Lazarus and the Rich Man
By Herbert W. Armstrong
Do
people burn forever in a Hell-fire? DO SAVED mothers up in heaven see the
writhing and hear the shrieks of their own lost children down in hell?
STOP AND THINK! Would you really want to
spend eternity in a heaven where you would be forced to gaze constantly upon
your own loved ones who were lost, hearing them frantically screaming to you
for help you would be unable to give, gazing constantly upon their
indescribable agony, as they, on fire, are burning--burning to death-- yet
never really burning up? Would you be happy?
Yet that is exactly the kind of heaven
that is being pictured by most of the churches and the clergy! They rely more
on Jesus account of Lazarus and the Rich Man than any other argument to support
their teaching that the "saved" go instantly, at death, to heaven
while the lost leave their bodies and are plunged into an ever-burning inferno
of eternal torture.
What the Bible SAYS
Those who deny going to heaven or to hell
at the instant of death have said the account of Lazarus and the rich man was
merely a parable. But the "immortal soul" advocates insist this is
not a parable! Jesus was stating facts that had happened, they argue.
So lets pretend
this was not a parable. Let s take it literally. Jesus surely meant exactly
what He said. But He did not say what is popularly believed!
Jesus said, "There was a certain rich
man." Then there really was a certain rich man! Jesus said definitely that
this particular rich man "was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared
sumptuously every day." He really lived in luxury and splendour! (Luke
16:19)
Also, Jesus said, "there was a
certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate full of sores, and
desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich mans table:
moreover the dogs came and licked his sores." (Verses 20-21.)
Yes, there were many such beggars in
What Happened?
Next Jesus described what happened to
them.
"And it came to pass, that the beggar
died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also
died and was buried." (Verse 22.) They both died.
That is exactly what Jesus said. Now read
that again. Did Jesus say the beggar went to heaven?
He certainly did not! He said the beggar
"was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom."
Did the Beggar Go to Heaven?
Now what is a "bosom"? If you
can find what a "bosom" is, and in this case Abraham's bosom, you
will know where the beggar was taken.
Look in your dictionary. A
"bosom" is the breast of a human being, with the arms as an
enclosure; a loving embrace by the arms of one person about another; an
intimate relationship.
So Lazarus was carried into an intimate
relationship with Abraham.
Lazarus here is pictured as a Gentile, who
received salvation. Do Gentiles, upon being converted and becoming Christ's,
enter into any intimate relationship to Abraham? They certainly do! To the
Gentile-born Galatians, the Scriptures written by Paul say definitely:
"And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed (children), and heirs
according to the promise." (Gal. 3:29.)
Thru Christ they become the children of
Abraham. Thru faith we all become "the children of Abraham." (Gal.
3:7.) That is an intimate relationship with Abraham. That is being taken into
Abraham's bosom!
Now Abraham is an HEIR of God. God gave
Abraham a PROMISE. Notice (Gal.
The PROMISE Was Not Heaven!
Now what did God promise Abraham? To what
promise was this beggar now an heir? Did God promise Abraham and his children
HEAVEN?
Let's not put any interpretation upon the
sacred Word of God. No scripture is of any private interpretation it is interpreted
by other Scriptures. It ought not to be interpreted by man.
To learn what God promised Abraham, we
must turn back to Genesis 12.
"And Abram took Sarai his wife,...and they went forth to go into the
The
Again, later, God promised Abraham:
"For all the LAND which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy
seed FOREVER." (Gen. 13:15.)
Again, still later: "In the same day
the Eternal made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this
land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates."
(Gen. 15:18.) Here God wrote into the agreement, or the title to the property,
the very boundary line of the property. Of course the expression "thy
seed" refers in particular to Christ, but since this beggar was Christ's,
he, also, was "Abraham's seed, and heir according to the promise."
The PROMISE was not heaven. The promise
was the
Only an Heir!
Now notice an important point. The beggar
was carried by the angels into Abraham's BOSOM-- that is, by Bible explanation,
he became one of Abraham's children, and therefore he became an HEIR to inherit
the LAND ON THIS EARTH and ETERNAL LIFE. He was not yet a possessor--not yet an
inheritor--merely an HEIR!
The next question is,
when was this beggar to inherit to come into possession of ETERNAL LIFE in THE
PROMISED LAND? Jesus, in telling about Lazarus and the rich man, did not cover
that point. He only told what happened, not when. We must find the answer, not
in human imagination or the false teaching of man, but IN THE BIBLE!
