What Happens After Death?

The Old Testament was translated into the Greek language long before the time of Jesus. Because the Greek word “Hades” meant almost the same as the Hebrew word “Sheol,” the translators used Hades to translate the Hebrew word in the Old Testament. Hades is used many places in the New Testament as well. Like Sheol, Hades is described as a shadowy world down in the depths (Matthew 11:23), a temporary land of the dead (Revelation 20:13). Jesus promised that the gates of Hades would not overcome the church (Matthew 16:18). By New Testament times, many Jews used the name Hades only for the place of the wicked dead. Jesus story of the rich man and the beggar described a great chasm between the place where the beggar was being comforted at the side of ABRAHAM and a nearby place, called Hades, where the rich man suffered torment (Luke 16:19–31). Jesus’ story fits well with the Jewish belief that the land of the dead was divided into a place of punishment for the wicked and a separate Paradise for the blessed.

Jesus’ experience of death may help us understand even more. When Jesus promised the thief on the cross, “. . . today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43), He may only have meant heaven and called it by a different name. However, many Christians believe that Jesus did not go to heaven immediately after He died, but descended into Hades instead. This is one of the beliefs listed in the Apostles’ Creed, where Hades is sometimes translated as hell (see panel: What does the word “hell” mean?). According to this view, the Paradise in Jesus’ promise to the thief was not heaven, but the blessed part of Sheol or Hades described in later Jewish writings. Jesus’ descent into Hades is mentioned only a few times in Scripture. Jesus said that He would be three days and nights in the heart of the earth (Matthew 12:40). Even after His resurrection, Jesus said that He had not yet returned to the Father (John 20:17), and heaven is often described as being where the Father is (Matthew 6:9; John 3:13–17; Revelation 21:10). According to Peter, DAVID had prophesied that God would resurrect Christ from Hades (Psalm 16:10, Sheol; Acts 2:25–32, Hades). And Paul wrote that Jesus went into the deep and was brought up from the dead (Romans 10:7; compare Ephesians 4:9–10). If these were not just poetic figures of speech, between His death and His resurrection Jesus soul went to a real land of the dead.

What did Jesus do in Hades? If the idea of Paradise is correct, Old Testament believers did not go straight to heaven when they died, but went to Paradise instead. Therefore, many Christians teach that Jesus went to the Paradise part of Sheol (or Hades) to free the believers there from the power of death (John 5:25). Indeed, at His death some dead believers were actually raised to life . . . and after Jesus’ resurrection . . . appeared to many people (Matthew 27:52–53). Jesus freed mankind from slavery to death by paying a price to ransom us for God (Mark 10:45; Colossians 1:13; Revelation 5:9). These Christians teach that Jesus took humanity’s place in Hades, delivering believers from SATAN who holds the power of death (Hebrews 2:14). Since then, Jesus has held the keys of death and Hades (Revelation 1:18).

Many Christians suggest another reason Jesus descended into Hades—to preach to unbelievers there. Peter wrote that Jesus went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed in the days of Noah³ (1 Peter 3:19; 4:5–6). What did Jesus preach? At the very least, Jesus announced His victory over SIN and evil. Some believe that Jesus presented Himself as the MESSIAH to everyone in Hades, and those who had trusted the God of Israel during their lifetime recognized Jesus as their own promised Redeemer. Those who had rejected God were faced with the truth they had rejected, but could not change the decision they had made in life. A few Christians suggest that unbelievers who had never heard about the true God (had not truly rejected Him) may have been given a chance to accept Jesus at that time, but Scripture does not tell us clearly about this possibility.

When Believers Die

Whatever we believe about Paradise or Hades, Jesus’ victory over death changed things. All Christians agree that believers do not have to go to Sheol or Hades when they die. And, as we saw at the beginning of this article, the New Testament is clear about the future resurrection of the body. But what happens to believers in between—after they die and before their bodily resurrection? In 2 Corinthians 5:1–10 we find an important passage for the believer’s state after death: . . . if the earthly tent we live in (our old mortal body) is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house (a physical, but immortal body) in heaven . . . Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling (our resurrection body), because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked (will not be a soul without a body). . . . we do not wish to be unclothed (without a body) but to be clothed (with a body). Notice that naked in these verses does not mean a body without clothes, but a spirit/soul without a body. Paul went on to write that if he stayed at home in the body, he would be away from the Lord. In Philippians 1:22–23, Paul stated that to continue living in the body meant he could not depart and be with Christ. Peter’s words are almost the same (2 Peter 1:13).

