We’ve gone through several blog posts on this topic. We now come to the end of this particular series. Here is a summary of what we have discussed.

•Sheol / Hades was originally for both righteous (those who accepted their coming Messiah by faith as the payment for their sins) and unrighteous; temporary; both face future resurrection at different times

•Sheol / Hades was divided into at least three sections

Upper Part: Righteous were in a place of comfort; after crucifixion, Christ went here for 3 days and was then resurrected to overcome death; he then took the occupants to heaven

•Lower Part – Pit: Wicked were in a place of punishment/torment; they remain there today

•Abyss: Certain angels were in a type of ‘prison’ known as Tartarus; currently still there

•Gehenna is equivalent to the Lake of Fire mentioned in Scripture; occurs after Great White Throne Judgment at the end of Christ’s Millennial Reign on earth and equates to our concept of “eternal hell”

•Paradise is anywhere Jesus Christ is in His glorified state

•Enoch, Moses & Elijah were the only ones taken to Heaven prior to Christ’s first coming and they served as hope and assured those looking forward to their Messiah’s coming they would one day be with Him

•Today the righteous go directly to heaven and are with Christ who has chosen to always be in glorified human form to identify with us for eternity

•Christians today will be resurrected at the Rapture or be changed to their glorified state and return with Christ at the end of the Tribulation Period

•Christ will reign on earth for 1000 years in a theocracy; the curse will be lifted; he will reign with righteousness and justice (i.e., an iron scepter); all creatures live in harmony, both those glorified and non-glorified will live together, those glorified will help Christ rule and administer His kingdom; those born will have free will; Israel will lead earth in worship of Christ; temple will be built to show what Christ did, to show what death is, and to atone for sin until those accept Christ through faith, and cleanse inanimate objects used in worship of a holy God

•Satan is released at the end of the Millennium; he uses human nature against mankind and gets many followers; they attack Jerusalem and are destroyed.

•The current heaven and atmosphere are destroyed by fire

•The unrighteous are resurrected and face the Great White Throne Judgment and are cast into the Lake of Fire (eternal hell)

•New Heaven and atmosphere are created; the New Jerusalem descends out of heaven to earth

•Those already glorified enter into eternity as glorified beings

•It is likely those humans in the Millennium will enter eternity as human and become the nations mentioned in Rv 21; they may be able to have children

•The propensity to sin is removed (perhaps like what Christ did for angels)

•Nations will bring God’s glory to him; likely meaning that science and life will continue similarly as we know it but credit for all discoveries will be given to Christ

•All our talents and gifts Christ has given us today will be used for his honor and glory

If this is the first of these posts you have read, I hope you will go back through each one to better understand each of the above bullets. I hope you can see that God cares for us and loves us. Although his love will continue forever, his longsuffering and mercy will not last forever. That is why he gives us so much warning and never gives up on us. He is coming. I trust you will be ready. He definitely wants you to be.

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens

Let’s finish up our topic on contrasting heaven and hell with two final posts. We have spent several posts on understanding both hell and heaven. While there is a lot more that could be presented, I think we have covered some significant topics. I thought we would do some review via a question and answer session. See if you can answer the questions before reading the answers. Review the previous posts for the supportive scriptures.

1. The Bible is not consistent in stating what happens to someone when they die. Therefore, can we really know what happens after death?

A. There is a progression over history as to what happens to those who die

a. Prior to Christ’s death: All dead resided in Sheol

b. After Christ’s resurrection: Righteous in Heaven; Unrighteous remain in Sheol

2. What do we mean by “righteous”?

A. Those who accept Christ by faith

a. Prior to Christ’s first coming, those who accepted by faith that their coming Messiah would be the sin sacrifice for their sins and that would be their only merit to enter Heaven

b. After Christ’s first coming, those who accept by faith that Christ paid the penalty for their sin on the cross and only through Him do we have merit to enter Heaven

3. Doesn’t the Old Testament supports soul sleep? No one is conscious until they are resurrected, right?

A. Many scriptures contrast death to the living which can sometimes feel there is no consciousness there; yet, there are many scriptures that allude to being with loved ones, activity, and speaking that occurs in Sheol.

