THE INTERMEDIATE PLACE OF THE DEAD  

What does dying mean? We are going to examine this thoroughly from Scripture. In other chapters we have endeavored to show from Scripture that we are a triad being; spirit soul and body (1st Thessalonians 5:23). We are a Living Soul (Nephesh in Hebrew), we have a spirit, and we are covered with a body. And dying means that, at death, these 3 parts of our being are separated, in that our spirit goes back to God who gave it (Ecclesiastes 12:7), our body returns to the dust from which it was made (Genesis 3:19), and that which remains is the essence of who we are as a created soul, which is then carried by Angels to Hades/Sheol (Luke 16:22). 

Scripture locates this special vast region within the interior of the Earth. (See Genesis 37:35, 42:38; 1st Samuel 2:6; 1st Kings 2:6; Amos 9:2; Numbers 16:30,33, 1st Samuel 28, etc) This is where all “dead” go (Ecclesiastes 3:20, 6:6).  

Hades/Sheol is The Place of the Dead. There are different locales or places within Hades/Sheol (Luke 16:23,26, Revelation 20:3).  

There are Gates that keep the entrance to Hades/Sheol (Job 17:16, Isaiah 38:10, Revelation 1:18). “And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock (revelation revealed by Spirit/spirit) I will build my church; and the gates of hell (Hades) shall not prevail against it.”  [Matthew 16:16-18] 

The point which Christ is making, that which He is referring back to, as the rock on which He shall build His “Church”, is revelation knowledge, that is to say; that which is revealed of Him by the Spirit/spirit.  And these shall pass from this life, into Hades (meaning the abode of the dead) where its securing Gates are to prevent the departure of any placed within it. Nevertheless, His promise is that those Gates would not prevent His Church from ascending out from among the remaining dead in the First Resurrection (Luke 20:35), that one monumental event which that great Resurrection chapter of 1st Corinthians 15 has in view. See verse 55b “…..O Hades where is thy victory?” Hades today is the intermediate place of the dead, and is revealed as a holding place of hope to us who believe.  

HADES WAS THE PATH OF THE LORD 

His Jewish brethren had rejected Him, and had him nailed to the Cross. And as He suffered there, He responded to one of the malefactors hung upon a cross beside Him saying, “Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.”  [Luke 23:43] And just before His dying He prayed. “And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.  So it was that His spirit departed Him and went back to the Father (verse 46). And His body was wrapped and carried into the Tomb (Luke 23:53). And as it relates to His Soul, the essence of His self, His soul is discovered in Hades. That being what Psalms 16:9–10 had predicted, and what the historical account, given by Peter, declares as fact in Acts 2:27,32. “Because thou wilt not leave my soul in Hades, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” So it is that we may trace every man’s path at dying: His spirit goes back to God, his body goes to the dust in the grave, and Hades then is the destination of all souls at dying. 

Now Psalm 16 goes on to trace the predicted unique path of Jesus Christ, as the Son of Man. That is that His Soul and body would be reunited before corruption (3 days) and after separation. ‘Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for ever-more.” (verse 11) As to the historical fulfillment of this Scripture, we have the further Words of Peter in that same Passage of Scripture in Acts 2:32,33. “This Jesus hath God raised up whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted.…”  

All that have passed from this earth in death immediately descend into Hades, and are carried there by Angels, as seen in Luke 16. It is there, in Hades, where Christ spoke of to the one hanging on a cross near Him when He said he’d be with Him that day in Paradise. (Paradise being Abraham’s Bosom/the place of comfort.) That Christ referred to this Paradise, we have the further confirmation of in Christ’s Words to Mary at His Tomb. “Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father.…” 

Hades, being the intermediate place of the dead, is where both Old and New Testaments attest that all will wait for Resurrection. “Martha (having this established Old Testament understanding) saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” [John 11:23] She understood, rightfully, that the Resurrection from the dead was yet future. Ten days following Jesus Christ’s Ascension, on the Day of Pentecost, Peter indirectly throws light upon the fact that none had been Resurrected unto Heaven, except for One, that being Jesus. Peter, in his further discourse, and inspired by the Holy Spirit, declares King David as “….both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day….For David is not ascended into the heavens.…” [Acts 2:29,34] This is one proof in scripture that debunks the idea that Christ took all the righteous dead with Him into Heaven when He resurrected. John 3:13 being another scripture…. “And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.” So the reality is, as David has not ascended, neither has any other soul who has experienced death. There is no Scripture that tells us explicitly that any soul, having died, other than Christ, has gone to Heaven. But many Scriptures testify that the Righteous and un-Righteous dead are in Hades/Sheol in the interior of the Earth, only a few of which we have mentioned.  

Yet most teachers today erroneously proclaim that Christians go directly to Heaven upon death, that place wherein Christ sits at the Right Hand of the Father, even though it is contrary to Scripture. This was not the understanding of the Early Church Teachers, in that for the first 400 to 500 years after Christ it would have been hard to find one single forefather of the faith who taught or even thought that Christians were in Heaven. They were of one mind in the understanding of Scripture that all dead were residents of Hades. (Some authenticators such as Pearson on the Creed, Josephus’ Dissertation on Hades/Sheol, etc will be listed here.)  

