Chapter 19

The Geography of the Afterlife — Paradise, Hades, Sheol, and Where NDErs Actually Go

Introduction: Where Do NDErs Actually Go?

Here is one of the most important questions anyone can ask about near-death experiences: where do NDErs go?

Think about it. If NDEs are genuine spiritual experiences — if the soul really does leave the body during clinical death, as we argued in Chapters 6 through 10 — then the soul must go somewhere. It does not just float in a vacuum. It enters a realm. It arrives at a location. And what the NDEr sees, hears, and experiences in that realm tells us something real about the geography of the afterlife.

But this raises a problem. NDE descriptions of the other side are wonderfully varied. One person describes a meadow of unearthly beauty with flowers that radiate their own light. Another describes a magnificent city sparkling like diamonds. Another describes a vast, dark void. Another describes fire and torment. If these are all real experiences, how do they fit together? Is there any map — any framework — that makes sense of such diversity?

I believe there is. And I believe the Bible provides it.

The Bible offers a surprisingly detailed geography of the afterlife — one that includes distinct realms for the righteous and the unrighteous, temporary intermediate states and final eternal destinations, places of blessing and places of separation. When we lay NDE reports alongside this biblical geography, something remarkable happens. The NDE data maps onto the biblical framework more naturally than onto any other religious or philosophical model. Positive NDEs correspond to what the Bible calls Paradise. Distressing NDEs correspond to what the Bible calls Hades. And the diversity of descriptions — far from being a problem — is exactly what we should expect if these realms are as vast and varied as Scripture suggests.

In this chapter, we will trace the biblical geography of the afterlife from the Old Testament through the New Testament. We will define each realm carefully. And then we will show how NDE reports map onto this geography with striking precision. Along the way, we will also clear up one of the most common and dangerous confusions in popular Christian thinking — the confusion between Hades (the temporary intermediate state) and Gehenna (the final lake of fire). Getting this distinction right changes everything about how we understand both NDEs and the Bible's teaching on the afterlife.

The Biblical Geography of the Afterlife: Five Distinct Realms

The Bible does not present a single, flat picture of life after death. Instead, Scripture describes multiple realms, each with a distinct purpose and character. Let me walk through them one by one.

Sheol — The Old Testament Realm of the Dead

The Hebrew word Sheol (שְׁאוֹל) is the oldest biblical term for the place where the dead go. In the Old Testament, Sheol appears over sixty times, and its meaning develops and deepens over the course of Israel's history.¹

In the earliest texts, Sheol seems to function as the general abode of all the dead — both righteous and wicked. When Jacob believes his son Joseph is dead, he says, "I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning" (Genesis 37:35, ESV). Jacob was a man of God, yet he expected to go to Sheol. The patriarch Job likewise speaks of Sheol as the common destiny of all the dead: "If I hope for Sheol as my house, if I make my bed in darkness, if I say to the pit, 'You are my father,' and to the worm, 'My mother,' or 'My sister,' where then is my hope?" (Job 17:13–15, ESV).²

Several passages describe Sheol as a place of shadow, silence, and diminished existence. The psalmist cries out: "For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise?" (Psalm 6:5, ESV). In Psalm 88, one of the darkest prayers in all of Scripture, the writer laments: "Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the departed rise up to praise you? Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon? Are your wonders known in the darkness, or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?" (Psalm 88:10–12, ESV). Ecclesiastes adds its somber voice: "For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten" (Ecclesiastes 9:5, ESV).³

If these were the only texts, we might conclude that Sheol was simply a dark, lifeless warehouse for the dead. But other passages paint a very different picture. In Isaiah 14:9–11, we get a dramatic scene where the dead in Sheol rise up to greet the fallen king of Babylon:

"Sheol beneath is stirred up to meet you when you come; it rouses the shades to greet you, all who were leaders of the earth; it raises from their thrones all who were kings of the nations. All of them will answer and say to you: 'You too have become as weak as we! You have become like us!'" (Isaiah 14:9–10, ESV)

Notice what is happening here. The dead in Sheol are not unconscious. They are not "knowing nothing." They are alert, aware, and communicative. They recognize the king of Babylon. They taunt him. They speak. This is hardly a picture of oblivion.

Similarly, Ezekiel 32:17–32 presents an extended vision of nations descending into Sheol — and they are conscious, aware of one another, and experiencing varying degrees of shame and disgrace. The Pharaoh of Egypt arrives in Sheol and finds other defeated nations already there, each aware of its own downfall.⁴

John Cooper, in his landmark study Body, Soul, and Life Everlasting, traces this development carefully. He notes that intertestamental Jewish literature — the writings produced between the Old and New Testaments — expanded on the Old Testament hints about divisions within Sheol. The book of 1 Enoch, for example, describes four distinct "chambers" or "hollow places" within Sheol, separating the righteous from the wicked. In 2 Esdras, the same idea appears using the language of "chambers" or "habitations." Cooper observes that "the Old Testament suggestions that the lot of all the dead is not the same are now explicitly spelled out and associated with the architecture of Sheol."⁵

This development matters enormously. It shows us that by the time of Jesus, Jewish thinkers had long been wrestling with the reality that Sheol was not a single, undifferentiated place. There were regions within it — some blessed, some cursed. Some bright, some dark. The righteous and the wicked did not share the same experience after death, even if they inhabited the same general realm. And this understanding provides the essential background for Jesus' own teaching about the afterlife — especially His famous parable of the rich man and Lazarus.

