Is Paradise and Heaven same place?

Ecclesiastes 12:7 says, “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” This Old-Testament foundation already shows that when a believer dies, the spirit does not stay in the grave but returns to God. The New Testament repeats and confirms this truth even more clearly through the words of Jesus, Paul, and Stephen.

When Jesus spoke to the thief on the cross in Luke 23:43, He said, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.” Jesus did not describe Paradise as a place under the earth but as the place where He Himself was going that very day. This makes Paradise the dwelling place of God.

After His resurrection Jesus said in John 20:17, “I am not yet ascended to my Father,” which proves that the place He came from—the place He called Paradise is the same place where the Father is. Paradise therefore is in the presence of the Father.

Paul explains this even more directly in 2 Corinthians 12:2–4. He says he was “caught up to the third heaven,” and in the next breath calls this same location “paradise.” Heaven and Paradise are not two different places. Paul uses the terms interchangeably because they refer to the same realm where God dwells.

Philippians 1:23 continues the same picture when Paul says, “Having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better.” There is no gap or waiting place. To depart is to be with Christ, and Christ is in Heaven.

Hebrews 9:24 makes this unmistakable: “For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands … but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.” If Jesus is in Heaven itself, and the New Testament teaches that believers go to be with Him, then believers go to Heaven, which the Bible also calls Paradise.

Revelation 2:7 agrees perfectly: “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” The tree of life is located in the throne room of God in Revelation 22. That means the Paradise of God is the Heaven where God’s throne is.

This is exactly why Stephen, while being stoned, cried out in Acts 7:59, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Stephen did not believe he was going to sleep in the grave. He believed exactly what Jesus taught and what Paul later explained—when the body dies, the spirit goes immediately into the hands of the Lord. If Jesus is in Heaven, then Stephen’s spirit went to Heaven. And that confirms that the place where Jesus receives the spirit of a believer is the same place Jesus called Paradise.

So the unified testimony of Scripture is that Paradise and Heaven are not two separate locations. Paradise is simply another New-Testament word for the presence of God, the same place Jesus ascended to, the same place Paul was caught up to, the same place where the tree of life is, and the same place where Stephen’s spirit went when he said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

So according to Ecclesiastes 12:7, Luke 23:43, John 20:17, Acts 7:59, Philippians 1:23, 2 Corinthians 5:8, 2 Corinthians 12:2–4, Hebrews 9:24, and Revelation 2:7, the New Testament teaching is perfectly unified: when a believer dies, their spirit immediately leaves the body and goes directly into the presence of Jesus in Heaven, which is also called Paradise they are not two different destinations but the same eternal dwelling place of God.