Did Jesus preach to spirits in Paradise?

It would have defiled the sacrifice. Comparable to the OT priest not touching after cleansing.
Jhn 20:17
Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God

We go to Heaven, All righteous OT now are in Heaven but before the Jesus Crucifixion they could not. They were waiting in Paradise of Abraham bosom.

Elijah was caught up into heaven shamayim שָׁמַיִם shâmayim, shaw-mah'-yim; dual of an unused singular שָׁמֶה shâmeh; from an unused root meaning to be lofty; the sky (as aloft; the dual perhaps alluding to the visible arch in which the clouds move, as well as to the higher ether where the celestial bodies revolve):—air, × astrologer, heaven(-s)

I cannot find a verse saying Enoch and heaven

i don't where they were but the general idea is the price of admission had to be paid before we can enter Heaven

 

not Protestant purgatory , not for the wicked, Paradise for the righteous. as the Parable of Lazarus says.

Enoch did not go to Heaven , God took him. Elijah was going up in the heavens, Elisha was still looking.


more importantly, no one could go to heaven until the sacrifice was presented and accepted. Consider all the same rituals in the sacrifices of the OT, especially the scapegoat, even Yom Kippur.

At the Crucifixion , /Jesus said in Paradise, but we do not expect to go to Paradise , except as Heaven, is a paradise.
.....present with the Lord .... could not be until the sin debt was paid...

 

names are not written in the book ...... from the foundation of the earth

compare to
Rev 17:8
The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is

We know when Jesus was slain, and the purpose the world was created .. He saves us by His Crucifixion

 

but His death is in time,

His blood can only be applied when Christ was obedient unto death. True God can apply it anytime as desired but He applied it once for ALL sin.

The adjective did not apply to Jesus but the names in the book. as other evidence shows

 

How many times a year was the Mercy Seat used?

 

It is a yearly figure of what would happen with the Mercy Seat in Heaven,

By your verse "entered once in the Holy Place" .
I agree it is outside of time but events happen accordingly and the entry into the Holy Place and the application of the shed blood happened once and had to happen after His Death. The application of the blood allowed us sinners to access Heaven or God's presence , He is too Holy to allow unpaid sin . Sinners who are paid for by the blood are now welcome. Thus Paradise was required until Jesus could apply the blood.

Events on earth have affect in Heaven.

 

Then why the story of the Rich man and Lazarus? Lazarus was not in Heaven.

Events happen in sequence in Heaven , even though not subject to time.

Just as the blood was applied in the Holy Place once . It could not be applied until after He died. The blood could not apply to anyone else before it was applied. That is why Heb 11 .... accounted for righteousness.... not salvation..
Now it applied to all even those OT saints, They were on credit before

 

good grief ,, When was the blood applied, before or after His death? I does not matter if there is time in Heaven, it was applied once,, no blood on altar, them blood on altar. no time involved

The descriptions used in the parable suggest the Rich man and Lazarus had a great gulf? Where are are two in the same place, one tormented the other consoled?

 

They could not go to Heaven but had to go to Paradise. God is too Holy.