The Bible often implies the possibility of a second chance for the evil dead who lack a relationship with Christ. I will begin with 4 biblical examples of soul retrievals from Hades and then expand on these in future threads with several other relevant texts.

(1) "He (Christ) went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey...(1 Peter 3:18-20)."

Here "prison" is Peter's metaphor for Hades, the abode of the wicked dead at the time of Noah. Peter is setting up His image of the Great Flood as a symbol of baptism. Jesus' proclamation assumes that the trapped dead have a chance to respond to His proclamation and thus be "retrieved" from Hades to Paradise. The anticipated positive response to Christ's preaching implies the possibility of soul retrievals from Hades and the inevitability of positive responses is made explicit in 4:6, which does not explicitly restrict this retrieval work to Jesus:

"The Gospel was proclaimed even to the dead, so that, though they had been judged in the flesh, as everyone is judged, they might live in the spirit as God does (4:6)."
"
(3) "...so that God may be everything to everyone. Otherwise, what will those people do who receive baptism in behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf (1 Corinthians 15:29)."

Here Paul declares God's ultimate goal of being "everything to everyone." Then he argues that if this was not God's ultimate goal and destiny, there would be no point to the Christian practice of proxy baptism for the unrighteous dead. By implication, this ritual, combined with prayers for soul retrievals from Hades, is a small part of the process by which God ultimately saves the unrighteous dead.

(4) The Jewish background of proxy baptism for the unsaved dead is 2 Maccabees 12:38-45 in the Catholic OT, a text that describes how the Jewish freedom fighter, Judas Maccabaeus, reacts to dead Jewish soldiers who have been found with tokens of idolatry. Judas pays for atoning sacrifices to be made for these sinners in the Jerusalem Temple. These sacrifices are reinforced by prayers for their retrieval from Hades.

"For if he were not expecting that those who had fallen would rise again,it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead.  Therefore, he made atonement for the dead, so that they might be lielievered from their sin (12:44-46).



.





. .

Vince, let me give your 7 NT texts that decisively favor the view that believers survive death, fully conscious:

(1) Jesus' word from the cross to the dying thief implies that both Jesus and the thief will be alive and conscious in Paradise: "Truly I tell you, TODAY you will be with me in Paradise (Luke 23:42-43)."

(2) Jesus' Parable of the Rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-32) presumes that both Lazarus and the rich man are alive and available for dialogue in the postmortem state.

(3) Jesus teaching in Mark 12:26-27 makes it clear that God IS (not "was") the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and draws the inference that these 3 long deceased OT Patriarchs are presently alive:

"Have you not read in the Book of Moses the story about the Bush, how God said to him, "I AM the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?"  He is not the God of the dead, but of the living."

(4) Jesus refutes the doctrine of soul sleep in His reassuring word to Mary: "Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die (John 11:26)."

(5) In Revelation 6:9-10  deceased Christian martyrs are alive in heaven and ask God how long they must  wait to be vindicated. 

(6) For Paul, to be absent from the body is not to enter the oblivion of soul sleep, but to be present with the Lord:
"We would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8)."

(7) From the perspective of bliss, Paul would rather die, but he recognizes that his converts need His earthly ministry:

"I am hard pressed between the two (choices).  My desire is to depart and be with Christ; for that is far better; but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you (Philippians 1:23-24)."

Soul sleep should be understood as a metaphor for death, not as a metaphor for an unconscious state.  I could discuss several issues about these texts, but their collective force offers a compelling case for immediate postmortem survival.

The Book of Revelation implies a second postmortem chance for the salvation of the damned in various ways.  For example, 21:15 offers a symbolic vision of a "New Jerusalem" hovering above the Earth.  There are 2 compelling details about this vision: (1) The doors of he heavenly city are never shut--a symbol of constant traffic coming and going.  But coming and going for what purpose and on what mission?  22:15 tells us that what lies outside the heavenly city are the evil dead.  The implication is obvious: the evil dead are given the chance to become spiritually transformed and enter the permanently open gates of the heavenly city; and saints can leave the city for missions directed at the wicked dead.  The prospect of soul retrievals seems implicit here, though retrievals are not explicitly mentioned.  As famed Christian author, C. S. Lewis, eloquently puts it, "The gates of Hell are locked from the inside." 

The next 2 Christian apocalypses--the Apocalypse of Peter (125 AD) and the Sibylline Oracles II (150 AD) reinforce this claim.  In Apocalypse of Peter 14 and the Christian Sibylline Oracles II: 331-335 we learn that heaven cannot be fully heaven for the saints with the knowledge that so many are excluded in hellish consignment.  So the saints complain about this and intercede with God to retrieve the lost.  Their request is granted, though precisely how is not made clear.  But these ensuing apocalypses establish a contemporary mindset implying the possibility of interpreting the eternally open gates as a metaphor for the possibility of retrievals from Hades. 

Several more texts will be offered in support of this claim in future posts.

Vince: "So from the perspective of this interpretation, what is made of verses which indicate judgement immediately after death, like Hebrews 9:27?"

"It is appointed unto mortals once to die and after that the judgment (Hebrews 9:27)."

Most evangelicals assume that "the judgment" is the last word, but I ask, "What happens after the judgment?  John's allusion to Hell as "a second death" (20:24; 21:8) implies our first death and  John's reference to a "first resurrection" (20:5-6) implies a 2nd resurrection.  We might expect the sequential pattern, first death--first resurrection, 2nd death--2nd resurrection.   But John never identifies this 2nd resurrection, perhaps because he is angry at his persecutors and begrudges them a postmortem hope.  The gathering of the righteous and unrighteous for the Last Judgment does not use resurrection language or the language of ascent (20:11-15).  So scholars have proposed that the 2nd resurrection is out of "the lake of fire" into Heaven, the New Jerusalem. This interpretation fits neatly with John's image of the New Jerusalem's eternally open gates.  Keep in mind that the Hebrew ("olam") and Greek ("aionios") words translated "eternal in fact only mean "for an indefinite period of time."    

Vince, in my experience, most opponents of my more inclusive perspective don't analyze all the texts relevant to our ultimate fate.  In my next post, I will discuss yet another text in the Book of Revelation that seems to point to the possibility of soul retrievals. 

TheDonald wrote on May 20^th, 2017 at 7:14pm:


Some people usually new age believe after death everyone goes to heaven, even the likes of Hitler or Stalin.If that were true, which it is not we can do just anything in the school of life no matter how evil and depraved and never face the judgement of Almighty God.

That is a blaspheming belief, we have this life as a gift from our beautiful but Holy God and at the last day we will all account for what we have done both good and bad as well as what we should have done but did not do.

It is a fact that there are many hellish realms in the afterlife and also heavenly realms in which we move closer and closer to being perfected by the Holy God of light

Blessings

Alan

TheDonald wrote on May 3^rd, 2017 at 5:51pm:



Jesus does indicate albeit indirectly that there is forgiveness after death.

When he spoke about the unforgivable sin he used a disclaimer by saying

Jesus said

There is a sin for which there is no forgiveness in this life or the next.

By proxy that means that although the sin he was talking about had no forgiveness there were sins that could be forgiven in the next life or more bluntly out after death

Alan
.