The most consequent dialogue in world history:
The criminal: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
Jesus: “Truly . . . today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:42-43).
1.1 A Remarkable Revelation
What happened on Golgotha that first Good Friday? What did Jesus’ descent into hell and death accomplish? It is a question of momentous importance in light of what is written in section 1.3 of this article (where Paradise is equated with heaven). Has the cosmic, history-altering significance of the revelation disclosed in the dialogue between Jesus and the converted criminal been trivialized into a few words about going to heaven when we die?
The converted criminal spoke only nine words to Jesus (both in Greek and in English). Yet those few words set the heart ablaze. It does so especially if understood correctly in the context of the response given by Jesus. Neither Jesus nor the criminal said anything about heaven. In those few words (nine) the criminal accomplished two objectives: (i) he made a plea, and (ii) he made a declaration. The plea: “Jesus remember me.” And the declaration: “Jesus, you are coming into your kingdom.” The cross is focused on the definitive manifestation of the kingdom of God. Jesus, in this brief dialogue, emphatically declared to the criminal that on this very day (Good Friday) the two of them would enter Paradise: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” What a momentous declaration!
But what does the declaration by Jesus about Paradise purport to say?
In Paradise? Today? Today in Paradise with Christ? Is the criminal going to a Paradise like the Garden of Eden? Is that even possible? Is the act of crushing Satan’s head promised four thousand years earlier (Gen. 3:15) not understood to be the crowning achievement of God’s plan of deliverance? And is the crushing of Satan’s head not a prerequisite to enable believers to return to Paradise? Will the criminal, as promised by Jesus, this very day re-enter Paradise? How is that possible? Is this what Jesus is promising the converted criminal as He himself hangs alongside him on a cross?
How is it possible to return to the way life was lived in its perfection prior to Adam’s catastrophic Fall? What about the cherubim placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden, the cherubim with their flaming sword flashing back and forth (Gen. 3:24)? Has not our way to the tree of life, to the tree that remains present in Paradise, have not that path and tree been made inaccessible to us by God so that a return to Paradise is no longer possible?
The possibility that Paradise could be regained, and that humanity could regain eternal life along with renewed access to the tree of life, certainly was not obvious to most Older Testament believers. Nor was access to the tree of life obvious to most believers who were alive when Jesus walked on the earth. And judging by the study Bibles and commentaries I have read, as well as the sermons I have heard throughout the past sixty years, neither is the reality of Paradise in the here-and-now obvious to believers living today. This lack of awareness of the presence of Paradise in the here-and-now is sanctioned by identifying Paradise and heaven. Are Paradise and heaven one and the same thing? Does not renewed access to Paradise on earth lie at the very heart of Golgotha, the very heart of the cross, the very heart of the task Christ died to fulfill? A return to Paradise was the gospel message Jesus was conveying to this criminal in response to the criminal’s declaration that Jesus is coming into His kingdom. Is that not what “coming into your kingdom” represents—the return to Paradise? And was not the criminal declaring that through His work on the cross Jesus was coming into His kingdom? Even if the criminal himself did not understand the full implications of what he was saying? Is this not a biblical truth, that the only place on earth where the Kingdom of God is manifested in all its glory and perfection is in Paradise?
“Today, Mr. Criminal, you will cross over from a culture of death into a culture of eternal life. Even as your life at this very moment is slipping away (John 5:24), you may die in the knowledge that the doors to Paradise have once again opened. Today! Yes, it will happen before you die. Through the will of my Father and through the powerful working of the Holy Spirit, you have today come to faith in the only true God and His Son, Jesus Christ, and that faith is eternal life (John 17:3). You now possess it, Mr. Criminal. And that faith gives you passage into the new Paradise of God. I, Jesus, will open the door to Paradise at 3:00 p.m. this afternoon. It will happen at that moment when I shout with a loud voice: ‘Mashelem! It is fulfilled’ [John 19:30, where the Greek translation Tetelestai is used].
Today I will accomplish everything My Father has asked of Me. I will destroy death, the power of sin and of Satan. As an expression of my Father’s love for the world, and everything in it that He has created [John 3:16], I will descend into hell to meet the legal requirements for the forgiveness of the sin of the world. Today I will regain access to Paradise for all who believe in Me. Satan’s work in you will this day come to naught. Today, on this first Good Friday, you and all those who believe in Me and My work on this cross will enter Paradise. Even now in a small way, in your sinful flesh, and finally, at the resurrection, when you receive your spiritual bodies, Paradise will be manifested in all its splendour and glory (Rev. 21 and 22).
Oh, my God! My God and my Lord! Is it really, truly true? Have the shadow and the reality of death blanketing the entire universe since the Fall receded? Have we become impervious to the stink and the stench of the deadly fallout of sin? Has the Suffering Servant this day through His cosmic sacrifice on the cross, performed the great feat of forcing the shadow and the reality of death back all the way to that dreadful day of Adam’s Fall in the Garden? Has Paradise indeed returned? Is the shadow of death again receding on the stairway of Ahaz, as it did once in the life of Hezekiah, only this time to roll back through the ages, rolling and rolling all the way back to the Garden of Eden and that poisonous fruit? Has the shadow of death in truth receded to that moment in time when Adam was still free to eat from the tree of life; when death was a warning and not a reality?
Are You saying, dear Lord Jesus, that as your Father is about to abandon You to hell because of our sin, this terrible and fatal abandonment will bear fruit in that the Father will once again look upon us sinners as if we had never sinned? Are You saying, Jesus, that because of the ransom of Your sacrifice, Paradise will be regained? And are You saying, dear Jesus, that on this historic first Good Friday, when the Sun (cf. Mal. 4:2) finally swallows up the terrifying darkness of abandonment, that as a result of Your work the believing offspring of Adam will once again be given the right to eat from the tree of life? A privilege long ago denied to their great, great . . . grandparents and all those who followed? Are You saying, dear Jesus, that Your work this day on Golgotha will open the doors of Paradise? That this day’s work will once again give believers the right to eat from the tree of life, which is (found only) in the Paradise of God (Rev. 2:7)?
