I ASKED GOD,"HOW MUCH DO YOU LOVE ME"?

[MyLadiesDaddy]

Hebrews 2:3

 

How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation;

 

I challenge anyone who doesn't believe in Jesus Christ

 

to watch this 5 min. video.

 

 

 

[ronscarpa]

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.  For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.  He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.  This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil." John 3:16-19 NASB 

 

Thanks LGD...(+1) and Five (5) Stars...!   

[boosterbglee]

I have watched the movie many times, and every time it just yanks my heart out!  

[MyLadiesDaddy]

As I made the post, I had to fight back the tears.

What so many forget is that he was not only a man but also God.

At any moment he could have called legions of Angles.

It's more than just a movie folks.

[EagleEye]

When Mel Gibson announced his plans to make an accurate movie of the passion. I mailed him three copies of my book, one to each address listed for him. Two were returned unopened. The third never came back. If we watched the movie together I could point out several things that he had to take from my book....Passion of the Christ is an awesome movie...I have been doing a multi-media presentation for about 38 years now. Normally I face the audience and the slides are behind me. However once in a large venue in New Orleans, the slides were right in front of me...I choked up plenty LGD...HIS love is unparalleled.... thanks brother...

[Nelg]

Tremendous depiction of what wicked men can do!  How great was His pain at the cross; now multiply the suffering and pain by 100 billion times as you think of what Jesus Christ suffered the Wrath of God while in Hades!  How great is His love for us!  

[MyLadiesDaddy]

When Mel Gibson announced his plans to make an accurate movie of the passion. I mailed him three copies of my book, one to each address listed for him. Two were returned unopened. The third never came back. If we watched the movie together I could point out several things that he had to take from my book....Passion of the Christ is an awesome movie...I have been doing a multi-media presentation for about 38 years now. Normally I face the audience and the slides are behind me. However once in a large venue in New Orleans, the slides were right in front of me...I choked up plenty LGD...HIS love is unparalleled.... thanks brother...

I'd love to read that book, my brother.

 

Tremendous depiction of what wicked men can do!  How great was His pain at the cross; now multiply the suffering and pain by 100 billion times as you think of what Jesus Christ suffered the Wrath of God while in Hades!  How great is His love for us!  

"Wait till you see, what a man can do to another man"

https://youtu.be/-OGvZoIrXpg?t=95

 

 

Start at about the 1:35 mins 

Edited August 16, 2015 by ladyGrace'sDaddy

[Fly]

Tremendous depiction of what wicked men can do!  How great was His pain at the cross; now multiply the suffering and pain by 100 billion times as you think of what Jesus Christ suffered the Wrath of God while in Hades!  How great is His love for us!  

Share your details of what takes place in Hades, and please no coping out saying; if you don’t already know you’ll never know! : ) 

 

DOES God’s Word, the Bible, teach that everyone passes smoothly on to continued life in the spirit realm at death? No, it does not. The Bible presents a marvelous hope of life after death, but not in the way many think it does.

Consider what the Bible says about our first ancestor, Adam. Jehovah formed him “out of dust from the ground.” (Genesis 2:7) Adam had the opportunity to live forever in happiness on earth. (Genesis 2:16, 17) However, he rebelled against his loving Creator, and the result was death.

Where did Adam go at death? God said to him: “You [will] return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For dust you are and to dust you will return.”—Genesis 3:19.

Where was Adam before Jehovah created him from the dust? Nowhere. He did not exist. So when Jehovah said that Adam would “return to the ground,” he could only have meant that Adam would again become lifeless, just like the dust. Adam did not ‘cross over’ to be the founding father of a world of ancestral spirits. He passed neither to a life of bliss in heaven nor to an eternity of suffering in a place of torment. The only transition he made was from life to lifelessness, from a state of existence to one of nonexistence.

What about the rest of humankind? Do the descendants of Adam also cease to exist at death? The Bible answers: “All [both humans and animals] are going to one place. They have all come to be from the dust, and they are all returning to the dust.”—Ecclesiastes 3:19, 20.

