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.
Believest thou this?
53-0906A §74
Nothing to your church letters anyhow. Don't do you one bit of good. God wouldn't never recognize one at all. Only those who's got their name written on His Book up there by the blood of His own Son is the only one God'll recognize. And here they went. Now remember, and Lazarus died. The darkest hour that home ever seen. Now, they'd left their church, put out of the synagogue to follow Jesus. He had disappointed them. Now, doesn't life get that way sometime? Look like everything in the world happened, but remember...
The resurrection of Lazarus
51-0729A §80
I can see Jesus after He was become popular, got out, and the miracles began to follow Him. He called them out and said what they were. God was with Him, manifesting Himself to Him. And then one day He went to live with Martha and Mary and Lazarus, was His buddy. Then when He got over there to Lazarus... He left the home one day, not because He had to, but because His ministry was shoving Him away to another country. And because to fulfill a vision God had give Him. Watch. He left the home. And when He left the hom...
Abraham and his Seed after him
61-0423 §34
Why, without the shedding of blood there's no separation from sin. It's through the shed blood. Now, notice what taken place. He took the animals and cut them apart. Abraham watched until the sun went down. And there was a deep sleep fell upon Abraham. And when he noticed the deep sleep come, that meant death. It's due to all of us. We're all coming there to that great, eternal sleep. Now we notice immediately after that, he looked before him and a great horror of blackness and a smoking furnace. What is it? Hell....
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 9:E-101
Matthew 24, mentions signs in the heavens concerning this last day just before Jesus comes. I wonder if you noticed such a sign recently fulfilled as to portray the very truth we have been discussing. That truth is that Jesus has been steadily pushed aside until in the last age He is pushed outside the church. Recall that in the first age it was almost a full orbed church of truth. Yet there was a little error called the deeds of the Nicolaitanes that kept the circle from being full. Then in the next age more darkn...
Sirs, we would see Jesus
64-0304 §31
Jesus said, and, "as it was in the days of Sodom..." Remember, He left that alone. Let's picture Sodom. There was three classes of people in the world always. That's believers, make-believers and unbelievers. They're in every group. We'll speak on it, maybe, one night through the week. But in that time, there was the unbeliever---the Sodomites. There was the make-believer, which was Lot, and his group. There was the called-out and elected, which was Abraham, which was not in Sodom. Three angels came down just befor...