Hades — The New Testament Equivalent of Sheol

When the Old Testament was translated into Greek (the Septuagint), the Hebrew word Sheol was rendered as Hadēs (ᾅδης). In the New Testament, Hades functions as the Greek equivalent of Sheol — but with far greater clarity about its internal geography.⁶

The most important New Testament passage on Hades is Jesus' account of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19–31. This passage is so central to the biblical geography of the afterlife that we need to examine it carefully:

"There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.' But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able to, and none may cross from there to us.'" (Luke 16:19–26, ESV)

Whether we understand this as a parable or as a description of actual events, the theological content is rich. Several key features stand out.

First, the rich man is conscious in Hades. He can see, speak, feel pain, and remember his earthly life. This is not soul sleep. This is not extinction. This is vivid, alert, personal existence after death.⁷

Second, Hades contains distinct regions. The rich man is in a place of torment. Lazarus is in a place of comfort — "Abraham's side" (sometimes translated "Abraham's bosom"). These two regions are within the same general realm but are separated by "a great chasm" that cannot be crossed. This directly corresponds to the intertestamental Jewish understanding of Sheol as divided into compartments for the righteous and the wicked.⁸

Third, this is an intermediate state, not the final destiny of either person. The final judgment has not yet occurred. The rich man's brothers are still alive on earth. The story takes place between death and the final resurrection. Cooper notes that "since the reference is to the state of the man immediately after his death, it is most likely that the intermediate abode of the dead before the final judgment is meant."⁹

Fourth, the rich man retains his memory and his identity. He remembers Lazarus. He remembers his brothers. He knows who Abraham is. Personal identity survives death intact. The soul that enters the intermediate state is the same person who lived on earth — not a vague, diminished shadow, but a conscious individual with memories, relationships, and emotional responses.

Other New Testament passages confirm and expand this picture. In Acts 2:27 and 31, Peter quotes Psalm 16:10 on the day of Pentecost: "For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption." Peter applies this to Jesus Christ, arguing that Christ's soul went to Hades between His death and resurrection — but God did not leave Him there. This passage presupposes the existence of Hades as a real realm that the soul enters at death.¹⁰

Perhaps the most theologically significant text is Revelation 20:13–14: "And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire."

This passage is critical because it shows that Hades is temporary. At the final judgment, Hades gives up its dead. The inhabitants of Hades are judged. And then Hades itself — the intermediate holding place — is thrown into the lake of fire. Hades is emptied at the last judgment. It is not the final destiny of the wicked. It is a temporary intermediate state that exists until the final reckoning.¹¹

Paradise, Abraham's Bosom, and the Third Heaven

On the other side of the "great chasm" that Jesus described in Luke 16 is the blessed intermediate state — the place of comfort, peace, and the presence of God. The New Testament gives this realm several names, and understanding how they relate to each other is important.

The word Paradise — paradeisos (παράδεισος) in Greek — comes from an old Persian word meaning a walled garden or royal park. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, it was used for the Garden of Eden. By the time of Jesus, it had come to mean the blessed dwelling place of the righteous dead.¹²

The most famous use of the word comes from the lips of Jesus Himself. On the cross, the dying thief beside Him cried out, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." And Jesus replied: "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise" (Luke 23:42–43, ESV). The word "today" is crucial. Jesus was not talking about some distant future event. He was promising the thief that on that very day, both of them would enter Paradise together. Their bodies would hang on the cross and be taken down for burial. But their souls — their conscious, personal selves — would be together in Paradise before the sun set.¹³

The apostle Paul adds another piece to the puzzle. In 2 Corinthians 12:2–4, Paul describes a remarkable visionary experience:

"I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven — whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise — whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows — and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter." (2 Corinthians 12:2–4, ESV)

Notice that Paul identifies "the third heaven" with "paradise." These are two names for the same place. Paul was caught up into the realm where the righteous dead dwell — and what he saw and heard there was so extraordinary that he could not put it into human words. Cooper observes that this identification of Paradise with the third heaven has its roots in Jewish apocalyptic literature, where paradise was sometimes located in the third heaven.¹⁴

Paul's language is strikingly similar to what NDErs report. He was unsure whether the experience was "in the body or out of the body" — an uncertainty that mirrors the disorientation many NDErs feel about whether they are physical or spiritual during their experience. He heard things that "cannot be told" — which echoes the profound ineffability that virtually every NDEr reports. And the experience was so overwhelmingly real and glorious that it shaped the rest of his life.¹⁵

"Abraham's bosom" or "Abraham's side" (kolpos Abraam, κόλπος Ἀβραάμ) is another name for the blessed intermediate state, drawn from Jesus' parable in Luke 16. It evokes the image of reclining at a banquet, leaning against the host — a picture of intimate fellowship, warmth, and welcome. Lazarus is not just "in a nice place." He is in the intimate company of the patriarch Abraham — at peace, at rest, and surrounded by the family of faith.¹⁶

Other passages fill in the picture. In Philippians 1:21–23, Paul writes: "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better." Paul clearly expected that at the moment of death, he would immediately be "with Christ." He did not expect unconscious sleep. He did not expect extinction followed by re-creation at the resurrection. He expected to be consciously present with his Lord — and he considered this "far better" than his current earthly life.¹⁷

Paul makes the same point even more explicitly in 2 Corinthians 5:6–8: "So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord." To be "away from the body" is to be "at home with the Lord." The language is spatial and locational — there is a place where the soul goes when it leaves the body, and that place is characterized above all by the conscious presence of Christ.

