"88 Facts Proving Hell Not the Grave (Cont'd.)

• 57. Paradise is now empty of all the righteous souls (Ephesians 4:8-10; Hebrews 12:23; the graves continue to hold bodies of both the righteous and the unrighteous.
• 58. The righteous were alive in paradise, else Christ could not have preached and liberated the righteous captives and Lazarus and others in this place could not have been comforted (Luke 16:19-31).
• 59. It is the lowest part of sheol, even lower than paradise and therefore, could not be the grave. (Deuteronomy 32:22; Psalm 36:18; Proverbs 9:18; Isaiah 57:9).
• 60. The greater number of men (not all) go into it at death (Deuteronomy 32:22; Psalm 9:17; Isaiah 5:14; Luke 16:1931). whereas all men go into a grave, watery or otherwise, at death.
• 61. The fire in it is as literal as the mountains (Deuteronomy 32:22; Luke 16:19-31).
• 62. The fire is kindled in God's wrath (Deuteronomy 32:22).
• 63. Entrance into it is down, deeper than a grave, through the earth to its center (Numbers 16:30-33; Mt. 12:40; Ephesians 4:8-10).
• 64. Bodies of men are buried at the mouth of the earth's surface only (Psalm 141:7).
• 65. Men go alive into it (Numbers 16:30-33; Psalm 88:3; Proverbs 1:12; Ezekiel 32:27-31; Luke 16:19-31).
• 66. The wicked only are tormented in it (Luke 16:19-31; Deuteronomy 32:22; Psalm 9:17; Proverbs 5:5; 7:28; 9:18; Isaiah 14:9-16).
• 67. It's depth is contrasted with the height of heaven, which could never be so of the grave (Job 11:7; Isaiah 57:9; Amos 9:2).
• 68. [Regarding the giants in Genesis 6:1-4]
• 69. Christ now has the keys of sheol-hades (Revelation 1:18).
• 70. Chastening can help men to be godly and escape it (Proverbs 23:14) but chastening will not keep men from graves. All go to graves, but all do not go to hell. In fact, no saved man goes there since Christ conquered hell (2 Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:21-24; Hebrews 12:23; Revelation 6:9-11).
• 71. The gates of hell shall not prevail against the church in this age (Matthew 16:18) but they did prevail against O.T. saints, for they all went down into the paradise compartment of sheol and were held captive by Satan against their will (Hebrews 2:14-15); Since the resurrection of Christ, saints do not go to sheol-hades as before. He conquered hell and liberated the righteous souls from Satan, leading them captive to heaven. (Ephesians 4:8-10; Hebrews 2:14-15); saints of this age now go to heaven at death instead of to sheol (2 Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:21-24; Hebrews 12:23; Revelation 6:9-11), which proves that hell is not the grave. No such change regarding graves has ever been made. The bodies of both the righteous and wicked continue to be put into graves.
• 72. Every man in sheol-hades will be brought out and judged 1,000 years after the righteous have been resurrected (Revelation 20:4-6; 11-15). If men at death are extinct or unconscious in graves, why bring them back into existence or consciousness just to judge them and send them into extinction of being again, as false cults teach? This would make the Bible a lie for conscious punishment of sins would then be impossible. Unconsciousness in graves now and unconsciousness and extinction of being in eternity would not meet the demands of the law of eternal punishment for eternal rebellion, as we shall see below.
• 73. Sheol-hades held the captives that were captured by Christ and taken to heaven when He ascended on high (Ephesians 4:8-10: Hebrews 2:14-15). How could extinct or unconscious men be held captive? Why would Christ even attempt to capture extinct beings? What would He want with them? Those he captured must have been real and living, for God is not the God of dead bodies of men but their living souls (Luke 20:38).