Yes, Jesus meant TODAY in his message to the thief on the cross

[Marston]

Most people argue about where that comma in the verse is supposed to be. Let's forget about the comma. 

If it was Jesus's intention to communicate that the thief would be in his kingdom eventually in the future, he likely would have said "You will be with me in paradise", which of course, doesn't designate when.

However, Jesus used "TODAY" because that is exactly what he meant. Jesus told him "You'll be with me in paradise TODAY"!

[farouk]

13 hours ago, Marston said:

Most people argue about where that comma in the verse is supposed to be. Let's forget about the comma. 

If it was Jesus's intention to communicate that the thief would be in his kingdom eventually in the future, he likely would have said "You will be with me in paradise", which of course, doesn't designate when.

However, Jesus used "TODAY" because that is exactly what he meant. Jesus told him "You'll be with me in paradise TODAY"!

Hi @Marston I am reminded of the words of 2 Corinthians 5.8: "We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord."

[Your closest friendnt]

On 3/9/2025 at 10:43 PM, Marston said:

Most people argue about where that comma in the verse is supposed to be. Let's forget about the comma. 

If it was Jesus's intention to communicate that the thief would be in his kingdom eventually in the future, he likely would have said "You will be with me in paradise", which of course, doesn't designate when.

However, Jesus used "TODAY" because that is exactly what he meant. Jesus told him "You'll be with me in paradise TODAY"!

You figure it out very well. 

Others have in the way their doctrines and are not allowed to speak against them. 

Jesus was telling him that he will be with him to where he was going. Abraham knows my day and he rejoiced. 

Because the forgiven thief because that what Jesus did and he had authority to do it, Jesus forgave him his sins and that means that he died as a righteous man and as an Israeli his inheritance after death it was with Abraham.

This is what Jesus told him that he is not going to join the cut offs from the Law but the righteous to his Father Abraham or the Bosom of Abraham or the Paradise of Abraham with all God's people. 

There Abraham and all the Patriarchs and prophets and John the Baptist who went there before Jesus to prepared his coming they welcome Jesus Christ and joined his flock as they were waiting for him to take them out from there because they knew that Jesus Christ is the inheritor of Heaven of the kingdom of God and not only for him but for everyone who believes in him. That's where you are going after the death of your physical body. This is what Jesus said you must all die or leave this earthly tabernacle behind when the time comes and it cannot sustain life or quits on you. All must wait for that time. 

Blessings. 

[Locust]

ah how ever ,Jesus did not go any where that day . he was dead . and would be dead for a few days . truly I tell you today, right now , what you want is not what you will get. Jesus had to be so dead that only the most high God could put life back into Jesus.

[Marston]

8 hours ago, Locust said:

ah how ever ,Jesus did not go any where that day . he was dead . and would be dead for a few days . truly I tell you today, right now , what you want is not what you will get. Jesus had to be so dead that only the most high God could put life back into Jesus.

I don't share this view. I believe Jesus's spirit was very much alive. Besides, didn't Jesus go to Tartarus to speak to the bound angels or am I misremembering again?

[Locust]

7 hours ago, Marston said:

I don't share this view. I believe Jesus's spirit was very much alive. Besides, didn't Jesus go to Tartarus to speak to the bound angels or am I misremembering again?

when Jesus was dead he was dead dead even as it is for every one that dies, even as it is for all the critters of the earth . Jesus life was not put in safe mode its more like his battery was removed .

far likelier that Jesus after being resurrected ,as spirit could of spoke to the bound angels of Tartarus

[Marston]

2 hours ago, Locust said:

when Jesus was dead he was dead dead even as it is for every one that dies, even as it is for all the critters of the earth . Jesus life was not put in safe mode its more like his battery was removed .

far likelier that Jesus after being resurrected ,as spirit could of spoke to the bound angels of Tartarus

[Michael37]

12 hours ago, Marston said:

I don't share this view. I believe Jesus's spirit was very much alive. Besides, didn't Jesus go to Tartarus to speak to the bound angels or am I misremembering again?

From my notes:

The belief that Jesus preached to the dead before His resurrection is not based on sound doctrine. A misinterpretation of this passage of Scripture by Roman Catholic supporters of the false doctrine of purgatory leads many down a blind alley.
1Pe 3:18-20 For Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: (19) By which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison; (20) Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.

I hold to this interpretation adapted from Matthew Henry's Commentary:

1. For the explication of this we may notice,
(1.) The preacher - Christ Jesus, who has interested himself in the affairs of the church and of the world ever since he was first promised to Adam, Gen_3:15. He went, not by a local motion, but by special operation, as God is frequently said to move, Gen_11:5; Hos_5:15; Mic_1:3. He went and preached, by his Spirit striving with them, and inspiring and enabling Enoch and Noah to plead with them, and preach righteousness to them, as Jude 1:14-15, 2Peter 2:5.

Jud 1:14-15  And Enoch, the seventh from Adam, also prophesied to these, saying, Behold, the Lord came with myriads of His saints,  (15)  to do judgment against all, and to rebuke all the ungodly of them concerning all their ungodly works which they ungodly did, and concerning all the hard things ungodly sinners spoke against Him.

2Pe 2:5  And He did not spare the old world, but saved Noah the eighth one, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly.

(2.) The hearers. Because they were dead and disembodied when the apostle speaks of them, therefore he properly calls them spirits now in prison; not that they were in prison when Christ preached to them, as the vulgar Latin translation and the popish expositors pretend.
(3.) The sin of these people: They were disobedient, that is, rebellious, unpersuadable, and unbelieving, as the word signifies; this their sin is aggravated from the patience and long-suffering of God (which once waited upon them for 120 years together), while Noah was preparing the ark, and by that, as well as by his preaching, giving them fair warning of what was coming upon them.
(4.) The event of all: Their bodies were drowned, and their spirits cast into hell, which is called a prison (Mat_5:25; 2Pe_2:4, 2Pe_2:5); but Noah and his family, who believed and were obedient, were saved in the ark.

[Frits]

On 3/27/2025 at 9:45 PM, Michael37 said:

The belief that Jesus preached to the dead before His resurrection is not based on sound doctrine.

Based on the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles, I am afraid I cannot agree with your statement. I will give you Bible verses that clearly show that the Gospel of God was preached to the dead.

The Lord Jesus Christ said:

'Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.' (Joh 5:25 KJV )

And his apostel Paul wrote:

Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. (Efe 5:14 KJV)

[Michael37]

Those verses don't comport to the context and tense of  "Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah,"