Hell~Earth~The World 🌎 we live in
Hell was created for Lucifer and those that follow him, and then it was transformed to accommodate us. Unlike the angels that fell from Heaven, we have an opportunity to be set free of it. God told us that it was hell that He saved us from and that the Cross was the answer for our Salvation:
Galatians 1:3-4 – Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:
Have you ever heard the question, “Are you saved?” What they mean is are you saved from going to Hell, but what they really should mean is are you saved from Hell now. What do you say to a person that is moral, has never sinned, and claims never to have done anything wrong? Do you remember where God put Adam and Eve? It was in the Garden of Eden, Heaven you might say, a perfect environment. They were cast out of Eden when they sinned. Where were they cast out to? Was it not the world we live in today or Hell? God is going to change all that in the end when He will destroy this world and cast Hell into the Lake of Fire.
Revelation 20:10-15 – And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. 11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. 14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
Revelation 21:1-4 – And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. 2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
Many of our teachers today try to explain Hell, and they do a fairly good job at it. However, yet again, they have certain aspects of Hell wrong. Like Heaven, which has different levels of rewards for believers, there are different levels of punishment for those who have rejected God (Jesus). You see, Hell is a place. So let’s start with who it was made for. We’ll also look at where Hell is right now. These are questions you need to understand and answer.
Matthew 25:41 – Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
I’m not telling you something you don’t already know, if you are any student of God’s Word. But if not, what I’m going to teach you is far different from what you have been taught by those that are supposed to know. Hell is closer than you might think. It’s not a far off place or a place you go to when you are dead. If you’re lost or saved, you are living in the first level of it. Unlike the angels, that are fallen, we have an opportunity to change our direction and be saved from it. God calls that repentance. Hell is a prison made for Satan and his followers, and God transformed it to accommodate us.
I’ll give you a quote from the Holman Bible Dictionary and its explanation of Hell from the prospective of our Bible Scholars:
HELL – The abode of the dead especially as a place of eternal punishment for unbelievers. Hell is an Anglo-Saxon word used to translate one Hebrew word and three Greek words in the King James Version of the Old and New Testaments. The Hebrew word that “hell” translated was Sheol. (Compare NAS). The word Sheol occurs sixty-five times in the Hebrew Bible. The King James Version translates thirty-one of the occurrences as “hell”; another thirty-one occurrences as “grave”; and three occurrences as “pit” (Num. 16:30,33; Job 17:16). The Revised Standard Version never uses “hell” to translate Sheol. It does use “grave” one time as a translation of Sheol (Song of Sol. 8:6). Sixty-four times it simply transliterates the word as Sheol. NAS always uses Sheol, while NIV intentionally avoids Sheol, using grave.
Sheol is a Hebrew word that has taken on the properties of a proper name. he Old Testament uses the word to refer to a place in the depths of the earth. The expressions “go down” or “brought down” are used twenty times in connection with Sheol. The “depths of Sheol” are mentioned six times (Deut. 32:22; Ps. 86:13; Prov. 9:18; 15:24; Isa. 7:11; 14:15). Four times Sheol is described as the farthest point from heaven (Job 11:8; Ps. 139:8; Isa. 7:11; Amos 9:2). Often Sheol is parallel with the “pit” (Job 17:13-14; 33:18; Ps. 30:3; 88:3-4; Prov. 1:12; Isa. 14:15; 38:18; Ezek. 31:14-17). Nine times it is parallel with death (2 Sam. 22:6; Ps. 18:4-5; 49:14; 89:48; 116:3; Prov. 5:5; Isa. 28:15,18; Hos. 13:14; Hab. 2:5). Sheol is described in terms of overwhelming floods, water, or waves (Jonah 2:2-6). Sometimes, Sheol is pictured as a hunter setting snares for its victim, binding them with cords, snatching them from the land of the living (2 Sam 22:6; Job 24:19; Ps. 116:3); Sheol is a prison with bars, a place of no return (Job 7:9; 10:21; 16:22; 21:13; Ps. 49:14; Isa. 38:10). People could go to Sheol alive (Num. 16:30,33; Ps. 55:15; Prov. 1:12). With rare exceptions, such as Elijah (2 Kings 2:1-12), all people were believed to go to Sheol when they die (Job 3:11-19; Ps. 89:48).
The three Greek words often translated “hell” are hades, gehenna, and tartaroo. Hades was the name of the Greek god of the underworld and the name of the underworld itself. The Septuagint—the earliest Greek translation of the Old Testament—used hades to translate the Hebrew word Sheol. Whereas in the Old Testament, the distinction in the fates of the righteous and the wicked was not always clear, in the New Testament hades refers to a place of torment opposed to heaven as the place of Abraham’s bosom (Luke 16:23; Acts 2:27,31). In Matt. 16:18hades is not simply a place of the dead but represents the power of the underworld. Jesus said the gates of hades would not prevail against His church.
Gehenna is the Greek form of two Hebrew words gehinnom meaning “valley of Hinnom.” The term originally referred to a ravine on the south side of Jerusalem where pagan deities were worshiped (2 Kings 23:10; Jer. 7:32; 2 Chron. 28:3; 33:6). It became a garbage dump and a place of abomination where fire burned continuously (2 Kings 23:10; compare Matt. 18:9; Mark 9:43,45,47; Jas. 3:6). Gehenna became synonymous with “a place of burning.”
One time the Greek word tartaroo “cast into hell” appears in the New Testament (2 Pet. 2:4). The word appears in classical Greek to refer to a subterranean region, doleful and dark, regarded by the ancient Greeks as the abode of the wicked dead. It was thought of as a place of punishment. In the sole use of the word in the New Testament it refers to the place of punishment for rebellious angels.
