Sheol & Hades: Where Do Dead People Go?

Introduction

A question on lots of people’s mind, where do dead people go? The Bible offers an answer to this question. It answers where the dead are right now, and where they will be in the future. In this article I’m going to be focusing upon where dead people go “currently” as opposed to the future.

Many Christians believe that the Bible teaches people go straight to Heaven or Gehenna (“hell”) when they die, whilst others believe they go to a place called “Limbo” or “Purgatory”, where they are still alive but are in neither Heaven or Gehenna, but are waiting to be either sent to Gehenna or brought up to Heaven on judgement day, and others in a similar manner believe we become ghosts, left wondering about to haunt the Earth.

But does the Bible actually teach any of these things? We must examine the scriptures to see if this is so.

Scriptural Examination

The first thing we should do is go right to the Bible and bring out all the scriptures which comment on the current state of the dead.

• Genesis 3:19: “To dust you will return…”
• Psalm 6:5: “For there is no remembrance of you in death; who can praise you from Sheol?”.
• Psalm 115:17: It is not the dead who praise Yah, nor any who descend into silence“.
• Psalms 146:4: “His spirit goes out, he returns to the ground; On that very day his thoughts perish“.
• Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10: “…the dead know of nothing… for in Sheol, where you are going, there is no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.” 
• Job 14:12: “…so a man lies down and does not rise. Until the heavens are no more, he will not be awakened or roused from sleep“.
• Isaiah 38:18: “For Sheol cannot thank you; Death cannot praise you. Those who descend to the Pit cannot hope for your faithfulness“.
• Daniel 12:2: “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt”.
• John 11:11-14: “This he said, and after that he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I go, so that I may awaken him out of sleep.” The disciples then said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” Now Yeshua had spoken of his death, but they thought that he was speaking of literal sleep. So Yeshua then said to them plainly, “Lazarus is dead“”.
• 1 Thessalonians 4:13: “Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope”.
• Acts 2:34: “…David didn’t go to heaven…”
• John 3:13: “Moreover, no man has ascended into heaven but the one who descended from heaven, the Son of man”

As we can see, the dead are said to be in a state of “sleep” where they “know nothing”. The body becomes dust, their thoughts cease. There is nothing left but “silence”, they cannot plan, pray, know or praise in the grave. Furthermore, it is said that no man has ever gone into Heaven besides Yeshua.

Seeing this, already it looks that the notion of the immortal soul rising from the body at death to ascend to Heaven is extremly questionable.

Of course, there are arguments some have presented as a way of explaining these verses whilst trying to defend the position of the soul raising to Heaven at death. Some believe these verses may merely be poetic, or symbolic, whilst others would even argue that not all of these verses “apply anymore” to us, due to a “Eschatological shift” in God’s stages of his plans, which would now include the raising of the dead to Heaven, claiming we have “entered a new age”.

We’ll delve further to examine these ideas.

Literal Sleep or Symbolic Sleep?

Despite all of the above cited scriptures, some will argue against this by claiming that the Bible does not teach people “literally” fall asleep or have their “thoughts perish” when they die, but that sleeping is only a reference to the appearance of the “physical body” when it dies, and that only a person’s “plans” perish, due to being stuck in some kind of underworld, unable to go about their normal lives in the realm of the “living”.

This line of thought can in fact be seen in the bias of many modern translations of the Bible, where “thoughts” perishing (such as in Psalm 146) is replaced with the word “plans”. However, the root Hebrew word definitions confirm to us what the real interpretations of these scriptures are. 

The words used in these specific verses for “thoughts, are from the root words of “eshtonah”, and “eshton”, and according to the translation Lexicons, it refers to “thoughts” in the literal sense, that is, one’s consciousness.

There are no alternate renderings that translate the root words to mean “plans”.

Furthermore, the word for “plans” in Hebrew is an altogether separate word, which also has numerous forms, these being:

• machashabah
• machashebeth
• chashab
• ashith
• uts

…which literally mean “thoughts of the heart”.

Note that the former words used to refer to the end of one’s “thoughts” during death in references above, are not once listed to hold this definition, as opposed to the words that do here below.