Is that what You are saying, dear Lord, to the criminal next to You on that cross? Today, you, Mr. Criminal, will be with Me in Paradise? Today the doors to Paradise will open once again? And is that what You are saying to all of Adam’s criminal offspring who will come to believe in You? Are you saying that Your work this day on the cross has sufficed to gain access to Paradise for millions of us believers? Has the door to Paradise this joyful and glorious Good Friday been flung wide open to whomever confesses Your name? Are You saying that Your work this day on Golgotha is the decisive turning point in history? Back to Paradise! Are You saying that Paradise has been regained? That the power of death and Satan and hell have been broken (1 John 3:8)? And that You have set the prisoners free? Truly, today with Me in Paradise?
1.2 A Remarkable Dialogue
A most remarkable dialogue takes place between two people dying alongside each other, each hanging on his respective cross. In a few sentences their remarkable dialogue captures the weal and woe of the entire human race and of a groaning creation. Today’s dynamic dialogue will forever change the course, the meaning, and the potential of history until the end of time. The promise of God’s permanent return to earth, to a restored Paradise (Rev. 21 and 22), was first made to a criminal hanging beside Jesus on a cross on Golgotha. What an unbelievable transformation!
One of the two figures hanging on his cross is a criminal who only an hour or so earlier was a stranger to God’s grace. Earlier in the day, along with his criminal compatriot, these two criminals together heaped insults on Christ (Mark 15:32). The testimony of this godless behaviour by these two unbelieving criminals is carefully confirmed by Matthew who writes: “In the same way the robbers[1] who were crucified with Christ also heaped insults on Him” (Matthew 27:44). The two were both sons of the Devil. But as we will read, one of the two criminals shortly before noon turns like a leaf on a tree. He is transformed from blasphemer to prophet. When later the unconverted criminal again begins to taunt Jesus, the converted criminal rebukes him. After prophetically declaring Jesus to be innocent of any crime, he turns to Jesus and implores and proclaims: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” No, this man is most decidedly not inquiring about passage to heaven for himself. He is prophesying. After asking Jesus to remember him (ask and you will receive), he prophesies that Christ will inherit His kingdom. And yes, he is testifying that Christ will rise from the dead and that He will reign as King. Where does this man acquire such cosmic-altering insight into the nature of reality? This is indeed a subject of conflicting views among theologians.
How in God’s name could this man possibly know that Christ’s death on the cross was not the end of the story? That Jesus would return from the grave? How could this man know that God would exalt Jesus to His right hand? How could this man possibly know what would soon be written in the book of Revelation 12:10: “Now salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of Christ have come, . . .”? Where did this man obtain his insight into the meaning of the words Mark wrote in Mark 9:1? This verse is one of the most discussed in the whole of Mark’s Gospel. These words had been spoken earlier by Jesus himself: “There are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Kingdom of God come with power” (Mark 9:1). Words announcing the beginning of the end of Satan’s reign. Words that would translate into Satan’s expulsion from heaven, and thereafter into a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the conversion of thousands. How did this criminal know any of this while hanging on his cross?
Charles H. Spurgeon, rightly identified as a prince among preachers, delivered a sermon on Luke 23:43, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” For the better part of six pages, Spurgeon attempts to answer the question as to what made it possible for the criminal to come to Jesus. Spurgeon confessed the sovereignty of God and he was a professed Calvinist, but there is a “bit” of Arminius in all of us. There is that pressing sinful tendency to need to contribute “something” to our own salvation.
How then did this criminal know that Jesus was coming into His kingdom even as He hung there dying? Amazing! The answer is at hand. The only biblical explanation for this man’s remarkable insight is what Christ once said of Peter: “. . . this was not revealed to you, Peter, by man but by my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 16:18). God enabled this criminal to become a Christian, a believer, and having attained that wonderful new status, the Father then deputized this former slave of Satan to speak words of promise, of love, of comfort, and of blessing to His Son on the cross. No one knew better than Jesus that the conversion of this criminal and the promise of a kingdom originated with His Father.
First the request: “Remember me, Jesus, . . . .” Ask and it will be given. And then the proclamation: “. . . when you come into your kingdom.” Again, this criminal most decidedly did not ask Jesus to take him to heaven that day. God did not inspire that thought to enter the criminal’s mind. The Holy Spirit inspired this converted criminal to petition Jesus to remember him when Jesus received his realm (the cosmos) as King. The definitive receiving of the kingdom of God and not a passage to heaven stands at the heart and at the core of this exchange between the criminal and Jesus. This dialogue on the cross changes nothing less than the dynamic of history. Today, Mr. Criminal, you will enter with Me into Paradise. What an incredible revelation and what an incredible proclamation from one dying man to another. What an incredible dialogue! A dialogue that marks the turning point in history. A dialogue that voiced the fulfillment of 4,000 years of God’s promises. A dialogue that was the prelude to God embracing sinners from every nation on earth.
The other figure hanging on the cross, and a party to this brief but cosmically transforming dialogue, is Christ. Christ immediately recognizes the full import of the conversion that this criminal has experienced. And Jesus realizes Who brought this deathbed conversion to pass. It is the wonderful initiative of a loving Father Who thereby lovingly embraces His suffering Son on the cross shortly before He abandons that Son to hell. The Father has come to the cross and has enabled this sinner, this criminal, to turn in faith to Christ (John 6:44). Christ, in turn, transforms this criminal’s life of sin from “red like scarlet” into a life that is as “white as wool.” Christ will present this murderer on the Great Day of resurrection with a splendid white robe to wear one day when he attends the great wedding feast of the Lamb. But here and now in this remarkable exchange on the cross on a hill called “The Skull,” with death stalking both of them, Christ will reveal to this criminal and to all those who will listen, the true nature of His mission on the cross this day. The Father of Jesus has made this possible by deputizing a terrorist to declare that God’s Son is innocent and that God’s Son will inherit His Kingdom with power. And in its most perfect manifestation the kingdom of God is found in Paradise as Jesus declares from the cross.
The words Christ is about to speak to the criminal in response to the criminal’s petition (“Remember me”) and declaration that Christ is soon coming into His kingdom – these words from the cross are the most profound, the most universal, the most liberating, the most joyous and the most gracious expression of life ever uttered by one Man to a fellow human being. In response to the criminal’s inspired declaration, enabled by His Father, that Christ is about to come into His kingdom, Jesus replies with words that will resonate from that day onward and transform history: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” Yes, PARADISE!
