Category: Hell

The Praise We Owe Jesus

Who is the most positively influential person in the history of mankind? There is no contest–Jesus. What makes Jesus so important isn’t how he influenced views on politics, the sexes, or the poor; it is what He finished during the week we are celebrating this week, Holy Week.

It is easy to be impressed with Jesus’ teaching. It is influential to this day and it should be. It is easy to be impressed with His miracles, but His purpose wasn’t to end disease, feed people, or temporarily raise the dead. His purpose was much, much bigger.

God’s Law created a big problem for humankind. You could state His foundational Law like this: Anything that is a part or product of rebellion against me cannot be in my direct presence or a part of my re-created universes. We definitely fail this test. Sinful human nature, a genetic condition is inherited by all. The best of us fail to remain sinless in thought, word, and deed. We lack faith. We lack love. We lack positive actions. The judgment is this: We will all physically die and then be forsaken by God (in Hell). That’s the bad news. Very bad news.

The good news is that God also considered this His problem. He is not a being to just suspend or exempt from the Law. It still stands. The Good News is that He had a plan and that plan was Jesus. Jesus is the Son of God made human (incarnate). He is born irregularly via virgin birth. The outcome of that is no genetic sinful nature. He lives 35 years (I think 2 B.C. to 33 A.D.) God has a thing about the number 3 1/2. He never sins despite serious external temptation. It is sufficiently accomplished during Holy Week.

Then comes the harder part. Jesus needs to physically die and be forsaken. The second part being the critical part for us. This is not easy and Jesus didn’t relish the thought:

27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.

John 12:27 (ESV)

38 Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” 39 And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”

Matthew 26:38-39 (ESV)

Jesus is rightfully scared because being forsaken is the removal of all good things and we cannot even comprehend what that meant for the Trinitarian aspect of God. Still, Jesus does it because that is what the Father wants to do. The Father continues on because He loves people. He loves you.

Jesus experiences forsakeness. It is so emptying that He doesn’t seem to remember why it is happening:

46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Matthew 27:46 (ESV)

How long does this last? It doesn’t say. But a good guess would be during the supernatural darkness. It says this starts about the third hour. Again, going with 3 1/2 being significant, I would guess 3 1/2 hours. That is compared with eternally if we have to bear it ourselves.

The final aspect of God’s plan is that in order to have the obedience of Jesus apply to us we have to be joined to Him. This isn’t just a matter of God’s bookkeeping, though there is a Book of Life. This is a unity that God creates between Jesus and us that is somehow similar to the unity of the persons of the Trinity.

20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

John 17:20-23 (ESV)

This is the part that fails to include all people. God wants all to be saved, but there is something about the majority of people that God won’t get past to create a bond with them. I don’t think it is merely informational or intellectual though in manifests in that way. I don’t know what it is. But I owe Jesus my all because it does include me.

I pray it includes you.

Pondering the Properties of Our Resurrected Body

The blog discusses the complexities of eternal life, particularly the distinctions between various theological concepts such as Heaven, the New Earth, and the nature of resurrected bodies. Highlighting 1 Corinthians 15, the author contrasts current bodies with future resurrected ones, emphasizing themes of imperishability, glory, power, and the spiritual essence of these bodies in eternal existence.

One of the reasons that I have written this blog since 2016 is because the topic of eternal life is a little confusing. It is confusing enough that good theologians have merged some things that I believe should not be merged. For example, they merge Heaven with the New Earth or Sheol with the Lake of Fire/Gehenna/Hell. These mergers are easily shown to be mistaken. Another merger is the Heavenly body of a person, which 2 Corinthians 5 speaks of metaphorically, with the resurrected body which gets a lot of press.

How can we have an “eternal home” in Heaven (speaking of a body not a house) and a resurrected body on Earth. This isn’t a contradiction. As usual, it is describing a complex and new thing to us.

Today I would like to ponder the main text describing the resurrected body, 1 Corinthians 15:42-54. Let’s start with v.42-44:

42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

1 Corinthians 15:42-44 (ESV)

Here are some interesting comparisons between the bodies we currently have and our resurrected bodies. The first is pretty easy to understand: perishable now and imperishable then. My body has built into it the process of aging, vulnerabilities to outside agents, defects from the start, and the inescapability of death. Freezing it and waiting for future technology is foolish. I consider the idea of digitizing our soul to be even more ignorant. I am going with God’s promise of an indestructible body.

