Lesson 35 The Place of Departed Spirits

                             The Place of Departed Spirits

                                Luke 16 and 2 Corinthians 5:1-8

One thing man has in common is the fear of death. Until one is assured of an afterlife, one is subject to the bondage of this fear all his life (Heb.2:15). Concerning death, all is unknown. Where does one go after the death of the body? Is that the end for the person who lived in it? What if it is not? Where will the person be?

One can be freed from the bondage of this fear through knowing the truth of what God Himself purposed. In eternity past God, the Eternal Almighty God, purposed to make a creation of beings He would call “man” (Gen.1:26).

The person of being He would call “soul.” In his soul man would have intellect, a “mind” to think thoughts, and “emotions,” that he might have personal feelings. Man would be given volition. He would have a “will,” that he might make choices and carry through decisions.

God began with forming a body for man. The body would serve man as a covering for the soul. The personal soul would be clothed with the body, so to speak. Another metaphor Paul uses in 2 Corinthians 5 is a “house” or a “tent,” a dwelling place (see 2 Cor.5:1-4; also 2 Pet.1:14). The body would be the dwelling place of the personal soul.

After He had formed the body, the Lord God [Jehovah Elohim] breathed gently, blew the breath of life into the nostrils of the formed body and man became. He came into “being” a soul of life (Gen.2:7). The Hebrew word for “breath” is also used for “spirit.”  Man became a soul of spirit life - “spirit being.”

Having life, the personal being could activate the mind and think for himself. He could activate the emotions and personally feel emotions, both good and bad. In the active will the personal soul of life would make personal decisions according to what he thinks or how he feels.

Man who was not came into “being” a soul of life of spirit being. Each of the three persons of the Eternal God is a soul of spirit being (Jn.4:24; Rom.1:20; Col.2:9; see Is.48:16-17). Spirit being is the life God is. God’s life of spirit being is eternal and therefore without beginning or end (1 Tim.1:17; Is.57:15a). Man, having come into being, had a beginning. He was given life of spirit being which has no end. There is no death in spirit beings. The personal soul once come into being will always be.

A lifeless body is of no use to a soul of life. In order for the personal being to animate the body of flesh, the body also must have life, that the personal being might carry through the thoughts and intents of the heart, the inner being.

Jehovah Elohim purposely did not give life of spirit being to the body of the earth. Had He done so, there would be no end to the life of the body. The body is physical and corporeal and carries through in action the thoughts and feelings of the personal soul.

The body was given a created life system, with the life being in the blood (Gen.9:4; Lev.17:14). God created a unique respiratory, circulatory system, where blood cells are built in the bone marrow of the frame of man. Living blood cells are built and carried by the red river of life to all parts of the corporeal body. The blood builds new cells and carries off the dead cells to be eliminated.

Oxygen is necessary to the building of blood cells. Oxygen is provided from the atmosphere through man continually breathing in fresh air and breathing out poisonous gases. Should the breath be cut off in any way, the body would be left lifeless (see Ps.104:29; Eccl.12:7). Should the body lose too much blood, it would also become lifeless. Having become lifeless, the personal being can no longer animate the flesh and blood body of humanity.

The death of the flesh and blood body created for human kind was a necessity. Man, having been given freedom to exercise choices in his will, can choose to be wicked and do evil through his body. That is lawlessness. Man must not be permitted to do lawlessness and harm others. There must be a way to put an end to lawlessness.

The way that God chose to end lawlessness was through the death of the body. If the body is taken in death, the personal being who will always be and therefore can continue his evil thoughts and desires, will no longer have a way to carry them through.

God’s purpose in His creation of mankind is to have sons of God in forever living bodies - His sons forever. Therefore, provision must be made for the mortal, corporeal body to have the life of spirit being necessary for the body to live forever.

Jehovah Elohim made a Covenant with the promise of hope of life everlasting. The promise was made before the ages eternal (Tit.1:2). In the hope of life everlasting, God saved His creation of mankind from perishing in the mortal body returning to the dust of the ground (Gen.3:19; Ps.104:29; Prov.34:15; Eccl.12:7). In the Covenant is a holy calling for man to become a son of God.

