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Three Proofs the Thief on the Cross Did Not Go to Heaven

What happened to the thief on the cross, who was with Jesus at His crucifixion?

In this video, you’ll learn exactly what Jesus was saying and what happened to the thief when he died.

So here’s what happened. When Jesus was crucified:

There were also two others, criminals, led with Him to be put to death. And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left (Luke 23:32-33).

While these three men hung in agony:

One of the criminals… blasphemed Him, saying, “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us” (Luke 23:39).

But the other unknown criminal rebuked the first, saying:

“Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:40-43).

So did Jesus tell this penitent thief that he would be going to heaven with Him that very same day?

The answer is clearly no, and here’s why.

Reason #1: The Bible says no one has gone to heaven.

John 3:13 says:

No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.

Besides Jesus Christ, not a single person, not even King David—the man after God’s own heart—has been taken up to heaven to be with God.

When Peter, after receiving the Holy Spirit, preached to the crowd in Jerusalem, He said:

“Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. … For David did not ascend into the heavens” (Acts 2:29-34).

The Bible shows that the dead, even the faithful who have died, are still in their graves awaiting a resurrection.

For more information on this topic, watch our whiteboard covering THIS Happens After Death.

Now some would say that Jesus made His statement in John 3:13 before His crucifixion and that perhaps the thief on the cross would be the first exception.

However, this argument still has the problem highlighted in reason number two.

Reason #2: Jesus didn’t go to heaven that day.

The Bible clearly shows He spent three days and three nights in the grave after His death. After Jesus died:

[Joseph of Arimathea] went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a tomb that was hewn out of the rock… (Luke 23:52-53).

That tomb was sealed, and Jesus lay there for three days and three nights as He had said He would on many occasions.

“For 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 12:40).

Paul was clear when He taught the Corinthians:

…that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

And to assert the erroneous idea that only His body stayed in the grave while His spirit went to heaven ignores the fact that after He was resurrected, He told Mary:

“Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father…” (John 20:17).

So Jesus Himself did not go to heaven the day He spoke with the thief on the cross. Therefore, He could not have been telling the thief that they would be going there that day.

So if Jesus wasn’t telling the thief that he would be going with Him to heaven, what was He saying?

Reason #3: A misplaced comma changes the emphasis of “today.”

First, the reason for the confusion surrounding this verse has a lot to do with one grossly misplaced comma.

It’s important to remember that the earliest New Testament manuscripts, written in Greek, were written in a style of writing called scriptio continua, meaning there was no separation between words and sentences, and little or no punctuation was used.

Sometimes, short pauses were indicated by a dot on the line ( . ), and full stops were indicated by a high dot ( ˙ ), but the comma was introduced much later, as late as the ninth century.

So the placement of commas in our modern translations were, for the most part, added by translators, not the original text.

And when we look at the oldest copy of Luke, Papyrus 75 (formerly Papyrus Bodmer 14-15), which is dated to the third century, what we find is that there is no dot indicating a pause or break in the sentence, either before or after the word “today.”

So while it’s still appropriate to have a comma, to fit with the rest of Scripture, highlighted by our two previous points, we can see that the comma should be placed after the word “today,” which changes the entire meaning of Jesus’ statement. What Jesus actually said was:

“Assuredly, I say to you today, you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43).

The word “today” emphasizes Jesus’ promise at that moment, not when the thief would be in paradise.

Definitions of Paradise in the Bible

Now, what is this “paradise” that He spoke of?

The word “paradise” simply means a grove, a park, or a shady and well-watered preserve, likened to the Garden of Eden (Thayer’s Greek Lexicon and Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance).

When we look elsewhere in the Bible, we see that Paul mentions being taken in vision to God’s throne [and] “he was caught up into Paradise” (2 Corinthians 12:4). In this case, “Paradise” refers to the third heaven, the spiritual realm where God dwells and rules from His throne.

Also, the book of Revelation describes the reward for faithful Christians, saying:

To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God (Revelation 2:7).

But notice, “Paradise” is in a different location in this case. This “Paradise” with the tree of life will be on the New Earth.

Revelation 22:1-5 describes the New Jerusalem, the holy city, where a pure river of water proceeds from the throne of God, and “in the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life” (Revelation 22:2).

Revelation 21:1-2 shows that the New Jerusalem comes down out of Heaven to the New Earth.

Therefore, the Paradise of God is a beautiful garden-like place in the presence of God’s throne on the New Earth.

That is the time when the thief will enter paradise—when, in the future, the kingdom of God is on earth.

The Bible has a lot more to say about the good news of the coming Kingdom of God, so if you’re interested, be sure to check out our whiteboard The Gospel Jesus Preached Is Different Than What Most Have Been Taught.

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