Question: After death, what then?

Answer: In order to biblically answer our good question, we need to first define what death is. "For as the body without the spirit is dead," James writes, "so faith without works is dead also" (Jas. 2: 26).
Hades, the intermediate place of the soul. Two words, sheol and hades, one Hebrew, the other Greek, designate the temporary destiny of the souls of all men. Sheol is used 65 times, translated "hell" (31 times), "grave" (31), and "pit" (3). Sheol was used to denote more than just the grave (Gen. 37: 35). Hades, the Greek equivalent of sheol, is found ten times. The King James unfortunately translated hades hell on occasion (Jesus did not go to "hell," but to "hades," Acts 2: 27). Hades (and sheol) is, "the common receptacle of the disembodied spirits" (Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon, pg. 11).
An analysis of Luke 16: 19-31. It matters not if Luke 16: 19-31 is or is not a parable. If it is a parable, it contains teaching as to what, in detail, can happen. If it is not a parable, it contains teaching of what, in detail, did happen (there are many features of Luke 16: 19-31 that argue for it not being a parable). One, the saved, went to "Abraham's bosom," the other, the lost, went to torments (vss. 22, 23). These two compartments making up hades are separated by a great fixed gulf (vs. 26). Many scholars refer to the compartment where the rich man was as "tartarus" (the Greek word mistranslated "hell" in the King James, 2 Pet. 2: 4). Those in Abraham's bosom (corresponding to "paradise," where Jesus' spirit went, Lk. 23: 43) are comforted, those in "tartarus" are tormented (vs. 25).
On the Judgment Day, official sentencing will take place. Heaven and hell (gehenna, Mk. 9: 43 ff.) respectively will be the final and eternal destiny of all souls (Matt. 25: 31-46, I Pet. 1: 4).

used by permission from http://www.biblequestions.orgLet us but feel that He has His heart set upon us, that He is watching us from those heavens with tender interest, that He is following us day by day as a mother follows here babe in his first attemps to walk alone, that He has set His love upon us, and in spite of ourselves is working out for us His hightest will and blessing, as far as we will let Him - and then nothing can discourage us. A.B.SIMPSON