To Hell and Back - a True Record.

Did you know that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and her beloved husband, the Duke of Edenborough, have both gone to hell? That fact is recorded in their trustworthy King James Version of the Bible.

In hell they have joined the rich and famous royalty of ages past, powerful politicians, abysmal autocrats, demented dictators, disgusting despots, rancorous rulers, terrifying totalitarians, and tinpot tyrants.

With them in hell are the likes of Hitler, Himmler, Hess, and Hammurabi—ancient king of Babylon. There will also be Charles III—yes, there was one previously---the ninth-century Emperor of the Franks. Also present is Winston Churchill—sans cigar, cognac, and Champagne. Amidst this “encircling gloom” will be French Emperor Napoleon, German philosopher Nietzsche, and Florence Nightingale—without her lamp to light up the eternal darkness.

In their company will also be Mother Mary, Martha, and “the other Mary”, “mother” Theresa, Joan of Arc, Ruth, Naomi, Bathsheba…and Jezebel! They have been joined through the centuries by every perverse Pope, all paedophiliac primates, prelates, preachers, priests—and a revoltingly repulsive party of pink-haired punks!

The horde of once hollering, dancing, prancing, bellowing, bawling -- and brawling! -- “charismatic” preachers, the modern-day spiritual wizards [Heb: “knowing ones”] uttereth not a mutter or a peep [cf. Is 8:19]. They are all quiet. Still. Asleep. They’re dead!

Soon to join the past splendiferously living potent, pompous, and powerful coalition of concealed crooks, criminals, and vile villains in the black cheerless gloom of hell, will be the current crop of cosmic-controlling, wealth-drenched world-denizens—rulers and ruffians who are the blessed ones of the prince of the power of the air; the financial-military-political-pharmaceutical cabal currently dominating international news headlines, raking in their immoral trillions, and killing their millions—BY DESIGN!

These great and mighty rulers, demagogues, dictators, and despots from bumbledom; oligarchs, “Olympians” and moral onagers from evilhood who neighed arrogantly along the passageways of polluted power and unprincipled corruption, all of them, like the King of Babylon, will meet “the [other] chief ones of the earth”, having been “raised up from their thrones” [positions of rulership, wealth and power].

ALL are destined for this dark and dreary dwelling place from where their cumulative quattuordecillion dollars [1 followed by 45 zeros] will fail to deliver them—having, somewhere along the prophetic path, already thrown their gold and silver to the moles and bats [Is 2:20].

Yes, they are all hell-bound!

But, so, too, are all deceased saints. The Apostles Paul, Peter, James, John, and all who “died in Christ”, have gone to hell!

There is however a glorious irony in this extraordinary dramatic saga: Eventually, everyone comes back from hell! That is the TRUE RECORD OF SCRIPTURE.

“Hell [Heb: sheol] from beneath is moved ... to meet thee [the King of Babylon as representative of all the newly deceased] at [their] coming [entry into hell (sheol)].”

Figuratively all the ancient kings and mighty ones, previously having held sway over humanity but long since dead and buried, will say to these new arrivals in deathdom, “You have become like us!” That is, dead and in hell. “Your pomp [might and power, NLT] is brought down to the grave…”

[Recent versions retain the original Hebrew sheol (Strong’s H7585), keeping modern readers ignorant of the true meaning of the word. (We don’t want to frighten people, do we?). The Roman Catholic Douay-Rheims, of course, has reason to translate sheol as “hell”, fear being their stock in trade. The English Revised Version also prefers hell.]

The text continues: “... maggots are spread under you, and worms cover you” [Is 14:4, 9-11. The King of Babylon, being the contextual subject, is representative of all who die.]

Clearly, the hell [sheol] all people go to upon death is nothing more than the grave where the worms and maggots that consume the body do not die. [See Mark 9:44, 46, 48 and Is 66:24.]

By now, dear Commentator friend, you will have understood that there is not a single human being who will escape, in Christ’s words, the “gates of hell” or the grave or death [Mat 16:18; Job 38:17; Pss 9:13; 107:18]. It is appointed unto all men once to die to enter the inevitable yawning gaping gates leading to hell, the grave [cf. Heb 9:27].

For the whole of mankind the truth is literally a tale of “To Hell and Back!” But back to what and when? Let the bible explain this anomaly, this mystery, this conundrum of seeming theological chaos.

In pursuit of understanding the truth about going “to hell and back”, it may be good to clarify a few exceptions:

Except for

· people lost or buried at sea and eaten by sharks, etc.

· people devoured by wild animals

· people incinerated by volcanos, incendiaries bombs, etc.

· people burnt to ashes in the holocaust ovens

· people who are cremated

· people yet to be vaporized in the coming nuclear war [Zech 14:12]

· people who are lost in outer space and returned [Deut 30:4]

· people of the Parousia – the saints at Christ’s return [1 Thes 4:17]

except for such people who were never buried, every human being—saint and sinner!—dies and goes to hell [sheol, the GRAVE].

