Chapter 5

Divine Providence

THE UNDERGROUND WORLD

The land was created to be the habitat for all the living creatures that God was going to make. Perhaps there was molten activity as God separated the land from the water. It could be at this time that there was a living visitor examining God's creation on top of the ground: Lucifer. "Thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire" (Eze. 28:14b). Creatures were to dwell not only on top of the land, but underneath the land as well. The ground was riddled with underwater wells and springs, as well as caverns and caves, for the creatures of the earth. These underground reservoirs are called the "fountains of the great deep" (Gen. 7:11), from which the Flood ensued.

Sheol/Hell

Perhaps at this time God created another geographical realm of the heavenlies - though not referred to as heavenly - that is, Sheol or hell. As stated in an earlier chapter, our English word, "hell," comes from the name of the Norse goddess of death, Hel, ruler of Niflheim, the land of mists, home of the dead. Her name remained in our cultural memory as the place of the dead, and specifically as the place of the wicked. In the Old Testament, only one Hebrew word has been translated into the word "hell," and that is Sheol -&!:, whose root means "to inquire." It is the same root in the names of Saul the king, and Saul/Paul the apostle. Why should the holding place of the dead be called, "inquiry"? Hell is usually referred to as the place of eternal punishment. I don't believe this is correct. The Bible teaches that there is going to be a resurrection of the dead who will appear before God at the White Throne Judgment (Rev. 20:11). All who reject Christ will be found guilty and cast into the Lake of Fire, "where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9:44), which is the second death (Rev. 20:14). The Lake of Fire is the place of eternal punishment [8]. When a criminal is caught, he is held in jail until tried, then punishment is inflicted if found guilty. Would God punish those before they were found guilty? I don't believe so. Of course, we all are already guilty, and God knows it, but one purpose of a trial is to prove to the indicted that he or she is guilty. Also, a trial is a public exposure of one's guilt, which brings a public shame on a criminal. The White Throne Judgment of God is going to be a spectacle for all the world to see. But those who judge themselves guilty in confessing their sin before a man, or a few men, will experience a small shame that will be forgiven and forgotten as far as the east is from the west (Psa. 103:12), when they accept Christ's redemption. There will be no place of denial at the White Throne Judgment. Hell is the holding place of the dead, but not the punishment. This is why, I believe, Sheol means, "inquiry," since it is the place of waiting until the inquiry of God.

In the New Testament there are three Greek words translated into "hell." The most common Greek word, Gehenna (geennan,) is actually a transliteration of the Hebrew words, ge-hinnom. Gehenna is the valley of Hinnom which runs south of the old city of Jerusalem. In this valley all the refuse of the city was burned, along with convicted criminals, and the children sacrificed to the god Molech. Hence the picture of the hell-fire. Jesus frequently used this expression. "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell [Gehenna]" (Matt. 10:28). In these passages I believe the Lord is referring to the Lake of Fire which will be after the White Throne Judgment. The second Greek word, which is used less frequently, is hades adou. It is the Greek name for the god of the dead which abode in the underworld. In Latin he was called Pluto. When Peter quotes David from the psalm, "Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell [hades in the Greek, and Sheol in Hebrew]" (Acts 2:27), he points out that this refers to Jesus and not to David. Jesus never went to the Lake of Fire, but did go to the realm of the dead. Hades is used in the sense of the holding place and not the place of judgment, although in other passages the sense of judgment is used there [9]. The last Greek word is used only one time in 2 Peter 2:4 and refers to angels. "For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell," the word used is tartaros tartaros, and draws upon Greek mythology. Hades' underworld for the dead was divided into sections. The river Lethe, which means "forgetfulness," divided Elysian Fields, abode of the just, from Tartarus, abode of the wicked. Peter's statement suggests that God has a division in Hell: hades and Tartarus.

There is a common Christian teaching that the Old Testament saints didn't go to Hell, but to Abraham's bosom, based upon the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). They call this the "paradise" of God. I believe that it is a confusing doctrine because they assume Hell is the place of torment. It is a controversial doctrine because Jesus went to "set the captives free," not to suffer eternal punishment. When one recognizes Hell as a jail to be held in while awaiting trial, then Christ's descent into the underworld makes more sense.

While the Scriptures indicate that there are some fallen angels, that is, devils, chained in Tartarus, these are only a few. The rest of Lucifer's followers roam freely between Heaven and Earth. After Jesus "spoiled principalities and powers [demonic authorities], he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them [through His death and resurrection] in it" (Col. 2:15), then He "beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven" (Luke 10:18). And Satan's "tail drew a third part of the stars of heaven [fallen angels], and did cast them to the earth" (Rev. 12:4) where the "prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience" (Eph. 2:2) continue to roam. The notion that Hell is the home of the devils is Christian myth. When Jesus returns, they will be bound in Tartarus with the other devils for a thousand years (Rev. 20:2), released briefly from his prison (Rev. 20:7), then cast into the Lake of Fire (Rev. 20:10) just before the White Throne Judgment (Rev. 20:11). After the Judgment of the wicked, the prison of Hell and death will be cast into the Lake of Fire (Rev. 20:14), followed by all who reject Jesus Christ (Rev. 20:15). At this time, however, Satan and his cohorts freely roam the earth only being restrained by the Holy Spirit through the Church (2 Thes. 2:7).

The idea that Hell is underground is culturally and scripturally implied. Both the Greeks and the Teutons [10] saw it that way. Considering that bodies are often buried, that makes cultural sense. Scripturally there are several references. Jonah described his underwater descent as landing at "the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars"..."out of the belly of hell" (Jonah 2:6a & 2b). A pit is used as a metaphor for the underground hell, as in Job: "They shall go down to the bars of the pit [Sheol], when our rest together is in the dust" (Job 17:16). Jesus called it the "outer darkness" (Matt. 8:12, 22:13, & 25:30), which in the Greek is skotus skotos, implying being lost in obscurity, like someone forgotten in jail. This darkness may be the Tartarus that Peter referred to which was where the "angels that sinned, [were]... cast down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment" (2 Pet. 2:4). Perhaps the secular theories of the Earth's core are right, and it is molten magma. Could this be the "lake of fire" (Rev. 20:10), which is the place of torment "prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matt.24:41b)?