 

Yes, the dead are lifeless, unable to hear, see, speak, or think. For example, the Bible says: “The living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all . . . Their love and their hate and their jealousy have already perished.” The Bible also states: “There is no work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol [the grave], the place to which you are going.”—Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6, 10.

According to God’s Word, therefore, while people are alive, they are aware of death. When death occurs, however, they are aware of nothing. They do not stand beside their own corpse, observing what is done to it. In nonexistence there is neither pleasure nor pain, neither joy nor sorrow. Those dead are not aware of the passing of time. Theirs is an unconscious state deeper than any sleep.

Job, a servant of God in ancient times, knew that people did not continue to live on after death. He also understood that without God’s intervention, there would be no hope of coming to life again. Job said: “An able-bodied man dies and lies vanquished; and an earthling man expires, and where is he? [He] has to lie down and does not get up.” (Job 14:10, 12) Job certainly did not expect that when he died he would join his ancestors in a world of spirits.

 

[MyLadiesDaddy]

Anyone who doesn't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as there personal 

 

Savior for all eternity ,

 

WILL FIND OUT EXACTLY WHAT HELL IS.

[Nelg]

Share your details of what takes place in Hades, and please no coping out saying; if you don’t already know you’ll never know! : ) 

 

DOES God’s Word, the Bible, teach that everyone passes smoothly on to continued life in the spirit realm at death? No, it does not. The Bible presents a marvelous hope of life after death, but not in the way many think it does.

Consider what the Bible says about our first ancestor, Adam. Jehovah formed him “out of dust from the ground.” (Genesis 2:7) Adam had the opportunity to live forever in happiness on earth. (Genesis 2:16, 17) However, he rebelled against his loving Creator, and the result was death.

Where did Adam go at death? God said to him: “You [will] return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For dust you are and to dust you will return.”—Genesis 3:19.

Where was Adam before Jehovah created him from the dust? Nowhere. He did not exist. So when Jehovah said that Adam would “return to the ground,” he could only have meant that Adam would again become lifeless, just like the dust. Adam did not ‘cross over’ to be the founding father of a world of ancestral spirits. He passed neither to a life of bliss in heaven nor to an eternity of suffering in a place of torment. The only transition he made was from life to lifelessness, from a state of existence to one of nonexistence.

What about the rest of humankind? Do the descendants of Adam also cease to exist at death? The Bible answers: “All [both humans and animals] are going to one place. They have all come to be from the dust, and they are all returning to the dust.”—Ecclesiastes 3:19, 20.

 

Yes, the dead are lifeless, unable to hear, see, speak, or think. For example, the Bible says: “The living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all . . . Their love and their hate and their jealousy have already perished.” The Bible also states: “There is no work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol [the grave], the place to which you are going.”—Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6, 10.

According to God’s Word, therefore, while people are alive, they are aware of death. When death occurs, however, they are aware of nothing. They do not stand beside their own corpse, observing what is done to it. In nonexistence there is neither pleasure nor pain, neither joy nor sorrow. Those dead are not aware of the passing of time. Theirs is an unconscious state deeper than any sleep.

Job, a servant of God in ancient times, knew that people did not continue to live on after death. He also understood that without God’s intervention, there would be no hope of coming to life again. Job said: “An able-bodied man dies and lies vanquished; and an earthling man expires, and where is he? [He] has to lie down and does not get up.” (Job 14:10, 12) Job certainly did not expect that when he died he would join his ancestors in a world of spirits.

 

The LORD is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

[Nelg]

Fly, do you not know that?  Do you not know the Scriptures or the power of God?  Have you been so caught up in this human doctrine that you are now the "spreader" of such slander and error?  Certainly you have studied on your own, haven't you?  Or, are you still a listening to the false teaching and error of liars and the Scripture-twisting of these false teachers?  