Therefore, if the meaning of scriptures such as Psalm 146 only referred to one’s “plans” as opposed one’s “literal thoughts” ending at death, then the Hebrew would have used either “machashabah, machashebeth, chashab, ashith” or “uts” (thoughts of the heart, his intent, his plan), as opposed to “eshtonah, eshton”, or “ashath”.

Hence, the arguments that the above listed verses do not refer to literal unconsciousness or cease of one’s thoughts at death, holds absolutely no textual support.

A Persons’ “Spirit”

Of course, whilst we have many scriptures which speak of the “sleep of death”, another thing we should note is that the scriptures make mention of “a man’s spirit going out”.

On this basis, many would try and argue that this confirms the “immortal soul” departing from one’s body at death.

Many may be surprised to learn, however, that this “spirit” does not refer to a conscious soul as is commonly taught in many churches, as clearly the scriptures plainly state that the dead “don’t know anything”.

Rather, the “spirit” refers to a person’s “life force” or “breath”. Something which “causes us to be alive”, and is the same breath of “spirit of life” that God breathed into Adam to cause him to live and “become a soul” (Genesis 2:7).

(For a more detailed explanation on this, I have already written a topic on the differences between the soul and spirit, and so if you wish for more information on that, I encourage you to read that article):

Body, Mind, Breath, Soul, Spirit: Is there a Difference?

Understanding the True Definition of “Death”

The definition of “dead” or “death” from the Bible in original Hebrew is “muth” or “yamut”, which simply means “to die” or “expire” as we know it in an everyday meaning. This word is applied to not only humans, but to the death of plants and animals:

But why is the definition of death in Hebrew important?

Well, many churches would claim that, to be “dead” doesn’t actually mean “dead”, but that it only refers to “not going to Heaven” or “being in Hell” or the “underworld”, in order to defend the idea of an immortal soul or spirit after we die. Therefore, by redefining the meaning of “death”, they are then able to redfine the “state of the dead”.

However, firstly the scriptures do not ever make this statement regarding the definition of death.

Secondly, if that ‘was’ the meaning of “death”, then the Bible would obviously have to describe all plants and animals as “dead yet awake” (seeing that it is not said they go to Heaven or receive resurrections) even though they are alive and breathing on Earth. Likewise, Adam and Eve also would have been described as “dead” at their very formation in the Garden of Eden, even before their sin.

Clearly, this is not the case. Adam and Eve were said to have died ‘after’ their sin, not before, and the meaning of this was given at Genesis 3:19, where we are told they would return to the dust they first came from.

The biblical definition of death is rather clear, that it means to cease existing from life, and for the “lifeforce” or “spirit of life” to depart from us. To die is to decompose and return to the base elements of which humanity was first formed.

This is why, in contrast to old Hebrew thought, the Greek Platonic definition of death, according to Plato, required that men’s souls pre-existed in Heaven before being placed into flesh, so that they would “return to where first came from” in the manner akin to the speech of Genesis, the notion of the soul being in Heaven before it was put into a body, in the manner that the dust of the ground preoccured man’s creation.

“The belief that the soul continues its existence after the dissolution of the body… is accordingly nowhere expressly taught in Holy Scripture“. – Jewish Encyclopedia, Immortality of the Soul

The Origin of the Immortal Soul Doctrine

So where does the idea of immediately going to Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, or Limbo when we die come from? Well, this idea cannot be said to be without Greek religious influence upon both the Hellenized Jews and the early post-apostolic Christian church, of whom came to believe in places such as “Hades” and taught that there was an immortal soul which was conscious after death.

Only when this cultural shift happened, did some begin to try and interpret the scriptures through such a lens.

The Jews, after their Babylonian exile, had come to adopt various religious beliefs, including Babylonian, Indian, and of course, Greek religions and philosophies, which would have all included the immortal soul. These beliefs were not held by all Jews, of course, but these teachings took an eventual foothold and trickled down slowly into Christianity some time after its initial foundation.

