The Hands of Jesus

April 23, 2012 Leave a comment

In a European town there was a beautiful statue of Jesus. The hands of the statue reached out, and the inscription read, “Come unto me.” But during World War II the statue was completely destroyed by bombing. So after the war the townspeople hired the same sculptor to rebuild it. The man worked hard and the work went well, but when he came to the statue’s defining feature, its outstretched hands, he decided to do something different. He kept his decision a secret, however, until the day of the unveiling.

When that day came, the townspeople all gathered around the covered statue. There was excitement in the air, and the whole affair featured quite a bit of pomp and circumstance. Then the sculptor unveiled the new statue. That’s when gasps of shock rose up all around. You see, the Jesus depicted by this new statue had arms but no hands. As the people stood there in stunned disbelief, the sculptor unveiled the inscription on the statue’s base. It read: “Who will be my hands today?”

You know, that’s a question that Jesus could ask every day, including today. Will you do His work today?   

Filed under God's Work, Ministry, Service, spiritual gifts, Talents, Witnessing Tagged with , , ,

God Knows Best

April 19, 2012 Leave a comment

A farm boy went off to college to get some big-city learning. When he returned home for a break he had some new ways of looking at things. No longer was he content to emulate his daddy’s simplistic trust in God. To the contrary, the son’s college courses had caused him to begin to lean toward atheism.

Well, even though the son’s confidence in his father’s beliefs was crumbling, he still loved his dad very much. So one day he made his way out to the fields where his father was working and said, “Dad, let’s take a walk and do some talking.” The boy had in mind to ease the father into a conversation about God. That’s how he would broach the subject of his new-found atheism.

As the two walked along through the fields, they came to a pumpkin patch nestled under a large oak tree. There the young man saw his opening. He said, “Dad, if I was God, I wouldn’t have put the pumpkins at the end of weak vines and the acorns on strong branches. I would have put the pumpkins on the oak branches and the acorns at the end of the pumpkin vines. Wouldn’t that make more sense?” Then the son smiled, sensing that his father would have to see the common sense of the observation.

Before the father could answer, though, an acorn fell and hit the son in the top of the head. At that point his father said, “Well, son, I guess you’re glad that wasn’t a pumpkin that just fell on you.” What’s the lesson of the story? BELIEVE IN GOD AND TRUST IN HIS WISDOM. Even when His ways seem illogical, He always knows best and has a wise plan.

Filed under Atheism, Creation, God's Omniscience, God's Will, Humor, Trusting In God Tagged with , , , , ,

How To Defeat Your Amalekites

April 17, 2012 Leave a comment

In Exodus 17:8-16 we find the wonderful story of Israel’s defeat of the Amalekites, a nomadic tribe who were descendants of Esau. The trouble began one day when the Amalekites launched a sneak attack against the Israelites. 1 Samuel 15:2 calls it an ambush. Deuteronomy 25:17-19 elaborates by saying the Amalekites attacked the stragglers at the rear of Israel’s traveling ranks. Apparently it was a get-in-and-get-out attack in which the Amalekites killed some of the stragglers at the end of Israel’s long processional line and then quickly retreated to safety.

That night, Moses, in order to create a defense against further attacks by the Amalekites, instructed Joshua to put together an army literally overnight. It’s the first time that Joshua is mentioned in the Bible. Exodus 17:8-9 says:

Now Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said to Joshua, “Choose us some men and go out, fight with Amalek…”

Now, you’ve got to understand that this battle was Israel’s first military endeavor following their exodus from Egypt. (No, I’m not giving them credit for defeating Pharaoh and the Egyptian army at the Red Sea because God handled that one Himself). So my point is, logically speaking, the Israelites shouldn’t have been able to defeat the Amalekites. The people of Israel had spent the last four centuries as slaves in Egypt, which meant that no living Israelite had ever had one second’s worth of military training. Even going all the way back to the beginning of Israel’s history, its patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) certainly hadn’t been great men of war who had built, trained, and maintained armies. Genesis 14:1-24 does record the story of how Abraham had once led a group of men in the defeat of an alliance army from the East, but that was just a singular story from Israel’s lengthy history.

Since Exodus 17:13 says, “Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword,” obviously the Israelites did have some swords. Where did they get them? Our best answer is, they were part of the plunder the Israelites took from the Egyptians on their way out of Egypt (Exodus 3:21-22; 11:2-3; 12:35-36). Still, though, even if they did have swords, it’s not like Israel’s men were experts in using them. Again, we’re talking about people who had been menial servants all their lives.

And so how do we account for Israel defeating the Amalekites in this battle? Well, the passage itself couldn’t be clearer. Even more than what Joshua and his fellow soldiers were doing down on the battlefield, the key to the victory was what Moses was doing up on the hill. He was standing up there with “the rod of God” in his hand. As long as Moses kept that rod held up, Israel prevailed in the battle. But whenever his hands became heavy and he was forced to lower the rod for a while, Amalek prevailed.