4. Isn’t it true that there is no torment or flames in Sheol? Doesn’t only the parable by Christ in New Testament state torment or flame?

A. There are passages in the Old Testament that do refer to flames and/or torment in Sheol for those who were labeled ‘wicked’

a. There is no torment mentioned for those labeled ‘righteous’

b. Yet, neither are there passages that consider Sheol to be a paradise for the righteous

5. If God is going to send people to an eternal hell, why wouldn’t there be more verses in the Bible that are clearer on this topic?

A. God expects people to understand the subtleties in scripture

a. It was a concept understood by Jewish society and therefore did not need emphasis

b. Only when one tries to justify their own will can the scriptures be ignored

6. Isn’t sending people to hell outside of God’s character of love?

A. We should not confuse ‘love’ with ‘longsuffering’

a. God loves everyone but mankind also has responsibility

b. Is love true love if only one-sided?

c. Can one hate God and not reverence Him and yet claim it is unjust to receive consequence?

d. You can rest on God’s love or His justice. God has never been ‘fair’ because it is not a Biblical concept.

7. What is the purpose of the Rapture?

A. God removes the Church so He can “remember” his covenant with Israel.

a. This is the prophetic significance of Rosh Hashanah (Feast of Trumpets)

b. The Marriage Supper of the Lamb cannot occur until the entire Church is with Him

c. Another concept of the Rapture would the The Receiving: that is, the receiving of the bride (the church) by Christ (the groom)

8. What is the purpose of the Tribulation? Why does this have to occur?

A. The main purpose is so God can work with Israel once again.

a. It is a final fulfillment of Dt 28 & 29

b. It is global because Jews and those of Israeli descent are worldwide today

c. This time fulfills scripture of how God will again bring Judah and Israel back together into one nation

d. This time forces Israel to do what his loving prodding could not: accept Jesus Christ as their Messiah before He returns to the earth.

e. God’s will still prevails even when Satan is supposedly in control

9. How do we know Christ’s Millennial Kingdom will be an actual physical kingdom?

A. Not only Revelation, but many passages in the Old Testament refer to this time and describe it as a physical kingdom.

a. This re-establishes the theocracy that was lost by Adam and proves why Christ is superior to Satan

b. This allows Israel to become the kingdom of priests to the world originally offered to them

c. This further tests humanity and proves that their rebellion has nothing to do with Satan

10. Why would Christ’s Millennial Kingdom need to come to an end if it is supposed to be so wonderful?

A. Christ’s earthly reign is not perfect. It is a theocracy containing sinful people.

a. Sin has to be removed in its entirety before a perfect kingdom can be established

b. Therefore, the earth and all those not responding to Christ must be removed

c. A sinless earth and heaven is created, populated by sinless people

d. However, it is likely there will still be humans without the propensity to sin present who will continue to “inherit the earth”; and maybe even the universe

I hope this helps you understand the Bible presents a cohesive message and not a hodgepodge of ideas to be interpreted any way one wishes. God has a plan and you are a part of it.

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens

I thought we would summarize what we have gone over so far regarding hell before we move on to the more positive side of things.

We first saw several Biblical translations used the world “hell” for four main terms: Sheol, Hades, Gehenna, and Tartarus. Yet, these were not always translated consistently in this manner. The main drawback to this is that it hides some of the subtlety the original writers were trying to convey with these terms. We then explored these terms in more detail.

Sheol was the place described in the Old Testament as the place where all the dead resided. Yet, it seems there were three areas to Sheol: the place where the righteous went, the place where the wicked went, and the place which contained certain rebellious angels. The word “pit” was sometimes used for where the wicked resided. The term “Abyss” or “Tartarus” was used for where these rebellious angels were kept. From these terms, it seemed as if there were three layers with the highest layer being for the righteous (Sheol), the second layer being for the wicked (pit), and the third and deepest layer being for the rebellious angels (Tartarus).

