HEAVEN, HELL, SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ABYSS, ETERNAL PUNISHMENT,  LAKE OF FIRE AND THE GRAVE 
Concern for what happens to the soul after death has been a religious issue going back to ancient religions before Israel. The Egyptians, the Greeks and the Romans, for example, had their unique beliefs that influenced their funeral practices. And most major and minor religions past and present have some kind of belief about the afterlife (i.e. what happens after the physical body dies).

STUDY TIP: Funeral practices have evolved over the centuries, but aspects of ancient funeral traditions are still evident in contemporary Jewish and Christian funerals. This fact may seem unimportant until we consider that God said his people should not follow the customs of religious nations. Customs which should not be followed includes funerals.

The afterlife is still a topic ripe for debate in these modern times. Afterlife doctrines and controversies are studied, preached about and written about by religious people for whom the issue is important to understand. When we look at the Bible, however, we find that it offers nothing that contributes to certainty about the afterlife. So what are we to believe?

The short answer is that the literal Bible contributes to the confusion. If it were possible to divine the truth from scripture, there would be no debates about the afterlife. The nature of the afterlife would be very clear to everyone who trusts the Bible. But it is impossible to come to the truth from the literal Bible, and so the debates persist. When we look at the spiritual Bible, however, we get a very clear picture of what the afterlife is all about.

The first fact we need to accept is that the spiritual Bible which is informed by God’s spoken voice — not the literal words of the Bible — does not discuss what happens after the end of our natural lives. The spiritual Bible only discusses our spiritual births, our spiritual health, our spiritual deaths, and spiritual resurrections.

We must first understand that both the written Bible and God’s spoken word always teach us about spiritual life and spiritual death — not about what happens to our natural bodies or our souls after we die physically. We must always hold on to the truth that all scripture is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and training in righteousness so that we are equipped for good work before we die physically.

Only after we fully adopt a “here and now” perspective of the Bible will we be able to appreciate that the afterlife that religions past and present represent is bogus, deceptive religious doctrine. That afterlife is the stuff of the world of religion — not the stuff of faith. It falsely puts our focus on the future — not on today.

STUDY TIP: See IT IS ALL ABOUT TODAY.

The only afterlife for which God is equipping us is the life we live in the spirit after we stop being religious.  It is a life of doing good works as a servant/shepherd/warrior/messiah/prophet/angel/high priests/witness. The good works for which God is preparing us are those we do today — not after we die physically. We cannot help people enslaved by religion after we are dead.

STUDY TIP:  See True Prophets, High Priests, Messiahs, Model Warriors, Jesus and the Money-Changers in the Temple and Angels for understanding of good works.

Knowing this, we might well ask why God does not clarify the issue for us in the literal words of the Bible. The simple answer is that he never intended that the literal Bible would be the final authority on truth. God’s spoken word — not the literal word — is the final authority on truth. He first presents a spiritual issue in natural terms in the written Bible but that is not the full explanation. The ultimate truth is discovered by listening to his spoken voice.

In other words, when we want to know spiritual truth, we should not rest with what we read in the literal Bible. We should only rest in the truth that we hear from God’s spoken voice which always discusses spiritual life and death — not physical life and death. When we understand this truth we will stop worrying about what will happen to our souls after we physically die. That kind of afterlife is a non-issue for people who put their minds on things above.

The matter of heaven is complicated by the fact that several times the bible refers to a new heaven and new earth.

STUDY TIP: See this link for understanding of the new earth.

To understand the new heaven it is important to recognize that it appears in Revelation 21 after the end times in Revelation 20. Understanding is also aided by recognizing that Revelation 21 follows Revelation 20.

Once we understand these truths we are ready to understand the companion truths about hell, sheol, hades and so on. And the truth about these concepts is that God uses them to represent his view of the condition of hearts that are evil and impure. In effect, he says that such hearts are in a kind of hell because God does not dwell in these hearts. And he has borrowed the visions of hell fabricated by ancient religions to communicate his views of hearts in which he does not dwell.

The truth is that God’s home is in the hearts of people who have God’s laws written on them. God finds these hearts to be good and pure. These hearts are called heaven, or the Kingdom of Heaven, because they are the hearts that God created and they are the hearts in which he dwells.

STUDY TIPS: See THE MIRACLE OF CREATION: BORN AGAIN and HOW TO KNOW IF YOU ARE BORN AGAIN.

The best way to understand hell is to compare it to heaven:

Hell, therefore, is not the place where evil people go after they die physically. Hell is the condition of spiritually dead hearts in people who are physically alive.

Similarly, heaven is not the place good people go after  they die physically. Heaven is the condition of the heart that people enjoy while they are physically alive.

The problem with this understanding of heaven and hell is that Old/First Covenant religious people do not know that they are living in hell. They don’t know that they are spiritually dead or that their hearts are evil and impure. They do not know because they have never heard God’s voice. They are already in hell and will stay there until they respond to God’s call to come out of religion and start listening to God’s voice instead of listening to false prophets.

STUDY TIP: See this link for more about spiritual death.

New Covenant disciples, however, know very well what heaven is. They are lifted up to heaven (i.e. raptured) every time God opens their eyes and ears to understanding the mysteries of the Bible. Every time they see a religious building or see someone practicing religion, they are full of gratitude to God for having rescued them from bondage to religion. They know that God has transported them from hell to heaven.

New Covenant disciples live in constant awareness that their old, evil, impure hearts have been transformed into clean, pure hearts. They know that this is a miracle of the highest order that they could not perform by themselves. They know that they were absolutely dependent on God to change their hearts. When this happens, people go from living in hell without God to living in the kingdom of heaven with God.

Making this transition from hell to heaven is a miracle that only God can accomplish. It is the ultimate spiritual miracle of creation. It is the miracle of being born again and resurrected from the dead. God’s references to the “afterlife” therefore, are to the spiritual life of good, pure hearts that he creates when he recreates hearts into his image. Heaven is life in the spirit that people enjoy after they are saved from the sin of religion.

STUDY TIPS: See THE MIRACLE OF CREATION: BORN AGAIN and HOW TO KNOW IF YOU ARE BORN AGAIN.