“Indestructible” does seem to come with a few caveats. The unrighteous arise with a resurrected body as well, but after their Judgment Day rebuke their bodies are turned to ash (Malachi 4:1-3). Their spirit is cast into Hell. Perhaps there is a form of indestructible body for Hell, but you don’t want it.

Indestructible also raises the question of how reckless you can be on the New Earth. You might be able to damage the resurrected body, but the Tree of Life (Rev. 22) seems to be the only repair kit that you need.

Does the resurrected body age? This depends on how we are understand Isaiah 65 https://afterdeathsite.com/2022/05/24/wrestling-with-isaiah-65/ . It may speak of a lifecycle of the resurrected body or perhaps it is just making the point that we don’t have to worry about pillaging or death in any form. We know the resurrected body is eternal for the righteous from other sources.

Then there is the contrast between our current “dishonor” and future “glory”. Dishonor would be the presence of our sinful nature and all the products thereof. Glory would be at least the absence of these. Is it more? Will we be like a walking night light in some environments? It used to work at a nuclear power plant and people asked me if I glow at night. Will we have a visible aura? Maybe. Will we be beautiful? Beauty is a relative standard, but I have no doubt that we will look at each other and see unique beauty. Here we may be attractive for a while, but it definitely degrades until the best we can hope for is that we look good “for our age”.

Then there is the conversion of weakness to power. There was a time I was helping a man to whom I donated a sofa-sleeper. That is some heavy furniture, and, of course, he lived on the third floor. I am decently strong, but we got to the top floor and my muscles just said, “we’re done”. Weakness. Someday I may not be able to stand up on my own. So how powerful is powerful for the resurrected body. I expect much stronger, faster, agile. Also, I expect keener if not additional senses. And maybe new abilities. Will there be limits? I expect so. Just much higher limits.

Then the real mysterious trait: spiritual. Paul goes on to speak of this trait:

45 Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

1 Corinthians 15:45-49 (ESV)

This paragraph doesn’t get into specifics but rather just says that we will be like Jesus’ resurrected body in many ways. 1 John 3:2b echos this fact. But how? This may be the way that our Heavenly body and resurrected Earthly body are integrated. We would possess the ability to be present in the space-time of a new universe and be present in the space-time of Heaven. With so much freedom it is easy to imagine why we won’t get bored with eternal life.

Paul continues:

50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall 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 shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written.

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”

1 Corinthians 15:50-54 (ESV)

I main point here is that everybody, including those still alive when Jesus returns, needs to go through this transition. It is not just God’s requirement; it is because of the laws of the physics of what He has created. Another point made here is that until this happens, we are still partially under the consequence of sin–which is death. Moving to Heaven at our death is a big step, but our bodies are a part of us, and they need to be elevated are reintegrated. Then we are complete.

It is a lot to ponder but encouraging to do so. Thanks be to Jesus.

Whoever Believes Has Eternal Life

The author reflects on a visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where they encountered a priest who mistakenly defined eternal life. The piece clarifies the distinction between “eternal existence” and “eternal life,” emphasizing that the latter is connected to belief in Jesus and a mystical union with Him, experienced both now and in Heaven.

I went to Israel about 10 years ago. In the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (shown above), which houses the traditional place of Jesus’ crucifixion and His burial tomb, I overheard a priest say to his tour group, “I don’t know what eternal life is, but I would like to think that it has something to do with being remembered.” This admission and glaring error shocked me. I want you to know very clearly what is meant by “eternal life”.

First, we must make a distinction between “eternal existence” and “eternal life”. God made a few creatures to have eternal existence. To my knowledge from the Bible these include: Seraphim/Cherubim (same thing different names), Angels/Demons (same thing but the latter is in rebellion against God), and human beings. You won’t cease to exist. Your body will die but you will find yourself in another body in another place (not Earth). This has been true of you since conception, and there is no way to opt out.

Because of our rebellion against God and the sin that is enshrined in our DNA, our eternal existence would naturally be first in Sheol (use the search box above to look for articles on Sheol), and then after Judgment Day in Gehenna, which we commonly refer to as Hell. Nobody should call such an existence “life”, and the Bible doesn’t.

Jesus’ life, forsakeness, death and resurrection are for the purpose of taking us from such a fate and giving to us instead “eternal life”. If the first temptation is thinking that life equals existence, the second is to think that eternal life begins at our physical death. Look at the following Bible passages:

47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.

