Mankind was created to live on the created earth, in a created body. We were not created to "go to heaven when we die". That's not God's purpose. The current reality is temporary. Death is the enemy of God.
"And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, You may freely eat of every tree in the garden, but you shall not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. For in the day that you eat of it dying you will die." (Genesis 2:16-17).
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Záō (life) is an in-the-body experience.
The body will be raised from the dead on the day of Christ.
What happens to us in-between death and the resurrection of the body from the dead, according to the Bible?
The following "places" are mentioned in various books of the Bible:-
1. haides (Hebrew: sheol) refers to the abode of departed souls (Mat.11:23; Mat.16:18; Luke 10:15; Luke 16:23; Acts 2:27 & 31; 1 Cor.15:55; Rev.1:18; Rev.6:8; Rev.20: 13-14).
2. tartaróō (tartaros/tartarus) refers to an abyss or bottomless pit in haides (II Peter 2:4).
3. geena (Hebrew gehenna) is the word that Jesus used as a symbol of everlasting destruction (every time He spoke of everlasting destruction). It equates to the 2nd death | the lake of fire written about in the Revelation (Mat.5:22, 29 & 30 | Mark 9:43, 45 & 47; Mat.10:28; Mat.18:9; Mat.23:15 & 33; Luke 12:5; James 3:6).
IN CHRIST
Jesus promised the following reality for those who believe in Him:
"Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak of Myself, but the Father who dwells in Me, He does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the very works themselves." (John 14:10-11).
"Yet a little while and the world does not see Me any more. But you see Me. Because I live, you shall live also. At that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you." (John 14:19-20).
"Dwell in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you unless you dwell in Me." (John 15:4).
John wrote,
"Therefore what you heard from the beginning, let it dwell in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, you will dwell in both the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that He has promised us: everlasting life."(1 John 2:24-25).
Paul taught that all who dwell in Christ are already spiritually in heaven, where He is:
"(God) hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:6).
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ" (Ephesians 1:3).
The New Testament speaks of all those who have been joined to Christ through faith (believing in Him) and whose bodies have died, as those who have "died in Christ".
THE APOSTLE PAUL
While Paul was still alive, he wrote a letter to the Christians in Philippi, expressing the desire (concerning these Christians and this church which he established), that he
"shall be ashamed in nothing, but as always now Christ shall be magnified in my body [soma] with all boldness, whether it is by life [zoe] or by death [thanatos]." (Philippians 1:20).
Then Paul implied, without any ambiguity, that those who die dwelling in Christ remain in Christ after death, when he added,
"For to me to live [záō] is Christ, and to die [apothnesko] is gain. But if I live [záō] in the flesh [sarx], this is the fruit of my labor. Yet I do not know what I shall choose. For I am pressed together by the two:
having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more needful for you." (Philippians 1:20-24).
Paul also spoke of those who have 'fallen asleep' in Christ as having become clothed with Christ's immortality, who alone is immortal (1 Timothy 6:16). Nevertheless, until their own bodily resurrection, those who have died in Christ will not be found in a body (the way Jesus is), but Christ is risen:
"For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our dwelling-place out of Heaven; if indeed in being clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tabernacle groan, being burdened; inasmuch as we do not wish to be unclothed, but to be clothed, so that the mortal might be swallowed up by the life.
And He who has worked in us for this same thing is God, who also is giving to us the earnest (guarantee) of the (Holy) Spirit. Then being always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are away from home from the Lord;
'Abraham's bosom'
Jesus' parable of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:19-31) is the only place in the New Testament which hints that sheol or hades might consist of varying depths which involve various degrees of torment: In His parable, Jesus spoke of a chasm between the bosom of Abraham and hades (verse 26 in Luke 16:19-31).
Jesus refers to the soul of the rich man who died, as being in torment in hades, but the soul of Lazarus as being in “Abraham’s bosom”, which we can only assume refers to a place of peace where the souls of those considered righteous for their faith in God went when they died.
