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Appendix E: Where People Go When They Die

Additional Reading

What happens when we die? According to Scripture, that ultimately depends on whether the deceased had a saving relationship with the Lord, but everyone—whether wicked or righteous—shares certain commonalities. The ancient Israelites did not believe in annihilation at death. While life in the here and now appears to have been their primary focus, the Old Testament uses the Hebrew word Sheol to describe the destination to which all people transition at death. It originally carried neither positive nor negative connotations and simply translates as the grave.1 This marked an end to earthly life. Over time, the word began to carry additional meaning for the Israelites. The New Testament uses the roughly equivalent Greek word hadés (or more commonly, Hades) to mean the abode of departed spirits,2 but the context is frequently the abode of departed condemned spirits (Luke 16:23; Matt 11:23). Either way, existence continues.

Physical death does not mark the end of existence for anyone, nor is it a state of unconsciousness before the resurrection (Luke 16:28; Phil 1:23). “The biblical writers don’t usually go into exorbitant detail about Sheol or its inhabitants, and when they do describe it, it is often pictured as dark, dusty, and gloomy (Psalm 88:6, 12; 143:3).”3 When the Old Testament does discuss Sheol’s inhabitants, “[i]n some cases the dead are said to dwell in Sheol as rep̄āîm, or ‘shades’ (Job 26:5; Ps 88:10; Prov 9:18; Isa 26:14)—possibly either a shadowy, wraith-like existence or a synonym for ‘the dead’.”4 These descriptions do not necessarily apply equally to both the righteous dead and the wicked dead; however, death is a different state of existence for all people. Our spirits go somewhere in Sheol at death, but how we experience this post-life existence differs greatly depending on one’s relationship with the Lord.

One early indication that the condemned and the righteous are separated into different groups at death comes from the prophet Isaiah. He writes of the new heaven and earth after the day of God’s final judgment where the righteous go to worship the Lord and the wicked deceased are punished for their rebellion against God (Isa 66:22–24). Later, Daniel writes that after the day of judgment, “many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt” (Dan 12:2 NASB). These are two very different outcomes for those who have died, and while these two prophecies each point to a future reality for those who have passed from this earth, the New Testament elaborates on the present reality.

Jesus implies that Isaiah’s prophecy about punishment for the wicked is also what they can expect now after death (Mark 9:47–48). In teaching about the afterlife, He continually makes it clear that the condemned and righteous each experience radically different outcomes during their post-lives (Matt 25:46; Luke 16:19–23; cf. Rom 10:6–7). The totality of scriptural evidence shows the condemned will go to one region within Sheol while the righteous will go to another, but “it is destined for people to die once” and make the same journey (Heb 9:27 NASB).5 Once we die, our destination is fixed (Eccl 9:5). No one can cross to the other side. The Lord has set in place a “great chasm” (Luke 16:26 NASB), so those who want to travel from one region in the afterlife to the other will be unable to do so.

Angels, however, may not be limited in this same way. Some interpreters believe that when the Lord cursed Satan (as the serpent) to eat dust as long as he lived (Gen 3:14), God included the condemned deceased within Satan’s permissible domain because death is equated with dust and dust is associated with Sheol in Scripture6 (Gen 3:19; Job 17:16). Since Satan has appeared in that part of Sheol where the Lord sets His throne (heaven), the accuser could surely also appear in the region of Sheol where condemned spirits reside. And if Satan can do these things, it is plausible that his demons can too, which means Satan and his demons may have free reign to visit condemned human spirits even though people do not have that same divine permission. On a related note, Peter suggests that Tartarus7—also known as the abyss or the prison where God incarcerates particularly wicked demons—may be found within this same region of Sheol. The Greek connotations of this word lead to the notion that Tartarus is in a far more inaccessible location within this domain. Satan is unlikely to have free access to Tartarus since that is where God imprisons some of Satan’s most wicked angels (2 Pet 2:4; Jude 1:6).