John 6:47 (ESV)

36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

John 3:36 (ESV)

And to the question of “what is eternal life?”, we have this:

3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

John 17:3 (ESV)

It certainly sounds like eternal life is something that we have already, if we have belief. Belief is not simply believing that Jesus is real. Like a person could believe in ghosts. It is believing the story of Jesus to be historical and factual and it is trusting in the promise connected to Jesus of forgiveness of sins. These are what I call “first-level” proofs that you are connected to Jesus and have eternal life. They are not exactly the cause of eternal life. The cause of our receiving eternal life is all that Jesus did and the existence of a bond that Jesus forms between us and Himself. This “bond” or “connection” is not cognitive like belief is, it is not emotional, for lack of better words it is mystical. Theologians call it the “mystical union”. Read more about this here:https://givingchrist.com/2024/10/01/understanding-jesus-prayer-for-unity-in-john-17/

Once that connection is made and as long as that connection is viable, we have eternal life. Having this connection is “knowing” the only true God. Being united with Christ has evidence but you don’t feel it like you might feel a part of your body. The existence of eternal life in you will be much more obvious when your physical body dies. Heaven is the place you would go first if you have eternal life. The experience we will have there will be glorious. If you want to know more about Heaven, use the search bar in my blog above. I have written numerous articles on that.

You can’t quite say eternal life is life in Heaven. That is part of eternal life. It is life now connected with Jesus, life in Heaven, and life in the New Earth post Judgment Day. It is a package. A great package that we did not deserve, but is offered freely to us.

How sad it is to not know eternal life. I hope the priest in my opening story found out. I hope you do as well.

And I Will Raise Him Up on the Last Day

The blog discusses John 6, emphasizing Jesus’ teachings on eternal life and resurrection. It distinguishes between physical death and spiritual life through a relationship with God via Jesus. The author reflects on personal mortality and anticipated resurrection, contrasting the hopeful fate of the righteous with the dire prospect for the unrighteous, urging faith in Jesus as the path to salvation.

Recently, on my other blog (GivingChrist.com), I discussed a very controversial passage–John 6. You can see that discussion here:https://givingchrist.com/2024/09/17/the-mystical-union-lords-supper-and-john-6/. In John 6, Jesus uses a phrase twice. It the title of this article.

44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

John 6:44 (ESV)

54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

John 6:54 (ESV)

At the time, Jesus wanted the crowd, the Jewish leaders, and even His disciples to look for something more substantial than miracles, healing and food. He finally spells it out for them: eternal life and the resurrection.

The topic of the resurrection is a complicated thing. Daniel reveals that everyone will be resurrected for Judgment Day. It is not like one could avoid it. From Jesus’ perspective, the Resurrection is not synonymous with eternal life. We blur these topics together because we simply think of “life” as conscious existence. “Life” says Jesus, is knowing the true God and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. Or, as stated above, being drawn in to a relationship with God and sustaining a God-created bond through Jesus’ body and blood. The only experience that deserves the positive title of “life” is existing in the full presence of God. With that definition in mind, eternal life can be something you already have. I have it through the connection that Jesus has made between Him and me.

I have eternal life while my physical body is noticeably wasting away. I don’t have the stamina I used to have. I must take some medicines. I’m forgetting a few words. I know the direction that this is going. While I might realize a few short-term improvements, the general trend is toward my physical death. I am not a fan of the process, but I understand it and have confidence in its ultimate goal. My current body, brain included, has always been diminished by sin and a sinful nature. It was damaged goods at my conception. The plan is to dump this body but eventually gain a superior one.

How will we experience the resurrection of body? There are three possible scenarios. The one I expect to experience goes like this. I’ll die someday, and my spirit will separate from this body. I will immediately go to Heaven because of what Jesus did for me. My spirit will join with a heavenly body and recreate a soul. (See https://afterdeathsite.com/2024/03/26/your-body-soul-and-spirit/). My conscious existence will joyfully be engaged with Heaven until the day that Jesus rounds us up to head back to this planet. As we arrive, I will acquire my resurrected body. A body meant for a recreated version of this universe without any sin and with major upgrades.

Another possibly that is acceptable to me is if Jesus comes before I die. If this is going to happen, I hope it does before I break down too much. We still have to experience a break between spirit and body, but it will happen fast.

51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall 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 shall be changed.

1 Corinthians 15:51-52 (ESV)

For those who come to Judgment Day without the prior forgiveness of their sins through Jesus. The resurrection of the body will be of little comfort.

Some will have spent a long conscious existence in Sheol. They will have suffered much. Who can speak of their state of mind. It is like a long incarceration before facing a judge. Without eternal life, the resurrection is more of a curse.

