In each blog, I often reference many different topics that I've already covered (or will soon cover), and maybe you've missed. Please review my blogs to read more...
CLICK HERE! for an index to previous blogs.
___________________________
Hades
I've briefly covered hades in a few different blogs... you can find details on it's origin in my blogs entitled "Egyptian Fables".
Obviously, my problem with this Greek word hades is that it's definition (per Christendom) has been twisted and distorted into the definition of the English word "hell".
I've mentioned this in the previous parts of "Whence Hell?" but every time you see the English word "hell" in your Bible it is translated from one these Hebrew or Greek words:
Hebrew - sheol
Greek - gehenna, hades, and tartarus.
There is NO Hebrew or Greek word that fits Christendom's definition, or doctrine of "hell" and endless suffering and torment in ALL of Scripture... not even ONE.
I've covered Gehenna extensively in previous parts.
It's now time to move on to [G86 - hades].
_________________________
The Greek word hades literally means "unseen" and/or "imperceptible".
It is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word sheol. I'll prove it shortly.
When it's used in Scripture, it is a perfect description of what happens when human life ends.
Throughout Scripture "death" is repeatedly said to be "a return". For example:
Gen 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for soil thou art, and unto soil shalt thou return.
When man departs from the living, where have they gone?
Job 14:10-12 But man dies, and wastes away: yea, man gives up the ghost, and where is he?
As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decays and dries up:
So man lies down, and rises not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.
They are ALL in one state! And no... not Iowa!
Ecc 3:20 ALL go unto ONE place...
Job 7:21 ... for now shall I sleep in the soil; and thou shall seek me in the morning, but I shall NOT BE.
Where have they gone?
Into a region that is "unseen" to us. It is "imperceptible", impossible to perceive to us.
At death, all men - believers and unbelievers alike, pass into hades, the unseen until the "catching up" at Christ's appearance and the two resurrections following His Second Coming.
No - we do not pass into Heaven or hell - we die - we are dead - don't buy into Satan's first lie: "you shall not surely die".
That is his first and greatest lie and he formulated it into ancient Egypt's "immortality of the soul" and it's been a successful LIE ever since!
Virtually EVERY religion on our planet has believed, and bought into this LIE in one form or another!
Rev 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, WHICH DECEIVES THE WHOLE WORLD:
The Bible says the dead know nothing... they don't even know they're dead!
This concept of continual life is what I've been trying to tell you about... it's what I've referred to as "immortality of the soul" which is a pagan belief.
It is Satan's first LIE and greatest masterpiece, and completely UN-Scriptural. We do not continue to live - we die.
Once we examine the Scriptures, you'll see that hades is never used of the final state of men, but the state between death and resurrection.
__________________________
Let's just get this out of the way right now.
I personally have two relatives who on their death-beds claimed to have seen Jesus shortly before their death. I didn't witness this myself, but I do believe what I was told... and I believe it entirely possible that they did see Jesus.
How is that possible if the Scriptures are true?
[1] Briefly, some will explain near-death experiences this way...
"Clinical death occurs when the person's heartbeat, breathing and circulation stop. Four to six minutes later, biological death occurs. That's when the brain cells begin to die from lack of oxygen, and resuscitation is impossible."
When the heart shuts down, the brain sends a flurry of signals to the heart (in an attempt to kick-start the heart again) which can cause irrevocable damage to the heart. Researchers believe that if they cut off this "brain storm" of signals it may be possible to save the heart from this irrevocable damage.
Even after the heart stops, the brain continues with a flurry of activity... it is this "brain storm" of neurological activity that may be responsible for near-death experiences.
It is the neurochemicals produced by the brain (such as dopamine) which produce feelings of pleasure and (norepinephrine) which cause feelings of alertness during this barrage of neurological activity which could explain reported near-death experiences.
The human brain is a very powerful organ.
[2] I would not put it past my Lord and Saviour (or even one of God's angels) to come to His loved ones during the process of their dying. He is our Comforter.
It's very possible that He would come to us in our final hour of need. I cannot find one Scripture that says that He in fact DOES do this... and I can't find one that says that He absolutely DOES NOT do this.
What I do know is that the Scriptures are CLEAR - nobody, absolutely nobody, has ascended to Heaven except for Jesus.
