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The afterlife, before and after Jesus.
Where does the
spirit or soul of a believer go when they die? Possible destinations following death for the believer or non-believer. Details on terms including: Hell, Heaven, Sheol, Abyss, Hades, Gehenna, Lake of Fore, New Heaven, Abraham's Bosom, Paradise, Tartarus. |
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Editor's Note: Please take notice that the footnotes and glossary which are included in this article both provide integral information highly relevant to understanding this subject. In fact, reading the glossary first may help understanding specifics regarding utilized terms. The original question Where was Lazarus' spirit when he was in the grave before Jesus brought him back to life? The Lazarus in question is the brother of Martha and Mary, who lived in Bethany near Jerusalem. This man fell sick (John 11:1), died (John 11:14), and was dead for four days before Jesus raised him to renewed natural life [END NOTE 4]. The Lazarus of this account must not be confused with the Lazarus of Jesus' illustration in Luke 16:19-31. For the record, a few key portions of the events surrounding Lazarus of Bethany are as follows:
Without getting into a dichotomous/trichotomous debate on the makeup of man NOTE 9, the question of Lazarus' spirit is in regards to the non-corporeal portion of a person, what some would also call the soul and certainly in regards to his thoughts, will and emotions. So again, the question is; where did Lazarus' spirit/soul go when his body was in the grave (tomb) for four days? The simple and most correct answer is: We can't say with certainty because the Bible does not speak specifically of this issue in regards to Lazarus. Lazarus' premature death, his brief sojourn in the grave and his subsequent resurrection were all an extraordinary event pre-planned by God. Extraordinary events, by definition, cannot be judged by the norm. Without a doubt, in Lazarus' extraordinary circumstances, God could and likely did things in an extraordinary or non-ordinary way. Since this answer will not satisfy some, their real question should be, "ordinarily speaking, what was destination of a believer's spirit/soul when they died prior to Jesus' death and resurrection?" This we can answer from Scriptures and leave them to their specific speculations regarding the extraordinary case of Lazarus or any of the others Jesus raised including Jairus' daughter (i.e. Luke 8:51-55). A possible answer for examination An answer that was forwarded to me, for this exact question, deserves examination. If fundamentally correct, there is no further need to write on this subject (and why reinvent the wheel?).
The answer provided above raises a number of issues that certainly require a more detailed examination. The passages cited do not fully defend or explain the view being offered apart from a dose of speculation. A summary chart of the proposed answer above:
Perhaps most of all, prior to any answering the specific question raised at the start of this article, some groundwork is necessary expressly regarding salvation throughout human history. |
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Salvation throughout human history Every person who has ever found salvation has done so through faith in Jesus Christ. Prior to the coming of Jesus this entailed trusting in God that He would fulfill His promise and make provision for salvation through the coming Messiah. With the coming of Christ (the Messiah), we have the realized fulfillment of those Old Testament hopes. We now look back and place our faith in Jesus Christ and His accomplished work. How could any individual be saved before Jesus actually (in time and space) died and rose again? Because it was predetermined and decreed by God (who cannot change his mind or lie, 1 Samuel 15:29) and, as such, was an accomplished fact from before the creation of the world.
The kingdom was prepared for believers from the creation of the world. This was spoken to people before Jesus died and rose again!:
God chose believers before the creation of the world (appointing all who would believe; Acts 13:48).
God set apart Jesus to die as the perfect Lamb of God before the creation of the world, before anyone ever sinned!
Not only was Jesus set apart before the creation of the world, He was counted as slain from the creation of the world.
Believers who died in Christ, before Jesus was physically crucified in time and space, did not have to wait for the future act as it was planned and promised and credited as accomplished from the very beginning. All the names of believers throughout all the ages were written in the Book of Life from the creation of the world (see Revelation 17:8). From this Scriptural understanding of salvation, a simple understanding of the state of any believer or unbeliever, following death, may be arrived at through a host of additional passages. Simply put, unbelievers end up in hell definition and believers end up in heaven definition (i.e. the presence of God), though neither are a final destination. The present Hell and its occupants will ultimately, following the final judgment, end up in the Lake of Fire (the ultimate Hell) for eternity.
In contrast, a new heaven and earth and the New Jerusalem are the final abode of all believers following the destruction of the present corrupted ones by fire see definition of heaven for more on this.
