Did I tell you we weren't gonna die? Of course people die, but only the body dies, not the soul or the spirit. The soul goes after death into the realm of the dead (Isaiah 38:11) and the spirit goes back to God.(Ecclesiastes 12:7)
No, that's wrong.
In light of this,
Luke 23:42-43 is important because it is where the thief is being crucified with Christ and Jesus says to him, "today you shall be with me in paradise." The implication of Christ's words is that the thief, upon his death, would be with Jesus in Paradise. This supports the idea that very soon both of them would be together. And, it stands in contradiction to Edward Fudge's false view that the human soul is
deprived of life upon death. Nevertheless, one conditionalist response is to focus on a single ','. That's right, a comma.
- ", today" 'Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.'"
- ESV, ISV, KJV, LEB, NASB, NCV, NET, NIV, NRSV, RSV, YLT, etc.
- "today, " 'Truly I say to you today, you shall be with Me in Paradise.'"
- NWT (Jehovah's Witness Bible)
In line 1 Jesus is saying that
the thief and he would be together that very day in Paradise. In line 2, the interpretation is that Jesus was
saying those words that very day. In other words, it as though Jesus was saying "I'm telling you this right now, today, right now I'm telling you that you will be with me in Paradise..." Now, the latter approach is the same as the Jehovah's Witnesses, a non-Christian cult. But, this in no way means that conditionalists are not Christians just because some of them happen use the same argument as the JW's who also are annihilationists. The point is that the translations show the English to represent line 1, not line 2 and this effects interpretation.
I've provided a small table below listing different Greek texts. You don't have to understand Greek to make sense of this. λέγω (lego) is Greek for "I say" and σήμερον (sameron) is Greek for "today." I placed the commas and red that are found in the Greek text as I copied them. You'll notice that the second Greek text does not have a comma in it.
Greek Texts Greek with and without punctuation
These are the words to focus on. Note the , is in red
λέγω (I say), σήμερον (today)
NA26INT καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ· ἀμήν σοι λέγω
, σήμερον μετ̓ ἐμοῦ ἔσῃ ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ
LGNTI καὶ εἶπεν ⸀αὐτῷ· Ἀμήν ⸂σοι λέγω⸃ σήμερον μετʼ ἐμοῦ ἔσῃ ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ.
NA27 καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ· ἀμήν σοι λέγω
, σήμερον μετʼ ἐμοῦ ἔσῃ ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ.
NA28 καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ· ἀμήν σοι λέγω⸃
, σήμερον μετʼ ἐμοῦ ἔσῃ ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ.
Swanson WH καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ Ἀμήν σοι λέγω
, σήμερον μετʼ ἐμοῦ ἔσῃ ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ
UBS4 καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ, Ἀμήν σοι λέγω
, σήμερον μετʼ ἐμοῦ ἔσῃ ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ.
I suppose the conditionalist who holds the soul sleep could agree with line 1 above and say that the person is alive after his death and will be with Jesus in paradise, though the person is unconscious. I find this to be weak, but it is a possibility from their perspective. However, line 2 is seriously problematic in light of the view held by the well-known annihilationist Edward William Fudge's position found in the second quote near the beginning of this article. Not only is Mr. Fudge's position heretical because it necessitates that the human soul of Jesus ceased to exist upon his death, thereby denying the hypostatic union in the incarnation, but it is also a manifestation of reinterpreting Scripture to make it suit one's presuppositions.
Conclusion
Luke 23:42-43 is where Jesus speaks to the thief on the cross who is next to him and says that the thief would be with him in paradise that very day. At the very least this refutes the conditionalist idea that the person who dies ceases to have life in his soul (per Edward Fudge). Also, the words of Christ challenge the weak notion of soul sleep imposed into this Scripture by the conditionalists. Finally, when we see that there are other verses in the Bible that speak of consciousness after death such as Samuel (
1 Sam. 28:11-19). Moses and Elijah (
Matt. 17:2-4), Lazarus and Rich man (
Luke 16:19-31), Paul (
2 Cor. 12:2), the saints (
Rev. 6:10), we can easily conclude that Jesus was saying that the thief would be with him, conscious, in paradise shortly after both of them died.
Source:
Annihilationism and Luke 23:42-43, the thief with Jesus in the afterlife the day of his death | CARM.org
No, it is not a fictional parable. There is much to suggest that it is a real story.
First, the story is never called a parable. Many other of Jesus' stories are designated as parables, such as the sower and the seed (Luke 8:4); the prosperous farmer (Luke 12:16); the barren fig tree (Luke 13:6); and the wedding feast (Luke 14:7). Second, the story of the rich man and Lazarus uses the actual name of a person. Such specificity would set it apart from ordinary parables, in which the characters are not named.
Third, this particular story does not seem to fit the definition of a parable, which is a presentation of a spiritual truth using an earthly illustration. The story of the rich man and Lazarus presents spiritual truth directly, with no earthly metaphor.
Source:
Is Luke 16:19-31 a parable or an account of events that actually occurred? | GotQuestions.org
Conditionalists might say that because the Transfiguration was a vision, it didn't really happen in real time and Moses and Elijah were not really consciously there. This way, they could maintain their belief in soul sleep and/or the termination of life upon the death of the physical body.
Does this work? No.
- It says that Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up to a mountain (v. 1).
- Jesus was transfigured before them. This was an actual occurrence upon Christ, not a vision (v. 2).
- In the Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, and were talking with Jesus (v. 3). The context is of an actual event: Christ's transfiguration.
- Peter said he wanted to make three tabernacles: one for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah (v. 4). This is because of what he saw during Christ's actual transfiguration.
- A then cloud overshadowed them and God the Father spoke saying "This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him!" (v. 5).
- The disciples then fell facedown to the ground because they each heard the voice (v. 6).
- Jesus told them to "get up and do not be afraid," (v. 7).
- They then lifted up their eyes and saw no one except Jesus alone (v. 8).
- Upon their dissent from the mountain Jesus told them not to tell the vision to anyone until after his resurrection (v. 9).
The context certainly supports the idea that Jesus, Peter, James, and John physically went up to the mountain, saw Jesus transfiguration, and observed him speaking with Moses and Elijah. Furthermore, God the Father spoke upon which they fell to the ground and Jesus then told him not to be afraid. When the lifted up their eyes they saw no one except Jesus. which means that Moses and Elijah were no longer visible. All of this is descriptive of something that actually happened, not a representation of something else.
To be clear, one other caveat in this argument might be that Elijah never died since he was taken to heaven(2 Kings 2:11-13 ; 1 Maccabees 2:58
). Nevertheless, Moses did die and so the argument against the conditionalist position still holds true using the Transfiguration of Christ.
Source:
Annihilationism, Matthew 17, Christ's transfiguration, Moses, and Elijah | CARM.org
As I said before, the human body dies, but not the soul or the spirit. You have to look at the whole context of the Bible to avoid "contradictions".