Was Abraham and Lazarus in Hell Before Jesus Came and Took Them Out?
1) Direct Answer
No. Abraham and Lazarus were not in the torment of hell. They were in Paradise—“Abraham’s bosom”—a place of comfort in the lower parts of the earth, separated from the place of torment by a great gulf. After His death, Jesus descended there and then led the saints out when He rose.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- Luke 16 shows two places in the unseen world: the rich man “in torments,” and Lazarus comforted in Abraham’s bosom, with “a great gulf fixed” between them. That’s not the burning hell for the righteous; it’s Paradise.
- Jesus said to the thief, “Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). He went to Paradise after death.
- He said He would be “in the heart of the earth” three days and nights (Matthew 12:40). Paul says He “descended first into the lower parts of the earth,” then “ascended up on high, He led captivity captive” (Ephesians 4:8–10).
- Peter says He “preached unto the spirits in prison” (1 Peter 3:19). He announced His finished work; the damned remained where they were, but the redeemed were delivered.
- When He rose, “many bodies of the saints…arose, and came out of the graves…and appeared unto many” (Matthew 27:52–53). That shows the Old Testament saints were brought up.
- Before Calvary the way into the holiest was “not yet made manifest” (Hebrews 9:8), and the blood of animals could not take away sin (Hebrews 10:4). After the perfect sacrifice, the way opened, so now “to be absent from the body” is “to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8).
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- If Abraham had been in burning hell, he could not have been “comforted” nor speak peace to Lazarus (Luke 16). The Bible plainly shows two separate regions.
- Before the Cross, the righteous waited in comfort because the full price of sin hadn’t been paid. After the Cross, Jesus—God manifested in flesh—paid it in full, descended, and then took the redeemed up. Paradise is now above, in the presence of God.
4) Reinforcing Statement
So Abraham and Lazarus were safe in Paradise, not in torment, and when Jesus finished the work, He took those saints out and brought them into His presence.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
The Faith Of Abraham
59-0424A §38
Two mighty evangelists went down into Sodom and they preached the Gospel. And just a few came out; Lot and his wife, and two of his children came out. Watch that last sign He gave. Now, immediately after the destruction... We're hurrying now; we only got fifteen minutes. I want to pack this part into you straight. Now, look. That was the last sign that was given to Sodom. And Jesus said, "As it was in the days of Sodom, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man. Now, notice. Then immediately after that, Abraha...
Why?
61-0128 §61
Here not long ago I was standing in a museum. An old colored man, just a little rim of white hair, was going along there looking for something. He looked over in that glass, seen that... He jumped back, shut his eyes, and the tears begin running down his old wrinkled cheeks. He was praying. I watched him for a little bit. After awhile I walked over to him. I said, "How do you do, Uncle?" He said, "How do you do, sir?" And I said, "I noticed you praying." I said, "I'm a minister. I just wondered what excited you." H...
Abraham
55-0624 §10
Now, the devil, he takes his man, and the spirit remains here on someone else. Jesus said to the Pharisees, because they did not believe Him... He would not teach their doctrine. He said "You are of the devil, your father." Said, "Which one of your fathers has not persecuted the prophets?" See, the spirit remains here, and the person goes on. Then the resurrection is the judgment. Now, Abraham was the first to go out in a strange country and sojourn just on the promise of God. But he separated himself from all of h...
The Marriage of the Lamb
62-0121E §48
Now look. It's so perfect, that when God took and made a man... And to show that He did not want it out of anything different, the woman was not in the original creation. So she is a ... not in the creation, but she's a part of Adam. She's a by-product. He goes into the side of Adam not to make another creature, but taken part of a creature, and made another creature out of it. And He took the masculine spirit that was in Adam, and ... took the feminish spirit that was in Adam rather, and put it over into the woman...
Hebrews, Chapter 7, part 2
57-0922 §75
Then, Abraham went to sleep. And when he went to sleep, what was the first thing he saw? A real horrible, spooky, dread, darkness; that's death that comes upon the whole human race. Then he looked a little farther than that, and he saw a smoking furnace; before you can have smoke, you have to have fire. That's the reason I believe in hell as a burning place. All right, He showed every one of us is subject to death, and every one of us should go to hell, because we're sinners. Now, but beyond that, he saw a little w...