Article by: Kenneth J. Ester
Places of the Afterlife
There is a lot of confusion among Christians on where people go after they die. Some think nobody goes to heaven yet and others say we do. Some think the unbeliever goes to hell and some say Hades and others say everyone goes to Hades. So I am going to try and clarify the truth according to God’s Word. First it is best to understand what the different places are.
Rest assured, I will back it all up with scripture.
Hades – Also known as Sheol in Hebrew, but is named Hades in the Greek. There are different sections to this place and for a long time, everyone who died went here. One of the sections within Hades was called Paradise, however when Jesus died, He moved this section to Heaven. Today, every unbeliever who dies still goes here.
Lake of Fire – This is the final place where all unbelievers will spend eternity. It is a place of suffering.
Hell – There is a lot of confusion on what Hell is. Neither the Old Testament nor the New Testament used this word. It was simply an English word that was used when they translated the Bible in 1611. Unfortunately they were a bit too liberal in their usage of the word. There are passages in the KJV that use Hell to refer to the grave, to Hades and even to the Lake of Fire. The greater majority of the uses of Hell are in reference to Hades but because the world does not understand there are different places, they assume it is the Lake of Fire, where everyone who suffers spends their eternity.
Because of the confusion, I prefer to stay away from using the word “Hell”. I try to stick with Hades and the Lake of Fire so there is no confusion.
Heaven – This is the place where God resides in His full glory. Today, every believer who dies, goes to heaven, but like Hades, this is only a temporary place for us. We will not spend eternity there.
New Earth – If there is a single place where we will spend our eternity, this would be it. After the day of judgment when the unsaved are pulled from Hades, judged and cast into the Lake of Fire, God will create a new earth for us. A much larger earth than this present one, and that is where we will live new lives of happiness and glory.
However it is my personal belief that this will only be temporary as well. For just like any other planet, the world will at one point grow old or we will hit our limit of knowledge and use of it, and God will then give us another new one and another and another after that. After all, eternity is a very long time.
With this understanding of these places, lets go back over them in scripture.
At the time Jesus was walking the earth in the flesh, we know that nobody had ever been to heaven. That is why Jesus says this…
John 3:13 (NASB)
13 No one has ascended into heaven, except He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man.
Yet Jesus once told us the story of Lazarus and the rich man, which you can find in Luke 16:19-31. In this story, Lazarus, a poor man and the rich man both die and go to Hades…
Luke 16:23 (NASB)
23 And in Hades he raised his eyes, being in torment, and *saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his arms.
Some will try to argue that Lazarus went to heaven, but as I already showed, Jesus told us nobody had ever been to heaven except Him. Others will argue that Jesus was just telling a parable, but when Jesus tells a parable, he tells us He is telling a parable. He never speaks a parable and makes it sound like it is real. In any case, however, Jesus would never lie to tell a parable. Since Abraham is a real person, you know for certain He is talking about Abraham being in Hades as well, because Abraham was before Jesus died and so He could not have gone to heaven yet..
We also know that there are definitely souls in Hades because Revelation tells us that at the day of judgment, they will be brought from Hades.
Revelation 20:13 (NASB)
13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them; and they were judged, each one of them according to their deeds.
Now when Jesus hung on the cross, and everyone was mocking Him, one of the thieves stood up for Him. The man asked Jesus to remember him when He went to His kingdom. What was Jesus’ reply?
Luke 23:43 (NASB)
43 And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
Many believe Paradise is heaven. The problem with that is that Jesus does not ascend to heaven until after He rises from the dead on the third day. We know this by what Jesus says to Mary after He rose from the dead.
John 20:17 (NASB)
17 Jesus *said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’”
So if Jesus does not ascend to heaven until after He rose from the dead three days later, how can He tell the thief that he would be with Him in Paradise that day? Is Jesus lying? Not in the least. The truth is that at the time Jesus said that, Paradise was a section in Hades where the Godly souls rested. When Jesus died, He descended to Hades.
Ephesians 4:9 (NASB)
9 (Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth?
