Whatsayscriptureshell_03

ALL OTHER TEXTS WHERE "SHEOL" OCCURS—RENDERED "GRAVE" AND "PIT"

Gen. 37:35—"I will go down into the grave unto my son."

Gen. 42:38—"Then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave." [See also the same expression in 44:29,31 The translators did not like to send God's servant, Jacob, to hell simply because his sons were evil.]

1 Sam. 2:6—"The Lord killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up."

1 Kings 2:6,9—"Let not his hoar head go down to the grave with peace....His hoar head bring thou down to the grave with blood."

Job 7:9—"He that goeth down to the grave."

Job 14:13—"Oh, that thou wouldst hide me in the grave, that thou wouldst keep me secret until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldst appoint me a set time, and remember me [resurrect me]!"

Job 17:13—"If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness." [Job waits for resurrection—"in the morning."]

Job 17:16—"They shall go down to the bars of the pit [grave], when our rest together is in the dust."

Job 21:13—"They spend their days in mirth, and in a moment go down to the grave."

Job 24:19,20—"Drought and heat consume the snow waters: so doth the grave those which have sinned." [All have sinned, hence "Death passed upon all men," and all go down to the grave. But all have been redeemed by "the precious blood of Christ"; hence all shall be awakened and come forth again in God's due time—"in the morning," Rom. 5:12,18,19]

Psa. 6:5—"In death there is no remembrance of thee; in the grave who shall give thee thanks?"

Psa. 30:3—"O Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit." [This passage expresses gratitude for recovery from danger of death.]

Psa. 31:17—"Let the wicked be ashamed; let them be silent in the grave."

Psa. 49:14,15, margin.—"Like sheep they are laid in the grave: death shall feed on them; and the upright [the saints—Dan. 7:27] shall have dominion over them in the morning [the Millennial morning]; and their beauty shall consume, the grave being an habitation to every one of them. But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave."

Psa. 88:3—"My life draweth nigh unto the grave."

Psa. 89:48—"Shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave?"

Psa. 141:7—"Our bones are scattered at the grave's mouth."

Prov. 1:12—"Let us swallow them up alive as the grave: and whole, as those that go down into the pit" [i.e., as of an earthquake, as in Num. 16:30-33].

Prov. 30:15,16—"Four things say not, it is enough: the grave," etc.

Eccl. 9:10—"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest."

Song of Solomon 8:6—"Jealousy is cruel as the grave."

Isa. 14:11—"Thy pomp is brought down to the grave."

Isa. 38:10—"I shall go to the gates of the grave I am deprived of the residue of my years."

Isa. 38:18—"The grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth."

Num. 16:30-33—"If...they go down quick into the pit, then shall ye understand....The ground clave asunder that was under them, and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. They and all that appertained to them went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation."

Ezek. 31:15—"In the day when he went down to the grave."

Hosea 13:14—"I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction. Repentance shall be hid from mine eyes." [The Lord did not ransom any from a place of fire and torment, for there is no such place; but he did ransom all mankind from the grave, from death, the penalty brought upon all by Adam's sin, as this verse declares.]

The above list includes every instance of the use of the English word "hell" and the Hebrew word sheol in the Old Testament. From this examination it must be evident to all readers that God's revelations for four thousand years contain not a single hint of a "hell," such as the word is now understood to signify.

"HELL" IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

In the New Testament, the Greek word hades corresponds exactly to the Hebrew word sheol. As proof see the quotations of the Apostles from the Old Testament, in which they render it hades. For instance, Acts 2:27, "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hades," is a quotation from Psa. 16:10, "Thou wilt not leave my soul in sheol. And in 1 Cor. 15:54,55, "Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave [hades], where is thy victory?" is an allusion to Isa. 25:8, "He will swallow up death in victory," and to Hos. 13:14, "O death, I will be thy plagues; O sheol, I will be thy destruction."

