Understanding the Afterlife

What exactly is the Hadean World? In this book it will mean the life after our physical death, when our soul is separated from our bodies. What happens to our soul at death? Where does it (or we) go?

This question generates all kinds of images and questions. How horrible will it be in Hell? How great will it be in Heaven? Is there possibly a third location, a place in-between Heaven and Hell where we wait for the judgment? And what is our condition while we wait? There are, of course, many questions about the afterlife which cannot be answered until we get there, but I believe these few can be answered.

Since there are so many names and descriptions of the places in the afterlife; for convenience, at times, we will just use the phrase “the good place” or “the bad place” to refer to those places of abode for the righteous and the unrighteous, respectively.

On several occasions we will mention Ockham’s razor as a tool to help us understand a particular passage. This principle of interpretation is explained in detail in Chapter 13, Prerequisite 10. It simply states that when searching for truth in any field, the simplest solution is preferred. Not that the simplest solution is the correct one, only that it is preferred and therefore should be examined first. This axiom is very helpful and will be followed religiously.

The Pre-Christian Era

The most logical place to start is in the Old Testament. What kind of afterlife did they know about and/or experience? The place of the afterlife in the Old Testament is described by the word Sheol, which occurs 63 times in the Old Testament (see Appendix H for a complete list). It is the place where both the righteous and the unrighteous go at death.

In Genesis 42:38 Jacob, a righteous man, expects to go to Sheol (the NIV translates this as “grave” and in the footnote gives Sheol as the Hebrew word). Jacob’s righteousness is established by Jesus when He describes Heaven as the place where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob reside, Matthew 8:11, Luke 13:38.

In 2 Samuel 12:13-23 we have recorded the birth and death of David and Bathsheba’s first child. After their child's death David said can I bring the child back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me. Although we do not know exactly how old the child was, from the context he seems to be very young. David planned to go where this very young child went. The only place ever mentioned in the Old Testament was Sheol.

This implies that the righteous, at death, only expected Sheol as a resting place. On the other hand, in Isaiah 5:13-15 we have a description of evil ones going to Sheol, and in Numbers 16:30-38 all those who participated in Korah’s rebellion went into Sheol. In Psalms 89:48 and Ecclesiastes 9:10 seem to say that all men go into Sheol at death. In all these passages the NIV uses the word grave, the Hebrew is given in the footnote as Sheol.

Therefore before Christ, both good and bad people went to Sheol at death. Appendix H lists several examples of both righteous and unrighteous going to Sheol, verifying this conclusion.

Additional evidence will be offered from two immanent scholars:

Jack P. Lewis (Exegesis of Difficult Passages, page 180)

In a few scanty descriptions of conditions in Sheol which we have, it is a place to which all the dead go without division into rich and poor, righteous and wicked,

Alexander Campbell (The New Testament, by George Campbell, James MacKnight, Philip Doddridge. Appendix [by A. Campbell], page 57,)

That before the Captivity, and the Macedonian and Roman conquests, the Jews observed the most profound silence upon the state of the deceased, as to their happiness or misery. They spoke of it simply as a place of silence, darkness, and inactivity.

Did this common place for all the dead carry over into the Christian era? Several passages prove beyond a reasonable doubt that it did not.

The Hebrews writer says in Hebrews 9:15, For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance — now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.

This implies that the sins committed before Christ died were not forgiven until Christ died. This explains why both good and bad people went to Sheol during the Old Testament time. Since their sins were not forgiven they could not go to a place of peace and comfort.

Paul says in Romans 3:25, God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

This implies that the sins committed before Christ died were not punished until “the present time.” If their sins were not punished then no one could be in a place of torment after their physical death. But since their sins were, also, not yet forgiven they of necessity must be in a “neutral” place, a place such as Sheol where the souls of both good and bad people were sent after their physical death.

Also note Acts 13:38-39, Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. 39 Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the Law of Moses.

Notice that the sins of those who lived and died before Christ were not forgiven until Christ died (Hebrews 9:15). Neither were they punished for those sins until the “present time” (Romans 3:26). Since those before Christ were not punished for their sins and neither were their sins forgiven they could not have been in a place of comfort (Luke 16:25) or in a place of torment (Luke 16:23). Therefore, all those who died before Christ went to the same place where there was neither “comfort” nor “torment.” In the Hebrew language of the Old Testament this place for all departed spirits was called Sheol.

This, of course, proves that Luke 16:19 ff. (the story of the rich man and Lazarus) is a parable, not the telling of a historical event because the story was told by Christ before He died. Please see Appendix L for a complete discussion of this topic.

Sheol was the place of departed spirits, both good and bad. This commonality does not find its way into the Christian era. Hades in the Gospels is described as a terrible place of pain, Luke 16:19 ff. or the antithesis of heaven, Matthew 11:23, Luke 10:15.

Before Christ died those in Sheol must have “just waited” or “slept” until the blood of Christ was applied to those who were faithful to God. Peter tells us in 1 Peter 3:18-19 that Christ was doing just that (“preaching” to those who died long ago implies that he was applying his blood to the faithful) while his body was in the tomb (also see the Greek or ASV of 1 Peter 4:5-6, John 5:25).