Objection #2: The thief on the cross, did he go to heaven that day?

Quick summary of what we learned on Part 1: Moses and Elijah with Jesus at mt of transfiguration:

• The Lord himself buried Moses.
• Moses was resurrected by the archangel.
• David is still in the grave awaiting the voice of the archangel.
• Martha understood this is how it works.
• John teaches that a future event will take place where all who are dead will rise again at the last day.

You can't use "Moses and Elijah" as evidence that when we die we go to heaven upon death and stay in harmony with all the other verses that speak of the dead not having any thoughts, memories, etc. Going to heaven will only happen when you are resurrected on the last day.

Continuing...

Objection 2 to "Death as sleeping":

Another argument I hear in defense of immediate life after death is, "the thief on the cross", where the idea is that we DO in fact go to heaven after death because the thief was promised he'd be in heaven that very day with Jesus. Therefore the conclusion is that the other verses speaking of death as "sleeping" with no conscious thought until Jesus returns must be wrong (Ecc. 9:5-6, 10; Psalm 115:17; Psalm 146:4; Daniel 12:2; John 11:11-14, 24). By default, to say that the other verses are wrong means you now have disharmony in scripture, and that would need to be addressed.

At first glance, this seems like a slam dunk. Jesus is saying, "Today you will be with me in paradise." Let's analyze this to see if it's as simple as it sounds.

• Jesus died on Friday as the sun was setting.

• Jesus rose on Sunday and explains He has not yet gone to the Father.
• Furthermore, Jesus remained on earth for 40 days before returning to heaven.

• The book of Revelation shows us what "Paradise" is and where it is.

Question	Answer
Did Jesus go to paradise that day?	No. The Bible says he rested and rose on Sunday and had not yet ascended to the Father.
When did Jesus ascend to heaven?	It was at least 40 days after because Jesus died during Passover and ascended 10 days before the holiday of Pentecost. In those 40 days, he showed himself to
Is there a difference between Heaven and Paradise?	It certainly appears that way. Paradise is the "new Eden" where God creates the new garden for us to live in. The book of Revelation shows us that the tree of life is in paradise and paradise happens on the new earth in the new Jerusalem. So the thief is going to have to wait 1000 years in heaven with God before even stepping foot in paradise, but Jesus did promise him that he would be there, and he will.

Hold on, something isn't right...

Why did Jesus say "...Today..."? Why does it seem to contradict itself?

It's rather simple. The Greek manuscript does not contain punctuation at all. That's a "modern" concept and the manuscripts do not include things like commas, periods, quotation marks and yes...even spaces. Meaning, if we were to read it literally (without translation), it would look like:

andjesussaidtohimassuredlyIsaytoyoutodayyouwillbewithmeinparadise

Question: Given the knowledge above of when Jesus actually ascended to heaven, if you were a modern-day translator of the Greek manuscript to English, where would you put that comma?

• Note: It's nothing new to create new translations from the Greek manuscript to other, clearer, or easy to read versions. This is how we get the NIV, NASB, NKJV, ESV, etc..

Answer: If I were a modern-day translator and I know Jesus didn't ascend that very day (given the scripture above) I would logically have to conclude that the comma goes after "today". Does that make a difference?

• This makes a big difference and now allows the rest of scripture to be in harmony with Jesus not yet ascending to heaven. Clearly, Jesus was making a statement that the thief would be with him in paradise, just not that day. He would sleep as the rest of the saints and rise at the trumpet sound.

Let’s summarize what we have learned

• Jesus died on Friday.

• Jesus was rose on Sunday.

• On Sunday, Jesus Stated to Mary that He had not yet ascended to the Father.

• Jesus remained on earth for 40 days before ascending to heaven.

• Jesus was seen by 500 people at once, again, before ascending to heaven.

• The Greek manuscripts never used commas, periods, quotations or spaces.

• Logically, the comma is in the wrong place. Otherwise, it would contradict the rest of scripture. The easy mistake in translation.

In summary, it's literally impossible that Jesus meant that the thief would be with Him in paradise that day because Jesus didn't go to heaven that day. Jesus says that himself many times, therefore, there's no room for error in understanding this. Jesus ascended after 40 days and the thief is dead, "sleeping", awaiting the trumpet sound. Clearly, and without any hesitation, I can say it's nothing more than a simple error in translation from not understanding where to put the comma. That simple.

Special mentions to: @barncat

Source:

• Image: Thief on the cross
• Image: Confused Face
• All other images are of my own creation.