Finally, things got to a point where Moses was so physically exhausted that measures had to be taken to help him. Aaron and Hur placed a large stone under him, which allowed him to sit down. Then, as he sat there on that rock, they literally held his hands up for him. They did this until the sun set the evening and the battle was over.

For good reason this story serves to symbolize the power of intercessory prayer. Just as Moses was on the hill interceding with God for Joshua and his soldiers, Aaron and Hur were up there interceding for Moses. Both parts of the equation are beautiful. The story also teaches us the importance of going into battle with God as opposed to going into battle without him. As David wrote in Psalm 20:7:

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; But we will remember the name of the Lord our God.

But the thing I really want to draw your attention to about the story is the physical toll that Moses’ ministering took upon him. Putting it bluntly, the man got tired, even to the point of exhaustion. Sure, he was eighty years old at the time, but that doesn’t fully explain why he got tired. After all, he would live another forty years before dying. No, there’s another element at work here, one that Charles Spurgeon described in this way:

The more spiritual an exercise, the more difficult it is for flesh and blood to maintain it.

I think that every Christian has experienced this. Tell me, Christian, have you ever sat down to have a really good time of prayer only to have your mind start wandering just a few minutes into the prayer? Or have you ever felt a wave of fatigue come over you shortly after you began a work for the Lord? I know that I have certainly had what I’ll call my “Moses moments.”

All this reminds me of the night of Christ’s arrest. As He entered into the garden of Gethsemane for a time of intense prayer, He left eight of the remaining eleven disciples (post Judas’ betrayal) at the garden’s entrance. Then He took Peter, James, and John further on into the garden with Him. Just before He left them at a certain point and went even further into the garden to pray, He gave them the instructions, “Stay here and watch.” But what did He find when He returned to them after a while? All three had fallen asleep. That’s when He said to Peter, “Simon, are you sleeping? Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

You see, Jesus knew that the intentions of Peter, James, and John were good, but He also knew how weak and frail the human body can be. And so my advice to you, Christian, is to enlist the aid of your fellow Christians to help you in your spiritual endeavors and battles. Putting it simply, every Joshua needs a Moses and every Moses needs an Aaron and Hur. You say you aren’t seeing the Amalekites defeated in your life? Well, maybe it’s time for a new battle plan. Perhaps the key to your victory lies not in yourself but in the aid and intercession that others can give you.

Filed under Adversity, Disappointment, Encouragement, God's Work, Intercessory Prayer, Ministry, Spiritual Warfare Tagged with , , , , , ,

Where Did Christ’s Soul Go After His Death? (part 5, last one)

April 14, 2012 Leave a comment

There are many instances where the time-honored King James translation uses the word “hell.” There is only one instance, however, where “hell” involves the Greek word tartaroo. That one instance is 2 Peter 2:4, which reads in the K.J.V.:

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.

In this verse, “cast…down to hell” translates the Greek verb tartaroo. It is from the noun version of tartaroo that we get the word Tartarus. But why am I mentioning all this? I’m doing it because the Bible teaches that Jesus visited Tartarus sometime after His death. In previous posts I’ve said a lot about how His soul went to Hades after His death. Now let me say some things about Him also visiting Tartarus.

For starters, you need to understand that Tartarus goes by two other names in the Bible. First, it is called “the bottomless pit.” This term occurs seven times in the K.J.V. (Revelation 9:1; 9:2; 9:11; 11:7; 17:8; 20:1; and 20:3). In these verses, the original Greek uses the word abussos, from which we get our English word “abyss.” Second, in two places (Luke 8:31 and Romans 10:7) the K.J.V. translates abussos as “the deep.” And so we see that Tartarus, the bottomless pit, and the deep all refer to the same place.

Now here’s the all-important thing about Tartarus: It is a place exclusively for the imprisonment of fallen angels. At no time does Tartarus ever hold the souls of any human beings. By the way, the K.J.V. refers to fallen angels as “demons,” “devils,” “unclean spirits,” or “spirits.” And mark it down, fallen angels know of Tartarus and fear the place (Luke 8:31).

But here’s a good question to ask: What angels have been cast down to Tartarus? Satan and the other now unholy angels continue to have access to this earth, don’t they? I mean, the pages of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts are filled with instances of demon-possession. Furthermore, Ephesians 6:12 says that we humans are always wrestling against fallen angels. And then there are those passage that tell us Satan is walking to and fro upon the earth (Job 1:7; 2:2; 1 Peter 5:8). So what’s this business about angels being cast down to Tartarus?

The answer is: The imprisoned angels are the “sons of God” who are mentioned in Genesis 6:1-4. That passage gives us the story of a certain group of fallen angels called “the sons of God.” In the Old Testament this term refers to angels (Job 1:6; Job 2:1). These particular fallen angels married human wives, had sexual relations with those wives, and produced children by those wives. It has been wrongly taught that these children became giants, but actually the passage says they became “the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.” (Think about it, there were giants such as Goliath on the earth long after the great flood.) It has also been wrongly taught that other interpretations, ones not involving fallen angels, might also fit the passage. However, if the Genesis 6:1-4 passage doesn’t involve fallen angels there is nowhere in the Bible that explains how some fallen angels ended up in Tartarus while others still get to roam the earth freely.