The holy calling is not according to man’s works, but according to God’s own purpose and grace. It was given man in God’s Anointed Son, [Christ] Jesus, and it was given before the eternal ages (2 Tim.1:9; see Is.42:5-7; 49:1-8). All is of God Himself, all according to the promise of life which is in the Anointed Son, Jesus.

Through the gospel of the Anointed Son Jesus, whosoever will is invited to enter into union with the Covenant Son to be born again (Jn.1:12-13; 3:3-16; Ac.10:34-43). Life everlasting, the life of spirit being, is set before man in the gospel of the Anointed Son of God, who was sent from heaven to bring life everlasting for the mortal body down to man, that the mortal body might be raised up out from the dead (Jn.5:25-29; 6:38-40; 11:23-26).

The one who hears the word of God’s Anointed Son and believes the One who sent Him will pass from death to life everlasting. He will have assurance of his body being raised up out from the dead - alive forevermore (Jn.5:24). “And this is the record, that God has given to us life everlasting, and this life is in His Son. He that has the Son has life; he that does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 Jn.5:11-12).

What did Jesus say to Nicodemus? “Do not marvel that I said unto you, you must be born again.” It is absolutely imperative to be born of water and spirit (see Jn.3:1-7). “Water” is a symbol for “life everlasting,” signifying the cleansing of re-generation - again becoming (Tit.3:3-5).

The life of spirit being for the body is in the Son sent from heaven. The body of the Son birthed of a virgin is a seed coat for the incorruptible Seed, the Word of God, to reproduce after His kind; that is, bodies raised up out from the dead, deathless and glorified bodies of flesh and bone of spirit life - born from above, again alive (see Jn.12:23-24; Lk.24:39; Jn.20:19-27; 1 Cor.15:44).

The gospel of the Anointed Son of the Covenant makes clear the absolute imperative of entering into union with the Covenant Son to receive the life of spirit being for the mortal body. The flesh body born of the corruptible seed of man, human kind, will remain lifeless unless the life of spirit being, life everlasting, is received in the Covenant Son. If the body remains lifeless when the personal being stops breathing oxygen into it, it will return to the dust of the ground from which it came.

From the beginning of man, the choice of life everlasting in the Covenant Son or of the death of the physical body has been set before man in the gospel of the coming Anointed Son of God (see Jn.1:9-13; Tit.2:11; Col.1:23b; Ezek.18:19-23; Ac.10:34-43; 2 Pet.3:9).

The gospel of God’s Anointed Son is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes and who receives the Gift of eternal life in the Anointed Son (Rom.1:16). The gospel of the Anointed Son, when believed, is the power to raise up a body of flesh and bone of spirit being out from the dead (Rom.8:9-11). In the Covenant Plan to be carried out in time, there is much to be done. It will take ages and cover many generations before the Anointed Son is sent.

Beginning with Adam and Eve, all down through the ages those in any generation, everyone believing in the righteousness of God to obey the truth are born of the incorruptible Seed, the Word of God. Each one receives the life of spirit being with power to raise the body of glory out from the dead.

Each one receives the promise of being raised up out from the dead in a resurrection of life everlasting. In the death of the body, the inner man, the personal being, will lose his covering and be left naked. No longer having an earthly body for an earthly existence, a place must be made where the unclothed souls could await the resurrection, when they would again be clothed with the new body raised up out from the dead (see 2 Cor.5:1-4).

As man makes his own decision concerning receiving the life of spirit being for the body, the life everlasting offered to him in the gospel of the Anointed Son, God would not only have the righteous souls waiting for the Resurrection of Life, He would have the unrighteous dead, who have not chosen life everlasting. Their bodies cannot be raised up out from the dead to live forever. They have not obeyed the truth to be born of the incorruptible Seed, the Word of God, which lives and abides forever (see 1 Pet.1:17-25; Jn.5:25-47; 1 Jn.5:9-13).

In the beginning when God began to form and place the space and matter which He had created, He also prepared the place for departed spirits in the very center of the earth which He had fashioned in a sphere (see Jon.2:2; Mt.12:38-40; Is.40:22). God did not make two locations of places for the departed spirits to await their final destiny. The destiny is determined in the personal choice made by each personal soul of spirit being.

