CATECHISM CC - PT 1, Art. 5 - "HE DESCENDED INTO HELL. ON THE THIRD DAY HE ROSE AGAIN"

Christ went down into the depths of death so that "the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live."485 Jesus, "the Author of life", by dying destroyed "him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and [delivered] all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage."486

Past CATECHISM CC Series threads

I can post the individual links if you wish.

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Thank you, Ventana, for compiling the links into one neat and orderly link.

BTTT

I wish to begin with the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man. We will see that this parable, if you study it real carefully, has really nothing to do about heaven or hell. To most of you, this probably comes as a shock, but hold on. Let's take it verse at a time. Luke 16:
19 There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:

The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary says: "The wearing of purple was associated particularly with royalty . . ." ("Purple," p. 863). Priests wore garments of purple and fine linen during service in the holy place. In addition, the New Bible Dictionary tells us: "The use of linen in Old Testament times was prescribed for priests

Exodus 39
1 And of the blue, and purple, and scarlet, they made cloths of service, to do service in the holy place, and made the holy garments for Aaron; as the LORD commanded Moses.

Exodus 28
39 And thou shalt embroider the coat of fine linen, and thou shalt make the mitre of fine linen, and thou shalt make the girdle of needlework.

So we see that the garments worn by this rich man were symbolic of royalty and the priesthood. With that in mind, let's see what God told Moses just before giving the Israelites the Law on Mount Sinai.

EXODUS 19
6 And ye shall be to me a royal priesthood and a holy nation: these words shalt thou speak to the children of Israel. (Brenton's LXX)

The clothing of the rich man identifies him symbolically with the people of Israel, who God chose to be a special people. They were called to be a witness to the nations surrounding them, confirming the blessings available to those who would obey God and keep His laws.
the rich man "fared sumptuously every day." Figuratively, this represents the magnificent spriritual feast available only to the Jews, who were the sole remaining part of God's called people, Israel. In the first century A.D., they were the only people on earth who had the true religion. Indeed, Paul recounts the glorious station of the house of Judah in Romans 9:3-5.

Romans 9
3 For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:
4 Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;
5 Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.

The Jews were truly rich, feasting on God's spiritual blessings. Yet these very gifts caused them to stumble because they prompted them to self-righteousness. Certainly, as Paul wrote,

Romans 11
9 And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them:

Luke 16
20 And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores,
21 And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.

The Jews had enjoyed "the good life" while on earth but had done nothing to bless or enrich their neighbors. No further reward was due.

Luke 6
24 But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation.
25 Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep.

As stewards of the special message of truth, they utterly failed to share it with the Gentiles, who were eager to hear it. In fact, the entire chapter of Luke 16 is devoted to the subject of stewardship.

In contrast to the rich man, we see Lazarus (verses 20,21). The first thing to note is that he is depicted as a beggar. This is an apt description of the Gentiles who "laid at the gate" of Judah. Paul describes the predicament of the Gentiles before they received Christ in Ephesians 2:12.

Ephesians 2
12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:

Conversely, the poor in spirit, symbolized by Lazarus, would inherit the kingdom of heaven. The Gentiles who hungered and thirsted after righteousness would be filled. The "dogs" and sinners, so despised by the self-righteous Pharisees, would enter heaven before they would. That is why Lazarus dies and is taken to the bosom of Abraham with no mention of his burial as compared to the rich man who was "buried" in hell.

Matthew 21
31 Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.

This Scripture is also a fitting representation of the position of the Gentile nations before the Messiah's sacrifice for the world's sins. They were certainly "excluded from the commonwealth of Israel," "strangers to the covenants of promise," and "without hope and without God in the world." The Gentiles were beggars, located outside Judah and longing to be fed spiritual crumbs from the table of the divinely blessed Jews.
Additionally, we are told that dogs came and consoled Lazarus in his misery, licking his sores. The Jews considered the surrounding Gentiles to be unclean "dogs." Even Christ himself used this unflattering comparison when he conversed with the Greek Syrophoenician woman while in the region of Tyre.