Hades was synonymous to Sheol and was simply the Greek word used for the same place as the Hebrew word Sheol. We also learned that Sheol/Hades is a temporary place. At some point, everyone in Sheol/Hades will be brought out, judged, and then spend eternity somewhere else. Both the wicked and the rebellious angels will be taken from their intermediate abode, judged, and then be cast into Gehenna – also known as the Lake of Fire – a place of eternal punishment.

But what about the righteous in Sheol? When do they come out? Well, that will be in our next post. They were the first to be taken out of Sheol. For us today, that event occurred in our past. The event in the previous paragraph is still in our future. Understanding when the righteous left Sheol helps us understand the seeming discrepancy between the Old Testament and New Testament. The New Testament teaches to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. That can’t happen if souls of the righteous today still go to Sheol. Where do they go? And when did that change? Well, come join us next week and find out. I’ll give you a teaser. Maybe paradise is more than you thought it to be.

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens

Tartarus is a term only used once in scripture: “. . . God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to Tartarus, putting them into gloomy dungeons (chains of darkness) to be held for judgment” (2Pt 2:4).

As we stated in previous posts, many translators used the term “hell” here. While that does covey a since of punishment, it doesn’t distinguish this from the other terms that were also translated as “hell.” Since Peter here uses a term not used elsewhere, it would seem he is conveying a message different from any of the other terms that have been translated as hell (i.e., sheol, hades, gehenna). So, what is he trying to convey?

Before we answer that, perhaps we should try to understand this term better. While this is the only place it is mentioned in scripture, this is not the only place it is used in literature. Actually, for those fond of Greek mythology, it is not an unfamiliar term. I’ll try and be brief. In all honesty, Greek mythology gives me a headache trying to keep everything straight. Apparently, in the beginning, Gaea (goddess of the earth) and Uranus (god of the sky) produced twelve Titans. Two of those, Cronus and Rhea, then produced the Olympian gods. There was war between the Titans and the Olympians. The Olympians originally won and Zeus, the chief Olympian god, banished the Titans to Tartarus. Tartarus was an abyss that was described as being  far below Hades as Heaven was above the earth. It seems all was envisioned as a sphere with Heaven being the highest part of the sphere and Tartarus the lowest part with earth in the middle.

So, what does this have to do with what Peter is talking about? Did he believe in Greek mythology? I don’t think so. However, with every myth comes a grain of truth. The Titans, were, well, titans: giants by comparison to everyone else. Does that start to ring a bell? Where do we have giants in the Bible? If we turn back to Genesis, chapter six, we read of the “Nephilim.” These were believed to be giants and were produced by angels who came to the earth and mated with mortal women. While some believe that to be a tall tale, apparently Peter didn’t think so. These angels stepped outside of their designated place appointed by God, and God punished them and sent them to the Abyss. This is what Peter referred to as Tartarus. See the connection? Zeus sent the Titans to Tartarus, the Abyss, just as God did with these angels who caused the chaos on the early earth. Peter was saying that if God did not spare angels for their transgressions, should not the ungodly be worried?

You may have rolled your eyes there. Yet, it was not only Peter who believed this. Other demons believed as well. Recall when Jesus healed the man near the Galilee Sea region who was possessed by legions of demons? What did these demons plead to Jesus about? “And they [the demons] begged him repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss” (Lk 8:31). They had rather go anywhere than to the Abyss. Pigs for them was even better. It seems it was a place no demon wanted to go.

What was Peter’s final conclusion about this? “If this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the Day of Judgment, while continuing their punishment” (2Pt 2:9). So, unless we feel we are better than angels and have more authority, then Peter is saying we will also be held into account. Hmm, that should give us reason to pause. Thank goodness for a Savior. Wouldn’t you agree?

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Although several Biblical translations used the word “hell” for the term “Gehenna,” let’s see if we can understand why this particular term was used. The term is used 12 times in the New Testament. Each occurrence, but one, was used by Jesus himself. The other instance is found in the book of James.