The status of the resurrected body of the damned is a bit unclear. The passage above makes it sound like a resurrected body is imperishable. Malachi makes it sound like the resurrected bodies of the damned are torched.

“For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. 2 But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. 3 And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts.”

Malachi 4:1-3 (ESV)

Perhaps “indestructible” only applies to the righteous. Unfortunately for the unrighteous, this is not total destruction. Their spirits and possibly their resurrected bodies are cast into Gehenna, the lake of fire, along with Satan and his angels and forgotten.

There is a way to avoid such a fate. The way is Jesus. We all deserve the latter, but as a gift of God we can have the former. There is no greater gift to receive.

Satan and the Afterlife

In the classic 14th century poem, Dante’s Inferno, “Hell” is pictured as nine descending rings of torment. At the very bottom, Satan is seen frozen in ice and chewing on the worst traitors in history. So, I guess there is a “cold day in Hell”. Ancient poetry and renaissance paintings have influenced our ideas of Hell and Satan in eternity. Understandably, since the Bible was not available to most people, there is something lacking in the details.

The first thing I would like to re-emphasize is that there is a difference between Sheol/Hades, which is before Judgment Day, and “The Lake of Fire”/Gehenna which is the final destination of the damned. Their similarities (i.e. fire, suffering) lead many to conflate the two. But they are clearly distinct. Which should we call “Hell”. Honestly, it your pick. But I tend to think of the post-Judgment Day, lake of fire, as Hell. See more here: https://afterdeathsite.com/?s=Sheol

So where is Satan in all of this? Well, if we refer to The Far Side for our theological truth, he is ruling in Hell with all his junior Satans. The Bible would not support this view. Prior to Jesus’ victory on the cross, Satan and his angelic/demonic following seem to be able to either be in Heaven or on Earth. Following the loss of leverage that Satan had legally, he and his minions are cast out of Heaven. Revelation 12 shares that he is now on Earth.

Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, 8 but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him…Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”

Revelation 12:7-9,12 (ESV)

Trustworthy details are scant. But it appears that not all of Satan’s followers make it to exile on the Earth.

6 And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day

Jude 6(ESV)

It doesn’t say where this “gloomy darkness” is. I would not conclude that it is the same place as the souls of the disobedient who Jesus preaches to after His crucifixion. (1 Peter 3:19) Look at that topic starting here: https://afterdeathsite.com/2017/03/14/christs-descent-into-hell-part-1/

I think the angels’ prison is part of what the Bible calls “the abyss”. Still, where is Satan? That depends on the meaning of the first paragraph of Revelation 20. It is also in Revelation 20 where we find the eternal destination of the one who kicked off this whole corruption of God’s creation. There are interpretations of Revelation 20:1-3 that understand Satan to be currently bound. If so, I would conclude bound in the Abyss. There are also interpretations that make this a future event. I lean toward the former. But there is little ambiguity of where he ends up.

0 and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Revelation 20:10 (ESV)

This is formally “Hell” in my lexicon. It is post-Judgment Day and it is the ultimate destination of both corrupted angels and unredeemed people. The people have been in Sheol/Hades to this point.

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.

Revelation 20:14-15 (ESV)

Satan is not there to reign or torment. He is there is suffer like everybody else. As bad as fire and sulfur sound, the phrase “second death” takes us to the ultimate penalty of sin which is to be forsaken by God. Hell is place. Forsaken is a condition. Jesus was forsaken on the cross, so that those who are connected to Jesus don’t need to suffer this themselves.

Satan does not seem to be connected to Sheol/Hades. He is either here on Earth, in the Abyss, or ultimately in the lake of fire/Gehenna/Hell. Neither he nor his demons seem to have the recourse that people have. Though we are sinful and rebellious as well, God’s love has created a way of forgiveness through Jesus. That is the way that I want and have. I am perfectly satisfied reading about Satan. I don’t need to meet him.

A Hard Proportion to Accept

I trust the Bible. That is different than saying that I like or want everything that it tells me. Life is predictably like that. It is often not the way I want. Specifically, the Bible shares that the proportion of humanity that will be saved will be small. This is especially tragic and confusing when you consider that the sacrifice that Jesus made for us is big enough to forgive any sin but one–blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

When some people hear of this, they reject the idea, the Bible, and even God. “I am not going to believe in a god who would send people to Hell.” They act as if their rejection of a painful fact will make it go away. It won’t. Denial is not a good coping skill in this case (or in most cases).