In the Old Testament we see that the saints believed in the resurrection and in the place of departed spirits, but we are not given details (see Job 19:25-26; Ps.9:17-18; 16:10; 55:15; Prov.15:24; Dan.12:2; Rom.4:13-25; Heb.11:8-19). In the Hebrew, the place of departed spirits is called “Sheol.” In some references Sheol refers to “the grave.”

When Jesus came down from heaven, God in the likeness of man’s human flesh and blood mortal body, He spoke the words of God and taught His people. From Jesus’ teaching we learn the location of the place of departed spirits and that at the one location there are two compartments, one for the righteous personal beings having received the life of spirit being for the body to be raised up out from the dead and the other for the wicked who did not receive the life of spirit being offered them in the Covenant Son. As Jesus is the One who created all things that are made, let us take His word concerning the place of departed spirits.

The justified soul with redemption for the body went to the compartment of the righteous. The Jews called this compartment Abraham’s Bosom. After the deliverance from the Babylonian captivity, some Jews called it Paradise (see Lk.23:39-43). The compartment for the wicked unbelievers was simply called Sheol by the Hebrews and Hades by the Greeks. This compartment will continue to fill up until all are judged at the Great White Throne Judgment at the end of the 1,000 years of the Kingdom Age (Rev.20:11-15).

When Jesus was tabernacling among His own people while on earth in the body of His humanity, one day He greatly offended the Jews by claiming to be the Lord of the sabbath (see Mt.12:1-23). The Pharisees then accused Jesus of casting out demons by Satan, the prince ruler of demons, called Beelzebub (v24).

Jesus rebuked and corrected them with another claim to Deity. “If I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom is come unto you.” (v28). “Then certain of the scribes and Pharisees answered Him back saying, ‘Master [Teacher] we would have a sign from you’” (v38). Ignoring the sign of healing and casting out demons, the rulers demanded of Jesus a sign of His authority of His claims.

The Pharisees had already taken counsel against Jesus, how they might destroy Him (Mt.12:14). Then they publicly accused Jesus of casting out demons by Beelzebub. Their request for a sign was malicious. They had no intention of receiving a sign. They were set on the destruction of Jesus. To use the word “Teacher” was an insult. They had continuously refused Jesus’ teaching.

Jesus therefore refused to give them the sign requested. He spoke of the future sign and of the last sign that would be given as proof of His being the Son of God sent from heaven. The sign of His being raised up out from the dead is the final sign of Jesus being the Son of God (Mt.12:38-41).

Jesus said, “An evil adulterous generation seeks after a sign.” Jesus uses the word “evil” here in the sense of “harmful” or “hurtful.” The influence of the scribes and Pharisees over God’s people was harmful and hurtful. The word “adulterous” was used in a spiritual sense, “the sin of spiritual adultery.” Jesus accused them of being unfaithful to Jehovah, the One to whom Israel had made vows. No sign shall be given such as they but the sign of the prophet Jonah (v39).

“For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart, [the very center] of the earth”(v40). When Jesus came back from the dead, raised up alive forevermore, the Jews would have their sign of Jesus having been proved to be the Son of Jehovah and proof of He and His Father being One (Rom.1:1-4; Jn.10:30; see Mt.27:62-28:15).

In the psalms David prophesied of the coming Messiah. David wrote, “I have set Jehovah always before Me: because He is at My right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore My heart is glad, and My glory rejoices: My flesh also shall rest in hope. For You will not leave My soul in Sheol, neither will You permit Your Holy One to see corruption.” This is a Messianic psalm. Here is Jesus speaking to His Father of the humanity of the body of the likeness of man which Jesus, the Word who is God, took on Himself (Ps.16:8-10).

When the Angel Gabriel came to Mary, he said, “That holy,” not seeing corruption, “born of you shall be called the Son of God” (Lk.1:35b). He spoke of the body of Jesus’ humanity, the incorruptible Seed, en-lifed by the Father, holy. Jesus went into death with absolute assurance that His Father would not leave His soul, His very Person, in Sheol. Neither would His Father allow the body in the grave, the earthly body in the likeness of man, to see corruption. Death could not hold that body. No sin had been done in that body (1 Pet.2:22; 2 Cor.5:21; 1 Jn.3:5; Heb.7:26). That body was not of the corruptible seed of man. It would not see corruption.

