Oct 9, 2011

Where Is Hell ?

Common Sense Commentary: No human being is perfect. Imperfect people cannot be correct in all they believe. Therefore, we should continually seek to perfect, more completely, what we believe is true and eliminate error no matter how deeply ingrained in our thinking. "Study to show thyself approved unto God ... rightly dividing the word of truth." 2 Tim.2:5.  So, where is Hell?

I..... Scientifically:  The earth, according to modern science, has four layers, three solids and one liquid.  The first layer, upon which we live, is the crust. It varies in thickness from five miles under the sea-bed to twenty five miles beneath the land mass.  The second layer down is the mantle.  This layer is very hot rock which moves, shifts and grinds continually under great pressure and grows hotter at depth. It is about 1,800 miles thick.  The third layer down is the liquid layer.  This layer is not the core but the outer core. It is liquid, molten iron/sulfur at about 8000 degrees and is 1,400 miles thick. The last solid is the inner core.  At 9,000 degrees, it is hotter than the liquid, molten iron surrounding it, but doesn't melt because of the immense pressure at the center of the earth.  It is a white-hot ball 1,500 miles thick and nearly as hot as the sun.  All of the above is according to the latest scientific, technological estimates.  How much of it is true or nearly true I do not know but volcanoes testify regularly, in convincing terms, that molten, liquid fire is down there somewhere. Deep drillers confirm
that the heat intensifies with depth.

II.  Scripturally:  There are four words in the Received Texts translated "hell", one in the Old Testament Hebrew (sheol) and three in the New Testament Greek (hades, tartarus, gehinna). The one to three ratio indicates much more revelation in the N.T. than in the O.T. about "where the dead go" when they die.  The word sheol simply means "the unseen state".  It meant either the grave where the  corpse was or wherever it's spirit life went. The  O.T. Jews, at least, knew there was  a difference in the  eternal destinies of "children of light and children of darkness" but they just had the one word, sheol.  The New Testament revealed that vast difference.  The N.T. Gk. word hades means exactly the same as the O.T. Heb. word sheol. Both are translated  "hell" and could include either place, good or bad.  The other two Gk. words translated "hell" are tartarus and gehinna. Both mean "place of punishment" but the latter includes fire and torment.   

Hell is "down deep beneath".
There is just one direction which is "down", that we know of, ... under the feet of earth's inhabitants, toward the heart of the earth. The Scripture says that "hell" is "deep down beneath" us.  Examples: "the lowest hell"Deut.32:22 -- "deeper than hell"Job11:8 -- "go down...into hell"Psm.55:15. -- "the way to hell is going down"Pr.7:27. -- "hell from beneath"Isa.14:9. -- "brought down to hell"Isa.14:15. -- "cast him down to hell"Ezek.31:16. -- "went down to hell"Ezek.31:17. -- "though they dig into hell" Mt.1:13. -- "Cast them down to hell" 2Pet.2:4.

Did Jesus say anything about hell? Yes ...
"There was a certain rich man ... And there was a certain beggar.... And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom, And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.  But Abraham said, Son remember ... thy lifetime... And beside ... between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from here to you cannot: neither can they pass to us, that would come from there." Luke 16:19-24. Plainly, "Abraham's Bosom", where O.T believers' spirits went, at death,  before Christ's resurrection, was  in proximity to where O.T. unbelievers went Into Satan's bosom.

As Jesus died on the cross, he said to the repentant thief, "This day shalt thou be with me in paradise." Lk.23:43. But wait a minute, Jesus had said in Matt.12:40, "As Jonah was three days and three nights in the whales' belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the HEART of the earth." But he told the repentant thief, "this day....paradise."  That can only mean that "paradise" was in the "heart" of the earth, at that time, as was "Abraham's Bosom". One and the same.

The Apostle explained this later in Eph.4:9 "Now that he (Christ) ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?"  Parts is plural. Where Christ descended had two parts. At that time, before Christs' resurrection,  hades (Heb) & sheol (Gk), the "unseen state" of the spirits of the dead,  had two extreme and separated "parts".... Paradise for O.T. believers and gehinna(hell fire) for all unbelievers. Abraham told those in the Gehinna part of hades, "between us and you there is a great gulf fixed..." to keep them separated no doubt. Abraham's bosom and Lucifer's bosom in the same neighborhood with a mote between. Satan and his fallen angel demons operate out of gehinna.  God told the "light" angle, Lucifer, when he rebelled, "You shall be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit."Isa.14:15.  Later, God told Moses, concerning those who were in rebellion against him, that He would "do a new thing" and "the earth will open her mouth and swallow them up,...and they will go down quick into the pit." Num.16:30-33.

