Claim. The Kingdom of Heaven in heaven is currently empty — no human has ever entered it, because no one has yet reached divine-spirit level on earth. Paradise is the interim region of the spirit world where life-spirits (NT-age believers in Jesus) wait until the Kingdom’s gate is opened at the Second Advent.
Elaboration. Per 2.2.5. The Kingdom of Heaven and Paradise: “Had Jesus completed his mission… the Kingdom of Heaven in heaven would also have been realized at that time, once people of perfect character… had passed into the spirit world as divine spirits. However, because Jesus died on the cross… the earth never saw the appearance of people who had reached the level of a divine spirit. No one has ever become a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven in the spirit world.”
Therefore Jesus’s promise to the thief — “today you will be with me in Paradise” (43) — is read precisely: Paradise, not Kingdom of Heaven. “While Jesus had the hope of accomplishing his mission… he preached that people could enter the Kingdom of Heaven. But when he was at the point of dying on the cross without fulfilling this purpose, he told the thief that he would enter only Paradise.” Paradise is “the realm… for those spirits who have attained the level of life spirits by believing in Jesus during their earthly life. There they remain in waiting until the gate to the Kingdom of Heaven is opened.”
Most striking implication: Jesus himself has not entered the Kingdom of Heaven. He waits in Paradise with the saints, awaiting the Second Advent. Among DP’s most contested claims vs traditional Christianity (Christ ascended, sits at the Father’s right hand).
See also. dp-cross-grants-spiritual-salvation-only-not-physical, dp-completion-stage-completed-testament-age-justification-by-attendance-divine-spirit