In Revelation 2:7, the risen Christ promises: "To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God." The tree of life — first seen in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:9) — is now in Paradise. This is not merely a symbol. It is a statement about the geography of the afterlife. Paradise is a real place, and it contains real features — including the tree of life that was lost when humanity was expelled from Eden.¹⁸

Finally, Revelation 6:9–11 gives us a glimpse of the righteous dead in the intermediate state: "When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, 'O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?' Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer." These souls are conscious, vocal, emotional, and aware of events on earth. They are in a place — "under the altar" — and they are clothed in white robes, symbolizing their righteousness. The intermediate state is not a vague, formless existence. It is a specific location populated by specific persons who retain their identity, their voice, and their passionate concern for justice.

Gehenna and the Lake of Fire — The Final State of the Wicked

Now we come to one of the most misunderstood terms in all of Christian theology. The word Gehenna — Geenna (γέεννα) in Greek — is derived from the Hebrew Gê Hinnōm, the "Valley of Hinnom," a ravine on the south side of Jerusalem. This valley had a horrifying history. In the Old Testament, it was the place where apostate Israelites burned their children as sacrifices to the pagan god Molech (2 Chronicles 28:3; 33:6; Jeremiah 7:31; 32:35). King Josiah later desecrated the valley to prevent its use for such abominations (2 Kings 23:10). By the time of Jesus, the Valley of Hinnom had become associated in Jewish thinking with the place of final, eschatological punishment — the ultimate destiny of the wicked after the last judgment.¹⁹

Jesus uses the word Gehenna twelve times in the Gospels, and His language is consistently severe. "If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into Gehenna" (Matthew 5:29, ESV). "Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna" (Matthew 10:28, ESV). "You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to Gehenna?" (Matthew 23:33, ESV). In Mark 9:43–48, Jesus describes Gehenna as the place "where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched."²⁰

The book of Revelation identifies the final punishment with "the lake of fire." In Revelation 20:14–15, we read: "Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire."

Here is the critical point — the point that changes how we understand distressing NDEs. Gehenna (the lake of fire) is the final state of the wicked after the last judgment. It is not the same as Hades. In fact, the text says explicitly that Hades is thrown into the lake of fire. Hades is the temporary intermediate state; Gehenna is the final destination. Hades exists now; Gehenna has not yet been fully inaugurated. The final judgment has not yet taken place. No one is currently in the lake of fire. The wicked dead are currently in Hades — a temporary holding state — awaiting the final judgment that will determine their ultimate fate.²¹

I should note here that my own position on the fate of the wicked is conditional immortality — the view that immortality is a gift from God, not an inherent property of the human soul, and that the wicked will ultimately cease to exist rather than suffer eternally in conscious torment. I am also open to conservative biblical universalism — the possibility that God's redemptive purposes may ultimately reach all people. I am currently studying which of these views best fits the full biblical evidence. But regardless of which view is correct, the distinction between Hades (temporary, intermediate) and Gehenna (final, after judgment) remains essential. Both conditional immortalists and universalists agree that no one is currently in the final state. The intermediate state is where we all go first — and it is the intermediate state that NDErs encounter.²²

The New Heavens and the New Earth — The Final Destiny of the Redeemed

The last realm in the biblical geography of the afterlife is the most glorious — and the most often confused with what NDErs see. Revelation 21:1–5 describes the ultimate destiny of God's people:

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.' And he who was seated on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new.'" (Revelation 21:1–5, ESV)

This is the final state — a renewed, glorified creation where God dwells with His people forever. The new heavens and new earth are not a vague spiritual realm. They are a transformed physical creation, glorious beyond our imagination, where death and suffering have been permanently abolished.

But here is the crucial point: the new heavens and new earth have not yet been inaugurated. They await the return of Christ, the final resurrection, the last judgment, and the renewal of all things. What NDErs see when they visit the other side — no matter how beautiful and glorious — is not the new heavens and new earth. It is the intermediate heaven. It is Paradise. It is, as J. Steve Miller helpfully puts it, "the vestibule of heaven" — the entryway, the foretaste, the preview of what is yet to come.²³

Miller's terminology is very helpful here. He writes that the near-death experience is best understood as an encounter "not with heaven as the throne-room of God, or even the final resting-place of the redeemed, but some type of vestibule or entryway to the ultimate afterlife." Miller prefers to call it simply "the other side" to avoid confusion with the final state. And he notes that NDErs often reach a point — a boundary, a border, a barrier — beyond which they know they cannot pass and still return to earthly life. Perhaps that boundary marks the threshold between the intermediate state and the deeper realms of heaven that are reserved for those who have permanently died.²⁴

This distinction between the intermediate Paradise and the final new creation is important for several reasons. First, it explains why NDErs see something truly wonderful — but not the full, final glory. What they see is real. It is heavenly. It is breathtaking. But it is still the vestibule, not the throne room. The best is yet to come.

Second, it explains why NDErs can return at all. If they had entered the final, eternal state, there would be no coming back. But the intermediate state is, by definition, a temporary dwelling. It is the waiting room of eternity. From the waiting room, people can be sent back. From the final state, they cannot.

