The Revelation of Jesus Christ
This book will be Hell’s last stand, and it does appear four times, each time translated from “Hades.”
The first instance of “hell” is in 1:18 – “I am alive…and have the keys of hell and of death.” The Greek, as I said, is “hades,” the equivalent of “sheol.” Jesus is telling John that He can open or close death, sheol, the grave, the pit.
Hell is next seen with the pale horse and its rider: “…a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.” (6:8). With a theological Hell not established, and “hell” CCR footnoted as “hades,” we must see this as just a lot of dying, and bodies going into the grave, pit, sheol, hades.
The last two instances are close together: “…the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them…and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire…” (20:13-14). Hell is not mentioned again in the Bible, and as ever, it’s hades, and as usual it’s associated closely with death. So, the sea gives up its dead, OK. Death also gives up its dead, OK, but with no one dead, how can anyone be in Hell? Now if you really subscribe to the Hell of Dante, Milton and Baxter, how do you get around the plain wording of your KJV that Hell will give up the dead that are in it? What about “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here” – Did you know that it was written by Dante, and is not a part of the Bible? Again, as so often, it’s theology based on fiction, in this case, epic poetry, the Divine Comedy. Do you see how if you put the Doctrine of Hell under the magnifying lens, you kill it just like an ant on a summer day? You don’t even have to be a theologian to do it!
Backtracking now, let’s take a look at what else we can find in the Revelation. In 2:13, we read: “I know…where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat [throne] is…where Satan dwelleth.” Where is that? In the city of Pergamos, a literal place. So here’s Satan in the Earth again, not in Hell.
Speaking of a false prophetess in Thyatira, Jesus says that He, “…will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation…And I will kill her children with death.” (2:22-23). All that suffering…but no one is relegated to Hell.
Chapters 8 and 9 have to do with the opening of the seventh seal and the blowing of the seven trumpets. By the time all is done, 1/3 of mankind is killed, but the rest fail to repent of their evil. Is that all God asks and desires of us? I think so, for with repentance, He can then begin His work in us. Astonishing – all this death and destruction because men won’t repent. In all of it, Hell is not mentioned.
In Chapter 10, a mighty angel swears by Him, “…who created heaven…and the earth…and the sea.” (verse 6). As ever, Hell is left out of the list.
Chapter 12 tells the tale of the birth of the man child, apparently Jesus, and the dragon who tries to devour Him at His birth. After that, there was a war in Heaven, and we can’t put a date to it, not knowing if it happened just after Jesus was taken up, or just after the woman fled into the wilderness, or 1,260 days or years after that. At any rate, “…the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan…he was cast out into the earth.” (verse 9). As ever, we see that Satan is here on Earth. If we remember the opening scene of the Book of Job, this will make sense: “…neither was their place found any more in heaven.” (verse 8) and “…the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.” (verse 10).
Chapter 13 tells us the fate of some who do wrong: “He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword.” (verse 10). He that sendeth to Hell shall be sent to Hell? No, there is no such judgment here.
Chapter 14, verses 10 and 11, seem to support Hell: “The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.”
Is this Hell? No, it is not, for several reasons. First of all, look at the setting – this entire section of the Revelation is set in Heaven. The torment of these particular wicked people is taking place in front of the holy angels and the Lamb, so it is taking place in Heavenly places, not in Hell, right? Further, they are being tormented with fire and brimstone. Now I am well aware that these are associated with Hell, but we know by now that the fire has to do with the way God deals with wickedness and spiritual dross – the fire is at least, metaphorical. Brimstone, aka sulfur, was in ancient times, used as a fumigant and ritual cleanser, and that would have been well understood by the first-century readers. It was often found at hot springs and volcanoes, so it should be apparent that the elements of Hell were cobbled together from Earthly things – hot, steamy, fiery, and sulfurous. However, we see sulfur here in the Heavenly places. Further, we are told that the smoke of this burning goes up “for ever and ever” – but does it? An interlinear version gives the Greek transliterated as “aionas aionon” or in English as “ages of ages.” So you see, this is not the forever-and-ever-amen Hell, it is more like Purgatory, with an exit to Paradise at the end of a temporal suffering. Do you see that the sufferers have no rest day or night, but it is not said that they suffer forever. Lastly, be very aware that this is not called Hell in the text. This word, hell, was added in later, as witnessed by all those many CCR footnotes: “or sheol,” “or hades,” “or Gehenna,” “or Tartarus.” The translators showed their hand in these two verses, where they dared not insert “hell” because the venue was obviously not in their boogeyman-land, of Hell. This is just another example among others, where I have pointed out that words were translated according to context and setting, as well as simple wording.