The son, who is heir to his father’s
property, cannot come into possession of it before his father inherits it. This
beggar, carried into the intimate relationship of a son of Abraham, could not
inherit either eternal LIFE, or this LAND, prior to the time his father Abraham
receives these promises.
When, then, did Abraham actually receive
these promises? The startling answer of Scripture is--HE DIDN'T! -- he has not,
even yet in our day, inherited these promises!
WHEN We Inherit the Promises
Scripture reveals the answer thru the
inspired speech of the very first Christian martyr, Stephen, who was stoned to
death for these very words.
It is in Acts 7: "And he said, Men,
brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our Father
Abraham . . . and said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy
kindred, and come into THE LAND which I will show thee. Then came
he out of the land of the Chaldeans . . . into this land, wherein ye now dwell.
(
Again this amazing fact is stated in the
FAITH chapter Hebrews 11: "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out
into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; . . . By
faith he sojourned in the LAND of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in
tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: . . .
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them
afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that
they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." (Heb. 11:8-13.)
Abraham died, but has not to this day
inherited the promises!
Abraham died, and was still DEAD, not
living on earth or in heaven or anywhere, but was still DEAD, at the time of
Christ's earthly ministry. We read in John 8:52, "Abraham is dead".
At that time-- centuries after he died, Abraham WAS DEAD! He is still dead
today. When, then, is he to inherit the promises?
At the time of the RESURRECTION of the
just, of course! The
"For the Lord Himself
shall descend from heaven . . . and the dead in Christ shall rise first."
(I Thes. 4:16.) Human mortals, in Christ, living and dead, receive eternal
life-- immortality-- the PROMISES God made to Abraham at Christ's Second
Coming. That is when they shall put on immortality! "Flesh and blood
(human mortals) cannot inherit the
Again, notice when Abraham and all his
children co-heirs are finally to inherit the promises-- the
"When the Son of man shall come in
His glory, and all the holy angels with Him,"--notice, this is the Second
Coming of Christ--and all the ANGELS come with Him "THEN shall He sit upon
the throne of His glory: . . . THEN"--and not until then--"shall the
King say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, INHERIT
THE KINGDOM prepared for you from the foundation of the world." (Mat.
25:31-34.)
Jesus said Abraham would receive the
promises, including eternal life, thru the RESURRECTION: "But as touching
the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you
by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." (Mat.
Jesus told the Pharisees they would see
Abraham in the Kingdom (Luke
Carried by Angels
Now again let s get back to what Jesus
said about Lazarus in Luke. Jesus said this beggar died. So, like Abraham, he
is STILL DEAD!
But Jesus said that, after he died, "he was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom." We
now know that WHERE he was carried was not up to heaven, but into the status of
a son and heir of Abraham, to inherit THE LAND on this earth, and ETERNAL LIFE
upon it, at the time his father Abraham comes into his inheritance--at the time
of the Resurrection.
But notice, Lazarus is to be carried there
by the angels!
When do the angels come down from heaven?
In Matthew 25:31, quoted above, we saw that it was at the Second Coming of
Christ-- at the time of the RESURRECTION!
Again, Scripture reveals: Christ shall
"send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather
together His elect from the four winds"-- out of their graves in a
RESURRECTION. (Mat. 24:31.) The TIME when the angels carry Lazarus and the
saints into sharing the INHERITANCE with Abraham-- into Abraham's bosom-- is
the time of the RESURRECTION! Lazarus is to be resurrected, and carried by the
angels thru the air to meet Christ, at His return, and to be with Abraham, in
the intimate relationship of father and son! Yes, HOW PLAIN! Lazarus will then
enjoy the fond embrace of his father thru Christ, Abraham--both then
resurrected and LIVING forevermore, in the promised LAND, then inherited!
There is no doubt as to how the Bible uses
the word "bosom." Turn to Isaiah 40:11. Here God will care for His
people as a shepherd does for his sheep, which He will carry "in His
bosom." Jesus was "in the bosom" of the Father (John
The Fate of the Rich Man
Now let's see what happened to the rich
man-- and when!
Jesus said of him: "
… rich man also died, and was buried." (Luke 16:22.) Jesus did not
say the rich man was taken immediately at that time to an eternally burning
hell. He did not say the body was buried but that the rich man himself was
plunged immediately into a burning hell. He said the rich man died--and the
rich man, himself, was buried.
Now one would hardly say of one being put
into the burning caldron luridly described as the imaginary hell that the act
of throwing one into that burning region was a BURYING of the person, would he?
One is not buried unless he is covered up.
