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(Into The Pit Part 2)

Now let us see what the Word DOES teach about the effects of hell. The last book of the Old Testament speaks a bit about the judgment to come, and it says this: “‘For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up,’ saith the LORD of hosts, ‘that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this,’ saith the LORD of hosts.” (Mal 4:1-3)

Matches the pattern in Leviticus perfectly doesn’t it? The eternal fire of Yah’s Shekinah will burn up the wicked on that (future) day, and they “shall be as ashes under the soles of your feet” when it does. The fire of Yah’s glory never goes out, but sin will ultimately be consumed, along with those who have allowed it to poison them beyond remedy. The sin, burnt as offerings, are reduced to ashes and removed from the “camp” of Creation.

Does not the New Testament say that the righteous “shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father?” (Mat 13:43) In the resurrection, we will forever be reflecting Yah’s eternal glory. He is a consuming fire, but only for sin and sinners. Consider the transfiguration of Christ into His heavenly form: “And [He] was transfigured before them: and His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light.” (Mat 17:2) The Seraphim that surround the Throne, are they not “fiery” creatures? The angels that appeared to Mary and others on resurrection day were in “shining garments” (Luke 24:4) and Moses’ face likewise shone so brightly after being with Yah that the Israelites could not look at him. (2 Cor 3:7) The things of Heaven are not like those here on earth, and only those that have reverence for His Name (Mal 4:2) will be able to withstand them.

And leaving humans for a moment, what of Satan? Even if it is true that human sinners will not burn forever, doesn’t Yah hate His first created angel? In Lucifer did sin originate, and the Bible tells his end clearly, “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” (Rev 20:10) The Bible need only say something once in order to establish something, really. However, in cases where It seems to conflict, deeper study is called for. For this reason it was written “In the mouth of two or three witnesses” let all matters be established. (Deu 17:6, Deu 19:5, Mat 18:16, 2 Cor 13:1)

Consider the prophet Ezekiel’s vision of Satan’s end. “By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering Cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.” (Eze 28:16,18,19)

From the “midst” of Satan shall come the consuming fire. On that Day when Yah reveals His glory, all sin will be destroyed at it source, and the heat of Lucifer’s consumption will only add to the fire of Yah’s glory as it purifies this broken world. The “second witness” to Ezekiel is the prophet Isaiah, who writes of those who follow Satan, “Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it.” (Isa 47:14) Yes, they shall burn, but eventually there will be desolation, and an end: no heat “nor fire” on the earth upon which the wicked will be destroyed with an everlasting destruction. (2 Thess 1:9)

We’ve looked at the pattern of the destruction of sin in hell from the book of Leviticus. Surely we can find more “witnesses” to this procedure scattered through the Scriptures. The nature of Hell, it seems, was a most important topic for the children of Yah to understand. Let no one say this matter is unimportant! There is a reason our loving Father wants us to understand how He will finally deal with that awful intruder: sin.

Looking to the New Testament, we find the apostle Peter writing, “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly.” (2 Pet 2:4,6) The word “hell” as Peter uses it there should not be confused with the concept of hell we are discussing here. The word Peter used was the Greek “Tartaroo” (Tartarus), and was referring to a place or condition of “holding” as the rest of the verse indicates; and let the reader notice that Tartarus is the condition of waiting for judgment, for as the demons are now reserved for judgment, they are not yet judged, and not yet being punished. Peter gives another somewhat confusing image of hell elsewhere in his writings, but we will examine that shortly.

For now, I would like the reader to focus on Peter’s assertion that the case of Sodom and Gomorrah are examples of what will ultimately befall the ungodly. The writer Jude makes it even MORE relevant to this study, for he writes of the destruction, “Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. (Jude 1:7) See again that only if we follow the Levitical pattern of the destruction of sin will these two verses be in harmony. The FIRE itself was eternal, as Jude describes, for it is truly Yah’s “consuming fire” that destroyed it, yet the cities were turned “into ashes” as Peter says it. The cities that represented sin were destroyed, and though the fire was everlasting, the consumption was complete, and had an end. Just as the prophet Jeremiah said of Jerusalem, “But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the Sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.” (Jer 17:27) A fire that “shall not be quenched” indeed destroyed that city, but Jerusalem is not burning now any more than Sodom, and any more than will the lost or even Satan, after sin is ultimately and finally dealt with by the Father Himself.

Again I must emphasize: the “torment” that will last forever is separation from Yah, and that is nothing but eternal death. There can be no sort of life apart from Heaven, and all that is left is oblivion. Satan is alive, and conscious now, this is true... but he is living on borrowed time.

And what WAS the pattern of Sodom and Gomorrah’s destruction? “Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the LORD: And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.” (Gen 19:24,27,28) Was that not the pattern for this? “And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.” (Rev 19:20) “And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.” (Rev 14:11) This, as the Levitical “sin offerings” are the pattern of the final judgment.

Before we go on to Christ’s teachings on Hell (which will really SETTLE this matter), let us take a look at that other “confusing” teaching in Peter’s writings. Here is a passage that many have understood quite poorly. “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; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.” (1 Pet 3:18-20) Some have declared that this verse is teaching that Christ went to “hell” and gave some of those who were being punished (or in a “holding place” for dead souls) a second chance. Well a right understanding of the state of the dead will have one easily realize that this is absurd, for “spirits” in prison cannot learn, if “prison” means the world of the dead.

To briefly review one of the “state of the dead points,” the Word tells us, “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” (Ecc 12:7) Are the spirits of the dead in prison? Are they waiting somewhere? No, the spirits have returned to God. If any think that this teaching is a peculiarity of the author Solomon from that book only, let him look again on the verses of Peter. When Christ was resurrected He was “quicked by the Spirit,” as it says in verse 18 above. “Quickened” there is the Greek zoopoieo and means “to give life; to make alive.” When the Spirit was returned to Christ from God, He came back to life, and His soul (mind/personality/memories/feelings) were restored. Where was Christ’s soul during His wait? It was resting... Yes, even in death, Yahshua kept the Sabbath day, if one takes a look at the timing for the death and resurrection.

Luke writes, “He [King David] seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ, that His soul was not left in hell, neither His flesh did see corruption.” (Acts 2:31) Let the reader be very aware, however, that the word for Hell there is the Greek “Hades,” NOT “Gehenna” which Christ uses of the place of torment in Mark 9:43-48. The word “Hades” is also used in this verse: “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Cor 15:55) as the word “grave.” Christ was not in any place of torment or mystical “spirit world” while He was dead. That same verse, 1 Corinthians, is actually paraphrasing from an Old Testament passage. “For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” (Psa 16:10) According to Strong’s Concordance, the word Hell there is the oft-repeated Hebrew word “Sheol,” which is merely “where the dead go.” It also means the grave, silence, the pit, a place “without praise of God.” In only one out of nine possible definitions is Sheol considered a place of punishment, and that is only because of OT verses like Gen 44:29 which speak of “going down to the grave in sorrow,” and 2 Samuel 22:6 which speaks of the “sorrows of Sheol.” In none of these is Sheol itself considered a place that CAUSES pain, we can go there in sorrow, and there is no joy in Sheol, but it is never, in either Testament considered the place of destruction and pain that our modern idea of Hell corresponds to.

So how DID Christ “preach to the spirits in prison?” Simple: AFTER His resurrection, AFTER the Spirit quickened Him (as the verse itself states), Christ appeared to His disciples, (John 21:14) and many of these spirits “in prison” were refreshed, revived, and they received the Holy Spirit in place of their bound ones, (John 20:22) and went about preaching the Word. (Acts 2:14) There is NO need to spiritualize what is a plain and logical teaching of the Bible.

And now that we are finally ON the Messiah Himself, let us look first at Yahshua’s teachings from those verses in Mark. His talk on Hell (Gehenna) concludes with this: “And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” (Mark 98:47,48) That phrase, “where their worm dieth not” is repeated three times in Mark, and has led some to conclude that the life of the sinner is seen as a “worm,” and since it “dieth not,” that means the individual is eternally alive and feeling the heat of his own destruction. But oh, the dangers of only hearing half the story! Surely it should be all too plain that Christ was quoting an Old Testament verse almost word for word.

That passage is: “And they [the redeemed] shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.” (Isa 66:24) Yes, the word “carcass” there, (peger in Hebrew) means nothing but “dead body.” The Bible was right after all: “The wages of sin is death,” (Rom 6:23) and the sinner will surely die, (Gen 2:17) be reduced to ashes, and shall be “tread underfoot” and forgotten in the world made new. (Mal 4:3) The “worm” there is an external agent of destruction, rather than a metaphor for the life force of the sinner. It is an analogy, for maggots and other worms did indeed feed upon the dead bodies of animals and men in the true “Gehenna” from which Christ was drawing this picture.

Christ also taught that ALL will burn, not only those destroyed by the fire, but also the “living sacrifices” that the redeemed will become. (Rom 12:1) We will not be consumed by the fire, but refined by it eternally, for we will be living sacrifices, but both the burnt offerings and sin offerings in Leviticus touched the fire. Even in that same teaching on Hell, Yahshua said, “For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.” (Mark 9:49)

Do those who err and teach error, not knowing the Scriptures, not remember this, that the meek shall inherit the earth? (Mat 5:5) Sin and those that perform it will pass away, “Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” (2 Peter 3:13) Revelation teaches us that fire will come down from Heaven unto the earth, to burn away the wicked. If the flames of destruction never cease, what “earth” will be left for the meek to inherit? What ashes shall they tread underfoot?

