~ A place to find answers to gnawing spiritual questions ~
Question: Is there a Hades?Answer: I assume the question is whether or not there is a real Hell. In reading the Old Testament, there may appear to be some confusion. Some scriptures speak of a place of suffering for the damned and others simply show people going to the grave or the unseen abode of the dead.
Jesus cleared the confusion for us. In the Old Testament times when a person died he went to one of two places, either to Hell or Paradise (Abraham's Bosom). Please see Luke 16:19-31. In this narrative, Jesus told of two men who lived and died. The one died and was taken to Abraham's bosom. The other died and was taken to Hell, a place of torment and suffering.
All of the scriptures that show a fear of Hell are ludicrous if it is not a place of torment (Matthew 5:22; 10:28; 18:9; 23:33). Some would try to relate this as a parable, but Jesus never used the names of individuals in his parables. Even if it is a parable it still would not mean there was no place called Hell. Jesus, in His parables, always took real life events and gave them spiritual applications.
Hell and Paradise were two compartments in what is referred to as the grave. They appear to be located in the center of the earth. These are not places where physical bodies go for no one has been resurrected yet. These are places where the soul goes awaiting resurrection from the dead. This is not the only instance where Christ speaks of a place of suffering (Mark 9:44, 46, 48; Matthew 8:12; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30; Luke 13:28).
Jesus told the thief on the one side of Him, "Today, thou shalt be with me in Paradise" (Luke 23:43). When Christ went into Abraham's bosom he spoke to the spirits in prison (Ephesians 4:8-10; 1 Peter 3:19, 20). Christ emptied Abraham's bosom and lead captivity captive (Psalm 68:18; also Isaiah 5:14). Today, when a believer dies he goes to be in the presence of the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:6-8). Those believers have not received their glorified bodies nor their final reward.
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