They are blind guides, white-walled tombs, leading souls away from Jehovah.  It is never to late to learn the truth.  Run from these teachings as fast as you can.  Take hold of eternal life through faith and trust in Jesus Christ, the LORD.  Don't trample under foot the Son of God, or regard the blood of the covenant as unclean; it is that blood that will cleans you, by which you obtain grace, through which you can have entrance into the holy place of God!  He, Christ, is the only one who can give you eternal life.  Run away from these teachers of error and run to Christ while you can!   

You are in my prayers daily.  Believe and repent while you still have the chance.  

[Nelg]

Share your details of what takes place in Hades, and please no coping out saying; if you don’t already know you’ll never know! : ) 

 

 

 

 

God’s wrath is always just and proper, and the natural expression of His holiness and righteousness, which under all circumstances and at all times must be maintained.

Scripture openly presents God’s wrath against the sinner.

John, the apostle, after writing about the new birth and faith in Jesus now writes concerning what John the Baptist said of himself and Jesus.  In some of the last word of John the Baptist, he says in regard to belief and unbelief “The father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand.  He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” (Jn 3:36).  Note that this wrath is the judgment administered by God upon mankind because of sin and unbelief.  It is an “abiding” wrath, which is in contrast with eternal life, the reward of the believer. 

Paul, writes of his concern for those Jews who have heard the message of the gospel, yet have rejected the righteousness of God that comes through Christ.  He states, “But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who will render to every man according to his deeds” (Rm 2:5). The point here is that the “wrath of God” comes when the Lord returns to Judge the world. 

Just three chapters later he writes concerning both Jews and Gentiles that the only way to escape the “wrath of God” is by the blood of Christ. The blood shed for the forgiveness of sin saves the individual from God’s wrath.   The believers are “justified by His blood,” … and will “be saved from the wrath of God through Him” (Rm 5:9).

In commenting on the Thessalonians faith, the Holy Spirit through Paul, acknowledged their turning to God from idols, and they are now waiting in hope “for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.” (1Th 1:10).

But there are other places in the New Testament where, even though the term “wrath of God” is not used, the thought of God’s attitude toward all sinfulness is expressed in other terms.

Jesus talks about the fires of hell (Mt 5:22).

Or, as “eternal fire” (Mt 18:8; 25:41, 46)

The torment is described as the “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Mt 8:12; 13:42, 50; Lk 13:28).

To the Thessalonians Paul speaks of the final judgment when Christ shall render vengeance with flaming fire on those who know not God, and to those that obey not the gospel.  He says “they shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his power.” (2Th 1:7-9)

As the writer of Hebrews says, “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (He 10:31; c.f. 10:26-31).

We must understand that God is a merciful, loving, and kind Lord, but He is also “a consuming fire” (Heb 12:29).

Note that the “wrath of God” toward the sinner, after death but before the final judgment, is in the realm of Hades.

Matthew 11:20-24 Jesus reproaches the cities where most of His miracles had been done.  These cities had refused to repent and believe.  Therefore, they would be punished in the Day of Judgment.  Verse 23 speaks of their descent into Hades for punishment. 

Luke 16:23 Jesus speaks of the rich man being tormented in Hades while Lazarus is being comforted in Abraham’s bosom.  

Later, when Christ returns for on the Final Day, the “last day.” Hades will be thrown into the Lake of Fire (Rev 20:11-15).

Christ Took God’s Wrath Upon Himself

“Propitiation” is the means provided by God whereby sinful individuals can be saved from “the wrath to come”. 

Humanity has sinned against God and has incurred His displeasure and condemnation.  God rightly exacts the penalty of a broken law.  He cannot free the sinner until the demands of justice are satisfied.  Christ’s punishment on our behalf fully satisfies these demands.

The word “hilasmos” - is translated “propitiation” or in some translations “expiation;” though “expiation” does not carry the full importance of “hilasmos.” There are differences in the meaning of the two English words, but from looking at the word in the context of the passages where it is used, the definition seems to be consistent with “to appease, to satisfy.” 

By the atonement or substitutionary death of Christ, is meant that the action of Christ’s death, which has a prime regard to God’s holiness, has “propitiation” for its first charge. All of human reconciliation is impossible except as God’s holiness is divinely satisfied at the cross and suffering of Christ in death. 