Mark 7
24 And from thence he arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into an house, and would have no man know it: but he could not be hid.
25 For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet:
26 The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.
27 But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs.
28 And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs.
29 And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter.
30 And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed.

Also important to the story is the meaning of the name Lazarus. This Greek name is a form of the Hebrew Eleazer, and it literally means "he whom God helps." The use of this particular name is very significant to the message of the parable, for the Gentiles would indeed become "those whom God helped" through the sacrifice of His son, Yeshua.

He says that first, Lazarus dies and is taken to the bosom of Abraham. Notice, there is no mention of his burial here. Then later the rich man dies, and he is buried in hell(in Hades)

Luke 16
23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

So the time sequence given indicates that upon his death, Lazarus was taken immediately to Abraham's bosom, while afterward the rich man was buried in Hades after his death.
If this story is literal, then we have a contradiction in the Bible. Here, Lazarus is shown to have immediately received the promise of eternal life. Yet the author of Hebrews clearly tells us that Abraham, as well as all the other Old Testament saints, have not yet received the promises given to them by God. For example, Stephen was stoned to death for saying the following words:

Acts 7:2-5
"And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our Father Abraham . . . and said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I will show thee. Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans . . . into this land, wherein ye now dwell. And he gave him none inheritance in it . . . yet He promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him" .

Again this amazing fact is stated in the faith chapter—

Hebrews 11
8 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed and went out, not knowing whither he went.
9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:
12 Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable,
13These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:
40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

Abraham died, but has not to this day inherited the promises!
Abraham died, and was still dead, at the time of Christ's earthly ministry. We read

John 8
52 Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets: and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying , he shall never taste of death.

At that time—centuries after he died—Abraham was not living on earth or in heaven or anywhere! He is still dead today. When, then, is he to inherit the promises?

Matthew 25
31 When the son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

Jesus said Abraham would receive the promises, including eternal life, through the resurrection: Jesus told a particular group they would see Abraham in the Kingdom because Abraham, now dead, will then be resurrected.

Luke 13
28 There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.

The time when the angels carry Lazarus and the saints into sharing the inheritance with Abraham—into Abraham's bosom— is the time of the resurrection. Lazarus is to be resurrected and carried by the angels through the air to meet Christ at His return, and to be with Abraham in the intimate relationship of father and son! Yes, how plain! Lazarus will then enjoy the fond embrace of his father through Christ, Abraham—both then resurrected and living forevermore in the promised land, then inherited!

The great men and women of faith listed in Hebrews 11 have not yet been made perfect and given eternal life. They, along with all the saints of God from every age, are currently sleeping in their graves

Job 3
11 Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?
12 Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck?
13 For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest,
14 With kings and counsellors of the earth, which build desolate places for themselves;
15 Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver:
16 Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.
17 There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest.
18 There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.
19 The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master.

Psalm 6
5 For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?

Psalm 115
17 The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence.

Ecclesiastes 9
5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.
10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.

1 Corinthians 15
20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

Isaiah 57
1 The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.
2 He shall enter into peace: they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness.

Daniel 12
2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

Acts 2
29 Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.
31 He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left IN HELL, neither his flesh did see corruption"
34 For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,

Acts 13
36 For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption:

These saints are awaiting the first resurrection, which will take place when Yeshua the Messiah returns at the sounding of the seventh trumpet.

Matthew 24
30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

1 Corinthians 15
51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

1 Thessalonians 4
16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

Revelation 11
15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
16 And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God,
17 Saying, We give thee thanks, O LORD God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.
18 And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.

Lazarus being "carried to Abraham's bosom." The figurative meaning of being in one's bosom is to be in a position of closeness, to be highly regarded. This symbolism is indicated by the ancient practice of having guests at a feast recline on the chest of their neighbors. The place of highest honor would therefore belong to the one seated next to the host, calling to mind the example of John at the Last Supper.