Punishment for sin is taught in the Old Testament, but it is mainly punishment in this life. The New Testament teaches the idea of punishment for sin before and after death. The expressions “the lake of fire” and “second death” indicate the awfulness of the fate of the impenitent. Some insist that the fire spoken of must be literal fire, so to interpret the language as figurative means to do away with the reality of future punishment. One can, however, maintain this position only if they see no reality expressed by a figure of speech. Jesus spoke of a place of punishment as “outer darkness” (Matt. 8:12; 22:13; 25:30). Can a place have both literal fire and literal darkness? What reason does one have for taking one expression as literal and not taking the other as literal? Literal fire would destroy a body cast into it.
Language about hell seeks to describe for humans the most awful punishment human language can describe to warn unbelievers before it is too late. Earthly experience would lead us to believe that the nature of punishment will fit the nature of the sin. Certainly, no one wants to suffer the punishment of hell, and through God’s grace the way for all is open to avoid hell and know the blessings of eternal life through Christ. See Gehenna; Hades; Heaven; Salvation; Sheol.[1]
When you understand the creation timeline, then you will understand Hell’s place here on earth which God created for them, the fallen angels. That timeline starts with God. He always was, He always is, and He always will be. Then He created the angels. The Bible doesn’t say when that was, but they were the first of God’s Creation. We don’t know how long that time extended before Lucifer raised his ugly head and tried to overthrow God. Lucifer started a war in Heaven, and God cast Satan down to the earth along with a third of the angels which followed Lucifer, which became the Fallen. Now Satan roams the earth. God created different levels of Hell. Some of the evilest demons are chained up in the depths of the earth until they are released in the Tribulation period to wreak havoc here on the surface of the earth in the lives of men, and God tells us that He cast out Lucifer and the angels that sinned to the earth in 2 Peter
2 Peter 2:4 – For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
Genesis 1:1-2 – In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
You see, this is where God cast Lucifer and angels that followed him to the earth, because at that time, the earth was a dark place without form and void. It was Hell. Then God began to transform the earth to accommodate mankind.
Genesis 1:3-5 – And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
God called the light good, not the darkness. These next set of verses in Isaiah and Revelation reveal that Satan and the fallen angels were here at Genesis 1:1.
Isaiah 14:9-15 – Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. 10 All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us? 11 Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. 12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! 13For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. 15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
Revelation 12:3-4 – And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. 4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
The word “Hell” in the Old Testament is generally and unfortunately used by our translators to render the Hebrew word Sheol. Sheol really means the place of the dead, the unseen world, without deciding whether it be the place of misery or of happiness.[2]
Hell is a place of the dead. Remember, it is appointed unto man once to die! And that happened at the moment Adam ate from the forbidden fruit. Adam died and was cast out of the Garden to go back from whence he came from, which was Hell.
Lucifer and the angels that followed him were cast down to the earth, down to the ground. This is the world in which we live in. Adam sinned and was cast out. It’s not that Adam chose death over life; it was that he chose Eve over his Father’s Word. Eve came to Adam to give him to eat. Adam could have stopped right there and then. He could have refused, but Eve wasn’t going down by herself. She already had knowledge of evil and used it against Adam’s need for Eve. Men do the stupidest things for the love and touch of a women.
Now for those of you that still don’t believe that we are born into Hell, let’s speak for a moment about man’s inhumanity to man. When man is left to himself, we have the few pushing down the throats of the many to have it their way instead of God’s way. Let me explain. The few, the courts, which received our laws from the Bible (murder, stealing, adultery, and so on) have now decided that God’s Word is irrelevant. They’ve decided that one man and one women does not constitute a marriage.
Romans 1:19-32 – Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. 20For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: 21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four footed beasts, and creeping things. 24Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves: 25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet. 28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
Let’s speak of another aspect of Hell. What about our world is good? Think of all the terrorist attacks, killing thousands. What about doctors preforming partial birth abortions? Or the deacon molesting children in church—a place of supposed safety? Or one associate pastor is caught sleeping with another associate pastor’s wife? Or how one pastor after another falls from grace due to pornography or purchasing the services of a prostitute—a male prostitute at that? Or watching some captives of some radical group being beheaded in the name of their false god? Or having to bury a child who died brutally in a car accident? Or your daughter goes to a friend’s house and you never hear from her again, because she was kidnapped and sold as a sex slave? Or you get news that you are dying due to cancer or some other fatal disease? Or you join a church recovery program that has10 Principles or 12 Steps to live by, and because the church has let the world into it, people are unwittingly going to spend eternity in Hell? Or your beautiful daughter or son is hooked on crack to the point that they will do anything from stealing or prostitution to get that next hit?
All these people question and blame God for these bad things—as if He were to blame—instead of blaming the true culprit, Satan. It was he that caused man to fall in the Garden and be cast out of Heaven and into Hell.
Do we soon forget all the wars where a nation was herded into the gas chambers of many camps like Auschwitz or experimented on and tortured? I mean the list can go on and on with examples of man being inhuman to man. Unless man turns back to Jesus, you will move from a chance of leaving Hell to being tormented in it forever and then moving into the Lake of Fire in the end of Hell here on Earth.
Revelation 20:10-15 – And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. 11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. 14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
What will it take for people to get the truth about the Hell we live in? Real Christians are examples to those we come into contact, because it is us who Jesus uses to rescue the perishing. If we don’t stand for Jesus, who will?
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