What does the Bible say on this? This verse was just in our Sunday morning readings:

3 Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply.

Jeremiah 23:3 (ESV)

The word “remnant” is not encouraging. It is better than nothing, but it suggests a small portion of the whole. Here it applies to the Jewish nation, but the idea of only a small fraction being saved spreads across all of humanity. My least favorite verse in the Bible is this:

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

Matthew 7:13-14 (ESV)

That is Jesus speaking, too. How can this be right? God is love. God is all powerful. God wants all people to be saved. All of this is true. But the poison of sin is in every human being from conception (Psalm 51:5). The solution to sin is a “narrow” list of one choice: Jesus.

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

John 14:6 (ESV)

The Bible tells us that people will not naturally accept the story or promise of Jesus without help from the Holy Spirit.

 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

1 Corinthians 2:14 (ESV)

Why can’t the Spirit get through to everyone? I don’t know. It doesn’t really say. I would guess that to do so would require the Spirit to violate the integrity of what makes us a human. It would just make us a robot. Maybe.

People who do believe and are saved have the burden to at least get the word of God’s plan and offer out there to everyone. I don’t think our failure to reach some people groups throughout history will necessarily preclude them. I base this hope on 1 Peter 4:6

For this is why the Gospel is preached to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.

1 Peter 4:6(ESV)

But it not hard to see how the list of potential people inheriting eternal life gets whittled down very fast. All are sinful and damned, many reject Jesus as their Savior from the get-go, others fall away for multiple reasons. Soon you have a remnant or few.

How few is “few”? Percentage wise it is hard to guess. I would love for the answer to be 99% is few compared to the potential of 100%. I would even rejoice in 49.9% is few compared to 50.1%. I fear and even expect that it is less. Still the “few” are a great number of people.

9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Revelation 7:9-10 (ESV)

Not believing the Bible on this topic or any other should not be on the basis of not liking its contents or on feelings. It should be on the merits of how the text was preserved down through history, the reliability of the eyewitnesses of Jesus, and of Jesus himself. There is plenty of reason to believe it.

Here is a starting point to investigate the integrity of the Bible from my other blog Givingchrist.com.https://givingchrist.com/2022/02/01/can-you-trust-the-accuracy-of-the-bible/ After reading this you can find more by scrolling to the bottom and searching “Bible” or other key words.

You can use the search function here to find other related topics. It is a big deal. I hope that you are one of the “few”.

Life, Death and Consciousness

The post explores explanations for our complex universe, body, consciousness, and free will. It compares materialism and biocentrism, touching on consciousness, multiverse, and freewill. The author rejects the deterministic nature of materialism and embraces the spiritual dimension, referencing the Bible’s distinction between body, soul, and spirit. Jesus’ sacrifice offers hope for an eternal, heavenly existence.

What explains our experience of a complex and vast universe? What explains our complex body and the experience of being self-aware and having a free-will? Many religious, philosophical and scientific explanations have been advanced over the centuries. Do they work, do they have proof, and how did we arrive at these ideas?

The current scientific orthodoxy has a certain philosophical point of view. Materialism (not to be confused with the lust for money and property) is a philosophical point of view that says only the observable is real. Ironically, observation makes this philosophy doubtful.

One area of struggle for materialism is our consciousness. We can observe brain activity and even artificially create certain experiences within the brain, but the theory fails to explain our ability to choose in a satisfactory manner and seems somewhat desperate in its attempts to explain away Near-Death Experiences.

A more fringy and somewhat pseudo-scientific philosophy that has got a little attention is something called biocentrism. My take on what little I know about biocentrism is that it is trying to take some ideas (true or not) from the current mainstream of science and propose a largely unprovable theory of consciousness. I am interested, as well, as to how observable and tested ideas from science come into contact with information that we have by revelation from God. Consciousness obviously plays into the topic of this blog.

Biocentrism asserts that our consciousness is actually the energy within the brain. This is subtle difference from mainstream science which says that our consciousness is an illusion created by the interaction of our brain cells which is both chemical and electrical.

Where biocentrism rolls into the slightly more bizarre is how it uses the idea of a multiverse, which is strictly the desperate idea of theoretical physics to explain how we can have a fine-tuned universe that supports life. There isn’t great or any (to my knowledge) evidence for the multi-verse; especially not the version utilized by biocentrism. Their use of the multiverse is that we exist simultaneously in an infinite number of universes playing out an infinite number of choices at once. That idea tries to solve the freewill issue. We actually are not free, we are just playing out one set of possible circumstances. The odd conclusion is that since we may die in one universe, but death is an illusion since we must still live in others. The only thing unifying the multiple versions of ourselves is our brain energy. If we can train our brain energy to be more aware, we transcend the perceived problem of death.

