"Luke 23:43 (NASB) And He said to him, "Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise."
Where should the comma in Jesus' statement be placed? Put it before the word "today" and you have the malefactor in paradise on the day of his death, put the comma after the word "today" and you have a promise that he would be in paradise sometime in the future. Since the early manuscripts had no punctuation this verse could grammatically say two things. The only way to know which is correct is to study other sections of Scripture.
If Luke 23:43 were the only verse in the Bible on this subject it, would be difficult or even impossible to know where the comma should go. Fortunately there are many verses on this critical subject. By
studying other sections of Scripture it becomes apparent that paradise will not be reestablished until the end of the book of Revelation, therefore the comma must go after today. Jesus was making a sure promise of salvation to the malefactor that fateful day, and when paradise is restored you can be sure that this man will be there. By reading other sections of Scripture we can eliminate the seeming ambiguity of Luke 23:43.
All difficult verses must be understood in light of the clear verses on the identical subject. When you start with the clear verses on a subject, you can usually figure out what the apparent contradictions or ambiguous verses mean. By looking at the clear verses first, when you come to the difficult verses, even if you never determine what the verse means, you will at least know what it cannot mean.
This is the only honest way to approach Biblical research. Unfortunately most people read a difficult or ambiguous verse and then say whatever they like about it. The result is confusion and a proliferation of different denominations and doctrines." p. 128
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