Sometimes, there are exceptions to things written in scripture which makes it unwise to interpret those things too literally as if there can't be exceptions to what is stated. This is one of them.
For example, Lazarus died twice. That verse, Hebrews 9:27, has been true for a vast majority of people from all-time with the exceptions of some people like Lazarus who were resurrected with their mortal bodies and ended up dying again. Another exception will be those who are alive at Christ's second coming.
You make it sound like Lazarus immediately died again even before the Cross. I doubt that is a wise assumption. There is no record of Lazarus dying again. Once again, an assumption. Lazarus was in Abraham's bosom for at least 4 days. Do you claim he tasted death and went back to Abraham's bosom until the Cross? No one has tasted death and entered Abraham's bosom after the Cross.
How far into being literal do you take Hebrews 9:27? I guess no one can be raptured without dying either? Lazarus could have ascended along with all the other bodies when Jesus did that Sunday. No one described that ascension, because it had nothing to do with the NT church. It was about Christ the firstfruits.
Is the transfer of the soul from one body to another body, death, or is death just shedding this corruptible body? Because even David claimed shedding this body was only sleep. It was still tasting death. Christ made it clear, many would soon, not taste death at all.
That to me would mean not be sent to sheol. So death was not just a loss of the physical body, but the loss of the soul, itself in sheol.
Hebrews 9:27 definitely is not saying it is appointed that all must go to sheol, and after this the judgment. Unless it is. Do those in Christ get to skip that appointment, because the judgment was the Cross, and is now in the past?
Too many take this verse out of context to prove other points. The point was that Jesus only died once. The appointment to death was given one time to Adam, and death was passed down to all according to Paul. So just living in this body satisfies that appointment. This body is the one time death appointment. For those in Christ it is an everlasting life sentence as the judgement passed on through Christ. One just has to wait until this dead body is left behind.
I think some equate death as ceasing to exist. Death is separation from God. God, Jesus did not cease to exist on the Cross. God Himself did not cease to exist, but was separated for one split second. One may ask separated from what. Certainly not each other, as the physical aspect can only show. Although giving up the Holy Spirit would indicate a separation from the physical body. Yet we are not physically dead from being separated from our spirit. We are spiritually dead in that case.
The moment of Atonement indicates that all three beings of God became one. The separation could only be that GOD was cut off as being transcendent, and was fully a created being to bear all of the sin as a dead human separated from GOD outside of creation itself. Being transcendent ceased to exist for the act, and then transcendence was restored. That is the death that happened along with the physical body actually physically dying itself, even though sin did not demand that appointment of death. Jesus still lived that point in Hebrews 9:27.
So claiming all souls have to leave this body is either overstating this verse or making unnecessary demands on how a soul must leave this body. Just being born as a descendant of Adam is a death sentence for all, in physical life itself. Obviously not many will see it that way, they only view the physical body as being alive. They only see the point it will stop functioning. Even in ashes it has not stopped existing. It is just existing useless dust of creation. What no longer exist, is usefulness. And that is a metaphysical point of determination, way outside of the topic.
For a person who places all their theology into the spiritual, holding to the physicality of the body seems contrary to the norm. Demanding that a resurrection has to be back to death instead of life, rejects Jesus as the Resurrection and the Life. Especially since the account was given as Jesus being the Resurrection and the Life. Does a second death indicate that only Lazarus enjoyed a second resurrection? Do we all die twice physically then? Many want their second resurrection, but then point out only one death? There is only the first resurrection and it is to an incorruptible body. A body that cannot die again as promised. Of course God could cause all of creation to cease to exist and never return.