Call me skeptical. I reject the idea that our choices are simply the product of inevitable brain chemistry. I also reject the idea that we are only an evolutionary product of the laws of nature. Getting at the true nature of what we are is hard if not impossible for scientific inquiry. At some point, we must be told what we are by someone who transcends creation–the Creator Himself.

The Bible speaks of our Earthly body, our Heavenly body (1 Corinthians 15:40, 2 Corinthians 5:1), our soul and our spirit. See https://afterdeathsite.com/2024/03/26/your-body-soul-and-spirit/ I think the Bible comes close to some of the ideas above, but remains significantly different. Our consciousness is not brain chemistry exactly. Our Spirit creates the consciousness which interfaces with the brain as chemistry and energy. Our Spirit is not limited to this universe, but is connected to it for now.

Death is a real thing, not an illusion. It is the consequence of being a sinful being that has rebelled and diverged from how God created us. That said, a human, is an eternal and potentially multi-dimensional thing. We are where God put us now, but we are created to be an eternal creature. Our life is not playing out in a different fashion in another universe, but we can have an existence in another universe. Which “universe” depends on our interaction with God, who wants us to have something good. If God can connect us by faith to Jesus, then our universe will be Heaven and eventually also a rehabilitated version of this universe.

Jesus’ death and resurrection were performed to give us that inheritance after death. Our body and spirit will separate but our soul will engage with another body in Heaven (probably another not a parallel universe). That is what completes the explanation of what we are, and that is a hope that we all can hang on to.

Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth

One of the problems with describing our existence after death is the limitations of words. Words have meaning because we can relate them to experience. If you have never experienced anything even similar to the glory of Heaven and the New Earth then all you can do is explain what is not there. Similarly, if you have not experienced the depth of sorrow, pain or hopelessness that characterizes Sheol or Hell, what do you say? 

The Bible pulls out a few negative experiences that happen on Earth to help us to understand damnation. Speaking of Hades/Sheol Jesus speaks of fire and the worm that never dies. Most of us have been burned at some time. It is intense pain. Many of us have seen maggots doing their work. The smell and the disgusting sight quickly elicits the gag reflex. Does this mean that there is actual fire and maggots? Maybe. It certainly means that the experience is intensely awful. 

A frequently used clause to communicate the horror of being exiled from God is the phrase, “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” All of the occurrences of this phrase are in the Gospels and out of the mouth of Jesus. Most are found in Matthew. Here are some examples:

11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, 12 while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Matthew 8:11-12 (ESV)

The context is Jesus responding to the faith of the Centurion. He is bemoaning the fact that many of the Jews will not enter Heaven because of their lack of faith in Him. ”Outer darkness” conveys that Hell segregated away from God’s presence in some way. Darkness is an often-used descriptor for a number of things including ignorance, evil and the literal lack of light. Could all of these apply to the experience of Hell or even to a lesser extent Sheol? You and all around you are evil. Nobody can trust anybody. There are no bonds, or friendship or kindness. God and good feel like a distant dream. Maybe you do not even understand why you are there.

C.S. Lewis, in his book The Great Divorce, describes some of the inhabitants of Hell as firmly convinced that they are innocent and unjustly damned. Even when they are given the opportunity to enter Heaven by grace they resist. They live in the darkness of ignorance about themselves. 

Then Jesus uses the phrase “weeping and gnashing of teeth”. I expect that is a very literal description. What does the phrase connote? With damnation being an eternal sentence, all hope is loss and joy consumed. All good things come from God, so if God forsakes you, there are no good things. The sorrow must be overwhelming and so is the weeping. 

I have never been a tooth-grinder, but I can easily imagine such stress that one would grind their teeth together. Another reason for the gnashing of teeth may be anger. If not overcome by sorrow, a person may be filled with rage at God. It doesn’t matter which, both are horrible conditions that were avoidable since Jesus died for all.

Jesus also works this phrase into a bunch of parables that describe Judgment Day. The first is The Parable of the Weeds. This little story just conveys the fact that God is able to separate those who belong to Him from those who reject Him.