How then can they say Hell will be eternal? It is for this reason – that they do not understand what death is, and so the state of “being dead” has been made a mystical, ethereal event, to the great shame of the Christian world. Hell will be an actual place, right around the outskirts of New Jerusalem, just as the original Gehenna was an actual place on the outskirts of earthly Jerusalem. When Satan and his evil army mount their last attack upon Christ and His redeemed, this is when it shall be fulfilled: “And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.” (Rev 20:9) Notice that both Satan AND the nations he deceives will be caught in this fire and consumed. The verses such as Rev 20:10 which speak of the devil being cast into the “lake of fire” are repetitions of verse 9. The consumption IS the casting into the fire.

This is a most important point! Many who do not understand the timeline in the book of Revelation would be much more equipped to read it if they merely understood John’s style of writing. John above all the biblical writers uses the technique of repetition to hammer home an important concept. I can show at least one example of this from EVERY contribution of this author to the Scriptures.

The Gospel of John: Verses 1:3, 1:10 repeat one concept, 1:4, 1:5, 1:8, 1:9 and so on repeat another. And that’s just the first chapter.

The First Letter of John: Verses 1:5 and 1:7 repeat each other, and also repeat the idea of John 1:4-9 yet again. Verses 1:6, 1:8, 1:10, 2:4, 2:9 and so on all dwell on the exact same issue. Again, this method runs through all the rest of the book, as it does in his gospel.

The Second Letter of John: 2 John 1:9 repeats the concept so often referred to in his first letter, and most of the verses in this short epistle contain the word “commandment.”

The Third Letter of John: Even in this brief letter, John’s technique comes through. His greetings are almost identical to those in the first two letters, and again he rejoices of the report that those he has helped convert “walk in the truth.” And here also, verses 5 and 11 emphasize each other.

Now in Revelation, we find John jumping back and forth in time, going as far back as the rebellion in Heaven (chapter 12) and forward to the time after the plan of salvation is complete (chapter 22). So overwhelmed is the writer by some of what he saw (Rev 17:6, for example), that he puts down the visions in an order that may reflect the times at which he saw them, but not in their actual, chronological sequence. It is so with much of Revelation. Concerning the casting of the various beasts into the lake of fire, we find this recorded in Revelation 14:10,11 and again in 19:20. Of Satan and the humans deceived, they are cast into the flames in both Rev 20:14,15 and again in verse 21:8. Obviously, this is something John wants us to remember clearly!

It DOES say that the “beast” the “false prophet” and the “Devil” will be “tormented day and night forever and ever.” (Rev 20:10) Whereas this is understood and can be explained easily, notice it never (in any place) says that the humans are in pain this long. Even if a reader rejects the teaching that Satan also will have an end to his suffering, let him be aware that it is never even HINTED at that humans suffer this same fate. If one understands the beast and the false prophet as the symbolic metaphors which John (or the Spirit inspiring him) intended them to be, we begin to see the sense in this. Organizations and institutions cannot “suffer” eternally, they will simply cease to be when their members are consumed. It is an eternal rebuke, and an everlasting punishment, for none of those men will enter into the life Yah has for them, but it is not a perpetual, conscious agony. The end of these evil nations will be a “perpetual desolation,” as declared in Zephaniah 2:9.

As for the Devil himself, how shall we understand this? Unlike the beasts, he is an actual being. According again to the Levitical pattern, the goat “for Azazel,” (Lev 16:8 NRSV) is sent into the wilderness where it dies, taking with it the sins of the congregation. According to Isaiah, the only place in which Satan is named Lucifer (and names, as we know, are very important), this is the end of the archdemon: “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcass trodden under feet.” (Isa 14:12,15,19) Notice he is like those “slain” (killed)in Hell, who are as carcasses “trodden under feet.” Now, it does not specify in this passage that Satan himself will ultimately die, but consider that he is called here “an abominable branch.” Malachi completes the picture, as the same Spirit motivates him to write, “For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.” (Mal 4:1) Both the root (sin) and the branch (Satan) will not be left. They will pass away. When sin is finally ended for all time, the one in whom it originated also will have an end (Ezekiel says he will be “brought to ashes” – Eze 28:18). Those who teach the doctrine as abominable as that branch must ignore these verses or spiritualize them away, as they have done with the condition of death.

Thus do I conclude my study on this matter, but for two concepts. Some will say, “We cannot accept the claims that ‘eternal death’ will have an end, for doesn’t that mean that ‘eternal life’ will not necessarily last forever either?” Not quite. This may seem a little simplistic to some Theologians, but to answer that question I need only hold up the Word: The Bible says the wicked will die, for the wages of sin is death, and It says that the righteous in Christ will live. It says that the evildoers will be consumed, but the redeemed will shine forth. It says the sinner will be cast into a fiery pit, there to be ultimately shaken apart by Yah’s glory, and it says that the Christians will “shine forth” as they reflect this same unutterable Light. “And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” (1 John 2:17) “And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.” (1 Peter 5:4)

The things of the Spirit are eternal, only the things of earth are temporary. Those who “walk after the spirit” therefore also inherit this endless, eternal life that Yah gives them. It is not the same kind of “everlasting” as the separation from God that the wicked will receive. There can BE no life apart from Christ, as I quoted in the beginning of the first article: “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (John 17:3) John’s repetitive (and most helpful) writing style comes out again as he continues to emphasize the eternal nature of the redeemed in 1John 2:25, 5:11,20. ONLY the redeemed will truly “life forever” as we understand that expression.

And here is the last matter: The Cross. What began at Creation was redeemed at the Cross. Christ on the cross 2000 years ago bore the penalty WE should rightly receive for our transgression. “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” (Heb 9:28) Christ Yahshua became our “sin offering,” and what happened to Him? He died! He died the eternal death of separation from the Father, for no ordinary agony, no earthly suffering could tear those words from the lips of the wounded Deity, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mat 27:46 & Mar 15:34) We died to self, just as HE died for us, so that we also may live with Him. But just as the sinners must suffer for their own sins, so has He died for US. As He died, so will the lost die in Hell! Those who bear the sins of their own lives, how can they be made to suffer for eternity when He who bore the sins of MANY did not? How can one who suffered for many have been granted an end to his pain, when those who suffer for only one (themselves) will be subjected to eternal agony?

No such thing is taught in Scripture! Christ was the replacement for OUR sins, the redeemed, and whatsoever penalty we would have borne fell upon Him. He suffered separation from the Father, a shameful, tormented death. This will be the very thing that the fire of Yah’s glory will cause in those who have allied themselves with His one true enemy: Sin. The fire of Hell, the fire of Love, will cause “everlasting contempt, (Dan 12:2) and a final, irreversible death, “for the wages of sin is death; BUT the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom 6:23) Only the “spiritualization” of what death is that Satan has snuck into religious traditions has led to a departure from this simple, and oft-repeated truth. Cannot even a child understand this?

“If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” (John 15:6,7) The word “abide” there is the Greek “meno,” and it means to remain, to continue, to be kept continually, to last forever. The wicked, by contrast do NOT abide, therefore they wither, they do not remain in that same state of being, resting and dwelling. They have an end.

Some will say it’s not important to understand. Woe unto those who truly believe this! Some say we will find out when we get there. They set the Cross of Christ and the teachings of Moses, the prophets and the Apostles at none effect, for what were ALL these for but to teach us that sin is death, and Christ is salvation from it? How can we claim to know Yah if we do not know His way of dealing with His children? How can we know Him if we think He has in mind torment for those who will not come to His House? “‘For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,’ saith the LORD, ‘thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.’” (Jer 29:11) Whatever we decide, it will be an EXPECTED end. We will not “find out when we get there.” The light is shining NOW. Let us learn what our Father is like, and then, only then, can we worship Him in spirit and in truth.

As with other strange doctrines of men, even those rampant among Yah’s professed people such as evolution and spiritualism, this an easily-seen principle: people can look at exactly the same evidence and come to conclusions that are poles apart. What I want my reader to understand is this: Yes, there are some verses that are written using terms and concepts we are not wholly familiar with in modern English. References to Greek mythology are reflected in ideas like Hades, Tartarus and Gehenna, which have not helped much with the clarity of the Word’s meaning. This is not, however, to be considered an oversight by the Spirit’s inspiration in the least – it is an invitation to study deeper, to take in more of the sacred Texts, and to thus have it written “in fleshy tables of the heart.” (2 Cor 3:3) I understand that some of the writings mentioned here, especially Peter’s, can be looked at in more than one way, however if all the verses concerning the afterlife are carefully considered, the picture does become clear.

The Old Testament and New Testament declare it: “He will swallow up death in Victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it.” (Isa 25:8) “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” (Rev 21:4)

If someone wants to convince me that the few questioned verses (which are easily explained in the light of the times and other Scriptures) speak of an eternal hell that is going on right now and evermore shall be, I would not refuse to consider their evidence. However, I would also ask the same in return, that they consider all of this! I think that it will be seen that the overwhelming voice of the Spirit declares through the Word that Yah is love only, and it is not in Him to have created a place for the PURPOSE of torment, or that He would leave even the erring children He loves in a place of everlasting pain and suffering while the saints are celebrating eternally within the same Universe. Not so at all! No such place of lamentation will sully the perfect, redeemed wonderland of galaxies and stars. We are promised an END to sin, an END to all tears and discomfort: and not for us (the Redeemed) only, but surely “all Creation.” Everything there IS groans for release, (Rom 8:22) and after judgment, ALL CREATION will be finally at Sabbath: at rest.

David.

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