No Soul Ascends or Descends

Prologue

This piece follows two articles: Hell Awaits No One and Heaven Got No Visitor Either. It's necessary and important that you read them too to have context.

The Type: Flesh and Blood
Jesus Appears

Luke 24:36-49 NIV

While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”

When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence.

He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”

Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

The Type: Also Flesh and Blood
Jesus Ascends To Heaven

Luke 24:50-53 NIV

When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.

Epilogue

No dead person has gone up to heaven or has descended into hell. All dead, the saved or the lost, are resting on their graves as they wait to hear God's judgment. [Although there's indication that a few like the twenty-four elders (Revelation 4:2-4) has gone ahead to heaven. To be sure, they were not ahead of Jesus. They are to be seated as judges during the judgment of all humankind.]

This truth falsifies the myth that the souls of the dead has gone to heaven or to hell immediately at the time of death. In addition, the first article, Hell Awaits No One, demystifies hell, which many has come to know as the Devils' kingdom where the lost "souls" go for eternal torment in fire; but, in fact, hell is a metaphor that symbolizes a place of all dead, where they wait for their judgment.

The righteous dead will rise on the first resurrection and will live forevermore. In contrast, the unrighteous dead will all rise one thousand years after the first resurrection, only to suffer the second death as they are thrown together with Satan and his demons into the lake of fire. No more will they exist.