We saw last time that Jesus used the term ‘Hades’ when he described the fate of the rich man and Lazarus (Lk 16:19-31). Because he also used the term ‘Hades’ in one place and ‘Gehenna’ in another, it is likely this was intentional. This gives us a clue that there is a difference between the two even if some translate both as ‘hell.’ So what message was he trying to get across?

First, we need to understand how this term came about. We need to go back to the book of Joshua to find its first occurrence. We find that the border between Judah and Benjamin was the Valley of Ben Hinnom (Js 15:8), just south of Jerusalem. We don’t really know anything about who Hinnom was or his son, but the term became renowned. This valley also became the place where child sacrifice was practiced by Kings Ahaz (2Ch 28:3) and Manasseh (2Ch 33:6). King Josiah desecrated the place to prevent sacrifices from reoccurring there (1Ki 23:10). Over time, this area became used as a refuse dump and a fire was continuously burning. The Hebrew word for ‘valley’ is ‘gei’ and the Hebrew term Ge-Hinnom when stated in Greek is Gehenna.

When Christ used the term Gehenna, he was admonishing people to avoid being cast into it at all costs and do whatever it would take to avoid it (Mt 5:22, 29-30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15, 33; Mk 9:43, 45, 47; Lk 12:5). It would seem he used people’s knowledge of the Gehenna of the day as a reference to what God would do at some point in the future.

This is not just a New Testament idea. The prophet Isaiah did present this concept (Is 66:22-14). The context of these verses is when the new heavens and new earth will be created. In Revelation 20, this same context talks about the Great White Throne judgment and those not found written in the Book of Life being cast into the Lake of Fire (Rv 20:11-15). From this, it would seem Gehenna and Lake of Fire are synonymous. Therefore, Christ’s warning about Gehenna is his warning about the final, and eternal, Lake of Fire. These verses also reveal that Hades and Gehenna are not the same as even Hades is cast into Gehenna (Rv 20:14). As stated in a previous post, Hades is an intermediate state. We see here that Gehenna is a final state (Mk 9:48; Is 66:24).

All these scriptures show the Bible has a cohesive message and, therefore, we should pay special attention as it has everlasting relevance for each individual.

In our next post, we will look at another term that many times gets translated as hell, but the term has a very distinct meaning.

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In the last two posts we learned that Sheol (Hebrew) and Hades (Greek) were names for the same place where the souls of the dead resided, were an intermediate state, and were where both the righteous and the wicked would go, but likely to different areas.

Now, we want to see if we can understand why this term was not always translated into English in the same way at each and every occurrence. In our first post, we found that hell and grave were the most common translations with a few also translated as pit, death, and depth. Why was this?

When one looks more closely, it would appear in most cases, the word “grave” was used when referring to the righteous and “hell” was used when referring to the wicked. The purpose here may have been to highlight that the righteous and wicked did not have the same fate. However, this now puts two different Hebrew words translated as “grave” in English. Hebrew has a different word for grave and never interchanged the meaning with Sheol. The grave was always a place in the physical world for the body and never implied a place for the soul. Therefore, clarity in one area created confusion in another.

The term “pit” almost always referred to the place of the wicked and typically implied the wicked were below those of the righteous. This denoted a place of inferiority and a separate and distinct place. This is different from the term “Abyss” which we will get to in a future post.

One of the other controversial spots in scripture has been the story Jesus told about the rich man and Lazarus (Lk 16:19-31). Some claim this was a parable, and we shouldn’t take it as a true story, so the idea of torment in hell should not be taken too literally. Others claim this is the only place in the Bible which supports such a tenet, and we should therefore not link doctrine to this one area. There are others who claim it was true and, therefore, we must believe all aspects of the story. Who’s right?

We need to understand that even the parables Jesus gave were based upon fact with only the story itself being fiction. Places and events were literal and/or possible/believable. The same would be true here. Not all true stories Jesus told had named characters (e.g., Mk 10:17; Lk 14:1), so we shouldn’t quibble over whether it was or was not a parable. Both contained truth. We also saw in the last two posts that the Old Testament was not devoid of punishment of the wicked in Sheol, and did support different places within Sheol for the righteous compared to the wicked. Therefore, this story told by Jesus was supportive, and not against, other scripture.