Nor will they... until the harpazo at His appearance and the two resurrections following His Second Coming.
To believe differently is to diminish the Scriptures and to diminish the coming promise and power of the resurrection and to also buy into the pagan belief of "immortality of the soul".
Are we to follow our own sentiment, or are we to believe His Word?
Let's take a look at what Scripture says.
___________________________
I've covered this briefly in another blog (Egyptian Fables - Part 1), but it will be good to cover here again.
The Church teaches that when we die, we don't really die... we continue living in either Heaven, or hell. Only our physical body is dead.
That is NOT what Scripture teaches.
You really only need one verse:
Rev 20:5 But the rest of the dead LIVED NOT again until the thousand years were finished.
How can it be any clearer? The dead are not alive while they are dead!
Yeah, but... didn't Jesus tell the thief on the Cross that he would be with Jesus today in Paradise?
No - that's not what Jesus said... the use of a simple comma will clarify what Jesus told the thief.
This is how the KJV puts it:
Luk 23:43 And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.
There are no commas in the original language! Suppose the translators would have moved the comma over one word:
Luk 23:43 And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee To day, [<--- comma] shalt thou be with me in paradise.
In other words, Jesus said:
"Today, I am telling you - one day, you will be with Me in Paradise."
Think about it... was Jesus even heading to Paradise "today"?
No - he died and was resurrected three days later from the dead.
So, if Jesus didn't go to paradise "today" how could the thief have possibly went to Paradise "today"?
The thief, himself understood exactly what he was asking! In his incredible act of faith, the thief understood... how do I know this?
Look at the way the thief posed his own request:
Luk 23:42 ... remember me WHEN You come into Your Kingdom.
How else can we be sure that's what Jesus meant?
What else did Jesus say?
Joh 3:13 And NO MAN has ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
Need more proof?
(By the way, this is AFTER Jesus' resurrection AND His ascension...)
David, a man after God's own heart... dead, and in sheol / hades:
Act 2:34 For David is NOT ascended into the heavens...
Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sara, and ALL the prophets, ALL the Old Testament saints - all dead... and in sheol / hades:
Heb 11:13 These ALL died in faith, NOT having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
Need more proof?
1 Ti 6:16 Who [Jesus] ONLY has immortality, dwelling in the light which NO MAN can approach unto; whom NO MAN has seen, NOR CAN SEE: to Whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen.
Jesus also died - His body was placed in a tomb (Mat 27:59-60), His Spirit returned to The Father (Luk 23:46), and He was resurrected from hades three days later:
Act 2:24 Whom God has raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that He should be holden of it.
Act 2:27 Because thou wilt not leave My soul in hell [G86 - hades], neither wilt Thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
What about that "absent from the body, present with the Lord" verse?
Read it again... a little more carefully this time:
2 Cor 5:8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and TO BE present with the Lord.
How will this be accomplished?
Joh 14:2-3 In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I WILL COME AGAIN, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
When will this be accomplished?
1 Th 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: 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.
2 Cor 5:2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from Heaven:
Any outsider coming into the Christian faith would surely believe that it was God who said, "you shall NOT SURELY die" (the way that the Church teaches this!) and not Satan who told that LIE in The Garden.
This lie is the very bedrock of not only orthodox Christian theology, but as mentioned above, also that of virtually every pagan and heathen religion on the face of the earth, throughout the history of the world.
Scripture says that the dead know nothing.
Ecc 9:5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing...
The dead don't even know that they're dead!
Not only do you not know you're dead, but from your perspective - when you are awakened from your "sleep", you never even lost consciousness!
Think about that!
One second you're dying, the next second - you're being woken up at the resurrection of the dead. It will be AS IF - you never died at all!
From our perspective it will be AS IF we never lost consciousness. We will never know what it means to "be dead", or to be unconscious. Our living loved ones, will know sorrow because we are dead and gone, but from OUR perspective - we will never experience being "dead".
Sure, you may experience the act of dying... some people die a very painful death while others die in their sleep... but, death itself will not be experienced for "the dead know not any thing".
Death IS Sleep
Nowhere in Scripture do we read "death is like sleep" - death IS sleep.
Deu 31:16 And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep [H7901 - shakab; to lie down, to rest, to sleep, to decease] with thy fathers...
