Dismas also known as The Good Thief, The Catholic Church teaches that the sacrament of baptism is necessary: “Baptism is birth into the new life in Christ. In accordance with the Lord’s will, it is necessary for salvation” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1277). This is why the Church baptizes infants: “All the more urgent is the Church’s call not to prevent little children coming to Christ through the gift of holy baptism” (CCC 1261).
The Church also teaches that some who are saved will go to purgatory before entering heaven: “All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven. The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect” (CCC 1030-1031).
Many non-Catholics think they have found a single biblical passage to refute both these doctrines—a double-whammy in one neat little package.
The salvation of the good thief
Luke’s gospel contains unique details of an event on Golgotha:
“Two others also, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with [Jesus]. . . . One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, ‘Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!’ But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.’ And he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ And he said to him, ‘Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise’” (Luke 23:32-43).
This is all the Bible tells us about the “good thief,” but several points are clear. First, he is a criminal whose crucifixion for his actions is just. Second, he is contrite. Third, he believes in Jesus. And finally, Jesus affirms his salvation. There is no indication that this man was a Christian, yet Jesus assures him that he is saved and even promises (in most Bible translations) that he will go to heaven that very day.
Therefore, the challenge goes, baptism is not necessary for salvation, since there is no indication that the good thief was—or ever would be—baptized. And, the non-Catholic will add, there is no such thing as purgatory, for if ever a person needed purgation it was this criminal, who repented mere hours, if not minutes, before his death—yet he goes to heaven that same day.
So how can the Catholic doctrines on the necessity of baptism and the existence of purgatory be squared with these contradictions?
The necessity of baptism
First, let’s consider the Church’s teaching on the necessity of baptism and how the good thief could attain salvation. It might come as a surprise to learn that Catholics recognize that the good thief was indeed saved, and tradition assigns him the name St. Dismas. The word translated above as “paradise” (Greek, paradeiso), the place to which Dismas would go, means “the abode of the blessed dead” (A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, p. 339).
Whether or not Dismas had been baptized is unknown. Scripture and other historical records do not contain this information. We also do not know that Jesus had instituted the necessity of sacramental baptism at that point.
Scripture indicates three times when Jesus might have instituted his baptism. First, in his words to Nicodemus: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). Jesus seems to indicate the necessity of baptism here, but it could be that he speaks of an eventual necessity because his sacramental baptism had not yet been instituted. He speaks later of eventual necessity when he says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” (John 6:53). Since the sacrament of Holy Communion would not be instituted until the Last Supper, his words here cannot indicate a current necessity. Similarly, when he speaks to Nicodemus it is not clear that Jesus has yet instituted the sacrament of baptism.
