Journeys of the Soul
Journeys of the Soul
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 more more detailed lessons.
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 |
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.
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.