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As Jesus hung on the cross, He told the good thief, “Today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). But Jesus did not go to heaven immediately when He died. When He saw Mary after the resurrection, Jesus told her that He had not ascended to the Father yet (John 20:17). If Christ’s spirit did not ascend to heaven until after the resurrection, where was He while His body was in the tomb?

(Luke 16:19-31) records a story Jesus told about a rich man and a beggar named Lazarus. When they died, Lazarus was carried by angels to Abraham’s side where he was comforted. The rich man went to fiery torment in Hades. The realm of the dead was divided: a place of comfort and a place of torment. The souls of either side could see and talk each other, but no one could cross from one side to the other.

Jesus’s spirit descended (Ephesians 4:9) to “Paradise” (Luke 23:43) after His physical death. All people went to the realm of the dead when they died: Godly believers went to a place of comfort with Abraham and the ungodly went to a place of torment. When Jesus rose from the dead, He took the souls of the godly with Him.

The godly souls in Paradise were the captives set free by Jesus when He ascended to Heaven. Since then, the souls of the saved go directly to heaven when they die. But until the Rapture, the dead are just spirits. They and the living will not receive new bodies until the Rapture (1 Corinthians 15:51-54; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17). Thereafter, the souls of the saved go directly to heaven when they die. The dead are just spirits. They will receive new bodies at the Rapture.

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