People are buried in a grave, and covered
with earth. But the imaginary hell that was invented by Dante Alighieri
accepted by the Roman Catholic Church and later by most Protestants is never
pictured as a place of BURIAL! But this rich man died and was buried! He,
himself, was buried - -not a "house" he had lived in. JESUS SAID
so--read it in your Bible! The rich MAN was buried!
What Kind of Hell?
In the next verse, Jesus said, "And
in hell he lifted up his eyes." (v. 23.)
So the rich man was in a place called
hell, after all, wasn't he? And in this hell he "lifted up his eyes."
His eyes had been closed, in death, and now there came a time when they
opened--he "lifted up his eyes!"
What kind of hell is this?
Startling though it may be, the rich man
was buried in the same kind of "hell" Jesus was buried in! Yes, Jesus
died and was buried-- and in “hell!"
In the first inspired sermon preached by
Peter on the day the New Testament Church started, Peter said: "He (David)
seeing this be fore spake of the RESURRECTION of Christ, that His soul was not
left IN HELL, neither his flesh did see corruption." (Acts
Jesus, too, died and was buried. And in
"hell" He, too, lifted up His eyes-- WHEN HE WAS RESURRECTED!
Now let me explain that, and make it
plain!
The New Testament was written in the Greek
language. Your Bible is a translation in the English language. In the English
language your Bible probably reads "And in hell he lifted up his
eyes." However, in the original Greek in which the New Testament was
written there are three different Greek words, each having a totally different
meaning, but all three of which were translated into the "King James"
and Catholic translations by the English word "hell."
One of the Greek words is
"tartaros," which refers only to the present condition of darkness,
or perversion, and of restraint, of the fallen angels, or demons. Another is
"Gehenna," a place at the bottom of a high ledge at the south end of
But this rich man was not buried in that
"hell." He was not in "Gehenna." The third, and most
commonly used Greek word was written here by Luke-- "Hades." And
"Hades" means THE GRAVE--a place of BURIAL in the ground!
When the King James translation of the
Bible was made, Englishmen spoke commonly of "putting their potatoes in
hell for the winter." They buried them in the ground!
This is the "hell" Jesus was
buried in--the "hell" His soul was not left in-- the grave, or tomb,
from which He was RESURRECTED! And this, Hades, was also the "hell"
in which the rich man was BURIED!
WHEN Did He Open His Eyes?
Now once again, Jesus did not say when
this rich man, "in hell," lifted up his eyes. Jesus pictured him as
one of the wicked, or lost. We must look to other Scriptures to tell us when
the unjust will lift up their eyes in their graves.
Daniel speaks of the resurrection of the
just, and of the unjust: "And many of them that sleep (their eyes closed)
in the dust of the earth (their graves-- buried--in "Hades" ), shall awake (lift up their eyes) some to everlasting
life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." (Dan. 12:2.)
Jesus said: " . . . the hour is
coming, in which all that are in the graves (the original Greek word Jesus used
is "hades") shall hear His voice, and shall
come forth: they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they
that have done evil (including the rich man), unto the RESURRECTION of
judgment." (John 5:28-29.)
Here Jesus speaks of two different,
separate resurrections. Quoted above are Scriptures showing that the "dead
in Christ" are to be resurrected AT HIS SECOND COMING. In I Cor. 15:22-24,
we read that ALL are to be resurrected but in an order of different
resurrections--Christ Himself, 1900 years ago; afterward, in a different
resurrection, "they that are Christ's at His coming," and then
"cometh the end,"--indicating the resurrection of the unjust later.
In Rev. 20:4 we read of the resurrection
of those in Christ at His coming. But Rev. 20:5 says: "But the rest of the
dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished." So the
resurrection of the rich man and all the unjust or unsaved will take place
after the millennium! It is pictured and described in Rev. 20:11-12.
So, while Jesus in speaking about the rich
man and Lazarus did not say when the rich man will open his eyes and be
resurrected out of his grave, other Scriptures do reveal that it will be after
the millennium!
Are the Dead Conscious?
Notice, now, Lazarus, with Abraham and all
the saints who are Abraham's children, are to be resurrected at the time of
Christ's coming. They shall live thru the millennium. But the rest of the dead
shall not live until the thousand years are past. The rich man, then, will not
come back to life until a thousand years after Abraham, Lazarus, and all who
are Christ's, have been made alive.
Will this rich man be conscious of the
great lapse of time?
Your Bible says, if you will believe what
it says, "For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not
anything . . . for the memory of them is forgotten" (Eccl. 9:5) -- that
is, there is no longer any conscious memory. They are totally unconscious! Job
speaks of a dead man and says: "His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it
not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them." (Job
Many times people have died, and by the
drug adrenaline or other methods the heart has been started beating again.
