Tim Maas Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

As I understand the theology involved, by His reference to Paradise, Jesus was not speaking of heaven, but of the intermediate state of blessedness of deceased believers at that time (that is, prior to Christ's resurrection and subsequent ascension), in which both the repentant thief and Jesus would have been immediately following their deaths. (The corresponding intermediate abode of the unsaved would have been Hades.)

When Jesus was later resurrected and subsequently ascended to Heaven (directly opening the way to it for all those redeemed by faith in Him), He took with Him those who had been in Paradise, as indicated by Ephesians 4:8.

January 24 2021 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Aurel Gheorghe

This is an excellent question especially because the passage has been used many times to argue that upon death the saved immediately go to Paradise. 

However, my understanding is that the Bible does not say that Jesus went to Paradise immediately after His death (Acts 2:31; Matt 12:40). 

Jesus died on a Friday, He was placed in the tomb where He remained until the resurrection Sunday when He appeared to Mary saying “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father” (John 20:17). How could He promise the thief that He would be with Him in Paradise on that Friday? Besides, most likely, Jesus and the thief did not die on the same day. The Bible says that Jesus died Friday before sunset (John 19:33) when the thief was still alive. Later on, the thief's legs were broken to hasten his death and it's very likely that he might have lived several hours after sunset, which means that he died the next day, on Saturday (a Bible day starts at sunset and ends at sunset (Gen 1:5)). 

The truth is that the interpretation of this paragraph rests on the placement of a comma: Should it be placed before “today” (“I tell you the truth, today you will be...”), or after “today” (“I tell you the truth today, you will be...”)? The first reading is the most common among those who believe in the immortality of the soul. The idea is that upon death, the soul of the thief would be with Christ in Paradise. 

But the original Greek Bible manuscripts did not use punctuation marks of any kind, they were added to the Greek text much later, in the 14th century A.D. Therefore he could have meant “I say to you today, you will be with Me in Paradise.” This interpretation is supported by other uses of the “today” in the Bible when making a promise: “I command you today...” (Deut 30:16); “I announce to you today that you will surely perish” (Deut 30:18). And to me, this makes more sense because Jesus was not in Paradise immediately after He died. He was only promising the thief that he will see salvation with Christ in Paradise after the resurrection. 
Jesus' promise indicates that salvation is already available through Christ today (Luke 2:11; 4:21; 5:26; 19:9). This is the “today” of salvation. 

In my view, the text has nothing to do with the state of the dead, but with the saving power of Jesus and the assurance that all who died in faith, at His return will be resurrected (John 5:28, 29; 1 Thess 4:16, 17) to spend eternity with Him in Paradise.

January 24 2021 • 10 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

James Kraft 74 year old retired pipeline worker

All of the old testament saints went to paradise under the earth. Jesus told the thief who believed He was the savior that he would be with him in paradise today. 

Jesus paid the price for the sins of the whole world on the cross. First John 2:2 And He is the propitiation for our sins, and not our only, but for the sins of the whole world. 

So, Jesus died and his body went to the grave, and His spirit went to paradise on that day. The thief also went to paradise because Jesus said so. 

Abraham was in paradise. Remember, the rich man who had died and gone to hell called to Abraham to send the beggar to give him a drop of water to cool his tongue. According to scripture the center of the earth has hell on one side and paradise on the other with a space between. 

Jesus did not go back to heaven until 40 days after he was raised from the dead. That was at the transfiguration when He ascended up to heaven from where He came from. 

When we die, we go straight to heaven. Paul said he would be absent from the body and present with the Lord 

It is only our soul/spirit that is saved. We will get a new body like Jesus at the resurrection. The rapture of the church. First Corinthians 15:51-53 and First Thessalonians 4:13-18.

April 23 2021 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report