On the subject of those fallen angels producing children through those earthly women, the Bible doesn’t specify how a sexual union between a fallen angel and a human woman could take place. Neither does it elaborate on how such a sexual union could produce a child. Perhaps the best way to understand the passage is to think of these fallen angels as demon-possessing the bodies of human men. This would give them the male “seed” to impregnate a woman.

Jude verse 6 is a verse that also speaks of these “sons of God.” In the K.J.V. Jude 6 says they “kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation.” The New American Standard translation gives a more literal rendering of the verse’s original Greek. It says they “did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode.” For this sin God judged those angels once more by casting them down to Tartarus and delivered them into chains under darkness. So we might say that this group of angels “fell” twice.

Okay, now it’s time to bring Jesus into all this. The passage is Romans 10:6-7. These verses read:

But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down from above) or, “‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).

The word translated here in the New King James Version as “the abyss” is abussos. And so what we have here is a passage that associates Jesus with Tartarus. This really helps us as we try to understand another passage, 1 Peter 3:18-20, which says:

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.

Now, the correct interpretation of these verses depends upon the correct answering of two questions. First, “Where did Jesus do this preaching?” Second, “Who were these spirits in prison to whom He preached?”

One possible interpretation is that the place was Hades and the spirits in prison were the souls in Hades. As we’ve learned in this series, Christ’s soul did go to Hades at the moment of His physical death (Acts 2:27). Is Hades then the prison he went to and were the spirits He preached to the souls in Hades?

The answer is no on both accounts. First, the interpretation doesn’t explain the Romans 10:6-7 passage, which associates Jesus with Tartarus. Second, even though the souls in the torment section of Hades could accurately be described as being in “prison” the same certainly can’t be said of the souls in the bliss section. Third, it is very awkward to describe human souls as “spirits.”

A second possible interpretation is that the prison was Gehenna and the spirits were fallen angels in Gehenna. This interpretation is easily dismissed. First, the Bible at no time puts Jesus in Gehenna. Second, at the time of Christ’s death Gehenna had no occupants to listen to preaching. Even now, Gehenna has no occupants.

A third possible interpretation is that these “spirits” in prison were actually the souls in the torment section of Hades, and Jesus had done His preaching to these people while they were alive on earth in the days of Noah. Under this interpretation, Jesus would have preached to them through Noah as Noah spoke in the power of the Holy Spirit. But this interpretation also has problems. First, it doesn’t account for Romans 10:7 using the specific Greek word abussos (Tartarus, the deep, the bottomless pit) in reference to Jesus. Second, the whole line of interpretation just doesn’t fit the way the passage reads. Again, it’s very awkward to refer to people as “spirits.” The idea of Jesus doing His preaching through Noah also seems pretty strained.

A fourth interpretation seems to be the one that best covers all aspects of the situation. For this one, the prison Jesus went to was Tartarus. This accounts perfectly for Romans 10:6-7. The “spirits” He preached to were the “sons of God” imprisoned in Tartarus. This fits perfectly with the fact that the most common New Testament use of the word “spirits” is for angels (Matthew 8:16; 12:45; Luke 10:20; 11:26).

So, putting the entire line of thought together, at Christ’s death His spirit went to God the Father (Luke 23:46; Ecclesiastes 3:21; 12:7; James 2:26), His body went to the grave, and His soul went to Hades (Acts 2:27). Then, at some point after that, Jesus, in soul, went to Tartarus. He went there for the purpose of preaching to “the sons of God” imprisoned there.

Of course, someone might ask, “But what purpose could Jesus have had for wanting to preach to a group of twice-fallen angels?” Well, this preaching was not the preaching of the gospel. It was, instead, Christ’s proclamation of victory over those fallen angels. It was preaching along the lines of what is described in Colossians 2:15, which says:

Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

All right, now let me finish up this post and this series by sharing with you a few more facts about this place called Tartarus (the bottomless pit, the deep, the abyss):

Fact #1: The “sons of God” will one day be temporarily freed from Tartarus. Revelation 9:1-12 describes certain days that will occur in the coming tribulation period. The passage says that during these days Tartarus (the bottomless pit) will be opened. This will free the fallen angels (called “locusts” in the passage) that are imprisoned in there. These angels will then go out and torment people of the earth for five months.

Fact #2: I mentioned in my previous post that Satan will be chained up in Tartarus for the thousand years of Christ’s millennial reign upon this earth (Revelation 20:1-6). But now let me add to that by saying that Satan will have the company of all the other fallen angels in Tartarus for those thousand years. In Matthew 8:28-29 and Luke 8:26-31 a group of demons wonder if Jesus has come to torment them before “the time” (the coming time of their incarceration in Tartarus), and they beg Him not to cast them into Tartarus right then and there. The Old Testament also teaches that all the fallen angels will spend the years of Christ’s millennial reign imprisoned with Satan. The passage is Isaiah 24:21-22.

