• Eph. 3:11. "This was according to the eternal purpose which he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord."
• Deut. 33:27. "The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms."

Survival and Immortality

In the Old Testament

In early times, among the Hebrews, the concept of survival was very hazy. There were seven heavens and also Sheol and Hades. Belief in the resurrection was slow in appearing -- became general only shortly before the times of Christ. During the days of Jesus, the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection.

To the Jews, survival meant the biologic survival -- survival of the Hebrew race or nation.

Among the Jews the concept evolved slowly from Moses to Daniel. During the times of Jesus the doctrine of immortality was born full-fledged.

In the New Testament -- Man is not naturally immortal Deity alone has immortality.

• 1 Tim. 6:16. "Who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has ever seen or can see."

Eternal Life is the gift of God

• Luke 18:30. "Who will not receive manifold more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life."
• John 3:15. "That whoever believes in him may have eternal life."
• John 6:40. "For this is the will of my Father, that every one who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life."
• John 6:47. "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life."
• John 10:28. "And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish."
• John 17:3. "And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God."
• Rom. 2:7. "To those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life."
• Rom. 6:23. "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of god is eternal life."
• 1 Tim. 6:12. "Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life."
• 1 John 2:25. "And this is what he has promised us, eternal life."
• 1 John 5:13. "I write this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life."

Heaven

The Jews believed in seven heavens.

Heaven of the Old Testament

• Deuteronomy 10:14. "Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens."
• 1 Kings 8:49. "Then hear those in heaven thy dwelling place their prayer and their supplication."
• II Chronicles. 2:6. "But who is able to build him a house, since heaven, even highest heaven, cannot contain him?"
• Job 22:12. "Is not God high in the heavens?"

Jesus' teaching about Heaven

• Luke 10:20. "But rejoice that your names are written in heaven."
• Luke 15:7. "There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance."

Heaven in the writings of Paul and the Apostles

• Colossians 1:5. "Because of the hope laid up for you in heaven."
• II Timothy 4:18. "The Lord will rescue me from every evil and save me for his heavenly kingdom."
• Hebrews 12:23. "And to the assembly of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven...and to the spirits of just men made perfect."
• 1 Peter 1:4. "And to an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you."

Hell

Hell in the Old Testament

Old Testament ideas about hell were very indefinite, being centered about the concepts of Shoel and Hades.

• Deuteronomy 32.22. "For a fire is kindled by my anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol."
• Psalm 18:5. "The cords of Sheol entangled me, the snares of death confronted me."
• Psalm 9:17. "The wicked shall depart to Sheol, all the nations that forget God."
• Proverbs 23:14. "If you beat him with the rod you will save his life from Sheol."
• Amos 9:2. "Though they dig into Sheol, from there shall my hand take them."

Hell in the New Testament

• Matthew 5:22. "Whoever insults his brother...and whoever says, "You fool!" shall be liable to the hell of fire."
• Matthew 23:33 "You brood of vipers, who are you to escape being sentenced to hell?"
• Luke 10:15. "And you Capernaum...you shall be brought down to Hades."
• Luke 16:23. "And in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off."
• Hebrews 10:26, 27. "For if we sin deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire which will consume the adversaries."
• James 3:6. "The tongue is a fire. The tongue is an unrighteous world...setting on fire the cycle of nature, and set on fire by hell."
• II Peter 2:4. "For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of nether gloom to be kept until the judgment."

Punishment

Punishment in the Old Testament

The Jews had very hazy ideas regarding punishment in either Sheol or Hades. In general, they believed that both rewards and punishment were received during their mortal lives on earth. Justice among the Jews pertained to restitution and retaliation -- a life for a life. They had no prisons.

• Jeremiah 21:14. "I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, says the Lord."
• Lamentations 3:39. "Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins?"
• Ezekiel 14:10. "And they shall bear their punishment -- the punishment of the prophet and the punishment of the inquirer shall be alike."

