Death, Hades, Judgment, Heaven

Other than questions about salvation, the topic that seems to confuse people the most is, “What happens when we die?”  Certainly there are things that remain unexplained: What kind of body will we have?  How can God resurrect my body if it has returned to dust?  Will I be aware of loved ones going to hell and how will that not make me miserable?  These are questions about which we only have partial revelation.  But the basic order of what happens is clear.

Three things are the source of most of our confusion.  Two are false teachings, (The rapture and premillennialism) and one has to do with translation.  We won’t take time to deal with the two errant theories except to say:  1)  “The rapture” is a modern idea unheard of in Christianity until the mid-1800’s.  The idea was popularized by a series of books (The Late Great Planet Earth and the Left Behind series).  The rapture is a figment of the imagination and is not a defensible biblical position.  2)  Premillennialism is an incorrect interpretation of Scripture.  Most scholars who hold to it are at least genuine and serious, no matter how mistaken they may be.

The issue we will give our time to deals with how the King James translators render two Greek words.  In the New Testament, the KJV uses the word “hell” for the Greek terms hades and gehenna.  Here is how the New Unger’s Bible Dictionary defines them:

Hades – Greek = The place of the dead. The term is thus used with reference to both the righteous and the wicked.  It refers to the underworld, or region of the departed, the intermediate state between death and the resurrection.

Gehenna – Greek = The word occurs in the NT, and in every case it is properly translated “hell,” denoting the eternal state of the lost after resurrection.

The KJV has the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:23) and Jesus (Acts 2:27) in hell.  Neither were in gehenna.  Both were in Hades.  Which leads us to where we go when we die.  All who die, before our Lord returns, will enter Hades to wait for the resurrection.  In Hades, there will be comfort for the Christian (Luke 16:22; Revelation 6:9-11; 7:13-17) and torment for the unrepentant (Luke 16:25).  Hades is from where, “the dead in Christ will rise first.”-I Thessalonians 4:16.

Unbelievers do not go straight to hell and believers don’t immediately enter heaven.  The judgement day must come first.  The Bible is clear, “it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,”-Hebrews 9:27; “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,”-II Corinthians 5:10.  On the resurrection day we must all answer the question, “Was I a good and faithful servant of God’s Son?”  When the trumpet sounds, “all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.”-John 5:28-29.

This harmonizes beautifully with the judgment scene in Revelation 20:11-15.  Hades gives up the dead.  People are judged.  Those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life, go to heaven to dwell with the Father, Son, and Spirit.  The unbelieving and faithless are thrown into the lake of fire (gehenna).  There will be no more death and therefore, no need of a place for the dead (hades).

If we die before our Lord returns: all enter Hades, all wait for the resurrection/judgment day, all go to heaven or gehenna (hell).  May God be merciful to us all.