“Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” When Jesus said that on the cross, to the thief next to him, I don’t think he was referring to Hell.
“When Jesus said that on the cross, to the thief next to him, I don’t think he was referring to Hell.”
No, but check out the Creed:
“[Jesus] he descended into hell.”
it’s not the hell of punishment. http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p122a5p1.htm
1 Peter 3:19 (RSV/CE):
18 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit; ****19 in which he went and preached to the spirits in prison,**** 20 who formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water.
**“Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.†When Jesus said that on the cross, to the thief next to him, I don’t think he was referring to Hell.**
I agree. But, I think that Jesus told the thief that, because that would be the thief’s next conscious experience after death. Three days after his death on the cross (the ‘sign of Jonah’) Jesus told Mary Magdalene, upon his showing himself to her near the tomb:
“Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and to your Father; and to my God, and to your God.” John 20:17
That would make it clear to me, that Jesus Christ had not ascended anywhere, but he spiritually DID go to hell and snatch the keys of hell and death from the devil.
Just as one has no knowledge of the passing of time while sleeping or in a coma, so it is, imo, of the soul sleeping, waiting for the trump of God. In a three day span, the Son had not yet ascended to the Father, and I think it not possible for Paradise to be missing the presence of the Father.