“The belief in a continuous life of the soul, which underlies primitive Ancestor Worship and the rites of necromancy, practised also in ancient Israel, was discouraged and suppressed by prophet and lawgiver as antagonistic to the belief in Yhwh, the God of life, the Ruler of heaven and earth, whose reign was not extended over Sheol until post-exilic times…

It was only in connection with the Messianic hope that, under the influence of Persian ideas, the belief in resurrection lent to the disembodied soul a continuous existence…. the belief in the immortality of the soul came to the Jews from contact with Greek thought and chiefly through the philosophy of Plato, its principal exponent, who was led to it through Orphic and Eleusinian mysteries in which Babylonian and Egyptian views were strangely blended, as the Semitic name “Minos” (comp. “Minotaurus”), and the Egyptian “Rhadamanthys” (“Ra of Ament,” “Ruler of Hades”; Naville, “La Litanie du Soleil,” 1875, p. 13) with others, sufficiently prove”. – Jewish Encyclopedia, Immortality of the Soul

We even in fact have direct historical references from early Christians mentioning the introduction of this doctrine in the second century, that “so-called Christians”, were denying a bodily resurrection and instead were teaching that Christians go directly to Heaven after death, and furthermore there is historical evidence that these teachings also may have even been introduced to some Christian circles by Simon Magus, also known as “Simon the Sorceror” who is cited in the New Testament to be condemned by the Apostles (Acts 8:9–24).

These issues in fact resulted much theological debate and difference of opinion in the early Congregation by time of the 2nd Century:

“You may have fallen in with some who are ‘called’ “Christians.” However they do not admit this [truth], and they venture to blaspheme the God of Abraham… They say there is no resurrection of the dead, but rather, they say that when they die, their souls are taken to heaven. Do not imagine that they are Christians“. – Justin Martyr (2nd Century A.D)

“The soul is not in itself immortal, O Greeks, but mortal. Yet it is possible for it not to die. If, indeed, it knows not the truth, it dies, and is dissolved with the body, but rises again at last at the end of the world with the body, receiving death by punishment in immortality. But, again, if it acquires the knowledge of God, it dies not, although for a time it be dissolved“. – Tatian (2nd Century A.D)

“Those who are dead and those who sleep are subject to similar states, as regards at least the stillness and the absence of all sense of the present or the past, or rather of existence itself and their own life”. – Athenagoras of Athens (2nd Century A.D)

“But who is so foolish or so brutish as to dare to deny that man, as he could first of all be formed by God, so can again be re-formed; that he is nothing after death, and that he was nothing before he began to exist; and as from nothing it was possible for him to be born, so from nothing it may be possible for him to be restored?”. – Octavius (2nd Century A.D)

“Marcion (c. 85 – 160) taught that only souls will resurrect, rejecting the bodily resurrection. He followed the teachings of Simon Magus [the Sorcerer] (1st century) and Cerdo (1st-2nd centuries)“. – Wikipedia, Amillennialism

Later by the 3rd century, many still held to this original thought and opposed the Platonic doctrines that were popular amongst the Gnostics, but many others began to subscribe to the notion of immortality and ascending to Heaven at death.

Influencial teachers such as Origen, inspired by Marcion, persuaded others to abandon their beliefs in exhange for his, so much so that it eventually became mainstream, and the ‘original’ view was seen to be “heretical” by the 4th century.

Origen (c. 185 – 254) further developed the amillenarism of Marcion in his teaching about the reign of the saints in heaven while rejecting the idea of the Kingdom of the righteous coming down to the Earth… This teaching was later supported by Gaius of Rome (died c. 217)…”. – Wikipedia, Amillennialism

“About the same time others arose in Arabia, putting forward a doctrine foreign to the truth. They said that during the present time the human soul dies and perishes with the body, but that at the time of the resurrection they will be renewed together. And at that time also a synod of considerable size assembled, and Origen, being again invited there, spoke publicly on the question with such effect that the opinions of those who had formerly fallen were changed“. – Eusebius of Caesera, Church History, Book 6, Chapter 37

It was the likes these later teachers mentioned by Justin and Tatian, who influenced the Christians after the time of Apostle John’s death to interpret certain Bible terms with the Greek religious mindset, Dualism and Platonism, and these influences remain today, even within modern day Bible translations.

For example, “Sheol” the original Hebrew word in the Bible for the state of the dead, has become “Hades” (also known as “Limbo”) in most Bibles today, and Hades in Greek religious thought is the “underworld”, a place where immortal souls go after people die.