However, when Jesus did ascend to heaven, He did not go alone. Paul tells us this, just one verse earlier…
Ephesians 4:8 (NASB)
8 Therefore it says, “When He ascended on high, He led captive the captives, And He gave gifts to people.”
You see? Jesus descended down into Hades and when He ascended to heaven, He took with Him the Godly souls who rested in Paradise in Hades. Today Paradise is now in heaven and every true believer who dies goes to heaven. Not to Hades. How can we know this for certain? From what we are taught about the rapture…
1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 (NASB)
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. 15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.
When Jesus returns in the rapture, He will bring the souls of the dead believers with Him. Ask yourself, how can the Lord descending from heaven, bring them with Him unless they are already in heaven to begin with? Try as you might, you will find no evidence in scripture that Jesus will descend to Hades to get the dead before coming for those who are alive still.
Now, I have had some try to argue that it would make no sense for the Lord to bring them with Him just to take them back to heaven again. There is a very good reason they need to come back with the Lord. In the rapture, their bodies will need to be raised as imperishable.
1 Corinthians 15:50-53 (NASB)
50 Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.
When you combine the understanding of both of these scriptures on the rapture, it is clear what happens. When Jesus returns, He will bring the dead in Christ with Him. Their bodies will be raised imperishable. Then as their souls are reunited with their bodies, those who are still alive will be changed from perishable to imperishable. This way everyone gets their glorified bodies at the same moment. Then we are caught up together to be with Him in the clouds.
There is no doubt that those who are true Believers in Christ will go to heaven when they die. Then when the rapture happens, Jesus will bring them back for their new imperishable bodies. God being fair and just, makes sure that we all receive our glorified bodies at the same time. There is no favoritism here.
So we know that before Jesus died, the believers went to Hades. When He died, He descended down to Hades and gathered all of those who accepted Him as the Son of God and took them with Him when He ascended to heaven. Now every believer who dies, goes to heaven and will follow the Lord back during the rapture so they can be reunited with their bodies when Jesus raises them as imperishable.
Where are the unsaved?
The unsaved still go to Hades when they die. Not to heaven. There they will wait for the day of judgment which comes after the thousand years of peace on Earth. Which will not happen until after the Second Coming at the end of the Tribulation.
Revelation 20:4-6 (NASB)
4 Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their foreheads and on their hands; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and will reign with Him for a thousand years.
The first group who come to life here and join others on thrones are the tribulation saints. These are the people who turn to Jesus after the rapture. They are persecuted and killed by the antichrist and the false prophet.
The rest of the dead who do not come to life until after the thousand years are over, are the unbelievers. At that time they will be brought back to life and will stand before the White throne of judgment. They will be judged according to their deeds, both good and bad, and then the Book of Life will be opened and when their name is not found in it, they will be cast into the Lake of Fire.
Revelation 20:11-15 (NASB)
11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. 13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them; and they were judged, each one of them according to their deeds. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
This judgment of their deeds will not decide whether they go to heaven or not. That has already been judged because they did not believe.
John 3:18 (KJV)
18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Those who believed are not condemned and those who do not believe are already condemned because they did not believe. Their deeds do not cause them to go to hell. Their unbelief in Jesus as the Son of God has already destined them for that. Their deeds are judged to decide the level of their suffering.
From these scriptures, we know that when someone dies, if they truly believed in Jesus as their Lord and Savior, they will indeed go to heaven. Those who do not believe will go to Hades and eventually be cast into a Lake of Fire for all eternity. However, those who do go to heaven will not stay in heaven forever. After the unsaved are judged before the White Throne, God will give to us a new earth.
Revelation 21:1-2 (NASB)
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
The Bible goes on to describe the great city that God gives to us and its size is in the vicinity of 1,400 miles in each direction and 1,400 miles tall. To help you understand how incredibly high its tallest tower must go, consider this. The highest mountain on earth only goes up like 5.5 miles. Our atmosphere on this earth only goes up 30 miles. Beyond that you are in outer space. Just 30 miles. Can you imagine a tower being 46 times higher than how far our atmosphere reaches? That is how I know for certain that God gives to us a completely new planet and does not just fix up this one for us, as many like to teach. That new earth will be where we live for the foreseeable eternity. Yet even that planet will grow old sooner or later. We will use up its resources and get to know everything we need to know about it. I believe then the Lord will give to us a new planet and then another after we are done with that one, and so on.
