MARTIN CAREY
On one fateful afternoon of darkness, three men hung on their crosses, waiting for the end. That afternoon marked not only the end of their lives; but also “the consummation of the ages” (Hebrews 9:26) when sin and death were defeated. This was the time and place where the Son of Man took on Himself all the wrath of God meant for us. This was a finished atonement where payment was fully met. “Teltelestai! It is finished!” That cry from Jesus’ dying lips announced His finished work. His complete payment for sin is the foundation of the only gospel that can save.
Getting His gospel right is truly a life or death matter for us. It is also crucial to understanding the little conversation between Jesus and the convict next to Him, and what happened to them after they died. A few words exchanged between those two dying men have taught us all what it means to die well. The convict turned to the man in the middle cross and kept pleading, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus was ready with His answer. “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43, ESV).
Jesus’ answer to the convict shows an amazing grace we cannot fully comprehend, and must never minimize. That man knew he deserved death, and he brought nothing to Jesus except his many terrible sins and a plea for forgiveness. There is nothing in Scripture that portrays him as a more deserving candidate for saving, or anything less than the worst kind of criminal. Contrast this with Ellen White’s description of that convict in Desire of Ages:
“This man was not a hardened criminal; he had been led astray by evil associations, but he was less guilty than many of those who stood beside the cross reviling the Saviour” (Desire of Ages, 749).
For White, this convict wasn’t the worst kind of sinner, for his guilt was of a lesser kind. He had already felt convicted by Jesus’ teachings and was already on his way to faith. White’s version of the story diminishes the grace Jesus showed to this condemned sinner as something less than amazing. Her embellishments to the Bible weaken the demonstrations of the gospel’s miraculous power.
What did Jesus mean by this answer to the thief, “Truly I say to you today you will be with me in paradise”?
Notice, I have removed the commas, since the original Greek manuscripts had no punctuation. As Adventists, we were taught to place the comma in Jesus’ answer after “today,” meaning that He was saying it that day. For Ellen White, “today” meant that Jesus and the thief both died that day, were buried, and would have no conscious existence until their resurrections.
Let’s examine His words and think of the best interpretation, in context.
First of all, Jesus is answering the thief’s plea, “Remember me when you come.” He doesn’t want to be forgotten after his death. Jesus’ answer assures the thief he won’t be forgotten, because they will be together, after death, today. Jesus answers “when” that will be because timing is deeply relevant to His work that day. Jesus’ kingdom was not some far-off event. He was about to declare His victory as the crucified, conquering King. Immediacy is central to the gospels and the New Testament.
Secondly, for Jesus to say to the thief, “I say to you today (comma), you will be with me in Paradise” would be meaningless and irrelevant to the thief’s plea. Jesus never used the phrase, “I say to you today” anywhere else in Scripture. When He wanted to add weight to His words, He would say, “Truly I tell you.” Adding “today” for emphasis would be superfluous.
Thirdly, what Jesus offers the thief is far greater than just future resurrection. That day on the cross, Jesus came into His kingdom. That very day He made it possible for sinners to enter His realm. “Today” announces a great kingdom theme throughout the New Testament, as we see in Luke 2:11, “For unto you is born this day…” In Luke 4:21 He announced at the Nazareth synagogue, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Jesus told the woman of Samaria in John 4, “The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth” (John 4:23). Today is urgent also for us as we see in Hebrews, “Today, if you hear His voice, harden not your hearts” (Hebrews 3:7-15). When we hear the gospel and believe, we enter His kingdom that day.
“You Will Be With Me”
As Jesus promised, that thief would be in Jesus’ presence, starting that day. Though they both physically died that afternoon, they were both alive somewhere else, in Paradise. At this point you might ask, “How is it possible that anyone, even Jesus, could be alive without a heartbeat or breath?”
In Adventist theology, life is only possible when we have a body that breathes. We were certain that there is no intermediate spiritual state between physical death and the resurrection.
In Adventist theology, life is only possible when we have a body that breathes. We were certain that there is no intermediate spiritual state between physical death and the resurrection. Adventism holds dogmatically to the philosophy of physical monism, the belief that as humans we are only physical. For physical monists, Biblical words such as soul and spirit are only describing aspects of brain activity. So when Christians speak of a conscious intermediate state, Adventists dismiss them as revealing pagan influences in the church. Our Adventist physicalism is like a dense filter that distorts and blocks out truth in everything we see and hear. We have to pray for eyes to see and ears to hear.
