The Rich Man and Lazarus

Read Luke 16:19–31. Why is this story not a literal description of the

afterlife?

Some scholars suggest that Luke 16:19–31 should be interpreted

literally, that is, as describing the state of the dead. But this view would

lead to several unbiblical conclusions and would contradict many of the

passages that we have already looked at.

First, we would have to admit that heaven and hell are close enough

to allow a conversation between the dwellers of both places (Luke

16:23–31). We also would have to suppose that in the afterlife, while

the body lies in the grave, there remains a conscious form of the spiri­

tual soul with “ ‘eyes,’ ” a “ ‘finger,’ ” a “ ‘tongue,’ ” and which even

feels thirst (Luke 16:23, 24).

If this passage were a description of the human state in death, then

heaven would certainly not be a place of joy and happiness because the

saved could closely follow the endless sufferings of their lost loved ones,

and even dialogue with them (Luke 16:23–31). How could a mother be

happy in heaven while beholding the incessant agonies of her beloved

child in hell? In such a context, it would be virtually impossible for God’s

promise of no more sorrow, crying, and pain to be fulfilled (Rev. 21:4).

Because of such incoherence, many modern biblical scholars regard

the story of the rich man and Lazarus as a parable from which not

every detail can be interpreted literally. George E. Ladd, though a non-­

Adventist, certainly sounds like one here when he says that this story was

probably “a parable which made use of current Jewish thinking and is

not intended to teach anything about the state of the dead.”—G. E. Ladd,

“Eschatology,” in The New Bible Dictionary, edited by J. D. Douglas

(Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1962), p. 388.

The parable of the rich man and Lazarus presents a sharp contrast

between a well-dressed “ ‘rich man’ ” and “ ‘a certain beggar named

Lazarus, full of sores’ ” (Luke 16:19, 20, NKJV). The account teaches

that (1) status and social recognition in the present are not the criteria for

the future reward, and (2) the eternal destiny of each person is decided in

this life and cannot be reversed in the afterlife (Luke 16:25, 26).

“ ‘But he said to him, “If they do not hear Moses and the proph-

ets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the

dead” ’ ” (Luke 16:31, NKJV). What message from Jesus’ power-

ful words should we take for ourselves regarding the authority of

the Bible and how we respond to it?