The Meaning of Hell, Grave and Paradise in The Bible:

These are some Bible notes I’ve wrote up about what is Hell and the meaning of Grave in The Bible. A question often raised by Christian and by non-believers. So I present this if there is anything useful in it to help you explain to others, what The Bible says about life after death. And what is hell.

People sometimes say Hell does not exist in the way its commonly taught or understood. And many of them would be right.
But lets see what The Bible Actually says.
I will get into a lengthy explanation and be a little thorough.

But go here to learn in depth and detail fully from The Chapel : https://www.youtube.com/TheShepherdsChapel/playlists

Because I will not get into every figure of speech and scriptures used to teach this. Because that would be a few pages long. I could just print facts, but many would probably not recall or have been taught the context yet. So I will focus on a few to get the idea across as plainly as possible.

( If you recall scriptures please feel free to post them below that would be helpful ).

Example of a figure of speech used in The Bible is the world sleep. Sleep the ever constant Euphemism, for death, so literally or figuratively, asleep/dead of the body or moral or mortal, state of the soul.

I will also give a link of notes for how the word has been translated in The Bible from Hebrew.

https://www.therain.org/appendixes/app131.html

my explanation and some notes follows :

To know what the Bible teaches, about anything, you have to stop relying on people to tell you what to believe. Atheist, Agnostic or Believer. You trust no man. You can Pray and talk with God Himself and ask Him for The Truth and I believe He will give it if you are Genuine. I cant put emphasis enough on that word.

And hopefully God would be okay with my answer here.

Hell basically means Grave in The Bible. That’s it.

The OT is where the base meaning is established. And hell is taught there in The OT. I’ll explain and quote one or two verses, but wont get into every occurrence.

There are Figures of Speech used in The Bible, about the state of the soul. And questions about a Judgment in life after death for a person, begins after we enter “the grave”. The grave meaning death of the body, triggers immediately a resurrection into a new body: 1st Corinthians 15. You have two bodies. The Good and Bad and Ugly go through this process its common to all.

So once we die then begins the study of life after death and what The Bible says happens to people, good and the bad in Paradise.

“ 2 Corinthians 5:10-21 kjv

10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

11 Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. “

And many while having a new body there, will find they have Not in a sense resurrected into eternal life. Meaning plainly their souls are considered Mortal. Or dead. Liable to die at Judgment Day.
This language is used in Revelation 20, blessed are they that take part in the first resurrection, whereas the second death is no concern. But there is opportunity for a second resurrection for those that never had even one chance in life because of all the lies. And that only after, The Lords Day concludes and they are in a sense right on the precipice.

This is sometimes taught with object lessons which many have confused and super-naturalize figures of speech, making the words literal when they are illustrations of the Truth. Not the truth exactly themselves, its only conveying.

People form doctrines from this glossy type of reading from a surface English glance. And whole congregations are mislead. Or Atheists use a surface reading to mock what they do Not understand, and know not the danger their own souls are in every hour.

A kid may not understand what the figure 4 represents. But if you show a object lesson which represents it, by four objects, then is the teaching realized. And more can be said in a object or type, without using many long winded words.

When we die you to go Paradise: As The Lord Christ would even say to those besides Him on the other cross : “ Today you will be with me in Paradise”. That is The Lords Teachings.

And while He resurrected that day, for three and half days, He would cross a divide between people there who have died before the New Covenant and offer them on a first meeting Salvation as Peter teaches in his letters, Christ peached to these spirits in prison. Or this spiritual state they cannot alone pay or escape. ( 1 Peter 3:19-20 kjv ). ( The Lord would resurrect even His flesh body in transfiguration at the end of those meetings after three and half days. )

In Luke 16 The Lord taught that. And it Must be understood.

Right now people mentally torment themselves for grief and shame they face once in Paradise. Its not a pleasant place for everyone but you’d not know this simply by looking at it in all its beauty.

No more than you can easily tell what someone is going through now right here on Earth in their personal torments. So in this sense, and concerning questions of Salvation many are in Paradise in a low moral state, “in the dust of the earth” if you will, alive but dead. For John 3:16 declares, one cannot be truly alive without The Lord Christ. You are either Alive Eternally through His promise. Or you are in the state of perishing until Judgement Day. And God is The Judge.

Its written your good deeds and bad deeds, that you have not repented of follow you to heaven or Paradise, you give account of yourself there. And this places you on either side of what is figuratively or literally a gulf between people in Paradise ( Luke 16 ).

This divide being that, some overcame this world in The Lord Christ, and others fates are still questioned and are as outsiders there with a mortal soul wandering Paradise tormenting themselves for this serious situation they find themselves in.

The Lord Illustrated this with many figures of speech like flame, a gulf, torments and thirst. Example the thirst, For the Living Waters of The Lord Christ which brings Eternal Life. As He so often taught.

“John 7:37-42

37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.””

38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”

So you must be up to speed on figures of speech used in The Bible by The Holy Spirit.