41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, 42 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 13:41-42 (ESV)

A similar message is given using the same phrase in The Parable of the Net, Matthew 13:49-50. 

Then in The Parable of the Wedding Banquet, (Matthew 22:2-14) Jesus uses the phrase again to describe someone who is cast out of the banquet because they are not wearing “wedding clothes”. These “clothes” are the righteous of Jesus which are provided for a person. Just as the Gospel tells us that salvation is the gift of God and that Jesus provides the necessary righteousness through His obedient life and His forsakeness on the cross, so the clothes are a God’s grace to us but not optional.

A similar point is made in The Parable of the Talents, (Matthew 25:14-30). Here the person who is cast out does not invest the one talent (a unit of money) that the Master gives Him. This is not to suggest we are saved by a minimum level of good stewardship. The one talent must represent knowledge of the Gospel which the wicked servant buries. His punishment is to be cast “outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

There are a few more, but you get the point. ”Weeping and gnashing of teeth” is Jesus’ most used phrase to describe Hell. It gets to the emotional side of the experience. It is not an experience that anyone would want. Some people erroneously think of Hell as a party for those who prefer an immoral life. Nothing could be further from the truth. To be thrown out from any presence of God is devastating even for those who hate God. There is no party, pleasure or friendship–only suffering and hopelessness.

How Is Sheol Different than Hell?

Many, if not most people, have a simplistic view of what the Bible tells us about life after death. Simply put they believe in Heaven and Hell. One of the goals of this blog is to help people realize that two events change this model: the death and resurrection of Jesus and Judgment Day.

Prior to Jesus, the Old Testament people knew of two things regarding their existence after death. The knew that there would eventually be a bodily resurrection of dead followed by either everlasting life in a New Earth or everlasting contempt somewhere. (Dan. 12:2, Isaiah 65) This information can be traced as early as Job, which is likely the oldest book in the Bible.

For I know that my Redeemer lives,
    and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
26 And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
    yet in my flesh I shall see God,
27 whom I shall see for myself,
    and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
    My heart faints within me!

Job 19:25-27 (ESV)

The Old Testament people are aware that Heaven exists, but it is never promised as a destination for them after death. Instead, the Old Testament people had an expectation of going to Sheol (the place of the dead). This is not the same as the grave. Some translations of the Bible botch this and then note that the Hebrew word is “Sheol” in the footnotes. Sheol is a distinct place of conscious existence.

Sheol seems to be a two-part place. One section is comforting, but not necessarily better than life. The other section is a place of suffering. The New Testament and the Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint) switch from the word “Sheol” to the Greek “Hades”. These are synonyms. Jesus uses another word “Gehenna”, which is not a synonym. Gehenna refers to the final destination of the damned, the post-Judgment Day lake of fire. This would be my candidate for the English word, Hell.

Getting Hades/Sheol and Gehenna confused is pretty easy to do. They do share certain properties. Darkness, suffering, and fire seem to be a part of both. One description of Hades includes “where the worm does not die”. I don’t think this is talking about the decay of our corpse in the grave. This seems to be part of the suffering of Sheol.

Finding differences is harder. I can come up with only three within the scant information we are given.

  1. It appears that it is possible, but not acceptable, to communicate with the dead in Sheol. In the story of the Witch of Endor (1 Samual 28), Saul summons the prophet Samuel from the dead through the forbidden skills of the Witch of Endor. Samuel would have been in the comforting section of Sheol. He doesn’t seem too pleased about it either. This practice must have been a part of pagan Canaanite culture and possible also others. The Jews are strictly forbidden from doing this (Deut. 18:9-13). I would infer from this that those in the suffering section might also have been reachable. Once you are in Gehenna you are unreachable and no one will try. (More on that in a bit.)
  2. A second difference connects to what Jesus did right after his death.

8 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared,

1 Peter 3:18-20a (ESV)

This is where we get Jesus’ “descent into Hell” from the Apostles’ Creed. Here “Hell” is a misleading term. It should be descent into “Sheol” or something to that effect. Originally it was.

What was Jesus trying to do? 1 Peter 4:6 explains it:

6 For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.

1 Peter 4:6 (ESV)

It certainly sounds like these people, long dead, condemned, held in the prison of Sheol are getting a second chance through the preaching of Christ. Did this ever happen again? Don’t know. Is there another reference to this in Scripture? Nope. Outside of Scripture? Yes, a bunch. It was a favorite theme of the ancient Eastern church.

This leads to the final and most critical difference between Gehenna (Hell) and Sheol.