Were Jesus’ words carefully chosen? Did He actually intend to say in “Paradise” and not in “heaven,” as many theologians would later contend? Did Jesus draw a parallel between the coming of His kingdom and the re-establishment of Paradise on earth? The very same Paradise to which Adam and Eve were denied access? In response to the criminal’s prophecy that Jesus is indeed coming into His kingdom, Jesus responds that on this very day the criminal will be with Jesus in Paradise. In Paradise? Yes! And not first of all in heaven? No! Is Paradise then parallel to the kingdom of God? Is that what Jesus is saying? How is that possible? God blocked access to Paradise with the cherubim and flaming sword. The converted criminal is on his way to the grave, is he not? And so is Christ. On what biblical basis can exegetes insist that upon their death, both Christ and the criminal will go to heaven? Did Jesus not emphatically say to Mary after His resurrection, “Do not hold me for I have not yet ascended to the Father” (John 20:17)? These words must be treated with authority. And so too must the words recorded in Luke 24:51, where we read: “While he was blessing them he left them and was taken up into heaven.” Jesus went to heaven forty days after His resurrection. Not on Good Friday. Besides, it was not historically suitable for Christ to ascend to heaven on Good Friday because of the impact His arrival in heaven after Golgotha would have. As we shall see.
What then does Christ mean when He tells the criminal that together they will enter Paradise? And not simply enter Paradise, but enter Paradise on this very day. Doesn’t Christ simply mean to say what most study Bibles, commentaries, and sermons say, namely, that together He and the converted criminal are going to heaven that day? No! That is most emphatically not what Christ is saying. Christ knows the Scriptures. He knows the difference between heaven and Paradise. He created both. Paradise was made for mankind and belongs to the earth. After Adam’s Fall the tree of life was not removed from earth. Instead, it was guarded by the cherubim and the flashing sword. On the cross, Paradise on earth once again became possible in a small way to sinful believers. Heaven is home to God and to the angels. If Christ had meant to convey to the converted criminal that together they were going to heaven on Good Friday, He would have said so. After all, He knew the word for “heaven.”
What a remarkable day. What a remarkable dialogue. What a remarkable revelation. In this world-transforming exchange between these two figures, the criminal makes the incredible declaration that Jesus, though humiliated and hanging helplessly on an instrument of death, will yet be exalted and will yet come into His Kingdom. “Remember me, Jesus, when You come into your kingdom.” Only the Holy Spirit could have provided that insight to the criminal. Christ, on the other hand, promises the criminal that on this Good Friday the two of them will actually enter Paradise. But in order to enter Paradise, it has to be made accessible again. The cherubim and the flashing sword have to be removed. The crushing power of death over sinners has to be broken. Our lives of sin have to be transformed into lives of righteousness. Is that not what Christ achieved on the cross? Yes, indeed! Thanks be to God! The full implications of Christ opening the doors to Paradise on the cross will be discussed in this article in detail after the conventional understanding of the words: “Today – with Me – in Paradise” have been reviewed in section 1.3.
The exchange between Jesus and the criminal is all the more striking when we reflect on the chilling reality that before day’s end, both Jesus and the converted criminal will have died. Each will be placed helplessly in their respective graves. What then will become of their grand dialogue about Jesus coming into His kingdom and a return to Paradise? This much is certain from Scripture. On this day, now known as the first Good Friday, both Jesus and the criminal went to their respective graves. Christ with a spear thrust in his side, to confirm his death, and the criminal with a pair of broken legs to hasten his.
As far as the disciples and those who loved Jesus are concerned, this was indeed a sad ending to a wonderful story. The disciples, the relatives, and friends derived no comfort from the “possibility” that Jesus and the criminal were now with the Father in heaven. If that is what they believed, why would they grieve?
What now are we to make of Jesus’ claim that He and the criminal entered Paradise that very day? Or is it exegetically warranted to teach that Paradise really is heaven, as so many study Bibles and commentaries and sermons and books on the subject assert? How often do the hymns we sing not claim that we are heaven-bound? If that is indeed true, we have to confess that on Good Friday Jesus and the converted criminal went to heaven. Biblical evidence to the contrary notwithstanding. Simply that. At the time of our death we gain a new life in heaven. Except then the doors to Paradise did not open. The doors to heaven opened. And the Bible does not discuss how believers get from heaven to Paradise. What the Bible does teach us is that the lives of believers are hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ appears at the resurrection, we will appear with Him in glory (Colossians 3:3-4). That is another biblical story. A very important story.
1.3 Remarkable Misrepresentations
Was Jesus simply careless in His choice of words while suffering on the cross? Why did He use an uncommon word like “Paradise” if He was in fact referring to heaven, as most commentators think? The word “Paradise” did not appear in the original languages of Scripture until Jesus used it on the cross. Yes, Jesus is the first to have actually used the word “Paradise” in Scripture. The word “Paradise” does not appear in the Hebrew Older Testament. It appears first in the Septuagint Greek translation of the Hebrew text. Jesus takes advantage of this knowledge now prevalent amongst the Jews. And the word “Paradise” appears three times in the Newer Testament. Once used by Paul (2 Corinthians 12:4) and twice by Christ (Luke 23:43; Revelation 2:7). And once indirectly (Rev. 22). Jesus employed the word “heaven” on numerous occasions during His ministry. He taught us to pray to His Father who is in heaven. And He taught us that God’s will is to be done on earth as it is in heaven. And if He meant to say that He and the criminal would both be in heaven that day, then why didn’t He just say so? It was a perfect opportunity to reveal to believers that heaven is their destination upon death. But He didn’t. He declined to do so for good reasons.
What then did Jesus mean when He said to the malefactor on the cross: “. . . today you will be with me in paradise”? Why do study Bibles and commentaries not explain what Jesus meant by Paradise? Why do they gloss over the difference between heaven and Paradise? Are not their comments based primarily on misunderstanding Luke 23:43 and on assumptions and dubious interpretations of 2 Corinthians 12:3-4? Before we examine what we believe Scripture actually teaches about Jesus’ promise of being in Paradise, let us examine what the commentators in various commentaries, study Bibles, books, and sermons have to say. It will become clear that most commentators believe that Jesus actually meant to convey that He and the criminal were going to heaven. The notes in popular study Bibles used by millions of Christians also point in this direction. And so these commentaries explain the text (Luke 23:43) to mean that Jesus told the criminal that on this very day they together were going to live in heaven the moment they died. It is not an exaggeration to state that Luke 23:43 is a key text that contributes to that confused understanding of what happens between death and resurrection.