Most Christians believe that when they die, their soul without a body will wait in heaven. Their souls will be with Jesus, waiting for His second coming and the resurrection of their bodies. According to this view, between death and resurrection everyone’s spirit/soul will remain alive and conscious without a physical body. The souls of believers go to heaven to be with Jesus, while the souls of unbelievers go to Hades to await the final judgment.⁴ Besides the passages quoted above, those who believe this view also point to Jesus’ teaching that men can kill the body but cannot kill the soul (Matthew 10:28), and to John’s vision of the souls beheaded in the seven-year tribulation who were still conscious, awaiting the future resurrection of their bodies (Revelation 6:9; 20:4). According to this first view, the spirits or souls of all believers will wait in heaven, fully conscious but incomplete without the body (see Romans 8:23).

Others believe, however, that all Christians will be immediately resurrected with a body when they die. They find a different meaning to 2 Corinthians 5:1–10. We will not have to wait naked or unclothed (that is, without a body), since we will immediately receive our eternal house in heaven (our resurrection bodies). This second view does not fit easily with teaching elsewhere in the New Testament that the resurrection will be a future event at the last day (John 6:40; Revelation 20:1–15), or with Paul’s teaching that when Jesus comes again the dead in Christ will rise first (1 Thessalonians 4:13–18). However, these Christians believe events such as the resurrection and those described in Revelation do not occur in normal human history. Such events will happen outside earthly time as we know it in our daily lives. The immediate resurrection of believers will happen in heaven and in God’s eternity.

A third group of Christians believe that everyone (including believers) will be totally destroyed when they die. God will re-create spirit, soul and a new body at the future resurrection. Both our body and our spirit/soul will be extinguished, but re-created. They point to Paul’s use of the word sleep for the death of believers (1 Corinthians 15:51; 1 Thessalonians 4:13) as support for their idea that we will not be conscious or even alive between death and the resurrection. These Christians accept the suggestion that the early Hebrews thought that man’s soul could not live without a body. But they do not think this belief was just early ignorance corrected by further revelation. They think this belief was the truth. So Old Testament writers who referred to spirits or souls existing in Sheol were only using a poetic figure of speech. This third view does not fit easily with Bible verses that describe continuing existence away from the body or being immediately with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). However, these Christians explain that such verses only describe the conscious experience of resurrected (“awake”) believers. The souls of dead believers are not alive and do not consciously experience the time gap between their physical death and future resurrection. So their awakening in a re-created body may seem to be immediately after death, but in fact it could be thousands of years later.

When Unbelievers Die

Some Christians hope that God has merciful plans for those who have never heard the name of Jesus (see 1 Timothy 4:10; General Article: God’s Plans for the Unreached). But many people today do hear about Jesus and knowingly refuse to follow Him. What happens to those who die rejecting Jesus? The New Testament teaches that unbelievers will be resurrected also, just before their final judgment at the great white throne (Revelation 20:11–15). The most important question about unbelievers who die is not what happens to them before their resurrection,⁵ but instead, “What happens to them after they are judged?”

Most Christians believe that after the final judgment the bodies and souls of unbelievers will experience conscious, eternal suffering in the lake of fire. Jesus described hell as eternal fire and eternal punishment (Matthew 25:41,46; compare Mark 9:43,48). John saw a vision of burning sulfur, from which the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever (Revelation 14:10–11; 20:10,15). Although not pleasant to imagine, these Christians believe that this was Jesus teaching (Luke 16:22–26). Some of those accepting this first view suggest that those suffering in hell will not experience time as we know it on earth—that is, they will not experience more and more suffering or new torments in endless succession, but only suffer endlessly in one eternal “now.”

Other Christians teach a second view, that the suffering of unbelievers in hell is not endless, but temporary. Eventually even their souls will be totally destroyed. Jesus taught that those who trusted in Him would not perish like unbelievers (John 3:16), and warned His hearers to beware of God who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Matthew 10:28). Because of words like “perish” and destroy, this second group believes in the eventual, complete annihilation of the entire spirit, soul and body of those who reject Christ. Although this punishment has eternal results, the minds of unbelievers will be destroyed and all conscious suffering will end. After all, hell was not originally made for humans, but for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41). Possibly Satan and his fallen ANGELS will suffer conscious torment forever (Revelation 20:10); but according to this second view, humans who reject the good news of Christ will be finally destroyed, and their suffering will end.

