Want to see true confusion etch itself across a Christian face? Tell them that Hades is not the same as Hell, and Paradise is not the same as Heaven. Then, just for fun, tell them that when people die, they go to Hades or Paradise depending on their relationship with God, but that Heaven and Hell (Lake of Fire) don’t come into play until after the Great Judgment. That the “holding tanks,” if you will, for the current dead are Hades and Paradise (or the collective Sheol in the Old Testament). Hell vs Hades, and Heaven vs Paradise.
Maybe I just messed with you, too.
But it’s true. When it comes to Hell and the Bible, people often lump Hades and Hell together, but those are actually two different places. Prior to the end of time and the Great Judgment, Hades is where those who are not in a relationship with God go when they die. It’s a place of suffering and separation from God, but it’s not Hell. It’s where people go awaiting the final judgment that will happen at the end of time for all people.
Heaven vs Paradise
There isn’t some kind of “soul sleep” in Scripture, and people are not destined to Heaven or Hell/Lake Fire until after the Great Judgment, so we are told that they first go to Paradise or Hades upon death.
Consider the story Jesus told about a rich man and a beggar named Lazarus:
There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him “Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.”
But Abraham replied, “Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.” (Luke 16:19-26, TNIV)
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