What does Scripture actually teach? Let’s look for ourselves.
First, before we discuss where Jesus went after He died, we need to deal with an Adventist proof text about death. In Ecclesiastes 9:5-6, the Preacher declares,
“For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten.”
As Adventists, we always quoted this fragment of Scripture like a mantra. It is supposed to end all argument about death. We made assumptions and didn’t look at the context. That chapter is telling of life “under the sun” during our short lives on earth. The “Preacher” is Solomon, the wealthy and wise son of David who was rich and tried everything. He saw all his work and pleasure as “striving after wind”, and “meaningless.”
The book’s theme describes an earthly perspective, that our lives are short and meaningless, that when we die there are no more rewards or memories of us. In that perspective, there is no afterlife at all. “Under the sun” there is only here and now, so we stop learning and earning any of earthly life’s rewards when we are dead. “You only live once,” so enjoy it now because this is all there is.
Men and beasts die the same, for man has no advantage over the beasts. “Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth?” (Eccl. 3:21).
From an earthly perspective, the living cannot know anything about an afterlife, for right now, “all is vanity.” Ecclesiastes was written to teach us about the futility of life on earth now, not the afterlife.
The Intermediate State
Because Jesus has lived, died, and conquered death, the New Testament has clearly revealed the afterlife to us. He answers the meaninglessness of this earthly life by offering us eternal life. He told the thief on the cross that He would be with him that day in Paradise because, as He told Martha, “everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” (Jn. 11:26).
Speaking of living and dying, Paul told the Philippians, “I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better” (Phil. 1:23). If there is no intermediate state, Paul has nowhere to “depart” to, for he cannot be with Christ if he has become merely dirt. Paul is confident and does not fear death, because being with Christ is his desire, and he knows that in death, he’ll be with Christ.
Paul told the Corinthians, “We would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”
Paul told the Corinthians, “We would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” (2 Cor. 5:8) The popular Adventist take on this text is something like this: “Paul isn’t saying he’ll actually go to be with Christ the moment he dies. He really means that he’ll be unconscious while dead, with no sense of time passing, so at the resurrection it will only seem like an instant.” Let’s call that the “as if” argument. That is also used by Adventists in John 11, where Jesus tells Martha that “those who live and believe in Me shall never die.”
Using the “as if” argument reveals an unbelieving attitude to Scripture, and it threatens genuine faith in God’s promises. Any other Bible promises could be “explained” into utter meaninglessness with this cynical approach. I know, I was one of those people who took pride in my cynical “explanations.” There are many other passages in Scripture that plainly speak of our continuing, conscious life after death. We all need to ask for God’s help, on a regular basis, to see the plain meanings of Scripture.
Where did Jesus Go?
This is one of those questions where we wish God had given us more details and answered all our questions. Without such a detailed passage, we must search the Scriptures and piece together the clues. Some very good theologians have debated the details about where Jesus was on Holy Saturday. For this part of our study, I was greatly helped by an excellent book, He Descended to the Dead by Matthew Emerson, associate professor of religion at Oklahoma Baptist University. Even with the best scholarship, we must all be Bereans, prayerfully studying things for ourselves. Scripture explains Scripture, by His help. Keeping that in mind, the following passages help us put together what Jesus did after He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.
When the scribes and Pharisees asked for Jesus to give them a sign, He answered,
“An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:39-41).
The story of Jonah contains an important “sign” that points to the death of the Son of Man. Jonah spent three days and nights in the belly of the great fish, and for him, that experience was like dying and going to the place of the dead, Sheol:
“Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice…I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God” (Jonah 2:6).
In the same way, Jesus said, He would spend three days and nights in the heart of the earth. What does Jesus mean by “the heart of the earth”? Jonah said he was cast “into the heart of the seas” (vs. 3), down to “the roots of the mountains,” and into “the land whose bars are closed upon me forever” (vs. 6). “Out of the belly of Sheol I cried,” and yet he was rescued from “the pit.” Jonah uses many different metaphors and terms for the same thing, for Sheol, the place of the dead. He did not physically die, but he knew that God had used a great fish to rescue him from certain death.
Jesus shows that Jonah’s experience was a symbol and type of His own death and burial.
Jesus shows that Jonah’s experience was a symbol and type of His own death and burial. So “as Jonah was…so shall the Son of Man be…” in “the heart of the earth.” These passages point to Jesus spending three days in Sheol, the place of the dead. His three days spent in Sheol, or Hades, is the “sign of the prophet Jonah.”