John 13
23 Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved

Paul explains this imagery in Galatians 3:6-9 by telling us how the Gentiles could be in this place of highest honor.

Galatians 3
6 Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
7 Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
9 So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.

As the passage above (as well as the fourth and ninth chapters of Romans) shows, Gentile believers become "sons of Abraham" through faith in Christ. This faith allows Gentiles to no longer be "strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints and members of the household of God"

Ephesians 2
19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;

Furthermore, in order to more fully understand why Jesus told the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, one must take into consideration who was in His audience. Luke 16:14 tells us who were among his chief listeners.

Luke 16
14 And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him.

They were "The Pharisees . . . [who] heard all these things [the preceding parables]: and . . . derided him." Jesus' purpose in telling this parable was to show the Pharisees that from their own belief's they were condemned. So the question is: What did the Pharisees believe about life after death? We will again look at and study Luke 16:23 to answer this question.

Luke 16
23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

Most likely, hades (hell) originally meant "unseen." Later, it came to refer to the hidden state of those buried in the earth. The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology states that hades ". . . comes from idein (to see) with the negative prefix, a-, and so would mean the invisible . . . In the LXX hades occurs more than 100 times, in the majority of instances to translate Heb. she'ol, the underworld which receives all the dead. It is the land of darkness . . ." (vol. 2, p. 206).
Symbolically, this parable shows that a point would come when the house of Judah would become "unseen" by God, out of favor because of their unbelief. There would come a time when the Jews as a whole would no longer be God's favored nation. Their hard hearts would lead them to reject their Messiah

The Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus (AD 37 -95?), a near contemporary of Christ, and himself a Pharisee, tells us in graphic detail in his, "Discourse on Hades" exactly what the Pharisees believed about death. Here is what Josephus wrote:
Hades is a place in the world not regularly finished; a subterranean region, where the light of this world does not shine. . . . This region is allowed as a place for custody of souls, which angels are appointed as guardians to them, who distribute them temporary punishment, agreeable to everyone's behavior and manners. In this region there is a certain place set apart, as a lake of unquenchable fire, wherein we suppose no one hath hitherto been cast; but it is prepared for a day aforedetermined by God, in which one righteous sentence shall deservedly be passed upon all men; when the unjust and those who have been disobedient to God . . . shall be adjudged to this everlasting punishment, . . . while the just shall obtain an incorruptible and never-fading kingdom. These are now indeed confined in Hades, but not in the same place wherein the unjust are confined. For there is one descent into this region, at whose gate we believe there stands an archangel with an host; which gate when those pass through that are conducted down by the angels appointed over souls, that do not go the same way; but the just are guided to the right hand, and are led with hymns sung by the angels appointed over that place, unto a region of light, in which the just have dwelt from the beginning of the world. . . . This place we call the Bosom of Abraham. But as to the unjust, they are dragged by force to the left hand, by the angels allotted for punishment. . . Now these angels that are set over these souls, drag them into the neighborhood of hell itself; who, when they are hard by it, continually hear the noise of it, and do not stand clear of the hot vapour; but when they have a nearer view of this spectacle, as a terrible and exceeding great prospect of fire, they are struck with fearful expectation of a future judgment, and in effect punished thereby; and not only so, but where they see the place [or choir] of the fathers and of the just, even hereby are they punished; for a chaos deep and large is fixed between them; insomuch that a just man that hath compassion upon them, cannot be admitted, nor can one that is unjust, if he were bold enough to attempt it, pass over it.--The Works of Flavius Josephus, William Whiston, trans. (Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Book House, 1984), vol. 4, pp. 239-243.

The most effective argument is that which takes the weapons of an opponent and uses them against him, and this is exactly what Christ did. The Pharisees, who "were covetous" believed that riches were a sign of divine approbation and blessing, whereas poverty was a sign of God's disfavor and curse.

