QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Q1. If the rich man was already in Hell and in torment, would he
still
have to be judged? It seems like his being in
Hell was already his
judgement.
A2. The question comes from the account given by Jesus of the
Rich man
and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31. In verses 22 and
23 it mentions that
the rich man "... was in hell and lifted
up his eyes, being in
torments...". The word translated as Hell
in the English is really
Hades in the Greek. It means, "the region
of departed spirits of the
lost ..." (Vines Expository Dictionary of
New Testament Words). We do
not know why the King James translators did
this, as the rendering of
Hades as Hell complicates our understanding.
Hell is actually the
eternal resting place of those judged by God
as disobedient. Hades
is a place where both the obedient and
disobedient reside, though
there is a gulf between the two which
prohibits either from crossing
over to the other side. (See Luke 16:26)
We learn from Hebrews 9:27 that Judgement does
follow after death.
We learn from Revelation 20:10-15 that those
who are dead are to be
judged after their death. We have noticed from
Luke 16 that there are
two places in Hades, that of rest and that of
torment. Those whose
names were not written in the Book of Life
were cast into the "lake of
fire" (20:15). This is described in verse
14 as "the second death".
The sequence of events seems to take the
following form. First, a
person dies. Then, they go to Hades where they
await the final
judgement. After the final judgement they then
go to either Heaven or
Hell. Although one should know for sure at the
point that they are in
Hades what their eventual outcome should be,
it is not until after
this that the final judgment is given. In one
sense we can say for
those who have departed this life that they
have gone onto their
final reward, as God knows at death what that
reward will be. Still,
He reserves the right to declare it at a later
time. [JW]