In the Old Testament, Sheol is described as a deep, dark place where all the dead go, a pit, or a gated city (Isaiah 38:10). There is no hope of escape (Psalm 88:6,12), no wisdom, work, or praise there (Eccl. 9:10; Ps. 6:5). The dead are conscious spirits, but they do not worship God there because they have no access to the temple or its services, and cannot observe the Torah. Some Scriptures also portray Sheol as located in the depths of the sea (Jonah 2:2-9 and Job 26:5). Sheol is inhabited by the souls of the dead, called the Rephaim (Ps. 88:10; Prov. 21:16; Is. 14:9).
In 1Samuel 28, we find the story of a departed spirit, a rapha, rising up and speaking to the living. This is unique in Scripture, especially since necromancy, speaking to the dead, was forbidden. As Adventists, we were certain that the sorceress of Endor summoned a demon to speak with King Saul, as taught by Ellen White (Patriarchs and Prophets, 687). However, in the Scripture passage there is no indication that Saul and the sorceress were speaking to any other than Samuel himself. There is nothing said there about evil spirits or Satan. The spirit is named “Samuel”, and his words to Saul are entirely consistent with what he had said when alive. Additionally, Samuel accurately predicts the death of Saul and his sons by the Philistines. Samuel adds, ominously, that “tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me” (1Sam. 28:19).
The New Testament has a new Greek name for the Hebrew Sheol, the realm of the dead, and uses the Septuagint’s (LXX) term, Hades. When Peter preached to the skeptical crowd on Pentecost, he quoted a remarkable prophecy from Psalm 16 foretelling Messiah’s death and resurrection. In Psalm 16, David writes,
“I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken; therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption” (Acts 2:25-27).
The Christ knew that even though He would die and be in Hades, God would not abandon His soul to Hades. His flesh would dwell in hope, for even though his human body would die, His human soul would not remain in Hades. He knew that His body and soul would be reunited at His resurrection.
He Ascended and Descended
Paul also shows us that at His death, Jesus’ body was laid in the tomb, but His human soul descended into the place of the righteous dead. Consider Ephesians 4:
“Therefore it says, ‘when He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men.’ Now this expression, ‘He ascended,’ what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things” (Ephesians 4:8-9 NASB).
The language of ascent and descent in this passage is very significant, especially when we consider the Old Testament passages, such as Psalm 63:9 and Psalm 139:15, that use very similar language in speaking of a descent to the lowest parts of the earth, meaning the underworld. Paul is alluding to these passages that speak of descending to the underworld (Emerson, He Descended to the Dead, 41).
Another word pattern we see in Ephesians 4:9 is the ascent and descent theme, found in several Old Testament passages. Isaiah 14 is notable, where the king of Babylon has boasted that he will ascend to the stars of God and be like the Most High, but instead, he descends to Sheol, where he is mocked by the departed spirits, the Rephaim, for his humiliation and weakness (Isaiah 14:15-16).
Psalm 139 also echoes the ascent to Heaven and descent to Sheol theme:
“If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!”
In Romans 10 we find a parallel passage to the concept of Christ’s ascent to Heaven and His descent to the lowest region:
“But the righteousness based on faith says, ‘Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).” Romans 10:6-7
Paul is alluding to Deuteronomy 30:12-14, where Moses tells Israel not to look for the word of God by ascending into heaven, or by descending into the deep, the realm of the dead. Here in Romans, Paul is equating the Abyss to Hades, the realm of the dead. Paul is indicating here that Christ died and descended into Hades, the place of the dead, and then he says in verse 9 that God raised Him from the dead.
In other words, all who believe in and confess Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection from real physical death for their sins will be saved! We don’t go to Jesus in His death or ascension; God raised and exalted Him and gives us the faith to believe. Because He is God, Jesus both descended to the place of the dead and ascended, and those miracles are the focus of our justification.
Spirits in Prison
Now that we’ve discussed the Bible’s themes of our intermediate state at death and Jesus’ descent into Hades, other passages that puzzle us can make sense. In 1 Peter 3:18-20, Christ suffered for sins,
“being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah…”
When Christ died, His human spirit was still alive in the place of the dead. Also residing in that place were spirits of lost souls who had not listened to Noah before the Flood. While there in Hades, Jesus made proclamation of His victory to those spirits. Peter also tells us in 1 Peter 2:4 that there are evil angels who have been cast into a place of called Tartarus. Jude 1:6 also refers to these evil angels who are being kept in “eternal chains of gloomy darkness” until Judgment Day, and we even read in 2 Peter 2:9 that God will “keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment”.