Fact #3: The Bible does finish out the thought on what will happen to all the fallen angels, including the “sons of God,” after their imprisonment with Satan in Tartarus during the one-thousand years of Christ’s reign. At the end of that reign Satan and all the other fallen angels will be released from Tartarus, engage in one final revolt against God (Revelation 20:7-10), and then all be cast into Gehenna (the lake of fire). There they will spend all eternity (Matthew 25:41).

Fact #4: Just as Hades has gates and keys to the gates (Matthew 16:18; Revelation 1:18 where “hell” translates Hades), Tartarus has a key to it. The proof text is Revelation 9:1. Some Greek scholars say that Revelation 9:1 conveys the idea of a shaft which leads down to Tartarus. This shaft isn’t Tartarus, but it does serve as the only way in and out of Tartarus.

Fact #5: Like Hades, Tartarus is located somewhere in the heart of planet earth. Revelation 9:1-3 makes this clear. It is believed that Tartarus is even lower down in the heart of the earth than Hades. Of course, it should be noted that the eternal prison for Satan and the other fallen angels, as well as all of history’s lost humans, will be Gehenna, and the Bible does not indicate that Gehenna is located in the heart of the earth.

Filed under Angels, Christ's Death, Demons, Prophecy, Satan, Spiritual Warfare, The Devil Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Where Did Christ’s Soul Go After His Death? (part 4)

April 13, 2012 Leave a comment

Over the past few posts we’ve established that Christ’s soul went to a place called Hades when He died. The proof text is Acts 2:27, a Messianic passage that says of Christ:

For You will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.

But what we’ve learned is that Hades is a fascinating place, one that actually has two sections. One section is a bliss section designed to hold the souls of the saved, and the other one is a torment section designed to hold the souls of the lost.

However, we’ve also learned that after Christ’s resurrection and ascension He emptied all the souls out of the bliss section and transported them on up to heaven. The text on this is Ephesians 4:8-10. So now when a saved person dies, his or her soul goes straight up to heaven. As 2 Corinthians 5:8 says of Christians:

We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

Okay, I realize that we are getting a bit off the specific question of where Christ’s soul went at death, but please bear with me for this post while I finish up the word about Hades. As things stand now, the torment section of Hades is still very much open for business and receiving lost souls every day. It is the place we have in mind when we talk about someone dying and going to “hell.” It’s where the souls of Osama Bin Laden, Adolph Hitler, and Joseph Stalin are right now. According to Luke 16:23-24 it’s a place of torment and literal flame. As bad as we might imagine it to be, it’s no doubt worse.

But will this torment section always remain open for business? No. Just as happened with the bliss section, there will come a time when the souls will all be emptied from the torment section and transported to another place. The time will be after Christ’s one-thousand-year reign upon this earth, and the place will be Gehenna, which is more commonly known as “the lake of fire.”

The word Gehenna literally refers to a burning “city dump.” The word occurs twelve times in the New Testament’s original Greek. In each instance the K.J.V. translates the word as “hell.” The passages are: Matthew 5:22; 5:29; 5:30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15; 23:33; Mark 9:43; 9:45; 9:47; Luke 12:5; and James 3:6.

Gehenna is actually the Greek representative of the Hebrew Ge-hinnom. An English translation of Ge-hinnom would be “valley of Hinnom.” This was a deep, narrow valley to the south of Jerusalem. It was here that the Jews, in some of their most wicked Old Testament times, sacrificed their children to the god Molech. When the practice was stopped, the site became the “city dump” for Jerusalem. The bodies of criminals, the carcasses of animals, and all sorts of trash and filth were cast into the valley. The constant burning and smoldering of the refuse caused a continual smoke to rise up from the valley. Jesus, the master illustrator, chose the site as a symbolic representation of eternal judgment.

Jesus described Gehenna as a place where “their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:43-48, in each instance “hell” translates Gehenna). The phrase “where their worm dies not” refers back to the “city dump” that was the valley of Hinnom. Those who took their trash out to the site could always see worms feasting on the waste, especially on the corpses and carcasses. These worms lived at the site without being annihilated by the flame and heat of the place. Other Bible passages that teach that the punishment of the wicked is eternal are Daniel 12:2, Matthew 25:46, 2 Thessalonians 1:9, and Revelation 14:10-11.

As I said, the New Testament’s other name for Gehenna is “the lake of fire.” This description is used in Revelation 19:20; 20:10; 20:14; 20:15; and 21:18. The Greek word that is translated as “lake” in these verses is the common Greek word for a lake. It is the same word that is used in reference to the famous “lake of Gennesaret” (the Sea of Galilee). This means that the best way to envision Gehenna is to think of a literal lake, but rather than being a lake of water it is a lake of everlasting fire.

