Where do our souls go at death?


Todd Clippard
Topic(s): Death, Eternity & Judgment

There is no consensus among Bible scholars concerning the destination of one's soul at death. However, I will give you the results of my study.

I believe the souls of all the dead go to the hadean realm (Hades) and await the Judgment. This is what Jesus taught in Luke 16:19-31 in the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus. According to this text, Hades is divided into two dwelling places, one for the righteous and the other for the unrighteous. The place of the righteous is a place of comfort (v 25) described as Abraham's bosom (v 22). From the cross, Jesus referred to this place as Paradise (Luke 23:43). The waiting place of the unrighteous is a place of torment (vv 23-25, 28). Peter calls this place Tartarus in 2 Peter 2:4 (cf Jude 6). Most scholars agree that torment and Tartarus are the same place. Paradise and Torment are separated by a great impassible gulf (Luke 16:26).

Jesus said in John 5:28-29 that when He returns, "all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, they that have done good to the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation."

2 Corinthians 5:10 says that all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, to receive the things done in our own bodies, according to that which we have done, whether it be good or bad."

Revelation 20:12 teaches a single day of judgment for all men, "I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God and the dead were judged according to their works."

There will be only one resurrection of the dead, subsequently there shall be only one judgment. It appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment (Heb 9:27).