Whereas the absolute end is so clear, the remainder of this examination will consider the state prior to the final one, that of the present heaven and hell. Multiple Hells and Purgatory Throughout history some have tried to add additional possibilities to this short list, claiming multiple or variously defined "hells" or a purgatory on the way to heaven. None of these hold up to the scrutiny of Scriptures. Purgatory, an imagined place of mild torment and preparation for heaven, is based solely in the myths and professed authority of the Roman Catholic Church who subsequently make a weak appeal to apocryphal scriptures (i.e. Wisdom 3:5-6, 2 Maccabees 12:43-45, Baruch 3:4) and fanciful interpretations of a few canonical Scriptures (i.e. Matthew 12:32, NOTE 1). From the clear message of Scriptures alone, for a believer, it is to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.
Scriptures paints a picture of believing souls in the presence of God in heaven, conscious and aware, calling upon Him, prior to the resurrection and receipt of a new glorified body (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, 1 John 3:2).
Perhaps the passage that has caused more confusion than any other is Luke 16:19-31. The Roman Catholic Church would claim that this passage is illustrative of Purgatory, while some Protestant Christians NOTE 2 turn it into their own (first of two) temporary state often referred to as "Abraham's Bosom (based on King James wording)". This latter doctrine also requires a fanciful understanding of Scriptures. Here is the passage for examination:
Roman Catholics, not believing in the absolute sufficiency and completeness of Christ's work on the cross, claim that an interim state is necessary to allow for a person to pay for some of their sins before getting to go on to heaven. This is completely against what Scripture says regarding God's absolute salvation and payment in full for our sins. NOTE 3 For the record, it is not Lazarus that Roman Catholics believe was in Purgatory in this passage, they legitimately hold that he was in heaven with Abraham. It's the rich man they claim to be in purgatory - actually believing that he would eventually be saved, something completely in opposition to the intent of Jesus' story. How do they place the rich man in purgatory? Their entire argument is based upon presuppositions that such a place must and needs to exist, followed up by assumptions regarding the nature of compassion (presuming that all compassion must come from God and never from any natural motivation or ability NOTE 5)...
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Abraham's Bosom Protestants who claim Abraham's Bosom (i.e. "Abraham's side" in verse 22 above) as a necessary interim state, before the second interim state of heaven, minimize another aspect of God. They are claiming that God could not allow any believer into heaven until Jesus actual was crucified and resurrected, as if it was necessary that it all had to play out within time in case Jesus didn't go through with it. This disparages the person and Deity of Christ as God, who cannot lie. As God, He could and did act upon His promise from the very beginning. In fact, the whole of history is an unfolding of God's perfect, determined, and unalterable plan. Of course, if there were other passages that would support Abraham's bosom as being a destination separate from heaven, or as a holding place prior to heaven (and far prior to the new and final heaven), this would help. Unfortunately for the proponents of this belief, their entire doctrine of Abraham's Bosom begins and ends right here, an imagined fiction based upon a single phrase. In fact, the phrase "Abraham's Bosom" is a Hebraism for heaven, the place where Abraham's soul is in the presence and comfort of God while awaiting the resurrection. At that time, God was not waiting to potentially continue being the God of Abraham, with Abraham in some intermediate state hoping that Jesus would come through; God is the God of Abraham. To God, this believer is alive! Consider the words Jesus spoke even prior to His death and resurrection:
Moreover, if the professed legal fiction that God didn't have the right to take believers from the grave (Sheol/Hades) until Jesus actually died and rose again was true, what right would Jesus have had to have Moses and Elijah appear with Him on the Mount of Transfiguration? In fact, both of these deceased individuals were consciously aware of and conversing with Jesus about His coming death. This implies increased knowledge and better understanding of the person of Christ, something that would arise from being in His presence in heaven (part of Sheol/Hades), not from being held in a removed holding place or compartment of hell (read the whole account in Luke 9:28-36). This meshes well with Jesus' words regarding Abraham...
Again, this claim was before Jesus' death and resurrection and here Jesus was saying that not only did Abraham look forward to the Messiah when he was alive on earth, he (present tense) had seen it and was glad. Jesus was saying that Abraham had seen Him come to earth - not an act that a person in a holding place of hell would have seen, rather something that would come from being in the presence of God. NOTE 6 The account in Luke 16, regarding Lazarus and the rich man, nowhere specifically claims Abraham's bosom to be a compartment of Sheol/Hades, let alone the popular definition of Hell. If we had no other clarifying passages, an argument could be made that Abraham's Bosom was completely separate from it, as state of the lost and saved are highly distinguished and contrasted. In verse 22, it speaks of paradise (with Lazarus being alongside or with Abraham, who was with God) and then, in verse 23, it speaks of a completely different place within Hades, one of torment and far removed from the former.
