The Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man (Luke 16:19-31) is not a picture of conscious souls in torment after death but an illustration of the resurrection and the second death. The dead are totally unconscious (Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10; Psalm 146:4), so Lazarus rises with the saints at Christ's return, while the rich man is raised a thousand years later (Revelation 20:4-5) with no sense of the elapsed time. The flame he sees upon waking is the Lake of Fire, the second death, which will destroy the wicked finally and permanently. The punishment is eternal, but the punishing is not, since the wages of sin is death, not endless torment. The Greek odunomai ("tormented") refers to mental anguish and terror as he faces his doom. The "great gulf" is immortality: the saved are spirit and cannot die, while the wicked remain flesh and blood and can be consumed. His concern for his five brothers, and Abraham's reply that those who reject Moses and the prophets would not believe even one raised from the dead, shows that the parable's purpose is to reveal the truth of the resurrection. Matthew 3:12, Matthew 13:30, and Malachi 4:1, 3 describe the unquenchable fire that burns until the wicked are ashes. The parable teaches that refusing the written Word of God leaves no hope of salvation.

Jesus spoke the parable in Luke 16:19-31 to the unrepentant, to illuminate His earlier warning of weeping and gnashing of teeth when workers of iniquity see the patriarchs in God's kingdom while they themselves are thrust out (Luke 13:27-28). The rich man represents all sinners and shows what awaits the unrepentant: they are resurrected to physical life, know at once that they are doomed, and are cast into the Lake of Fire, which consumes them completely and finally. The parable does not picture eternal burning in hell. Lazarus being carried to Abraham's bosom depicts an intimate relationship in which he becomes one of Abraham's spiritual children and an heir of the promises (Galatians 3:7, 29). Those promises concern land on this earth and eternal life, not heaven. Because Abraham himself has not yet received them and remains in his grave (Acts 7:2-5; Hebrews 11:8-13; John 8:52), Lazarus cannot inherit before him. Both receive eternal life at Christ's return, at the resurrection of the just. The rich man dies and is buried, and Hades (verse 23) means the grave, not a place of conscious torment, though the King James Version renders it "hell," as it does tartarus and gehenna. The parable reflects two separate resurrections (John 5:28-29; Revelation 20:4-5, 11-12). The rich man, who chose temporary riches over eternal ones, rises after the Millennium without hope and perishes in the Lake of Fire. The parable therefore teaches resurrection from death, not instant passage to heaven or hell.

The Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man (Luke 16:19-31) is not a literal account of heaven and hell, as medieval Christian imagination and later churches claimed, but a parable that fits the rest of Scripture once clear passages interpret the ambiguous one. Ecclesiastes 9 and 12, Ezekiel 18, Acts 2, John 3:13, and Hebrews 9:27 show that the dead are unconscious, souls die, no one but Christ has ascended to heaven, and Sheol or Hades is simply the grave. Lazarus being "carried by the angels" points to the first resurrection at Christ's return, when angels gather the elect (Matthew 24:31). "Abraham's bosom" pictures the intimate fellowship of reclining at table with Abraham in the Kingdom (Matthew 8:11). The rich man's "torments" translates basanoi, better rendered anguish over the judgment beginning. He experiences no interval, because the dead have no sense of time. The "great gulf" is the spiritual divide between eternal life and eternal death, and physical descent from Abraham counts for nothing. Abraham's reply that "they have Moses and the prophets" shows that Scripture, not a miracle, produces repentance, as the real Lazarus's resurrection only hardened the Pharisees. Jesus gave the parable to rebuke the money-loving Pharisees, whose lack of compassion for the poor showed they did not love God or neighbor.

The Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man in Luke 16 pictures a great gulf fixed between two groups: those who have been made immortal after their period of judgment, and those who are awaiting their fate in the third resurrection (verse 26). That great gulf is eternal life. Those incorrigibles from all ages who rise in the third resurrection will have no hope of salvation. They are doomed to the Lake of Fire, the second death, and cannot cross the gulf into immortality.

In the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man, the heartless rich man speaks to Lazarus while being tormented in flame. This alludes to the wicked being cremated when God burns up the earth, turning it into the final Gehenna, also called the Lake of Fire. The rich man is raised out of his grave at the end of God's plan for humanity on earth, in the third resurrection. Because the dead know nothing, he does not sense the passage of time between his death and his resurrection, but he certainly realizes that he has failed to receive salvation. He sees a great gulf fixed between himself and those who are with Abraham in the Kingdom of God. At that point it is impossible for anyone to change his fate, because the destiny of all humanity has been eternally set.