First, I’d recommend people read:
I think and hope this answers directly a lot of the questions.
But for those looking for a longer list of biblical references, you’ve come to the right place.
Here are some Scriptures that I believe speak to eternal judgment, which includes hell and heaven in the afterlife.
List of Scriptures Speaking to Judgment That Continues After We Die
- 1 Sam. 28
- Ecclesiastes 3:18-21; 12:6-7
- Is. 14:3-11
- Is. 26:14, 19
- Ezekiel 32:17-32
- Dan. 12:2
- Mt. 3:12
- Mt. 8:12
- Mt. 13:24-30, 36-43, 47-50
- Mt. 17:3
- Mt. 18:8
- Mt. 22:13
- Mt. 25
- Mk 9:42-50
- Lk. 10:13-15
- Lk. 16:19-31
- Jn. 5:28-29
- Ro. 2:1-11
- 1 Cor. 3:13
- 2 Cor. 5:10
- 2 Thes. 1:8-10
- Heb. 6:2 – Res. of Dead and Eternal Judgment are foundational to Judaism and Christianity
- Heb. 9:27
- Heb. 10:27-29
- 1 Pet 3:18-20
- 2 Pet. 2:4-11
- 2 Pet 3:1-13
- Jude 7, 14-15
- Rev. 2:11
- Rev. 14:9-11
- Rev. 19:1-3
- Rev. 20 – notice also that death and Hades/Sheol (which is “the place of the dead”) are placed into somewhere new: the lake of fire
- Rev. 21:8
Overly Quick Response to Those Teaching Otherwise (e.g. in “Love Wins”)
- Don’t pull Scriptures (and interpretations) out of context
- It is true that the biblical emphasis is on death vs. life in the Bible. But heaven is seen as being in the immediate presence of God (thus, eternal life), and hell is seen as the second death (Rev. 20:14). So, it’s still a matter of life vs. death, only the stakes are higher–now we’re talking about perpetual and eternal life at the highest level vs. perpetual and eternal dying/death at the lowest level
- Appealing to a Greek or Hebrew word here or there to win your argument frustrates me, honestly. Bible translations are made up of teams of the best scholars in the world (with varied beliefs), and yet they all come up with the same english translation. But then Rob Bell (or whoever) comes along and say, “they’re all wrong”. plus…go to stepbible.org. it gives a tool to help silence the foolish arguments. For instance, Matt. 25:46 says “everlasting”, and some claim that it is a finite time period. Yet, the same word is used to describe God and the Spirit. Are they not eternal? Let the Bible’s usage of the word dictate it’s meaning. The same could be said about “sozo”, but don’t get me started on that right now (except to say that the word is also used when they were saved from a shipwreck…is that part of our salvation at the cross, too? ugh…just because a word could have a wide range of meaning doesn’t mean it does have the entire scope of meaning every time it’s used)
- Hades does often mean the netherworld or place of the dead, and is used in a neutral sense. However, it is also used clearly as a place reserved specifically for wicked, too (again, use stepbible.org to see that). it’s like the word “law”. it could mean the whole Old Testament, or only the first 5 books. Context determines it.
- Look out for really sweeping statements regarding “all of the Scripture” or “all of the church” etc. People need to be careful when determining what was/wasn’t a prevalent view of history. We seriously have such a small percentage of artifacts from different time periods, and can’t know with certainty what the prevalent view was/wasn’t.
- I don’t understand how people claiming they’ve prayed and searched with an open-mind come to the conclusion that hell as conscious, eternal punishment is foreign to Scripture. Look at the Scriptures above. Consider passages such as Luke 16, which seems such an obvious passage about the rich man and lazarus. We have someone consciously suffering for deeds done in this lifetime. Pretty straightforward.
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