The teaching that the criminal and Jesus went to paradise on their day of death have problems of harmony with other scriptures as stated in Part I. Before discussing the disharmony,  it is good to recount the two on the crosses with Jesus. The scriptures do not reveal when the two thieves died. It does reveal that Jesus died before the thieves who had their legs broken (John 19:30-33). Did they die the same day that Jesus died? Perhaps, but the best answer is we don’t know. Did Jesus know when the criminals would die? Again perhaps, and that would account for his statement concerning to day if the comma is properly placed, but again we don’t know what Jesus knew on that matter since the scriptures do not so state. What we do know is that Jesus rewarded the man with the promise of eternal life due to his recognition of Jesus. Neither does any other scripture state that Jesus’s soul went to heaven the day of death or that he went to the section of the nether world called Hell to preach to the spirits in prison. That is an invention of man based on the verses in I Peter 3:19 which has caused problems by trying to use verse 19 out of context. (Explanation will be in another part of the series.)

But for the sake of understanding what the scriptures teach, let’s accept for the moment that his soul went to Paradise. That means that he would have gone to heaven to be with the criminal, and then 3 days later his soul returned to his body; then he rose from the grave and after that he was seen by the disciples. That is well and good, but the scriptures do not teach such events. However, Peter said in Acts 2:27 Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. At this point it is necessary to turn from what is thought the verse means to what it actually means. The word soul is the stumbling block to understanding subject of the criminal on the cross going to paradise with Jesus and Jesus going to the tomb (grave) which the scriptures state in Matthew 27:59-70 And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60 And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed. Did the soul go to heaven and the body to the tomb?

Many words have been written to explain the soul and body of Acts 2:27. An examination of Genesis 2:7 will help clear the confusion about the soul and the false doctrine created by the use of the word soul. The verse is And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. It must be noted that man and soul are of the same identity. Man is the soul and when God breathed into the man he (soul) became alive. Before that act of God, man (soul) was not alive. (As an aside for the moment, the verse clearly indicates that the soul isn’t immortal.)  However, soul isn’t a good translation of the Hebrew word nephesh -- pronounced: neh'-fesh means a breathing creature and is used of fish and marine life in Gen. 1:20,21; land animals in Gen. 1:24; beasts, birds, and reptiles in Gen. 1:30; and beasts and birds in Gen. 2:19. (The word nephesh is translated being in the RSV means the whole person and that only God can give the gift of life (Living Word Commentary Series). Not one time does the word soul in the Old Testament mean body, breath and soul. That idea came through a perversion of the scripture’s message is due to pagan influences on the Jews at a later time. (All of the foregoing can be verified by research into the history of the subject. Some of the history will be shown as the series progresses.) Man became a living creature just as all the other animal life since God gave all their life (Genesis 1:20-25). If nephesh means soul as in body, mind and soul, then all creatures are souls (or have souls) since nephesh refers to all living creatures, man and lower animals alike.

To conclude this part, man is a soul, a whole person; animals are souls or whole creatures; and God gave life to all of them so man was not and is not a being with an immortal soul that goes to heaven at death.

© 01-28-2012 DEC

                          Next lesson The Criminal on the Cross Part III