In the Luke chapter 16, Jesus told a parable concerning the afterlife. The parable mentioned two persons, a certain rich man and a beggar named Lazarus. Both the rich man and the beggar died, and both their souls went to a place called Hades. There is a chasm, a gulf that divides Hades into two sections: the pleasant section, where Abraham, Lazarus, and all the saved saints are (v. 22), and the section of torment, where the rich man and all the perished sinners are (vv. 23a, 28). The two sections are cut off from each other and have no bridge between them for passage. Yet those in the two sections can see and even talk to one another (vv. 23-25).
The Bible reveals to us that Hades is a temporary place where the souls and spirits of the dead are kept. Every person’s soul goes to Hades after death, regardless of whether that person believes in Jesus or not. The difference is that believers like Lazarus will be in the pleasant section (called “Paradise” and “Abraham’s bosom”) but unbelievers like the rich man will be in the section of torment.
A lot of Christians say “Believers will go up to heaven after they die”. Actually this is inaccurate. The word heaven appears twice, and the original language means sky. Some also say the Paradise is beneath the earth. However, when Jesus ascended, he went upwards. This uses Ephesians 4:8 which says, “Therefore the Scripture says, “Having ascended to the height, He led captive those taken captive and gave gifts to men””. However you cannot interpret this literally. Does Jesus just bring the dead ascending? The led captive here includes those who are living. So, we have to ask ourselves, what are we doing on earth? Eph. 4:8 the correct explanation that Jesus in His ascension grabs us from the hands of the enemy and gave as gifts to the church.
Some Christians also say in the Bible there are many mentions of us being with Christ after we die so we will also be in heavens after we die. But we need to be clear being together is not a matter of place but degree. Today we also enjoy the Lord’s presence but we’re not in the heavens. We are still on earth, Furthermore, many parts of the Bible states clearly or alludes to the fact after Christians die, they do not go to heaven. In Acts 2:34 we can see that even David did not ascend to the heavens after his death. This fact annuls the inaccurate teaching that says, based on Ephesians 4:8-10, that when Christ was resurrected, He brought Paradise, with all the Old Testament saints, from Hades into the heavens. In Revelations 6:9 we see that the martyred saints are still crying out from Paradise, the comfortable section of Hades as we’ve seen above. Since the martyred saints are still in Hades, what more to say the majority of believers.
Therefore, my understanding is that we do not go to heaven after we die. Christians go to the comfortable section of Hades. There, because we are freed from the constraints of the flesh, we can enjoy more of the Lord’s presence while waiting the resurrection and the Lord’s coming back.
