Jesus said to the thief on the cross “today you will be with me in paradise.” The thief obviously acknowledged that Jesus was the true God, and God saved him. When he died he went to heaven. We are spirit beings having a human experience. Our spirits are always awake. According to the Word we go to hell or heaven when we die. So why are Dr. Veith's beliefs so totally in contrast to all the information he has given and preached on? Please give me his opinion or answers from the Word.
Let's look at that verses you were speaking of:
"And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:42-43).
This passage seems to indicate that the thief went with Jesus to paradise that day. But when we look at John 20:17, we see something else:
"Jesus saith unto her, 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 your Father; and to my God, and your God."
We see very clearly that Jesus did not go to heaven that day. So, is the Bible contradicting itself? Not at all. It is a matter of faulty punctuation. You see, when the Bible was translated into the English language, the translators took the liberty to put in the punctuation. Sometimes the punctuation was put in rather strange places.
When Jesus spoke to the thief on that dark Friday afternoon He did not go to heaven that day, for he did not burst forth from the tomb until early Sunday morning. The verse is perfectly logical if it is punctuated in this manner:
"And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee today, thou shalt be with me in paradise."
Jesus was making a promise on the day that He did not look like a king. On that very day, Jesus made the promise that the thief would be with Him in paradise one day at a future time.
This grammatical error does not mean that the Bible is not inspired. However, it does mean that it is difficult to match punctuation in the Bible when it is translated from one language into another. But, I praise God that every word is inspired.
You assume that the thief went to heaven when he died. This is a very popular misconception, but the truth of God’s Word tells us a different story. What the disciples originally believed was that when a man died he re-mained dead until the resurrection. Have you ever noticed that in the many accounts of persons who were risen from the dead, there is not one word about what the individual experienced “on the other side” of death? This was because there was nothing to experience — the person simply passed into what the Bible calls a “sleep” (a word used more often than any other to describe death in the Bible) until the resurrection.
In Daniel 12:2 we are told that “...many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlast-ing life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” Paul wrote the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians to teach the absolute truth of the resurrection. Have you ever asked “What’s the point of the resurrection if everyone goes to heaven or hell when they die?” Did Christ rob Lazarus of the enjoyment of Heaven by calling him back to life — and why were the disciples so lacking in curiosity that no one asked Lazarus what it was like to die? The an-swer is simple: there was nothing to tell, so no one asked.
When Paul is describing the “King of kings, and the Lord of lords” in 1 Timothy 6:16 he tells us that the Lord is the one “...who only hath immortality.” So when do human beings become immortal? Paul tells us when in 1 Corinthians 15:51 - 54 where he describes the resurrection “..at the last trump.” Paul comforted believers with the resurrection, not the idea of an ectoplasmic consciousness after death. Platonic Greek philosophy has warped the plain truth of the Bible to support spiritualistic teachings belonging to the “new age” movement! Our hope of immortality is not based on the heathen idea of an ‘immortal soul,’ but on the assurance that Jesus will raise us to life at the resurrection.
In Psalm 146:4 the psalmist describes death by telling us “His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.” This inspired Scripture would not be true if the man’s thoughts continued via an “immortal soul” in heaven.
It is worth noting that even the thief on the cross did not expect to go to heaven immediately. Remember what he asked Jesus: “... Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.” (Luke 23:42). He was asking Christ to remember him when He came into His glorious kingdom. That explains why Jesus answered him by saying “Verily I say unto thee today, thou shalt be with me in paradise.” Punctuation marks came into use only 400 years ago — and the marks were put into the text according to the fallible theology of the translator.
No comments:
Post a Comment