The people there in Paradise are basically weighed by The Criterion, balances of a Judgment, as if again (figure of speech): trying of metals in Fire for what is pure, and whatever purity they have, determines their outcome there. Gold is good, but in a figurative sense, The Fire of this measure burns wood. And dross is the slag that is tossed away. If all you are is wood, of all your works amount to that, and you have Not The Lord Christ, that’s a dangerous state to be in.

“Hebrews 12:29

For our God is a consuming fire. kjv.”

“Ecclesiasticus 2:5

“For gold is tried in the fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of adversity.””

“”Revelation 3:18

I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.””

“”Revelation 3:16-17 King James Version

16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:””

( And There , The Lord Christ addresses actual Christians. Out of Seven churches He was happy with Two only. ) So where do you measure up in Paradise? Or will you not even be clothed, because the righteous acts, weave the fine linen you wear there in heaven.

You maybe saved, by The Lord Christ and all He did for you. But what have you done for God, in terms of righteous acts? Or maybe you don’t care. But we will when its too late.
So We Need to totally put aside the Vanity of this world and the temporal nature of it. And serve God with a genuine mind and heart. Don’t serve the flesh and the temporary here today gone tomorrow.

“Revelation 3:5

He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.”

“Revelation 19:8

And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.”

So this is what torments people in Paradise. They were tested by The Standard, The Holy Spirit or The Lord Christ sets there, and they were lacking eternal life. The good works and The Savior they mocked in life, The Heavenly Father, now stands to Judge them in The Last Day. Because you cannot make a good resentence anymore once there. For faith is by hearing The world of God, substance of things hoped for yet unseen. The faith in this life counts you approved for Salvation. But once you are there and fully aware, you cannot make a good repentance that would ever be acceptable. Because now you know better.

The Lord Christ also illustrated hell, which is called the grave, with the garbage pit outside Jerusalem. Which is symbolic for Judgment. The fires that burned the garbage of the city, symbolic of the final moral degradation of the wicked and what you can visually compare their souls to. How immoral and corrupted.

The Final Judgement Day, which has Not happened yet, but will be when souls that do not overcome this world, and totally rejected The Lord Christ, though they would have had great change throughout The Lords Day ( The Thousand Years ) by that time to correct their evil ways, will be blotted out of existence. This also is illustrated with words like :

“ the smoke of their torment ascends for ever and ever “.

The smoke is a Hebraism that is used in Psalms by God, using an analogy there too, of a Lamb over a fires spit, over open flame. And seeing the fat fall into the fire, as it hits the fire and goes up in smoke. So forever and ever the consequence, because forever and ever that soul is gone.
So with that analogy , once fat turns to smoke, you do not reconstitute smoke into its former state. It does not exist.

“Psalms 37:20

But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the LORD shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.”

(Read the whole of Revelation chapter 20 kjv.)

“Revelation 14:11 kjv

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.”

The wicked have no rest in Paradise. Because this question looms over them. That they mocked God in life, who now stands to determine if they will live or die at The Judgement Day. No one is tormenting them there in Paradise. This Flame is figurative of this torment they do to themselves. The Touchstone, in other words that they didn’t measure up.

When its finalized, and God Judges if their deeds amount to being blotted out, then is fulfilled the saying “ And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever “.

If you being wicked, had a reason to fear anything in life, it would not be the one who can hurt and kill your physical body. No. But rather He who can cause the soul to Perish in The Lake of Fire. Which is the second death.

The only one by Name, in The Bible declared to be sentenced to this fate, is Satan himself. And the fallen angels as a group. Jude kjv.

Satan received this sentence, though its not been carried out yet given Satan has a few more tasks to do for God at the 6th seal vial and trump. Because perishing is at The Judgement Day for the wicked.

“Ezekiel 28:18

Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.”

“Matthew 10:28 kjv

28 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.”

“Revelation 20: 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.”

“Exodus 32:32

Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin–; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.”

“Daniel 12:2

And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.”

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To conclude :

God is Not willing any perish. But All Come to repentance. There is still Time. As written in 2nd Peter 3.
And If you read Ezekiel 18

Ezekiel 33:11

“Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?”

Ezekiel Chapter 18

23 Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?

24 But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity,
and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live?
All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die.

25 Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. Hear now, O house of Israel; Is not my way equal? are not your ways unequal?

( Read All of Ezekiel 18 kjv so you get Gods emotions about this ).

So no one has been killed yet in “hell”. Because its for The Judgement Day, by God, written of before the fact In The Bible. Not even Satan is dead yet, because Judgement Day has not happened yet. He is the son of perdition sentenced before the fact.

But that sentence is finalized carried out when its time for everyone to be Judged according to their works. But there are many now that are wondering paradise, in doubt shame and disbelief of their current state. DONT END UP THERE LIKE THAT!

Or if they accept The True Lord Christ, we can avoid that outcome. We write our own fate in this sense.

Have you read it?

Do not whole heartedly bet your soul on sayings of mankind and their doctrines.

The Bible is right there for you to study and ideally understand. Its not difficult. Because there are some teachers and many resources that take the English back to the languages, and gives you the basic meaning.

But you have to to read in context for the Actual full picture. And you can Pray and talk with God Himself and ask Him for The Truth.

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