The view of the interim that has developed over the years could be called “a cult of heaven.” It is an extreme or excessive admiration for a view of life (death) that does not correspond with the teachings of Scripture. Let’s examine how widespread this view has become. It is not a trivial consideration. In important respects, equating heaven and Paradise has closed our eyes to the cosmic significance and wonder of what Christ achieved for the Father and for us on the cross. And it has coloured our understanding of the interim (the time between human death and resurrection). It has also deprived us of the joy of experiencing Paradise in a small but not insignificant way here and now in our sinful flesh. A more biblical understanding will open Scripture and help us come to a better appreciation of the biblical expression “in Christ.” This includes an explanation of what Scripture means when it uses the expression “to fall asleep in Christ” (such an understanding will require a separate article). Scripture places great emphasis on our need to understand what it means when it teaches that the entire creation has its rootedness “in Christ.”
1.3.1 Study Bibles on Luke 23:43
Herewith a sample of the widespread literature teaching that we go to heaven upon death as disembodied souls to carry on life there.
The NIV Study Bible notes: “In the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the OT) the word ‘paradise’ designated a garden (Ge 2:8–10) or forest (Ne 2:8), but in the NT (used only here [Luke 23:43] and in 2 Co 12:4; Rev 2:7) [the word ‘paradise’] refers to the place of bliss and rest between death and resurrection (cf. Lk 16:22; 2 Co 12:2).”
Note: The NIV’s commentary is certainly correct in the sense that the word “paradise” has come to mean a place of bliss between death and resurrection. And in that context the use of the word “paradise” always means “heaven.” Because we interpret the words that Jesus spoke to the criminal about “paradise” as meaning “heaven,” this text (Luke 23:43) has become the key Bible verse that has misled millions of Christians to believe that heaven is their disembodied destination immediately upon death. To avoid misunderstanding let me state at the outset that the Bible does teach that upon death believers go to be with Christ. But that is a more complex issue we will discuss in another article or possibly a book. The biblical teachings about “going to be with Christ” is a thousand times more glorious than going to heaven. In heaven we will supposedly lead a disembodied existence living a life about which we know nothing.
The New RSV Study Bible informs the reader that: Paradise, originally a royal garden, the Garden of Eden in the Septuagint, and later as here, is a synonym for heaven.
Note: I hope this article will convince the reader that in Scripture, the use of the word “paradise” has nothing to do with heaven. The Bible carefully distinguishes between heaven and earth and paradise. The meaning of Paradise is best understood based on what Scripture teaches about Paradise beginning in Genesis. Paradise is always of the earth. It is the home and the place where Adam, in perfect fellowship with God, was to execute his cultural mandate. And earth is the place we will inhabit at the resurrection.
The New Century Version Study Bible informs the reader that “paradise” is another word for heaven.
The NIV Study Bible on 2 Corinthians 12:2-4 teaches that the term “paradise” is synonymous with the third heaven, where those believers who have died are even now “at home with the Lord.” Note: Is there a resurrection of sorts without a body prior to the great resurrection? Or are we confessing, contrary to Scripture, that not God alone but we also have immortality (1 Tim. 6:16)? The apostle Paul makes it perfectly clear that we must put on immortality. And that this happens at the resurrection (1 Cor. 15:53-54). Not when we die; but when we are raised to a new life in Paradise.
It is a wonderful biblical truth that believers go to be with Christ upon their death, but in a much more exhilarating manner than in mistaking Paradise for heaven. As we will see.
The authoritative Dutch Staten Bijbel of 1586 also asserts that “paradise” is synonymous with heaven.
The Ryrie Study Bible, nas edition, teaches that in the lxx (Septuagint) in Genesis 2:8, the word “paradise” suggests a garden, but in the three New Testament uses the word “paradise” speaks of heaven.
The MacArthur Study Bible notes the following: The word paradise suggests a garden (it is the word used of Eden in the lxx), but in all three New Testament uses it is speaking of heaven.
The first edition of the net Bible states that in Luke 23:43 the use of the word “paradise” refers to the abode of the righteous dead. This is understood to be heaven.
A. T. Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament states:
However crude may have been the robber’s Messianic ideas Jesus clears the path for him. He promises him immediate and conscious fellowship after death with Christ in Paradise which is a Persian word and is used here not for any supposed intermediate state; but the very bliss of heaven itself. . . . The word occurs in two other passages in the N.T. (2 Co 12:4; Rev 2:7), in both of which the reference is plainly to heaven.
Furthermore, the Fourfold Gospel Study Bible explains that:
To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise. . . . Jesus answered the robber’s prayer by a solemn promise that they would, that day, be together in that portion of the invisible world where those who are accepted of God await the resurrection.
Consider also the commentary on Luke 23:43 in the ESV Study Bible, which states:
Paradise is another name for heaven, the dwelling place of God and the eternal home of the righteous (cf. 2 Cor. 12:3; Rev. 2:7). The Septuagint uses the same Greek word to refer to the “garden of Eden” (cf. note on Gen. 2:8–9). Jesus’ words therefore may hint at a restoration of the intimate, personal fellowship with God that existed in Eden before the fall.
Note: This “hint” which in truth should be a blast from a trumpet, sends the reader in a biblical direction. As we will see.
1.3.2 Commentaries and their mistaken views
The widely respected Dutch commentary, the Korte Verklaring, also falls in line designating paradise as heaven. According to Dr. S. Greijdanus, the criminal went to heaven with Jesus within hours of the time that they had their conversation on the cross.
John Wesley, in his Explanatory Notes, writes that paradise is “the place where the souls of the righteous remain from death till the resurrection. As if he had said, I will not only remember thee then, but this very day.”
John Darby, in his Synopsis of the New Testament, explains that:
The thief had asked Jesus to remember him when He returned in His kingdom. The Lord replies that he should not wait for that day of manifested glory which would be visible to the world, but that this very day he should be with Him in Paradise (that is, heaven, JH).
And Dr. Cornelis P. Venema in his book, The Promise of the Future, asserts that “Read in its context (Luke 23:43), Jesus is affirming the criminal’s fellowship with him immediately upon death in ‘paradise’ which we are told is heaven.” Note: We are told no such thing.
Consider also The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary Vol. IX: Luke-John, which states about Luke 23:43 that “. . . the criminal would feast with Jesus that day in Paradise.”
In his commentary on Luke 23:43, D. L. Moody writes: “In the morning he (the criminal) is condemned by men as not fit to live on earth; in the evening he is reckoned good enough for heaven.”
John W. Cooper, in his book Body, Soul & Life Everlasting, on page 104 asks the question: “What happens when we die?” The answer he offers on page 105 is the following:
Most traditional Christians would affirm something like Answer 57 of the Heidelberg Catechism:
Not only my soul will be taken immediately after this life to Christ its head, but even my flesh, raised by the power of Christ, will be reunited with my soul and made like Christ’s glorious body.
This confession implies a period of time – an interim or intermediate state – between death and the resurrection during which the soul will exist with Christ apart from the body.
1.3.3 Sermons and their mistaken views
The Rev. Matt Carter of Austin Stone Community Church, in his sermon entitled: “Today You will be with Me in Paradise,” commented that this text means to convey that “the joy of heaven will be knowing Jesus forever.”[2]
Rev. Peter Slofstra of the Christian Reformed Church, in a sermon of the same title, comments that “Paradise is the word Jesus used on the cross to describe heaven. . . .”[3]
There is yet another equivocation in what Rev. Robin Koshy says in his sermon “An Encounter with the Crucified King”, where he states “. . . it was more than immortality that Jesus promised the penitent thief. He promised him the honored place of a companion of the garden in the courts of heaven.”
And Rev. Jeff Arthur of Elizabeth Baptist Church, when expositing the same words of Jesus in Luke 23:43, says that “when Jesus said he went to Paradise, he went to heaven . . . straight to heaven, the moment that he died. And I’m telling you that Paradise according to 2 Corinthians 12 is actually heaven.”
In his sermon entitled: “The Dying Thief in a New Light,” Charles Spurgeon writes: “Still, I think he has the best of it who is converted, and enters heaven the same night. . . . Why is it that our Lord does not emparadise us all?” (Note: I love Spurgeon’s sermons. My contrarian point in this article is that on the cross Christ did emparadise us all—both the living and the dead!)
Almost everywhere Christians turn for help in understanding Luke 23:43, they are told that “heaven” and “paradise” are one and the same. Is that so, according to the Scriptures? And if not, how far-reaching are the negative consequences of failing to biblically distinguish between heaven and Paradise?
1.3.4 Books and their mistaken views
In the book Home by Elyse Fitzpatrick, a popular Christian author, we read on page 91 that:
Although we don’t have as many details as we might want, the Bible clearly teaches that at our death we go from earth to Paradise, and then come back to the renewed earth in our resurrected bodies as citizens of the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21).
On page 47 of Home, Fitzpatrick had earlier informed her readers that: “Perhaps it would be better to refer to the place we are longing for, the place where we go immediately after death, as ‘Paradise’ rather than ‘heaven’ . . . .” This hopeless confusion between “earth,” “paradise,” and “heaven” is confirmed on page 57 of Home where we read: “. . . this is where we’re headed: to Paradise, to heaven . . . .”
Consider another popular Christian author. In his classic treatment of the subject, Randy Alcorn, in no fewer than 530 pages, introduces a novel understanding of the relationship between “Earth,” “Heaven,” and “Paradise” in his book entitled Heaven. In the book’s Preface, Alcorn writes:
Examining the table of contents will give you a good feel for this book. In part I, “A Theology of Heaven,” I will explain the difference between the present Heaven (where Christians go when they die) and the ultimate, eternal Heaven (where God will dwell with his people on the New Earth).
Note: The New Earth according to Alcorn becomes Heaven. All of this confusion would disappear if proper distinctions were made between heaven, earth, and paradise.
The relationship of Heaven to Paradise is explained on page 55 of Alcorn’s book. There he writes: “During the Crucifixion, when Jesus said to the thief on the cross, ‘Today you will be with me in Paradise’ (Luke 23:43), he was referring to the present Heaven.”
Note: Once again, in an exhaustive and best-selling study (530 pages), the reader is taught that when Jesus referred to Paradise on the cross, He was actually referring to heaven. Again, in all those pages, the reader is deprived of the biblical dynamic of the torn curtain and the opened graves. Acts performed by the Father immediately upon His Son’s death emphasizing the paradisal nature of Christ’s sacrifice. What did the Father have to do to be heard? What Jesus achieved on the cross was not a disembodied passage to a heaven that was slated to pass away but entrance into Paradise. Entrance into unencumbered fellowship with God and the gift of eternal life. My God: The curtain and the graves.
Derek Prince, in his book War in Heaven, writes in line with what others have been saying that:
Paradeisos (paradise) is the Greek word for a “garden.” It describes God’s garden in heaven. Paradise is the ultimate destination of all sinners who have truly repented and who have persevered in the life of faith. On the cross, Jesus promised the penitent thief that the two of them would be together that day in Paradise: “And Jesus said to him, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise’” (Luke 23:43).[4]
Note: Again, paradise describes God’s garden in heaven.
Erwin W. Lutzer, the senior pastor of Moody Memorial Church in Chicago at the time also writes in his book, The Serpent of Paradise, that:
Christ’s death opened heaven to those who are His children. To the thief on the cross He could say, “Today you shall be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). There is now a direct route to heaven, opened by One who Himself has entered.[5]
And in the book, Answering the Toughest Questions about Heaven and Hell, by Bruce Bickel and Stan Jantz, we read:
This question [Can My Loved Ones in Heaven See Me?] also goes to the discussion about the “intermediate state” – that period between the time a Christian dies and when Jesus returns (we talked about this in chapter 2). We would like to think that our departed loved ones are not in some kind of suspended animation . . . but are experiencing a conscious, active life with Jesus and perhaps enjoying relationships with other believers, including those they knew during their time on earth. . . . This is not an unreasonable conclusion, although there’s not a lot in Scripture that speaks to the intermediate state. The strongest description is given by Jesus himself, when he says to the repentant thief hanging on a cross next to him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).[6]
Once again, heaven and Paradise are equated. Once again, loved ones in heaven are said to be in Paradise, which is then interpreted to mean heaven. As a result, believers are faced with unanswerable questions (Can my loved ones in heaven see me?) that can be deeply disturbing. So the reader can see how a fundamental misinterpretation of the meaning of the dialogue between Jesus and the criminal has led to a belief that when we die, heaven becomes our new home. Our lives continue after death without interruption. Well, there is the “interruption” of losing our bodies.
What then of the majestic wonder of Christ regaining Paradise on the cross? What then of the majestic wonder of the worldwide resurrection when Jesus Christ returns in glory?
1.4 The Relationship Between Heaven, Earth, and Paradise
The confusion resulting from failing to distinguish carefully between Heaven and Earth and Paradise is enormous. This confusion does not originate in Scripture. It is the result of Christians being influenced by a pagan worldview and reading into the Bible what is not there. It is also the result of an inadequate biblical cosmology. And a cosmology that at least in part is the poisonous fruit picked from the tree of “theistic evolution.” Theistic evolution denies that the ground (origin) and unity of all things within created reality is rooted in Jesus Christ. It denies that Jesus who reigns and upholds the laws for creation from heaven is the creative Word (John 1).
How then does Scripture distinguish between Heaven and Earth and Paradise? Each of these entities is the result of a creative act of God. God actually prepared the Garden of Eden for Adam (Gen. 2:15). Before Satan rebelled, heaven and earth and paradise formed a blissful, interconnected harmony. There was regular traffic between the three. The Garden of Eden was indeed Paradise on earth, although prior to the Fall the entire earth was Paradise. The entire earth proclaimed God’s glory.
The most amazing thing I have ever heard someone say about heaven I heard during my first year in college. I heard it from a professor in philosophy class, H. Evan Runner, and later I read it in a syllabus that was an introduction to Christian philosophy. Runner and the syllabus taught that any philosopher who fails to acknowledge or understand the relationship between heaven and earth will never come to a correct understanding of created reality. I had gone through the public school system of the 1950s. I had never heard anything like this in my entire life. But I agree. Amen! God created the world in Christ (Genesis 1; John 1). Without knowing Christ you’ll never understand created reality. Oh, to be sure, you may “know” that the chemical formula for water is H2O. But you won’t know (faith knowledge) “that all things hold together in Christ” (Colossians 1:16). Just imagine what would happen if Christ who, by the powerof His creative Word upholds the entire creation, did nothold all things together? Imagine the chaos that would result in a universe that unfolds, and continues to unfold (next Spring’s tulips) according to the principles of naturalism.
Imagine the catastrophe if H2O did not hold together. What if H2O (water) became just H (hydrogen) and just O (oxygen)? Why, all water would disappear from the earth. In water’s place, only gasses would remain. Hydrogen and oxygen. No rivers, no lakes, and no oceans. No life. No flowers. No animals. No people. No creation! Simply because H2O (water) did not hold together. Just reflect on your own body and try to imagine the incredible number of functions that have to hold together. Beginning at inception.
Christ holds H2O together by the power of His will (Rev. 4:11). And if He likes, He can turn H2O into a premium wine. And command that wine to hold together, to hold the constituency He gave it. By the power of His Word. Well, it certainly isn’t Darwin or the theistic evolutionists who uphold the creation. Neither can they come up with a credible way (naturalism) to explain this holding together in the absence of God in Jesus Christ. So tell me! Let’s be frank for the sake of our Christian students. Who does hold H2O together? One of the reasons some Christian academics are calling themselves “theistic evolutionists” is that these scholars have no biblical grasp of, or belief in, the relationship between heaven and earth. According to them, Jesus Christ plays no credible role in creation. None. According to Scripture, Christ rules and upholds the universe from heaven. He is the Alpha and the Omega. That is, He encompasses the entire alphabet of creation and history (Andre Troost). He is the Beginning and End. The first Adam could have shared in that wonderful rule as head of creation under Christ if he had not succumbed to the wiles of Satan. The Bible clearly teaches that all things cohere in Him.
It is essential, as Christians, to integrate biblical revelation, biblical insight with our empirical knowledge. Empirical knowledge provides us with the insight on how to build an airplane, but it provides no insight into the relationship between heaven and earth. It is blind to recognizing Christ as the Creator and Sustainer and Redeemer of the universe. Empirical science divorced from a true biblical faith is blind to the greatest of all insights, namely, that Jesus Christ as the Word of God (John 1) is the “mechanism”that “explains” (foundationally) the origin and lawful functioning of the entire universe. A Nobel prize in science awarded to Christ would not be out of place. To state that Christ is the “mechanism” (with all reverence), or perhaps more correctly, that the Word (which is still Christ) is the “mechanism” responsible for originating and sustaining all that exists may be more biblical than we are initially inclined to believe. The Bible repeatedly refers to Jesus as the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. We share in Paul’s revelation that he gives to us through the power of the Spirit:
[Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together (Col. 1:15–18).
What a majestic “opening” in coming to understand what the creation we live in is all about. Men of faith like Herman Dooyeweerd (1894–1977), D. H. Th. Vollenhoven (1892–1978), Andre Troost (1916–2008), Willem Ouweneel (b. 1944), and Danie F.M. Strauss (b. 1946) acknowledge the relevance of Scripture for coming to grips with the world of academia. They have come to understand the importance of the biblical ground motive (the pillars, the rocks) of what Scripture teaches about Creation, Fall, and Redemption and that these foundational truths form the basics of a Christian philosophy and theology that will help to propel all of our understanding. Soli Deo Gloria!
In this article I am interested in making one point. And that point is to articulate a biblical understanding of the verbal exchange that took place between Christ and the criminal on the cross. Such an understanding will contribute to experiencing the joy of going to be with Christ at the time of our death rather than embracing a pagan belief in our soul’s migration to heaven, about which Scripture teaches us nothing. And our understanding of the biblical teachings of Christ’s role in the creation of heaven, earth, and paradise is important in that context. Beginning with understanding the dialogue on the cross.
