This Lord’s day, the planned sermons deal with crucifixion in the morning and resurrection in the evening. It seemed more than appropriate to look at the middle of that doctrinal sandwich. Between death and the second coming, some form of our being remains conscious and alive. Jesus points to the words of God to Moses to prove life after physical death, “as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.”-Matthew 22:31-32. Four hundred years after Abraham’s death, Jesus proclaimed the three patriarchs of Israel were alive when the LORD spoke those words to Moses (Exodus 3:6). So, if they are alive, they must be somewhere. That somewhere is Hades.
- Where do we go when we die?
- What happens to us between death and the judgement day.
- Where are the dead before Jesus returns?
I think every human being who ever lived, asks themselves some version of this question. Two different members of our congregation, asked me about what can be called, “the place of the dead.” this week. One of those questions came from reading the Psalms. Sixteen times the Psalms use the word “sheol” or “the pit” to describe the grave or the place where the dead go.
Much of the confusion around this issue has to do with the way the translators of the King James Bible brought the Hebrew word “sheol” and its Greek counterpart “hades” into English. The KJV uses the English word “hell” instead of “Sheol” to describe the place where the dead exist before the judgement day. The problem with that translation is the negative meaning the word “hell” has. To modern day English speakers, the word “hell” is the place the damned go after the day of judgement. It means more than just, “the grave.” Hell is the home of eternal fire, weeping and gnashing of teeth.
If the King James translation is correct, then Jesus went to hell between his death and resurrection. Psalm 16:10, in the KJV, reads like this, “thou wilt not leave my soul in hell;” The issue with the use of “hell” there is the fact, this is a prophecy about the sinless Jesus, who could not be cast into hell. Peter quotes the passage in Acts chapter two and the KJV retains “hell” in verse 27. Almost all major translations of the last 125-years use the word “sheol” in Psalm 16 and “hades” in Acts Two. So, Jesus goes to the place of the dead, not the place of punishment for sin.
What we generally think of when the word “hell” is used is the Greek word “gehenna.” The definitions for these words from the New Unger’s Dictionary*, I believe, are very helpful.
Sheol = The general idea is “the place of the dead”…The term is thus used with reference to both the righteous and the wicked.
Hades = It refers to the underworld, or region of the departed, the intermediate state between death and the resurrection.
Gehenna = the abode of lost spirits…it is properly translated “hell,” denoting the eternal state of the lost after resurrection.
Sheol (OT) and Hades (NT) are words that mean the place to which all go after death. It has neither a negative or positive connotation. Although, using the story of the rich man and Lazarus as a guide, there are places of comfort and torment (Luke 16:19-31). When the word “Gehenna” is used, it almost exclusively means the place of fire and brimstone to which unbelievers are sentenced for eternity.
Where we all want to go is heaven. No tears, no death, no sin, no kidding. If you believe in Jesus as the resurrected Lord and serve him in this world, he will welcome you to you home in heaven with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
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