“HELL” is where EVERY ONE OF US must go! But, do we return from this sheol hell?

Ethan the Ezrahite, a very learned man celebrated for his understanding and wisdom in ancient Israel, stated in his only recorded Psalm [89:48]: “What man is he that lives, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the Sheol [SO IN most translations, but “hell” being preferred by the early modern Geneva, Bishops, and Coverdale bibles -- and, of course, Douay-Rheims.]

As already indicated above, the source language word translated as “hell” in the King James Version of the bible derives from Hebrew Sheol in the Old Testament. In the New Testament the Greek equivalent of Sheol is Hades.

The word sheol is used 65 times in the Hebrew Scriptures and is translated as “hell” 31 times and “grave” 31 times. Three times it is rendered “pit”. Sheol or hell is therefore the equivalent of the grave.

For the patriarch Jacob sheol was the grave [Gen 37:35; 42:38; 44:29]. Other references to sheol as “grave” can be found, inter alia, in 1 Sam 2:6; 1 Kings 2:6,9. Numbers 16:30 and 33 refer to sheol as the “pit” when the earth opened up swallowing the three ringleaders who fomented an insurrection against Moses and Aaron, seeking to usurp the authority of the divinely appointed leadership and priesthood. Isaiah 14:9 and 11 use hell and grave interchangeably for sheol.

From this usage we conclude that sheol is hell, the grave, a pit, or simply, a hole in the ground in which one is buried after death.

Scripture speaks of “go[ing] down … into hell [sheol]” [Ps 55:15] and “I cast him down to hell [sheol] with them that descend into the pit” [Ezek 31:16]; “hell [sheol]” is “beneath” [Prov 15:24; Is 14:9]. Upon death, people GO DOWN, NOT UP! DOWN into the earth, not UP into heaven!

In the New Testament Peter equates sheol with hades. In Ps 16:10 David declares that Yehovah “will not leave [his] soul in hell [sheol]”. Peter quotes this verse in reference to Christ saying “his soul was not left in hell [hades]”. It is very clear therefore that the Hebrew sheol is the equivalent of Greek hades which is the grave—not a place of fire and brimstone for torturing unsaved or semi-purified souls!

Nobody suffers torment in a fiery hell immediately after death. But contrariwise, nobody goes to heaven to experience celestial bliss.

So, how does one get out of hell, sheol, hades, the grave—and when?

“As it is appointed unto [all] men once to die,” [Heb. 9:27], therefore it is also appointed unto all men to live again to fulfill the second clause of Heb. 9:27 – “and after that [death] the judgment”.

Nobody can be judged when dead and in the grave, or “hell” or “sheol” or “hades”. Therefore, a resurrection must take place so that the God-determined judgment can take place. For “all [must] appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so each one may receive good or evil [rewards] according to what he has done in his body” [2 Cor 5:10, RSV].

Every human being who ever lived will by the resurrection be delivered from that hell which is the grave. That’s how every person will go “to hell and back!” Hence Paul exults in 1 Cor 15:55 “O death where is your sting? O grave [hades] where is your victory? Hence it is stated in Revelation 20:13:

1. “And the sea gave up [G1325, didomi] the dead [nekros (corpses)--that is all who died in or were committed to the sea] which were in it [G846, autos] ...”

2. “... and death …” [thanatos, that is all who died anywhere in any circumstance but were not buried (as detailed above)]

3. “… and hell [the grave, hades] delivered [gave] up [G1325, didomi, same word as previously] the dead [nekros, (the corpses) which were in it [G846, autos]...”

The dead resting or sleeping in their graves are resurrected to life from the sea, the state of death [those outside a proper grave as outlined as exceptions earlier in the article], and hell, the grave itself.

How are all the dead brought back from hell? By the resurrection from the dead. [Man is not brought back to life from life, whether that life be in heaven or the proverbial burning “hell” of Dante.] And then, after that resurrection, all are judged according to their works.

Take special note of the next verse in Revelation 20:14, “And death [thanatos] and hell [hades] were cast into the lake of fire: this is the second [eternal] death.”

This is that hell that we should fear: “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” [Mat 10:28].

This "lake-of-fire-hell" is the real annihilating hell [Strong’s G1067 “Gehenna”], the place of everlasting punishment [not perpetual punishing] from which we can be rescued through Christ as Saviour. Sadly, Gehenna has been confused with hades. This CONFUSION has, universally, caused untold, but unnecessary, sorrow. In the “hades hell” there is no punishment, no agony, no fiery furnace—just sleep, rest, peace. [For greater clarity read our Blog, "The REAL Hell From Which There Is NO RETURN".]

So, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth is quite at peace now. She rests from her long and worthy labours. Soon she shall be brought back from hell—the grave—to face judgment…about which we have nothing to say.

Read the intriguing sequel: "Back from Hell..."