Sermon Tone Analysis

Title:  *UNVEILING THE MYSTERY OF THE SOUL AFTER DEATH*

Text:  Selected

Introduction:

            Mystery surrounds the destiny of the soul after death.

People want to know what happens after death and have gone to great lengths to expose that mystery.

Some have even tried to contact the dead in order to unravel that mystery, which is forbidden in the Scriptures (Deut.

18:10-12).

Many books and testimonies have been written about those who have had near-death experiences, or were pronounced dead and then came back to life.

Confusion even surrounds the topic because of numerous words (and different words) used in the Scriptures related to the topic.

But the mystery unfolds when you study the words in their original meaning and map out what each of the verses reveal.

That’s the intent of this study.

Some questions that will be answered by this study are: What happens to the spirit or soul after death?

Is it the same for the Christian and the unsaved?

Does the soul remain in the grave until the day of Resurrection?

In not, what is raised on that day?

To begin to unravel the mystery that surrounds death, we need to understand some definitions about Bible words that describe the spirit world.

*Hebrew                       Greek                                                             Definition*

Sheol                =          Hades                                                  =          Abode of the Dead

Gehenna           =          Tartarus                                                =          Torment Side of the Abode of the Dead

Paradise           =          Paradise & Bosom of Abraham            =          Comfort Side of the Abode of the Dead

 

That’s the short definitions.

Let me give you a slightly longer definition taken from Bible dictionaries for the words.

1.      Sheol – The abode of the dead in Hebrew thought.

Sheol was regarded as the abode of all the dead, both righteous and wicked.

The Old Testament affirms that God is there.

*Ps.

139:8; Prov.

15:11*.

The Old Testament also affirms that God has power over Sheol.

*Ps.

16:10*

2.      Hades – The Greek equivalent of the Hebrew term “Sheol,” which refers in general to the place of the dead.

3.      Gehenna – The Greek word that is a transliteration of the Hebrew, meaning, “valley of lamentation” and came to be used in the New Testament as a word for hell.

The valley south of Jerusalem called the Valley of the son of Hinnom (Josh.

15:8; 18:16) became the place of child sacrifice to foreign gods.

Later it became the city refuse site where garbage was dumped and fires burned continually.

In the period between the Old and New Testaments, Jewish writing used the term to describe the hell of fire in the final judgment.

In some writings but not in the Bible, Gehenna was also seen as the place of temporary judgment for those waiting the final judgment.

The New Testament uses Gehenna to speak of the place of final judgment (Matt.

5:29; Mk. 9:47-48).

*4.      *Tartarus – The name of the doleful (causing grief) and dark, regarded by the ancient Greeks as the abode of the wicked dead, where they suffer punishment for their evil deeds.

It is the same as Gehenna to the Jews.

*2 Pet.

2:4*

5.      Paradise – Old Persian term which means literally “wooded park.”

New Testament occurrences (Lk.

23:43, 2 Cor.

12:4; Rev. 2:7) refer to the abode of the righteous dead (heaven).

The Greek Old Testament (Septuagint) used “Paradise” to translate the Hebrew words for the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2-3.

Over the years, the terms became synonymous, and eventually Paradise came to refer to Heaven.

Jewish theology then developed an opposite place for wicked persons, Gehenna, a burning furnace.

6.      Abraham’s Bosom – The Greek equivalent to the Hebrew word Paradise, the abode of the righteous dead.

In Luke 16:23 the use of the term “Abraham’s bosom” is metaphorical use of God’s bosom, where Abraham is type of God, the Father of all Jews.

As you can see from these definitions, the abode of the dead is one place, but has separate areas for the righteous and the wicked.

Individual translations of Bibles may not clearly indicate which original language word is used in these passages above.

Does Scripture back up this one place of the departed dead?

Absolutely.

The very words of Jesus describe very well the place of departed souls in the spirit-world; and He ought to know, because that realm is His specialty.

The passages are *Luke 16:19-31* and *Luke 23:43*.

The Luke 16 passage describes the area of the departed dead (Sheol or Hades) as a place where the two compartments are visible to one another.

One side is a place of comfort, the other as a place of torment in flames, separated by a great chasm.

As Jesus says in this text, it seems that those on both sides of the chasm can see each other, but are separated.

Keep in mind these two areas are not Heaven and Hell that we think about as being the eternal home after Judgment Day.

Is there any evidence elsewhere in Scripture that these two places of the Abode of the Dead are in close proximity to each other?

Yes.

Take a look at the implications of these passages:  *Job 1:6-7; 2:1-2; Lk. 22:31-32; Zech.

3:1; Eph.

6:12; Rev. 12:10*  Gehenna and Paradise are only temporary places of the dead until we all appear before the Great White Throne of Judgment, *Rev.

20:12-15*.

Notice in this passage that all of Hades (the abode of the dead) appears before God on that day, along with any that might have perished at sea.

But the key thing in this passage is verse 14: death and Hades are thrown into the Lake of Fire.

The reason is explained the in the first verse of the next chapter: the first heaven and the first earth have passed away.

Our eternal home in either Heaven or Hell does not begin until after the final Judgment.

Does that mean Christians do not get to go to be with Jesus until after Judgment Day?  No, because upon death, the Christian immediately goes to be with Jesus in Paradise where we stay with Him until Judgment Day and then He takes us to Heaven, our eternal home or New Jerusalem.

*Lk.