In Matthew 25:41 Jesus speaks of an “everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” The Greek language doesn’t use the word Gehenna in this verse, but the Bible makes it clear that Jesus was talking about Gehenna. For one thing, the Bible never depicts Satan as being in Hades (see Job 1:7, Job 2:2, and 1 Peter 5:8). For another, the Bible plainly says that the lake of fire will be Satan’s eternal dwelling place (Revelation 20:10). So, obviously, Jesus was referring to Gehenna when he talked about an everlasting fire prepared for the devil and the other fallen angels. Sadly, even though the place was specifically prepared for fallen angels, lost humans will spend eternity there as well.

But just when will Satan be cast into Gehenna? Well, there is a distinct order to how Gehenna goes from being unoccupied (which it is now) to being occupied. The order is as follows:

1. Jesus will return for His second coming to this earth during the battle of Armageddon. (Revelation 19:11-19)

2. As a part of Christ’s resounding victory at Armageddon, the Anti-Christ and the False Prophet from the seven-year tribulation period will be cast into Gehenna, the lake of fire. These two men will be Gehenna’s very first occupants and they will never get out of the place. (Revelation 19:20-21)

3. Immediately after this, Satan will be chained up in the bottomless pit, which is a place 2 Peter 2:4 refers to as Tartarus. And Satan will remain there in Tartarus for the thousand years of Christ’s reign upon this earth. (Revelation 20:1-6)

4. At the end of this thousand years, Satan will be loosed for a time to mount one final rebellion against God. God the Father will put down that rebellion and then Satan will be cast into Gehenna, the lake of fire. There he will join the Anti-Christ and the False Prophet who have already been in there for one thousand years. (Revelation 20:7-10).

5. Immediately following this will come the Great White Throne Judgment where all of history’s lost will stand before Christ. For this awesome judgment the torment section of Hades will at last be emptied so that all those lost souls can be formally moved into Gehenna. Revelation 20:12-15 says of this time:

And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

In closing, let me say one last word about the souls who will be called forth from the torment section of Hades to stand before the Great White Judgment. For that Judgment, those souls will be reunited with the bodies they once inhabited. This is why Revelation 20:13-14 speaks of not only Hades delivering up its dead but also Death delivering up its dead. You see, Hades will deliver up the lost soul and Death will deliver up the body. This will necessitate those bodies experiencing some type of resurrection. Obviously it won’t be the resurrection unto glorification that the bodies of the saved will experience, but it will be some type of resurrection so that the lost can be cast body and soul into Gehenna.

If you doubt this let me remind you that in John 5:29 Jesus names two distinct kinds of resurrections. They are “the resurrection of life” and “the resurrection of condemnation.” Let me also remind you that in Matthew 5:29-30 and 10:28 Jesus talks about the whole body being cast into “hell” (Greek word Gehenna). You see, by the time God’s program is completed for the human race there won’t be one soul (saved or lost) left in either section of Hades or one body left unaccounted for by either the “resurrection of life” or the “resurrection of condemnation.”

Filed under Angels, Christ's Second Coming, Christ's Resurrection, death, Demons, Heaven, hell, Prophecy, Satan, The Devil Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

Where Did Christ’s Soul Go After His Death? (part 3)

April 12, 2012 Leave a comment

For centuries the dominant translation of the Bible was the King James Version. In answer to the question, “Where did Christ’s soul go after His death?” Acts 2:27 in the K.J.V. reads:

Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

Not so surprisingly, people seized upon this verse to create a whole line of erroneous doctrinal thinking. It goes like this: “Christ’s soul went to hell when he died because He had to suffer our punishment in hell as a part of Him paying the penalty for our sins.” But think about it, if He really did have to endure the required amount of torment and suffering in hell to pay our sin debt, wouldn’t it have been eternal suffering? I mean, isn’t that the rule? When a sinner dies without Christ, his or her soul has to suffer a lot longer than three days worth of punishment in hell, right? Also, the whole idea of Christ’s soul suffering the torment of hell flatly goes against what He told the thief on the cross, “…today you will be with Me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43)

As I noted in my last post, whenever you read the word “hell” in the old King James translation you’ve got to dig a little deeper and find out the word used in the original language. Concerning the Old Testament, in 100% of the instances where the K.J.V. reads “hell” the Hebrew word is Sheol. But the interesting thing is that in the Old Testament the souls of both the saved and the lost go to Sheol. For example, Psalm 9:17 puts the lost souls of the wicked there, but 2 Samuel 22:6 puts the soul of David right on the brink of being there.

You see, this hints at the fact that Sheol has two sections to it. It has a bliss section for the souls of the saved, and it has a torment section for the souls of the lost. Really, the Hebrew word Sheol is simply an umbrella word that refers to the general afterlife realm of the dead. That afterlife could be spent in the bliss section or it might be spent in the torment section, depending upon one’s salvation or lack of it. As a matter of fact, just as the K.J.V. Old Testament translates Sheol as “hell” in thirty-one instances, it translates it as “the grave” in another thirty-one instances.

