When people speak of heaven and Hades, they often base their speaking on verses that are inaccurately used. Many people say that after the Lord ascended to heaven, the Paradise of Hades was also moved to heaven. Based upon this, they conclude that ever since the Lord’s death and resurrection, the souls and spirits of dead believers also go to heaven. In the previous message we studied almost all the verses that these ones use as their basis. As a result, we found that not one of these verses clearly states that the souls and spirits of dead believers go to heaven. We saw that this argument is based merely on inferences. Therefore, we must continue to search the Scriptures to see where the spirits and souls of dead believers go.
John 3:13, which was spoken by the Lord Jesus while He was on the earth as the Son of Man, says, “And no one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.” While the Lord was on the earth, He said that no one had ascended to heaven. This indicates that all the spirits and souls of the saints who died in the Old Testament did not go to heaven, because no one other than the Lord had ever ascended to heaven. These words prove that the concept commonly held by many people concerning heaven is incorrect. Some people may point out that Enoch and Elijah were taken by God and that they must have been taken to heaven where God dwells. But the Lord’s words in John 3 prove that such an inference is not accurate. Enoch and Elijah were taken by God from the earth, but where God put them is not for us to know.
From John 3:13 we can see that God did not put the spirits and souls of these two men in the place where He dwells. We have already said that God’s dwelling place is the third heaven. The Lord said in verse 13 that no one has ascended into heaven. Heaven in this verse refers to the third heaven where God dwells, because that is the place that the Lord descended from. Since this is the heaven from which the Lord descended, this is also the heaven where God dwells. The Lord said that up to that point no one had entered into heaven. This tells us that neither Enoch nor Elijah ascended to heaven.
If this is true, then where did God put them? If they were not put in the third heaven where God dwells, where else could they have been put? The Lord clearly said that no one other than the Son of Man had ever ascended into heaven. This indicates that Enoch and Elijah never went to the third heaven where God dwells. This amply proves that there must be another place besides the third heaven where God is. It is in this other place that God must have placed Enoch and Elijah. In any case, the Bible clearly indicates that they were not put in the third heaven where God dwells.
Acts 2:31 through 32 speaks of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. This was prophesied in Psalm 16, one of David’s psalms, which prophesied that after the Lord went to Hades, God would cause Him to rise and come out of Hades. Acts 2:31 says that David, “seeing this beforehand, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that neither was He abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption.” There are two points of significance here. First, the Lord must have descended to Hades, because if He had not, it would have been unnecessary to say that He would not be abandoned to Hades. Second, in His resurrection the Lord must have come out of Hades. Only by coming out of Hades could the word concerning His not being abandoned to Hades be fulfilled.
In Psalm 16 David prophesied that the Lord’s body would not see corruption after death. This was a proof that the Lord would be resurrected soon after His death. If He had been raised after three months or one year, His body would have been corrupted. Instead, only three days after His death He was resurrected. Therefore, His body did not see corruption. Acts 2:32 says, “This Jesus God has raised up.” From the context we can see that the resurrection includes the spirit and soul coming out from Hades and the body coming out from the tomb. After the Lord Jesus resurrected, He ascended to heaven. From John 3 we can clearly see that at the time the Lord was on the earth no one had ascended to heaven. Only after the Lord Jesus resurrected could one say that a man had ascended to heaven, and that man was Jesus the Nazarene.