The Goods on the Gospels

Why does Jesus tell the two men being crucified next to him that they will be in Paradise with him today? I thought Jesus went to hell after that with the sins of the world.

Are you saying that Jesus never went into hell? If so, how do you explain the verse that says he who ascended must also of descended first?

Yes, that is what I am saying. The verse in John you are referring to is speaking about the pre-existing Christ descending to earth, and then later reascending to heaven from earth. It has nothing to do with his visiting hell.

Why do people call him Jesus if his name is really Yeshua or something?

This is a fair question. In Greek, the Aramaic name 'Yeshua' ('Joshua' as we would render it) is rendered 'Iesous,' from which we get the anglicized name 'Jesus.'

What does it mean to blaspheme the Holy Spirit?

As Jesus indicates in Mark 3, it means to call the work of God-performed by means of the Holy Spirit--the work of the devil, and vice versa. Jesus is complaining that the work of God, which he was doing by the power of the Spirit, was being attacked by his critics as being done by the power of the devil.

What is the Mark of the Beast? --Steven

In the Book of Revelation, the mark of the beast refers to those who worship the emperor, and so are guilty of idolatry. In the minds of early Jews and Christians, the worship of false Gods was bad enough, but the worship of a mere human who was only the emperor was the worst form of idolatry. The beast in Revelation is the Roman Empire, and the mark of the beast refers to the impression left by the emperor's propaganda on those who came to see him as a God upon the earth.