Luke 16
14 And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him.,

In His parable, Christ reversed these roles. Instead of placing the rich man in the comfort of "Abraham's Bosom", where the Pharisees expected him to go, Jesus placed him in "Hades". And then instead of placing the poor man, Lazarus, in "Hades", where the Pharisees confidently expected him to go, Christ placed him in the comfort of Abraham's Bosom. The point Yeshua was making was that the house of Judah, as a whole, would to be cut off and replaced during this current age by those Gentiles, who in faith, would accept the sacrifice of the Messiah.
If the Pharisees and scribes understood this prophetic parable, it must have astonished and infuriated those who listened as Christ spoke. The implication that the house of Judah and the Gentile nations were to change places, with the Jews becoming alienated from God while the Gentiles were to become the "seed of Abraham," would have been almost impossible for them to believe.

Luke 16
24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.

First, notice that the rich man identifies Abraham as his father, just as the Pharisees did in

John 8
39 They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham.

Next, the word rendered "torment" here is a form of the Greek verb odunao, which literally means "grief," "pain," or "suffering." Predominantly, it conveys the sense of mental anguish, not physical pain. Forms of this word are found only four times in the Scriptures, all in the writings of Luke. It appears twice in this parable, in verses 24 and 25. It is used to describe the anxious distress that Mary and Joseph felt after they discovered the 12-year old Jesus missing on the trip home from Jerusalem after the Passover feast.

Luke 2
48 And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.

It also depicts the sorrow the elders of the Ephesian Church felt at Paul's farewell announcement that they would never see him again.

Acts 20
38 Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him unto the ship.

In the end, they rejected the anointed one God sent to them and had the Romans crucify him.
Now let's look at another point. What does the flame in the parable represent?
When one looks at the history of the Jewish people from the time of Christ until today, one theme remains constant -- persecution. With the quashing of the Jewish revolts against Rome (66-70 A.D. and 132-135 A.D.), the saga of the Jewish people in the Diaspora has been one of persistent and harsh persecution from virtually all quarters. The Inquisition of the 15th century and the Holocaust of the 20th century are two of the more well-known anti-semitic episodes, but many more are recorded on the bloody pages of history. For their unbelief and rejection of truth and knowledge, the Jews have been cursed by God with the "flame" of suffering and grief down through the centuries. Unfortunately, most of that mistreatment has come at the hands of those who called themselves "Christians."

Luke 16
25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.

Abraham clearly identifies the rich man as his descendant by calling him "son." He tells him that things have changed. When the Jews were God's chosen people, they enjoyed the spiritual blessings associated with that status. But now, Abraham says, Lazarus is enjoying those blessings while the rich man is grieving and in sorrow. "Tormented" here is another form of odunao, the same Greek verb found above in verse 24. In non-biblical Gk. [basanos] is a commercial expression, or is used in relation to government. It then acquires the meaning of the checking of calculations, which develops naturally out of the basic sense of [basanos, basanizein] . . . In the spiritual sphere it has the figur[ative] sense, which is closely related to the original concrete meaning, of a means of testing . . .
The word then undergoes a change in meaning. The original sense fades into the background. [Basanos] now comes to denote "torture" or "the rack," espec[ially] used with slaves . . . [Basanos] occurs in the sense of "torment" . . .
The change in meaning is best explained if we begin with the object of treatment. If we put men instead of metal or a coin, the stone of testing become[s] torture or the rack. The metal which has survived the testing stone is subjected to harsher treatment. Man is in the same position when severely tested by torture. In the testing of metal an essential role was played by the thought of testing and proving genuineness. The rack is a means of showing the true state of affairs. In its proper sense it is a means of testing and proving, though also of punishment. Finally, even this special meaning was weakened and only the general element of torture remained (vol. I, pp. 561, 562, emphasis mine).

Luke 16
26 And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.

What is the "great gulf" which stands between the rich man and Lazarus? Paul aptly explains it to us in the eleventh chapter of Romans. He tells us that because of the Jews' unbelief, "God has given them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear, to this very day"

Romans 11
8 (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.

