WHAT THE HELL?

WHAT THE HELL?

Filipino concept of hell may not be what the Bible says. 

Act 2:27 Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. (See also vs 31 and Ps 16:8-11)

I believe in God,

the Father almighty,

Creator of heaven and earth,

and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the Virgin Mary,

suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died and was buried;

HE DESCENDED INTO HELL;

-The Apostles' Creed

For Filipinos the word hell evoked images of ever burning fire that destroys the wicked in opposition to Heaven where the righteous dwell. So every time they read the word hell or impiyerno they think it always refer to the eternal final destiny of the unrighteous, of the unbelievers. This is a mistake since the word hell translates several words that are not always referring to the same thing. Failure to distinguished the various hells of the Bible leads to some absurd teaching like Jesus went to hell to pay the price to Satan, or that He descended into the LoF to suffer the penalty due to man, or that you need works to escape hell. It is ironic that the word used to refer to a realm of the Nordic dead which has icy regions enter our Christian vocabulary to refer to a place where ice is a welcome thing. 

In this post I will not discuss whether Hell (I prefer the Lake of Fire, LoF) is a literal place of eternal punishment (eternal conscious torment, ECT) or it is a temporary place where eventually the unbelievers either will repent and be saved (universalism) or they will finally burned to nothingness (annihilationism). I am firmly in the ECT camp. Instead I will share the various words used in the Bible that our authorized version unfortunately called hell. By discussing this I hope we can have at least a clearer view of hell and why one wouldn't want to be in it. 

Hell is first and foremost used to translate Hades, the place of the dead. An example would be our text above, Acts 2:27-31, which quotes Ps 16:8-11 where Sheol is used. Clearly Hades equals Sheol. A search of the various uses of Sheol and Hades in the Bible reveals that it refers to the place of the dead and both believers and unbelievers expect to be there. In fact Jesus went there. The point of Acts 2:27 is that God did not abandon Jesus soul in Hades because three days later He exited Hades, and as we'll see elsewhere even emptied one of its components with believing occupants. So it is wrong to assume that Hades is only a temporary place of torment for unbelievers. It is properly the place of the dead, believers and unbelievers alike, and it is in this sense that JESUS DESCENDED INTO HELL. He descended into Hell-Hades because He died, not because He suffered fiery torment or because He paid the ransom to the ruler of Hell, Satan (another misconception-Satan is not yet in Hell, He is the ruler of this cosmos, the prince of the power of the air, the god of this age and have access to God until at least the middle of the tribulation when he was thrown to earth). At times Sheol seemed to be nothing more than a pit, a grave; at times it seemed to be more than a pit but a place where dead people can talk. See Luke 16:19-31 and Is 14:15-17. 

Here are some passages:

Genesis 37:35

[35]Then all his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. And he said, "Surely I will go down to Sheol in mourning for my son." So his father wept for him.

Genesis 42:38

[38]But Jacob said, "My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he alone is left. If harm should befall him on the journey you are taking, then you will bring my gray hair down to Sheol in sorrow."

Numbers 16:33

[33]So they and all that belonged to them went down alive to Sheol; and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly.

Isaiah 14:9

[9]"Sheol from beneath is excited over you to meet you when you come; It arouses for you the spirits of the dead, all the leaders of the earth; It raises all the kings of the nations from their thrones.

Psalms 139:8

[8]If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.

Ezekiel 32:27

[27]Nor do they lie beside the fallen heroes of the uncircumcised, who went down to Sheol with their weapons of war and whose swords were laid under their heads; but the punishment for their iniquity rested on their bones, though the terror of these heroes was once in the land of the living.

Jonah 2:2

[2]and he said, "I called out of my distress to the Lord, And He answered me. I cried for help from the depth of Sheol; You heard my voice.

Isaiah 5:14

[14]Therefore Sheol has enlarged its throat and opened its mouth without measure; And Jerusalem's splendor, her multitude, her din of revelry and the jubilant within her, descend into it.

Psalms 31:17

[17]Let me not be put to shame, O Lord, for I call upon You; Let the wicked be put to shame, let them be silent in Sheol.

Psalms 9:17

[17]The wicked will return to Sheol, Even all the nations who forget God.

Observations:

1. Jacob is a believer yet he expected to be there. Of course the wicked also went there and in Numbers several were swallowed alive by the earth straight to Sheol.

2. Whatever Sheol is it seemed to be "under". The Bible speaks of going down to Sheol, Samuel's soul/spirit arises from the ground, and they are associated with dust, earth and pit. In fact in some passages Sheol can mean simple grave. Maybe Jacob is simply saying I will die and go to the grave mourning. Yet there seemed to be passages where the dead have consciousness in Sheol. 

3. This Sheol enlarges itself to accommodate more dead people. 

4. In the NT Hades translated Sheol and the emphasis seemed to be more than a grave but a proper place with gates and keys and in Luke 16 a place of torment, a gulf fixed and wide and at least a place where Lazarus is in Abraham's bosom. The temperature is also different, there are areas that are hot and areas that are comforting according to Luke 16. This Hades is where Jesus descend. 

5. Hades himself will be destroyed in LoF and so that shows they are not the same.

(Kung gusto ninyo ng karagdagang impormasyon, bisitahin ninyo kami. May pagtitipon kami sa Dahat, kada Linggo, alas 8:30-10:30 am. Sa Amoguis, 1:00-3:00 pm. Sana manampalataya kayo at kita-kita tayo.)