“Hades” was in fact first written into the Greek manuscripts as a replacement word for the original Hebrew term “Sheol” in Old Testament, most likely at the hands of Hellenised Judaic writers in the 3rd century B.C, either due to a shift in belief, or most likely and more simply, because they lacked an appropriate replacement word and the Greek phrase Hades was the best they could restort to.

• Genesis 37:35 (Hebrew Dead Sea & Masoretic manuscripts): “All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, “No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning. Thus his father wept for him“.
• Genesis 37:35 (Greek Septuagint manuscripts): “All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, “No, I shall go down to Hades to my son, mourning. Thus his father wept for him.”

We know, however, that the Jews did not cease to believe that the dead were not concious, due to the very fact that we have early Christian documents putting down such a notion, on the basis of the Christian understanding of the dead, which in turn was the mainstream orthodox Jewish understanding of that day, as it had been for centuries.

Shockingly, many ‘Christian’ translation lexicons render both of these words as to mean “the underworld”. Whilst this would be an accurate definition of what the word “Hades” meant to the Greeks, the Jews certainly did not see it in the way they did, and the Hebrew term “Sheol” had nothing at all to do with the Greek underworld concept.

In various Bible translations these terms have been rendered with great inconsistency, ranging from not just “Hades”, but also “Hellfire”. However, this is not the original meaning in Hebrew of the word “Sheol”.

What Does “Sheol” Really Mean?

As the ‘original’ term for the place of the dead in the Bible is “Sheol”, it’s important to understand just what that word originally meant.

It has been said by some that there isn’t exactly a “precise word” in our modern languages to explain just what Sheol is.

However, according to many historians, as well as ancient and traditional Judaic sources, Sheol is merely “a place” where the dead are, but is not described to be a place of reward, torment or even conciousness.

“Sheol was located somewhere ‘under’ the earth. . . . The state of the dead was one of neither pain nor pleasure. Neither reward for the righteous nor punishment for the wicked was associated with Sheol. The good and the bad alike, tyrants and saints, kings and orphans, Israelites and gentiles​—all slept together without awareness of one another.” – Encyclopedia Britannica (1971, Vol. 11)

“Sheol is practically a family grave on a large scale. Graves were protected by gates and bolts; therefore Sheol was likewise similarly guarded. The separate compartments are devised for the separate clans, septs, and families, national and blood distinctions continuing in effect after death. That Sheol is described as subterranean is but an application of the custom of hewing out of the rocks passages, leading downward, for burial purposes”. – Jewish Encyclopedia (V. 11)

This understanding makes far more sense and is consistent with both the earliest Jewish and Christian views, and the scriptures in regard to the non-conscious state of the dead, as opposed to the Greek religious beliefs about the dead.

By means of reverse engineering the original Hebrew to Greek word translations, we see that interpreting “Hades” in later Greek translations of both the Old Testament, and New Testament, in its “Greek context”, is an inappropriate replacement word.

Though we still do not have an exact word to describe Sheol in our language, some translations insert the word “grave” or “graveyard”. I personally feel that is most likely the most appropriate word we can muster, and is what the ancient Greek writers of the 3rd century B.C ‘should have’ inserted. Why? Because we know according to scripture that the dead do not know anything, we know this is how the ancient Jews viewed the dead, and that the “body and soul” becomes “dust”, whilst the “spirit” (breath of life) returns to God.

Thus, if people are unconsciously waiting in Sheol to be resurrected, whilst their “spirit” returns to God, then how can it be said that the conscious immortal soul of a person is in living some sort of “underworld”? The Bible does not harmonise such an idea, it is a completely illogical inconsistency.

Scriptures that Appear to Show Men Going to Heaven or Hades

There are of course some scriptures in the Bible some would cite to try and prove that the dead are concious after death and go somewhere, and some based on these scriptures even believe certain holy men from the Bible are either in Heaven or “Hades” right now.

• Genesis 5:24: “Enoch walked with God, and then he was no more, because God had taken him away”.
• Hebrews 11:5: “By faith Eʹnoch was transferred so as not to see death, and he was nowhere to be found because God had transferred him; for before he was transferred he received the witness that he had pleased God well.”
• 2 Kings 2:11: “As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven/the sky(?) in a whirlwind“.
• 2 Corinthians 5:4-8: “So while we are in this tent, we groan under our burdens, because we do not wish to be unclothed but clothed, so that our mortality may be swallowed up by life. And God has prepared us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a pledge of what is to come. Therefore we are always confident, although we know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord… We are confident, then, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord“.
• Philippians 1:21-24: “For to me to live is [the] Anointed [one], and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with [the] Anointed [one], for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account”.
• Revelation 6:9-10: “I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, ‘O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?'”

