hes in this life are tokens of the favor
and approbation of God, and condemn their departure from the teachings of
Moses and the prophets. As a parable, it is not designed to show the state
of the dead, and the conditions that prevail in the spirit world. But if
any persist that it is not a parable, but a presentation of actual fact,
then the scene is laid, not in the intermediate state, but beyond the
resurrection; for it is after the angels had carried Lazarus into
Abraham's bosom. But the angels do not bear any one anywhere away from
this earth, till the second coming of Christ and the resurrection of the
dead. Matt. 24:30, 31; 1 Thess. 4:15-17. Finding no support in this
portion of scripture for the conscious-state theory, with its
spiritualistic possibilities, appeal is next made by the friends of that
theory to the case of--

10. _The Thief on the Cross._--Luke 23:39-43. When one of the malefactors
who were crucified with Jesus, requested to be remembered when he should
come into his kingdom, according to the record in the common version, the
Lord replied, "To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise." To go from death
into paradise the same day, means to go into the spirit world without a
body, or discarnated, as Spiritualists claim. And so it would be if such
was Christ's promise to the thief; but it was not.

The little adverb "to-day" holds the balance of power as to the meaning of
this text. If it qualifies Christ's words, "Verily I say unto thee," it
gives one idea; if it qualifies the words, "Thou shalt be with me in
paradise," we have another and very different idea. And how shall the
question of its relationship be decided?--It can be done only by the
punctuation.

Here another difficulty confronts us; for the Greek was originally written
in a solid line of letters, without any punctuation, or even division into
words. Such being the case, the punctuation, and the relation of the
qualifying word "to-day," must be determined by the context. Now it is a
fact that Christ did not go to paradise that day. He died, and was placed
in the tomb, and the third day rose from the dead. Mary was the first to
meet him, and sought to worship him. But he said, "Touch me not, for I am
not yet ascended to my Father." John 20:17. Paradise is where the Father
is (see 2 Cor. 12:2-4; Rev. 2:7; 22:1, 2), and if Christ had not been to
his Father when Mary met him the third day after his crucifixion, he had
not then been to paradi