Third, it prevents us from treating NDE descriptions as exhaustive depictions of the final heaven. Whatever NDErs see — however beautiful, however overwhelming — it is only a foretaste. The new heavens and new earth described in Revelation 21–22 will be even more glorious than the most spectacular NDE report. As Paul wrote: "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9, ESV).

The Intertestamental Development: How Jewish Thought Mapped the Afterlife

Before we turn to the NDE evidence, it is worth pausing to appreciate the richness of the Jewish understanding of the afterlife that forms the immediate background to the New Testament. Cooper's work is invaluable here, and I want to trace the key developments he identifies.²⁵

Between the Old and New Testaments, Jewish writers produced an extensive body of apocalyptic literature — books like 1 Enoch, 2 Esdras, 2 Baruch, and others — that explored the realm of the dead in vivid detail. These writings are not Scripture, but they are extremely important for understanding how first-century Jews — including Jesus and His disciples — thought about the afterlife.

Several key developments took place during this period. First, the idea of divisions within Sheol became explicit. In 1 Enoch 22, the realm of the dead contains four distinct "chambers" or "hollow places." Three of these are for the unfaithful — dark and lacking water, which is part of their suffering. The fourth is for the blessed — brightly lit and featuring a fountain of water. The Old Testament hints about different fates for the righteous and wicked are now spelled out clearly and connected to specific locations within Sheol.²⁶

Second, the concept of Paradise developed significantly. The image of a garden where the righteous dwell appears in 1 Enoch 60:8, evoking the Garden of Eden. In Jewish thought, Paradise became the home of the blessed dead — sometimes during the intermediate state, sometimes as their final abode. Strikingly, the rabbis sometimes described Paradise as contained within Sheol — as one of its compartments rather than a separate realm entirely. This explains how Jesus could promise the thief both "today you will be with me in Paradise" and how, according to Acts 2:27, His soul could be in Hades at the same time. In the Jewish topography, Paradise was a section of Hades — the blessed section.²⁷

Third, the concept of Gehenna as a place of final punishment crystallized. Originally the Valley of Hinnom — the site of child sacrifice — Gehenna became the standard Jewish term for the place of eschatological punishment after the final judgment. Importantly, Gehenna was usually distinguished from Sheol/Hades. Sheol was the intermediate realm; Gehenna was the final punishment. Cooper summarizes the intertestamental picture: "From all of this a general, though not wholly consistent, map of the postmortem environment emerges. There is a definite sorting of people at death into the blessed and the cursed. This may be the final separation in a few cases, but most frequently it is a provisional division in anticipation of final judgment."²⁸

Fourth, the Pharisees — who are prominent in the Gospels and who educated the apostle Paul — held all of these central themes. Cooper notes that "they held that at death, souls depart from bodies and continue to exist in an intermediate state, already enjoying or lamenting the anticipated consequences of God's judgment. The Pharisees awaited the coming Messiah, who would effect a resurrection of the dead and initiate his kingdom." Acts 23:8 confirms that the Pharisees affirmed both the resurrection and the existence of angels and spirits — in contrast to the Sadducees, who denied all three.²⁹

Why does this background matter for our study of NDEs? Because it shows that the New Testament understanding of the afterlife did not arise in a vacuum. When Jesus told the story of the rich man and Lazarus, His audience already had a sophisticated understanding of the multi-layered geography of the afterlife. When Paul wrote about departing to be "with Christ," he was drawing on a well-developed Jewish framework of the intermediate state. And when we examine NDE reports today, we find that they fit naturally into this same framework — a framework that distinguishes between temporary intermediate states and final eternal destinies, between the blessed realm of Paradise and the distressing realm of Hades, between what exists now and what is yet to come.

Mapping NDE Reports onto the Biblical Geography

Now we come to the heart of this chapter. We have traced the biblical geography of the afterlife from Sheol to the new heavens and new earth. We have five distinct realms. The question is: where do NDErs go? And the answer, I believe, is remarkably clear.

Positive NDEs Map onto Paradise

The vast majority of near-death experiences are overwhelmingly positive. NDErs describe entering a realm of extraordinary beauty, brilliant light, profound love, and divine presence. They report seeing lush gardens, crystal-clear rivers, meadows of impossible green, cities that sparkle with light, and landscapes that are — in the words NDErs use over and over — "more real than real." They encounter deceased relatives who are alive, healthy, and joyful. They meet beings of light radiating unconditional love. Many encounter someone they identify as Jesus Christ. They feel an overwhelming sense of peace, belonging, and homecoming.³⁰

These descriptions correspond naturally to the biblical picture of Paradise — the blessed intermediate state where the righteous dwell in the conscious presence of Christ. Consider the correspondences:

NDErs consistently describe a realm of brilliant, pervasive light. The Bible says that "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5, ESV) and that the heavenly city "has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb" (Revelation 21:23, ESV). NDErs report an overwhelming sense of love. The Bible says "God is love" (1 John 4:8, ESV). NDErs describe meeting deceased relatives. The Bible describes the righteous dead as conscious and gathered together — Abraham, Lazarus, the souls under the altar. NDErs often report seeing gardens, rivers, and trees of extraordinary beauty. Revelation 22:1–2 describes "the river of the water of life" and "the tree of life." NDErs encounter beings they identify as Jesus. The Bible promises that to depart is to "be with Christ" (Philippians 1:23).³¹