(It's safe to assume that those who had like-faith in God and in the Word of God that Noah had, and that Abraham had, and whose works had shown it, could have been the only souls found in "Abraham's bosom").
Jesus' parable of Lazarus and the rich man suggests that those who believed in God and His Word, and who died before the time that Christ died for our sins and rose again from the dead, were found in "Abraham's bosom" after their deaths.
Since Jesus spoke of a chasm between Abraham's bosom and hades, then there most certainly is a chasm between the bosom of the Father and hades, and Christ is in the bosom of the Father (John 1:18), where the souls who died in Christ are found after their death.
"At that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you." John 14;20
And praying to the Father for His disciples, Jesus said,
"I in them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me." John 17:23.
In 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17 Paul also says the following:
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also we believe that God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep as Christians.
15 For we tell you this by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive [zao], who are left until the coming of the Lord, will surely not go ahead of those who have fallen asleep.
16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead [nekros] in Christ will rise first.
17 Then we who are alive [zao], who are left, will be suddenly caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord.
All this teaches us that those who die in Christ will remain in Christ after their death, waiting for the resurrection of the body from death.
Háidēs / Sheol
The greatest biblical evidence that this "place" called hades exists and is populated by souls who are both self-aware and aware of their surroundings, consists in the fact that Jesus descended into sheol/hades (Psalm 16:10; Acts 2:27, 31), where He proclaimed or heralded (Greek: kērýssō) the gospel to certain souls who were imprisoned there (1 Peter 3:18-20).
There are those who believe that when the human body dies, the soul dies with the body (and they discount the possibility that the dead continue to be aware of anything), but not only do we know that Jesus descended into hades when He died, heralding the gospel there to souls who must have been self-aware and aware of their surroundings, but besides this, if sheol / hades, which is mentioned repeatedly in scripture, is a mythical "place", then the biblical scriptures would not even mention such a "place".
See for example:-
(Note that the Hebrew word nephesh is the equivalent of the Greek word psychḗ, and the Hebrew word sheol is the equivalent of the Greek word háidēs):
Proverbs 23:14
"Do not withhold correction from a boy, for if you beat him with the rod, he will not die. You shall beat him with the rod, and shall deliver his soul [nephesh, psychḗ] from sheol [hades]".
Psalms 86:12-13
"I confess Thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart, And I honour Thy name to the age. For Thy kindness is great toward me, And Thou hast delivered my soul [Hebrew nephesh] from the lowest Sheol."
1 Corinthians 15:55
"O death [thánatos], where is your sting? O grave [háidēs], where is your victory?"
The many examples where sheol / hades is spoken of as the abode of the dead (or the abode of departed souls or spirits) implies that sheol / hades is a very real, rather than a mythical "place" - and if sheol / hades exists, it has a "population" (because it's the population of sheol / hades that causes it to exist), and if it has a population, then it means that the soul, or at least the self-awareness of the person, continues after physical death.
If this were not the case, then death and hades "delivering up the dead in them" to face judgement (Revelation 20:13) would not make sense.
In the Revelation, the name of Jesus is said to be both known and praised under the earth:
"Therefore God has highly exalted Him (Jesus),
and has given Him a name which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
of heavenly ones, and of earthly ones,
and of ones under the earth;
and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father."
(Philippians 2:9-11).
"And I heard every creature which is in the Heaven and on the earth,
and under the earth, and those that are in the sea,
and all who are in them, saying,
Blessing and honor and glory and power be
to Him sitting on the throne, and to the Lamb forever and ever."
(Revelation 5:13).
In ancient Greek mythology haides was the god of the underworld. His name later became synonymous with the underworld (the abode of departed souls, or the abode of the dead).
It's not surprising then that in the Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuaginta or "Septuagint"), the Hebrew word sheol is always translated as haides. Sheol (Hebrew) or haides (Greek) was understood even at the time of Jesus to refer to the abode of the dead.
