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.
Jehovah-Jireh
56-1209E §32
Then, as the sun went down (Notice what happened now), God caused a deep sleep to fall on Abraham. In otherwise, "Abraham, I'm just taking you out of the picture. There's nothing you can do about it. This is what I'm going to do. I'm determined to save men that wants to be saved." And He took Abraham and put him to sleep. And when Abraham went to sleep the first thing he saw was a great darkness and a horror. That's death. Every man that's born on earth meets death. Then, after that, he seen a smoking furnace. And...
Sir, we would see Jesus
63-1112 §89
And when Abraham saw these men coming, he went out. And he said, "My Lord, will You come by and let me fetch a little water and wash your feet? And I'll give you a morsel of bread, in your hand, and be on your road, for that's what You come by for." They turned aside. Now, in the big master tent, was where Abraham lived. And many of his servants, enough to fight an army, lived out around there. They were herdsmen. So he run in and told Sarah, his wife, to "Go knead some flour, or meal." You know, knead it, sift it,...
Israel and the Church: Israel at the Red Sea, part 1
53-0326 §46
Along came Jesus, the promised One. They done to Him what they said they would, and on they killed Him. He died. His soul descended into hell. Preached to the souls that are in prison. Taken the keys of death and hell away from the Devil. Returned back on Easter morning. And as He come through Paradise, He knocked at the door. Hallelujah! I can hear Him say, "Children!" Abraham say, "Who is that?" "I'm your seed, the seed of Abraham." Daniel said, "Who is that?" "I'm the Stone that was cut out of the mountain." The...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 7:E-45
In closing our comments on this verse, "thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead," I cannot impress upon you too strongly that this age, though it brought the reformation, was most sternly rebuked by God instead of being praised, because IT SOWED THE SEED OF DENOMINATION THAT ORGANIZED RIGHT BACK TO THE HARLOT, after God had opened a door of escape. When the move away from the Catholic Church took place, it was not truly Spiritual as a whole, but more political. Most of the people took up with Protestantism b...
Presuming
62-0610M §75
Now look. He said there would be light in the evening time. That's to ripen in the evening. The fruits can only ripen by the light. We know that. That's at the top of the tree, the evening light. All the rest of it... But way back there, that predestinated Word of God, it stayed there all the time because God spoke it. "I will restore it." He will do it, no matter how many organizations and things He has to prune off. There'll be a church without spot or wrinkle, "For I will restore, saith the Lord." It's got to pl...