John Burke, in his extensive study Imagine Heaven, compiled hundreds of NDE accounts and found that the descriptions, when taken as a whole, form a composite picture that is remarkably consistent with Scripture's depiction of the heavenly realm. Burke notes that individual NDErs each get only a small glimpse of a vast reality — like visitors to a country who each see only one region. One NDEr sees gardens. Another sees a city. Another sees meadows. Another sees mountains. The descriptions vary because the place they are visiting is enormous — far too large and varied for any single visitor to take in completely.³²

Think of it this way. Imagine that aliens landed at various points across the United States, each spending one hour on the ground before returning home to describe what they saw. One would describe the towering skyscrapers of New York City. Another would describe the vast cornfields of Nebraska. Another would describe the misty redwood forests of California. Another would describe the rolling mountains of West Virginia. Each description would be accurate. Each would be truthful. And yet the descriptions would be radically different from one another. Would we conclude that the United States does not exist because the descriptions do not match? Of course not. We would recognize that America is vast and diverse — and that different visitors simply saw different parts of it.

The same logic applies to NDE descriptions of Paradise. The diversity of descriptions is not evidence against the reality of heaven. It is evidence for its vastness. Paradise must be large enough to hold billions of souls — every human being who has ever died in faith. A realm that accommodates billions of inhabitants cannot be a single small garden. It must be immense — perhaps incomprehensibly immense. And if it is immense, then different NDErs visiting different regions of it will naturally describe different landscapes, structures, and features.³³

Distressing NDEs Map onto Hades

Not all NDEs are positive. A significant minority of NDErs — estimates range from around 1% to as high as 15% or more, depending on the study and the method of data collection — report experiences of darkness, fear, isolation, torment, or encounters with malevolent beings. These are real spiritual experiences, and they demand honest theological engagement.³⁴

Researchers have identified several types of distressing NDEs. Bruce Greyson and Nancy Evans Bush, in a landmark 1992 study published in the journal Psychiatry, identified three patterns. The first is what they called the "inverse NDE" — an experience that has the same features as a positive NDE (separation from the body, tunnel, light, beings) but is experienced as terrifying rather than comforting. The second is the "void" — an experience of profound emptiness, darkness, isolation, and a sense that existence itself is an illusion. The third is the classic "hellish" NDE — complete with imagery of fire, darkness, torment, and demonic beings.³⁵

Michael Sabom documented distressing NDEs in his Atlanta Study. One participant, Jake, a veteran who had attempted suicide by overdosing, described being in "a place like hell" where "the earth had been scorched" and "there were demons like in a Bosch painting." He reported that "the demons were giving me a bad time, making fun of me and kicking me." In utter despair, Jake cried out to God — and heard God speak to him through chain lightning in the background, saying, "You could have had anything you wanted — you threw it away." Jake's desperate prayer brought him back to consciousness, and despite many difficult years afterward, he maintained his belief that God loved him and was looking out for him.³⁶

Miller catalogued various descriptions of distressing NDEs from the research literature. These include reports of a "dusky, dark, dreary area" filled with "lost souls" who were "looking downward" and "shuffling" and "moaning." Others describe "outer darkness" as a real, terrifying place. Others speak of feeling utterly alone, utterly separated from everything good, in a vast and suffocating emptiness.³⁷

How do these experiences map onto the biblical geography? I believe the answer is clear: distressing NDEs correspond to Hades — the intermediate state of the unrighteous dead. They do not correspond to Gehenna — the final lake of fire — because the final judgment has not yet occurred. No one is currently in the lake of fire. Revelation 20:11–15 makes clear that the lake of fire comes after the final judgment, which has not yet taken place.

The descriptions NDErs give of their distressing experiences are strikingly consistent with the biblical picture of Hades. The rich man in Hades is conscious and in torment — NDE reports confirm conscious suffering. The rich man is separated from the blessed by a "great chasm" — NDErs describe a profound sense of separation. The rich man remembers his earthly life and his family — NDErs in distressing experiences retain their memories and identity. The key features match: consciousness, suffering, separation from God, memory, personal identity, and — crucially — the temporary nature of the state.³⁸

This last point cannot be emphasized strongly enough. Every distressing NDEr comes back. They are not trapped in Hades forever. They are sent back to earthly life — which means their encounter with the dark side of the intermediate realm was temporary. This is exactly what we should expect if they were visiting Hades rather than Gehenna. Hades is temporary; it will eventually be emptied at the final judgment (Revelation 20:13). The experience, while genuinely distressing, is not the person's final, irreversible destiny. It is a glimpse — a warning — a wake-up call. And, as we will see in Chapter 21, many people who have distressing NDEs are profoundly transformed by them, turning to God with newfound urgency and devotion.

NDErs Are Not Visiting the Final States

This brings us to a critical principle that runs through this entire chapter: NDErs are visiting the intermediate realm, not the final states. Neither the new heavens and new earth nor the lake of fire have been inaugurated. Both await the return of Christ and the final judgment. What NDErs see — whether glorious or terrifying — is a preview, a foretaste, a partial glimpse of the intermediate state that currently exists between death and the final resurrection.

This principle has several important implications.

First, the beauty NDErs see in Paradise is real — but the final new creation will be even more glorious. If the vestibule of heaven is this beautiful, imagine what the throne room will be like.

