.

Now, thanks to His Blood, we have a scarlet cord that takes us over the gulf between Heaven and Earth when we die. So, the dead New Testament saints are in the 6th Dimension of Heaven in the Presence of the Lord.

EPHESIANS 4:9 “Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?”

The way up is down. Humility is the key to success.

Jesus first had to descend right down to where Satan is to win the battle. Only then could He ascend up to earth and then up to Heaven.

EPHESIANS 4:10 “He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.”

Descending down into the pit did Him no harm as that is where He triumphed.

Jesus went right down as far as possible to defeat Satan, and that enabled Him to rise up above all, even above Heaven as the Great Conqueror.

The same One Who went down is the same One Who rose up.

Remember:   The cross comes before the crown.

We need to humble ourselves and die to self so that Christ can fill our hearts. Then when we die, we can also rise to be with Him in Heaven.

Or the living Bride will have their bodies changed and be caught up to meet Him in the air.

The first evangelical sermon ever preached:

ACTS 2:38      “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

:39   For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.”

The Father was God above the Jews. The Son was Emmanuel, God with us. The Holy Ghost is God in us.

Father, Son, and Holy Ghost means God above us, with us, and in us.

That is why Jesus Christ is the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

In the Old Testament, Paradise was occupied by the ghosts of dead people who believed.

When Jesus died, his Holy Ghost emptied out Paradise but then remained to fill  Paradise. The Holy Ghost was the Ghost of a Man Who had died. So, the Holy Ghost could fill Paradise and connect it to Heaven and stay there to guide Christians up to Heaven when they die.

That is why Christians can die and go to Heaven because the Holy Ghost opens the Door to Heaven for them, Jesus is the Door.

JOHN 10:9   “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved”