Paradise is the place of God's throne and the tree of life, and it is not where Jesus or the repentant thief went on the day of the crucifixion. Jesus was entirely dead and buried for three days and three nights (1 Corinthians 15:3-4; John 19:41-42), and Acts 2:31 shows His soul was in hades, the grave, which is not Paradise. Since Christ has preeminence in all things (Colossians 1:18), the thief could not have entered Paradise ahead of Him. Paul's vision of being caught up to the third heaven places Paradise at God's throne (2 Corinthians 12:1-5). Revelation 2:7 and 22:1-2 locate the tree of life in the Paradise of God, which is the New Jerusalem. That city is still being prepared (John 14:2) and will descend to earth only after the Millennium. Luke 23:43 is therefore misread when a comma is placed before "today." Punctuation was not in the original Greek, where "today" follows "I say to thee." Jesus was stressing the time of the promise, not the time of arrival in Paradise. The thief had asked to be remembered when Christ came into His kingdom, which has not yet happened. The thief remains dead and buried, but he will be resurrected and enter the Paradise of God when it comes to earth.

Luke 23:43, where Jesus tells the repentant criminal, "today you will be with Me in Paradise," is commonly taken to prove that the faithful go to heaven at death, but it does not support that idea. Jesus' only sign of His identity was three days and three nights in the grave, so He could not have been in Paradise that day, and neither could the criminal. Paul (I Corinthians 15:3-4) says Christ Himself was buried and rose the third day. John 19:41-42 places Him in the tomb, and Acts 2:31 says His soul was in Hades, the grave. After the resurrection He told Mary He had "not yet ascended to My Father" (John 20:17). The Greek word for Paradise means a park or garden, an Eden-like setting, and it indicates the presence of God's throne, as in II Corinthians 12:1-5, where Paul is caught up into Paradise, the third heaven. Revelation 2:7 places the Tree of Life in the Paradise of God, as in Eden. Revelation 21-22 shows the New Jerusalem descending to the new earth after the Millennium, with God's throne and the Tree of Life. This is Paradise, where the repentant criminal will one day be with Christ.

The account of Jesus' words to the criminal on the cross raises the question of Paradise and what it means for Jesus, or any part of Him, to have been there on the day of His death. Scripture establishes plainly that Jesus's body and soul remained in Hades, the grave, for three days and three nights beginning on the day He died; He was not in Paradise, and therefore neither was the criminal crucified beside Him. Yet Luke 23:46 records Jesus saying, "Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit," which many take to mean that Jesus, in spirit form, was consciously with the Father in Paradise that very day, and that the criminal could have joined Him there in the same manner. This assumption rests on the widespread belief that mankind possesses an immortal soul whose consciousness continues after death, apart from the body. Scripture, however, consistently teaches otherwise. The spirits of both Jesus and the criminal did return to God the Father, as do the spirits of all people, according to Ecclesiastes 3:21 and 12:7. Yet their consciousness ended at the moment of death, meaning their complete persons could not be said to have been with the Father. This is confirmed by the fact that after His resurrection, Jesus told Mary, "I have not yet ascended to My Father" (John 20:17), showing that although His spirit had gone to the Father, His body and soul had not. Numerous passages clarify that death brings a total cessation of consciousness: there is "no remembrance" of God in death (Psalm 6:5); the grave is called "the place of destruction," "the dark," and "the land of forgetfulness" (Psalm 88:11-12); "the dead do not praise the LORD" (Psalm 115:17); and when a person's spirit departs, "his plans perish" (Psalm 146:4). Ecclesiastes 9:10 states plainly that there is "no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave." Death is therefore pictured throughout Scripture as sleep—devoid of awareness, comprehension, or recognition of God. The human spirit, though it returns to God, is not a separate sentient being capable of independent consciousness; rather, it is best understood as the mind—the seat of understanding, attitudes, and thought (Job 32:8; 1 Corinthians 2:11). It depends entirely on a living body, whether physical or spiritual, to produce consciousness. The notion of a consciously surviving soul stems from pagan belief, not biblical revelation. Jesus' own declaration that "no one has ever gone into heaven" (John 3:13) confirms that the spirit alone does not constitute the whole person. Thus, while Jesus' spirit returned to the Father at death, His complete being—body, soul, and spirit—did not ascend to Paradise until after His resurrection three days and three nights later, when His spirit was restored to a living body.

Paradise, as Jesus uses it in Luke 23:43, does not mean going to heaven at death. It refers to God's Kingdom, which recalls the Garden of Eden, a condition untainted by sin or corruption rather than simply a place. The repentant robber had asked Jesus to remember him when He came into His kingdom, so Jesus' reply about Paradise answers that request. The comma should come after "today," so that the verse reads, "I say to you today, you will be with Me in Paradise." "Today" modifies "say" and not "will be," since the Greek word order places it right after "say." Jesus was dead in the tomb that day and so was the robber, so neither could have been in Paradise then. Christ's return brings rule on the earth, as Revelation 5:10 says, and not in heaven. In II Corinthians 12:4 Paul's "paradise" is defined by context as the third heaven, so the word can mean two different times and places, both marked by sinlessness and incorruption. Hebrews 11:37-40 supports this reading. The faithful heroes, including Abraham, have not yet been made perfect apart from believers now. It would make no sense for a deathbed convert to be perfected ahead of them. Like David in Acts 2, the robber awaits the resurrection in the grave.