In Revelation 20:14, Hades/Sheol is thrown in “the lake of fire”/Gehenna/Hell. At that point, post-Judgment Day, they become one thing. It appears to me that the worst part of being damned doesn’t happen until then. At that point God forsakes you.

You are utterly separated from God and all of God’s redeemed forget you. Jesus experienced this for us on the cross. He was forsaken, and even though He knew it was coming, it crushes Him.

45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Matthew 27:45-46 (ESV)

This whole topic can remain an academic discussion because Jesus took the suffering for us. If we are baptized in Christ’s name then we are baptized into His death–specifically, this part of His death.

I don’t need to get any closer to Sheol/Hades/Gehenna/the Lake of Fire/ Hell than this.

Judgment Day for the Damned

This is a topic that many would rather not think about. To be honest, I’d rather not write about it; but to be thorough it is a topic that concerns existence after death about which the Bible speaks. Judgment Day for the damned is something that you will observe in part. Hopefully, because of the grace that comes through Jesus, it is not something that you will experience.

Judgment Day as a damned person is something that people will experience. God is loving. He would rather this not be the case. But God is also absolute in His application of the Law. He can and will bring eternal judgment. The real disappointing fact is not that it happens at all, but that it seems that it will happen to most. My least favorite passage in the Bible says:

 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

Matthew 7:13-14 (ESV)

What is “destruction” in this sentence? Since it is put in opposition to “life”, I have to conclude that it is the final condition of those who are damned.

Why would anyone be damned? All of the human race demonstrates its rebellion against God through our daily sins. Maybe those sins aren’t particularly destructive or hurtful, but they are contrary to how we were initially created to be as humans, and they are offensive to a holy God. All of mankind’s sin flows from a sinful nature, which means that we inherited a distortion of how God created us. Sin is not just willful. For us, it is part of our being.

All of this would be rendered harmless, if only people would or could put their faith in Jesus. Jesus fixed it on the cross. If a person wouldn’t resist the Holy Spirit and be connected to Jesus, they would be fine. But the majority turn out to be not fine. So effectively, people are damned for rejecting Jesus as Savior.

People ask “where is Jesus” in the following Judgment Day passage:

41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Matthew 25:41-46 (ESV)

God’s grace through Jesus is actually found in where the people are seated. In this account, those on the right have had their sins covered by Jesus’ death, and those on the left have not. Those on the left are judged for their lack of concern for others. These people may have done many charitable things, but their errors overwhelm their good. The people on the other side may have been qualitively worse, but Jesus has covered their many sins and only the good shines out.

This is not grading on a curve or saving based on what percentile of good you achieve. This is perfection versus imperfection, and the only way to be perfect is by connection to Jesus.

So what happens next? Prior to this moment of judgment, everyone has been physically resurrected from the dead. Many of the damned have been in Sheol, possibly for millennia. They have suffered a physical torment, but how? Their bodies were buried or burned or eaten or something. Either you acquire a body for the time-space of Sheol or your soul can suffer the torment of this space.

Now with a resurrected body built for this time-space, they experience the following:

4  “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. 2 But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. 3 And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts.”

Malachi 4:1-3 (ESV)

Their resurrected bodies are destroyed to ash. Is this the destruction mentioned above in Matthew 7? In part it is. I also think this is the moment referred to in Revelation 14 as it applies to a certain subset of the damned.

9 And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10 he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.

Revelation 14:9-11 (ESV)

Does destruction mean total destruction to non-existence? A lot of people want to say “yes”. It reconciles the idea of Hell to the idea of a loving God. But we can’t ignore the phrase “eternal judgment” seen above in Matthew 25 and several other places in the Bible, including these passages in Revelation 20:

and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. 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.

Revelation 20:10, 13-15 (ESV)

Again, the lake of fire does not imply destruction to non-existence. It speaks of a permanent miserable and hopeless existence alongside of Satan and his demons who will suffer as well. The main difference between this and the description of Sheol, which also includes fire, I would surmise from the suffering of Christ on the cross. This phase includes being forsaken by God. Being forsaken proves to be the worst part. Jesus being forsaken on the cross is Jesus taking the judgment of our sins on himself. He is forsaken, probably from noon until three, so that we would never experience it.

The damned then slip from description as they will slip from our memory. While we undoubtedly know people who will be among the damned, they will not remain a source of grief for those who are saved. As God forgets about them, so will we. What is important is that we remember them now. Perhaps there is hope that someone will respond to the Gospel and be saved.