Has Anyone Gone To Heaven?

 Yes, Jesus said no man has ever ascended to heaven. But please, what "heaven"? There is the "Heaven of heavens". This is the literal dwelling place of God, our heavenly Father, our spiritual Father. This is actually what Paradise is. This is the HIGHEST heaven. It is the "heaven" of other "heavens". The highest Heaven of all other heavens or heavenly spheres. The Jewish Bible captures this concept of the Heaven of heavens. Please see Deuteronomy 10:14, Nehemiah 9:6, 1 Kings 8:27, and Psalm 148:4.

It takes time to get to the highest heaven after resurrection. You have to go through other heavens - other heavenly realms first. Some of us know of the first seven heavens people go through after they resurrect. Paul, while on earth, had a revelational experience of the third of these seven heavens. It is this set of seven heavens that Enoch and Elijah were translated to; NOT Paradise or the Heaven of heavens. This explains why Jesus said no man has been to "heaven" - to Paradise. 

When you understand these things, you shall see that the repentant thief did not go to Paradise on that same day of the Crucifixion. It is literally impossible to ascend to Paradise, the literal dwelling place of the Paradise Trinity, within a day. You cannot even get there within 100,000 years. 

There is a human error in the NT Bible's rendition of what Master Jesus said to the salvaged thief. The comma:, should be after the word "today", NOT before. Luke 23:43 is supposed to be: "Truly, I say to you today, you will be with me in Paradise." Some theologians have discovered this human error. 

Besides, the Father's presence there has light no human soul can approach (1 Timothy 6:16). You have to learn, grow, evolve, and be prepared for it. You have to become perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect. If not, you will shatter to pieces if taken to the literal presence of the Father immediately you resurrect.

Enoch and Elijah were translated in chariots of fire to heaven (or the heavenly mansion worlds). This spiritual fire  literally consumes the body of flesh and blood to dust, ashes... 

You and I can have a similar experience if we meet the requirements. We have to attain a very high level of combined intellectual and spiritual growth. This is why the Jewish records indicate and rightly so: that Enoch walked with God in a very, very deep way. This led to his translation, for God took him. (Reference: Genesis 5:24) This, my dear, is also what happened to Elijah. 

Some people say Elijah was taken to another part of the earth in a windstorm. A windstorm do NOT take people from one part of the earth to another. That's a myth, beloved. Some folks may point to 2 Chronicles 21 to show that Elijah was still on earth after his translation experience. Please, just stop to consider the human errors in the writing of the Bible and also mistakes people make in interpreting what was written. Then, you'll understand... 

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Urantia Book 11:0.1

"PARADISE is the eternal center of the universe of universes and the abiding place of the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, the Infinite Spirit, and their divine co-ordinates and associates. This central Isle is the most gigantic organized body of cosmic reality in all the master universe. Paradise is a material sphere as well as a spiritual abode. All of the intelligent creation of the Universal Father is domiciled on material abodes; hence must the absolute controlling center also be material, literal. And again it should be reiterated that spirit things and spiritual beings are real." 

Urantia Book 48:6.23 

"You should consider the statement about “heaven” and the “heaven of heavens.” The heaven conceived by most of your prophets was the first of the mansion worlds of the local system. When the apostle spoke of being “caught up to the third heaven,” he referred to that experience in which his Adjuster was detached during sleep and in this unusual state made a projection to the third of the seven mansion worlds. Some of your wise men saw the vision of the greater heaven, “the heaven of heavens,” of which the sevenfold mansion world experience was but the first; the second being Jerusem; the third, Edentia and its satellites; the fourth, Salvington and the surrounding educational spheres; the fifth, Uversa; the sixth, Havona; and the seventh, Paradise." 

Sincerely, 

Love. Light. Life. 

- Brother Karo Akamune 

ChristMichaelCenter.org 

karo.quora.com