This page is an index for lessons about the seven possible states of the soul. This chart provides you with a simple introductory study which you can then follow up with the links to more more detailed lessons..

States of the Soul

There are seven possible states in which a soul can exist. The first three are changeable states in this world. The other four states are unchangeable. The seven states are...

State: 1. Innocence
Portal: Physical Conception
Location: World
Scripture: Rom 7:9

State: 2. Spiritual Death
Portals: First sin and Apostasy
Location: World
Scripture: Eze 18:4

State: 3. Spiritual Life
Portal: Conversion
Location: World
Scripture: Rom6:4

State: 4. Hadean doom
Portal: Physical death
Location: Hades
Scripture: Lke 16:23

State: 5 Hadean safety
Portal: Physical death
Location: Hades
Scripture: Hos 13:14

State: 6 Eternal Death
Portal: Judgment day
Location: Eternity
Scripture: Rev 20:12-15

State: 7 Eternal Life
Portal: Judgment day
Location: Eternity
Scripture: Mtt 25:34,46

The soul before physical conception

Down through the ages, there have been many theories about some kind of pre-existence of a person's soul. These theories hold that a person's soul exists in some state before the person's physical conception and birth. Some theories have ideas about past lives. Some beliefs describe a storehouse of souls kept in waiting. The Bible does not teach any of these things, therefore we have not added a "waiting" state to make eight states altogether. Instead we simply refer to "no state" prior to conception. There are indications in the Bible that a soul is brought into existence when a new human being is conceived in the womb. For example Psalm 139:13-16.

The place called Hades

Hades is the "unseen" nether world where the souls of the dead await the resurrection at the second coming of Christ. Hades (Sheol in the Old Testament) is sometimes translated or interpreted as "the grave". The Psalmist indeed refers to "Sheol" and then to "the pit" (Psa 30:3). Some assert that the Psalmist is speaking of the grave where the fleshly body decays at death. The Psalmist, however, speaks of Sheol as a place for the "soul" and nobody's soul has ever been buried in a grave. Another translation of Sheol is "hell" which confuses Sheol with Gehenna, the eternal abode of the wicked. Because of these problems some translators prefer to merely merely transliterate, thus they put the words Sheol and Hades.

INDEXES... States | Journeys | Portals | DIAGRAM

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