Always they say they were totally unconscious--no dreams--no knowledge-- just a
total blank.
The rich man, then, at the time of his
resurrection, after the millennium, will come to consciousness, open, or lift
up, his eyes, knowing absolutely nothing of the hours, days, and years since he
died. To him it will be the next fraction of a second from the time he died. It
will SEEM to him as if he had gone immediately to this state or condition in
which he finds himself rising up out of the grave.
What Is This FLAME?
But when he is resurrected, he sees a
flame which torments him. What is this?
Now Jesus did, on other occasions, speak
of perishing and being destroyed in "Gehenna FIRE." What is this? It
is described in Rev. 20:14-15, as a "lake of fire."
Scripture everywhere describes the final
fate of the wicked as being burned up by fire. It is this "lake of
fire," which is "the second death," from which there shall be no
resurrection! The PUNISHMENT is death by fire! They remain forever DEAD! This
death is for ALL ETERNITY-- ETERNAL PUNISHMENT--but is not eternal punishing!
Now, opening his eyes in his grave, this
rich man SEES Abraham, and Lazarus in his "bosom"-- his embrace! Yes,
Jesus told the Pharisees that they would SEE Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the
Kingdom and they themselves thrust out! This rich man sees them! He also sees
this awful flame of fire -- this
What happens when one is suddenly so
horrified with fear? His mouth goes dry. His tongue sticks to his mouth and
throat!
The rich man cries out in this mental
agony: "Father Abraham have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip
the tip of his finger in water, and cool my TONGUE; for I am tormented in this
flame."
Now if the rich man were in the kind of
"hell" most people seem to believe, his whole body would be on
fire--you would think he would have called for at least a bucket of water to
put out the fire, wouldn't you?
Look at this!
How much water did he call for? He said to
Abraham: " . . . send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in
water." Just a couple of drops that's all the water he requested! Doesn't
that strike you as strange?
Why did he call for water? To put out the
fires of all "hell"?--the kind of hell people would have you believe
he was in? Ah, no! He only wanted a mere couple of drops of water on Lazarus
finger--WHY?--"to COOL MY TONGUE!" That's what the rich man said!
Open your own Bible again, and read it!
The flame, he said, was
"tormenting" him. This word "tormented," used in verses 24
and 25 is translated from the original Greek word "odunasai." This is
defined in Liddell & Scott's Greek-English Lexicon as "to cause pain,
to pain, distress: From 'ODUNH' pain of body, but also, 2, of mind, grief,
distress."
Why, of course! This rich man opens his
eyes in his grave in a resurrection. He is resurrected MORTAL, just as he was
before he died--not immortal like Lazarus! He sees this lake of fire. Now he
knows the frightful, the AWFUL doom he is to be thrust into--to be burned
up--destroyed! He is suffering mental anguish such as he never experienced in
his life-time. HIS TONGUE IS DRY. He breaks out in cold sweat. He cries for a little
water on the tip of Lazarus finger TO COOL HIS TONGUE! He is in a condition of
WEEPING and GNASHING OF TEETH!
The Final Hell Fire
Now once again READ IN YOUR BIBLE! Read
exactly what Jesus said, not what the "hell-fire" preachers have told
you He said! Did Jesus say this rich man was going to suffer endlessly and
forever--always burning-- being on fire--yet never burning up! DID HE? Of
course not!
There is not one word here about how long
his anguish is to last.
Jesus was saying these things to the Pharisees
(verse 14). What did He want to make them understand, when He gave this account
about Lazarus and the rich man? Jesus answers this question for us in Luke
13:27,28 where He said to these same Pharisees:
"Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and
gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the
prophets, in the
The wicked are going to be cast into the
lake of fire! When they lift up their eyes in their resurrection, they shall
KNOW that they are doomed, now to be cast into the lake of fire to be burned
up!
This rich man cried out for help because
of his mental and physical anguish-- KNOWING what was now to befall him! He
knew he was GUILTY! When a man realizes he is guilty, and faces his just and
terrible retribution, the very first part of the body to be affected is the
tongue, which dries out-- seems to be on fire!
What is the
But Abraham and Lazarus were afar off, and
no water was brought. The rich man had to suffer mentally for his sins. He had
had his reward, in the material things he sought and craved, during his mortal
life-time.
There is a great gulf fixed between this
doomed sinner and all the glorified saints in God's Kingdom.
What is that great GULF?
The gulf mentioned by Abraham which
prevents the wicked from escaping death by hell-fire, and which also keeps the
righteous from being burned, is immortality. Those who are immortal shall never
die because they are born of God. (Rev. 20:6). But human beings who have not
been begotten and born by the Spirit of God are still flesh, subject to
corruption and death. They can be burned by fire.