Still other Christians teach a third view for the unbelieving dead after final judgment. They believe that the ungodly have destroyed their own souls and will suffer the effects of their own sin and selfishness in hell forever. In a sense, they will punish themselves. God did not want to put anyone in hell. Those who are there have rejected God’s mercy and refuse to remain in God’s presence. In a sense, the gate of hell is locked from the inside. According to this third view, “fire” and “torment” are poetic ways to describe the unbeliever’s eternal separation from God (2 Thessalonians 1:7–9). Although poetic, the words describe real suffering in a real hell. Hell is not just a punishment for sin, chosen by God from several options. It is the only possible consequence of sin. If sinners reject God’s presence and GRACE, hell cannot be avoided. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light (John 3:19). In addition these Christians do not believe that God destroys unbelievers souls. Instead, the unbelievers have destroyed most of their own humanity by continual sinning. Human beings were created to be fully alive only in the presence of God. But those who have smothered their souls in sin so long that they can no longer endure God’s presence, cannot remain complete human beings. Jude described people like these as unreasoning animals . . . clouds without rain . . . twice dead . . . for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever (Jude 10–13). The tiny remnants left of their once-human souls will suffer the punishment of their own selfishness and sin forever.

Summary

What happens after death? The Old Testament is not very clear, and we must turn to the New Testament for most of our teaching. Although some Christians believe that the Hebrew word “Sheol” is only a poetic description of the grave, many believe that before the death of Christ, the spirits of all those who died went to a land of the dead, called “Sheol” in Hebrew and “Hades” in Greek. Those who believed in God went to a garden-like part of Sheol (or Hades) called Paradise. Furthermore, many Christians believe that when Jesus died, He descended into Hades to preach to the spirits there, ransom believers, and take them to heaven to be with Him until His future second coming.

Most Christians believe that our spirit and soul will wait consciously in heaven without a body until the future resurrection at Jesus’ second coming. Others believe that Christians will receive a resurrection body in heaven immediately after they die. And still others believe that our spirit, soul and body will be completely extinguished at death until all are re-created by God at the future resurrection. Unbelievers will also be resurrected, in order to face God at the final judgment. Tragically, those who reject Jesus Christ will be thrown into the lake of fire, where they will either experience conscious, endless punishment, or they will be totally destroyed and eventually cease to suffer-or, having already destroyed most of their own humanity, they will endure their own sin and selfishness, alone forever.

Whatever we think about these questions, Christians have always believed in the resurrection of the body. Our natural, mortal bodies will either die or be changed instantly at Jesus’ second coming. We will receive new physical bodies, but those bodies will be supernatural and immortal, ready to enjoy fully both the new heavens and the new earth (Isaiah 66:22; 2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1). At that time, we will all be able to say with Paul: Death has been swallowed up in victory . . . thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:54–57).

¹ Some Christians believe humans have three parts-a body, a soul and a separate spirit. Others believe in two parts, teaching that the soul and the spirit are the same thing. For further discussion, see General Article: In the Image of God.

² The Hebrew words for “soul” and “spirit” are not used for any part of man that can survive death, but the Greek words are often used that way. The Old Testament uses a different Hebrew word for those who die and go to Sheol, more like the word “ghost.”

³ These spirits may have been the humans who disobeyed Noah’s warning, or they may have been the angels who sinned in Noah’s time (2 Peter 2:4–5; Jude 6); or they may have been all those throughout history who rejected God, like those in Noah’s time (1 Peter 4:5–6).

⁴ Some churches teach that at death believers need cleansing from those sins and habits over which they have not repented or are not yet victorious. Having such deep-seated sins removed may be painful or may even seem to take “time.” Many other churches teach that believers will be instantly and painlessly cleansed at death.

⁵ Most believe that before judgment the souls of unbelievers wait without a body in Hades. Others teach that both soul and body are extinguished, to be re-created just before the judgment. No one teaches an immediate resurrection for unbelievers.