As for the New Testament, the equivalent of the Hebrew Sheol is the Greek Hades. And Luke 16:19-31, where the K.J.V. translates Hades as “hell,” leaves no doubt as to the place having two very different sections. The saved soul of the beggar Lazarus goes to the bliss section, while the lost soul of the rich man goes to the torment section.

And so Christ’s soul went to the bliss section of Hades when He died, the same place where the souls of the Old Testament believers went. You see, even though Lazarus the beggar, the thief on the cross, and Jesus lived in the days of the New Testament, they still lived and died in what we might call the Old Testament dispensation. What I mean is, the really big changes concerning afterlife abodes wouldn’t take place until Christ’s resurrection and ascension.

And here now is where we bring things into our current era. So please take special note of what you’re about to read: When Jesus ascended back to heaven forty days after His resurrection, He emptied the bliss section of Hades and took those saved souls formally into heaven with Him. The passage on this is Ephesians 4:8-10, which reads in the New King James translation:

Therefore He says: “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men.” (Now this, “He ascended – what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)

What Paul is doing in this passage is playing off the scene of a Roman general leading a procession through the streets of Rome after a victorious military campaign. For such a procession the general would be at the front of the parade. Then behind him would be the “trophies” he had “won” through his military victories. Some of those “trophies” would be people who had been captured as prisoners of war by the general’s army.

And so, using this earthly illustration, Paul describes how Jesus “won” the souls out of the bliss section of Hades. First, Jesus descended into the lower parts of the earth. (Remember that in the previous post I explained that Hades is located somewhere deep in the heart of the earth.) Second, He ascended to heaven with those souls. Third, He marched victoriously into heaven with those souls behind Him. The N.I.V. translation does the best job of conveying Paul’s imagery. It renders Ephesians 4:8 as, “…he led captives in his train…”

You ask, “But why did those millions of saved souls have to wait until Christ’s resurrection before they could formally enter heaven?” It was because Jesus had to officially shed His blood in time and history before their sins could be eternally cleansed. Keep in mind that Hebrews 10:4 says that it wasn’t possible for the blood of the Old Testament sacrifices to take away sin. The best such blood could do was cover sin and stay the wrath of God. It is only Christ’s literal blood that can eternally cleanse sin. As I once heard a Bible teacher say, “Really, the Old Testament believers were saved on credit by looking ahead to Christ’s death on the cross just as we look back upon it.”

And so what does all this mean for the Christian today? It means that at the moment of death the Christian’s soul goes straight on up to heaven. There is now no longer a need for the bliss section of Hades. Surely that section still exists, but it’s empty. The same Paul who wrote about how the resurrected, ascended Jesus entered into heaven with those saved souls from Hades also taught in 2 Corinthians 5:1-8 that now when a Christian is absent from the body he is present with the Lord. He also said in Philippians 1:23 that he desired to depart this earth and be with Christ, which is far better. When he said that he knew full well that Jesus is now seated at the right hand of God the Father up in heaven. For that matter, just before Steven died his martyr’s death he saw Jesus in heaven standing to immediately receive his soul (Acts 7:54-60).

And right there is where I’ll stop for today. In my next post I’ll finish up the teaching on Hades by explaining what is going to eventually happen to the lost souls that are currently abiding in its torment section. You see, when all the dust has settled and everything is said and done before the dawn of eternity, there won’t be one soul left in either section of Hades. With this post I’ve explained how the bliss side got emptied, and I hope you’ll stay tuned for the explanation of how the torment side will eventually get emptied as well.

Filed under Christ's Death, Christ's Resurrection, Heaven, hell Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

Where Did Christ’s Soul Go After His Death? (part 2)

April 11, 2012 Leave a comment

For centuries the classic King James translation of the Bible was the favored one for the English-speaking world. Many of us grew up reading the K.J.V. and memorizing its verses, and undoubtedly it’s a generally solid translation. Unfortunately, the way it uses the word “hell” has been a longstanding problem.

In the K.J.V.’s New Testament three very different Greek words get translated as the one word “hell.” This has caused untold confusion among sincere students of the Bible. The three words are Tartarus, Gehenna, and Hades. I could devote an entire series of posts to explaining what the Bible teaches about each place, but I won’t do that because I’m already in a series. So, for my purposes here, let me just give you the barest of the bare basics.

First, Tartarus (2 Peter 2:4) is a place exclusively for the imprisonment of certain fallen angels. No human souls have ever been or ever will be incarcerated there. In the New Testament this place also goes by two other names. In the book of The Revelation it is “the bottomless pit” mentioned in chapters 9,11,17, and 20. In Luke 8:31 and Romans 10:7 it is “the deep.” The terms “the bottomless pit” and “the deep” both translate the Greek word abussos, from which we get our English word “abyss.”

Second, Gehenna is the eternal lake of fire of chapters 19-21 of The Revelation. Even though this place is in existence now it is completely empty as of yet. Its first occupants will be the Anti-Christ and the False Prophet from the coming tribulation period (Revelation 19:20).

