Will the repentant criminal who died next to Jesus be with him in Paradise?

Jesus promised him that he will.

But if Watchtower teachings are correct, he won’t.

Let’s look at Luke’s account of their dying conversation.

Luke 23:39-43:

Then one of the criminals hanging there began to speak abusively to him, saying: “You are the Christ, are you not? Save yourself and us too!’” 40 In response the other rebuked him, saying: ‘Do you not fear God at all, now that you have received the same judgment? 41 And we rightly so, for we are getting back what we deserve for the things we did; but this man did nothing wrong.” 42 Then he said: “Jesus, remember me when you get into your Kingdom.” 43 And he said to him: “Truly I tell you today, you will be with me in Paradise.” (Watchtower translation)

The usual debate between Jehovah’s Witnesses and Christians is over the placement of the last comma.

Did Jesus mean that the repentant criminal would be with him in Paradise that very day or only that he would be with him in Paradise thousands of years later—after the man’s resurrection?

The “When”

The Watchtower believes the Bible teaches that death is unconscious nonexistence until such time as God resurrects us. (See the post “Did Jesus Go Out of Existence?”)

Here is how it applies this understanding to the repentant criminal.

First, it notes that the evildoer was not resurrected when Jesus was.

In the Scriptures, Hades (or, Sheol) refers, not to the underworld of Greek mythology, but to mankind’s common grave. The Bible also shows that the dead are unconscious. (Ps. 146:3, 4; Eccl. 9:5, 10; John 11:11-14) Hence, when Jesus and the evildoer died, they went to the grave where they were unconscious, incapable of any awareness. Christ’s mention of paradise thus could not have been a reference to some imaginary happy portion of Sheol or Hades. Furthermore, the Bible says that by a special miracle of God Jesus was resurrected out of Hades on the third day, but it does not say that the evildoer was resurrected.—Acts 2:31, 32 (Awake! “You Will Be with Me in Paradise”—Where? When?”, 8/8/79, pp. 26-27, emphasis added)

Next, the Watchtower says that the evildoer will be resurrected in the future—at the beginning of Christ’s millennial kingdom on earth—so it’s at that time that he will enter Paradise and Jesus’ words will be fulfilled.

Yes, 1,900 years ago, when Jesus made that promise to the evildoer, the time for establishing the Messianic kingdom over the earth had not yet arrived. (Rev. 11:15; Acts 1:6, 7) But historic events of our time in fulfillment of Bible prophecy indicate that the time for Christ to act as an installed king to eliminate wickedness from the earth is right before us. (Matt. 24:3-22) Then this earth will be transformed into a paradise, fulfilling Messianic prophecies that the Jewish evildoer may well have known about. By means of the miracle of resurrection many persons, including that evildoer, will come back to life in the earthly realm of the Kingdom. In this way Jesus will fulfill his words spoken so long ago: “Truly I tell you today, You will be with me in Paradise.” (Awake! “You Will Be with Me in Paradise”—Where? When?”, 8/8/79, p. 28, emphasis added)

The “Where”

Did Jesus mean that on the day when the evildoer is resurrected he will go to heaven to be there with him?

No, says the Watchtower: The resurrected evildoer will never go to heaven but instead will be resurrected to Paradise on earth during Christ’s millennial reign:

According to the Bible, no human, including the apostles, could be accepted for heavenly life until Jesus had been sacrificed, had gone to heaven and opened or “inaugurated” the way into heaven. (Heb. 10:12, 19, 20; 1 Cor. 15:20, 23) Accordingly, it was not until Pentecost of 33 C.E., 10 days after Jesus’ ascension to heaven, that holy spirit was first poured out so that the disciples were “born again,” a prerequisite to going to heaven. (John 3:3, 5; Acts 1:3-9; 2:1-4) The evildoer impaled beside Christ had died over a month before, so he was not “born again.” Logically he could not have been called to the heavenly kingdom any more than was John the Baptizer, who also died before Christ offered the sacrificial basis for heavenly life.—Matt. 11:11.” (Awake! “You Will Be with Me in Paradise”—Where? When?”, 8/8/79, p. 27, emphasis added)

 Does that mean that Jesus be on earth physically or visibly to greet him?

Not if the Watchtower is right.

It teaches that Christ will reign over the earth from heaven but that he won’t actually be on the earth.

Will Christ return in a manner visible to human eyes? John 14:19: “A little longer and the world will behold me no more, but you [Jesus’ faithful apostles] will behold me, because I live and you will live.” (Jesus had promised his  apostles that he would come again and take them to heaven to be with him. They could see him because they would be spirit creatures as he is. But the world would not see him again. Compare 1 Timothy 6:16.)” (Reasoning From the Scriptures, pp. 341-342, emphasis added)

Imagine this scenario

Let’s assume for the sake of argument that the Watchtower is correct in all of this.

The repentant evildoer died the same day Jesus did, but he hasn’t been resurrected yet, so he hasn’t had any conscious thoughts or experiences for more than 2000 years.

One day in the future, Jehovah resurrects him and he finds himself in physical form on earth at the beginning of Christ’s millennial kingdom.

The first thing he asks is, “Where is Jesus? He promised me that one day I would be with him in Paradise, so I want to see him again and thank him.”

A resurrected Jehovah’s Witness elder lovingly explains to him, “You don’t understand. After Jesus was resurrected in spirit form, he went back to heaven. He is there now with a little flock 144,000 anointed Christians.”

The evildoer asks, “When will Jesus be coming back to earth so I can see him again?”

The elder replies, “He won’t. He and the 144,000 are invisible to us. They are now ruling over us from heaven.”

The evildoer asks, “If Jesus won’t be coming back to earth, when will I be going to heaven to be with him in Paradise there?”

The elder replies, “You won’t. You see, you and I are a part of the great crowd of other sheep. We have been resurrected in physical form, and we are now living in the earthly realm of his Messianic kingdom. This is how he has fulfilled the words he spoke to you so long ago when he said, ‘Truly I tell you today, You will be with me in Paradise.’” (See Awake! “You Will Be with Me in Paradise”—Where? When?”, 8/8/79, p. 28)

Crestfallen, the evildoer says, “But Jesus didn’t just tell me I would one day be in Paradise. He promised me that I would be with him in Paradise. In fact, how can I consider myself to be in Paradise if Jesus isn’t with me?”

The elder says, “Sorry, you died about two months too soon for that.”