I couldn't go teach my class Sunday.  Had to get someone to do it for me.   I probably should have gone to the doctor last week, but it took all I had just to get out of bed.  I already take antibiotics every day.  Besides, I know what the doctor would say, "Bed rest and plenty of fluids."  Which I did.  It's a bummer.  My neighbors brought me soup today.  Becky brought me gumbo.   I'll try and eat some of it.  Back to the letter to the Ephesians....

Ephesians 4:8-10 is a passage that I hesitate to include because there is disagreement on it.  So I will just be honest and tell you what I think.  You can form your own opinion.  I have to back up a bit and include other scripture to explain where I'm coming from.

In Luke 16:19-30 we read the story of a rich man who died in sin, who had ignored a beggar named Lazarus--who sat at the rich man's gate and begged.  The rich man went to hell and Lazarus died and went to the place where Abraham was--which I believe was Paradise.  A great gulf was between the evil rich man and Lazarus so that the rich man couldn't cross to escape his torment.  Jesus spoke concerning this place to the thief on the cross and said, "This day will you be with me in Paradise."

I believe Paradise was a "holding place" for those who had trusted God.  Held until Christ rose.  Once the price for sin was paid, those held in Paradise rose from that place as evidenced in Matthew 27:52 "And the graves were opened and many bodies of the saints which slept arose and came out of the graves after his resurrection."  They couldn't go to heaven when they had died (as we now can) because the blood sacrifice of God's Lamb hadn't been paid.  They were "held" in Paradise.

Which brings us to the passage in Ephesians that says, "Now he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth...when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive...He that descended is the same as he that ascended up far above all heavens..."  I think that is exactly what Jesus did.  When He died, He went to Paradise to free those held there who had trusted God to save them--the thief on the cross went with Him.  Three days later all Hell broke loose and those who had given their hearts to God and believed in the coming Messiah were released from the graves.  Paradise is empty.  Hell is still full of the unrepentant waiting on the judgment.