Anyone who believes that death is really death and not a transition to another place where one lifts one’s eyes, will invariably be objected to by the fact that the Lord told the murderer on the cross that he would be with Him in paradise that same day.
Luke 23 (NKJV)
42 And he said to Jesus, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
43 And he said to him, Verily I say unto you, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
punctuation
We must remember that the Greek in which the original was recorded by Luke has no punctuation. Periods, commas, colons and even spaces and differences in lower case and upper case are interpretations of the translators. If we put the punctuation in other places, we get a completely different sentence, which fits perfectly with the question of the fellow crucified.
Luke 23
43 And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee today, Thou shalt be with me in paradise.
on that day
The murderer asked Jesus: Lord, remember me when You come into Your Kingdom. The Lord’s answer is that He will not remember him then, but that He does so now (>today). Jesus gave him on that day the assurance that He would enter the Kingdom.
Jesus also did not go to paradise when he died, that is still future (Rev.2:7; 22:2). He was dead and was in the grave for three days (Acts 2:31). God raised Him on the third day (Acts 2:24, 32; 5:30; 10:40; 1 Cor.15:4). The Lord is now the only one at God’s right hand and when the murderer rises, at the resurrection of the righteous (Luke 14:14), Jesus’ promise to him will be fulfilled