Rest assured, I will back it all up with scripture.
Hades – Also known as Sheol in Hebrew, but is named Hades in the Greek. There are different sections to this place and for a long time, everyone who died went here. One of the sections within Hades was called Paradise, however when Jesus died, He moved this section to Heaven. Today, every unbeliever who dies still goes here.
Lake of Fire – This is the final place where all unbelievers will spend eternity. It is a place of suffering.
Hell – There is a lot of confusion on what Hell is. Neither the Old Testament nor the New Testament used this word. It was simply an English word that was used when they translated the Bible in 1611. Unfortunately they were a bit too liberal in their usage of the word. There are passages in the KJV that use Hell to refer to the grave, to Hades and even to the Lake of Fire. The greater majority of the uses of Hell are in reference to Hades but because the world does not understand there are different places, they assume it is the Lake of Fire, where everyone who suffers spends their eternity.
Because of the confusion, I prefer to stay away from using the word “Hell”. I try to stick with Hades and the Lake of Fire so there is no confusion.
Heaven – This is the place where God resides in His full glory. Today, every believer who dies, goes to heaven, but like Hades, this is only a temporary place for us. We will not spend eternity there.
New Earth – If there is a single place where we will spend our eternity, this would be it. After the day of judgment when the unsaved are pulled from Hades, judged and cast into the Lake of Fire, God will create a new earth for us. A much larger earth than this present one, and that is where we will live new lives of happiness and glory.
However it is my personal belief that this will only be temporary as well. For just like any other planet, the world will at one point grow old or we will hit our limit of knowledge and use of it, and God will then give us another new one and another and another after that. After all, eternity is a very long time.
With this understanding of these places, lets go back over them in scripture.
At the time Jesus was walking the earth in the flesh, we know that nobody had ever been to heaven. That is why Jesus says this…
John 3:13 (NASB)
13 No one has ascended into heaven, except He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man.
Yet Jesus once told us the story of Lazarus and the rich man, which you can find in Luke 16:19-31. In this story, Lazarus, a poor man and the rich man both die and go to Hades…
Luke 16:23 (NASB)
23 And in Hades he raised his eyes, being in torment, and *saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his arms.
Some will try to argue that Lazarus went to heaven, but as I already showed, Jesus told us nobody had ever been to heaven except Him. Others will argue that Jesus was just telling a parable, but when Jesus tells a parable, he tells us He is telling a parable. He never speaks a parable and makes it sound like it is real. In any case, however, Jesus would never lie to tell a parable. Since Abraham is a real person, you know for certain He is talking about Abraham being in Hades as well, because Abraham was before Jesus died and so He could not have gone to heaven yet..
We also know that there are definitely souls in Hades because Revelation tells us that at the day of judgment, they will be brought from Hades.
Revelation 20:13 (NASB)
13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them; and they were judged, each one of them according to their deeds.
Now when Jesus hung on the cross, and everyone was mocking Him, one of the thieves stood up for Him. The man asked Jesus to remember him when He went to His kingdom. What was Jesus’ reply?
Luke 23:43 (NASB)
43 And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
Many believe Paradise is heaven. The problem with that is that Jesus does not ascend to heaven until after He rises from the dead on the third day. We know this by what Jesus says to Mary after He rose from the dead.
John 20:17 (NASB)
17 Jesus *said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’”
So if Jesus does not ascend to heaven until after He rose from the dead three days later, how can He tell the thief that he would be with Him in Paradise that day? Is Jesus lying? Not in the least. The truth is that at the time Jesus said that, Paradise was a section in Hades where the Godly souls rested. When Jesus died, He descended to Hades.
Ephesians 4:9 (NASB)
9 (Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth?
However, when Jesus did ascend to heaven, He did not go alone. Paul tells us this, just one verse earlier…
Ephesians 4:8 (NASB)
8 Therefore it says, “When He ascended on high, He led captive the captives, And He gave gifts to people.”
You see? Jesus descended down into Hades and when He ascended to heaven, He took with Him the Godly souls who rested in Paradise in Hades. Today Paradise is now in heaven and every true believer who dies goes to heaven. Not to Hades. How can we know this for certain? From what we are taught about the rapture…
1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 (NASB)
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. 15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.