On the day of Pentecost, after Jesus had ascended back to His Father, Peter quoted David as having been given to foresee and prophesy of the heart peace of Jesus as He went to the cross. Peter spoke of death not having a hold on the body of Jesus and how death must loose the body to be raised up. Then as proof that David was not speaking of himself, Peter reminded the men of Israel that David slept with his fathers. David had not ascended into heaven and sat down with the Father, but Jesus had. Jesus had been exalted and received at the right hand of the Father (see Ac.2:25-36; also Phil.2:5-11).

Jesus is the one who gives us the location of the place of departed spirits as the center of the earth. As the soul of spirit being of any other son of man in the flesh body would go to the place of departed spirits when the body had become lifeless, Jesus would depart His lifeless body and His soul would wait in Hades for the third day for the body to be raised up from the dead.

The place of departed spirits is not the final destination. Sheol (Old Testament) or Hades (New Testament) is the holding place of the departed spirits of the wicked until the consummation of the things of time. As we see in Revelation 20, “Death” and “Hades” give up their captives to judgment and the final destination is the lake of fire prepared for the Devil and his angels (Rev.20:11-15; Mt.25:41).

The lake of fire is referred to as “Hell” from Jesus’ use of the word Gehenna, a reference to the valley of Hinnom where the refuse of the city of Jerusalem burned continually. The King James Version translates “Hades” as “Hell,” but the two must not be confused.

All those who face the final judgment at the Great White Throne did not choose to obey the truth to be born of the incorruptible Seed, the Word of God, to be born from above. There being no birth of spirit being for the body, their names are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Except a man is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God (see Jn.3:3-8). He must be shut out forever.

Jesus also gave us the only details we have of the place of departed spirits. It was given one day in story form to the Pharisees of Jesus’ day. The Pharisees were self-professed keepers of the Law of Moses. They considered themselves to be righteous, but they continually broke the tenth Commandment, “Thou shall not covet” (Ex.20:17). They were hypocrites. The Pharisees coveted the rule over the Kingdom of God.

It is from Jesus’ story in Luke 16 we understand that Hades is divided into two compartments. Between the two there is a great fixed gulf that cannot be crossed by spirit beings. Here is the power of God to keep spirit beings in their place while they are being held waiting for their resurrection. The wicked and the righteous are separated.

It was necessary to have one compartment for the spirits of mankind made righteous while they awaited the Resurrection of Life everlasting and also to have a compartment for those who did not receive the Gift of righteousness and life everlasting to await the Resurrection of Judgment.

Some term the story in Luke 16 a parable. A parable is a story with an illustration. If this story were a parable, what was being illustrated could not be stronger than the facts set forth by Jesus, who had personal knowledge of the facts of Hades. We can take the facts spoken by Jesus at face value as the knowledge of a place of which we otherwise know nothing. Jesus does not name names in His parables. In this story Jesus names two people, Lazarus, the beggar, and Abraham, who were in the righteous compartment in Hades.

This was not the first story of that day in the life of Jesus. A great multitude was with Jesus, and He turned and spoke to them of the cost of coming after Him and learning of Him to be His disciple. Then the tax collectors and sinners drew near to hear Him. And the scribes and the Pharisees in the crowd scoffed, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” And Jesus spoke a parable to them. The parable had three parts: There was a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son (see Lk.15).

After the parable, Jesus spoke to His disciples of an unjust steward who wasted his master’s goods. This parable was of trying to serve two masters, one, God, and the other mammon, money and the power and things money will buy in this world (see 1 Jn.2:15-17). Then Jesus rebuked covetousness and divorce, an abomination of God. Those were two sins practiced by the Pharisees (Lk.16:1-18).

Then Jesus told the story of the rich man and Lazarus, a story of two men who lived strongly contrasting lives on this earth. “There was a certain rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and faired sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar, named Lazarus, who was laid at his gate, and full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores” (Lk.16:19-21).

