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.
A Paradox
62-0128A §42
Moses, after being a well-trained man, a military man, knowing what he was talking about, he knowed how to hold an army. He knowed how to fight, and had tried his weapons, but it didn't work. And it was a paradox. After talking to God in the form of fire on a bush that ... took a dry stick off the desert, and went down and took over a army---took over a nation with a dry stick. Took over an army, took over a nation at the age of eighty years old, with nothing but a stick in his hand! What was it? It wasn't Moses, n...
From that time
62-0713 §31
But when ... one day Lazarus'd taken sick. Before he took sick, God told his Son, "Leave," and told Him all that was going to happen, for He said, in St. John 5:19, "The Son can do nothing in himself, but what he sees the Father doing." Now that has to be truth, or He lied. And you can't make Him lie because He's God, see. So the Father sent Him away. They sent to Him to get help for Lazarus, but instead of coming, He just ignored it. He knowed what was going to happen, so He went on. They sent again, and He ignore...
Then Jesus came
57-0407E §9
Now, we know that the Bible said, in Saint John 5:19, Jesus said, "I do nothing except the Father shows Me first what to do." And now God had to show Him then what to do, or He'd never left Bethany. So, He went out about a day's journey, or two, and by and by, Lazarus got sick. And they sent for Jesus to come. But instead of coming, Jesus just ignored the call. Now, would it not make you feel strange if the pastor did that? It would make you feel like, "Well, he doesn't care about us." But, oh, if you would just st...
We would see Jesus
62-0727 §73
Notice. Now these angels came, and two of them went down and preached to Lot and to his family. They didn't do much of a miracle. They did a few miracles, just like blinding eyes when they come to get them, and preaching the gospel blinds the eyes of the unbeliever. But they were preaching, "Come out of here! Get out of Sodom!" But listen, The one that was talking to Abraham didn't say "Come out of Sodom," 'cause he and his group wasn't in Sodom. That's the church elected. Now, remember Jesus said, "As it was in th...
By faith, Moses
58-0720M §40
What if Pharaoh could have seen his end? What if Pharaoh would've seen his nation drowned. Moses saw it. How? By science? By faith Moses saw it. Everything that he did was by faith, because God promised Abraham, his father, that He--He would visit this nation, after four hundred years, and would bring them out. And by faith, Moses believed the Word that God said, and knowed himself, as by faith, to be the chosen leader to bring them out. He knew where he was. He took his place in the slime-pits of the mud-dauber an...