This leaves us with Hades, which is where Acts 2:27 places Christ’s soul after His death. Perhaps it’s best to think of Hades as being a general realm of the dead. In the Old Testament Hebrew it goes by its Hebrew name Sheol. In the Old Testament the soul of every deceased person goes to Sheol (Hades). You ask, “Do you mean that in Old Testament days the souls of saved people went to the same afterlife abode as the souls of lost people?” Yes, that’s right. There is, however, more to it than that.

The thing about Hades (Sheol) is this: It has two sections. One section was for the souls of saved believers, and the other section was for the souls of lost unbelievers. While the Old Testament certainly hints at these two sections, the New Testament comes right out and describes each one. The passage is Luke 16:19-31, Christ’s story of the rich man and the beggar Lazarus. The souls of the rich man and the beggar both went to Hades upon death. The beggar’s soul went to the bliss section of Hades, where he was comforted by the soul of Abraham, an Old Testament believer. On the other hand, the rich man’s soul went to the torment section where there was no comfort. The rich man could engage in a brief conversation with Abraham and Lazarus, but a great gulf prevented him from passing over to that other section.

Now, it is the torment section of Hades (Sheol) that people have in mind when they talk about someone dying and going to hell. And this notion is factual because this is exactly the place where every lost soul now goes. This section is a place of torment and flame (Luke 16:24). It is a place of painful remembrance of the events of your earthly life (Luke 16:25). It is a place where all your requests are denied (Luke 16:24, 27-28, 30-31).

And would you believe that Hades (both sides) is literally located in the heart of the earth? The Old Testament always speaks of the place in terms of being “down.” Read the story of how God allowed a medium to conjure up the soul of the deceased Samuel so that Samuel could pronounce a word of doom on King Saul (1 Samuel 27:3-25). According to the story, Samuel’s soul ascended up out of the earth, not down from heaven. Furthermore, not only is Hades located somewhere in the heart of the earth, the Bible also teaches that the place has gates (Job 17:16, Matthew 16:18).

And so now the question becomes, “Which section of Hades did Christ’s soul go to at His death?” We find the answer in Luke 23:43. There, just before He dies, Jesus promises the believing thief on the cross beside Him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” Make no mistake, there is no correlation whatsoever between the torment section of Hades and “Paradise.” And since Jesus said, “you will be with me,” He obviously went to the bliss section of Hades.

I should point out that the word “Paradise” is used in two other places in the New Testament. First, in 2 Corinthians 12:4 the apostle Paul uses it in reference to “the third heaven,” which is God’s heaven, the place we think of when we use the word “heaven.” Then second, in Revelation 2:7 (when interpreted through the lens of Revelation 22:2) the word is used in reference to the future city of New Jerusalem, the city where the saved of all history will spend eternity. You see, in the New Testament the specific “Paradise” being mentioned is determined by the context and time-frame of the passage in question. Before Christ’s death and resurrection, “Paradise” was the bliss section of Hades. After Christ’s death and resurrection, “Paradise” became the third heaven, God’s heaven. In the prophetic future, after Christ’s thousand-year-reign upon this earth, “Paradise” will become the heavenly city called the New Jerusalem.

Okay, I’m going to put a period here for now, but it’s not because I don’t have more to say about Hades. I just feel like I’ve given you plenty of scriptural meat to chew on for one post. Let me encourage you to study all these references for yourself. I think you’ll find them interesting reads. Then, in my next post, I’ll say the rest of what I need to say about Hades and Christ’s soul going there after His death.

Filed under Bible Study, Christ's Death, Christ's Resurrection, Easter, God's Word, Heaven, hell, King James only, Prophecy Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

Where Did Christ’s Soul Go After His Death? (part 1)

April 10, 2012 Leave a comment

In the days leading up to Easter Sunday, I had two different people ask me the same question: “Where did Christ’s soul go after His death?” So I felt led of the Lord to build my Easter sermon around that question. What I’d like to do with my next few posts is share that information with you.

Let me begin by saying that every human being consists of a body, a soul, and a spirit. This applied to Jesus as well because He was God in human flesh. I could use individual passages that specifically mention the body, other passages that mention the spirit, and other passages that mention the soul, but I’ll just go with 1 Thessalonians 5:23, which brings all three into play:

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Several months ago I devoted a series of posts to the body, the soul, and the spirit, and I’ll not repeat all that information. Let me just say that each human being is a soul who lives in a body and possesses a spirit. The soul is the eternal you. The body is that which houses the soul. The spirit is the life-giving spark of God that makes the body alive. As James 2:26 says, “…the body without the spirit is dead.”

Now, we know what happened to Christ’s body after His death, don’t we? Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus removed the body from the cross, bound it in strips of linen, and buried it in Joseph of Arimathea’s personal tomb (John 19:38-42). Furthermore, we also know what happened to Christ’s spirit. His last words on the cross weren’t, “It is finished,” as some people wrongly believe (John 19:30). Not long after He uttered those words He said, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit” (Luke 23:46). This chimes in perfectly with Ecclesiastes 12:7, which teaches that at death the spirit returns to God. And so all this leaves only the matter of what happened to Christ’s soul after His death.

