Oh dear.....who told you that? If you look carefully the “Rich Man and Lazarus” is a parable among many others.....it is not a story of literal individuals. Each character represents different classes of people. The rich man was not said to be wicked, just rich, uncaring and selfish. The beggar likewise was not said to be righteous, just hungry, malnourished and in need. He had to be content with the crumbs falling from the rich man’s table.
Both of these men “died” and their deaths brought about a great change in the status of each....the rich man pictured the Pharisees, and the beggar represented the “lost sheep” to whom Jesus was sent. The Pharisees did not see the ‘lost ones’ as of any value to them or God. The crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table were accidentally dropped, not thrown to the beggar in any kind of recognition of his existence. IOW the beggar was hungry because the rich man did not see the need to give him any spiritual food...he just ignored him.
Jesus said their in their “deaths”, they changed places.
The “bosom of Abraham” was the position of favour with God, which the Pharisees had claimed for themselves, but which Jesus came to reverse and offer that position of favour to those who responded to his teachings.
To suggest that this story is literal is rather ridiculous. Two compartments in the earth??? Seriously?
Heaven and hell are in speaking distance to each other? And a drop of water on a man’s finger is going to cool the tongue of a man in a blazing fire? Since the fire was creating his torment, what could this blazing fire be? Not the flames of hell, because there is no such place. The torment that the Pharisees experienced was the success of Jesus’ ministry to the ones that they despised, and his continual denunciation of them as the frauds and hypocrites that they were. Any wonder they were in torment! Their whole existence now amounted to nothing.
Now, the rich man was said to be in “hades”, not “hell” but the common grave, so in his spiritual death state, the rich man saw that the beggar was now in the favoured position that he had once claimed.
John the Baptist was the herald of the Messiah’s coming and his ministry is what brought about a change in the status of both groups. Those who accepted Jesus as the promised seed of Abraham, died to their former status and entered “the bosom of Abraham” by their acceptance of God’s Messiah. Jesus left the Pharisees in no doubt about what he and his Father thought of them. (Matthew 23; Luke 16:15)
Since the “death” experienced by both groups was not literal but symbolic, then all the details of the parable are also symbolic. What was taken away from the religious leaders, was given to the ones who responded to Jesus. Parables were illustrations, not real occurrences.
References to Hell….Hades as torment by fire in the New Testament. Keep in mind we have already discuss the word issues with Hell and Hades. We are looking to understand the message that Christ and the Apostles are stating. What do these scriptures mean? What are they trying to convey? In every way possible they warned of eternal punishment for those that are evildoers. They worded it in different ways but the central theme is torment by fire. Is it really fire? Did they choose fire because it was the worst thing they could describe. In the reality of it all, is Hell much worse than fire?
Matthew 5:22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.
Matthew 5:29-30 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
Matthew 8:12 While the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Matthew 10:28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Matthew 3:12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Matthew 13:41-42 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Matthew 13:50 And throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Matthew 23:15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
Matthew 23:33 You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?
Matthew 24:51 And will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Matthew 25:41 Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
Matthew 25:46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Mark 9:43 And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.
Mark 9:45 And if your foot offend you, cut if off: it is better to you to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched.
Mark 9:48 where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.
Luke 3:17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Luke 12:5 But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!
Luke 16:19-31 “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.
John 5:28-29 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
2nd Thessalonians 1:8-9 In flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,
2nd Peter For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;
Jude 1:7 Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.
Revelation 1:18 And the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.
Revelation 14:10 He also will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
Revelation 14:11 And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.
Revelation 19:20 And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.
Revelation 20:10 And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Revelation 20:12-15--- 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.
Revelation 21:8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.