Psa 13:3 Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;
When Jesus resurrected Lazarus from the dead, Jesus said:
Joh 11:11 ... and after that He said unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleeps; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.
Again:
Ecc 9:5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing...
Paul knew that once he died the next waking moment would be in resurrection with a new Spiritual body (1 Cor 15:49), and although it would happen in an instant (from our perspective - this mortal life to immortal life without missing a heart beat), in the twinkling of an eye (less than a second), nonetheless, it would have to wait until "the LAST TRUMP" (1 Cor 15:51).
But to Paul, from his perspective it would only be but a moment in time, seeing that, "the living KNOW that they shall die, but the dead KNOW NOT ANYTHING."
Jesus Himself slept:
1 Co 15:20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the Firstfruits of them that slept.
He IS the Firstfruits of those that sleep... the First to be awakened and resurrected from the dead to permanent life beyond the reach of death.
Soon, we also shall be like Him and see our Creator as He is:
1 Jn 3:2-3 Beloved, NOW ARE WE the sons of God, and it does NOT YET appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear [in the clouds/air - our harpazo], we shall BE LIKE HIM; for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that has this hope in Him purifies himself, even as He is pure.
Every single human being that has ever lived, or will ever live - will die ("sleep") "for the wages of sin is death" (Rom 6:23) except for those who are living believers when He returns (1 Cor 15:51).
Those who have died shall be awakened, or more technically "roused" (raised up), from their sleep...
Eph 5:14 Wherefore He saith, Awake thou that sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.
... but each in their own order:
1 Cor 15:22-24 For as in Adam ALL die, even so in Christ shall ALL be made alive [G2227 - zoopoieo]. But EVERY MAN in his own order: [1] Christ the Firstfruits; afterward [2] they that are Christ's at His coming. [3] Then comes the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
In the very end - death itself will be destroyed:
1 Cor 15:26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
Jesus has already conquered death for US - as seen in His resurrection, but one day He will put an end, a complete end, to death itself.
Our bodies return to the soil of the ground, from whence they came...
Ecc 12:7 Then shall the soil return to the earth as it was...
God's Spirit, which was breathed into our bodies, will return to Him, from whence it came...
... and the Spirit [H7307 - ruach, wind, by resemblance breath] shall return unto God who gave it.
By the way, Just as Jesus did:
Luk 23:46 And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, He said, Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit: and having said thus, He gave up the ghost [G1606 - ekpneo, expires].
... and our souls, our personal ego, our personification, our inner man - which is the result of the previous two (earthly body and God's Spirit) will go to hades... the unseen, the imperceptible...
Psa 146:2-4 While I LIVE will I praise the LORD: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being. Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goes forth, he returns to his earth; IN THAT VERY DAY his thoughts perish.
... until, that appointed day!
Job 14:12-15 So man lies down, and rises NOT: until the heavens be no more, they shall NOT awake, NOR be raised out of their sleep. O that You would hide me in the grave [H7585 - sheol], that You would keep me secret, until Thy wrath be past, that You would appoint me a set time, and remember me!
If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time WILL I WAIT, until my change come. You shall call, and I will answer You: You will have a desire to the work of Thine hands.
1 Cor 15:52 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.
This is what Scripture SAYS!
Now that this is out of the way... let's get back to hades.
Some of these excerpts are from my personal notes copied from 30+ years of studying... some of these notes are direct copies of various sources - I do not claim to have authored every word of this... it's just a mass collection I've tucked away over the years for my own personal studies... I didn't consider a bibliography at the time I directly copied small excerpts from various authors. Also, any emphasis (underlines, bold text, all CAPS, etc.) noted above was only meant to capture my personal attention as I studied...
CLICK HERE! for an index to previous blogs.
___________________________
Hades
I've briefly covered hades in a few different blogs... you can find details on it's origin in my blogs entitled "Egyptian Fables".
Obviously, my problem with this Greek word hades is that it's definition (per Christendom) has been twisted and distorted into the definition of the English word "hell".
I've mentioned this in the previous parts of "Whence Hell?" but every time you see the English word "hell" in your Bible it is translated from one these Hebrew or Greek words:
Hebrew - sheol
Greek - gehenna, hades, and tartarus.
