"Death" does not mean "cease to exist".
The verse I quoted (John 3:16) says "perish", from the Greek work apollumi which means to destroy fully.
Okay, let's discuss this parable. Yes, it is a parable. I have heard some commentators claim it is not a parable because one of the characters in the story is given a name, and no characters are named in other parables. But there is no rule which says a parable must not give names to any characters! Normally characters (if there are any) are not given names because it doesn't add anything to the meaning, but in this case the name Lazarus is appropriate and does add meaning. Note that a parable is a story with a meaning other than a literal one, a description of one thing under the image of another, a story with a moral lesson (taken from a dictionary definition). Jesus mostly taught by parables:
"Jesus spoke all these things in parables to the multitudes; and without a parable, he didn’t speak to them, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying, “I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world" (Mat 13:34-35).
The Rich Man and Lazarus parable is the only passage in the Bible which suggests the possibility that there is thought or feeling in hades or sheol (the grave). We cannot suppose that this is contradictory to the definition of sheol given by the prophet when he declared that there is no knowledge, wisdom, or device, only oblivion, in sheol (or Eccl 9:5 "... but the dead know nothing"). Nor can we suppose that Job made a mistake when he prayed to go to sheol in order to escape suffering.
This SYMBOLIC parable says nothing about either the wicked or the righteous, nor does it say anything about heaven. It says nothing about the
virtues or sins of either the rich man or the poor man (being rich is not a sin - Abraham was very rich, so also was Isaac, Jacob, David, Solomon, etc.). They both die. The poor man is carried to "Abraham's bosom" not heaven. Even if this were literal it would not put the poor man in heaven because Jesus said "No man hath ascended up to heaven" (John 3:13).
For context, just prior to this parable, Jesus said, "The law and the prophets were until John. From that time the Good News of God’s Kingdom is preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it" (verse 16). Jesus in this parable was teaching a great dispensational truth, namely, the change of favour from the Mosaic Law Covenant to the Covenant of faith.
In the parable the two men represent two groups, or nations. The rich man is a symbol of the Jewish nation, the poor man symbolizes the Gentiles. The Jewish nation "living in luxury every day", that is, the promises of God belonged to them, and upon these they were privileged to feast. The purple robe of the rich man represented the royal hopes of the nation, and the fine white linen represented the standing of righteousness the nation enjoyed as a result of the typical sacrifices which were made year by year for them. The rich man refers to Abraham as Father, and Abraham refers to the rich man as son, which is further evidence that the rich man represents Abrahams descendants, i.e. the Jewish nation, to whom "the law and the prophets were until John".
Israel died as a nation and lost these special favours of the Lord, but the individuals of the nation continued to live, and each successive generation of these throughout the centuries has suffered.
The key that identifies the rich man is the statement concerning the five brothers - "They have Moses and the prophets". This was only true of the
Jewish nation, which was divided into 12 tribes. After Babylonian captivity, it was mostly the 2 tribes of Judah and Benjamin that returned to Judea. It was largely, therefore, these 2 tribes to whom Jesus ministered, and these are represented by the rich man. The 5 brothers therefore represent the other 10 tribes, and the parable shows that they suffered the same fate for failing to hear Moses and the prophets.
The poor man - representing the Gentiles - also died to that condition of alienation from God which was theirs prior to the first advent of Christ.
Believing Gentiles were carried into Abraham's bosom, that is, they became children of Abraham through faith, and inherited the promises of God which were made to and through Abraham. The poor man was carried (not buried) to Abraham's bosom by the angels. These angels (messengers) were the apostles and ministers of the Gospel.
This is the only parable told by Jesus in which he gives someone a name - Lazarus. Lazarus means "whom God helps". God helps the Church - his begotten sons in whom he is working, creating a new creation in Christ.
The fire and torment suffered by the rich man symbolically represents the penalties attached to the violation of their covenant. The Jewish nation have suffered being scattered amongst the nations, and have been relentlessly persecuted ever since, even by professed Christians. The rich man cried out for a drop of water to cool his tongue. This represents a call to God to let the Christians (represented by Lazarus) give them some comfort or help.
The great gulf between them represents the wide difference between the Jews and the Christian Church. Very few have crossed this gulf to change from being a Jew to being a Christian, or vice versa, throughout the Gospel age.
If you read carefully the 32nd chapter of Deuteronomy, you will see that Jesus was merely repeating in vivid pictorial language that Moses had already used. See particularly verses 20 to 29 (quoted below); and also Paul's quotation of the 21st verse in Romans 10:19, where he shows that Moses' prophecy referred to the overthrow of Israel consequent upon Jesus' rejection of that nation.
Deu 32:19-29 (WEB):
19) Yahweh saw and abhorred, because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.
20) He said, “I will hide my face from them. I will see what their end will be; for they are a very perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness.
21) They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God. They have provoked me to anger with their vanities.
I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
22) For a
fire is kindled in my anger, that burns to the lowest Sheol,devours the earth with its increase, and sets the foundations of the mountains on fire.
23) “I will heap evils on them. I will spend my arrows on them.
24)
They shall be wasted with hunger, and devoured with burning heat and bitter destruction. I will send the teeth of animals on them, with the venom of vipers that glide in the dust.
25) Outside the sword will bereave, and in the rooms, terror; on both young man and virgin, the nursing infant with the gray-haired man.
26) I said that I would scatter them afar. I would make their memory to cease from among men;
27) were it not that I feared the provocation of the enemy, lest their adversaries should judge wrongly, lest they should say, ‘Our hand is exalted, Yahweh has not done all this.’”
28) For they are a nation void of counsel. There is no understanding in them.
29) Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!