"HELL" FROM THE GREEK WORD "HADES"

Matt. 11:23—"And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell"; Luke 10:15: "Shall be thrust down to hell." [In privileges of knowledge and opportunity the city was highly favored, or, figuratively, "exalted unto heaven"; but because of misuse of God's favors, it would be debased, or, figuratively, cast down to hades, overthrown, destroyed. It is now so thoroughly buried in oblivion, that even the site where it stood is a matter of dispute. Capernaum is certainly destroyed, thrust down to hades.]

Luke 16:23—"In hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments." [A parabolic figure explained further along, under a separate heading.]

Rev. 6:8—"And behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him." [Symbol of destruction or the grave.]

Matt. 16:18—"Upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." [Although bitter and relentless persecution, even unto death, should afflict the Church during the Gospel age, it should never prevail to her utter extermination; and eventually, by her resurrection, accomplished by her Lord, the Church will prevail over hades—the tomb.]

CHRIST IN "HELL" (HADES) AND RESURRECTED FROM "HELL" (HADES)—ACTS 2:1,14,22-31

"And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, ...Peter...lifted up his voice and said,...Ye men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you,...being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God ['He was delivered for our offenses'], ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains [or bands] of death, because it was not possible that he should be holden of it [for the Word of Jehovah had previously declared his resurrection]; for David speaketh concerning him [personating or speaking for him], 'I [Christ] foresaw the Lord [Jehovah] always before my face; for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope, because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell [hades, the tomb, the state of death], neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou [Jehovah] hast made known to me [Christ] the ways of life.'" Here our Lord, as personified by the prophet David, expresses his faith in Jehovah's promise of a resurrection and in the full and glorious accomplishment of Jehovah's plan through him, and rejoices in the prospect.

Peter then proceeds, saying—"Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day [so that this prophecy could not have referred to himself personally; for David's soul was left in "hell"—[hades, the tomb, the state of death —and his flesh did see corruption]: Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; he, seeing this before [prophetically], spake of the resurrection of Christ [out of "hell"—hades, the tomb—to which he must go for our offenses], that his soul was not left in hell [hades—the death state], neither his flesh did see corruption." Thus Peter presents a strong, logical argument, based on the words of the prophet David—showing first, that Christ, who was delivered by God for our offenses, went to "hell," the grave, the condition of death, destruction (Psa. 16:10;) and, second, that according to promise he had been delivered from hell, the grave, death, destruction, by a resurrection—a raising up to life; being created again, the same identical being, yet more glorious, and exalted even to "the express image of the Father's person." (Heb. 1:3) And now "this same Jesus" (Acts 2:36), in his subsequent revelation to the Church, declares—

Rev. 1:18—"I am he that liveth, and was dead, and, behold, I am alive forevermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell [hades, the grave] and of death."

Amen! Amen! our hearts respond; for in his resurrection we see the glorious outcome of the whole plan of Jehovah to be accomplished through the power of the Resurrected One who now holds the keys of the tomb and of death and in due time will release all the prisoners who are, therefore, called the "prisoners of hope." (Zech. 9:12; Luke 4:18) No craft or cunning can by any possible device wrest these Scriptures entire and pervert them to the support of that monstrous and blasphemous Papal tradition of eternal torment. Had that been our penalty, Christ, to be our vicarious sacrifice, must still, and to all eternity, endure such torment, which no one will claim. But death was our penalty, and "Christ died for our sins," and "also for the sins of the whole world." —1 Cor. 15:3; 1 John 2:2.

Rev. 20:13,14—"And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell [the grave] delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged, every man, according to their works. And death and hell [the grave] were cast into the lake of fire: this is the Second Death." [The lake of fire is the symbol of final and everlasting destruction. Death and hell [the grave] both go into it. There shall be no more death; "the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death."—1 Cor. 15:26; Rev. 21:4]

OTHER OCCURRENCES OF THE WORD "HELL"

Having examined the word sheol, the only word in the Old Testament rendered "hell," and the word hades, most frequently in the New Testament rendered "hell" we now notice every remaining instance in Scripture of the English word "hell." In the New Testament two other words are rendered "hell"; namely, gehenna and tartaroo, which we will consider in the order named.

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