These scriptures are often used to prove that people have gone to Heaven and that Enoch and Elijah are in Heaven, and that when we die, we also will be taken up to be with the Lord.

However, this would contradict John 3:13, in that no man has ever entered Heaven before Yeshua. So how are we to understand these scriptures?

Enoch’s Transference

In the case of Enoch, at first glance, it looks as if Enoch is the first person to have ever gone to Heaven in a way akin to the elect of Yeshua, who are to be gathered from the Earth during the “last trumpet” to be taken to Heaven.

However, we know that this is not so thanks to the words in John. Thus, the meaning of this scripture may be somewhat ambiguous. But it has been suggested by some that it may mean Enoch “never felt” or “saw” his death coming, and that his body was removed from existence entirely. In essence, God simply made him completely “vanish” out of existence before the evil men who wished to torture and murder him could lay a hand.

But what we can be certain of, is that Enoch did not literally or locationally become transferred to Heaven, but rather was transferred from life in a manner that he did not consciously experience the coming of his death, as Genesis puts it “he was no more”.

Elijah’s Ascension

As for Elijah, it would appear to me that he was taken up by some sort of “divine tornado”, not to Heaven.

The word in this verse often translated “up to Heaven” comes from the Hebrew word “shamayim”, which can mean “sky”, or the “heavens” in terms of outerspace. Thus, knowing that Yeshua told us no man has gone to Heaven before him, it can only follow logically that the translation here is that Elijah was taken up literally into the sky, not the realm of the spirits.

It’s also of note that in scripture, Elijah is mentioned again at 2 Chronicles 21:12, where are told he sent a letter to the king of Israel. This letter was sent ‘after’ the event he was said to be taken up into the sky.

For this reason, many Christians have stuggled to understand this verse, some have believed it even to be a Bible contradiction, and others have resorted to contorting the plain meaning into thinking that this was a letter “written by Elijah before he died” and had then later reached the king. And then others would even say that the spirit of Elijah must have sent a message to someone to write a letter to send to the king, akin to an angelic messenger.

However, taking into account Yeshua’s revelation and scripture as a whole that that the dead sleep and do not go to Heaven before the final resurrection, to me its meaning is plain and doesn’t require any theological acrobatics. It can only mean Elijah was still alive on Earth, and that it’s likely the tornado merely carried him to another place, and not to his death, nor to the spiritual Heavens.

Away from the Body, Home with the Lord

We see in his letter to the Corinthians, Paul says “to be away from the body is to be home with the Lord” and that to be in this body which he calls “this tent”, is to be away from the Lord. Likewise a similar statement is made at Philippians 1, that to depart from the flesh is to be with the Anointed One.

It’s not unreasonable to interpret this to possibly mean that Paul is saying that we rise to Heaven at death, leaving this body. It’s perfectly understandable to read such an idea into the text based on just a surface glance. However, we encounter problems with this interpretation when we read several other scriptures (as we have above), even including other statements from the Apostle Paul himself.

Firstly looking to the second letter to the Corinthians. It’s important to read carefully in full context, what Paul is saying here in 2 Corinthians 5…. We see in verses 2-5, he says this:

• “For in this tent we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. So while we are in this tent, we groan under our burdens, because we do not wish to be unclothed but clothed, so that our mortality may be swallowed up by life. And God has prepared us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a pledge of what is to come“.

What’s being described here appears very much to be a “future tense”, something to look forward to, and this event being the “clothing of immortality” so that we are not swallowed up in our current “mortality”, but that our mortality will be “swallowed” or consumed by “life”.