There is NO Hebrew or Greek word that fits Christendom's definition, or doctrine of "hell" and endless suffering and torment in ALL of Scripture... not even ONE.
I've covered Gehenna extensively in previous parts.
It's now time to move on to [G86 - hades].
_________________________
The Greek word hades literally means "unseen" and/or "imperceptible".
It is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word sheol. I'll prove it shortly.
When it's used in Scripture, it is a perfect description of what happens when human life ends.
Throughout Scripture "death" is repeatedly said to be "a return". For example:
Gen 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for soil thou art, and unto soil shalt thou return.
When man departs from the living, where have they gone?
Job 14:10-12 But man dies, and wastes away: yea, man gives up the ghost, and where is he?
As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decays and dries up:
So man lies down, and rises not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.
They are ALL in one state! And no... not Iowa!
Ecc 3:20 ALL go unto ONE place...
Job 7:21 ... for now shall I sleep in the soil; and thou shall seek me in the morning, but I shall NOT BE.
Where have they gone?
Into a region that is "unseen" to us. It is "imperceptible", impossible to perceive to us.
At death, all men - believers and unbelievers alike, pass into hades, the unseen until the "catching up" at Christ's appearance and the two resurrections following His Second Coming.
No - we do not pass into Heaven or hell - we die - we are dead - don't buy into Satan's first lie: "you shall not surely die".
That is his first and greatest lie and he formulated it into ancient Egypt's "immortality of the soul" and it's been a successful LIE ever since!
Virtually EVERY religion on our planet has believed, and bought into this LIE in one form or another!
Rev 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, WHICH DECEIVES THE WHOLE WORLD:
The Bible says the dead know nothing... they don't even know they're dead!
This concept of continual life is what I've been trying to tell you about... it's what I've referred to as "immortality of the soul" which is a pagan belief.
It is Satan's first LIE and greatest masterpiece, and completely UN-Scriptural. We do not continue to live - we die.
Once we examine the Scriptures, you'll see that hades is never used of the final state of men, but the state between death and resurrection.
__________________________
Let's just get this out of the way right now.
I personally have two relatives who on their death-beds claimed to have seen Jesus shortly before their death. I didn't witness this myself, but I do believe what I was told... and I believe it entirely possible that they did see Jesus.
How is that possible if the Scriptures are true?
[1] Briefly, some will explain near-death experiences this way...
"Clinical death occurs when the person's heartbeat, breathing and circulation stop. Four to six minutes later, biological death occurs. That's when the brain cells begin to die from lack of oxygen, and resuscitation is impossible."
When the heart shuts down, the brain sends a flurry of signals to the heart (in an attempt to kick-start the heart again) which can cause irrevocable damage to the heart. Researchers believe that if they cut off this "brain storm" of signals it may be possible to save the heart from this irrevocable damage.
Even after the heart stops, the brain continues with a flurry of activity... it is this "brain storm" of neurological activity that may be responsible for near-death experiences.
It is the neurochemicals produced by the brain (such as dopamine) which produce feelings of pleasure and (norepinephrine) which cause feelings of alertness during this barrage of neurological activity which could explain reported near-death experiences.
The human brain is a very powerful organ.
[2] I would not put it past my Lord and Saviour (or even one of God's angels) to come to His loved ones during the process of their dying. He is our Comforter.
It's very possible that He would come to us in our final hour of need. I cannot find one Scripture that says that He in fact DOES do this... and I can't find one that says that He absolutely DOES NOT do this.
What I do know is that the Scriptures are CLEAR - nobody, absolutely nobody, has ascended to Heaven except for Jesus.
Nor will they... until the harpazo at His appearance and the two resurrections following His Second Coming.
To believe differently is to diminish the Scriptures and to diminish the coming promise and power of the resurrection and to also buy into the pagan belief of "immortality of the soul".
Are we to follow our own sentiment, or are we to believe His Word?
Let's take a look at what Scripture says.
___________________________
I've covered this briefly in another blog (Egyptian Fables - Part 1), but it will be good to cover here again.
The Church teaches that when we die, we don't really die... we continue living in either Heaven, or hell. Only our physical body is dead.
That is NOT what Scripture teaches.
You really only need one verse:
Rev 20:5 But the rest of the dead LIVED NOT again until the thousand years were finished.