Revelation 20:13-15
And the sea gave up the dead in it. And death and hades delivered up the dead in them. And each one of them was judged according to their works.
And death and hades were cast into the Lake of Fire. This is the second death.
And if anyone was not found having been written in the Book of Life, he was cast into the Lake of Fire.
Hades and death, it seems, are two sides of the same coin: Paul tells us that death is the last enemy to be destroyed (1 Corinthians 15:26), and when this comes to pass, it will obviously render sheol/hades empty.
In Revelation 20:13-15 Jesus seems to be making a clear distinction between hades on one hand, and the lake of fire and brimstone on the other, where like gehenna, the lake of fire and brimstone is a place of destruction.
2. Tartaróō
In ancient Greek mythology, tartarus or tartaros was the place where the Titans (gods) were imprisoned after a war in which they were overthrown by the Olympian gods.
The Strongs Greek Dictionary informs us that tartaroo is the deepest abyss in hades:
[StrongsGreek] 05020
TARTARO/W ταρταρόω tartaróō tar-tar-o'-o from Τάρταρος Tártaros, (the deepest abyss of Hades); to incarcerate in eternal torment:--cast down to hell.
In the Bible, the word tartaroo is used only once (2 Peter 2:4); and it seems to refer to an abyss or bottomless pit where Peter stated that angels who sinned are bound.
Proverbs 15:11
"Sheol and destruction ['ăbaddôn] are before Jehovah, Surely also the hearts of the sons of men."
'ăbaddôn: See also Revelation 9:11:
"And they had a king over them, the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in Greek his name is Apollyon."
Gehenna
Matthew 10:28
"And do not fear those who kill the body [sōma], but are not able to kill the soul [psychḗ]. But rather fear Him who can destroy both soul [psychḗ] and body [sōma] in géenna."
Gehenna, or The valley of Hinnom, was the valley in Jerusalem where in ancient times certain kings of Judah sacrificed their children by fire. In time it became deemed by the Jews to be accursed, and became a symbol of the destiny of the wicked.
Jesus used gehenna as a symbol for a place of everlasting destruction, where some souls will wind up (only gehenna was used by Jesus as a symbol for what has developed into the concept of "hell" today).
"The lake of fire"
Revelation 20
13 And the sea gave up the dead in it. And death and hades delivered up the dead in them. And each one of them was judged according to their works.
14 And death and hades were cast into the Lake of Fire. This is the second death.
15 And if anyone was not found having been written in the Book of Life, he was cast into the Lake of Fire.
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On this page you have read through what the New Testament has to say about the above "places":
1. haides (Hebrew: sheol) refers to the abode of departed souls (Mat.11:23; Mat.16:18; Luke 10:15; Luke 16:23; Acts 2:27 & 31; 1 Cor.15:55; Rev.1:18; Rev.6:8; Rev.20: 13-14).
2. tartaróō (tartaros/tartarus) refers to an abyss or bottomless pit in haides (II Peter 2:4).
3. geena (Hebrew gehenna) is the word that Jesus used as a symbol of everlasting destruction, every time He spoke of everlasting destruction. It equates to the 2nd death | the lake of fire written about in the Revelation (Mat.5:22, 29 & 30 | Mark 9:43, 45 & 47; Mat.10:28; Mat.18:9; Mat.23:15 & 33; Luke 12:5; James 3:6).
ALL THREE WORDS HAVE BEEN TRANSLATED AS "HELL" IN THE KJV, MAKING NO DISTINCTION. *
* The above fact is not meant to disparage, discredit or depreciate the King James Bible in any way. The King James translation of the Bible is an excellent translation of the Greek text, but even so this does not mean that its translators made absolutely no errors of choice when it comes to which English word to use. Why the translators chose to translate haides, geena and tartaróō ALL as "hell", is a mystery, aside from the fact that all three words are characterized by a state of separation from God.
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