Two very different lives. One was rich and one lived in poverty. One lived in a mansion and one on the street. Beggars like this were common. They were homeless and lived on the streets, and they died on the street. Early every morning at dawn, men called street sweepers came through and picked up the dead beggars and carried them to the refuse heap.

Jesus just says “a certain rich man.” He does not name him. He was clothed in very costly clothing and fared sumptuously every day. The Greek word translated “sumptuously” in King James is lampos. It simply means “to radiate.” The rich man lived lavishly, showy, with a spectacular ostentatious display of his wealth and power. Even the word for his “gate” has the meaning “a gate of beauty.”

Jesus drew a vivid picture of the earthly life of a very wealthy man. He could have been any one of the Pharisees standing before Him. In contrast, there was a certain beggar. Wealthy men had their own beggars who had chosen their gate, desiring to be fed. Jesus names the beggar. Did the people who went in and out of the gate know the beggar’s name? Jesus knew.

Lazarus was in rags and full of sores. Someone laid Lazarus at the gate of the rich man every morning. Though Jesus spoke of crumbs from the rich man’s table, it was not necessarily literal. It was used in contrast to the sumptuous meal set before the rich man. A servant would bring Lazarus food. There he lay, in a diseased body, unable to work and no money for medical attention. The only comfort Lazarus had was the food left by the servants and the dogs licking his sores.

“It came to pass that the beggar died, and he was carried by the angels to Abraham’s Bosom,” carried to the place of departed spirits and placed on the side of the righteous.“The rich man also died and was buried” (Lk.16:22).

All the wealth of the rich man could not keep his body alive. Death is the common lot of all fellow men in humanity (Job 34:15; Eccl.8:8). Each one, Lazarus and the rich man, shared the death of the earthly body left lifeless to return to dust. One body was gathered by the street sweeper and cast on the refuse heap. The other, as Jesus simply said, was buried. Nothing is said of the service. That was left to the imagination.

There were those in the crowd who wondered how lavish that service must have been of the one with such a lifestyle of wealth and prestige. And the eulogies; all who knew the man would think well of him and speak well of him. There was seemingly nothing in this world of which men would condemn him, unless he could be accused of being too good to himself.

Had these two been known to any of the Pharisees or scribes, their remarks would have been something like, “Poor beggar, good thing that a wretch like that is no longer suffering.” But for the rich the remarks would have been quite different. “What a tragedy. Such a loss to the world. Wonder what he was worth after all.”

Both men died. Lazarus first and then the rich man, but that was not the end of the story. Death takes the body of all, but death does not end all. Each found himself in Hades, in the place of departed spirits. Lazarus personally carried by the angels to Abraham’s Bosom. Jesus just simply stated the rich man also died, and was buried.

Though his body was buried, the rich man is in Hades, in the place of departed spirits. He lifts up his eyes being in torment and he sees Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom (Lk.16:23). How did he recognize Abraham? Jesus did not say. The rich man also recognized Lazarus in Abraham’s Bosom.

The rich man was a Jew. Jesus is telling the story to His own people. His listeners would have expected the rich man to go to Abraham’s Bosom, as would the man himself. But it was Lazarus, who had departed his body and left it to be picked up by the street sweepers and disposed of, who was carried by the angel chariot to Abraham’s Bosom. “Abraham’s Bosom” was the term used by the Jews for “the place a Jew would go when he departed his earthly tent.”

There was the Jew, Lazarus, a true son of Abraham through Abraham’s son Jesus, the Anointed Covenant Son, the incorruptible Seed of life everlasting (see Jn.8:39-40, 57; Rom.4:1-16; Gal.3:7-9). Jesus knew Lazarus. Lazarus had believed into Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of God to become the righteousness of God through faith in the Anointed Son. Lazarus was an Israelite indeed, one who let God rule and who trusted Him with his life (see Jn.1:47-49). Lazarus was in the place of blessing. No more hunger, no more sores. Lazarus was in the place of blessing, a place of light and rest and peace.