Second, the suffering NDErs encounter in the Hades-like realm is real — but it is not necessarily the final word. Hades is temporary. It will be emptied. What comes after the final judgment is another question — one that depends on whether conditional immortality or some other view is correct. But the intermediate suffering is not the same as final, irreversible punishment. (We will explore this further in Chapters 21 and 23.)

Third, the NDE itself is not the person's final death. Every NDEr is sent back. They are given more time on earth. Whatever they saw — heaven or hell — it was not their final destination. They still have earthly life ahead of them. They still have choices to make. The NDE is a glimpse, not a verdict.³⁹

Christ's Activity in the Intermediate Realm: 1 Peter 3:18–20 and Ephesians 4:8–10

One of the most important features of the biblical geography of the afterlife is that it is not a static, abandoned landscape. The intermediate realm is a place where Christ Himself has been active. Two key New Testament passages testify to this — and both are directly relevant to our understanding of NDEs.

The first is 1 Peter 3:18–20:

"For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water." (1 Peter 3:18–20, ESV)

This is an admittedly difficult passage, and scholars have debated its meaning for centuries. But one plausible and widely defended interpretation is that between His death and resurrection, Christ's spirit went to the realm of the dead — Hades/Sheol — and proclaimed a message to the spirits of the dead imprisoned there. The word translated "proclaimed" (ekēryxen, ἐκήρυξεν) is a general term for public announcement; it does not necessarily mean "preached the gospel" but could mean "announced victory" or "declared triumph." The spirits in question may be the disobedient humans of Noah's generation, or they may be the fallen angels of Genesis 6 — scholars disagree.⁴⁰

What matters for our purposes is not the precise identification of the spirits but the theological implication: between His death and resurrection, Christ entered the intermediate realm and was active there. His soul did not cease to exist. It did not sleep. It went somewhere — to the realm of the dead — and it did something there. Christ announced His victory in the very citadel of death itself.

Cooper notes that regardless of which interpretation one favors, the passage presupposes the existence of an intermediate realm populated by conscious spirits. "Between his death and resurrection," Cooper writes, "Christ went to the realm of the dead." And if Christ Himself was active in the intermediate realm, then the intermediate realm is clearly a real, populated, and theologically significant place — exactly the kind of place that NDErs describe visiting.⁴¹

The second passage is Ephesians 4:8–10:

"Therefore it says, 'When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.' (In saying, 'He ascended,' what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)" (Ephesians 4:8–10, ESV)

The phrase "descended into the lower regions" has been interpreted in various ways. Some understand it as a reference to Christ's incarnation — descending from heaven to earth. Others understand it as a reference to the descent into Hades between death and resurrection. The latter interpretation is supported by the early church's confession that Christ "descended into hell" (the Apostles' Creed), which the church understood as a descent into Hades — the realm of the dead — not into Gehenna.⁴²

If Christ "led a host of captives" when He ascended, this may refer to the Old Testament saints — the righteous dead who had been waiting in the Paradise section of Sheol/Hades — whom Christ liberated and brought with Him to the heavenly realm at His ascension. This is the traditional understanding of the "harrowing of hell" or descensus ad inferos — the belief that between His death and resurrection, Christ descended to Hades, announced His victory, and led the righteous dead to Paradise in the heavenly realm. As I argued in my companion book The Word Made Flesh, this understanding is deeply rooted in the early church's Christological reflection and has significant implications for how we understand the intermediate state.⁴³

The relevance to NDE studies is this: if Christ Himself has been active in the intermediate realm — preaching, proclaiming, liberating, leading — then we should not be surprised that NDErs encounter Christ in the intermediate state. The Christ who descended to the dead is the same Christ who meets NDErs at the threshold of heaven. He is not distant from the intermediate realm. He is present there. He is active there. He is sovereign over that realm. And when NDErs report encountering Jesus — in a realm of light, love, and overwhelming glory — they may be encountering the risen Christ in the very realm where He once proclaimed His victory over death itself.

The Vastness of Paradise: Why NDE Descriptions Differ

One of the most common objections to the reality of NDEs is the diversity of descriptions. If heaven is real, shouldn't everyone describe it the same way? The answer is no — and the reason is the vastness of the heavenly realm.

We have already mentioned the analogy of visitors to the United States describing different regions. But let me push this point further, because it is so important for understanding NDE reports.

Consider how many human beings have lived and died throughout history. Scholars estimate that roughly 100 billion people have ever lived on this earth. Even if we take the most conservative estimates of how many of those are in the blessed intermediate state, we are still talking about billions of souls. Paradise must be large enough to accommodate billions of residents — each one a unique person with a unique story, unique relationships, and unique needs.