How can it be any clearer? The dead are not alive while they are dead!
Yeah, but... didn't Jesus tell the thief on the Cross that he would be with Jesus today in Paradise?
No - that's not what Jesus said... the use of a simple comma will clarify what Jesus told the thief.
This is how the KJV puts it:
Luk 23:43 And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.
There are no commas in the original language! Suppose the translators would have moved the comma over one word:
Luk 23:43 And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee To day, [<--- comma] shalt thou be with me in paradise.
In other words, Jesus said:
"Today, I am telling you - one day, you will be with Me in Paradise."
Think about it... was Jesus even heading to Paradise "today"?
No - he died and was resurrected three days later from the dead.
So, if Jesus didn't go to paradise "today" how could the thief have possibly went to Paradise "today"?
The thief, himself understood exactly what he was asking! In his incredible act of faith, the thief understood... how do I know this?
Look at the way the thief posed his own request:
Luk 23:42 ... remember me WHEN You come into Your Kingdom.
How else can we be sure that's what Jesus meant?
What else did Jesus say?
Joh 3:13 And NO MAN has ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
Need more proof?
(By the way, this is AFTER Jesus' resurrection AND His ascension...)
David, a man after God's own heart... dead, and in sheol / hades:
Act 2:34 For David is NOT ascended into the heavens...
Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sara, and ALL the prophets, ALL the Old Testament saints - all dead... and in sheol / hades:
Heb 11:13 These ALL died in faith, NOT having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
Need more proof?
1 Ti 6:16 Who [Jesus] ONLY has immortality, dwelling in the light which NO MAN can approach unto; whom NO MAN has seen, NOR CAN SEE: to Whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen.
Jesus also died - His body was placed in a tomb (Mat 27:59-60), His Spirit returned to The Father (Luk 23:46), and He was resurrected from hades three days later:
Act 2:24 Whom God has raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that He should be holden of it.
Act 2:27 Because thou wilt not leave My soul in hell [G86 - hades], neither wilt Thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
What about that "absent from the body, present with the Lord" verse?
Read it again... a little more carefully this time:
2 Cor 5:8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and TO BE present with the Lord.
How will this be accomplished?
Joh 14:2-3 In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I WILL COME AGAIN, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
When will this be accomplished?
1 Th 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: 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.
2 Cor 5:2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from Heaven:
Any outsider coming into the Christian faith would surely believe that it was God who said, "you shall NOT SURELY die" (the way that the Church teaches this!) and not Satan who told that LIE in The Garden.
This lie is the very bedrock of not only orthodox Christian theology, but as mentioned above, also that of virtually every pagan and heathen religion on the face of the earth, throughout the history of the world.
Scripture says that the dead know nothing.
Ecc 9:5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing...
The dead don't even know that they're dead!
Not only do you not know you're dead, but from your perspective - when you are awakened from your "sleep", you never even lost consciousness!
Think about that!
One second you're dying, the next second - you're being woken up at the resurrection of the dead. It will be AS IF - you never died at all!
From our perspective it will be AS IF we never lost consciousness. We will never know what it means to "be dead", or to be unconscious. Our living loved ones, will know sorrow because we are dead and gone, but from OUR perspective - we will never experience being "dead".
Sure, you may experience the act of dying... some people die a very painful death while others die in their sleep... but, death itself will not be experienced for "the dead know not any thing".
Death IS Sleep
Nowhere in Scripture do we read "death is like sleep" - death IS sleep.
Deu 31:16 And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep [H7901 - shakab; to lie down, to rest, to sleep, to decease] with thy fathers...
Psa 13:3 Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;
When Jesus resurrected Lazarus from the dead, Jesus said:
Joh 11:11 ... and after that He said unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleeps; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.
Again:
Ecc 9:5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing...
The Apostle Paul was well versed in the Hebrew Scriptures as he is known to have studied under Gamaliel (Acts 22:3), and was a zealous Pharisee (Acts 23:6 & Acts 26:5, etc.).
Paul made the following statements:
For we know, That if the tent of our earthy dwelling [our physical body] be taken down [death], we have a building from God, a house not made by hands, aionian, in the heavens.
For indeed to this we are groaning [sigh], earnestly desiring to be invested [clothed] with that habitation of ours which is from [not in] heaven: surely, having been invested, we shall not be found destitute [naked].