…God keeps track of every unbelieving and believing soul, human and angelic, even in their deaths.
It appears from these texts that, although we are not told enough details to be explicit, God keeps track of every unbelieving and believing soul, human and angelic, even in their deaths. Before Jesus’ death which fully atoned for sin, the righteous dead were separated from the unrighteous dead, as Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus demonstrates, and the unrighteous were kept under punishment while the righteous were in the place called the Bosom of Abraham. Apparently Jesus also went to Hades, the place of the dead, declared His victory over sin, and ultimately gathered those who had been in the bosom of Abraham, which may be what Jesus called Paradise when He died, and took them to be with Him.
We are not given enough details to satisfy our curiosity, and we cannot be dogmatic about exactly what happened when Jesus went to preach to the spirits in prison. We know, though, that all the words of Scripture are true. Jesus’ death and resurrection changed everything.
Some Christians have objected to the teaching that Jesus descended into Hades and announced His victory over sin, Satan, and death. Many of the Reformers felt that the Descent doctrine gave support to Roman Catholic teachings on Purgatory. Many Protestant teachers today also disagree. We must understand that Jesus’ descending into Hades cannot deny His finished atonement on the cross. He put away sin forever by His complete sacrifice. “But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” Hebrews 9:26 He did not descend into Hades to suffer or pay for sin, but to declare victory and rescue those He purchased, His saints.
Where Was Paradise?
Jesus told the thief on the cross that he would be with him in Paradise. To learn where Paradise is, we need to look at where it is mentioned in Scripture. Paradise is an old Persian word meaning a walled garden of delights, and in the LXX and a few English translations, it is used for the Garden of Eden. “Paradise” occurs three times in the New Testament: in Luke 23:43, in 2 Corinthians 12:3, and in Revelation 2:7.
Let us now apply what we have discussed to what Jesus told the thief.
Jesus and the convict both died that day. He did not ascend to Heaven or His Father until after His ascension, but instead, He went to the realm of the dead, to Hades. They both went to Paradise that day and were together.
You might ask, “How can Paradise be in Hades? Aren’t they opposite to each other?”
Surprisingly, Paradise does not stay in one place, but has moved more than once. Looking at all the Scriptures that mention Paradise, we see it in different locations. In Genesis 1 through 3, Paradise is the Garden of Eden. However, in Luke 16, Jesus tells the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, who both die. The rich man goes to Hades, and the poor man is carried by angels to the Bosom of Abraham. This was understood by the Jews of Jesus’ time as a part of Hades where the righteous dead found comfort, not torment for the wicked dead. They called this section Paradise (Emerson, 31).
When Jesus told the thief that they would be together in Paradise, we see that the thief would be consciously in the presence of Jesus even in death.
When Jesus told the thief that they would be together in Paradise, we see that the thief would be consciously in the presence of Jesus even in death. Wherever Jesus is, that is Paradise. This idea is supported by Paul’s story in 2 Corinthians 12 of his being caught up to the Third Heaven, to Paradise, where he heard unspeakable words.
Finally in Revelation 2:7, we see that Paradise will be relocated on the New Earth. Now that Jesus has died, descended into Hades, and gained victory over death, all those who have died in Christ can now be in His presence.
Ephesians 4:9 becomes clear:
“Therefore it says, ‘when He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men.’ Now this expression, ‘He ascended,’ what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things” (Ephesians 4:8-9 NASB).
We know the answer to Paul’s question, “Who will descend into the Abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead?” The answer is, no one, because He has already descended there and announced His victory over death. He broke open the gates of Hades and “led captive a host of captives.” Jesus, the conquering King, had the authority to release all the righteous souls from Hades and take them with Him to Heaven.
From then on, no one who trusts in Jesus would ever have to descend into Hades and be separate from Him. He went through death, descending into the place of the dead, so that we don’t have to. He has won the keys to death and Hades (Rev. 1:18), meaning He has total authority and control over what we fear most. When we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will not fear Satan or any evil outcome, for He went there before us, and He will be with us forever.
“Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.”
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Fascinating. Good work, Martin!