1.5 The Paradisal Nature of Golgotha
Heaven and earth and paradise are a unity. They are all created by Christ; they are all related. Adam’s sin in the garden went a long way toward destroying that relatedness, that unity. Adam’s sin resulted in the loss of a faith that was larger than a mustard seed. Thereby he lost control over ceation. Endless misery and pain and sorrow and death resulted. As did a sinful tendency to wrongfully blame God. Golgotha happened to wipe away that misery. Golgotha happened to restore Paradise. We, who in the flesh stand to one extent or another in Satan’s service, are the problem. God in Jesus Christ is the answer. Christ is here on Golgotha today to restore the unity and the harmony of His Father’s creation. In particular, Christ is on Golgotha to restore Paradise. Four thousand years ago humanity was banned from Paradise, that is, the Garden of Eden. On the cross, as the noontime darkness of God’s terrifying abandonment approaches, Christ tells a criminal that this very day he will be with Him in Paradise. This cosmos-transforming declaration of Jesus Christ may not be trivialized. The ecclessia, by and large, has mistakenly understood the essence of that cosmic event to mean that when we die we go to heaven. As disembodied souls who somehow resume their earthly existence in heaven. Thereby trivializing the paradisal nature of Golgotha and neutralizing the resurrection.
1.6 The Father Weighs in on Golgotha
The witness of Scripture to the reality of what Christ achieved on the cross is overwhelming. The powerful testimony that the Father gives at the cross confirms that Paradise has indeed returned. Compare that to what you just read in section 1.3.
It is at the Father’s request that Jesus goes to Golgotha to pay the ransom for the sin of the world. It is the Father who arranges that Jesus is accompanied by two high profile criminals. Probably associates of the terrorist, Barabbas. It is the Father who inspires both Matthew and Mark to record that upon their arrival on the cross, these two criminals stand in the service of Satan. During the morning of Good Friday, they vilify Jesus along with others standing around the cross. Then, close to noon and just prior to abandoning Jesus to hell, the Father publicly transforms one of the two criminals. The Father proceeds to deputize this former antagonist who is then inspired to proclaim that Jesus is innocent. Jesus is on the cross at the Father’s behest but not for His own sin. Then follows the dialogue between Jesus and the criminal. That short dialogue is initiated by the criminal under the power and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Two things happen. First, the criminal asks to be remembered; secondly, he makes the prophetic declaration that Jesus (who is at this very moment in the process of fulfilling all of His Father’s requirements for sinners to come into His kingdom) will indeed come into His kingdom. The criminal does not yet know it, but Christ knows that the criminal’s prophecy will find its fulfillment in a few hours. That is, when He emerges from hell (that is, when the punishment of abandonment by His Father is over). That separation ends forever at 3:00 p.m. when Jesus shouts: ‘Mashelem! It is fulfilled!’
It is important to remember that before Jesus shouts this exclamation of His victory over death and hell and Satan, He declared: “I am thirsty.” Jesus is about to announce salvation for the world. Paradise is once again a reality. Jesus desires the strength to be heard clearly.
Jesus requests a drink. No, not any old drink. Christ’s blood was about to be identified as the blood of the Lamb of God. Note carefully how this request for a drink is recorded by the apostle John. Jesus requests a drink, and the soldiers comply. They soak a sponge in wine vinegar and then put it on a stalk of the hyssop plant. Note how the Father looks after all the details. Go back in history and call to mind when God was delivering Israel from the tyranny of Pharaoh (Satan). During their deliverance from Egypt, Israel is instructed to take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the lamb’s blood and put some of the blood on both sides of the door frame. For Israel it was the hyssop branches, for Christ it is the hyssop stalk. The parallel between Israel’s Passover and what is transpiring on the cross is unmistakable. Israel, if obedient, was on its way from slavery to a land of milk and honey under God’s gracious rule. Christ was about to announce with power that the entrance to Paradise was once again accessible under His Father’s gracious rule. Today – with Me – in Paradise! Mashelem!
1.7 The Father’s actions at the Cross Confirm Our Return to Paradise
How do we know many of the commentators are mistaken and access to Paradise is regained after Jesus dies on Golgotha?
Can we be certain that the dialogue on the cross between Jesus and the criminal is about returning to Paradise and not about going to heaven? Yes, we can be absolutely certain. The reason we can beso certain that the cross is focused on reclaiming Paradise is the Father’s response to the claim His Son shouts from the cross: Mashelem! It is fulfilled, my Son. The Father concurs. Yes, My Son, my will has been done. The Father’s response then confirms the paradisal nature of the work Jesus has just completed. This is done in a most dramatic and obvious manner. The Father employs the forces of nature to make the announcement of His Son’s victory over death. And express the joy at a Son’s achievements. The announcement is made with great fanfare. After all, the course of history has been redirected by His Son’s sacrifice. The effective power of Satan in the lives of God’s people has been broken. Satan knows that Paradise is once again accessible to the children of God. Satan’s finest and deadliest achievement at the outset of history – undone! The deception Satan wrought in the Garden of Eden many years ago – undone. The terms of the covenant between God and Adam (the second) are once again being honoured in Jesus Christ.
The moment His work on the cross is completed, Jesus shouts with a loud voice: “Mashelem! It is fulfilled!” Jesus then commends the breath of life, His spirit, into His Father’s hands (see Genesis 2:7) and He dies.
Jesus’ declaration: “It is fulfilled!” communicates to believers of every generation that the requirements to set the sinner free have been fully met by His sacrifice on the cross. And the Father of Jesus confirms that this is indeed the case by what happens next at the cross.
Jesus is no sooner dead than the Father acts. The Father’s response to Jesus’ death is instantaneous. It is nothing short of amazing in its execution. One translation states “at that moment” and another writes: “Behold.” There is no time-lapse between the moment of Jesus’ death and the Father’s response to that death. In the next breath God commands the forces of nature which are His servants and His to command to respond to what has just transpired on the cross. And respond nature does! Instantly. There is an earthquake (Matthew 27:51). Not a minor undertaking. Not easily ignored. The earth shakes. The rocks split. Splitting rocks is not a minor undertaking either. The Father is in effect heralding to the world: Have I got your attention all you people? Listen carefully. I have an announcement of immense importance to make. I am delighted with My Son. As a result of the work He fulfilled on the cross: this day Satan stands condemned. My Son did not falter in His assignment. My Son looked death in the face and conquered. He destroyed the power of the kingdom of Satan. He crushed the head of the lying father of lies. My servant, Michael will throw Satan out of heaven on Ascension Day (Rev. 12:7-9). My Son has set the prisoners free. He has come into His kingdom of righteousness. Observe carefully, all you people, all of you who believe in Him as I give you two unmistakeable signs that the work My Son has performed on the cross this day is of a paradisal nature. Yes, I wish to underscore what My Son himself said earlier on the cross: “Today – with Me – in Paradise!” Did He not promise the criminal on the cross this very day that they together would experience the return of Paradise? The return of intimate personal fellowship with Me this day.