Chapter 14 ends with a symbolic depiction of the two resurrections. First, we see the resurrection of the just in verse 16: “…he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.” Now that sounds simple and easy.
But then, “…Another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel…cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.” (verses 17-20). It is easy to see that the wicked receive a much rougher treatment! We are told in verse 18 that an angel having to do with this reaping/resurrection “had power over fire.” If the fire symbolism is consistent, then God’s cleansing power is to be applied to this group, but first His wrath.
I got to wondering how much blood came out of the winepress, and how many people it represented. I had to convert the Greek stadion (as furlong was CCR footnoted) into feet, for which I took a high and a low figure, estimated the height of a horse’s bridle above the ground, and made all the unit conversions I needed to arrive at total gallons. Calculations and approximations gave me 31 to 55 million gallons of blood, assuming a cylindrical pool five feet deep. Assuming 1.24 gallons of blood for an adult, I arrived at an estimation of 25 to 44 million people in the grape harvest or resurrection of the wicked. You might think me an optimist if you expected the figure to run into the billions, and these figures could be far off the mark, as the shape of the pool of blood is not given, and the data given in the Revelation may be only symbolic.
Chapter 18 is all about the Whore of Mystery Babylon and her destruction. In 19:3 we see that the smoke of the burning of the Whore and her City goes up, “for ever and ever.” Again, the Greek means “ages of the ages.”
The rest of Chapter 19 concerns a very short war between Jesus and His heavenly armies versus the gathered forces of the Beast and the False Prophet, and “…both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.” (verse 20). Is this Hell? We won’t say here, for the final answer is (finally!) close at hand, but here the translators have held back with the hell word, as the venue is again, too obvious. The rest were killed (again, no Hell) and given as food to the birds.
In Chapter 20, we see Satan get bound for 1,000 years in the bottomless pit, aka the abyss (see the Greek). After this sentence is completed, Satan gathers those He can deceive for a final battle - a short one - for they are devoured by the same fire from Heaven that we have seen so many times. I suppose they go directly into the Lake of Fire, just as “…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.” “Day and night” are correct, but “for ever and ever” is our usual “ages of the ages.”
With Satan, the one who accuses the brethren day & night before God (Revelation 12:10), out of the way, comes the Great White Throne Judgment. It looks like God is going to keep His own council, and is not willing to hear anything from the “prosecutor’s bench.” Given that judgment is based on what is already written, this Judgment would be like a legal formality. We don’t know exactly when this occurs, but everyone who ever lived seems to be there to be judged: “…the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them…death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” (verses 13-15). First, remember that we have covered this before – it should read “Hades,” not “hell” in these verses. Second, note that the sea, death and hades have given up their dead – that would be all the dead, and plus the living, would be all of humanity, Adam and Eve forward. Third, death and hades are cast into the Lake of Fire, and that must mean that there is no further death, except for those who were being cast in as well. Finally, note that the fate of those whose names were not written in the book of life, is to be cast into the lake of fire – BUT the “tormented day and night for ever and ever” does not apply to them, only simple death, as I have stated over and over from Genesis on.
Now is the answer to a big question: Is the Lake of Fire Hell? No, it is not Hell, the place of eternal conscious, torment in fire. They have fire in common, but the resemblance ends there, as the Lake of Fire is temporal, lasting only ages of the ages, holding dead (unconscious) people, who are therefore not tormented.
In Chapter 21, we read “…there shall be no more death.” (verse 4). However, some are still dead in the Lake of Fire: “…the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” (verse 8). I don’t know if these two things are concurrent, or if “no more death” is a looking ahead to a far future.
In Chapter 22, along with the closing comments, is this: “…without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.” I assume these are outside the New Jerusalem in the Lake of Fire.
This wicked group is not left there, but refer back to First Corinthians 15:24-26 - “Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God…when he shall have put down all rule and authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” With death destroyed, the Lake of Fire MUST give up its dead, just as the sea and the grave did so long before. With dross, tares, wood, hay, stubble burned away, leaving what gold, silver and precious stones remain, these will suffer loss, but will be saved through fire, presentable at last to God and the Kingdom!
And death shall have no dominion!
