Our colleague A.E.J. passes forward an item which may be of interest to readers of this section. It was intended, in the first place, as a footnote or postscript to the article by T. Royce entitled “The Third Heaven,” which appeared on p. 308 of the October issue, but was too late for inclusion.
T.R. writes “It is worthy of attention that the Lord Jesus Christ, in his dying hour, was requested by the believing thief on the cross to be remembered when Christ should ‘come into HIS KINGDOM,’ i.e., the ‘second heaven’ This implied the malefactor’s solitary belief in Christ’s resurrection and future glory, while his disciples forsook him and fled. Christ’s answer was strikingly emphatic. ‘Verily, I say unto thee to-day, thou shalt be with me IN PARADISE.’ Was not this a promise that the penitent thief should be with the Lord, not merely in the Kingdom, but in the ‘third heaven’, when sin and death have entirely passed away from the earth, and God is ‘all in all’?”
The understanding of the future work of Christ, which is implied by the thief’s question, is so complete, and as T.R. says “solitary” (outreaching far the comprehension of the disciples), that one may be excused for wondering whether the thief was a baptised believer, who, after a temporary lapse from Christian virtue, which brought upon him such salutary punishment, turned once more to his master and made his famous request. Be that as it may, and whensoever he gained so intimate a knowledge of Christ’s work, it is clear that he knew, and now believed, that the Jesus who was dying by crucifixion, would (1) rise from the dead; (2) leave the earth; (3) later come again, and would (4) at his return, reign in his kingdom—truly a comprehension of Messiah’s mission which many bearers of his name to-day might ponder with profit.
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Author: F. Whiteley
Keywords: Paradise, heaven, third heaven, thief on the cross, this day you will be in paradise, immortal soul, going to heaven, dieing and going to heaven, heavenly reward, heaven bound, life after death, immortal soulism
Bible reference(s): Luke 23:43
Source: “Paradise—Which Heaven?,” The Testimony, Vol. 10, No. 120, December 1940, pp. 390-2.
Page indexed by: inWORD Bible Software.