Why did Jesus go "into the lower parts of the earth", and take with him the repentant thief,  to "paradise" instead of going directly into the presence of God in Heaven?  Because when those O.T. believers died, including the repentant thief, the sinless blood of the Lamb of God had not yet been presented to our Holy God upon the Mercy Seat of Heaven in His Holy of Holies. The O.T. High Priest depicted this every year, in the Temple, when he took the blood of a pure lamb, without spot or blemish, sprinkled it on the door posts of the Holy of Holies and then upon the Mercy Seat within where God dwelt.  This he did for his and the people's sins which were, so to speak, pushed forward each year awaiting the type's  fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.  Immediately, upon His death,  Jesus went directly to inform those awaiting, O.T. believing spirits in paradise of the fulfillment, in himself, of their hundreds of O.T. blood sacrifices, prophecies of Messiah, and faith.   Then he would rise up and appear before his Father, as our High Priest, to present his blood sacrifice  as the Lamb of God.  Only then could they or we go into the Holy presence of YHWH God. This is what Jesus was referring to when he previously said, "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son,which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." Jn.1:18.  And so we have, the "bosom of Abraham" for the O.T. believers and the "bosom of the Father" now, for All believers, of all times, which came into affect later, after Christ's ascension to fulfil the Father's requirement.
"For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison (Gk. phulake means "guarded place")... Which sometimes were disobedient (Gk. apeitheo means "uninformed disobedience") 1Pet.3:18-20. In this case, unenlightened O.T. saints all put too much emphasis on the Law of Moses and none on Grace. They were also looking for a "political"  Messiah not a Jesus. They also knew little or nothing of the gospel and other N.T. Light.
So they were secured in Paradise until their sins had been paid for before they could go into God's  Holy presence. They died believing to the extent of their light and limited understanding in the O.T. They dated all the way back to Noah's day and Adam and Eve too, it is supposed. And how about this nugget in 1Pet.4:6? "For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead (O.T. saints) that they might be judged according to men in the flesh" (N.T.saints who lived then or would live from that time forward, in an all new dispensation (the Church age), who hear the gospel of Christ, believe and are saved). That is God's Equal Judgement and Justice.   Immediately after Christ brought the O.T. saints up to date on fulfilled prophecy and O.T. blood sacrifices, types,  pointing to  the cross and the gospel (good news) of Messiah, he headed for home.

So the time had come, job on earth done, Jesus arose from the grave and brought paradise and all the precious  O.T. believers with him. This was the beginning and "first fruits" of the "first resurrection"
which will last until the "latter fruit" til the last Christian is resurrected. " .... Christ was leading Paradise and all it's O.T. saints..."captivity captive".  He left that part of hades empty of paradise and in a vacuum ... into which the other half rushed in. Isaiah prophesied, "hades hath enlarged herself". Isa. 5:14. Since that moment, the spirit life of all believers go directly into Heaven at death. 
So Christ arose first, followed by those, at least, whose graves were near by. I am sure that other O.T. believers, whose graves were elsewhere, arose also from their graves and would shortly be caught up together  into heaven. In this interlude, Christ appeared to Mary at his tomb.  When she reached out for him, "Jesus said unto her, touch me not; for I have not yet ascended unto my Father...." Jn.20:17.
I have to believe that Jesus, was "transfigured, glorified" and ascending up into God's Holy of Holies to complete his High Priestly calling with the hyssop and blood of the Lamb. At that same moment, this mysterious incident was taking place. "...and many bodies of the saints (O.T.) which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city (Jerusalem), and appeared unto many."  Matt.27:52-53. Just imagine that. Great, great great grandfather Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, the prophets and all believers of the past, even the crucified thief,  returning briefly,  in glorified bodies, to the cities where they were buried.  None are mentioned except those who were buried in Jerusalem.

Sin paid for, sprinkling of the blood accomplished, Holy God satisfied, O.T. saints informed, glorified and awaiting transportation, Jesus returned to his Apostles and said to doubting Thomas, "Behold my hands and my feet (with wounds), that it is I myself: Handle me and see ...." Luke 24:39. He had just told Mary that morning at his tomb, "Touch me not; for I have not yet ascended unto my Father..." Now he says, "Reach hither thy finger (to the holes in) my hands, reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless but believing." Jn.20:27.  Obviously, between the morning and afternoon, Christ had ascended to the Holy of Holies, completed his Priestly work, and returned to earth to confirm his resurrection to his Apostles and "above 500 brethren at once" 1Cor.14:6. That done, he gathers  all those O.T. saints, "captivity captive", and delivers them safely into the presence of God.
Since that event, all truly, born again, redeemed, saved Christians go directly to Heaven when they die.
Paradise and all believers of all ages are there ... and "...The glory of God... and the Lamb is the light thereof." Rev.21:3
"Wherefore he (Jesus) said, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive.... Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fulfill all things (prophecy, His commission, and God's perfect will)." Eph.4:8-10. Can you beat that ?  Ain't God good! Amazing, Marvelous, Praise Him.

Pass it on. RB

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