Paul’s reference to being “clothed” here, is citing back to his earlier writings regarding the resurrection of the body, in order that we can be “clothed with immortality”, and only ‘then’ are we alive and immortal in soul and spirit:

• But the Anointed One has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: the Anointed One the firstfruits; then at his coming, those who belong to him… Listen, I tell you a mystery; We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must be clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality“. – 1 Corinthians 15:20-23, 51-53

So it’s clear what Paul refers to here, is not going to Heaven at death, but he looks forward to the “event of being clothed”, which according to ‘his’ own words, begins with the bodily resurrection on Earth to ‘then’ meet the Lord in the air.

Of his statement regarding that being away from the body is to “be with the Lord”, we musn’t forget the Biblical Jewish cultural context this phrase is revolving around, which we see spoken by Yeshua, that “to God”, all of his worshippers are living “to him”, even though they are sleeping in the grave – because of the hope of the resurrection on the Last Day.

• “Even Moses demonstrates that the dead are raised, in the passage about the burning bush. For he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to Him all are alive.” – Luke 20:37-38

Therefore, it can be strongly argued that to be in the grave and sleeping in death is to in fact “be with the Lord”, because in the ending of our earthly faithful course, we have “run the race to completion” (2 Timothy 4:7-8, Hebrews 12:1) and thereby become sealed in God’s memory for the resurrection, and when raised, just as it is to awaken from sleep, it will feel instantaneous. And therefore, to be “absesnt from the body, is to be with the Lord”. This in turn can also be interpreted into a reasonable explanation of his statements in Phillipians.

If Paul really did however speak of ascending to Heaven at death, then this would appear to contradict his other statements regarding the sleeping state of the dead, our mourning over their current state, and the clothing of immortality to be granted at the physical return of the Lord during the bodily resurrection, which he repeatedly describes as ‘the’ only hope for the dead to “live” again and “awaken” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, 1 Corinthians 15:20-23, 51-53).

Rich Man & Lazarus

But what about the parable in Luke? Some may wonder. Where we see Yeshua describes a begger being carried off by angels to Abraham’s and Lazarus’ side whilst a rich man is suffering in Sheol?

• Luke 16:22-31: “Now in the course of time, the beggar died and was carried off by the angels to Abraham’s side. Also, the rich man died and was buried. And in Sheol he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and he saw Abraham from afar and Lazarus by his side.  So he called and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this blazing fire.’  But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you had your fill of good things in your lifetime, but Lazarus for his part received bad things. Now, however, he is being comforted here, but you are in anguish. And besides all these things, a great chasm has been fixed between us and you, so that those who want to go over from here to you cannot, neither may people cross over from there to us.’  Then he said, ‘That being so, I ask you, father, to send him to the house of my father,  for I have five brothers, in order that he may give them a thorough witness so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’  But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to these.’  Then he said, ‘No, indeed, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’  But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead.’”

In this passage, some get the idea that this is teaching a form of Hades, Purgatory or Limbo, where people go to suffer but are not condemned, whilst others for based on this passage have translated Sheol to mean “Hellfire”.

Of course we begin to see the issues here in both doctrinal and translation inconsistency. Hellfire in modern Bibles comes from the word Gehenna, and is not the same as Hades, that is, Sheol. Thus, this is in part where the idea of “temporary torment in purgatory” comes from. However, it’s important to remember the aforementioned scriptures that state the dead are not aware of anything and are sleeping. Both the inspired passages of the Old Testament and Yeshua himself said this, so what is this passage all about?

What is likely to be happening here is that Yeshua is telling a ‘moral story’ to serve as an example and warn us about judgement, as he often did when he made many parables.

By the priniciple of Occam’s Razor, it makes far more hermeneutical sense to understand this story as symbolic, than to try and squeeze all the other Bible verses concerning the sleeping state of the dead into being something allegorical, just to uphold the view that a ‘single parable’ was being literal.