When Jesus returns in the rapture, He will bring the souls of the dead believers with Him. Ask yourself, how can the Lord descending from heaven, bring them with Him unless they are already in heaven to begin with? Try as you might, you will find no evidence in scripture that Jesus will descend to Hades to get the dead before coming for those who are alive still.
Now, I have had some try to argue that it would make no sense for the Lord to bring them with Him just to take them back to heaven again. There is a very good reason they need to come back with the Lord. In the rapture, their bodies will need to be raised as imperishable.
1 Corinthians 15:50-53 (NASB)
50 Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.
When you combine the understanding of both of these scriptures on the rapture, it is clear what happens. When Jesus returns, He will bring the dead in Christ with Him. Their bodies will be raised imperishable. Then as their souls are reunited with their bodies, those who are still alive will be changed from perishable to imperishable. This way everyone gets their glorified bodies at the same moment. Then we are caught up together to be with Him in the clouds.
There is no doubt that those who are true Believers in Christ will go to heaven when they die. Then when the rapture happens, Jesus will bring them back for their new imperishable bodies. God being fair and just, makes sure that we all receive our glorified bodies at the same time. There is no favoritism here.
So we know that before Jesus died, the believers went to Hades. When He died, He descended down to Hades and gathered all of those who accepted Him as the Son of God and took them with Him when He ascended to heaven. Now every believer who dies, goes to heaven and will follow the Lord back during the rapture so they can be reunited with their bodies when Jesus raises them as imperishable.
Where are the unsaved?
The unsaved still go to Hades when they die. Not to heaven. There they will wait for the day of judgment which comes after the thousand years of peace on Earth. Which will not happen until after the Second Coming at the end of the Tribulation.
Revelation 20:4-6 (NASB)
4 Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their foreheads and on their hands; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and will reign with Him for a thousand years.
The first group who come to life here and join others on thrones are the tribulation saints. These are the people who turn to Jesus after the rapture. They are persecuted and killed by the antichrist and the false prophet.
The rest of the dead who do not come to life until after the thousand years are over, are the unbelievers. At that time they will be brought back to life and will stand before the White throne of judgment. They will be judged according to their deeds, both good and bad, and then the Book of Life will be opened and when their name is not found in it, they will be cast into the Lake of Fire.
Revelation 20:11-15 (NASB)
11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. 13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them; and they were judged, each one of them according to their deeds. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
This judgment of their deeds will not decide whether they go to heaven or not. That has already been judged because they did not believe.
John 3:18 (KJV)
18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Those who believed are not condemned and those who do not believe are already condemned because they did not believe. Their deeds do not cause them to go to hell. Their unbelief in Jesus as the Son of God has already destined them for that. Their deeds are judged to decide the level of their suffering.
From these scriptures, we know that when someone dies, if they truly believed in Jesus as their Lord and Savior, they will indeed go to heaven. Those who do not believe will go to Hades and eventually be cast into a Lake of Fire for all eternity. However, those who do go to heaven will not stay in heaven forever. After the unsaved are judged before the White Throne, God will give to us a new earth.
Revelation 21:1-2 (NASB)
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
The Bible goes on to describe the great city that God gives to us and its size is in the vicinity of 1,400 miles in each direction and 1,400 miles tall. To help you understand how incredibly high its tallest tower must go, consider this. The highest mountain on earth only goes up like 5.5 miles. Our atmosphere on this earth only goes up 30 miles. Beyond that you are in outer space. Just 30 miles. Can you imagine a tower being 46 times higher than how far our atmosphere reaches? That is how I know for certain that God gives to us a completely new planet and does not just fix up this one for us, as many like to teach. That new earth will be where we live for the foreseeable eternity. Yet even that planet will grow old sooner or later. We will use up its resources and get to know everything we need to know about it. I believe then the Lord will give to us a new planet and then another after we are done with that one, and so on.