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
55-1118 §47
I can hear Him [knocking sound] knock at the door. Abraham walking the floor. Said, "Sarah, didn't we have a good time down there? Sure did. Oh, how wonderful it was. [knocking sound] Say, somebody's at the door of paradise. Who is it? Open the door." Abraham said, "That's my God." Job looked over and said, "Say, that's my Redeemer that liveth." [knocking sound] Oh, my! Adam shook Eve and said, "Wake up. Looky yonder." Ezekiel said, "I saw Him like a wheel in the middle of the wheel, turning way up in the middle of...
Abraham's covenant confirmed
61-0210 §60
Now, when Abraham kept all the vultures off of the sacrifice until the sun went down... That's what we've got to do now. Keep the vultures off until the morning breaks. That's all that matters. Yes, sir. Now, watch what happened. And as soon as they did, a deep sleep fell upon Abraham, see. Now, sleep means death. And when he opened his eyes, he looked. There was a smoking furnace. That is where every sinner goes, where we all deserve to go. A smoking furnace ... went out. That's hell, where every man and woman tha...
The restoration of the Bride Tree
62-0422 §226
Now, listen closely. Now, there was... Listen, now, don't miss this now! There was four death messengers ... (Or would you rather we just close? Would you rather...?) [ Congregation shouts "No!"] Listen real close now. Look! There was four, four death messengers killed that tree. Is that right? What was it? Palmerworm, locust, cankerworm, caterpillar. Is that right? Four messengers of Roman devils, dogmas, killed that tree. One took its fruit, one took its bark ... or took its leaves, one took its bark, one took th...
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...