Their belief (which strays from Truth) they owe to a couple of verses; one verse being how Christ led captivity captive. That which we have written in a previous chapter is Scripture’s response as to how this refers to a military procession of enemy captives being led in open shame by the Victors (Judges 5:12, Psalm 68:18, Ephesians 4:8). These scriptures having Christ’s Day of Triumph, and victory celebration over His enemies in Hades in view (Colossians 2:15). 

The idea that the righteous were led out of Hades, which is presented by modern day teachers, would represent that the Gates of Hades are no longer prevailing and the Resurrection from among the dead has already occurred. But how so? Unless corruption, that is the body, has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality. Is this not reserved for Christ’s 2nd Coming? (1st Thessalonians 4:16) 

They say it is our Soul that is caught up to Heaven when we die, where we wait for the body to be resurrected and united. But Scripture equates not having our body before being clothed in resurrection as being naked: “If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.” (2nd Corinthians 5:2-4) With “Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon.” (Exodus 20:26,28:42) The true state of our condition without our body is one of ….“We ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” [Romans 8:23] 

It is not death that fits the worthy for His Holy Presence. It is not in the unclothing but in the clothing, a certain kind of appointed Resurrection in incorruptible glory that manifests in the body. (1st Corinthians 15 verse 43 with 35-49) Genesis 41:14 being a type…. “Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon: and he shaved himself, and changed his raiment, and came in unto Pharaoh.”  

But what of Philippians 1:21-23? “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain…..For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better.…” Or that other Scripture,  “Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” [2nd Corinthians 5:6-8]  

These two Scriptures do not tell the location of that presence, but only the far greater condition of the faithful departed. The assumption is that this far better condition is realized only in Heaven with Jesus Christ. But David, in Psalm 139:7-8 wrote, “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there…” So God’s “Presence” is not limited, as we can see from these verses, and others, such as “….I will never leave you or forsake you…” and “….I will be with you always…” Or “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” [Matthew 18:20]  No one would deny a kind of His presence while here on the Earth, but it is our present limited experience of His presence while we are in this place of faith. But the loving faithful, upon leaving their sensual bodies to the dust of earth, will depart into a far greater presence beyond this World’s restraints, into Hades where His comforting presence in Hades’ Paradise becomes more tangible, and far exceeds that of faith’s experience while fettered to the sensual body and carnal mind. Here, daily we are subject to the oppressive flesh, World and satan, but there we will delight continually in His victorious greater presence. “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.” Having taken back the keys by His Victory over satan, certainly Christ has a greater degree of authority under the earth versus here on earth where satan and his contrary forces now (temporarily) rule. And short of that great quickening presence of the Lord in that liberating day of Triumph (Colossians 2:15), even then Paradise’s comfort exceeded what was upon the Earth, as perceived in Samuel’s Words to Saul when he was brought up from the dead by the woman of Endor who practiced divination, to which Samuel said, “….Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up?” 

The continued false and damaging teaching of our being caught up to Heaven upon death robs many Scriptures of their significant meanings and sanctifying power.  In that if we, as Christians, ascend into Heaven in glory at death, then what great significance is there in the resurrection of the body?  And so also is the thought; that if when I die and I am to be found in Heaven, then the sanctifying purposes of the First Resurrection of the dead are set aside. For the thought is: I shall be with Christ already. What little concern do I have about His Second Coming or His Millennial Kingdom, or of any “Judgment Seat”? Very little thought or teaching is then given to these vital and purifying subjects. 

The idea or revelation of “waiting” upon Christ’s Second Coming and Resurrection is a vital theme of Scripture. “For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing. For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. [1st Thessalonians 1:8-10]  

“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure”. [1 John 3:2–3] Not only does this verse imply that we won’t be like Him until He appears, it reinforces the reason why we purify ourselves and walk in sanctification.[Text Wrapping Break]  

“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep (in tranquil rest in Hades as was Samuel in 1st Samuel 28:15) that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope (so in the state of hope of resurrection you should be).  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which (now) sleep (who cannot be then in present glory, see also Daniel 12:2), thro’ Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep.  For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall first rise: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.  Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” [1st Thessalonians 4:13-18] In these verses, we can see that not only does it specifically say that the dead will rise at the time of Christ’s Return, but it refers to the dead in Christ as being “asleep” (in Hades) and not in Heaven. This is key to understanding Jesus’ parable in Matthew 25 about the 5 wise and 5 foolish virgins who all were “asleep” in Hades at the time the Bridegroom came. “While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept…” [Matthew 25:5]  

This parable and the subject of Hades will be more clearly explored and defined in the upcoming chapters, as we look at: 

“The Chastening of God the Father”  

“The Judgment Seat of Christ”  

“The Two Resurrections” 

“The First-fruits and Harvest Raptures”