Paul goes on to say that "a partial hardening would happen to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles had come in"

Romans 11
25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. In

2 Corinthians 3
14 But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.
15 But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.

Paul tells us that the Israelites' "minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a vail lies on their heart."
The "great gulf" mentioned by Abraham is nothing less than God's blinding in this age of the Jews as a whole to the truth about their Messiah! It's not that the Jewish nation won't acknowledge Christ; they cannot recognize his true identity because of God's actions! Yet because of the Eternal's great mercy, this state of affairs will not last forever

Romans 11
26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

The fact that the rich man has five brothers is a vital clue to his true symbolic identity. Judah, the progenitor of the Jews, was the son of Jacob through Leah

Genesis 29
35 And she conceived again, and bare a son: and she said, Now will I praise the LORD: therefore she called his name Judah; and left bearing.

He had five full-blooded brothers: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, and Zebulun

Genesis 35
23 The sons of Leah; Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun:

While the significance of this seemingly pointless detail has been neglected by scholars throughout the centuries, you can be certain that it did not escape the notice of the Pharisees and scribes to which Christ was speaking. They thoroughly knew their history and were extremely proud of their heritage. Yeshua wanted those self-righteous Pharisees to know exactly who He was referring to with this parable. This detail cements the identity of the rich man as the house of Judah, the Jews!

Luke 16
27 Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house:
28 for I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.

Yielding himself to his destiny, the rich man asks one more thing of his forefather Abraham. He pleads with him to send someone to warn his brothers, so that they may escape "this place of torment" (basanou), the testing and punishment that he was undergoing.

Luke 16
29 Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.

Once again Abraham refuses the rich man's request, telling him that the brothers already have a witness in the writings of Moses and the prophets that will allow them to escape his fate. Moses, as well as the prophets, are shown several times in the New Testament to support Yeshua's identity as the Messiah

Luke 24
27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
44 And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.

John 1
45 Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

John 5
46 For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me.

Acts 3
22 For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.
23 And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.
24 Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.

Acts 7
37 This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear.

Acts 26
22 Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come:
23 That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people, and to the Gentiles.

Acts 28
23 And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening.

Abraham tells the rich man that his brothers would have to recognize the prophesied Messiah because of the things written about him in the Tanakh. This echoes what Yeshua told the Jews in

John 5
45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust.
46 For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me.
47 But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?

As the Scriptures show, the Jewish leaders of Christ's day generally failed to recognize the very one Moses wrote about

Deuteronomy 18
15 The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;
18 I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.

Then, Jesus made the point that, "if they [meaning the Pharisees] believe not Moses and the prophets (see Matt. 23:2), neither will they believe, though one rise from the dead"

Luke 16
30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.
31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

As a matter of fact, this is exactly what happened. When Christ arose from the dead, the Pharisees, who professed to believe in future resurrection, continued to reject Him, and in fact, they were among the worst persecutors of Christ's followers who taught that Christ had indeed been resurrected.

Christ uses these last two verses of this parable as an amazing prophecy of his pending resurrection from the dead. The rich man says that although his brothers may not accept the scriptural evidence for the identity of the Messiah, they will accept the evidence of one who is raised from the dead.
But Abraham answers and plainly tells him that anyone who rejects God's Word about the Messiah will also refuse to acknowledge the evidence of a miraculous resurrection. This last verse is a sad prophecy about the Jews and about all the Israelites who have not, despite God's resurrection of His son from the power of the grave, recognized Christ as the Messiah.
Christ ends this parable abruptly, with no real resolution presented. The picture presented is a bleak one, yet there is hope for the Jews and for all Israel. In Romans 11, Paul laid out that hope in such a manner that scarcely few today have really believed it.

