Here we have the assertion of Jesus, Himself, that during the three days immediately subsequent to His crucifixion, while His body lay in the tomb, His spirit did not go into heaven or the presence of His Father. Logically, it must follow, neither did that of the thief. The generally accepted idea, therefore, of the thief being saved, must inevitably fall to the ground. Jesus asserted that "To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise," and upon His return to the earth, He informed Mary that He had not ascended to His Father. The question naturally arises, where had He been during these three days? We are not left in doubt upon this point, but scripture plainly points out the character of the duties He was called upon to perform, while His body rested in peace in the new-made tomb of Joseph. He to whom Jesus transferred the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and who stood at the head of the twelve apostles, would certainly be accepted as a competent witness in this matter; and, by turning to his epistles, we gain this information: "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: by which also He went and PREACHED UNTO THE SPIRITS IN PRISON." (I. Peter 3:18, 19.) Here we have an account of what He was doing during the three days absence from the body: preaching "unto the spirits in prison," also a very clear explanation as to where the thief went. It was to a prison world, where he could have an opportunity to hear the Savior preach the gospel of deliverance to the captive spirits, "which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah." (I. Peter 3:20.) We now understand what Isaiah, the prophet, meant, when speaking of Jesus. He says, "That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth." (Isaiah 49:9.) And again, "He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the _captives_, and the opening of the _prison to them that are bound_." (Isaiah 61:1.) And again, "To open the blind eyes, to bring out the _prisoners_ from the _prison_, and them that sit in darkness out of the _prison house_." (Isaiah 52:7.) How appropriately do these passages coincide with, and support the assertion of Peter, relative to Jesus preaching to the "spirits in prison." Men, who in the days of the flood failed to obey the commandments of God, and for two thousand long, weary years had suffered the penalty for their wrong doing, had been fulfilling the principle so clearly enunciated by our Savior, when He said, "Verily, I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing." (Matt. 5:26.) "And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes." (Luke 12:47, 48.)