Paradise and heaven
When we die, do believers go to Paradise to wait for Christ's second coming in which we will be judged before entering Heaven?
Paradise is heaven. Think of what Jesus promised the repentant thief on the cross, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). When Jesus and the thief died on Good Friday, their bodies and souls separated, their bodies remained on earth and their souls went to heaven.
What the repentant thief experienced was not unique to him. Whenever Christians die, they experience judgment from God and their souls go to heaven (Ecclesiastes 12:7; Hebrews 9:27; Luke 16:22).
On the Last Day, those Christians will accompany Jesus as he returns visibly to this world (1 Thessalonians 4:14). The judgment they received at death will be made public, and all those who are alive on the earth at Jesus’ return—and who will not experience death—will be judged at that time (Matthew 25:31-46). And then all Christians will be with the Lord forever (1 Thessalonians 4:17).