Thankfully, the Bible hasn’t left us in the dark as to the answer. As a part of the famous sermon that Peter preached on the Day of Pentecost following Christ’s resurrection and ascension, he loosely quoted Psalm 16:8-11, which is an Old Testament Messianic passage that speaks of Jesus. In Acts 2:27, we read these words from that passage:

For You will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will you allow Your Holy One to see corruption.

Frankly, these words really aren’t hard to understand. First, the part about God the Father not allowing Christ to see corruption refers to Christ’s body not experiencing the normal process of decay in the tomb. Second, the part about not leaving Christ’s soul in Hades refers to His soul going there after His death but not remaining there. The point is, Christ’s soul obviously went to Hades immediately following His death.

This gets us onto the subject of Hades, and since that is something of a complex subject I’ll wait until my next post to tackle it. I’m not trying to needlessly draw this out. Nor is this a ploy to keep you coming back. It just takes a little bit of time to get everything explained. So please stay tuned.

Filed under Christ's Death, Christ's Resurrection, Easter, hell Tagged with , , , , ,

A Personal Word This Monday

April 9, 2012 2 Comments

Well, I’m glad to be back with you today. Sorry for my infrequent posts lately. I had planned to do more blogging in the days leading up to Easter Sunday, but things just didn’t work out. One day I got involved in a home landscaping project that got a lot more complicated than I had estimated. Another day the high-school dismissed early because of a transformer blowout, an event that started enough dominoes falling in my life to thoroughly mess up the day I had planned. Then Ryan had a j.v. baseball game on Good Friday (don’t ask me why). The following day, Saturday, not only did I have a funeral to conduct but Ryan had an away game. On and on I could go, but you get the idea.

I’ve been told by others that I have a talent for writing. Therefore, I feel a responsibility to use that talent for the Lord. It’s tough, though, when that responsibility runs headlong into my other responsibilities, that of husband, father, pastor, etc. For one thing, there aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done I’d like to get done. For another, at the age of 45, my energy level isn’t what it used to be.

I once heard an interview in which the great sportswriter Frank Deford talked about his process for writing. He said that he did his writing when he first got up in the morning because that’s the only time he had the energy. I said to myself, “I’m glad it’s not just me.” The problem is that some mornings start out wide open and never let off the gas!

If all I had to do was write blog posts, I’d churn them out at a prolific rate. If all I had to do was prepare sermons, I’d have a stockpile of them waiting to be preached. If all I had to do was church visitation, I’d be preaching to more people every Sunday. If all I had to do was work in the yard, my place would be the nicest on the block. If all I had to do was run Ryan and Royce around to their various ballgames and practices, we’d be there early every time. If all I had to do was help Tonya with the household chores and grocery shopping, I’d be a professional Mr. Mom. But when you throw all the balls into the air at once and have to juggle, that’s when things get hectic.

Please understand that I’m not complaining. I lead a blessed life and I know it. Also understand that I’m not claiming that my life is any busier than yours. Many of us are skimming atop life’s turbulent waves in the same speed-boat these days, aren’t we? All I’m doing is offering an explanation as to why I don’t post more blogs. The tinge of responsibility is certainly there. For that matter, when I’m at my best, the desire is even there. But when it comes to the time and energy, ah, there’s the rub.

In conclusion, let me say that I sincerely thank you for your readership. Don’t ever think that I take it lightly. Please keep checking in periodically or, better yet, click on “Sign Me Up” in the top-right corner of this page and become a subscriber. But whether you are a subscriber, a first-time visitor, or somewhere in between, just know that I appreciate you giving me a read. You keep reading and I’ll keep writing, that is as this busy life allows. :)

Filed under Children, Fatherhood, God's Work, Husbands, Marriage, Parenting, Personal, Talents Tagged with , , , ,

Easter Means A Promise Kept

April 5, 2012 Leave a comment

Consider the following passages:

“But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.” (John 15:26)

Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.” (John 16:7)

And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” (Acts 1:4-5)

“This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear.” (Acts 2:32-33)

In each of these passages we see that Jesus did indeed keep His promise to send the Holy Spirit to help His followers. This helping came by way of the Spirit indwelling those followers. The dawn of this new era was the Day of Pentecost that is described in Acts chapter 2, but the era continues today as each person who believes in Christ as Savior is “baptized” with (indwelt by) the Holy Spirit from the moment of the belief. As Romans 8:9 puts it:

…Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.

But what does the coming of the Holy Spirit to indwell believers have to do with Easter? That’s simple. The fact that the Holy Spirit came proves that Jesus did rise from the dead. Think about it, He had to resurrect and ascend before He could send. So to deny Christ’s resurrection is to deny some 2,000 years worth of the Holy Spirit ministering through Christians. That’s a lot of denial, much more than is logical in light of all the good Christians have done down through the centuries.

Filed under Christ's Resurrection, God's Work, The Holy Spirit Tagged with , , , ,

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