Everyone goes to Hades The evidence of additional passages and word usage enable us to know that the two completely separate places can be referred to by the same encompassing name - Sheol or Hades. This is using a Biblical principle of interpretation that "Scriptures interprets Scriptures". With these clarifying passages taken into account, an understanding that Sheol/Hades encompasses what we would popularly call heaven and hell (the existing ones, not the future ones) is a legitimately derived conclusion. Some who even acknowledge a Jewish precedence in understanding Hades/Sheol to have two compartments often misrepresent the matter and attempt to make the Jewish belief into a two compartment hell that are both separate from the present heaven. They do this without recognizing that the Hebrew word "Sheol" (or Greek Hades) was a general word utilized in the Old Testament in regards to the abode of the dead. We repeated this for emphasis; it must be remembered that Hades/Sheol was not a technical word meaning Hell; rather it merely referred to the resting place of the dead. This could include a literal grave, or wherever a person was following death, specifics notwithstanding. Ancient Jewish rabbis spoke of this state after death, specifically referring to a divided Sheol with a place for the righteous and a place for the wicked - they were certain that God treated the unbeliever differently than the believer in death. What the rabbis didn't know or understand was the fullness of how differently in regards to the future hell and heaven, namely the Lake of Fire and New Heaven - this because they did not recognize (or have) the later revelation of the New Testament. In light of the further revelation of the New Testament, the early church still held to this view of a two-part Sheol/Hades as a destination for all believers and unbelievers, a place of comfort or torment where all await the resurrection. No distinction is made whether they were believers prior to Christ or following Christ (those we call Christians) - as all are in Christ, all await His glorious appearing and the final resurrection. NOTE 8 The New Testament, in God's style of progressive revelation, provides clarification and details not fully revealed in the Old. Even as we know more of the state of the lost, such as the rich man, both in his intermediate state of torment and his ultimate state of eternal destruction, so too for the state of the righteous. While both are presently in Sheol/Hades; how they are treated is far from the same. The state of punishment within Sheol/Hades we readily recognize as being what we commonly call hell; the present hell definition. In great contrast, righteous Lazarus' soul was in a state of comfort in the presence of Abraham who is also in the presence of God. This state could be called Abraham's bosom, or paradise (i.e. Luke 23:43), but it is more readily recognizable to us as heaven; the present heaven [see definition of heaven below]. Lazarus and Abraham, as does every believer, both long for the final perfect state of the new heaven and earth, complete with their new bodies which they will receive at the final resurrection. NOTE 11 Come quickly Lord Jesus! (Revelation 22:20; 2 Timothy 4:8) Summary Chart - Life and Death While sharing some similarities with the chart for the proposed response, as located at the start of this article, there are fundamental differences. This is a much more concise and consistent view, anchored in Scriptures and confirmed by early church history. Here there is no three part heaven (Abraham's Bosom, Paradise/Present Heaven, and New Heaven), rather there is the present heaven and future New Heaven and Earth. Unlike the earlier view that Sheol has changed into a Hades that is only for the lost, here there has only been one hell-like place in Sheol or Hades that will all end up in the Lake of Fire (the final hell). This is a consistent use of the words as found and used in Scriptures.
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Sheol (Hebrew) is a general, non-technical, term used throughout the Old Testament in reference to the grave or the next life. Only context allows any specific to be derived or implied in any usage of this word. Rather than leave a non-specific term, some English translations have rendered the word as grave, pit, and hell. Confusion arises as the latter, of course, is considered to be a very specific and defined location. It must be noted that nowhere in the Old Testament is the word ever used to specifically describe a place of torment or punishment for the wicked.
Little can be implied about the actual makeup of Sheol, for the mere presence of the righteous and the wicked does not provide sufficient evidence. Certainly, as a progressive revelation, the New Testament clarifies and expands on many themes and allusions in the Old Testament. Some have taken passages regarding Sheol and taken them too literal or made them technically specific. For example; those who claim soul sleep, holding that the soul sleeps in the ground with the body until the resurrection, often cite such a passage...
or even...
Remembering that Sheol can be used as a synonym for death or the afterlife, these verses are merely stating that normal activity of the living ceases upon death. As such these statements make no specific assessment of what the dead will be doing in the afterlife let alone where. With certainty we can agree that the voices of the righteous and the wicked are silenced in the land of the living upon their deaths. As a word that can mean grave, descriptions associated with Sheol are sometimes very specific to things pertaining to a literal grave in the ground, namely darkness, decay and dust. The usage of such terminology neither implies that there is nothing beyond the physical grave nor makes any characterization as to the destination of the soul in the afterlife.
