So, with that in mind, here is another question. When are the righteous ransomed from hell (grave)?
According to Paul:
1 Corinthians 15:51-55,
51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
Paul says not all will be asleep (dead) at the last trump, some will be alive and they will be changed.
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. 55) O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Comment: grave = hell
The dead shall be raised incorruptible, and righteous living shall be changed. The corruptible mortal must put on incorruption and immortality. Death and grave (hell) will be swallowed up in victory. The righteous are ransomed from hell (grave) at the last trump. In other words, the ransom occurs at ‘the last trump’, which occurs as Christ ‘stands up’ and returns to earth; He will gather the righteous dead and living to be caught up with Him in the air.
Isaiah 26:19 says, “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise (this is the resurrection). Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.” Comment and emphasis added.
The earth casts out the dead not when the righteous die, it is when Jesus comes again. That is when the grave (hell) is robbed from its righteous subjects. That is when hell (grave) is emptied of the righteous. As you read, you are discovering that the word ‘grave’ and ‘hell’ are being used interchangeably. That is because they mean the same thing.
Daniel 12:2, “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” Also see: John 5:28-29.
What is being laid out before us in scripture is very simple, all die, all go to hell (grave); but the righteous will be redeemed from hell. The condition of hell, right now, is that it is not burning, it is not on fire. If you are reading this for the very first time, for a fact, there is no fire in hell right now…it is just the grave! This brings peace to our soul about the character of God. Amen.
Jesus redeems the righteous from hell…from the grave, at the second coming. What about the wicked dead?
John 5:28-29, “Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, 29 And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.”
According to Jesus, we see that there are two resurrections; 1) resurrection of life (righteous), and 2) resurrection of damnation (wicked).
The resurrection of life for the righteous happens at Jesus’ second coming. The resurrection of damnation for the wicked occurs after the righteous reign 1,000-years with Jesus in heaven. We will get to the 1,000-years and what happens during that time in an upcoming post titled: The Millennial Reign.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.?
The ‘trump of God’ is the last trump. The ‘rising’ will be from the grave (hell). It is clear that this does not happen at death, it happens at the resurrection. So, the righteous are not in heaven right now. The question to ask yourself would be, ’If they went to heaven at death, why would Jesus be coming back to get them to take them to heaven?’ Some are thinking right now as they are reading this, well the soul and the spirit need to be put back into the body, for it is the soul and the spirit that go to heaven at death. To understand about what happens at death, see the ‘Dead or Alive’ post that will be forthcoming.
Revelation 20:1-3 brings it all together:
“And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand, 2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, 3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.”
This is Satan being bound to earth for 1,000 years, while the resurrected/translated righteous (saints) are in heaven with Jesus. Satan’s thousand years of bondage co-inside with the righteous’ reign with Christ for a millennium.
Note: ‘Bottomless pit” in not a place but a situation. It is translated from the Greek ‘abussos’. The Septugaint uses the same Greek work (translated ‘void’ in Gen. 1:2) to describe the earth before creation week. The ‘bottomless pit’ is one that Satan cannot get out of.
Check this out:
Revelation 20:4-6, “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 5 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.”
There is a purpose of why the resurrected/translated righteous (saints) are there, and that will be detailed in another post as mentioned above. For now, let’s focus on: Who are left in HELL? The wicked dead, Satan, and his angels. The wicked dead are those that were in the grave when Christ returned and those that were alive when He returned but died at His coming. Why did the wicked living die at His coming? The wicked cannot stand before a Holy God in an unsaved condition.
So, the ‘bottomless pit’ situation occurs on earth where Satan and his angels will be bound (shut up, sealed – can’t escape). He can no longer deceive for everyone ‘left behind’ is dead. After the 1,000-years he will be loosed for a little while, more on that later on it the post.
Breakdown Revelation 20:1-5:
Because of Adam all go the grave, all die, all go to hell.
Jesus came into this world and himself went to hell, the grave. He died, on our behalf, to open up the gates of hell. However, the dead are still captives there because he does not ransom them until he comes again – the second time; which is the resurrection of the righteous.
But Jesus has a plan to redeem all who would like to be redeemed from hell, from the grave. All those that accepted Jesus Christ BEFORE they died and went to hell, are resurrected in this first resurrection (resurrection of the righteous). This resurrection happens at Christ’s second coming which begins our 1,000-year reign with Christ in Heaven.
Some are saying right now that the 1,000 years is figurative because scripture says that “a thousand years is as one day to God’ (2 Peter 3:8, Ps. 90:4; there are more than these two verses). Yes, while this is true because He is eternal; He also created us to live in a three-dimensional world meaning. For more on “1,000 Years with Christ” click here for the appendix.
Back to our topic at hand.
We left off where the righteous have been redeemed and removed from the earth, and those that remain are the wicked who are all dead. AND, Satan and his angels are bound to earth.
At this point, hell (grave) is only occupied by the wicked. Earth is the pit (hell) which Satan and his angels are bound to. Remember, Jesus said there is going to be a resurrection of the righteous AND THEN there will be a ‘resurrection of damnation’ which is reserved for the wicked. Now, we know the ‘resurrection of damnation’ happens at the end of the 1,000 years.
So far, there is no biblical evidence for an eternally burning place of torment…let’s keep going.
Remember, Revelation 20:6; ‘Blessed and holy are they that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.’