The idea of God’s holiness is inseparable from the idea of judgment as the mode by which grace goes into action.  God had “to satisfy” his holiness in dealing with the problem of sin, or spiritual death. The Godhead did so in the holy obedience and self-offering of Jesus, through and by whom reconciliation between God and the sinful world is achieved. 

Atonement means the covering of sin by something that God Himself had provided and therefore the covering of sin by God Himself.

What Christ did was the perfect obedience of holy love that he offered among the conditions of sin, death and judgment. 

There is a penalty and curse for sin; and Christ consented to enter that region. Jesus did not receive God’s wrath for His own sin.  He “had no sin,” but He received our punishment! He bore mankind’s penalty and received God’s wrath for mankind’s sin. 

He turned the penalty He endured for mankind’s sin into the sacrifice He offered, and the sacrifice He offered was the judgment or wrath He accepted.

The New Testament represents Christ’s death as the one and only thing that will appease God’s Wrath.

Through the death of Christ, whom “God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith.  This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed.” (Rm 3:25).   

John writes that He (Christ) is the propitiation (satisfaction) for our sins.  (cf. 1Jno 2:2; 4:10).

The writer of the Hebrew letter says, “He had to be made like His brethren in all things, that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people” (He 2:17).

Christ is our substitute.  That is, He received the punishment due the sinner.  He took the punishment that we deserved.

Christ did not suffer for His own sin (Jn 8:46; 1Pe 2:22; He 4:5)

Prophetically it was stated. (Is 53:5-6, 10)

Perfectly it was fulfilled. (1Pe 3:18; Mk 10:45; Gal 3:13)

By the suffering of the sinner’s substitute (Jesus Christ), God’s wrath against sin is propitiated; and as a consequence of this propitiation the punishment due to the sinner is released, or not inflicted.  Thus the sinner, through faith in what God did through Christ, is “forgiveness.”

It is inherent in this understanding that the death of Christ is not the event that persuades and unwilling God to forgive mankind.  Rather, the death of Jesus is purposed and initiated by God Himself.  Thus we have the much quoted passage, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jno 3:16). 

The death is the death of God himself, since the Son is one with the Father, and we are correct to see God dying on the cross.  The death of Christ is the identifying of God with humanity in its need, and this is important in showing how God in Christ absorbs the suffering inflicted by evil and sin on humanity. 

The Meaning of Christ’s Death

The Cross is inclusive.

Most of us are familiar with Christ’s death upon the cross and the physical suffering He endured.  For most Bible students this is foundational to faith. 

However, what is not so well defined is the suffering that Christ endured for the punishment of our sins.  Nor do I think we can fully comprehend or fully express such great love, or such great suffering.  . 

There is no denying that the suffering and agony Jesus experienced on the cross.  It was a hard and vicious death.  Roman citizens were exempt from suffering such ignominy.  However, when we speak of the “cross” we must include suffering for us, which Jesus experienced in the “hadean” realm. 

Since the concept that Christ entered into Hades and actually suffered torment for us is not been an emphasis in our teaching, it is necessary to spend a little time explaining more fully this concept. 

First of all we have made a mistake in confining the concept of death to the physical death of Jesus on the cross.  We fix our eyes upon Calvary. We see the Cross.  We see the crucified body.  We see the quivering flesh.  We see the dripping blood. We see the face-line of unutterable woe.  We see the last gasp, and we almost feel the appalling stillness that follows.  But this is only the physical suffering and death of Jesus. That was a terrible death, and we should never minimize it for a moment. 

However, in the annals of “mans inhumanity to man,” there have been other deaths which were more punishing and more horrendous.  There have been Christian martyrs who have been slowly roasted over a fire until they died.  Others have had their unborn children taken from them by cutting open their body while they were still alive. Other, while they were still alive, had their limbs cut off one by one starting with the fingers and toes and moving up the body.  I will not belabor the illustrations.  You can find them by researching the web or reading the stories of modern day martyrs. 