Don't forget, this is a literal fire and
the rich man is a human being composed of flesh and blood. Only the saved
possess immortality as the gift of God (
There is a period of torture during which
the fire consumes the body before the person dies. Then what about this rich
man? Jesus didn't say he was immortal, for if he were he would be spirit and
flames do not burn spirit. Fire is a physical process. It is combustion of
matter.
The rich man is a physical person as you
and I.
Not Completed
And Jesus leaves us in this account, with
the rich man hearing the words of Abraham in his mind or conscience and
tormented by the flames that are billowing about his body.
A human body doesn't burn forever. It
finally turns to ashes in a fire. Therefore we must go to other verses of the
Bible to find out exactly what did happen after the short conversation
recorded.
Matthew
Again in Matthew
When God punishes the wicked the fire will
be unquenchable! But that doesn't say it won't burn itself out when it has
nothing more to burn. An unquenchable fire can't be put out, but it can burn
itself out when it has consumed everything.
Malachi 4:1,3 speaks of this fire that
will burn the rich man: "For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as
an oven; and all t he proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble:
and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it
shall leave them neither root nor branch. And ye shall tread down the wicked;
for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do
this."
That is the end of the wicked! They shall
perish and not be any more. "Into smoke shall they consume away."
(Psalm 37:20).
The rich man then, being mortal flesh, is
going to burn up after being tormented in the flame. He is going to die the
second death. (Rev. 20:14). The wages of sin is death, not endless torment.
(Rom.
The Rich Man's Brothers
The rich man at last realized he was
DOOMED! He now comprehended the gulf that existed between him and those who had
been made immortal. Abraham had made clear the utter impossibility of the rich
man crossing that gulf into immortality. He had had his chance during his
life-time. He had passed it up for this world s material riches and pleasures.
There was no hope for him. He was now DOOMED to perish in this lake of fire.
His last thought flashed finally to his
five brothers. He gave one last cry to Abraham, begging him to send Lazarus to
his father s house to plead with his brothers, lest they come to his terrible
fate. Abraham replied they had the writings of Moses and the prophets. But the
rich man realized they would not hear these Scriptures.
"Nay, Father Abraham," he
screamed, "but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent!"
(Verse 30).
The rich man knew Lazarus was RAISED FROM
THE DEAD! This one statement proves that the whole experience of Lazarus and
the rich man was given by Jesus to SHOW THE TRUTH OF THE RESURRECTION--not to
teach any immediate going to "heaven" or "hell" at the
instant of death.
Abraham replied, "If they hear not
Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one ROSE from
the dead." (verse 31).
THERE IT IS! In plain language! The
experience of Lazarus and the rich man shows the RESURRECTION from the
dead--not an instantaneous going to "heaven" or "hell." It
is a resurrection from THE DEAD--not from life. It shows MORTALITY which dies,
and is DEAD not immortality which never loses consciousness and lives forever
in an eternal punishing of the imaginary "hell." Jesus was showing a
RESURRECTION--or bringing back to life of one who was DEAD--of one who had no
consciousness whatever of the lapse of centuries and millenniums since his
death.
Far from illustrating immortality of the
soul and the lurid eternally burning torture of Dante's fabled
"hell," Jesus illustrates DEATH--total UNCONSCIOUSNESS thru the
centuries,--RESURRECTION from death and restoration of consciousness,--and,
finally, the SECOND DEATH in the lake of fire that shall totally destroy the
wicked in which they PERISH and become ashes under the soles of the feet of the
saved--the eternal punishment of DEATH--eternal DEATH--the SECOND death!
The Warning for YOU!
Finally, what is the REAL LESSON?
Jesus was preaching the Gospel of the
The Apostle Paul plainly tells us that the
New Testament Church of God is BUILT upon the FOUNDATION of the apostles and
the PROPHETS, Jesus Christ being the chief corner stone. (Eph. 2:20). Jesus
said, "I will build my Church." Paul reveals it was built on the
foundation of the PROPHETS as well as the apostles!
Jesus here teaches YOU that if you refuse
to hear Moses and the PROPHETS--and Moses was one of the prophets--you have no
hope of salvation! The SCRIPTURES (Old Testament as well as New), according to
II Tim.
Those who teach that the Commandments of
God are done away teach a message of DOOM! Those who teach the pagan doctrine
of the immortality of the soul going off to "heaven" at death, or
eternal punishing--teach contrary to what Jesus SAID!
May YOU take heed, and hear ALL the Word
of God!