fuzzy@portia.stanford.edu (Daniel Zappala) (08/25/90)
In article <Aug.21.02.17.04.1990.11419@athos.rutgers.edu> tp0x+@andrew.cmu.edu (Thomas Carl Price) writes: > >3) We can shift the punctuation (which is absent, as you know, from the >original) of Jesus' words on the cross and read him as saying "Verily I say >unto you today, thou shalt be with me in Paradise." This would, if correct, >be meaningful, as Jesus is saying that the thief is being judged then and will >not have to wait for Judgement day to be told one way or the other. > I was not following the original discussion, but the story of the good thief has always fascinated me, so I thought I'd contribute the best explanation of that story, which was given to me by an LDS friend. The LDS ideas about the afterworld are much more specific than the average Chritians, and thus apply to this situation. Apparently after humans die their bodies go to the ground, while their souls go to the spirit world. In the spirit world there is spirit paradise and spirit prison, for the "good" people and the "bad" people. It is only at the end of the world that judgement occurs, and then the souls, complete with perfect bodies, go to heaven or hell. So Paradise is different from heaven, and refers to the dwelling place between death and the judgement. It is this Paradise the good thief is supposed to have gone to. The whole concept seems to fit very nicely. Regardless of whether it's true, I think this points out that there may be things that we don't understand in the Bible, but that God has a perfectly good reason for. Maybe eventually they will be revealed. Getting picky over words doesn't seem to be what God has in mind for us when we read the Bible. He's got everything worked out for us! Daniel Zappala