Romans 11
1 I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

Paul rhetorically asks if God has cast away His people, Israel. He answers his own question emphatically by saying "Certainly not!" He tells us that God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Paul writes that there is currently a remnant of Israel, analogous to the seven thousand reserved to God in Elijah's time,

1 Kings 19
18 Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.

that God has elected by grace. The rest God hardened, that the Gentiles might also be included in salvation through grace. He gives the resolution of the situation in verse 26 of the following:

Romans 11
25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father's sakes.
29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.
33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

CONCLUSION
The parable of Lazarus and the rich man, long used by mainstream ministers to teach the reality of "hell," really has nothing to say about punishment or reward in the afterlife. Christ used this story, which fit the common misconception about life after death in his day, to show the fate that awaited the Jewish nation because of the unbelief and faithlessness which led them to reject him as the Messiah. They still suffer from that fate to this very day. Yet the time is soon coming when God will pour on the Jews the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Christ whom they pierced, and they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.

The next issue which we need to present concerns the word "hell". That word has three different and distinct meanings when translated from the Hebrew language. Unless one knows this, it is very easy to be deceived by teachers of false doctrines. One definition of the word hell comes from the word Ge-henna which referred to an old dump site in a valley near bouts Jerusalem. http://www.eliyah.com/cgi-bin/strongs.cgi?file=greeklexicon&isindex=1067 Another Greek word for hell is Tartarus meaning the abyss or place of darkness, punishment. http://www.eliyah.com/cgi-bin/strongs.cgi?file=greeklexicon&isindex=5020 The last definition of hell is Hades which is the grave. http://www.eliyah.com/cgi-bin/strongs.cgi?file=hebrewlexicon&isindex=7585
http://www.eliyah.com/cgi-bin/strongs.cgi?file=greeklexicon&isindex=86
I counted the word hell used 31 times in the Old Testament of the King James Bible and they all have the meaning "grave". http://www.blueletterbible.org/tmp_dir/words/1065660348-4052.html http://www.blueletterbible.org/tmp_dir/words/1065660368-2450.html

Acts 2:31 He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.
Many believe and teach that the word hell in this verse means a place of fire and torment. That's not true. Check it out for yourself. It fits definition 86 of the previously listed sites, which is simply the grave. There's a matter of fact, I find only one verse in the entire Bible, where the word hell means abyss or punishment. See definition 5020 (abyss,punishment) at the site listed above. That verse is 2 Peter 2:4 "For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast [them] down to hell, and delivered [them] into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;" As you can see, it doesn't even relate to people who are dead but rather to angels. The point being that the word hell in the Bible generally referrs to the grave. Nothing more, nothing less.
Along this same trend of thought, there are many who have been led to believe that when Christ died he went to hell to preach to the dead. Here, I repeat, hell refers to the grave and not a place of torment as most people have been falsely informed. Furthermore they use 1 Peter 3:19 to say that these dead are in prison. However, they fail to keep reading verse 20. Let's read both verses, "By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsufferring of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
These verses have absolutely nothing to do with Christ's death, burial, or going to speak to spirits of dead saints. The word "By" in the beginning of verse 19 referrs to the word "Spirit" of the previous verse. Thus we see that this means that by his Spirit he went to preach to those who were in prison during the time of Noah 2500 years prior. The word prison does not mean a literal prison or eternal fire in some abyss, but refers to one under persecution by Satan and being under the captivity of sin. Read Psalm 142:7 "Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name: the righteous shall compass me about: for thou shalt deal bountifully with me.
Now obviously David was not in hell, burning in torment, when he wrote this. We continue Psalms 143:3 "For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath smitten my life down to the ground; he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead."
We see here the depression and what appears to be a heavy burden, for whatever reason, deep inside that he's carrying as a prisoner in captivity would feel.
In another example we see the feeling of captivity under the burden of sin expressed by Paul in Romans 7:23 "But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members."
Here we see Paul struggling against sin which he referrs to as "captivity".
Isaiah 49:9 " That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness,..." Thus meaning those that are in spiritual darkness or sin and have no knowledge of the Truth and are starving for spiritual bread crumbs as Lazarus was in the parable.
May God Bless You and guide you in your studies and search for Truth.