Don't you understand God's plan of salvation? God wants everyone to be saved.
2 Peter 3:9 (WEB):
(9) The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but is patient with us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
1 Timothy 2:4 (WEB):
(4) who {God} desires all people to be saved and come to full knowledge of the truth.
Jesus' sacrifice of his life paid the redemption price to save all of mankind.
John 3:16 (WEB):
(16) For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
1 Timothy 2:5-6 (WEB):
(5) For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
(6) Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.
2 Corinthians 5:15 (WEB):
(15) He died for all, that those who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who for their sakes died and rose again.
Christians are a special case, a mystery now revealed, that are to become sons of God and part of the body of Christ and the bride of Jesus - his reward for his obedience and sacrifice.
John 1:12 (WEB):
(12) But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
1 John 3:1 (WEB):
(1) Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
Christians are resurrected first (in the "first resurrection"), and are changed to be spirit beings and will have a new home in heaven.
1 Corinthians 15:51-52 (WEB):
(51) Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we {Christians} shall all be changed,
(52) In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead {Christians} shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
John 14:2 (WEB):
(2) In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
However, for everyone else (non-Christians) they will have a part in a later resurrection, when Jesus returns to establish God's kingdom on the earth. They will be resurrected as humans again and will live on the earth. A thousand years (longer than any human has ever lived) is set aside for the restoration of all remaining mankind back to perfection, and the earth will also be restored back to perfection - it will become a paradise. It is at the end of that 1,000 year restoration period that Satan will be released once again to test everyone on the earth, to see if they are worthy of eternal life. Those that fail the test will perish (be destroyed - their second, and permanent, death); those that pass the test will have eternal life.
So when Jesus assured the thief that he would be with Jesus in paradise, he was referring to the fact that the thief would be resurrected in the general (second) resurrection, and that he would be living on the earth which will then be a paradise. Jesus would be there with him, as he reigns (with the resurrrected Christians) over all mankind, blessing them immensely, ruling with righteousness.
Acts 17:30-31 (WEB):
(30) The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent,
(31) because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.”
You agreed earlier that the Scriptures do not contradict itself, yet believing the story of a rich man and a poor man was a literal true story, rather than a parable (fiction), would result in a contradiction. It clearly states in several places in Scripture that the dead have no thoughts and are in a sleeping (unconscious) state. The transfiguration was a vision given to the disciples - Matthew 17:9 (ESV):
(9) And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, “Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.”