"The good place & this bad place are not two compartments of the same place, nor is the good place in Hades at all. What Christ taught was bad people went to Hades & the good went to Abraham's bosom, a completely different place separated by a large gulf."
Thanks for your thoughts, ewq & for your input. Some things I agree on & others I don't. I agree that the account of Dives (a certain rich man) & Lazarus is not a parable. I did an in-depth study on that passage & the surrounding context & for multiple reasons came to the same conclusion.
I did a similar in-depth study on sheol/hades/the pit/etc. all through the Bible. In the OT ALL people, both the righteous & the unrighteous went to sheol. Verse after verse shows this & I won't list between 100-200 examples.
All the departed souls of the dead are in the same spiritual place in the spiritual realm called primarily by the name Sheol. As Scripture progressively reveals the description of this place in various Bible books, it shows there are definite compartments WITHIN Sheol. I say compartments for lack of a better word to describe them. It is like a house & within that house are different rooms.
One can go all the way back to Genesis 1:2 to discover God created the abyss, with darkness covering it. This abyss is mentioned elsewhere in the Bible as the bottomless pit & what I understand as the great chasm in Luke 16. It is one and the same description & it is found within sheol/hades.
Deut 32:22 For a fire is kindled in My anger & burns to the LOWEST PART of Sheol...
Psalm 86:13 For great
is Thy mercy toward me & Thou hast delivered my soul from THE LOWEST HELL.(Sheol)
When I look if there is any separation between the place in Sheol where the righteous are & the place in Sheol where the unrighteous are, Scripture progressively shows it. In Luke 16 there is a separation by the abyss or great chasm or bottomless pit.
We know from studying through the Bible that sheol/hades is a temporary place that houses the departed souls of the dead. It is said to be below or under the earth as distinguished from on the earth & above the earth.
We know when Jesus died, he stated he & the believing thief would go & be in Paradise. Their departing spirits went to the Father & their souls went to sheo/hades, but in a special compartment or 'separated area' from the unbelieving. The certain rich man, Dives (Latin for rich man), could SEE Abraham & Lazarus, though at a far distance, indicating they were in the same place though far but still able to be seen & talk to.
Notice that in order for Dives to see them, there had to be light there vs the darkened place where Dives was. Also there was water there as the garden of Eden had the river of life. And Eden after Christ's resurrection (aka Paradise aka Abraham's Bosom or Side), was taken up to heaven & is in the heavenlies & will be found in the New Jerusalem, the celestial city of God with our mansions!
Jesus said He would be going back with & to His Father's house & prepare a place & home for those who believe (John 14).
Psalm 16:10 says that Jesus' soul would not be abandoned in sheol. Acts 2:27 says it wouldn't be abandoned in hades, the Greek equivalent for the same place. Yet Jesus said He would be in Paradise. Both are true. Paradise or Abraham's bosom or side or 'gan eden' in Jeremiah & Ezekiel (garden of Eden--you probably wondered where it went) were all the same place, located in sheol/hades in the spiritual realm.
This comes doing a study through the whole Bible, harmonizing Scripture.
But a change occurs AFTER Christ's resurrection/ascension. Some OT saints were resurrected out of sheol & walked the earth for a short time just like Christ did. Then Jesus took captivity (held by the power of death) captive & released them from the power of death & all went into heaven. (Eph 4:8-10)
Matt 27:51-53 "Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom & the earth quaked & the rocks were split & the graves were opened & MANY bodies of the saints WHO HAD FALLEN ASLEEP WERE RAISED & coming out of the graves AFTER His resurrection, they went into the holy city & appeared to many.”
They were the first fruits, the OT saints & newly departed NT dead believers, who followed Christ into the third heaven, when Christ took Paradise out of sheol/hades into the third heaven. Paul mentions that he went to Paradise during his lifetime on earth & mentions it was now in the third heaven, the place where God dwelt & where Christ ascended, at the right hand of the Father.
They were now in glory. We who are physically alive have the hope of glory, being glorified in the presence of the glorified Christ. Remember the transfiguration. Moses & Elijah appeared there, BEING IN GLORY. They were not dead or sleeping but very much alive & conscious. They were talking to Jesus about His coming crucifixion!
People forget that the Messiah KNEW Moses face to face, as a friend talks with a friend, in the tent of meeting. It was Jesus who gave Moses the Law on top of Mt. Sinai. It was the LORD in the burning bush when He told Moses to take off his shoes as this was a holy place.
Jesus knew Abraham & said Abraham rejoiced to see My day. The Pharisees knew exactly what Jesus was claiming. It was the Messiah as YHWH who talked with Abraham in Genesis 18, in a visible form as a man. Abraham was called the friend of God three times in Scripture. Jesus & Abraham knew each other well.
I could go on about Jesus knowing Jacob & watching over he & his family & Jacob wrestling with Jesus. And others as well.
Job knew about His Redeemer & God challenged Job at the end of the book if he knew where the place of darkness was, the gates of death ('gates of Hades') & also the way to the home of light. (Paradise/Garden of Eden/Abraham's Bosom/Side)
Job 38:17-21 Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death? Have you surveyed the extent of the earth? Tell Me, if you know all this. Where is the way to the home of light? Do you know where darkness resides, so you can lead it back to its border? Do you know the paths to its home? Surely you know, for you were already born! And the number of your days is great!
Paul describes this in Phil 2:10 where people are in 3 places AFTER CHRISTS RESURRECTION & ASCENSION: above the earth (departed believers), on the earth (those physically alive) & below the earth (those unbelieving in sheol/hades.
"So that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven & on earth & under the earth."
One needs to look at hundreds of verses to see the correlation & harmonization to get this complete picture. That has been my understanding. Hope this helps.