Dr. David Jeremiah, a Christian minister, addressed this subject a while back and he told a story of a tombstone in Indiana which was over 100 years old and had this epitaph:
Pause, stranger, when you pass me by.
As you are now, so once was I.
As I am now, so you will be.
Prepare yourself to follow me.
Someone had come along and had written his own words beneath the poem:
To follow you I'm not content
Until I know which way you went.
Most people want to know two things about their deceased loved ones: Where are they, and how are they? Those are questions that have no doubt risen in the minds of people since the beginning of time. We know that New Testament Christians asked questions about this issue because Paul addressed it with some of them in 1 Thessalonians 4:13:
"But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope..." He was using the term 'fallen asleep' as it is often used in scripture, to refer to a believer's death. Jesus used it in John 11:11 referring to Lazarus when he had been in the grave for three days. The Book of Acts uses it about King David in the Old Testament: "After he had served his own generation by the will of God he fell asleep and was buried with his fathers..."
It's instructive that he used the same word that was used to describe someone who spent a night in an inn and got up the next day to continue his journey. That's exactly what happens to a believer's body when he dies. It goes to sleep and is put in the 'hotel,' awaiting the time when it's resurrection occurs. The body is the house in which the real person lives, the shell in which he resides. But, that's not the real issue. We know that the body isn't the real person. So what happens to the real person?
As with everything else, if we just study the Bible we can usually find the answer. It's the only authority on the subject. Depending on whether a person is a Christian or a non-Christian, Paul shows that the results are not the same. So, to see how this works we'll look at the story of the rich man and Lazarus. We'll track them in life, in the grave and after death, in eternity.
In their lifetimes, Luke 16:19-21: “There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores." In life the rich man lived the 'good life,' had good things, was wealthy. The beggar, Lazarus, was sick and hungry and poor, so poor that his sores were licked by dogs, even though the rich man could easily have had his servants helped him.
In death, verse 22: "So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried." No mention is made of Lazarus, the beggar, being buried. Due to his poverty he was possibly not even buried, but perhaps was put in the potter's field, or perhaps they threw his body into Gehenna, the city dump. The real person, though, was carried by angel's to Abraham's bosom. The rich man was buried and no doubt had a lavish funeral and was honored by his friends and relatives, but there is no mention of being carried to Abraham's bosom by an angel.
After death, verses 23-24: "And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’" This is very important, because Jesus himself is telling this true story, and no one else but Jesus could know what happens after death. We know its a true story because Jesus uses Lazarus' name, which he never did when telling parables. This was not the same Lazarus that Jesus raised from the dead, but someone the Lord personally knew and witnessed in life, in death and after death.
This true story lays a foundation for us to understand exactly what happens. The Bible teaches that before the ascension of Jesus Christ there was an immediate place where the souls of men went at death. This place is composed of three areas: 1) Abraham's bosom 2) a great fixed gulf and 3) Hades, the place of torment.
Abraham's bosom is also called Paradise and is the place where the righteous dead went, a place of comfort and companionship. Verse 25 says: "But Abraham said, ‘Son (the rich man), remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented.'" We find out here that the angel carried Lazarus' real person to Paradise (1 above), and the rich man's went to Hades (3 above), where the souls of the wicked go. Notice, also, that in verses 23-24 above, it says that the rich man was 'tormented in this flame.' The destiny of these two men is fixed.
Between Paradise and Hades we are told in Verse 26 that there is a great fixed gulf (2 above): "And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’ " Jesus said there is a chasm between these two places which cannot be crossed under any circumstance. Keep in mind that this story applies to Old Testament people, before Christ's ascension to heaven. His death on the cross had not yet occurred when these two people died.
Do you notice how in death the rich man and Lazarus have changed places? The rich man is now the beggar, and Lazarus is now rich in eternity. The rich man is now not only a beggar, but he's in a place of MEMORY (verse 25) and THIRST. He is conscious of what he has missed; this is one of the torments he experiences. We see in verses 27-31 that it is also a place of MOURNING: “Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’ Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’” He begs Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his five brothers, but Abraham refuses because they won't listen now any more than they have in the past. The word of God through Moses and the prophets is more powerful than someone coming back from the dead, according to Jesus' telling of the story. If they won't listen before, they won't listen, period.
To be continued in Part 2.
Royal Heir
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