I have recently added another teaching to our website "The Tree of Life"
you may go directly to our teaching page by clicking this link.
http://www.pastorharris.org/id9.html Dear Harris: I do not mean to put a kink in your armor, but I will give you just a little instruction on one of your major premises:
"Lu:23:42: And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. The thief was asking Jesus to remember him when he came into or established his kingdom {The millennial reign} and notice the unexpected answer he received.
Lu:23:43: And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise. He said today, not tomorrow or a thousand years from now but that today he would be with him in paradise. Now your answer would normally be ‘oh yeah’ when we die we will be with him..."
If this verse of Scripture is true according to your interpretation, then it contradicts most of the major teachings in the entire Bible concerning, repentance, overcoming, producing much fruit, enduring to the end, and resurrection of the dead. One cannot pervert the entire Word of God by merely misplacing a comma (,). Here are better renderings of Luke 23:43:
"And Jesus said to him, 'Verily, to you am I saying today, with Me shall you be in paradise.'" (Concordant Literal New Testament).
"And he said unto him—Verily, I say unto thee this day: With me, shalt thou be in Paradise" (Rotherham's Emphasized Bible).
Even you gave Scripture showing that the wages of sin is "DEATH." Why do you then deny it in your paper. "Jesus DIED for our sins according to the Scriptures." He was not merely "crucified for our sins." No, HE D-I-E-D. And when people DIE, Harris, they are DEAD. I can't believe that it would be necessary for me to provide a Scripture to prove such an elementary concept, but I will:
Jos 1:1 Now after the DEATH of Moses the servant of the LORD it came to pass, that the LORD spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, Jos 1:2 Moses My servant is DEAD..."
Well there you have from God Almighty Himself. When a person DIES, he is DEAD. So when you change that to some other unscriptural nonsense, you are treading in dangerous territory. Jesus was NOT in the Christian hell of eternal torture, nor was He preaching to spirits in some pagan hell, neither was he in a place called "paradise." Jesus was doing in the tomb exactly what He was prophesied to do and what He was commissioned to do by His Father--He died, and was therefore DEAD, until His Father Resurrected Him FROM THE DEAD.
Jesus' Father did not resurrect Jesus of Hell or from Paradise. Jesus was DEAD in the tomb until early Sunday morning, and so was the thief DEAD.
Now the difference between these two deaths is that Jesus was resurrected from the dead, but the thief was NOT--he is still dead, awaiting resurrection. If Jesus was not DEAD when He DIED for our sins, then you don't have a Saviour, Harris! And neither does anyone else! This is mighty important stuff you are contradicting in your paper. Do you not pay attention to the many hundreds of Scriptures that refute you paper?....
Co 15:12 Now if Christ be preached that He rose from the DEAD, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
Harris: If Jesus "rose from the DEAD" how say you that He was NOT EVEN DEAD TO BEGIN WITH? If Jesus "rose from the DEAD" how say you that
that there is no resurrection of the the DEAD THIEF," but that he is presently LIVING in a place called "paradise?"
I am sorry I don't have time to critique your entire paper, but I receive many requests to read hundreds and thousands of pages of papers, books, Internet sites, etc., but I just am not able. So I cannot comment on your entire paper. However, I hope my little critique on this one point does not anger you.
God be with you,
Ray
PS Another minor point: The thief did not ASK to be with Jesus in Paradise, did he? NO, he did not. He asked Jesus to "remember him when Jesus came in His kingdom." Now then, Did Jesus say, "Yes, of course, I tell you that TODAY you with be with Me in My kingdom?' Did Jesus answer Him thus? NO. Well what in the world then did Jesus mean that the thief would be with Him [at some future date, not "today," but "shall be with Me," which is future tense] "in paradise?" Ah, that is the subject of one of my upcoming papers, and it is about as far removed from the Christian teaching and your teaching as anything could be.
