I was on vacation last week (taking my own advice), so no devotional. This week, I've decided to something a little different. Rather than something inspirational, I think I'd rather do something of an education piece on an element of Christian theology that is not well understood. We think we know how this all works, but what the Scriptures say and what people believe are often miles apart. So, I'm going to dive into the nature of the Christian universe (i.e. our "cosmology.")
Heaven
Scripture Reference: Revelation 21:1-5
The Bible names heaven as God's place of residence. It is his "mailing address," the place where he rules on high over all of creation.
Here's the thing though. Nowhere in Scripture does it say that heaven is our ultimate destination upon death. Mortals certainly visit from time to time via visions (2 Cor 12:2, the whole book of Revelation), but no one moves in permanently. The souls that John witnesses in his vision in Revelation are only temporary residents (see Sheol below), as the ultimate goal of God's plan is their resurrection on the "new earth" spoken of in the passage I reference above.
So, when you die, you only go to heaven temporarily. Call it a visitor pass. Your real destination is the resurrection on the last day and your life eternal in the new creation. You don't get to move in as God's next door neighbor in Heaven. In fact, Revelation posits that God moves in next to you on the new Earth.
Sheol & Hell
Scripture Reference: Psalm 6:5, Revelation 20:10
The Old Testament refers to a place called Sheol, the place of the dead. In ancient Hebrew thought, the idea of an afterlife was somewhat more limited than in Christian thought. What we have instead is Sheol, where the dead go after departing their mortal life. Essentially a place of storage for their souls. The Old Testament makes clear that these dead have no consciousness or functionality. They simply are. The above Psalm reference is one of many where the Psalmist claim that the dead can do nothing to praise or worship God.
This is contradicted however by John's vision in Revelation where the dead are active participants in the worship of God and are in eager expectation for the promised resurrection.
What Sheol is not, however, is hell. In fact, the word "hell" is one we borrow from Norse mythology. The Bible also uses the word Hades in similar fashion, another borrowing out of Greek mythology. However, both words in their original use refer mostly to a place of storage for the dead, not a place of torment or torture. So even, hell is not hell in it original Norse or Greek meaning.
So where do we get this idea that Hell is a place of eternal torture? Well, part of Hades in Greek mythology is Tartarus, the place of punishment, where the unworthy dead are put through all sorts of horrific torments (see Sisyphus for example). Likewise, Hel in Norse mythology is often seen as the place of the failed or evil dead (as opposed to Valhalla where the "good" dead go.) John Milton, in Paradise Lost, is likely to have drawn on both of these mythologies in crafting his images of Hell for his poetry. Likewise, Dante ran with many of these tropes as well for his Inferno. Imaginative and evocative, certainly, but not Biblical.
What we do get in the Bible is "Gehenna," the garbage pit outside Jerusalem where all the city's trash was burned. When Jesus refers to "hell" in his teachings (e.g. Matthew 5:29), he's using the word Gehenna there. It's a nice metaphor that Revelation concurs with. The devil and his angels are cast into a "lake of fire" to receive their torment and suffering for their evil deeds, as are those mortals judged unworthy of the "Book of Life." (Revelation 20:15)
So here's the real question. Does Hell exist prior to God's final judgment? Where does Satan "live?" Where do demons come from? The Bible is not entirely clear about that. Legion fears being cast back to the "Abyss" (Luke 8:31). Is that Hell or yet another piece of the cosmological puzzle? I don't know.
The elephant in the room...
Scripture Reference: Luke 16:19-31
Jesus tells a parable, the Rich Man and Lazarus, that seems to contradict some of what I've said above. A couple things to note. First off, Jesus is not telling this story to inform people about the nature of Heaven and Hell; he is using it to express his frustration at the unbelief and cruelty of many people he's encountering in his ministry. Secondly, the text does not use the terms "heaven" or "hell" (i.e. Gehenna) here, but rather instead the "bosom of Abraham" and "Hades" (again, think Sheol.)
But Sheol is shown as a place of torment here. I suppose it's possible or even likely that Jesus is merely running with the popular understanding of the afterlife in his day to make his point. As I said, the parable is not about heaven and hell. It's about Lazarus' mistreatment and the failure of those who neglected him to repent of their cruelty, even though one has "risen from the dead." Presuming it is some manner of descriptive of the nature of the universe is a misuse of the text.
Conclusion.
It is not uncommon in the evolution of our faith for us to borrow bits and pieces of other forms of spirituality to give us language to describe the indescribable. The Bible itself does this, as do we who have lived into its legacy as Christian believers. Dante, Milton, and countless others have written about what they think these indescribable things are like, but none of them have a complete picture.
Simply put, our understanding of these greater mysteries is rather flawed and limited. We may not go to Heaven when we die believing; we may go to Sheol instead and spend some time there before God calls us back to life on last day. Is Hell where the demonic powers live in the present time or is it the place of punishment God will create on the last day for those who have defied him? There is no certainty here because we are talking about things we humans do not fully understand. It is not so black and white as we've led ourselves to believe where the good go to Heaven and the bad into Hell. We certainly use such language (I have myself) to simplify what is ultimately a complex idea, but we must not assume our knowledge is complete and inerrant.
What we do know is this. God has promises us life eternal through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. We refer to Easter and Christ's resurrection as a "first," that what he has gone through we will do likewise one day as well. Resurrection is God's promise. The new heaven and new earth are God's promise, a place where death is no more and suffering has come to an end. In the end, that's what really matters.
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