The body of the rich man had been well taken care of but the man himself is in torments. Not in the place of a true son of Abraham, the rich man cried and said, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus, that he may dip his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame”(Lk.16:24).

The body of the rich man has been buried, to return to the dust of the ground from which it came, but his person, his soul of life, feels as though he is still in his body, as though he yet has a tongue which could be cooled with water. He is fully conscious. He is thinking and feeling, and desiring to be comforted. In his former life, all the comforts of his body had been cared for. Whatever he had desired was done for him.

“But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, likewise Lazarus in his lifetime received the bad things, but now he is comforted and you are suffering. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that they who would pass from here to you cannot; neither can they pass to us that would come from there” (vv25-26).

The rich man called Abraham “Father.” Abraham recognizes the rich man as his child, but not a true son of Israel. In His story Jesus did not use the word for “son,” but the word for “child,” a born one. The rich man was a child of Abraham’s after the flesh, of the dust seed, only born of the corruptible seed of man, which reproduces bodies of the earth to return to the dust of the ground from where it came (see Gen.3:19; Jn.8:33-40; Rom.9:3-8).

In his lifetime the rich man served mammon. He has his reward. “The wages of sin is death” (Rom.6:23a). Lazarus believed the God of Abraham and he has his reward, life everlasting (v23b). His body will be raised in the First Resurrection (see Gal.3:6-7; Jn.6:45-58; 11:20-27; Rev.20:4-6). Lazarus is a child of Abraham’s Seed, Christ, a son of God (Rom.4:16).

The rich man had served mammon all his lifetime. In Hades all he served is left far beyond his reach forever and he has not only lost all that for which he served, mammon, but he has lost his own soul, and he has nothing to give for it (Mt.16:24-27; Mk.8:34-37; Lk.9:23-25). And there is no way to pass to the other side of the great gulf fixed between the righteous and the wicked.

Jesus was not finished with His story. The rich man had five brothers who were in danger of losing their souls. He would have them warned. Still claiming to be a son of Abraham, as also his five brothers would claim, the rich man begged, “I pray you, father, that you send [Lazarus] to my father’s house, for I have five brothers.” Send Lazarus “that he may testify to them that they not come to this place of torment.’ Abraham said unto him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ But he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one went to them from the dead, they will repent”’ (Lk.16:27-30).

The rich man knew from experience that his brothers would not hear Moses and the prophets. He believed that if someone returned from the dead, they could convince his brothers there is an eternal Hades of torment. And Abraham said to the rich man, “If they will not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rises from the dead” (v31).

The only way for a Jew to go to Abraham’s Bosom after he departed the lifeless body is to have heard Moses and the prophets and, having believed God, to have repented and received the righteousness of God through faith in His Anointed Son. He that has the Son has life everlasting - the life of spirit being for the body (Jn.5:25-26; 1 Jn.5:11-12).

The real issue is obedience to the truth of the gospel of the Anointed Son of God through faith in the Anointed Son and be born of the incorruptible Seed, the Word of God, and have the life of spirit being with the power to raise the body up out from the dead, deathless and glorified - a body of flesh and bone of spirit life.

Later Jesus raised another Lazarus from the dead. People came from all around to see the miracle. Did John record the rulers being persuaded? “Many of the Jews coming to mourn with Mary believed into Him” (Jn.11:45; 12:11). “But the chief priests consulted how they might also put Lazarus to death” (Jn. 12:10).

The Jews who were plotting to kill Jesus did deliver Him up and He was crucified. He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Cor.15:3-4). Did these men who served mammon then repent? What was Jesus’ point to the men to whom He was telling the story?

One’s everlasting destiny is determined in the lifetime of the mortal body. Man’s everlasting destiny is his own choice. The destiny is chosen in one’s lifetime while in his earthly body. No one knows how long that lifetime will be. The destiny chosen is fixed by the choice and it is everlasting.

All was accomplished at the cross by Jesus in the death for which He came (Jn.12:27). He came that He might lay down the life of the earthly body and take it up again glorified to live forevermore. Righteousness and life everlasting are freely offered in God’s Anointed Son Jesus, His Son born of a virgin and begotten out from the dead (Rom.1:1b-4; 1 Pet.1:18-19; Heb.9:12). All is offered freely and all must be freely received. The death of the earthly body is not the end for the soul. Jesus told us of the end for souls who have departed the lifeless body. Each soul, that of Lazarus and that of the rich man, was taken to Hades.

