throne is, and the tree of life, and the
city of God, the capital of Christ's kingdom; and three days later
Christ had not yet ascended to the Father. "Touch Me not," He said to
Mary after His resurrection; "for I am not yet ascended to My Father."
John 20:17. The dying thief, therefore, was not with Him in Paradise
three days before.

Nor did the thief's question suggest such a thought. His faith grasped
Christ's resurrection, the resurrection of His children, and the coming
kingdom; and that day on the cross, in the moment of the deepest
humiliation of the Son of God, the repentant sinner cried, "Lord,
remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom." And the Saviour replied,
"Verily I say unto thee today"--this day, when the world scoffs and the
darkness presses upon Me, this day I say it--"shalt thou be with Me in
Paradise." Luke 23:42, 43.

The punctuation that makes it read, "Today shalt thou be with Me in
Paradise," is not a part of the sacred text, and puts the Saviour's
promise in contradiction with the facts of the whole narrative and the
teaching of Scripture.

_4. The Rich Man and Lazarus_

"Then there is the parable of the rich man and Lazarus," one says,
"where Lazarus and Dives are talking, though dead--Lazarus in Abraham's
bosom and the rich man in torment."

But that is a parable; and no one can set the figures of a parable
against the facts of positive Scripture. In parables, lessons are often
taught by figurative language and imaginary scenes which could never be
real, though the lesson is emphasized the more forcefully.

In the parable of Judges 9, the trees are represented as holding a
council and talking with one another. No one mistakes the lesson of the
parable, or supposes that the trees actually talked. So in the parable
of the rich man and Lazarus, the lesson is taught that uprightness in
this life, even though under deepest poverty, will be rewarded in the
future life; while uncharitable selfishness will surely bring one to
ruin and destruction.

In the face of the Bible teaching, no one can turn this parable into
actual narrative, representing that the saved in glory are now looking
over the battlements of heaven and talking with the lost writhing before
their eyes in agony amid the flames of unending torment. This is not the
picture that the Scriptures give us of heaven, nor of the state of the
dead, nor of the time and circumstances of the final rewards or
punishments.

[Illustra