"If you have time, can you clear this up for me? At death, do the unsaved go straight to... hell? judgment? "sleep"? And since Paul said to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, does that mean that believers instantly go to judgment? Or heaven first and judgment later? I have almost zero knowledge on this.Hi, Friend! Your child did the right thing in reading with suspiscion and discernment. We are to "believe not every spirit, but try the spirits," I John 4:1. We are to test any teaching against the Word of God, Acts 17:11. You should feel more confident that you are raising a child who is less likely to be taken in by false teaching if they continue in this path.
My child read a tract that they didn't think was right, which has brought these questions up."
Unfortunately there is a lot of false teaching on this subject. Many cult groups (Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Armstrongism), as well as many old school Pentecostals, teach the doctrine of "soul sleep." This is the false idea that upon death, both the righteous and the wicked enter a state of unconscious rest, the soul "sleeping" with the body in the grave, awaiting the final judgment at the end of all things. Most of these groups also teach "Annihilationism", the idea that in the final judgment, the wicked will be quickly consumed and cease all existence ("annihilated"). Thus, they have removed hell entirely from their doctrine, either after death or after Judgment Day. They have completely ignored what the Bible has to say about punishment for the wicked in the afterlife.
If you want to confuse the next JW at your door, you can call him or her a "Psychopannychist." It sounds like somebody who is almost psychotically panicking about something, which is an apt description of JW people. But psychopannychism is just the technical term for the doctrine of "soul sleep." That doesn't help answer your question, that is just for extra credit points.
This false doctrine, like many, comes when someone interprets literally what the Bible is saying in metaphore - referring to death as "sleep" in various verses. On the flip side of the coin, other false doctrines come when people interpret metaphorically what the Bible is saying literally. To avoid either error, a good rule of thumb to follow in Bible interpretation is, "When plain sense makes common sense, seek no other sense (or end up with nonsense)." This just means that the Bible is to be taken literally unless it is clearly speaking symbolically based on the context. When Paul talks about departed Christians and the Rapture in places like I Corinthians 15 and I Thessalonians 4, the word "sleep" is symbolic of death and does not mean a literal sleep for the soul but is speaking of the empty body awaiting resurrection. It is clear in the passages that he uses the word symbolically and not literally.
Having said all that about false doctrine, let's start with some basics about Heaven and Hell. First of all, there are three heavens mentioned in the Bible. The first heaven is the atmosphere of the earth, also called the "firmament" in Genesis 1. This is the place where the "fowl of the heaven" fly. The second heaven is outer space, where the sun, moon and stars and all the "host of heaven" are. The third heaven is the dwelling place of God. Paul referred to it this way:
I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.... How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. (II Corinthians 12:2, 4).
This third heaven is where a believer dying today will immediately go, "out of the body." Their spirit will be "with the Lord" as the verse you alluded to mentions, II Corinthians 5:8. "The Lord" is of course the Lord Jesus Christ, Who is seated at the right hand of God the Father in Heaven. So the believer's spirit will be received into heaven immediately upon physical death.
What about their judgment? Believers in Christ will never be judged for their sins. That judgment has already been meted out upon Christ when He hung on the cross in their place. Instead, believers will face the Judgment Seat of Christ to receive reward (or loss of reward) for their labors for Christ after their salvation. This judgment takes place sometime after the Rapture, when the believer's spirit and body have been reunited in resurrection.
Let's look at a quick timeline of events for someone in Christ who dies today. 1) Their spirit will depart from their body and go to heaven. 2) When Christ comes to the clouds in the Rapture, He will bring the spirits of departed Christians from heaven with Him. Their bodies will arise from the graves (though now glorified, resurrected bodies) and be rejoined to their spirits in the air. This is explained in I Thessalonians 4:13-18, where a key element is found in verse 14: "even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." Their bodies - and only their bodies - are "asleep." Their spirits are returning with Christ according to verse 14. 3) Now that the previously deceased believer is reunited with his body, he will stand before the judgment seat of Christ "to receive the things done in his body," as II Corinthians 5:10 puts it. The judgment seat of Christ may also deal with unconfessed sin. It is not judged here, but it must be given account for, "whether it be good or bad" the verse says. 4) Now that all sin and rewards are dealt with and all barriers between the believer and Christ are out of the way, "so shall we ever be with the Lord" in sweet, harmonious fellowship, I Thessalonians 4:18.
With three heavens, it should not surprise us that there are also three places called hell in English. The bottomless pit (Greek "TARTARUS" and "ABYSSOS") is the hell where certain fallen angels are imprisoned right now, II Peter 2:4; Jude 6. These demons will be set loose on the earth during the Tribulation Period, Revelation 9. This is also where Satan will be chained during Christ's Kingdom, Revelation 20:1-3. This hell is only temporary. Its occupants will eventually spend eternity in the Lake of Fire.
Another place referred to as hell is also temporary. The Greek New Testament refers to it as "HADES" but we call it hell in English. When someone who does not belong to God dies, their soul leaves their body and goes immediately to this place of conscious torment. Jesus talked about a wicked rich man who found himself in this place immediately after death:
"...the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments...." - Luke 16:22-23.
The rich man also stated, "I am tormented in this flame," Luke 16:24. This hell is place of fiery torment immediately after death, but it is not the final abode of the wicked. They are kept in this place until the final judgment at the end of all things. At that point, we read the following:
"And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." Revelation 20:11-15.Notice from the text that those in HADES/hell are brought before God for judgment, and then HADES/hell is cast into the Lake of Fire. This is the third hell, the eternal place of punishment for the wicked, and it comes only AFTER the final judgment. This Lake of Fire is the hell that Jesus usually speaks of, when He talks about the final judgment and says things like "And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth," Matthew 25:30, or when He speaks of "everlasting hellfire" or the "the fire that never shall be quenced." (This Lake of Fire is GEHENNA, not HADES, in the Greek when Jesus talks about it in the Gospels.)
You understand the difference between jail and prison. The bad guy goes to a temporary place called jail until he is judged and then sent to prison. Jail feels like prison, looks like prison, smells like prison and has many similarities to prison. But jail is only a taste of what one will experience in prison after they are finally judged for their crimes. Likewise, an unsaved person who dies today will go to a temporary place called HADES/hell to await their final judgment. Their temporary hell feels like the Lake of Fire but it is only a preview until they are judged in the Great White Throne judgment mentioned in Revelation 20 quoted above.
To sum up things up:
1) There are two different judgments we have discussed. The Great White Throne judgment is only for those who are without Christ, where they will be judged for their sin and given the sentence of eternal torment in the Lake of Fire. The Judgment Seat of Christ is only for those who belong to Christ, where they will give account to Jesus for their service to Him.
2) The spirit of a person is separted from their body at death. It either goes to heaven, to be with the Lord Jesus, and to await the resurrection of the body and Christ's Judgment Seat. Or it goes to HADES/hell, to be separated from Christ and to await the Great White Throne judgment.
3) The doctrine of "soul sleep" twists into Paul's writings something he never intended. He uses sleep interchangeably with death not in a literal sense but symbolically. He is very clear that the spirits of departed Christians are right now conscious and with the Lord Jesus, waiting to be reunited with their bodies in the Rapture. If his intent was to teach soul sleep, he would have explained that more, rather than just use the word "sleep" as a metaphore for death. His intent in I Thessalonians 4 was to comfort Christians grieving over the death of brethren. So Paul uses "sleep" to remind the living that their departed loved ones are not gone for good.
I hope that answers your question. I have some lesson outlines on this subject and maybe a chart or two that I will try to post here when I can.
In Christ,
VM
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