In the same way, referring to Sheol as something you dig down to in no way implies that the afterlife is somehow literally below us; again the symbolism is that of a literal grave.
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The Abyss (Greek) - A synonym of Sheol with an additional revealed aspect. The Abyss, sometimes translated as the "bottomless pit" or "the deep", is a word that can mean the grave, similar to the Hebrew word Sheol.
In the few additional usages of this word in the New Testament (full total of 9), they show the general state of Sheol to include a holding place for demonic entities as well. This may be the same place as that which is for ungodly humans, but there is never shown to be a mingling of departed human and demonic entities.
Certainly the implication of the account of the demons in Luke 8 show that the demons fear the Abyss as a place of punishment, even as the Sheol is a place of punishment for the wicked, both prior to their final destination in the Lake of Fire. Hades (Greek) - a direct synonym of Sheol. When the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek in the centuries prior to Christ, the translators uniformly use the term Hades. In fact, showing Divine acceptance of this equivalency, New Testament passages referencing Old Testament Scriptures about Sheol also utilize the Greek term Hades. For the record; the Greek word Hades was the proper name of the god of the underworld in Greek mythology (i.e. Homer) and the underworld could be called "the house of Hades." Even as words in our language are derived from pagan sources (including month and day names), usage in Scriptures of the term Hades in no way implies Scriptural acceptance of the mythological Hades. The word Hades, through popular usage, had merely become synonymous with the afterlife or the grave. Using an equivalent term to Sheol does not preclude God from revealing additional details about Hades in the New Testament, again remembering that progressive revelation enables the New Testament to better clarify the Old. Hades is portrayed as the between state following death and prior to final judgment. This view echoes that in the Old Testament and is even mentioned by the first century historian Josephus as being a belief of the Pharisees. They also believe that souls have an immortal rigor in them, and that under the earth there will be rewards or punishments, according as they have lived virtuously or viciously in this life; and the latter are to be detained in an everlasting prison, but that the former shall have power to revive and live again... (Josephus: Antiquities of the Jews 18.1.3) If Josephus is correct, the Pharisees may not have believed in anything other than a continuous state of torment and prison for the wicked in Hades, but the Bible makes it unquestionably clear that the Lake of Fire is their final destination. Some of the ways Hades is referred to:
Since a majority of references to Hades in the New Testament emphasize the state of the lost, not to mention the figurative use of the word in association with wicked supernatural powers, many have come to believe that Hades can only be used in reference to non-believers in the New Testament. In fact, this is not a certainty and is quite improbable as word equivalency alone shows otherwise. Acts 2:27, 31 certainly refer to Hades in the exact same way as the Old Testament Sheol, as the grave or afterlife, a general destination for both the wicked and the righteous. In the account of Lazarus, Hades is likewise used in a broad sense as a destination for the righteous and the wicked. Both Lazarus and the rich man had died and gone to Hades (Luke 16:22-23), yet further clarification showed the more specific state of both of them in Hades... Lazarus was with Abraham in the presence of God (i.e. heaven) and the rich man was separated from God (and all that is good) which left him in torment. While both are in Hades, they are far removed from each other as to a specific destination within it (i.e. Luke 16:23, 26). Some claim that Revelation chapter 20 shows that Hades was later changed into a place that was only for the wicked (perhaps after Jesus' resurrection). Without a doubt the passage does show death and all of Hades being cast into the Lake of Fire, but the prior removal (resurrection) of those who were written in the Lamb's book of life (i.e. Revelation 20:4-6) does not mean that Hades had been any less of a destination for all throughout prior ages.
A related question regarding Hades (as a place for all departed dead, righteous and unrighteous, and any wicked powers): Who absolutely rules over it? Contrary to cartoons, it is not the Devil.
Jesus is said to hold the keys, absolutely, of Hades and death. Nowhere does it say that Jesus ever didn't have them or lost them and had to reacquire them. Jesus holds and controls the keys. As the One who controls them, Jesus has the right to give one to whomever he wills for a time. According to Scriptures, the key of the Abyss is given, only for a time, to the Destroyer (i.e. the Devil, John 10:10) for the purpose of judgment (see Revelation 9:1-11). God can use even the Devil to accomplish His purposes, even as he used cruel and pagan nations for the same. Tartarus (Greek) - A synonym of Hades, invoking the imagery of a dungeon. Jude 6 also uses the same imagery without the name.
