Hell according to the Old Testament is:
Psalms 9:17
The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
The standard understanding of hell, that hell is designated for just the wicked. Truth: hell is not ONLY designated for the wicked as we will see. Don’t stop reading or click off the page just yet…stick with me for you will discover some very Good News.
Psalm 16:10
For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
This is a prophetic text which is talking about someone very specific. The text says ‘for thou wilt not leave my soul’ in hell. The question becomes: Who is the ‘my’? The last part of the text identifies the ‘my’ as ‘thine Holy One’. So, this ‘my’ is righteous. Does this tell us that hell is also for the righteous?
Whoa…I’m sure that is what you are thinking right now…but don’t get discouraged or angry and leave. If you stick with it, you are going to see God’s love is a way that you most likely have not before.
Let’s go to Genesis:
Genesis 37:34-35, “And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days. 35 And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him.”
The text says that Jacob is speaking of Joseph, and states that he ‘will go down into the grave’. Thisword for ‘grave’(sheol) is the very same word in the Old Testament that is used for ‘hell’.
Jacob was a righteous man, and here he is talking about going to hell…’I will go down to hell mourning my son’. What is he doing talking about going to hell? Understanding that according to the Old Testament, hell is the grave, then things begin to make a little bit more sense.
Scripture is telling us that everybody is going to hell. Before you quit reading, let’s look at a few more verses.
Psalm 30:2-3, “O LORD my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me. 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.”
The ‘pit’ is the same thing as the ‘grave’. Again, the Hebrew word for grave is the same word used to describe hell; therefore, what the Old Testament is showing us is that hell is a place that both the righteous and the wicked go to. Why is that? Because hell is simply the grave.
Note, that hellfire is something different from hell. Please keep that thought in mind. According to the Old Testament, we are simply seeing that hell is the grave, and the grave is where everybody goes. Therefore, everybody is going to hell. Hell (the grave) is a place designated for all who die.
Let’s make this even more clear, according to:
Psalm 89:48, “What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? Shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? Selah.
The word used for grave is the word sheol (hell/grave/pit).
“What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death…”, In other words, ‘what man is he that liveth and shall not go to the grave, shall not die, shall not go to the pit’ OR from what is understood ‘shall not go to hell’. Why? Because according to the Old Testament ‘hell’ is simply the grave.
Again, hell (sheol) is simply the grave and it is where people go when they die. How do we know this? If you go back to Genesis 3, we read that after Adam and Eve’s sin – God pronounces death upon them. The Bible tells us what the consequence of sin is: “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).
Genesis 3:19, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
God tells them that they are going to return to the ground. Why? “…for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art,…”
When Adam and Eve died where did they go? They went to hell (sheol): the grave, the pit, to the ground, to the dust. That is where they went. Because the Bible says:
Romans 5:12, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:”
The Bible is telling us that all have sinned; therefore, all will go to the grave…all will go to hell.
Hell has been defined very differently by Christian and non-Christian alike…it is a special place for the wicked where they burn forever. This is simply NOT what the Bible tells us. Hell is the place where ALL go because of sin, both the wicked and the righteous.
“Hell” is simply another term for the grave, where after death we return to the ground (dust).
Let’s clarify, the wicked will be destroyed, make no mistake about that; but we have to see this in its actual truth. We have to understand how it actually unfolds, not by Hollywood’s definition and not by popular teachings. We need to see this straight from the word of God, and not just a text here and there. We need to explore the whole teaching on ‘hell’. We must build on this subject, so that we can understand this subject clearly by the grace of God.
The next question is, “What are the current conditions of hell?” This is a fair question. So, if all go to hell, meaning all go the grave, then how does the Bible describe their current living conditions? The answer is simple, there are no LIVING condition in hell, the grave.
Ecclesiastes 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.
This verse begs another question, Who is the ‘thou’? Is the ‘thou’ typically talking about people who read the Bible? If so, then we know that the ‘thou’ is at least representing the righteous. God says the place that you are going is to hell, the grave; and there is no knowledge there, no understanding there, no feeling there, no emotion there…there is NOTHING there except darkness. Here is how Job described it:
Job 7:21, “And why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away mine iniquity? For now shall I sleep in the dust; and thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be.
Job describes this state of being as a ‘sleep’ as ‘not being’. As Ecclesiastes says; there is no work, no device, no knowledge, no wisdom; it is like you are sleeping. This is simply the current condition of hell. We can see, by God’s grace, that hell is something very different from hellfire which is the punishment of the wicked. There is a condition of ‘hell’ which is simply the grave, death, going back to the dust of the ground. Both the righteous and the wicked who have died for all time are in hell, meaning they are all ‘asleep’ in the grave, they are all dead and have returned to dust.