Jesus was speaking to His people, Jews. The Old Testament history before Abraham shows it is the same for Gentile nations. The issue is life everlasting for the mortal body. God’s Son, first known as the One coming and known to us as Jesus Christ, is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (Jn.14:6). There is no other way for a mortal body to be raised up out from the dead, again become alive with spirit being.

As has been established, from the beginning of the creation there has only been one way for a person of mankind to have life everlasting for the mortal body of flesh and blood. God has one incorruptible Seed to reproduce after His kind. God has one Son begotten out from the dead. God so loved His creation of man that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes into Him will not perish, but have life everlasting, the life of spirit being with the power to raise a body out from the dead (Jn.3:16).

The begotten Son was given in the Covenant of the hope of life everlasting and with the holy calling to become a son of God. Faith in the One who was coming with righteousness and life everlasting was counted to one for righteousness beginning with Adam and Eve. Through obedience to the truth in uniting oneself to the Covenant Son, the believing one was given life of spirit being for the body to be raised up out from the dead, born again - born from above to live forever.

As Jehovah made coats of skin for Adam and Eve, in His coming as the Seed-Grain for the body to be raised up out from the dead, so He made coats of skin for all those who will believe into Him to be united in His death, burial and resurrection. Anyone having been planted together with him in the likeness of His death, shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection (Rom.6:5). Whosoever believes will be clothed with new skin.

So it is down through the generations of Adam all through the ages, each person born of the flesh, flesh, of the same likeness Jesus, God’s Anointed, took on Himself, had a choice to become in the likeness of His resurrection - Gentiles or Jews, whosoever will of any ethnic group of mankind (see Jn.1:14; 3:6-7; Rom.6:5; 8:3; Phil.2:5-8; 3:21).

The choice of life everlasting or death for the physical tent or clothing of the inner man is for each personal being to decide. The choice determines the destiny of the personal being for all eternity. Once the mortal body has become lifeless, there is no changing of the mind. The destiny has been determined.

Down through the generations of Adam until Jesus came, the Word become flesh, each soul of spirit being having made the choice to unite with the Covenant Son and make his exodus out of Adam through being baptized into the Anointed Son went to the righteous side of the place prepared for departed spirits. Each one there is still awaiting the Resurrection of Life when they will share in the likeness of the resurrection of the Son of God and be clothed with new skin. “Skin” is the “outer layer of flesh.” In the Resurrection of Life each one will again stand upon the earth with bone of spirit life to inherit the Kingdom of the earth with their God and King, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is Heir to all things (Gen.17:1-8; Job 19:25-27; Dan.7:13-14, 27; 12:2:3-3, 13; Heb.1:2; 11:8-16).

The wicked unbelieving souls who down through the generations have rejected the only hope of life everlasting in the Gift of God’s Son who became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him remain dead in trespasses and sins. They did not receive the life of spirit being in the Son. They have no life of spirit being with power to raise up a body out from the dead. Upon departing their lifeless, mortal body each one has gone to the compartment of the unrighteous departed spirits.

So it went generation after generation through the ages until Jesus, in the fullness of time, was sent of His Father (see Gal.4:4). Jesus did die according to the Scriptures, and He was buried and raised the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Cor.15:3-5; Lk.24:13-27, 44-48).

With Jesus’ appearance on earth there then was a change. In His incarnation Jesus spoke the words of His Father and He did the works of His Father, showing Himself to be the Anointed Son of the Covenant of hope of life everlasting. With those who came to Jesus believing Him to be the Anointed Son of God, He began building a new assembly called out of the world to follow Him and become one with Him in His death, burial and resurrection.

Though Jesus came to His own people, both Jews and Gentiles were invited into the Kingdom of the Son of God’s love. Each one, Jew or Gentile, is delivered from the power of the darkness of this world and translated into the Kingdom of the Son God loves, in whom we have redemption through His blood, even forgiveness of sins.  We give thanks unto the Father, who has made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light (see Col.1:1-23).