As with Hades, the term Tartarus was derived from Greek mythology. Within the myths Tartarus was said to be the lowest abyss of Hades, a place where demigods were punished. Peter's use of the word does not ascribe any belief in the Greek myths; he merely used a common word to illustrate a place where God has bound over these fallen spirit-beings for final judgment. Gehenna (Greek) - This New Testament term is one that is always used in reference to the state of the wicked after death. As such, while symbolic in name, it is a term that could more specifically designate the condition of the lost in Sheol or Hades, yet more properly pertains to their final state. The name itself is derived from a real physical location of the Old Testament. This valley, the Valley of Hinnom, located south of Jerusalem was infamous for its pagan rituals and even child sacrifice (i.e. 2 Kings 23:10, Jeremiah 19:6). To be named after such a place was to give it association with godlessness and ritual fires. Certainly the final destination for unbelievers is also shown to be a place of unquenched fire, a final abode of all who are wicked in the Lake of Fire.
Gehenna is distinguished from the general term Hades or Sheol as it is specifically noted for its finality as an ultimate destination rather than any interim location encompassed by term Hades. While Hades/Sheol is said to receive the soul (i.e. Acts 2:27, 31), Gehenna takes both the body and the soul.
Jesus even reserved Gehenna for one of his most severe warnings. He called the Pharisees, children of Gehenna...
While the Old Testament mostly refers to the state of the dead using the general term Sheol, the idea of an unquenchable fire as a final destination for those in rebellion against God is also found in the Old Testament. Against the backdrop of the New Heavens and Earth of the future, a Gehenna-like place is spoken of...
Lake of Fire - A synonym of Gehenna, referenced by this term only in the book of Revelation. It is also specifically called "the Second Death".
Hell (English) - Due to varied usage of this word by translators, including for the general words "Sheol" and "Hades" plus for the specific "Gehenna" and the Lake of Fire (in common imagery), Hell has come to simply mean the destination of the wicked in the afterlife (whatever and wherever that may be). Details from various Bible passages then provide a description of this place (sometimes incorrectly merging aspects of Hades/Sheol and Gehenna"). This broad usage of the word is not incorrect, wherein it properly conveys a place of torment for all unbelievers, though it does obscure the idea encompassed in Scriptures of the general usage of Sheol and Hades for both believers and unbelievers and even the non-permanency of the interim state of Hades/Sheol versus the final state of Gehenna or the Lake of Fire. To experience this "everlasting destruction" is to be banished permanently from the presence of God.
Heaven - Heaven is a term used to name the supernatural place where God lives and rules (i.e. Isaiah 63:15; 66:1, Psalms 14:2; 103:19; Matthew 5:34; Hebrews 8:1). To be in heaven is to be in the direct presence of God (i.e. John 8:38; Hebrews 9:24). Heaven is a created place encompassed in the opening verse of the Bible, "In the beginning God created the heavens..." While this Hebrew word can also reference the lower heavens, including the sky and the celestial heavens (both created later on the second and fourth days), it is also directly used of the supernatural dwelling place of God. Contrary to a popular perception that heaven is a perfect place, some sin and sinful beings have been in the present heaven (Job 1:6,12; 1 Kings 22:19-22) and there has even been war in heaven (Revelation 12:7). Just as sin tainted all creation, this celestial heaven has also been likewise tainted. The result is that even as this world must be destroyed and recreated, so too there will be a new heaven that is completely untainted by sin. The present heaven is included in the term Sheol or Hades. While for the righteous it is a place of comfort, it is not what we long for. Old or New Testament, we desire that ultimate and final heaven, the perfect place without sin that is still forever in the presence of God (but one we can enjoy in body and soul).
In the present heaven (encompassed in Sheol or Hades), the soul is apart from the body. In fact, it appears that the soul, while in the presence of God, can still experience pain (to at least some degree). It is some of these righteous souls that cry out to God, seeking his redress for what had happened to them...
The even earlier account of Lazarus implies the same. If pain had already been wiped away, what need would Lazarus have to be comforted?
Perhaps part of the comfort of the existing heaven is that the soul is separate from the body, our flesh being the source of so much pain. What is certain is that the resurrection reunites our soul with a new and glorified body. All that enter the final state of the new heaven and earth will do so with a fully sanctified soul and body (consider 1 Corinthians 15:42-44, 1 John 3:2). Even as Jesus has a non-perishable physical body, following his complete resurrection, all believers will too. It is only after God does away with death at the final judgment, and the final resurrection is past, that we are told that all pain and sorrow is also done away with forever. Never again will anyone need to be comforted as these former things will never come to mind (Isaiah 65:17). This is the unchanging view of the Old and New Testaments.
