Death and hell describe two forms of confinement resulting from sin. Here, death refers to the condition arising from Adam’s transgression (Gen. 2:17): the soul’s separation from a holy God. While physically alive in this state, sinners can still repent, forsake sin, and receive forgiveness; the soul remains in a redeemable phase.

Hell describes a second state. After physical death, the soul cannot exercise faith or appropriate grace and therefore awaits judgment: “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:27). In this understanding, another phase of death follows judgment, in which the soul may again exercise faith, since Christ’s provision for sin is part of God’s eternal purpose from the foundation of the world (Eph. 3:11; Rev. 13:8; Eph. 1:9–10).

Thus, death confines those who are spiritually dead yet physically alive, whereas hell confines those who have physically died. Hell, understood here as the grave, has two divisions: Paradise for the redeemed and Gehenna, or hell fire, for the unrepentant (Matt. 18:9; Luke 16:20–23).

At the second resurrection (Rev. 20:13), the grave gives up its dead, while death gives up those who remain physically alive but spiritually dead for judgment. Adam’s disobedience began mankind’s transgression, placing humanity in the first phase of sin’s torment, though believers may experience relief through the power of Christ’s blood.

After judgment, death and hell are cast into the lake of fire—the second death, or another phase of separation from God (Rev. 20:14). Yet death itself must ultimately be destroyed (1 Cor. 15:26). In this interpretation, the second death is not simply Gehenna but a more severe form of confinement and separation—the “soul gap”—for those who were not among the “firstfruits,” the Church of Jesus Christ, at the first judgment (James 1:18). It corresponds to the sevenfold increase in punishment for continued disobedience described in Leviticus 26:14–29, understood as a shadow of things to come.

Accordingly, lifting death from sinners means temporarily removing the separation caused by sin so they may appear before God for judgment. Scripture says that without holiness no one can see God (Heb. 12:14), while sins may be covered through God’s love (1 Pet. 4:8). This framework also explains Job 1:6, where Satan appears among the children of God despite being sinful and unclean.