Well you can't blame him, there're conflicting messages regarding where Jesus went in those three days. On one hand he went to Hades, on the other he went to "paradise", and the bible doesn't contradict itself, you must reconcile these two, but how? I've had a debate with him on this, my thought is that "paradise" is a side of Hades for the righteous, the sheep in the goats and sheep judgement; he insists that "paradise" is the third heaven, and Jesus is split in two.
Actually, the messages aren't conflicting. It's the presuppositions that we bring to the text. When we come to Scripture and see what appears to be conflicting messages. It means "we" have something wrong in our understanding. We do have to reconcile the passages. How do we do that? The way it's most often done is to come up with an idea to try to make the two passages fit together. Often, if not most of the time, we come up with some nonsensical conclusion. Take the subject at hand. Jesus went to hades, He told the thief, today you will be with me in Paradise. We're also told that Jesus was in the tomb for three days. How have Christians reconciled this? Well, they take the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man, interpret it literally, conflate the incident with the thief and conclude that Paradies is Abraham's bosom and/or in hades. Or, they do like Alfred and conclude that Jesus can be in two places at once.
But, does anyone ever consider the ramifications of these conclusions. If Lazarus and the Rich Man is telling us what happens to people after death we have to draw a few conclusions. One, people claim that the righteous go to Abraham's bosom and the wicked go to the place of torment. There's a problem here. Jesus never said either man was righteous or wicked. Ok, so right off the bat there is an unwarranted assumption. This parable is a pillar in the Christian doctrine of Eternal conscious Torment and yet it says nothing about the righteous or the wicked. So, one of the major pillars of the doctrine doesn't even exist. The word Paradise is from the Greek Paradeisos. It means a garden. That begs the question, how does a garden grow in a subterranean place without the sun? We could go on and on.
But, I want to stick to the topic. How do we reconcile these passages. Well, what we often leave unconsidered is, maybe, just maybe, we can't reconcile the passages because our beliefs are wrong. For some reason we don't seem to consider that option. Yet, if we see passages of Scripture that don't seem to align with one another it's almost certain that it is our understanding or beliefs that are causing the perceived discrepancy.
So, for the sake of argument follow along with me. You may not agree, but, see it the passages don't fit together nicely. Let's suppose that when a man dies, he is dead. There is no part of Him that lives on after death. Now, lets approach those same passages. Lazarus and the Rich Man is a parable because the dead are dead. They can't carry on a conversation. They can't feel pain. They can't suffer. They're dead. Therefore the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man is a story about something other than life after death. We know that the incident with the thief could not mean that they were somewhere else that day since they were dead. If they were dead how could they be in Paradise that day? We have to consider two things, Is the translation correct and what is Paradise. Paradise means garden. Could Jesus have meant that they would be buried in a garden that day. It's possible. I don't think we can prove that, but it's possible. Let's look at the translation.
43 And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise. Lk 23:43.
The Greek texts were all in capital letters and the letters were all run together. They didn't divide the words into groups of letters like we do. They also didn't use punctuation. So those commas you see in Luke 23:43 are solely the opinion of the translator. Now, if the translator believes that the dead live on where is he likely to put the comma? It would be before the word today, which is where you see it in the above verse. But again, that's just where the translator, "thinks" it should go. It's his opinion. We could just as validly move the come and put after the word today.
43 And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee To day, shalt thou be with me in paradise. Lk 23:43.
Simply by moving the comma from before the word today to after it we completely change the time frame of them being in Paradise. Instead of it being that day, it could be at any time in the future. Either rendering is grammatically correct. So, this eliminates the problem that Jesus was in Paradise and hades at the same time. The fact that either rendering is grammatically correct tells us that neither side can be argued adamantly from this passage. One can't argue legitimately from this passage that Jesus and the thief were alive later that day because the passage can be understood differently. This also solves the problem of Paradise having to be in hades. If Jesus and the thief were going to be in Paradise in the future then Paradise could be anywhere.
So, that solves a couple of our problems. What about Paradise. What is it and where is it. Let's consider what the thief requested.
42 And he said unto Jesus,
Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. Lk 23:42.
Ok, so the thief's request was to be remembered in the Kingdom. He wasn't asking where he'd be later that afternoon. He wanted to know if he'd be in Christ's Kingdom. So, we would expect Jesus to address his request, and not ignore it and tell him something about later that day. Let's look at Jesus' answer. He said that the thief would be with Him in Paradise. One has to wonder why the translators transliterated rather than translated the word Paradeisos as Paradise instead of garden. All through the Scriptures it's translated garden except in a few passages where garden doesn't fit with the translators beliefs. Paradise means garden. In the Septuagint in Genesis, we are told that God planted a Paradise and called it Eden. So right in the very beginning we have a Paradies called Eden. The thief wanted to be in Christ's kingdom. Jesus answered and said, you will be with me in Paradise, the garden. That begs the question, how would the thief perceive Jesus' words? Would Paradise to a Jew be understood as a subterranean place of supposed bliss? No. The Jews were expecting a kingdom on earth. They were expecting what Paul describes in Romans 8.
17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. 18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. 20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, 21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. 24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? 25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Ro 8:17–25.
It's the restoration of the creation. Creation restored. The Paradise of Eden will be restored. Remember what Adam did? Scripture says he walked with God in the garden. That was Christ who walked with Adam. Consider Jesus' words to the churches.
6 But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches;
To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. Re 2:6–7.
Jesus promised the believer that He would give to eat of the Tree of Life, which is where? In the Paradise of God. The Tree of Life was in the Paradise, garden of Eden. The Paradise or garden of Eden will be in Christ's kingdom in the restored creation. This is where Jesus told the thief he would be.
So, to get back to the question of how do we reconcile the passages? The quick answer is change our beliefs, not to create outlandish scenarios that lead to absurd conclusions. Simply by changing that one belief, that when a man is dead, he is dead, and not alive in some other form, we have reconciles all of the passages nicely. It all fits with Scripture. We don't have to make claims that we cannot prove. We don't have to tell people, well, we can't understand it, we just have to believe it, and all of the other things people try say to get people to accept things that don't make sense.
That one simple change changes a lot. It tells us that the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man is not literal. It tells us that the thief couldn't have been alive somewhere later that day. It tells us that Paradise isn't a place in hades. It tells us that when Scripture says that Jesus was in the tomb for three days, He was in the tomb for three days. All of the issues are resolved with this one simple change in our beliefs.
