Quote:
Originally Posted by MHT32
How do I explain that the good thief would be with Jesus in heaven (In Luke 23:43)
"And He said to him, "Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise."
When Jesus would be with the dead for 3 days?
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"Paradise" in the time and context spoken refers to something the Jews of the time believed in.....not necessarily Heaven as you think.
This is what is referred to as Paradise........In the Holy Bible, the expression "the Bosom of Abraham" is found only in two verses of St. Luke's Gospel (16:22-23). It occurs in the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus the imagery of which is plainly drawn from the popular representations of the unseen world of the dead which were current in Our Lord's time. According to the Jewish conceptions of that day, the souls of the dead were gathered into a general tarrying-place the Sheol of the Old Testament literature, and the Hades of the New Testament writings (cf. Luke 16:22; in the Greek 16:23). A local discrimination, however, existed among them, according to their deeds during their mortal life. In the unseen world of the dead the souls of the righteous occupied an abode or compartment of their own which was distinctly separated by a wall or a chasm from the abode or compartment to which the souls of the wicked were consigned. The latter was a place of torments usually spoken of as Gehenna (cf. Matthew 5:29, 30; 18:9; Mark 9:42 sqq. in the Latin Vulgate) — the other, a place of bliss and security known under the names of "Paradise" (cf. Luke 23:43) and "the Bosom of Abraham" (Luke 16:22-23). And it is in harmony with these Jewish conceptions that Our Lord pictured the terrible fate of the selfish Rich Man, and on the contrary, the glorious reward of the patient Lazarus.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01055a.htm
This is accounted for in the Apostle's creed...."He descended into hell......"
Hell not being the Hell you think of today...but Hades.
Peter also mentions this in here.....1 Peter 3:19.....through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison
Jesus and the Good Thief
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