Jesus refers to the home of condemned spirits alternately as Hades (Matt 11:23) or Gehenna (Matt 10:28). The more common name found in many biblical translations is hell. Some interpreters believe this to be the same location as the lake of fire (Rev 20:15) while others do not. Nevertheless, hell is a place of maggots and flames where, for its residents, “their worm does not die, and the fire is not extinguished” (Mark 9:48 NASB; cf. Isa 66:24). Jesus had in mind the valley of Hinnom (Gehenna) when He described hell. It was an infamous valley found near Jerusalem that, at one time, had been the site of child sacrifices to a pagan god (2 Chr 33:6; Jer 32:35). Adults burned their sons and daughters alive within this valley in ghastly rituals meant to please their false god (Jer 7:31). The medieval Jewish rabbi David Kimchi believed this site later became an abominable trash dump. Theologians summarize his theory as follows:

The Jews so abhorred the place after these horrible sacrifices had been abolished by king Josiah (2 Kings 23:10), that they cast into it not only all manner of refuse, but even the dead bodies of animals and of unburied criminals who had been executed… fires were always needed to consume the dead bodies, that the air might not become tainted by the putrefaction.8

If true, the valley of Hinnom became an unclean place of burning garbage and flesh with a smell so sickening and filled with death that the Israelites kept it perpetually ablaze as a way to mitigate its foul odor. It would have been noxious, vile to behold, and utterly repugnant to the senses. Living inside such a valley would have been unthinkable. However, scholars do not universally agree with Kimchi’s description as there is no archeological evidence the valley of Hinnom was ever a trash dump.9

But regardless of how much truth this theory contains, the valley of Hinnom was a place of child murders and extreme rebellion against God. Those who are condemned to hell will live in their own spiritual version of this place. And while that is wholly undesirable on the face of it, theologians disagree on the precise nature of hell. Does it represent the complete absence of all joy, love, hope, peace, and other fruits of the Holy Spirit? Is it conscious torture? Perhaps the worst imaginable conditions on earth accurately depict what hell has in store? Different theologians have arrived at different conclusions. Still, Scripture has enough to say about hell that we know it to be an incredibly unpleasant place to exist in the hereafter.

Hell represents torment (Luke 16:23), a miserable destination where residents live in eternal, fiery suffering (Luke 16:24; Jude 1:7; Prov 30:16). God has withdrawn His presence, and finally understanding the full gravity of their rebellion only after it is too late to make a different choice, the condemned weep bitterly and grit their teeth against the emotional anguish they continuously experience (Matt 8:12; 22:13). “These people will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power” (2 Thess 1:9–10 NASB).

Elsewhere in Scripture, Ezekiel relays a prophecy from the Lord using different imagery to describe the same condemned region of Sheol (Ezek 32:17–32). It is a bleak location where all the once-mighty rulers and armies of the world who opposed God now reside. In life, they were powerful kings and skilled warriors who struck fear in the hearts of the people they oppressed. In death, they are all equals in a sense, taking perverse comfort from their shared defeat at the hands of the Lord (Ezek 32:30–31). Theirs is a shameful, immortal existence (Ezek 32:25; Isa 14:9). Isaiah adds that within this region of Sheol, no one is more distinguished than any other person residing there (Isa 14:10) because through death, once powerful people have traded their power for a bed of maggots and a blanket of worms (Isa 14:11). The strength they enjoyed while living no longer matters.

Scripture is clear that the condemned will live eternally in perpetual darkness and distress, yet the most heart-wrenching realization of all is that many people choose this situation for themselves by rejecting God. The Lord once said of ancient Israel, “I have spread out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, / Who walk in the way which is not good, following their own thoughts, / A people who continually provoke Me to My face” (Isa 65:2–3 NASB). People have not changed. The Lord patiently holds out His hands for us to accept His offer of grace while people throughout the entire world choose instead to insult Him. As King David said to his son Solomon, “If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever” (1 Chr 28:9 NASB).

Jesus tells a parable of a lavish wedding feast where everyone is invited (Matt 22:1–14). This, He says, is what the kingdom of heaven is like. His message is that God sends His servants far and wide to tell everyone to come and enjoy salvation, but those who hear the invitation frequently ignore it (Matt 22:3). God sends other servants to describe in great detail all the wonderful blessings available if only people would accept the salvation He freely offers (Matt 22:4). Many people still ignore the invitation, stubbornly refusing to accept it while judging their own personal preoccupations as far more interesting than a richly blessed eternity (Matt 22:5). Some people even insult God’s messengers for extending the invitation; other would-be guests take hurtful insults a step further by murdering God’s messengers (Matt 22:6). Ignoring the King and attacking His people is not without its consequences. This parable teaches how we might understand the purpose of hell.