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1. One example of a fanciful interpretation of canonical Scriptures to justify their doctrine of purgatory will suffice. The following is from a Roman Catholic website:
2. This concept of "Abraham's bosom" as an interim state for believers seems to be anchored within the relatively new system of belief called "dispensationalism". This organized system of belief arose within the Brethren Movement and was popularized mostly through the efforts of John Nelson Darby (1800-1882), a Brethren minister, and is sometimes referred to as Darbyism. Second only to Darby, C.I. Scofield was another great proponent of this belief system, which he advanced through adding Dispensational annotations to his widely used Reference Bible. 3. Two passages, out of many, that speak to Jesus' full salvation of those who believe include:
4. Those that Jesus raised to life during his earthly ministry are to be distinguished from the final resurrection of the dead. Every person raised to renewed natural life still had to die again. Believers raised in the final resurrection are raised to never die again (i.e. Revelation 21:4, Revelation 20:6, 1 Corinthians 15:26, 54-58). 5. Consider for a moment that acts which might pass as compassion, or appear externally as compassion, can be primarily motivated by sin.
Any act done apart from faith is ultimately for a self-serving reason, to seek personal glory or personal praise, to ease guilt, or even for personal benefit. The act of faith seeks only the glory of God, the praise of God, and to benefit His kingdom. Acts of compassion or affection in regards to family are a natural ability given by God, which, due to sin, some have abandoned (i.e. 2 Timothy 3:3, "without natural affection [KJV]" or "without love [NIV]" - from the Greek word "astorgos" meaning "without family love". See also Romans 1:31) 6. Though the rich man, in the account of Lazarus, knew of (past tense) the condition of his brothers, the only times I can find in Scriptures that someone deceased was aware of an event on earth is in regards to the righteous. Perhaps this is the basis for Hebrews 12:1 which also implies that those who have lived by faith and gone on before us are part of our "cloud of witnesses."
7. Though not part of the main subject of this article, it needs to be noted that there is no "some" in which believers will reign with Jesus. Even as every believer is blessed in Christ now, so too every believer will reign with Him.
8. Early church father, Hippolytus of Rome (circa 170-235 A.D.), a Greek writer, understood that Hades (as a direct equivalent to Sheol) was a place for the departed believer and the unbeliever. Of course, he too understood that there was a separation between how believers and unbelievers would be treated and kept there. Unlike those who speculate that "Abraham's Bosom" was emptied after Jesus' death, he rightly understood it to be the present heaven where the righteous await the resurrection and the new heaven.
Another, Justin Martyr (circa 100-165 A.D.), also knew that the fate of the righteous and the wicked were far different, even though both went to Hades. He quotes:
Later still, Tertullian (circa 160-225 A.D.) described the bosom of Abraham as a section of Hades in which the righteous dead await the final resurrection...
9. Some hold that a person can only be divided into two parts: body and soul/spirit, holding that soul and spirit are identical and synonymous terms. This is a dichotomous view. Others hold, especially based on passages such as Hebrews 4:12 and 1 Thessalonians 5:23, that a person is comprised of three parts: body, soul and spirit. This is a trichotomous view of man. 10. Throughout church history, some have claimed that since Lazarus requested water to cool his tongue this was evidence that the body was together with soul/spirit in hell. While it is true to say that the body and soul/spirit are fully in Hades/Sheol, the former in a physical grave and the latter in a place of torment, there are no other passages that claim the body physically and immediately present for that torment. Even as the mind of a person who loses a limb can still suffer pain, supposedly in the missing limb, so too the mind of one in the torment of Hades could suffer that for which there was no real remedy. The remainder of the account makes it clear that there was no possible comfort; it does not speak as to why. Certainly, especially in regards to the righteous in Sheol/Hades, there are verses that refer to the soul/spirit apart from the body, giving support that the body is not immediately present. Only in regards to their state after the final resurrection is the body and soul/spirit spoken of as being present together, either in the Lake of Fire/Gehenna or in the New Heaven and Earth (of course, the latter being a newly raised and perfected body). 11. Consider that perhaps the oldest book in the Bible, the book of Job, has a believer who longs for that final resurrection. Job knew with certainty that he would be resurrected, have a new body, and in this resurrected state get to see God!
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Article by Brent
MacDonald, Lion Tracks Ministries, (c) 2009.
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