Genesis 35:18 – “as her soul was departing”
- The Hebrew word nephesh is defined in Gen 2:7 as the whole person: Adam became a living nephesh (soul) when God gave him breath; he did not receive a soul separate from himself.
- Thus, Rachel’s “soul was departing” simply means “her life was leaving her” – a common Hebrew expression for someone who is dying.
Psalm 90:10 – “we fly away”
- Context is about human frailty and mortality, not an “immortal soul” going to heaven:
v.3 – “You turn man back into dust.”
v.5–6 – People are like grass that springs up and quickly withers.
- “We fly away” = life quickly disappears. The Hebrew is poetic imagery for how fast our lives vanish. It’s like saying, “our life is cut off and we’re gone.”
- The point of the verse Moses is stressing how short and fragile our lives are so that we “number our days” (v.12), not teaching a doctrine of an immortal, heavenly soul.
Ecclesiastes 12:7 – “spirit returns to God”
- Ruach (“spirit”) here is the life-breath or life force God gave (cf. Gen 2:7).
- God “takes away their spirit, they die and return to their dust” (Ps 104:29).
- Earlier the same writer is emphatic that “the dead do not know anything,” that “there is no activity in Sheol,” the grave (Eccl 9:5, 10).
- You can’t use this one verse to contradict the whole argument of the book.
Luke 16:19–31 – Rich man and Lazarus
- IJesus is using a well-known story (concocted by some Pharisees) in the form of a parable to rebuke them (see vv. 14–15).
- The rich man represents the religious elite; Lazarus the despised “sinners” whom Jesus favored.
- Jesus purposefully uses hyperbolic, non-literal language (a drop of water cooling a “tongue,” people conversing across a huge chasm) to get his moral point across: listen to Moses and the prophets before it’s too late (v. 31).
- Reading it as literal geography of the place of the dead clashes with the wider biblical picture of Sheol: no human activity, death as “sleep,” and the reward at the resurrection, not at death (Dan 12:2; John 5:28–29; Luke 14:14).
Luke 23:43 – “Today you will be with me in Paradise”
- In Greek there is no punctuation. It can be read: “Truly I tell you today, you will be with me in Paradise” – stressing the certainty of the promise now, not the timing of fulfillment. The verse cannot mean both went to heaven that same day.
- Jesus himself did not go to heaven that day; he was dead in Hades (in Hebrew Sheol, the grave) for three days and three nights, and says after his resurrection, “I have not yet ascended to the Father” (John 20:17).
- “Paradise” biblically is linked to the future restored Eden/Kingdom (Rev 2:7), not a disembodied intermediate state or heaven.
Luke 20:37–38 – “all live to Him”
- Jesus is arguing for future resurrection based on Exodus 3: God will raise them; therefore they are as good as alive in His plans, ultimate purpose.
- Luke’s own Gospel elsewhere defines the dead as “sleeping” (Luke 8:52; cf. John 11:11–14).
- The dead will “live to Him” in His plan, not in conscious activity now.
John 14:2–3 – “I go to prepare a place for you”
- Earlier in John 13:36 (also referenced in 13:33; 7:34; 8:21) Jesus says that where he is going, to heaven to be with the Father, we cannot follow.
- In the parable of the Ten Minas he is the “nobleman,” born into royalty as the descendant of David, who “went to a distant country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return” (cf. Luke 19:12–15).
- Putting all this together, the “place” prepared is the Kingdom that Jesus will bring at his parousia and establish on earth. Only then will Christians be reunited with Jesus when they enter into the inheritance, possession of the Kingdom of God on a restored earth.
- In Revelation, the final Christian hope is not going to heaven, but the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven to earth and God dwelling with humans here (Rev 21:2–3).
- In the Bible, heaven is never the final destination for Christians.
Matthew 25:46 – “eternal punishment”
- The verse contrasts “eternal life” with “eternal punishment.” The punishment’s result is eternal (irreversible), not that the punishing process goes on forever.
- The consistent prophetic vision from the Old to the New Testament shows the wicked perishing, destroyed, being burned up like chaff (Ps 1:4; Hos 13:3; cf. Matt 3:12), not eternal torment of their “immortal souls.”
2 Corinthians 5:1–8 – “absent from the body…present with the Lord”
- In context, Paul is longing not to be naked/disembodied, but to be clothed/embodied with the resurrection body at the parousia.
- The clothing/swallowing language matches 1 Cor 15, where it clearly refers to resurrection at the last trumpet, not to an immediate post-mortem “immortal soul” state.
- The “heavenly dwelling” is the resurrection state, not a disembodied life in heaven.
- Paul did not mean that his disembodied “soul will go to be with the Lord when I die.”
- Paul speaks of Christians “sleeping” and being raised together at the parousia (1 Thess 4:13–17).
- For more see Anthony’s article.
Philippians 1:21–23 – “to depart and be with Christ”
- Paul elsewhere says the crown is given “on that day,” at the parousia of Jesus (2 Tim 4:8), and that salvation is “nearer now than when we first believed” – still future.
- From Paul’s point of view, once he dies he will experience no passage of time until his resurrection from death (i.e., sleep).
- So “to depart and be with” Jesus is, from his perspective, the very next conscious moment – at the resurrection, not at an intermediate state or in heaven as a disembodied “immortal soul.”
- The Bible as a whole stresses “death as sleep” and resurrection at his parousia, the same as Paul’s consistent hope.
1 Thessalonians 4:14 – “God will bring with him those who sleep”
- Verse 16 explains how he “brings” them: “the dead in Messiah will rise first.”
- Jesus brings dead Christians by raising them from their graves, not by escorting them down from heaven.
- The dead are explicitly said to be “asleep” (v. 13), and only at the parousia do they rise and meet Jesus in the air.
- Everything Paul concludes saying in this chapter would not make sense if you had already met Jesus in heaven immediately after you died!
Hebrews 9:27 – “after this comes judgment”
- The verse states the order (death, then judgment) but says nothing about the timing.
- The rest of Hebrews and the NT locate the judgment at the parousia (Heb 10:25, 37; Matt 25:31–46).
- “After this comes judgment” is perfectly consistent with the dead sleeping until the Day appointed (Acts 17:31).
Hebrews 11:5 – “By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death”, and was not found, because God had taken him”
- This must have been a removal to a safe location, since all these listed here eventually died (v. 13).
- For more see the article: Enoch & Elijah, Where are they now?
Revelation 6:9–11 – “souls under the altar”
- Revelation is full of symbols (beasts, bowls, a sword from Jesus’ mouth).
- “Souls under the altar” is symbolic sacrificial imagery: their blood (life) cries out for justice like Abel’s blood did (Gen 4:10). It’s a vision about the future vindication of the people of God.
- The same book later speaks of “the second death” in the lake of fire (Rev 20:14) and of the dead being raised and judged (20:12–13), not already rewarded in heaven.
Revelation 14:11; 20:10 – “torment…forever and ever”
- The language of “smoke rising forever” is drawn from OT judgment on cities like Edom (Isa 34:9–10) – the smoke goes on, but the city is destroyed, not eternally burning with people being eternally tormented by that same fire.
- Revelation’s symbolic visions culminate in the wicked being thrown into the lake of fire, which results in the second death (Rev 20:14–15), again not eternal torment in that fire.
- Death, not endless life in torment, is the final fate of all the wicked.