In this story, Jesus used the Greek term ‘Hades’ which was the same as ‘Sheol’ in the Old Testament. Jesus was describing the same Sheol as the Jews of that day believed in at the time. In addition, Jesus was criticized for many things, but nowhere in scripture did the Jewish leaders of the day mention he had stated anything about the afterlife they did also not believe.

There were other terms mentioned in the New Testament translated as ‘hell.’ One, Gehenna, was one that Jesus himself mentioned many times. This term is totally different from the term ‘Hades’ he used in the passage above. Next time, we’ll investigate this term and see what it implies and why Jesus said so much about it.

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In the Old Testament, Sheol is noted as the place where all dead go: both the righteous and the wicked. Before we get deeper into the controversy of why translators did not always translate the world Sheol into the same English word, let’s first get an understanding of what the Old Testament stated about Sheol.

We first need to understand that while all the dead went to Sheol, not everyone went to the same place in Sheol. It seems there was a different place for the righteous versus that for the wicked. There are passages within scripture that mention at least three different sections within Sheol (Dt 32:22; Ps 30:3; Is 14:15; 2Pt 2:4) with the righteous occupying the upper part, the wicked the lower part (sometimes called the “pit”), and some angels occupying another, separate, section of Sheol. We will discuss this latter section in a separate post. In addition, the Talmud supports this belief as well (see ref).

What are some of the characteristics of Sheol? Many Old Testament passages tell what Sheol is not rather than what it actually is. Many passages contrast Sheol to life and hence the term “land of the living” in contrast to the land of the dead – the opposite of each other (Ps27:13; 52:5; 116:9; 142:5; Is 38:11; 53:8; and Ezekiel 26:20; 32:23-27; 32:32). Sheol is a place where activities of physical life are no longer possible: they do not marry, procreate, or carry on business transactions; they cannot attend public worship in the temple and give sacrifices or praise; they cannot eat or drink; they do not have any wisdom or knowledge about what is happening in the land of the living; they are cut off from the living; they have entered a new dimension of reality with its own kind of existence (Ps 6:5, 30:9, 88:10-12, 115:17; Ec 9:5, 10; Is 38:18). It is a place hidden to us and of a different dimension. Some scripture calls it a “shadowy place” or “place of darkness” (Jb 10:21-22; Ps 143:3) and a place of disembodied spirits (Jb 26:5; Ps 88:10; Pv 2:18, 9:18, 21:16; Is 14:9, 26:14, 19). Other scripture tells us Sheol is found “down”, “beneath the earth,” or in “the lower parts of the earth” (Jb 11:8; Is 44:23, 57:9; Ek 26:20; Am 9:2). Since the rebellion of Adam, Satan is the ruler of the earth (Mt 4:8-9) and of death (1Co 15:26). During Old Testament times even the righteous were not in God’s presence after death.

Yet, Sheol was also not a place of inactivity. Ps 115:17 states, “It is not the dead who praise the LORD, those who go down to silence.” Yet, this is not a verse that supports the idea of “soul sleep.” To a Jew, praise involved the temple in Jerusalem, especially in David’s case. There is no temple in Sheol and, therefore, no place to adequately praise God. David was making a statement of contrast between the live, physical world and the dead, spiritual world. We have contrast here – silence of praise, not silence in totality.

Princeton scholar Charles Hodge stated: “That the Jews believed in a conscious life after death is beyond dispute.” There are Biblical examples as well. Jacob expected to see his son Joseph in Sheol and interact with him (Gn 37:35). There are numerous other scriptures that support expectations of interacting with loved ones who had passed on before (Gn 15:15, 25:8, 35;29, 37:35, 49:33; Nu 29:24, 28, 31:2; Dt 32:50, 34:5; 2Sa 12:23). Those in Sheol can converse with each other and can make moral judgments on new arrivals (Is 14:9-20, 44:23; Ek 32:21).