Yes, Satan stands condemned! Has anyone articulated the newness of life achieved in finer words than My servant Charles Wesley? Listen:
Jesus, and all in him, is mine!
Alive in him, my living Head.
and clothed in righteousness divine,
bold I approach the eternal throne,
and claim the crown, through Christ, my own.
Amazing love! How can it be
that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
Yes, Christ died for you. God and Man. Because of Golgotha you may lay claim to the crown. Because of Golgotha you may claim an eternal interest in your Saviour’s blood.
How does One put into words what has happened on Golgotha? How does One give expression to such a singular event? I will let the forces of My creation speak for Me. My megaphone is the power of the earthquake. Let it speak for Me.
Behold, I tear the curtain of the temple, a curtain that made direct communion between Me and you impossible. I tear it, on behalf of My Son; I tear it from top to bottom. In other words, I tear it completely. There are no exceptions. Communion with Me is once again all-embracing. My Son has made direct communion between Me and my children possible once again. And I promise you, our communion will soon get even better because of Pentecost. Through His one sacrifice, My Son has restored many of the essentials of Paradise; this is one, namely, the intimate, personal fellowship between us that existed in Eden before the Fall.
And here is another: the resurrection leading to eternal life. Behold I have opened the tombs of many believers in a graveyard nearby the cross. The bodies[7] of many saints who had fallen asleep (in Christ) I have awakened to life.[8] I do this at the very moment of My Son’s death. I thereby acknowledged His incomparable gift by bringing these believers back to life. This is My confirmation that My Son has today destroyed the power of death for many. You must view these many resurrections as yet another sign of the return of Paradise. Life reigns. Even in your cancerous bodies. And, yes, even as you pray and fight to rid yourself of a growing dementia. And battle with divorce. Death has been conquered. Eternal life awaits. The gate to Paradise is open once again at the cost of My Son’s life.
The ruin and destruction, the cancer, the drownings and divorce ae our doings, not God’s. God gave mankind a beautiful garden and in many respects, mankind turned it into a dump.
But you must be patient. My Son will return. Then the cancer and the dementia and the divorce and the drownings will be no more. Never again will anything be cursed. Meanwhile, yet another sign of the return of Paradise. My Son has ascended to heaven and is seated at My right hand from where He holds your life in His hands. When My Son arrived in heaven, I commanded Michael to throw Satan and his minions out of heaven. No more accusations against those whom I love. Ten days later yet another sign of Paradise. I sent you God the Holy Spirit to live in your hearts. He will guide you in all things.
Yes, I know. When Satan, the great Dragon, saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child… Then from his mouth the serpent (Dragon) spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. THEN THE DRAGON WAS ENRAGED at the woman and went off to WAGE WAR AGAINST THE REST OF HER OFFSPRING – those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus (Rev. 12:14-17). Remember what My Son said when He was on earth: A disciple is not above his Master. They persecuted Me, they will persecute you also.
And again, remember the closing words of Revelation 13:
The beast also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, so that they would not buy and sell unless they had the mark, which is the number of the beast or the number of its name.
This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of man. That number is 666. It is the number of man without God.
Did I hear you correctly? Did you say God in Jesus Christ has opened the doors to Paradise on Golgotha? Then what about the quotes from the 12th and 13th chapters of the book of Revelation? Christians are already being “numbered” in China, in India, and in many Muslim countries. They are dying. And what about aids and the deadly coronavirus and the little boy who drowned in his parents’ pool? This is Paradise?
Jesus died on the cross. Tradition teaches us that all the disciples save one died a martyr’s death. My namesake, my dear little grandson, John Christian, died when he was only 6 months old. He never lived to experience whatever beauty life on earth may still have to offer us by God’s grace. Can you really call this Paradise?
Life on a broken planet is more tolerable for some than it is for others. But God will test no one beyond their endurance. God is gracious and good. Satan may be conducting himself like a roaring lion knowing his time is short. Nevertheless, God is in control. Dying is not the worst fate than can overtake us if we die in Christ Jesus. I will see my grandson again.
We are the ones who opened pandora’s box when, in Adam, we joined Satan in his rebellion against God.
After the storm comes the sunshine. To those who are victorious (see Rev. 2 and 3), that is, to those who remain faithful to the end, an eternity of bliss awaits them in Paradise.
“Then I heard a voice from heaven say, ‘Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. ‘Yes’ says the Spirit, ‘they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them’” (Rev. 14:13).
- Plural; the word for “robber” in the original Greek can mean “terrorist.” In any event, the criminals were crucified for committing a capital offense, not some petty theft. In all likelihood they were compatriots of Barabbas, who had been condemned to be crucified with them. But Christ took his place.
- Rev. Matt Carter, “Today You will be with Me in Paradise,” Austin Community Church (2014). https://austinstone.org/resources/sermons/481–today-you-will-be-with-me-in-paradise/
- Rev. Peter Slofstra, “Today You will be with Me in Paradise,” Christian Reformed Church (2012). https://www.crcna.org/resources/church-resources/reading-sermons/today-you-will-be-me-paradise-0/
- Derek Prince, War in Heaven: God’s Epic Battle with Evil (Grand Rapids, MI: Chosen Books, 2003), 13.
- Erwin W. Lutzer, The Serpent of Paradise: The Incredible Story of How Satan’s Rebellion Serves God’s Purposes (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1996), 96–97.
- Bruce Bickel and Stan Jantz, Answering the Toughest Questions about Heaven and Hell (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House, 2017), 161–62.
- Their spirit, their breath of life (see Gen. 2:7), held in trust by God, returned.
- They fell asleep in Christ; Cf. John 11:11; 1 Corinthians 15:16-18.