“And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you today, you will be with Me in Paradise.”

As stated in our last post only if the correct punctuation is applied by placing the coma in the correct position, that is after the word “today” can the harmony of the scriptures be maintained.

Consider the following three:

“Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day…” (Luke 24:46)

“Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’” (John 20:17)

“No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.” (John 3:13)

What do these three texts tell us?

Well, the first one reminds us that our Lord died this self-same day and remained in the grave for three days, so it is self-evident that neither he nor the thief went to paradise that day. The second text brings to our remembrance that our Lord tarried for nearly forty days (Acts 1:1-3) following his resurrection before ascending into heaven there to present the merit of his sacrifice, the ransom sacrifice before the Father, before Justice. Therefore, once again the thief could not have been with Jesus the very day in which he was crucified. The third text assures us that no one save the Lord himself has yet to have ascended into heaven.

This last of course would not apply to the thief anyways, because there was no indication that he had professed any faith in Christ as his savior, and even if he had in this last moment he still could not have gone to heaven.

Why is this you ask?

Well for several reasons:

1) as was just stated the ransom sacrifice had not yet been presented, therefore; he could not have been fully justified as of yet.

2) He died prior to the begetting of the holy spirit, which took place on Pentecost fifty days after our Lord’s resurrection and therefore could not have been born again, begotten to a new nature, a spirit nature.

“The special class which the Lord is selecting from amongst the world during this Gospel Age must all be born again in order to be members of the kingdom — they must all be born of the Spirit because, as the Master explains: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit,” and “Flesh and blood cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.” Hence those who would constitute the kingdom of heaven class must be born of the Spirit — must become spirit beings by regeneration.” And there were none who experienced this regeneration save the Lord prior to the spirit having been poured out on Pentecost.

Likewise following this regeneration, the scriptures set forth certain criteria and standards which must be met before one can be made acceptable to the heavenly phase of the kingdom.

Beginning with a full surrender or consecration of oneself to the LORD, and becoming Christ’ disciple and, taking up ones cross and following in his footsteps.

“Unless you take up your cross and follow me you cannot be my Disciple.” We are to walk in his footsteps. In no sense while we are sinners are we walking in his footsteps. No sinner is invited to walk in his footsteps. He must first be forgiven of his sins, first come under the blood of atonement before he can become a Disciple at all.” In other words the thief was not yet justified from his sins, because the atonement was not yet completed at that time. The sin-offering had not yet been presented before the Mercy Seat in heaven, before God, therfore he could not become a disciple.

The first step, consecration is explained by the Apostle Paul in Rom 12:1,

“I beseech you, brethren (believers, those already justified by faith), by the mercies of God, present your bodies (consecrate yourselves) a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”

Following this:

“The Apostle points out that the present time is our probationary period, to demonstrate which of us, after having consecrated our lives to him and with him to the service of the Truth, will carry out that covenant faithfully: which of us, now counted probationary members, will by faithfulness become actual members (of the body of Christ), thus making our calling and election sure, and be received through the first resurrection into the joys of our Lord and into participation in his Millennial reign of the future. The Apostle indicates all this when he says that “we are heirs of God, joint-heirs with Jesus Christ our Lord, if so be that we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together.” (Rom. 8:17)

Did the thief consecrate himself to the Lord, did he in those last few minutes of his life pass his probationary period, and likewise suffer with the Lord in his sacrifice?

In other words did he make his calling (?) and election sure?

Certainly not, the high calling had not yet opened to anyone yet.

Question: How exactly does one make their calling and election sure?

First and foremost, one must have been called in the first place. “For no man takes this honor unto himself save he who is called by God.” (Heb 5:4)

To make our calling and election sure (our call to joint heirship with our Lord, the heavenly calling) we must put on Christ, that is to say we must possess the spirit or mind of Christ.

“We cannot get this mind of Christ suddenly, for the Bible says that we must grow in grace and grow in knowledge and grow in the fruits of the spirit. As you allow the mind of Christ to dwell in you richly you become more and more Christ like.”

The Apostle states: “Besides this (that is in addition to consecrating and being spirit begotten) giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue (fortitude); and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness: and to brotherly kindness charity (Love).”

Thus, it is evident that the additions (the fruits of the spirit) are to be made after we become new creatures and not before.”

“Wherefore the rather, brethren, give all diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things (putting on Christ and the fruits of the spirit), ye shall never fall (that is ultimately or hopelessly), for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

We are admonished to run, to strive for the mark of the high calling, perfect love, becoming copies of God’s dear Son. And once having attained this mark (in our hearts, if not in our flesh) we must maintain it, endure to the end, proving that this new character has established itself in us. We must be proven faithful until death.

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true . . . honest . . . just . . . pure . . . lovely . . . of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. -Phil 4: 8

It should be self-evident that the thief never made his calling and election sure, nor was it ever offered him to attempt.

3) Besides the paradise the Lord was referring to was not the heavenly phase of the kingdom, but paradise restored, the earthly phase of the kingdom, and that phase of the kingdom is not yet established nor will it be so until the end of the millennial age, when all evil and those who abide in it, have been destroyed, and when the last enemy, death itself has been destroyed.

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* Punctuation was invented around the 5th century BC by the Greeks as a way to help people read texts aloud. The first punctuation marks were vertically arranged dots, such as a dicolon or tricolon.”

“The 1611 King James Bible was published by the firm of Robert Barker of London. Barker’s family had been in the printing business for decades, and he had the distinction of being “Printer to the Kings most Excellent Maiestie,” as is noted on the Bible’s title page. With that designation, his company held the new Bible’s franchise (sometimes with partners) into the 1630s, when the concession went to other printers, most often university presses. The origin of the punctuation in the 1611 KJV is not well understood. In large part it was determined by the translators, based on the Hebrew and Greek texts, earlier English versions, and the current usage of the time. But it likely also contains much influence from editors in Barker’s shop. The punctuation in the 1611 edition was not done very consistently. Readers today are often surprised to learn that the punctuation in our current KJV differs in thousands of places from that of the 1611 first edition.”

“The edition of 1612 made punctuation changes, and every printing thereafter for a century and a half made more. Each printing house that published the Bible modified the punctuation in some way in virtually every edition, and thus of the numerous editions between 1611 and the late eighteenth century, none were identical.”

“The punctuation in today’s KJV is generally systematic and quite consistently done. It uses periods to end sentences, colons and semicolons for major breaks within sentences, and commas for smaller breaks. On the whole, the colons, semicolons, and commas seem to have been applied according to the objectives of the translators and later editors, not necessarily with the intent of reflecting the punctuation in the Hebrew and Greek texts.

By today’s standards—and even by the standards of 1611 and 1769—the King James Version often feels over punctuated, and readers sometimes find themselves tripping over its many tiny clauses that interrupt the flow of the text and occasionally make the meaning less clear.”

Kent P. Jackson, Frank F. Judd Jr., and David R. Seely, “Chapters, Verses, Punctuation, Spelling, and Italics,” in The King James Bible and the Restoration, ed. Kent P. Jackson (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2011), 95–117.

From the foregoing it is evident that the placement of punctuation in the texts was heavily influenced by the particular translator and or the publishing house used to publish the book, therefore it would seem prudent not to rely wholly upon how a certain texts is punctuated and rely more upon the whole counsel of God’s word, and how it harmonizes (or not) with the rest of the divine testimony.