The King of All Creation yearns for people to choose eternal life with Him. If only they would accept His invitation extended through Jesus Christ and turn away from their rebellion—that is all they must do! Instead, many people either ignore God or spit in His face. Even then, the Lord continually offers second and third chances, but many of these same people will continue to refuse His gracious invitation. There will come a day in the life of such an individual when the Lord will finally say to Himself, “Okay, have it your way. There will be no more chances.” Those who have stubbornly chosen to live apart from God will get their wish now and forever (Matt 22:7–14).

Still, that is not what the Lord desires. His desire is to gather the people He created together “the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings” (Matt 23:37 NASB), yet people are often unwilling, sometimes going so far as to express their opposition with violence. Hell exists for the people who do not want to be saved. The consequences of their rebellion is heartbreaking, but it is their choice. The irony is that everyone must recognize the lordship of Jesus Christ either willingly and joyfully here on earth or unwillingly and with great regret after death (Phil 2:9–11). There is no getting around it. At “the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth” and “every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:10–11 NASB). Yet, as incredible as it may seem, Scripture appears to suggest the unredeemed denizens of hell will continue to live in rebellion even after they die and experience firsthand all its tragedies (Rev 22:10–11; 9:20–21; 16:8–11)—though they can no longer deny at that point that Jesus exists and is in charge.

Meanwhile, those who accept the King’s invitation will transition into a very different region within Sheol once they pass from this earth. Scripture refers to this region as paradise (Luke 23:43 NASB; cf. 2 Cor 12:4), Abraham’s arms (Luke 16:22 NASB), or perhaps most recognizably as heaven (Matt 5:12 NASB). This is where the Lord sets His throne (Matt 5:16, 45; 6:9; Phil 1:23), though heaven cannot fully contain His infinite nature (2 Chr 2:6). He invites us to have contact and fellowship with Him during our earthly lives, yet “while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord” (2 Cor 5:6 NASB). As soon as a Christian completes his or her arduous journey through life, that person’s spirit transitions to paradise to join other righteous spirits who all live with Jesus (Rev 20:4). But that is not the end of the story.

We will not live the entirety of our post-life existences as disembodied spirits. This is only a temporary phase in God’s long-term plan. After all, “regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (Matt 22:31–32 NASB). One day, after the Lord has poured out His judgment on our terribly misguided world, “many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt” (Dan 12:2 NASB); for “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive compensation for his deeds done through the body, in accordance with what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Cor 5:10 NASB).

Jesus was the very first example of our future resurrection (1 Cor 15:20), the first of a great “harvest.” Both the righteous and the condemned will one day follow in kind. Everyone will receive brand new, resurrection bodies (2 Cor 5:1–5; 1 Cor 15:22–24). Those who are saved will be evaluated for the work they have done for the Lord during their lives (1 Cor 3:12–15). Those who are condemned will be judged according to the severity of their rebellion against God (Rev 20:12–15). Afterwards, the Lord will eliminate death entirely (Rev 20:14; 21:4) just before He creates a new heaven and a new earth as the dwelling place for His resurrected people (Rev 21:1–3; Isa 65:17).

  1. “Strong’s Hebrew: 7585. שְׁאוֹל (Sheol) – Underworld (Place to Which People Descend at Death)” (Bible Hub, n.d.), https://biblehub.com/hebrew/7585.htm.↩
  2. “Strong’s Greek: 86. ἍΙδης (Hadés) –Hadess, the Abode of Departed Spirit” (Bible Hub, n.d.), https://biblehub.com/greek/86.htm.↩
  3. Matthew Y. Emerson, “What Is Sheol? Exploring the Afterlife in the Old Testament” (Desiring God, 13 July 2020), https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/what-is-sheol.↩
  4. G. R. Osborne, “Resurrection,” Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, 673.↩
  5. Enoch (Gen 5:24) and Elijah (2 Kgs 2:11) are two special exceptions to this rule. God took both men directly into heaven.↩
  6. Emerson, “What Is Sheol?”↩
  7. See Chapter 4 for additional discussion of this prison for sinful angels.↩
  8. “Strong’s Greek: 1067. Γέεννα (Geenna) – Gehenna, a Valley W. And South of Jer., Also a Symbolic Name for the Final Place of Punishment of the Ungodly” (Bible Hub, n.d.), https://biblehub.com/greek/1067.htm.↩
  9. Todd Bolen, “The Fires of Gehenna: Views of Scholars” (BiblePlaces Blog, 29 April 2011), https://www.bibleplaces.com/2011/04/fires-of-gehenna-views-of-scholars/.↩