A realm that houses billions of people cannot be small. It cannot be a single garden with a single fountain and a single tree. It must be vast — perhaps infinitely vast — containing landscapes, regions, and dimensions that we can barely imagine. Gardens, meadows, mountains, rivers, cities, forests, oceans of light — all of these descriptions from NDErs may be equally accurate reports from different regions of an immensely vast heavenly realm.⁴⁴

Burke makes this point beautifully. He notes that if his accounts of NDErs are each giving us a small piece of a vast picture, then the composite — the picture that emerges when we lay all the accounts side by side — should correspond to what Scripture describes. And it does. The gardens match the biblical picture of Paradise. The rivers match the "river of the water of life" in Revelation 22. The brilliant light matches the glory of God. The city of crystal matches the new Jerusalem. The tree of life appears in both NDE reports and Revelation 22. The absence of pain and sorrow matches Revelation 21:4. Taken together, NDE descriptions form a composite picture that is remarkably consistent with Scripture — not because NDErs are reading the Bible before their experience (many of them have never read it), but because they are visiting the same reality that the biblical writers described.⁴⁵

Miller adds an important nuance. He notes that the word "heaven" in the Bible itself has multiple meanings — the atmosphere, the stars, the paradise of the intermediate state, the new heavens and new earth, the throne room of God. "So don't consider every reference to 'heaven,' either in the Bible or in NDE/DBE literature, as referring to the same place," Miller counsels. NDErs who say they visited "heaven" may be reporting an encounter with one of several layers or dimensions of the afterlife. Some may have entered the vestibule. Some may have gone deeper. Some may have glimpsed, at a distance, a glory that was beyond even the paradise they were visiting — as in the case of Dr. George Ritchie, who during his NDE visited what appeared to be a hellish domain, then a beautiful park-like realm with enormous buildings, and finally caught a distant glimpse of a spectacular city of light that he believed was "ultimate heaven."⁴⁶

Daniel 12:2 and the Two Destinies

Before we turn to counterarguments, one more Old Testament passage deserves attention because it bridges the gap between the early, shadowy picture of Sheol and the fully developed New Testament geography. Daniel 12:2 reads: "And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt" (ESV).

This verse is remarkable for several reasons. First, it is one of the clearest Old Testament statements about the resurrection of the dead. The dead are described as "sleeping in the dust" — language that refers to the outward appearance of death, not to the condition of the soul (as we discussed in the section on Sheol). Second, it explicitly teaches two different destinies — "everlasting life" for some, and "shame and everlasting contempt" for others. The sorting of the dead into two categories, which we saw developing in the intertestamental literature and which Jesus teaches clearly in Luke 16, already has its roots here in Daniel.⁵²

For our purposes, Daniel 12:2 confirms that the biblical picture of the afterlife was never a flat, single-destination framework. From the earliest hints in Genesis, through the psalms and prophets, and into the fully developed picture of the New Testament, the Bible consistently teaches that the dead are sorted — that there are different realms, different experiences, and different outcomes. NDE research confirms exactly this pattern. Some NDErs enter a realm of light and love. Others enter a realm of darkness and distress. The two categories of NDE experience — positive and distressing — mirror the two destinies that Daniel describes.

Deathbed Visions and the Geography of the Afterlife

Although this chapter focuses primarily on NDEs, deathbed experiences (DBEs) provide additional supporting evidence for the biblical geography we have described. Dying persons who report deathbed visions consistently describe seeing landscapes, beings, and realms that correspond to the same intermediate geography that NDErs visit. They see deceased relatives coming to welcome them. They see brilliant light. They describe heavenly landscapes of extraordinary beauty. Some see angels. Some see Jesus. And a small but significant minority report seeing dark, frightening figures or places.⁵³

What is particularly striking about deathbed visions is that they are reported by people who are dying — not by people who are being resuscitated. The dying person often looks past the people in the room, gazes at something invisible to others, and describes what they see with clarity and peace. They are, it appears, looking through a window into the intermediate realm — the same realm that NDErs enter when their souls temporarily separate from their bodies. The consistency between DBE descriptions and NDE descriptions strengthens the case that both groups are perceiving the same reality — the reality that the Bible calls Paradise.

Miller, in his doctoral dissertation on deathbed experiences, documented these phenomena across multiple cultures and centuries, finding remarkable consistency in the core features. Dying persons in India, Africa, Europe, and America report similar visions — deceased relatives, beings of light, heavenly landscapes — despite vast differences in cultural background and religious expectation. This cross-cultural consistency is difficult to explain on the hypothesis that deathbed visions are mere hallucinations shaped by cultural expectation. It is much more naturally explained on the hypothesis that the dying are genuinely perceiving a real realm — the intermediate state that the Bible describes.⁵⁴

Counterarguments and Responses

Before we conclude, we should address several objections to the framework I have presented.

Objection 1: "The Rich Man and Lazarus Is Just a Parable — It Doesn't Teach Geography"

Some scholars argue that Luke 16:19–31 is a parable and therefore should not be used to draw conclusions about the literal geography of the afterlife. After all, parables are stories that teach a moral or spiritual lesson — they are not meant to be taken as literal descriptions of reality.

There is some truth in this caution. We should not press every detail of the story for literal truth. However, even parables must use elements that are recognizable and plausible to their audience. Jesus drew His parables from everyday life — farming, fishing, business, family relationships — precisely because His audience would recognize the setting. If Jesus used the setting of Hades with its divisions, its chasm, and its conscious inhabitants, it was because His audience already understood and accepted this geography. A parable set in a location that no one believed in would not communicate. The fact that Jesus used this setting without correcting or qualifying it suggests that He endorsed the general framework — even if not every detail is meant to be pressed literally.⁴⁷

Moreover, the theological content of the parable is consistent with everything else the Bible teaches about the intermediate state. Consciousness after death. Distinct locations for the righteous and the wicked. Memory and personal identity intact. The passage may be a parable, but the theology it presupposes is not unique to this passage — it runs throughout the New Testament.