Yeshua Had To Be Resurrected On Earth Before Going to Heaven

Another point we should consider, is that not even Yeshua himself went to another realm, whether that be Heaven or otherwise, before he was resurrected back into his body on Earth:

• “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb… But the angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Yeshua, who was crucified. He is not here; He has risen, just as He said! Come, see the place where he lay‘”. – Matthew 28:1, 5-6
• “Why are you troubled,’ Yeshua asked, ‘and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself. Touch me and see— for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have… And He told them, ‘This is what is written: The Anointed will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and in his name repentance and forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem… While he was blessing them, he left them and was carried up into heaven‘”. – Luke 24:38-39, 46-47
• “The last Adam became a life-giving spirit“. – 1 Corinthians 15:45

Note that Yeshua had to be raised from the dead into his old body, before then it could transform into a new creation, a life-giving spirit. As forementioned, we are told Christians “in the same way” will be raised from the grave into physical bodies, which then will be transformed a new, whilst those still alive at the return of Yeshua, will have their physical bodies “clothed”:

• “But the Anointed One has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in the Anointed One all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: the Anointed One the firstfruits; then at his coming, those who belong to him… Listen, I tell you a mystery; We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must be clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality“. – 1 Corinthians 15:20-23, 51-53

Yeshua in this respect, was the “firstfruits”, the “pattern” that was set for the rest of us. We can see cleary then, why early Christians such as Justin and others saw the denial of the bodily resurrection and the belief in the immortal soul to be an afront to God himself.

The Current State & Future of the Dead

The Bible clearly states in the New Testament, that the dead of whom are destined for Heaven are first resurrected on “the last day” when Yeshua returns to Earth, and not to believe anyone who says otherwise:

• 2 Timothy 2:17-18: “Their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have departed from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some”.
• Mark 13:26: “At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens”.
• 1 Thessalonians 4:16: “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in [the] Anointed [One] will rise first”.
• Revelation 20:12: “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books”.

As we can see, nobody has entered Heaven before the Anointed One, and has yet to enter Heaven before his return, but await to be raised in body before their transformation into immortal beings, just as it was for the Lord himself.

Paul warns firmly to “beware” of anyone who states “the resurrection has already taken place”, calling it a “teaching of gangrene”.

Seeing that those of the likes of Hymenaeus and Philetus could not point to anyone being physically raised from the grave to assert such a false teaching, this then would point to the notion that some false Christians were spreading the idea of a “non-physical” or “invisible” resurrection to life, something akin to the idea of being made alive with the Lord outside of the body – the only thing that even comes close to such an idea is the concept of the rising of the immortal soul to Heaven.

Hence, it is strongly implied by Paul here, that we are to reject the idea of being raised to Heaven absent of the body.

Before Yeshua returns, the dead are in the state of Sheol, that is, sleeping, aware of nothing, awaiting the return of the Anointed One. Those who are elect await to be awoken to be taken by his side to become judges, whilst the rest will be awoken to judgement at his 1000 year reign.

Connecting Preterism, Amillenialism & The Beleif of the Immortal Soul

The only way to claim that Christians go to Heaven at death right now, would be to subscribe to not only the false immortal soul doctrine that denies a physical bodily resurrection, but also some form of Preterism or Amillenialism.

This means we would be forced to claim that Yeshua already returned and has been gathering his people to Heaven ever since, and that we have been living in the 1000 year reign of Revelation in a symbolic sense. For scripture teaches Christians are only ever taken to Heaven after the Lord returns to rule the Earth and imprisons Satan to prevent him corrupting mankind (Revelation 20:4-6).

Besides the miraclous signs reported to be seen in 70A.D of visions of heavenly armies in the clouds during Jerusalem’s destruction at the hand of Rome, no early Christian writer, besides those branded as apostates and false teachers by the majority of other Christians, has ever attested to the real return of Yeshua, nor of the resurrection or rapture of any of his followers from the grave.

Thus, such a return and mass resurrection would had to have been somehow invisible or unnoticed at large, and we see early Christians between the 1st-2nd Century A.D chastising such a teaching.

Even the likes of Justin and Tertullian, who though did beleive in the notion of the immortal soul in some form due to being influenced by thier Greek backgrounds, did not beleive in the notion of going to Heaven at death, but rather, a physical resurrection on Earth of the body that would be restored with the soul as a wholistic unit, which would then enter Heavenly salvation.

