Christians only Please?

I think it's due to the concept of the Trinity. Since all three of them are one, He was telling the thief the truth. Interesting question, though.

When Jesus died he went to the *center * which is *paradise* and paradise was both Hades and a place for the believers ( The Bosom of Abraham), * a great gulf divided the two*... Jesus was able to say what He said because He was and is the Savior.... The thief acknowledged this by his words and question to Jesus... The thief died before Jesus had left paradise with the believers.... There for it makes sense that the thief FIRST went to paradise, then went UP to Heaven with Jesus and the rest.... The theif could NOT go to heaven before Christ, so he would have had to be in paradise while Jesus was there.... go in peace.... God bless

Jesus did not descend into eternal hell fire but into Sheol which was the place of the dead. The most current evidence suggests that Jesus descended to the lower heavens or to a prison in the place of the dead called Sheol where he announced his victory to the fallen angels that had been imprisoned there from before the flood. This was discovered recently due to rediscovering lost Jewish traditions about the flood and the bad angels who got put in prison since the flood could not drown them.

The term Paradise was used to describe a desirable place in Sheol called "Abraham's bosom". This was a place to wait for the Resurrection of the dead at the end of the age. This Sheol was thought to be a place where the wicked were in a place of punishment and separated from the righteous who were in a much better place. There was a great divide between the two so that they could not pass from one to the other.

Interestingly enough the term Purgatory is the English word from the Latin word Purgatorium which is Latin for Hades (Hades is Greek for Sheol). Hell is often used loosely to describe Hades (example is the KJV), which is a loose translation of hell, but technically hell is Gehenna which is the place where the worm never dies and is the eternal hell or lake of fire. Modern scholars describe Hades as the place of the dead and Gehenna as hell.

The thief could not enter heaven until Jesus rose from the dead. He would not go before Jesus ascended. So, the thief must have been in Sheol (Abraham's bosom or paradise) at least until Jesus ascended.

Jesus is God. There were souls in heaven before the Incarnation. Jesus was saying to the thief on the cross his soul will be in heaven. And because God is a Trinity he was able to say "today you will be with me in paradise". Paradise was used to describe where Adam and Eve lived. The paradise Jesus was speaking of is Heaven.

Jesus descended into hell where all the dead,who were righteous were waiting for the Redeemer in Abraham's bosom. It is precisely these souls, who awaited their Saviour in Abraham's bosom, whom Christ delivered when he descended into hell. Jesus did not descend into hell to deliver the damned, nor to destroy the hell of damnation, but to free the just who had gone before him.

Saying "Christians only" is a special invitation for us non-Christians.

As I see it, the only way to rationalize what Jesus said and did is to believe that he was speaking metaphorically. Your reasoning is not logical.

Oh I just thought of another way to rationalize it. If you believe Jesus is God, then Jesus is the same being as God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. God the Father was in heaven before, during and after Jesus' death. When the thief died he would have gone straight to heaven, and seeing as the Father and Jesus are the same being, the thief is with Jesus in heaven.

Jesus Christ went to "paradise", or the spirit world between the time you are talking about. This is where we all go when we die. There we wait for the judgment and for many righteous it is a prison because they miss their bodies, so they Also refer it as the "Spirit Prison". While there he organized the teaching of the gospel giving authority to the great men there. He opened the door to the "hell" side so they could go and preach the gospel to the disobedient. This had been closed. (See the parable about Abraham's Bosom.)

Later we will be judged and receive our immortal bodies.

Paradise.. not heaven. Remember Abraham's Bosom was where the believers awaited the atonement.

Before Christ was born, died and rose from the dead, those who trusted in God went to a place called Abraham's bosom. When Christ died, he went there, and took the believers to paradise. They will remain there until Christ returns to earth, and they with him.

That'snot bad, but I think that our understanding of the "other side" is so infantile, that it makes it hard to discuss in terms that we can understand. Does time not apply to the "other side" Was Jesus only telling the guy that He was going to be saved. When the lawyers and the nitpickers overanalyze every syllable of the bible, it sometimes seems like there are contradictions. I don't think we will be allowed to talk to our Father that way. I think that the big"you know what I meant" is going to overrule any discussions. I think that Jesus is the son, the Father and the spirit are seperate in some way, while not in another way.

He was saying "today you shall be with Me [IN SPIRIT] in Paradise".

Jesus' body went to the grave. Jesus' spirit was always alive.

In Matthew 22:31-33, Jesus revealed that the dead are presently alive. That is because they are spirits.

So while Jesus' body was dead, Jesus was in heaven with the criminal.

And Paradise is heaven (2 Corinthians 12:4).

I believe the answer lies somewhere in the notion that God's time is not our time. Possibly because of translation I think today may have meant "this day" as in when someone gets saved and belives and from that point on they will see God in heaven.

Peter 3:8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. http://bible.cc/psalms/90-4.htm

Also remember Adam and Eve and the forbiden fruit where God said the day you eat of it you will surely die. Well we know how that went.

Just remember God's thought's are higher than our thought's and His way's higher than our way's.