“Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell [hades], neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” (Acts 2:27, 31) We start our examination of what the New Testament says concerning hell with this text because it is a quotation from the Old Testament in which the Greek word hades is used by the Apostle Peter to translate the Hebrew word sheol. We believe that this inspired translation of sheol is definite proof that hades of the New Testament has the same meaning as sheol of the Old Testament; and that meaning, as we have found, is oblivion, the state of death.
This quotation is from Psalm 16:10, and is a reference to the death and resurrection of Jesus. Peter quotes it in his Pentecostal sermon and explains that Jesus’ soul, his being, was restored to life — brought back from sheol, the Bible hell, at the time of his resurrection. As we have already learned, Jesus went into the Bible hell, the death condition, to redeem those who were in death, and it is this that constitutes our basis of hope in a resurrection of the dead — a returning from hell, or the death condition, of all mankind.
Jesus implies this very strongly in Revelation 1:18, where we find him saying, “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell [hades] and of death.” These, of course, are not literal keys, but merely symbols of Jesus’ authority and power to unlock hades and set death’s captives free. This right, or authority, is his because of having died the just for the unjust, pouring out his soul unto death as the Redeemer of Adam, and through Adam, of the entire human race.
In keeping with this symbolism of the keys of hell, Jesus speaks of the gates of hell. To Peter he said, “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell [hades] shall not prevail against it.” (Matt. 16:18) This statement is a reply to Peter’s confession that Jesus was the “Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matt. 16:16) It is this great truth concerning Christ that the Master referred to as the rock upon which his church would be built, not on Peter himself.
The church of Christ is the body of Christ, and the Apostle Paul tells us that Christ, and all those who are baptized into his body as members of his true church, constitute the promised seed of Abraham through which all the families of the earth are to be blessed. (Gal. 3:27-29) The importance of Jesus’ statement, therefore, that the gates of hades would not prevail against the church, is seen in its assurance that nothing will prevent the outworking of God’s purpose through the seed of Abraham to bless all the families of the earth.
The families of the earth, all of them from creation to the present time, to whom God’s promises of blessing apply, are in sheol, hades, the Bible hell. Even the body members of the Christ all down through the Gospel age succumbed to death and went into hades. But this does not, and cannot, defeat the divine purposes to bless all the families of the earth through Christ and his church, for Jesus will use the keys of death to unlock the great prisonhouse and set its captives free. Thus it will be true that the gates of hell will not prevail against God’s purpose through the church. Death’s prisoners will be set free!
It is quite in keeping with this thought that the word hades is again used in Revelation 20:13, which reads, “Death and hell [hades] delivered up the dead which were in them.” Strange, isn’t it, that anyone should get the thought that those who go to the Bible hell will never return, for here it is definitely stated that hell will deliver up its dead. It will have to, because divine power is to be used to restore the dead to life. In passing it is well to note also that those in hell (hades) are said to be dead — hell delivered up the “dead.” Those in hell are not alive and suffering, but are dead; and, as Solomon declares, while “the living know that they shall die,” “the dead know not anything.”—Eccles. 9:5; Job 14:21
In Matthew 11:23 and Luke 10:15, the wicked Jewish city of Capernaum has a prophecy of destruction uttered against it, and this is described as being brought down to hell (hades). While the people of Capernaum were affected by the destruction of the city, the prophecy is against the city itself, and no one has ever claimed that cities go to a place of torment. But Capernaum did go into oblivion, hence into hades, the Bible hell.
Another very interesting use of hades is found in Revelation 6:8. Here hell (hades) is represented as riding on horseback together with death. It would be difficult to imagine the great abyss of torture such as hell was supposed to be, thus riding on a horse’s back. But in the symbology of this passage, no difficulty is encountered when we realize that hades and death are practically synonymous, and thus shown together in this graphic picture of destruction stalking through the earth.
The Rich Man in Hell
In the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, it is stated of the rich man that “in hell [hades]” he lifted up his eyes, “being in torments.” (Luke 16:23) This is the only passage in the Bible in which is suggested the possibility that there is thought, or feeling, in hades, or sheol. We cannot suppose, however, that this text is contradictory to the definition of sheol given us by the prophet when he declared that there is no knowledge, wisdom, nor device, but only oblivion, in sheol. Nor can we suppose that Job made a mistake when he prayed to go to sheol in order to escape suffering.
Besides, when we examine the details of the parable of which this statement is a part, we find that it could not possibly be a literal statement of fact. Seizing upon this parable as their best means of proving the torture theory, many have erroneously presented it as proof that the righteous go to heaven when they die, and that the wicked go to a place of eternal torment. Actually, however, the parable says nothing about either the wicked or the righteous, nor does it say anything about heaven.
