For born again christians. When on the cross jesus said to the thief, today you will be in paradise with ME.?

You remember the story Jesus gave of Lazarus and the rich man?

Where was Lazarus?

Both areas were part of hell....Paradise and hell proper..separated

by a gulf.

Jesus preached to the souls in hell, ie. the paradise part of hell.

(there would have been no point to preaching to those who were wicked),

but many went to paradise in the OT, and the thief who converted went there

also with Jesus.

In the spirit, of course.

Paradise is not heaven, paradise is somewhere around this earth

or within it (not sure), and the heavens are far away.

The thief would have to go through the judgement.

That would be because it is not a heavenly paradise but an earthly paradise when John 5:28-29 is fulfilled and all those in the memorial tombs hear his voice and come out. www.jw.org

In Old Testament times, the spirits of those who died went to a place they called “the abode of the dead.” It consisted of two compartments; a place of comfort for those who believed in the coming Redeemer and a place of torment for unbelievers. The place of comfort was sometimes called Abraham’s Bosom because it was thought that Abraham met them there to await the resurrection (Luke 16:19-31).  The abode of the dead was called Hades in Greek and is often translated Hell in English.

The Greek word translated paradise appears only 3 times in the New Testament and was another name for Abraham’s Bosom.  This is where Jesus and the man who died next to Him went (Luke 23:43).  Jesus mentioned going into the belly of the Earth for 3 days and three nights after His death (Matt. 12:40) indicating the location of paradise.

Old Testament sacrifices were not sufficient to cleanse mankind of his sins.  They could only set them aside until the Lord’s perfect “once for all time” sacrifice was complete (Hebrews 10:11-14).  It was His death that opened the gates of Heaven.  After His Resurrection, he took the spirits of the believing dead from Paradise to Heaven to be with Him there (Ephesians 4:8). Some assert that He took paradise itself because the place Paul visited (2 Corinthians 12:4) is sometimes called the 3rd Heaven (indicating the Throne of God) but the Greek word there is the one translated paradise.

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Do not believe the answerer's false story about Lazarus - -

AND on the cross Jesus today said to the thief, you will be in paradise with me.

The translators made a typo and put in a comma (the original had no punctuation)

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