It must also be noted that even though Jesus was delivered up by the permission and foreknowledge of God (Jn 10:11, 15, 17-18), Jesus death was still by the hands of godless men (Acts 2:23).  It was not the results of the wrath of God.  God wrath for sin against the sinner is dispensed after physical death and in the eternal realm.

When it is stated that Jesus suffered death for every person, which He did, we must understand “death” to be spiritual death and not simply the physical death (2Co 5:15).  This is no fanciful inquiry or speculation.  The question is of practical and personal importance.

The word “death” is a cardinal word in the New Testament.  It is a primary fact out of which the gospel is born. All other proclamations must find their significance in this.  (The references to death must be kept in context.  There are some references which speak of death as the physical cessation of life and others texts that indicate that it is a separation from God, or spiritual death.)

What is meant by the “death” that Jesus die? Jesus continually declares that He came to save us from “death.”

Jn 6:48 -- If anyone eats of Him (He is the bread of life) they will not die.

Jn 8:51 -- If anyone keeps His word they will never see death.

Jn 11:26 -- Jesus says that those who believe in Him shall never die. 

If we interpret these words as physical death (sleep), then it would throw us into confusion, and we would be saying something that Jesus did not say. 

The most spiritual among us dies.  We all become worn, old, and sick.  We all go to the cemetery one way or the other.  We all die. Except those who are alive at the coming of Christ in the last day.

But what Jesus saved us from is more that the physical death that even the innocent (Jesus) must suffer.

Jesus death saves the saint from spiritual death and eternal death or punishment or the wrath of God.

 “Let this cup pass from me” were the words of Jesus in the garden before the crucifixion.  Was He shrinking from the physical pain that He was facing?  Was He afraid of the lashes and the nails?  Did He recoil at losing His physical life? Certainly He might have wanted some other way to depart this earth, but His major concerns were different. 

He does not shrink from physical death, but from bearing the sin of mankind and going through separation from God and facing the wrath of God because of our sin.  What is the cup?  It is suffering the wrath of God! 

Ps 11:6, 78:8

Isaiah 51:17-22

Jeremiah 25:15-28

Ezekiel 23:31-34

Matthew 20:22-23 (Mk 14:36; Lk 22:42)

John 18:11

Revelation 14:10

A few soldiers with hammer and nails put Him to sleep on the cross, but it was for the sins of a race that He died, that He voluntarily went into the outer darkness, into the awful eclipse of forsakenness and abandonment.

“He tasted death for every man.”  (Heb 2:9).  This death is what took place during the cross and during that terrible time while He was in the realm of Hades.  It is this death He died on our behalf. “Christ died for the ungodly.”  He suffered the separation and suffering that should have been ours!   This was the death that He died! 

The punishment for sin and unbelief was the suffering of the wrath of God.  It was the torment of the punishment that should have been ours. Note these passages concerning God’s wrath:

Romans 1:18; 2:5

Ephesians 5:6

Colossians 3:6

Revelation 14:10

Romans 3:5, 5:8-9

John 3:36

As far as I can determine, God’s punishment for a sinner and unbeliever after death is in the spiritual realm of the dead, Hades. 

Thus, Christ suffered death for us in order that we might not suffer God’s wrath.

“But God commended His own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rm 5:8).

“Who His own self bare our sins in his body upon the tree, that we, having died unto sins, might live unto righteousness; by whose stripes you are healed” (1Pt 2:24) This is the concept which finds such an astonishing foreshadowing in the picture of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53.

The death and punishment of Christ for our sins satisfies the justice of God.  He was punished in our place. 

Man has sinned against God and has incurred His condemnation.  God must exact the penalty to be a just God.  He cannot free the sinner until the demands of the law have been satisfied. Christ’s death and torment fully satisfies these demands.

Rm 3:21-26.  Therefore God could be just (in that He punishes sins through the substitute, Jesus), and the justifier (making the believer free from sin and condemnation), of those who believe.

