A.Hebrews 9:27 describes two appointments that every soul must keep – death and judgment.
B.Many have kept their appointments for death, but the Judgment Day has not yet come.This leaves us with the question: Where are the dead now?
1.The Scriptures clearly reveal that the judgment of all men, both dead and living, will occur in one event, which will be the Judgment Day.
a.The Judgment Day will immediately follow the resurrection of the dead, which will occur at the second coming of Christ.
i.Notice John 5:28-29 – “Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.”
ii.See also Matt. 25:31-46; John 5:28-29; Acts 17:31; 24:15; Rom. 2:5-10; 1Cor. 15:23-28, 35-57; 2Cor. 5:10; 1Thess. 4:13-5:10; 2Thess. 1:5-10.
b.Those who are still alive when Christ comes will also face judgment (2Cor. 5:10).Christians who are still alive when Christ comes will be changed in body in conformity with the resurrected bodies of the righteous dead (1Cor. 15:50-54; 1Thess. 4:13-18).
2.Because we are still here on the earth, it is obvious that the judgment has not happened yet (2Pet. 3:1-10), so the dead are still waiting for judgment also.The question is: Where are they now?
II.THE DEAD ARE WAITING
A.Let us begin by defining some terms.
1.Hades – A word used to describe the place where the dead await the judgment of God
a.In Greek mythology, “Hades” was the name of the Greek god of the dead (Roman god Pluto).This name was borrowed to designate the waiting place of the dead.
b.Hades corresponds to the Hebrew word “Sheol” from the Old Testament, which means “the abode of the dead.”
c.The word “Hades” is poorly translated in some passages of the King James Version of the Bible as “hell.”It truth, Hades is a distinct and different place than hell.
2.Paradise – A word used to describe the partition of Hades that is reserved for the comfort of the righteous dead until the judgment of God
a.The word “paradise” came from a Persian word used to describe the beautiful parks and gardens of Persian kings and nobles.It was used in the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament) to describe the garden of Eden (Gen. 2:8) and other lush gardens (Num. 24:6; Neh. 2:8; Eccl. 2:5; Song of Sol. 4:13; Isa. 1:30; Jer. 29:5; Ezek. 31:8-9).
b.By the first century, the Jews who believed in spirits used the word “paradise” to describe a place of comfort for righteous spirits.
3.Tartarus – The partition of Hades that is reserved for the torment of the unrighteous dead until the judgment of God
a.In Greek mythology, “Tartarus” was originally the name of the Greek god of the great, stormy pit that supposedly lay beneath the earth.This name was borrowed to designate a place of torment for the unrighteous.
b.The word “tartarus” is used once in the New Testament in a verb form in 2Peter 2:4.There it refers to the place where sinful angels were held for judgment.It corresponds to the place where God keeps “the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment” (2Pet. 2:9) and the prison where the souls of the disobedient are now held (1Pet. 3:19-20).
B.The most descriptive passage of Scripture pertaining to Hades is the Lord’s parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31.
1.The primary purpose of this parable was not to teach about Hades, but we can learn about Hades from this parable.
a.The main lesson of this parable pertains to the use of our opportunities in this life for God’s service and the finality of death.
b.When Jesus taught parables, they were not accounts of actual events and specific persons, but they were set in real situations that men experienced.Therefore, the setting of Hades in this parable is real.
2.Consider what we may learn about Hades from this passage.
a.The poor man and the rich man both died (v. 22).This death refers to the separation of their spirits and their bodies, for their bodies were buried and their spirits were taken to Hades where they maintained their identity and their consciousness.
b.In Hades, the rich man’s spirit was in torment, which he described as agony in the flame (vv. 23-24).
c.Also in Hades was the poor man Lazarus, whom the rich man could see in the comfort of “Abraham’s bosom.”Abraham’s bosom is designated as the place of Lazarus’ comfort, which was fitting for the Jews to whom Abraham was their righteous father.
d.Between the place of the rich man’s torment and the place of Lazarus’ comfort was a great chasm or gulf, which made it impossible to cross over from one place to the other.
3.Therefore, from this parable, we learn that the dead are taken to Hades where the righteous are comforted and the unrighteous are tormented.These places of comfort and torment are separated in Hades, and none can cross from the chasm between them.
C.Jesus Himself descended into Hades after His death and before His resurrection.
1.Before His death, Jesus told the thief that was crucified with Him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43).
2.Following His resurrection, Jesus told Mary, “I have not yet ascended to the Father” (John 20:17), indicating that He had not been in heaven since His death.
3.Acts 2:27-31 indicates that Christ had been in Hades prior to His resurrection.
III.QUESTIONS
A.If the righteous dead are already separated from the unrighteous dead, and if the righteous dead are comforted and the unrighteous dead are tormented, then what is the purpose of the Judgment Day?
1.Let us reconsider what the Judgment Day really is.
a.The Judgment Day is not about determining the outcome of our lives, for that is determined while we live and is final when we die.There is no suspense as to whether we will be saved or not after we die (there is no purgatory).
b.Instead, the Judgment Day is about the praise, glory, and honor of God.
i.The unrighteous will at last be forced to confess the truth of God and His Christ (Phil. 2:9-11; 1Pet. 2:12) before being punished and sent away from the presence of God for eternity (Matt. 25:46; 2Thess. 1:9).
ii.The righteous will glorify God and Christ (2Thess. 1:10) and will be rewarded as servants of God forever (Matt. 25:46; Rev. 22:3-5).
iii.The final result will be that all things will be subjected to God, and God will “be all in all” (1Cor. 15:28).
2.Therefore, the Judgment Day will put all things in their final order as they should be for eternity.
B.Why did Paul speak of departing to be with Christ if the dead go into Hades?
1.Paul’s writings and the Bible in general do not emphasize the intermediate state of man between death and the judgment because it is of little consequence.
a.At that point, one cannot change his destination.There is no instruction to be carried out or commandments to obey while in Hades.
b.Furthermore, Hades is a temporary abode, and it is not the goal of a Christian’s life.
2.Therefore, Paul did not mention Hades when he wrote of death (2Cor. 5:6-8; Phil. 1:23; 1Thess. 5:9-10) because that was not his ambition or his final destination.
a.We might compare this with someone who was taking a vacation.He might say, “I am going to Hawaii.”He would not bother to tell you that to get there he would first have to drive in a car and go through several airports because those were not his destinations.
b.Paul did not consider death as a means of gain because of Hades, but rather it was because of Christ.Therefore, he emphasized going to Christ, not to Hades.
C.Is it possible that since the resurrection of Christ that the righteous dead go to heaven to await Judgment?
1.There are compelling interpretations of the Scriptures that teach that Christ’s atonement made it possible for the righteous to wait for judgment in heaven, so we must not dismiss the possibility.
2.However, based upon the evidence that we have considered, the strongest possibility seems to be the one that has been presented here.
3.Let us keep in mind that in either case, our responsibilities in this life are the same.