…But since sensation remains to all who have ever lived, and eternal punishment is laid up (for the wicked), see that you neglect not to be convinced… For let even necromancy, and the divinations you practise by immaculate children, and the evoking of departed human souls, and those who are called among the magi, Dream-senders and Assistant-spirits (Familiars) and all that is done by those who are skilled in such matters—let these persuade you that even after death souls are in a state of sensation… grant also to us, who not less but more firmly than they believe in God; since we expect to receive again our own bodies, though they be dead and cast into the earth, for we maintain that with God nothing is impossible.” – Justin Martyr (2nd Century A.D)

“To begin with the passage where He says that He is come to “to seek and to save that which is lost.” What do you suppose that to be which is lost? Man, undoubtedly. The entire man, or only a part of him? The whole man, of course…. it is the bodily substance as well as the soul, making up the entire animal, which was carried on the shoulders of the Good Shepherd, we have here unquestionably an example how man is restored in both his natures…. Thus far touching my eulogy of the flesh, in opposition to its enemies, who are, notwithstanding, its greatest friends also; for there is nobody who lives so much in accordance with the flesh as they who deny the resurrection of the flesh, inasmuch as they despise all its discipline…

…We must after all this turn our attention to those scriptures also which forbid our belief in such a resurrection… that it is either to be assumed as taking place now, as soon as men come to the knowledge of the truth, or else that it is accomplished immediately after their departure from this life.… we are not permitted to place the accomplishment thereof, as I apprehend, previous to Christ’s coming…. Who has yet beheld Jesus descending from heaven in like manner as the apostles saw Him ascend, according to the appointment of the two angels? Up to the present moment they have not…. No one has as yet fallen in with Elias; no one has as yet escaped from Antichrist; no one has as yet had to bewail the downfall of Babylon. And is there now anybody who has risen again, except the heretic? – Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh (3rd Century A.D)

Furthermore, if Yeshua did return to begin to take Christians to Heaven in 70 A.D, then ‘all’ Christians would have vanished at that time, and the Christian Congregation would no longer exist today on Earth, for nobody would have remained to spread the Gospel, for we are told in scripture, both the living and the dead in the Anointed One would all be “taken up together at the same time” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, Luke 17:34-35).

Thus, if we did insist on a Preterist or Amillenial outlook, that Yeshua came in the 1st Century and collecting his faithful, then of course, it would mean that all Christians ever since who were not selected to be taken up that day won’t take part in that First Resurrection of the Heavenly elect ones, as scripture does not teach at any point of a “long term Resurrection” or “extended period of Heavenly gathering”, nor of any kind of invisible transference at death.

In turn, such a beleif, as we’ve already noted, would require subscibing to the immortal soul doctrine and rejecting the notion of the physical bodily resurrection on the Last Day, a teaching which originated from false teachers in the early church, such as Marcion, Hymenaeus, Philetus, the Gnostics, and the likes of Simon Magus the Sorcerer. It was these pagan teachings which were required to be adopted by later church teachers and theologians, such as Origen, Gaius, and others, in order to support their position of Amillenialism.

Rather, scripture teaches that after the gathering of all those in Yeshua at the “First Resurrection”, the rest would be awaiting the “Second Resurrection” of judgement after the millennial reign (whether that be a symbolic or literal millenium). And so an Amillenial Preterist view ‘still’ would not support the notion of us going to Heaven when we die, rather it would shift those of us living today to a different category of Resurrection altogether.

Conclusion

No matter what way one may interpret the second coming of Yeshua, when we die, it is clear that we do not have to fear entering some form of punishment, or other realm, we merely sleep as we await the Anointed’s return and end judgement.

We in turn also do not have to fear ghosts or ghouls, nor will we fall for the deceptions of demons who pretend to be the spirits of the long dead to strike fear into people, or to lie to them by pretending to be “Saints”, or old dead family members and friends. Let us not forget how the demons pretended to be Samuel for the witch of Endor to trick King Saul at 1 Samuel 28:7-20. Clearly demons nor witches have the power to revive the dead, only our God Yah and his Anointed Son Yeshua can do such things and is it why God commanded his people to keep away from such things (Leviticus 20:6).

We all of course look forward to the future where we will be reunited with our lost loved ones again and share the joy of eternal life with them if we all do our best to strive to follow Yeshua and obey the commands of God.

I pray for peace of mind upon anyone who reads this article who may be in grief over the loss of a loved one, please have faith that there is hope to be reunited with them again in the future. This is the promise of our Father in Heaven by means of his Son, Yeshua.

(For my deeper thoughts on the resurrections and judgements, feel free to read my article):

New Heaven & New Earth: Two Classes? Two Hopes? Two Resurrections?