Objection 2: "NDE Descriptions Are Too Diverse to Map onto Any Single Framework"

Some skeptics argue that NDE descriptions are so varied that they cannot coherently map onto any theological framework — biblical or otherwise. If NDEs were real experiences of a real place, shouldn't the descriptions be more uniform?

We have already addressed this objection at length. The diversity of NDE descriptions is exactly what we should expect if the realms being visited are vast and varied. Furthermore, beneath the surface diversity, there is remarkable consistency in the core features: the overwhelming light, the profound love, the encounters with deceased relatives, the life review, the sense that the other side is "more real than real," the presence of a divine being, and the reluctance to return. These core features are reported across cultures, across religions, and across centuries. The consistency of the core features, combined with the diversity of specific landscapes, is precisely what we would predict on the hypothesis that NDErs are visiting different regions of a vast, real realm.⁴⁸

Objection 3: "NDE Descriptions Don't Match the Bible Exactly"

Some Christians object that NDE descriptions do not match biblical descriptions exactly. Where are the streets of gold? Where is the exact river from Revelation 22? Where is the precise city layout of the new Jerusalem?

This objection fails to account for two things. First, many NDE descriptions do correspond to biblical imagery — rivers, trees, gardens, brilliant light, a city, music, the absence of suffering. The correspondence is significant even if imperfect. Second, and more importantly, NDErs are visiting the intermediate heaven, not the final new creation. The streets of gold and the precise layout of the new Jerusalem described in Revelation 21–22 belong to the new heavens and new earth — which have not yet been inaugurated. We should not expect the intermediate state to match the description of the final state in every detail. The vestibule does not look exactly like the throne room. But the vestibule does give hints and previews of the glory that is to come — and NDE descriptions are full of such hints.⁴⁹

Objection 4: "Physicalists Deny the Intermediate State Altogether"

Some Christian scholars — particularly within the conditional immortality movement — hold to physicalism about human nature and deny that the soul can exist apart from the body. On this view, there is no conscious intermediate state. At death, the person ceases to exist entirely and is re-created by God at the final resurrection. This position, sometimes called "soul sleep" or the "extinction-re-creation" view, eliminates the intermediate state entirely — and with it, eliminates any theological framework for understanding NDEs.⁵⁰

I have argued at length in Chapter 5 — and throughout this book — that physicalism about human nature is incompatible with the biblical evidence, the ecumenical creeds, and orthodox Christology. The cumulative biblical case for a conscious intermediate state is strong: Luke 23:43, Philippians 1:21–23, 2 Corinthians 5:6–8, Revelation 6:9–11, and the entire framework of the rich man and Lazarus all presuppose that the soul survives death and is conscious between death and the resurrection. Moreover, the NDE evidence itself — especially veridical NDEs where patients accurately report information they could not have known through normal sensory means during clinical death — provides powerful empirical evidence for substance dualism and against physicalism (see Chapters 6, 7, and 35).

The biblical geography of the afterlife only makes sense on a dualist framework. If there is no soul that survives death, there are no intermediate realms. If there are no intermediate realms, there is nowhere for NDErs to go. But the evidence — both biblical and empirical — strongly supports the existence of these realms. The coherence between the biblical geography and the NDE data is a powerful additional argument against physicalism and for substance dualism.⁵¹

Conclusion: A Map That Fits the Territory

We have covered a great deal of ground in this chapter — from the Old Testament's shadowy picture of Sheol, through the intertestamental Jewish exploration of the afterlife's geography, to the New Testament's clear teaching about Paradise, Hades, Gehenna, and the new heavens and new earth. And we have shown that NDE reports — both positive and distressing — map onto this biblical geography with striking precision.

Positive NDEs correspond to Paradise — the blessed intermediate state where the righteous dwell in the conscious presence of Christ. The beauty, the light, the love, the encounters with deceased relatives and with Jesus — all of these features match the biblical description of Paradise.

Distressing NDEs correspond to Hades — the intermediate state of the unrighteous, characterized by darkness, isolation, fear, and varying degrees of suffering. Crucially, these experiences correspond to Hades, not to Gehenna — the final lake of fire — because the final judgment has not yet occurred.

NDErs are not visiting the final states. They are visiting the intermediate realm — the vestibule of heaven or the outer edges of Hades. They are getting a glimpse, a preview, a foretaste of what is to come. And they are being sent back — because their time on earth is not yet finished.

The diversity of NDE descriptions is not a problem for this framework. It is a predicted feature. Paradise is vast — large enough to hold billions of souls. Different NDErs visiting different regions of a vast realm will naturally describe different landscapes. Their descriptions differ because heaven is enormous and varied, not because it is unreal.

And the intermediate realm is not an empty, static place. Christ Himself has been active there — descending to the dead, proclaiming His victory, liberating the captives. The Christ whom NDErs encounter in the intermediate realm is the same Christ who descended to Hades and rose again in triumph. He is sovereign over the geography of the afterlife. He is present in Paradise. And He is the one who sends NDErs back to earth with a message of hope, urgency, and love.

The biblical map fits the NDE territory. And both the map and the territory point in the same direction: death is not the end. The soul survives. The intermediate realm is real. And the God who meets us at the threshold of eternity is the God revealed in Jesus Christ — a God of overwhelming love, sovereign power, and unshakeable faithfulness.

In the next chapter, we will explore the conscious intermediate state in greater depth — bringing together the biblical evidence and the NDE evidence to build a comprehensive case that the soul survives death and is consciously aware between death and the final resurrection.

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