Moses was Jehovah’s servant over His first called-out assembly, the house of Jacob. The Anointed Son [Christ] now has His own house (see Heb.3:1-6). We of His Body, the true Church, over which He is the Head, are His household. A man builds his house with sons of his seed.

After Jesus returned to heaven, He continued to build His house of sons of God - born from above. Both Jew and Gentile are called through the gospel of the Anointed Son [Christ] to receive life everlasting and become a son of God (Eph.1:1-2:22). Each one answering the call of the gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation, has received the life of spirit being with the power to raise up a body out from the dead (Rom.1:16; 8:1-25).

As the Church Age stretches on, many have died, but they did not go to Hades. All being members of one Body and out of one Seed could go home to be with their Lord and their Father God, right into the presence of those who love them. As the apostle Paul wrote, “Absent from the body, present with the Lord” (2 Cor.5:8).

During the Church Age, those wicked souls who reject the Gift of righteousness and life everlasting in the Son do go to Hades, to the compartment of the unrighteous to await the Resurrection of Judgment.

In Christ, there is neither Jew nor Gentile. Those born of the incorruptible Seed, the Word of God, are all of one. All will bear the image of the heavenly Son of God begotten out from the dead, begotten sons of God, His house. All have been sanctified together with Him. Each one set apart to God in the one offering of the body of Jesus in sacrifice once for all (Heb.2:1; 10:10, 14).

As all are of one Seed and all members of one Body, the members must be raised up together at one gathering. Paul gave us understanding of this gathering out of the world to be with the Lord forever in his two epistles to the Thessalonians (see 1 Thess.4:13-18; 2 Thess.2:1-3).

In the book of Revelation, in the letters to the churches dictated to the apostle John by Jesus Himself, we are told that we, the Church, will be kept out from the time of trial which is to come upon the whole earth to test those that dwell upon the earth (Rev.3:10).  The test is a proving of the heart. Will they remain at enmity with God or will they repent and turn from their darkness to Him and bow the knee to the One who is the Way, the Truth and the Life to enter His Kingdom (see Mt.24:21-25:46; Rev.7:9-17; 9:20-21; 14:9-13; 20:4-6).

We of the Body of Christ have chosen to believe and obey the truth to be born of the incorruptible Seed, the Word of God. We know whom we have believed and we are persuaded that He is able to keep that [the dead body] which we have committed to Him against that day, the day of the body being raised up out from the dead (see 2 Tim.1:12b).

Revelation 3:10 gives the timing of that day as being before the trial of the Tribulation. We, the members of the Body of Christ, are “looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a people of His own, zealous of good works” (Tit.2:13-14; see also Eph.5:23-32).

On the return of their Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, to establish the Kingdom with Israel as the head nation at His Second Coming, there will be a collective regeneration of the house of Jacob, the sons of Israel (see Is.66:7-9; Jer.31:31-40; Ezek.37:11-28; Zech.12:10). During the 1,000 year reign of Christ only the truth concerning the Person and work of the Anointed Son will be taught. Those who will come into the Kingdom under the amnesty of receiving Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of God and King of the universe will be taught the truth and proved as to their obedience to the truth to be born of the incorruptible Seed, the Word of God (see Zech.14:9; Is.11:9-10). Gentiles of all ethnic groups and Jews will be born during the 1,000 year reign. Each will be taught the truth. Obedience to the truth will be the test of the eternal destiny of each.

At the end of the 1,000 years, time will be no more. All rebels will be gathered out of the Kingdom and sent to the lake of fire (Rev.20:11-15). The Lord Jesus Christ will have the sons of God who have obeyed the truth, each one in a body raised up out from the dead, deathless, in a body of bone and flesh of spirit being to live forever in the Kingdom of God. We have not been given details concerning the everlasting Kingdom of righteousness and peace, the Kingdom filled with only sons of God.

How tragic that there are those who refuse to enter the Kingdom of God through the birth offered them in the incorruptible Seed, the Word of God, when God has freely given to mankind that which man has no means of obtaining for himself.

This ends our lesson on The Place of Departed Spirits.