Punishment in the New Testament

• Matthew 25:46. "And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." (Note: the good have eternal life. The bad get eternal punishment.)
• Rev. 21:8. "Their lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." (Note: While such punishment is spoken of as "everlasting punishment." at the same time it is referred to as the "second death." It is the result -- not the duration -- of the punishment which is eternal -- even eternal death.)
• Obadiah 16.l "They shall drink, and stagger, and shall be as though they had not been."
• Matthew 25:46. "And they shall go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." (Note: The righteous to eternal life, the wicked to eternal death. Notice again -- 2 Thessalonians. 1:9. "They shall suffer the punishment of eternal destruction and exclusion from the presence of the Lord." Once more: it is the result which is eternal -- not the duration of the punishment.)
• Hebrews 12:29. "For our God is a consuming fire." (Fire is a figure of speech which suggests that all of sin and iniquity will be consumed by fire -- divinity.)
• II Peter 2:9. "The Lord knows how...to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment." (Note: Here is the suggestion of pre-judgment punishment.)

Fire has many meanings in the Bible

• 1. Purification
• 2. Divinity
• 3. Refining (Metaphysical)
• 4. Discipline
• 5. Punishment
• 6. Destruction

See Hebrews 1:7. "Of the angels he says, 'Who makes his angels winds, and his servants flames of fire.'"

Redemption

Redemption in the Old Testament

There are two meanings of redemption in the Bible; Man's act -- like redeeming the land, and God's act -- the plan of salvation.

• Deuteronomy 21:8. "Forgive, O Lord, thy people Israel, whom thou has redeemed."
• Job 33:24. "And he is gracious to him, and says, 'Deliver him from going down into the Pit, I have found a ransom."
• Psalm 19:14. "O Lord, my rock and my redeemer."
• Psalm 103:4. "Who redeems your life from the Pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy."
• Psalm 130:7. "With him is plenteous redemption."
• Isa. 43:14. "Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer." The Old Testament presented God as a vindicator, redeemer, deliverer, and avenger.

Redemption in the New Testament

• Matthew 20:28. "Even as the Son of man came...to give his life as a ransom for many."
• John 10:15. "And I lay down my life for the sheep."
• Romans 3:24. "They are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus."
• Ephesians 1:7. "In him we have redemption through his blood."
• 1 Timothy 2:6. "Who gave himself as a ransom for all."
• Hebrews 9:12. "He entered once for all into the Holy Place, taking...his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption."
• 1 John 3:16. "That he laid down his life for us." Throughout the New Testament Paul's doctrine of the atonement is supported.

The Resurrection

Resurrection in the Old Testament

The resurrection doctrine was a gradual growth among the Jews. It was becoming general by the times of Daniel. But even in Jesus' time the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection.

The Hebrew concept of survival was the continuance of the race -- the nation. It was a reproach to be childless.

• Genesis 30:23. "She conceived and bore a son, and said, 'God has taken away my reproach.'"
• Psalm 17:15. "When I awake, I shall be satisfied."
• Psalm 73:24. "Thou dost guide me with thy counsel, and afterward thou wilt receive me to glory."
• Daniel 12:2. "And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt."

Resurrection in the New Testament

• Matthew 22:23. "The Sadducees came to him, who say there is no resurrection."
• Acts 24:15. "Having a hope in God...that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust."
• Luke 14:14. "You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just."
• Revelation 20:5. "This is the first resurrection."

Paul and the Resurrection

• Acts 26:8. "Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?"
• Acts 24:21. "With respect to the resurrection of the dead I am on trial before you this day."
• I Thessolonians 4:16. "For the Lord himself will descend from heaven...And the dead in Christ will rise first."
• I Corinthians 15:52. "For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed."
• I Corinthians 15:35, 38. "'How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?'...God gives it a body as he has chosen."
• Romans 6:5. "For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his."

Jesus and the Resurrection

• Matthew 22:31. "And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God?"
• John 11:25. "Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life.'"
• Mark 12:25. "When they rise from the dead, they...are like angels in heaven."
• Luke 20:36. "They...are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection."

John 5:28, 29. "The hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment."