Question: “You referred to waiting in the grave and ultimately going to Heaven. While Jesus was on the cross and talking to the two thieves beside him, one of them said unto Jesus, ‘Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom’ (Luke 23:42). And in the very next verse, Jesus said unto him, ‘Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.’
When the Apostle Paul was writing to the church in Corinth, he said in 2 Cor. 5:8, ‘We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the L.’”

Answer: These are both very good verses that can be readily understood to be in harmony with the weight of evidence found in the Scriptures on the subject of death and the resurrection.

With the thief on the cross it is simply a matter of moving the comma so that the emphasis is on when Jesus is making the promise rather than when the promise is to be realized. Today, while no one else believes in Me, I am promising that you will be with Me in paradise-

Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23:42). And in the very next verse, Jesus said unto him, “Verily I say unto thee To day, shalt thou be with me in paradise.”

You may ask what gives you the right to move a comma? Two things:

1) Punctuation was not part of the original Greek writings, it was added hundreds of years later and is not therefore inspired. This means it is possible that punctuation needs correction from time to time, as has been proved through the years.

2) Jesus did not ascend to paradise that day. It is very clear from Christ’s own words to Mary that He had not yet ascended to the Father on the third day after he spoke to the thief. Therefore to assume that Jesus went to paradise on Friday would be to make Him a liar on Sunday (see John 20:17). Jesus was no liar.

3) It is not evident that the thief died that day. We know that they sought to hasten his death but we know only that Jesus died that day.

The second section of Scripture is just as easily explained in the context of the biblical teaching that death is an unconscious sleep. Paul’s words actually affirm this fact of death being an unconscious sleep because the very next thing Paul will realize as a believer is the resurrection when he will be called forth by the voice of Jesus (1 Thess. 4:15, 16). So Paul can say without contradicting the weight of evidence in Scripture-absent from this body (dead) is to be present with the Lord (resurrected in the new body). There is no conscious time delay between death and being with the Lord for those who die in the Lord.

In addition, the context of the text in 2 Corinthians 5:1-3 does not talk about just two states of existence but three:

1) “earthly house,” “this tabernacle,” “mortality,” which is our present body.

2) “an house eternal,” “house from heaven,” “life,” which is our ressurrection body.

3) “naked,” unclothed,” the state of having neither body or being in the grave.