Although there are not many Old Testament passages that directly state torment occurs in Sheol, Old Testament scripture is not exactly silent on this issue either. Some scriptures do allude to the fact that Sheol is a place of God’s continuing judgment. The wicked in the lowest part of Sheol experience the fire of God’s anger (Dt 32:22), experience distress (2Sa 22:6; Ps 18:6, 116:3, 118:5), and may writhe in pain (Jb 26:5). Although no other passages in the Old Testament directly speak of torment in the intermediate state, there are other passages that speak of “everlasting humiliation and contempt” which awaits the wicked after the resurrection (Is 66:24; Dn 12:2). Peter was clear in stating the unrighteous are in torment until their resurrection: . . . the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the Day of Judgment, while continuing their punishment (2Pt 2:9).

What about the righteous? While they were certainly not in torment, scripture does not paint it as a place of paradise either. They feared death (Ps 6, 18:4, 55:4, 116:3); yet, still had hope (Ps 73:23-25). They knew they were not abandoned (Jb 26:6) and were not out of God’s reach (Ps 139:8). They knew Sheol was not permanent for them (Ps 16:10, 49:14-15, 86:13). The ascension of Enoch (Gn 5:24) and Elijah (2Ki 2:11) to heaven indicated that the righteous would someday be taken into God’s presence.

So, we now know that Sheol was established as an intermediate state for everyone where activity was still occurring. The wicked and righteous were in separate areas and experienced Sheol differently. Likely the wicked were in a state of some type of torment while the righteous were in a state of peace, but not necessarily paradise. In our next post, let’s see how the translators used various English words to translate Sheol into our present Bible and what that implies.

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There probably isn’t a more controversial topic in the Bible than the topic of hell. It seems everyone is okay with heaven being in the Bible but get really upset around the concept of hell. Some say hell is not even mentioned in the Bible, others say it’s there but is not a place of torment, while others say the term is just about one sleeping until that person is resurrected.

Although controversial, I thought we should look at this topic and try to keep an open mind. After all, if it is a true concept then we really need to know about it. If it isn’t true, then we certainly want to be sure of that also. So, why is it such a controversial topic? It seems one of the biggest controversies is nomenclature. Remember the Old Testament is predominantly written in Hebrew and the New Testament in Greek. So, if one only looks at these original languages, the word hell is not there, as the word came from the translation of these original texts into English. In Hebrew, the term is Sheol; in Greek it is Hades.

To me, one of the first questions is, if we are concerned about the English translation not keeping the original word, why are we not upset that the Greek translation did not? Translators try to find words which people will understand or words that convey the original author’s intent. Hades seemed to be a good analogy for Sheol for a Greek society to understand. They’re not exactly the same in meaning but do convey the concept of an underworld where the dead would reside. Both are spiritual places and are therefore “hidden” from those alive. Some claim that is what the definition of Hades means, i.e., hidden. In that case, the word hell may have come from the word hel also meaning “to hide.” It is a term sometimes used to describe how potatoes are stored in an underground shed for the winter (to hell potatoes) or to cover a roof (to hell a roof). Hel was also the Norse god of the underworld just as Hades was the Roman god of the underworld. From this perspective, Hades and Hel have more in common than does Sheol and Hades. Yet, we know from New Testament scripture (Ac 2:27 compared to Ps 16:10) Hades was used interchangeably for Sheol.

The second question is, if Sheol and Hades were to be translated as Hell, why were these terms not always translated as Hell? Is there a terminology issue? There are other terms like Gehenna and Tartarus which were also translated as Hell. Why is that? Is that significant? There are also other terms used that seem similar but were not translated as hell, such as Lake of Fire and Abyss. Are they related? Then, there are terms used in place of Sheol and Hades that were not translated as hell, such as depth, grave, pit, and death. Why?

Is there a reason for these seemingly mistranslations? Was this a bias of the translators or were they trying to be helpful? Let’s see if we can tease this out and make some rational sense of it all. These are the questions I would like for us to explore over the next several posts. I hope you join me.

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens