HELL, Part I

KINGDOM BUILDERS

“BUILDING THE KINGDOM THROUGH THE WORD OF GOD”

PIERCING THE VEIL

HELL

 (Part 1)

THE RICH MAN & LAZARUS

There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:  And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores,  And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.  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 that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted , and thou art tormented.  And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.  Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.  And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.  And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. (Luke 16:19-31).

I guess I’ve always had questions about Hell like “Where is it exactly?” “How hot is it?”  “Is it eternal?”  “Is it external or internal?”  “Is it made for man or just the devil and his angels?”  “Is it a physical place or a spiritual place?”  “What is its purpose?”  Common carnal understanding is that it is in the center of the earth, and is the final place of torment forever and ever for evil, wicked and unregenerate men.  That doctrine never satisfied me entirely, but all I had to go on was the word of mentors who taught on Hell.  In fact, prominent school of thought because of one so called theologian was that the parable Jesus taught on the Rich Man and Lazarus was not a parable at all, but was a real event somewhere in the center of the earth, but that is not consistent with scripture.  Without a parable, he spoke to them not.  The Bible was not real clear, so all I had was their word.  Since that was the typical view of modern day believers, it never occurred to me to challenge that theology.  Why, it was written in all the religious books, so it has got to be true.  Right?  Kinda like the internet.  Interestingly, it was not a view held by Jews prior to Christ nor was it a view espoused by Christ or the disciples.  The original context of Hell began with the Catholic Church.  In 325 AD, the Nicene Creed was ratified and established as the official doctrinal foundation of the new Catholic religion of Constantine and his Roman Pagan associates. It remains a fundamental dogma in most of the Christian world to this date.  The early “church fathers” established a global religious and political system to control men’s lives by fear creating the imagery of “Hell” and its eternal torments for all who venture outside of the Universal Church.  This doctrine permeated the core of Christiandom in all the world, and is used by preachers and evangelists of every denomination to scare folks into getting saved.  Since God is love and perfect love casts out all fear, it is incomprehensible that such a doctrine ever became foundational especially among spirit filled believers.  No one since 325 AD has seriously challenged such a position.

PREACHING HELL

Such preaching gave sway to multitudes of artists in the years 1300 to 1700 AD to depict Hell in all its flaming fury.  Preaching fear had its profound effects and many got saved.  But, it was contrary to sound doctrine.  To wit:  We are constrained by the love of God;  By grace we are saved;  We are saved by the long suffering of God;  We are saved by faith;  We are saved by the love of the truth;  By his mercy he has saved us;  We are saved by calling upon his name;  We are saved by the preaching of the cross;  We are saved by the preaching of the gospel;  We are saved by believing on the Lord Jesus;  After being reconciled we are saved by his life;  for God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved;  We are saved by entering into the door (Christ);  Those that are baptized (by the spirit) shall be saved;  Those that endure to the end shall be saved;  And we are even saved when Satan destroys the flesh that our spirits might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.  No where, I say, no where does it say in scripture we are saved through fear of going to Hell.  This doctrine was contrived by carnal minds as a weapon of control over the laity.  Jesus himself, said he hated the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes.  There were those of the priesthood who had power (Nico) over the laity (laitanes), and used false and pagan doctrines to subdue the masses to obeisance to the mother church.  If we thought about it for even just a moment, how could someone who had never been born again or filled with the spirit of Christ interpret spiritual things, for all scripture must be spiritually understood.   If one had to obey canons, go to “the” church, have mass, pay indulgences, confess to a man to be forgiven, take communion all to be saved, you must know it is void of the spirit.  The scriptures conclude, from such who deny the power of God remove thyself. 

With all due respect to the great revivalists preceding us such as Jonathan Edwards and his fiery expositon of “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, it simply was not God’s best.  Did he get results?   Of course!  His message provided a glimpse into the theology of the Great Awakening from 1730–1755.  This is a typical sermon of the Great Awakening, emphasizing the belief that Hell is a real place.  It has become a message widely studied by theologians and historians ever since.  A couple of excerpts from that message are as follows:

They are now the objects of that very same anger and wrath of God that is expressed in the torments of hell: and the reason why they don’t go down to hell at each moment, is not because God, in whose power they are, is not then very angry with them; as angry as he is with many of those miserable creatures that he is now tormenting in hell, and do there feel and bear the fierceness of his wrath. Yea, God is a great deal more angry with great numbers that are now on earth, yea doubtless with many that are now in this congregation, that it may be are at ease and quiet, than he is with many of those that are now in the flames of hell.

The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect, over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked; his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times so abominable in his eyes as the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince: and yet ’tis nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment.  Jonathan Edwards.

So, from Edwards’ message till the 21st century, Christian materials have included studies about the “so called reality” of Hell.  Men such as Darby, Scoffield, and Larkin wrote books, interpreted scripture, drew graphs, charts, and pictures to depict their findings.  No disrespect is intended to any of the churches, ministers, revivalists, evangelists, preachers, or theologians, but fear is not what God is about.  God is about love and only love.   Even his judgments are borne of love to chastise, correct, and restore unto righteousness.  For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son…This, my friend is the story of redemption by the gospel of Christ.

What does the word say?   So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places;  And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.  Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will:  The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds:  But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel.  What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice . (Philippians 1:-18).  God’s message of the Gospel may well be preached today, some preaching out of anger, frustration, personal vendettas from the pulpit, condemnation, contention, coercion, intimidation, and fear of Hell‘s flames, but the absolute best way to preach it is through mercy, forgiveness, grace, faith, hope, compassion, and love. This is the GOOD NEWS!

If you remember, Moses became angry with the Hebrew people in the wilderness when they became thirsty.  They began to chide Moses because he had taken them out into this God forsaken place to die.  Even though Moses had gotten water out of the Rock before, they had soon forgotten.  Moses’ anger toward them is the attitude that they believed God had of them, and it just simply was not so.  God was willing and able and merciful towards their needs and wanted them to have water.  He was not punishing them or scolding them like Moses led them to believe.  Moses lost his privilege of going into the promised land because of his impatience with them.  Even today, men preach and make the people quake in their boots sending the impression that God is angry with them, and is ready at a moment’s notice to send them to Hell.  The contrary is true.  God is merciful, slow to anger and ready to save to the uttermost ALL his creation he has made.  

Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.  And Moses took the rod from before the LORD, as he commanded him.  And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?  And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.  And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.  This is the water of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with the LORD, and he was sanctified in them.  (Numbers 20:8-13).

WHAT IS THE TRADITIONAL VIEW OF HELL?

The term HELL is cognate to "hole" or cavern or "hollow.  It is a meaningful word formed from the Anglo-Saxon helan  which means "to hide".   By derivation, hell denotes a dark and hidden place.  Now a dark and hidden place can have many implications.  For instance, it can be the grave, a pit, a hole, a cave, a hollow, an abyss, a dark cloud, a dark vaccuum, gross darkness, outer darkness, or the center of the earth.  Surprisingly, the connotation for Hell as being in the center of the earth is never found in scriptures.  It is a term contrived by carnal and natural men to describe a place they had difficulty explaining, once again, to invoke fear on their hearers that they might control them.  

Hell is type-cast as being compartmentalized in scripture.  First, it is a place of Darkness & Death.  The word Hell has been frequently translated from the Hebrew Old Testament word “Sheol’ and the Greek New Testament word “Hades“.  They both allude to the realm of the dead, the grave and the pit.  Secondly, it is a place of Judgment.  Our familiar pictorial representation of the fires of hell comes from references to Gehenna, the rubbish dump outside Jerusalem. Bodies of animals and criminals were thrown there and fires were kept lit to burn the refuse. It was also historically a place of human sacrifice.  These carry symbolism of destruction and God’s judgement.  Thirdly, it connotes Separation From God.  Paul aimed to discourage the Thessalonian believers from taking personal revenge on those who were persecuting them, by reminding them that God is just and will deal appropriately with those who deliberately cause trouble for believers. His words were unashamedly harsh on unbelievers, saying they will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.  (2 Thessalonians 1: 8-9).

There is one word meaning Hell in the Old Testament and that word is “Sheol”.  Sheol ­means underworld, grave, hell, and pit.  It has been heretofore designated as the abode of the dead, a place of no return, a place without praise of God, a place of exile, and the place where the wicked are sent because of extreme degradation and sin.  It is the world of the dead as like in a subterranean retreat including all its accessories and inmates.   The righteous are not considered to be abandoned to it.  The graphic verbage in Ezekiel and Habbakuk may be where some of the great artists got their renditions of Hell.  I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit: and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth. (Ezekiel 31:16).  Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man, neither keepeth at home , who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all people:  (Habbakuk 2:5). 

By these descriptions, one can easily see how a vision of Hell can be rendered as a place in the nether parts or the center of the earth, and how that multitudes are going into this despicable place because of their trangressions.  Hell, in fact, appears to be enlarging itself because of so many wicked people.  Evangelists, preachers, ministers, pastors, and clergy worldwide preach and have a world view that more people will be in Hell than those who go to Heaven.  I say, “What a miserable lot they are if they are no more effective in preaching the gospel than that.”

Gehenna is Greek for Hell and was used by Jesus regularly.  Most of the Jews of that day understood what he was talking about for Gehenna was a real place.  It was actually the Valley of the Son of Hinnom located outside ancient Jerusalem.  Gehenna was like a city dump.  In Roman times, dead bodies of criminals and carcasses of animals were thrown into it while the fires were kept burning continually.  Frequently, it is depicted as a place of punishment of the wicked.  In ancient times, people would burn their sons and daughters in Gehenna while making sacrifices to Molech, the god of fire.  It was considered by the Catholic Church as a type of purgatory where the wicked would suffer until their sins were atoned for.  In the Sanhedrin 7, the maximum amount of time a sinner can spend in Gehenna is one year, with the exception of five people who are there for all of eternity.  Who those five are is still a mystery.  Because of the bloodiness of Israel, the word Gehenna became a metonym or a word used in the place of hell in the afterlife.  Gehenna became a figurative name for the place of spiritual purification for the wicked dead.  Afterwards, the soul will either ascend to the world to come, be destroyed, or continue to exist in a state of consciousness of remorse.  In addition, Jewish folklore suggests the valley had a “gate” which led down to a molten lake of fire. 

With these things in mind, I think we can see where Jesus was coming from when he talked about Hell or Gehenna, And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10:28), And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. (Matthew 11:23), And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18), And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out , and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. (Matthew 18:9).  The Gehenna Jesus was referring to was the Hell understood at that time to be the pit or place of eternal burning of refuse, dogs, animals, dung, and criminals.  It was the last place anyone would want to go as it was not a respectable place to just be dumped out, and it certainly was not a respectable end as Jews didn’t believe in being cremated in any form or fashion.  Only the sinner and despicable person was discarded here to meet such an untimely fate.  When Jesus talked about not fearing people killing the body, but to fear him is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell, he did not mean he would do it, only that he could.  The analogy was meant to be a contrast with obvious consequences.  It was like saying if you don’t hate your mother and father more than you love me, you are not worthy of me.  He never intended for men to hate their parents.  But, he did want to have people to love God so much that in contrast to the love of their parents, it would seem like hate.  Eventually the Hebrew term Gehenna became a figurative name for the place of spiritual purification for the wicked dead in Judaism. According to most Jewish sources, the period of purification or punishment is limited to only 12 months and every Sabbath day is excluded from punishment.  After this, the soul will ascend to the world to come,  be destroyed, or continue to exist in a state of consciousness and  remorse.  When John spoke of Hell and Death being cast into the “Lake of Fire” in the book of Revelation, he was not talking about some spiritual place of punishment for the second death, but he was making an analogy to things already believed by Jews as being past a gate outside the city leading to the “Lake of Fire”. 

Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me.  (Genesis 4:14).  Cain is driven out from the face of the earth and the face of God.  It is this separation that brought torment to his soul whereby he felt he was a fugitive and a vagabond.  No longer did he have family roots with his parents or siblings, no longer did he have the comfort and solace of home, having his own ground to till, his own livestock or animals, no longer did he have fellowship with God.  He was exiled to live a life as a recluse from all that was good and decent. This was a type of Hell.

The third rendition of Hell in the Greek is Tartaroo.  It is considered by Jews to be a subterranean region which is doleful and dark, and is the deepest abyss of Hades.  It is a place to incarcerate wayward souls, the wicked dead, and those that have done evil deeds to live in eternal torment.  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.  (2 Peter 2:4).  Hell is used only one time in the New Testament as the Greek word Tartaroo.  Because of the scripture, many stories and  pictures of Hell depicting that the angels that sinned against God abide there because they were consigned to this eternal place of torment.   Today, because of the Nicean dogma, many Christians, Pastors, Evangelists, Missioniares, Priest, and ministers of nearly every denomination hold to a view that Hell is in the center of the earth, a place of torments, has eternal punishments, and is the final resting place of the wicked dead.  To have a different view of that, because of its long standing precedence in the Christian Church, one would be considered to be a heretic and an outcast because he dared to preach some type of Hell other than the one that had such a preeminence amongst those preaching and those preached to.  One might even be dis-fellowshipped because of such a belief. 

The Catholic bishops consolidated, redefined, and unified the religions and beliefs of the Roman Empire into their new universal ("catholic") Magisterium. As part of this process the standard Pagan teachings about Hades were assimilated. The imagery of the Nicene Hell was largely taken from the underworld abode of the god Hades and his part time lover Persephone. According to this belief there is a literal place in the center of the earth known as Hades, the abode of the dead. This became the subterranean world of eternal fiery torment known as Hell in Christian dogma. Never mind that the dogma has no biblical basis nor traditional standing, the Magisterium of the Church declared it exists and questioning them resulted in excommunication or worse. In time, the belief became dogma and was seldom if ever questioned again.  The Magisterium proclaimed that the good news was that "the Church" had the power to ransom the devout from the flames and torture decreed by God! The threat of eternal damnation made their subjects docile and the collection plates rang with tithes, offerings and indulgences as sincere, deceived people sold their souls, and their lives seeking to purchase salvation from Hell through the Mother Church.  (Wikapedia). 

The pagan origins of Hell are no different than the pagan origins of Santa Claus at Christmas, the Easter Bunny on Passover, Witches, Goblins, and Devils on all Saints Eve know as Halloween, and Mardis Gras on the religious day of Fat Tuesday with all its pomp and ceremony with its exalted idols of worship.  Paganism has become a mainstay in the Christian Church from centuries back, and many belief systems originate with Greek gods, false religious ceremonies, bad doctrine, and carrying over of Judaism and the law into the Catholic Church which spawned tales for the uninformed, the imaginative, the deluded, the weak believer, and those carried away by fairy tales.  Truth is that we need… Truth, not old wives tales, science fiction, and perversion of religion. 

JONAH AND THE WHALE

 Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish's belly,  And said , I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.  For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.  Then I said , I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.  The waters compassed me about , even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.  When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.  (Jonah  :1-7). 

Who has not heard the story of Jonah and the Whale from their youth.  It is a story that has been preached through the centuries because of its graphic rendition in the carnal mind.  A great whale comes and swallows up Jonah as he is running from God to get him to repent and go do what God told him to do, preach to Ninevah.  The story has been used to mesmerize kids, challenge folk to preach, summon some unreluctant soul to go to the mission field, and to simply scare some into serving God.  There is a greater purpose.  In the first place, the bible does not say the word, “whale“.  It says the word, fish.  Secondly, if Jonah had been swallowed by a whale or any other creature of the sea, gastric juices would have totally dissolved him after three days in his belly.  Thirdly, whales don’t eat mammals, their diets consist of small aquatic life forms such as fish, shrimp, larvae, plankton, crabs, and krill.   God prepared a FISH.  The word prepared here means to appoint or ordain.  God has set apart some creature, a messenger of God with a special anointing with a special job.  That job was to chastise Jonah until he was ready to do God’s will and not to destroy Jonah.  Though the story was likely very true, it was written more for our admonition, instruction, and correction today as an analogy to depict God’s greater cause.  The FISH is analogous to Hell.  In fact, Jonah said he cried to God out of the belly of Hell.  The defintion of belly is, of course, the stomach and the intestines, the digestive system.  But, in this case, it is figuratively the place of emotions or distress or love.  The purpose of Hell is to bring affliction, punishment, and heart change.  Jonah cried out of his affliction.  It was this pain that is bringing about the heart change.  You remember when you were young, your mother told you not to touch the space heater because it could hurt you.  Well, guess what, you, like every other child has to see for himself.  You touch the heater, and of course, you get burned.  Mom hears your crying, and immediately says, “I told you so.”  Then the unimaginable happens.  She pulls out her paddle to reinforce the lesson of the burning pain.  And why is this?  Believe it or not, it is because she loves you and doesn’t want you to hurt yourself again.  Pain on top of pain, chastisement, and fiery torments make a believer out of you.  You won’t touch a space heater ever again.  In fact, when Mom says not to do something, no matter what it is, the memory of that heater episode comes exploding back into your mind.  Whatever it is she says not to do, it is done.  No more disobedience.  It is too painful.  Jonah was cast into the deep in the midst of the seas, and the floods compassed him.  Weeds were wrapped about his head.  There is pressure on the mind, the will, and emotions.  If only he could get these weeds off.  They are scary in themselves.  Darkness, loneliness, only you in a vacuum, no noise, an overwhelming sense of loss, caught in deep depression, and there is no way out.  Down, down, down he goes to the bottoms of the mountains.  Bars like steel held him captive in a confined space.  The is no escape.  Except… Wait… Maybe…. REPENT!  CHANGE YOUR MIND!  DO THE WILL OF GOD!  REMEMBER THE LORD YOUR CREATOR!  GO INTO HIS HOLY TEMPLE!    The great fish prepared as a chamber of HELL begins to vomit.  You come loose from the stranglehold on your flesh, clearness comes to your mind, your emotions are healed, and your will is solely given over to God.  Suddenly, you are cast out of your prison, and immediately there is light.  You go and do the will of God like Jonah, preach to Ninevah. 

WHERE IS HELL?

Hell has been type cast as being somewhere in the center of the earth.  The fact is that the earth is made up of dirt, sand, gravel, stone stratas, and has a molten core.  This molten core is approximately 98060 Fahrenheit and is about the same temperature of the surface of the Sun.  The picture below shows people being cast into Hell to torment their flesh.  The truth is if they were cast bodily into Hell, their bodies would be reduced to less than ashes, leaving only atoms.   My point is the depictions are ludicrous.  So where is Hell?

The Greek word for Heaven is Ouranous, and it is that area above the earth reaching to the clouds.  It is not stellar in the stars, beyond this galaxy, or in a place beyond our known universe.  When we die, two things happen.  Our body is put in the grave.  Our spirit and our soul go to heaven.  To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.  Suddenly, we find ourselves in the company of deceased believers.  We are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses.  That place where God dwells is here.  Jesus ascended into the clouds, not outer space.  The Shekinah Glory of God dwells here as in the beginning in Adam,s day who walked with him in the garden, it went with Moses as a Pillar of Cloud by Day and a Pillar of Fire by night.  He appeared in the Tabernacle of Moses and the Tabernacle of David and the Temple of Solomon in, on, around, and above the ark.  God now dwells in the Tabernacle of Flesh, your flesh, my flesh, these bodies, and not buildings made by hands.  God is Omnipresent, he is here, there and everywhere.  If we go down to Hell, he is there, if we go up to Heaven, he is there.  Even the word of God in nigh thee even in your mouth, the word of faith we speak.  So, is Hell in the center of the earth? 