The next question is; What will Jesus do for those in hell? Jesus is going to do something not for everybody in hell (grave) but only for some. Now, remember the current condition of hell is ‘sleep death’. There is no knowledge, there is no device; we have just read that in scripture. This is not an assumption or made-up theology, it came directly from the word of God. What we read cannot be manipulated.
We know that ALL go to hell, the grave; both the wicked and the righteous are currently there. Hosea gives us insight of what Jesus will do for some.
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 text is telling us, even though the righteous are currently in hell, Jesus has a plan to ransom them from the power of the grave, from death, from hell. Jesus says, even though the righteous are there I am going to ransom them. They are not there suffering, because the Bible says that they have no knowledge, no wisdom, no understanding; there is nothing they can do because they are asleep. The righteous are asleep, just like the wicked are asleep, both in hell.
This idea of tormenting is so traumatic. This type of teaching, which is false, has caused so much trauma. The thought of an eternally burning hell, where people die and go and burn in flames of fire eternally is horrendous. This is how so many depict our loving, merciful God. It is no wonder why so many reject him, because you cannot believe in a God that has no mercy upon those that even reject him.
What we see in the word of God, is that the righteous AND the wicked are ALL in hell, AND they are ALL sleeping. In other words, hell is not yet hellfire. It is just hell. Stay with me, we are going to get to many more texts.
So, there is a plan to ransom the righteous from hell, from the grave. Another question is, how will Jesus accomplish this ransoming, redeeming the righteous from the grave? He accomplished it through the cross. Amen. Notice on the day of Pentecost, Peter is speaking and he says to the people listening:
Acts 2:25-28
For David speaketh concerning him (Jesus), I foresaw the Lord always before my face, he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved (who won’t be moved – Jesus): 26 Therefore did my heart rejoice (who’s heart rejoices – Jesus), and my tongue was glad (who’s tongue is glad – Jesus); moreover my flesh shall rest in hope (who’s flesh rests in hope – Jesus): 27 Because thou (who is thou – the Father) wilt not leave my soul in hell (what is hell – the grave), neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. 28 Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance (who are we talking about – Jesus). Comments added in parenthesis.
Now, Peter gives commentary (vs. 29-31) on what David said:
29 Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.
David was not speaking about himself…how do we know that? Because, David is still dead, still in the grave. David, the man after God’s own heart, according to Peter; is in hell (grave). Peter spoke this 40 – 50 days after the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. Why is Peter mentioning this 40-50 days after the resurrection of Jesus? Verse 30 tells us:
30 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; 31 He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.
What?!!! Wait a minute, Jesus went to where? When Jesus died where did he go? Jesus went to hell. And, now you understand that the whole teaching of Jesus going into something called Purgatory is absolutely false…it is not what the Bible is talking about. “Jesus went to hell” simply means Jesus went to the grave on our behalf; He died and was buried.
In fact, the Bible says, when Jonah was cast over the boat; that he stays for three days and three nights in the belly of fish. That is why Jesus said ‘as Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights, so shall the son of man be in the heart of the earth’ (Matthew 12:40).
Where is hell? It is in the heart of the earth, this is not the Underworld as some would teach, this is simply the grave which is in the dirt; which Jesus did on our behalf. And, because of His resurrection – He overcame and opened the gates of death and hell in order to ransom the righteous.
Again, when the bible says in second Peter that ‘Jesus went to hell’ it is talking about the grave. Just like when the Bible talks about ‘it was by that Spirit that he (Jesus) preached to those in prison in the days of Noah’ (1 Peter 3:19)…it is not telling us that when Jesus went to the grave that he somehow preached to a select group of people who lived in Noah’s day. No, it is simply saying that the same Spirit that rose Jesus from the grave is the same Spirit that was there in the days of Noah when people were rebellious upon the Earth. It was that same Spirit that was striving with men and women for 120 years. It is not saying that Jesus went down to this Underworld where there is a whole bunch of people, preaching to them after their probation had closed.
When we die, we are either saved or lost…there is no second chance after death. What is being said is simply, that Jesus has a plan to ransom the righteous from hell (grave). In order to do that, He had to go to hell himself, meaning He had to go to the grave himself. He had to carry his cross to calvary and die on our behalf. Then, through his own power and the power of his Father, he broke open the gates of the hell (gravel) to give man hope; and to let man see that eternal life is in fact a possibility.
So, with that in mind, here is another question. When are the righteous ransomed from hell (grave)?
Click here to continue: When Are the Righteous Ransomed? – Part 3