There is a poor man and a rich man, but there is nothing said about their virtues nor about their sins. They both die. The poor man is carried by the angels to “Abraham’s bosom,” not heaven. Even if this were a literal statement of fact, it would not put the poor man in heaven, because Abraham is not in heaven. We know this because Jesus said, “No man hath ascended up to heaven.”—John 3:13
In death the rich man is said to see the poor man in Abraham’s bosom, and he begs him to send a drop of water to cool his tongue. Abraham’s literal bosom had turned to dust long centuries before this parable was given, hence the expression must be symbolic; and if that is symbolic, the remainder of the account must also be a word-picture of something more than the experience of two men after they died.
We think the most reasonable view as to the meaning of the parable is that these two men represented two groups, or we might say, nations. The rich man, with the various details related concerning him, seems clearly to be a symbol of the Jewish nation, while the poor man is a true representation of the Gentiles and the position they were in at the time the parable was given.
The nation fared sumptuously every day, as the parable states. That is, the promises of God belonged to them, and upon these they were privileged to feast. Their table was laden with these good things from the Word of God. The purple robe of the rich man represented the royal hopes of the nation, and his fine white linen represented the standing of righteousness the nation enjoyed as a result of the typical sacrifices which were made year by year for them. While this righteousness was merely typical of the righteousness enjoyed by spiritual Israel through the blood of Christ, nevertheless, it gave them a standing before God which other nations did not enjoy.
Israel died as a nation, and lost all these special favors of the Lord, but the individuals comprising the nation continued to live, and each successive generation of these throughout the centuries has suffered. They have suffered because of being members of a nation that was dead. See the prophecy of this as recorded in Deuteronomy 32:22.
The poor man—representing the Gentiles—also died to that condition of alienation from God which was theirs prior to the first advent of Christ. Believing Gentiles were carried into Abraham’s bosom; that is, they became the children of Abraham through faith, and inherited the promises of God which were made to and through him. The whole Gentile world—particularly where the Gospel has been at least nominally accepted—has benefited from this great change. Representatives of the dead nation of Israel, from time to time in the past, appealed to the favored Gentile nations for mercy and assistance, but little help was given.
The key that identifies the rich man of the parable is in the statement concerning his five brothers — “They have Moses and the prophets.” This was true only of the Jewish nation. The nation was divided into twelve tribes. Following the Babylonian captivity, it was mostly the members of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin that returned to Judea, although some of all the tribes returned. It was largely, therefore, the two tribes to whom Jesus ministered, and who would be represented by this rich man of the parable. If this one man represented two tribes, the other ten tribes could be well represented by his five brethren, and the parable shows that they shared the same fate because they had failed to hear Moses and the prophets.
But the parable does not teach that the Jewish nation was to suffer forever. Indeed, there are many prophecies to show that the death of Israel as a nation was to be only temporary, and now these prophecies are being fulfilled. Today, as the restored nation of Israel continues to work out its new destiny in the Promised Land, the flames of persecution are abating. Eventually their eyes of understanding will be opened to recognize Jesus as their Messiah; and by bringing themselves into accord with his righteous kingdom soon to be manifested for the blessing of all nations, they will be completely reinstated into the favor of God and will have the opportunity to enjoy the blessings of peace and everlasting life which will then be made available to all the peoples of the earth.
Victory Over Hades
In the masterful treatise by the Apostle Paul on the resurrection of the dead, recorded in the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians, we find the assertion, “O death where is thy sting? O grave [hades], where is thy victory?” (Verse 55) The “sting of death is sin,” writes Paul. (Verse 56) Sin fastened itself upon father Adam, and through him the human race was stung to death. But as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so Jesus, the great Sinbearer for the world will be lifted up so that all can see and know of his saving power. Those who look to him for help will live forever. (John 3:14, 15) Then the temporary victory of hades, the death condition, will be taken away; for all who are in hell, are to be awakened from the sleep of death, and given an opportunity to look unto Jesus and live.
Then hades, or hell, is to be destroyed. We are assured of this in the passage where the world hell appears in the Bible for the last time; namely, Revelation 20:14. When we examined the use of the sheol in the Old Testament, which has the same meaning as hades of the New Testament, we found that according to Hosea 13:14, it was God’s purpose to destroy the death condition which it describes. Now, in this very last use of the word hades in the Bible, we discover that the Lord is again assuring us of this same blessed fact.
Here, however, the destruction of the Bible hell is made even more definite, for the Lord illustrates the fact by using the symbol of fire. We read, “And death and hell [hades] were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.” Adam and his race have died the first death; but from this death they have been redeemed by the blood of Christ. The Scriptures speak of the “second death,” and it is here symbolized by a lake of fire. All incorrigible sinners will be destroyed in the second death, as will also the devil himself. In this text we are assured that even hell, or the death condition, will be destroyed. It is because of this fact, in Revelation 21:4, we read, “there shall be no more death.”