No, dear one, it is not.  Some key words that has described Hell is the grave, below, a place of darkness, a place of torments, the pit.  As Heaven is high and above, so Hell is low and beneath.  But, it does not mean that Hell is in the center of the earth.  The lowest pit a man goes to is the grave where his body is put to rest.  If we think about it for just a moment, just as Heaven is a spiritual place, so Hell is a spiritual place.  Spirits and souls cannot be contained in jails, behind bars, they can’t be incarcerated and put in chains.  Physical restraints and physical renditions of Hell just won’t float.  The parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus depicts the two spiritual compartments.  One is Abraham’s bosom, the other is Hell.  There is a gulf between them that they can’t cross though they can see each other.  That Gulf represents the separation of man from God.  Distance wise, if Heaven is above earth, then Hell is on earth.  Both are spiritual places indiscernible to the naked eye.  One can only see either by being in the spirit.  Paul was caught up into Paradise into the third heaven, and heard unspeakable words which was not lawful to utter.  John was in the spirit on the Lord’s day and was caught up to heaven to see things which must be hereafter.  The King of Babylon was brought down to Hell.   I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.  Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.  They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms?  (Isaiah 14:14-16).  Many believe this to be talking about Lucifer’s fall.  And perhaps it is in an analogy.  But, the end result is the same, both are brought down to the pit.  The word “Brought Down” in Hebrew is Yarad, and it means to descend, bring low, but it is more likely the definition prostrate or bow.  After one’s pomp and ceremony, his ego trips, his vain vaunting of self, his narcissistic view of himself as some god is exposed, and God who is high above all chastises him in front of all his subjects, he begins to humble himself, lay prostrate before the king of kings, give homage to the one who created him, and bow down to the ground in obeisance.  Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.  There is no man that can withstand the loving correction of the Master of Our Souls.  He knows just how much pressure to put on all his creation for he has known them from the beginning.  

Satan was able to go before the throne of God in Job’s day.  When asked where he had been, he said he had been going to and fro about the earth and up and down in it.  It meant he went from east to west and north to south.  He didn’t mean he went down to the center of the earth, then up to some planet called Heaven beyond the galaxies.  He is the god of this world, the prince of the power of the air.  His domain is right here on earth.  In fact, John writes, And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges;  I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is.  (Revelation 2:12-13).  Satan’s seat is his throne or position of power.  Where?  Right here on planet earth.  Hell is here.  Can you not see it?  Criminals are tortured, defiled, executed, burned, sawed into, axed into pieces, suffered torment of mind and soul without measure, and died.  Hell, which is translated Tartaroos only one time is where the angels that sinned have been consigned.  So, where is that?  Not in the center of the earth for sure.  Why, they have been confined to this planet.  We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual wickedness in high places.  (Ephesians 6:12).  From this scripture we see that their domain is this world. Simple enough.  

It has been estimated that there have been over 107 billion persons born on earth since man’s early beginnings.  There are currently 7.2 billion alive as we speak.  Jesus came to redeem man from his sins and deliver him from a sinner’s Hell.  How well has he done his job?  God said in Joel 2:28 and Acts 2:17 that he would pour out his spirit upon all flesh.  He also said in Ezekiel that all souls were his.  Is God big enough to save all men or is he hindered by our ability to preach effectively thereby leaving billions consigned to a bottomless pit?  I can’t see that.  For God so loved the WORLD that he gave his only begotten Son , that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the WORLD through him might be saved.  (John 3:16-17).  His goal is to save all men.  But, you say, “How can he save those who die without receiving Christ; what about Hitler who killed six million Jews, how about despotic rules who have killed untold millions across the earth from the beginning of time?  Can they be saved?  Need I remind you, God is not shackled by life on this earth.  He transcends the grave.  He is a spirit.  Men have spirits.  Many have been raised from the dead to walk on the city streets of Jerusalem after Christ was resurrected.  Samuel came up from paradise himself to rebuke Saul.  Jesus and the disciples raised many from the dead.   God sends purging fires of sanctification from the Holy Ghost.  But who may abide the day of his coming ? and who shall stand when he appeareth ? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers ' soap:  And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness. (Malachi 3:2-3).  Who are we that makes us better than Hitler.  Nothing.  Christ saved us by his mercy.  We merited nothing.  Cannot he redeem a soul from eternal torments of fire by purging. Nothing is lost.  All souls he created; all souls will return to him.  God will become all in all.  Aren’t you glad! 

Kingdom Builders is dedicated to ministering the Word of God freely to anyone upon request.  It is my desire to build up the body of Christ to become powerful, functional, mature Sons of God to make a difference in the World and the affairs of men.  I am not in the marketing business nor do I have anything to sell.  Should you or your friends desire to receive these articles, please write to the address noted, and they will be freely sent to you.  All donations are gratefully appreciated.  If for any reason, you no longer want to receive these mailouts, either call me at 318-614-2804 or email me at pssmithiii@comcast.net. 

Rev. Phillip S. Smith III

1705 Arkansas Road

West Monroe, LA 71291