For, indeed, those being in the tent [living] are groaning, being oppressed [burdened]; in which we desire not to be divested [naked], but invested, that the mortal may be absorbed by LIFE.
Now He Who has produced this for this same thing is that God Who has given to us the pledge [down payment] of the Spirit.
Therefore, being always confident, and knowing that being at home in the body [our body, in the flesh] we are from home [our real home, our future immortal home], away from the Lord; for we are walking by Faith, not by sight ["Blessed are they that have NOT seen, and yet have believed" John 20:29] But we are confident, and well-pleased rather to be separated from the body, and TO BE [not instantly, but at a future time] at home [with our new spiritual bodies like Christ’s] with the Lord" (2 Cor 5:1-8, Emphatic Diaglott).
Paul knew that once he died the next waking moment would be in resurrection with a new Spiritual body (1 Cor 15:49), and although it would happen in an instant (from our perspective - this mortal life to immortal life without missing a heart beat), in the twinkling of an eye (less than a second), nonetheless, it would have to wait until "the LAST TRUMP" (1 Cor 15:51).
But to Paul, from his perspective it would only be but a moment in time, seeing that, "the living KNOW that they shall die, but the dead KNOW NOT ANYTHING."
Jesus Himself slept:
1 Co 15:20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the Firstfruits of them that slept.
He IS the Firstfruits of those that sleep... the First to be awakened and resurrected from the dead to permanent life beyond the reach of death.
Soon, we also shall be like Him and see our Creator as He is:
1 Jn 3:2-3 Beloved, NOW ARE WE the sons of God, and it does NOT YET appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear [in the clouds/air - our harpazo], we shall BE LIKE HIM; for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that has this hope in Him purifies himself, even as He is pure.
Every single human being that has ever lived, or will ever live - will die ("sleep") "for the wages of sin is death" (Rom 6:23) except for those who are living believers when He returns (1 Cor 15:51).
Those who have died shall be awakened, or more technically "roused" (raised up), from their sleep...
Eph 5:14 Wherefore He saith, Awake thou that sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.
... but each in their own order:
1 Cor 15:22-24 For as in Adam ALL die, even so in Christ shall ALL be made alive [G2227 - zoopoieo]. But EVERY MAN in his own order: [1] Christ the Firstfruits; afterward [2] they that are Christ's at His coming. [3] Then comes the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
In the very end - death itself will be destroyed:
1 Cor 15:26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
Jesus has already conquered death for US - as seen in His resurrection, but one day He will put an end, a complete end, to death itself.
Our bodies return to the soil of the ground, from whence they came...
Ecc 12:7 Then shall the soil return to the earth as it was...
God's Spirit, which was breathed into our bodies, will return to Him, from whence it came...
... and the Spirit [H7307 - ruach, wind, by resemblance breath] shall return unto God who gave it.
By the way, Just as Jesus did:
Luk 23:46 And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, He said, Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit: and having said thus, He gave up the ghost [G1606 - ekpneo, expires].
... and our souls, our personal ego, our personification, our inner man - which is the result of the previous two (earthly body and God's Spirit) will go to hades... the unseen, the imperceptible...
Psa 146:2-4 While I LIVE will I praise the LORD: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being. Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goes forth, he returns to his earth; IN THAT VERY DAY his thoughts perish.
... until, that appointed day!
Job 14:12-15 So man lies down, and rises NOT: until the heavens be no more, they shall NOT awake, NOR be raised out of their sleep. O that You would hide me in the grave [H7585 - sheol], that You would keep me secret, until Thy wrath be past, that You would appoint me a set time, and remember me!
If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time WILL I WAIT, until my change come. You shall call, and I will answer You: You will have a desire to the work of Thine hands.
1 Cor 15:52 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.
This is what Scripture SAYS!
Now that this is out of the way... let's get back to hades.
Some of these excerpts are from my personal notes copied from 30+ years of studying... some of these notes are direct copies of various sources - I do not claim to have authored every word of this... it's just a mass collection I've tucked away over the years for my own personal studies... I didn't consider a bibliography at the time I directly copied small excerpts from various authors. Also, any emphasis (underlines, bold text, all CAPS, etc.) noted above was only meant to capture my personal attention as I studied...
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