Note that apart from any work of man, there is a righteousness of God revealed, a righteousness leading to the sinner’s justification through the work of Christ whom God set forth as  “propitiation.”

This is more than just an “act” of sacrifice.  It is a personal transaction that has been achieved by Jesus on behalf of man establishing a relationship between God and man.  Christ offered himself as a substitute on our behalf and endured the punishment that should have fallen upon us.  By the blood of Christ shed for sin and the propitiation made, those individuals that are of faith no longer need to fear the wrath of God! It has been satiated by with the suffering of Christ. 

Originally sinners were liable to suffer from the outpouring of the judgment of God.  Now Christ has suffered instead of us, and we may go free. 

Thus, we have been reconciled to God by the death of His son, and in that Son, death (separation and torment) is propitiated or expiated or satiated.  There is now for the saint, only LIFE!

Objections:

“Is there injustice in the suffering of the innocent for the guilty?” 

If Jesus were a third party that may be an objection.  However the One who received the wrath for sin is not a third party, but the Judge Himself (Act 17:30-31). 

The error lies in the assumption that God and Christ are two beings as different from each other as two individual men.  If this were the case, then there might be some point. 

However, Christ Jesus is God incarnate and the substitute who received our punishment is God!  It is not unjust for the Judge to pay the penalty Himself, if that is what He wants to do.  (Jesus was/is God – “blood of God.” (Acts 20:28)

Does this mean that “all” sin is forgiven and that “all” mankind will be excluded from the wrath of God? Certainly not! 

It is held by some that if a substitute pays the debt we owe, God cannot collect the debt also from us but is morally bound to let all go free; that is, on this theory God does not exercise mercy in forgiving us, but merely does His duty.  Thus, since Christ took the punishment for the entire world, then the entire world is free from sin and free from suffering the wrath of God.

But this objection is removed by the fact that the One who pays the debt is not a third party, but the Judge Himself. 

Forgiveness of sin and removal from God’s wrath is still optional with God and are only received based upon the terms He sets forth by Him in the New Testament:  faith.  The obedience of Christ does not make our obedience unnecessary, but requires us to meet the terms in order for us to receive the benefits of His death. 

This brings us to the question: Where did the soul and spirit of Jesus go at death?

The person of Jesus was together in one place. He said to the thief on the cross in Luke 23:43, “Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” Did Jesus and the thief on the cross go to heaven when they died, or did they go somewhere else?

In order to answer this question it is necessary to understand the place of the departed spirits.

The spirit of the righteous individual was destined to go into “Abraham’s bosom” or into Paradise.[1]  There they wait, if any waiting at all, for the final judgment and reward of the righteous, and for their new resurrected body. 

The word “Hades” did not designated anything concerning the righteousness, but only the unrighteous. The sinner, unbeliever, wicked, and disobedient person’s spirit went into Hades.   Hades is the place where the wicked were punished with the wrath of God until the resurrection of the body at the Last Judgment. After the pronounced judgment for sin the wicked (or everyone in Hades) will be thrown into the lake that burns with fire, the eternal wrath of God.

Prophetically it was stated that the Messiah would be in the realm of “hades,” were the wicked are punished. (Is 53:5-6, 10).  Perfectly it was fulfilled. (1Pe 3:18; Mk 10:45; Gal 3:13)

The teaching of Jesus concerning the rich man and Lazarus (Lk 16:19-31) is the only extended teaching about the Hadean realm.  Other portions of Scripture give us some indication as to what this spiritual realm is like, but nothing like this passage. 

Here we learn that there are two areas for those that have died.  Separating the two areas is a great gulf or expanse. 

First is the place called “Abraham’s Bosom” where the righteous spirits go, which is a place of bliss, peace and comfort. 

The other place, “Hades,” is for the unrighteous and is a place of torment, fire, and misery; as in the case of the rich man.

These two realms are pictured as being within seeing distance of each other, yet without a way to transverse between the two realms.[2]

In this realm of departed spirits, there is full capacity of personality with intellect, emotion and will, with full cognizance of what is going on around them. 

“Abraham’s bosom,” or as indicated from other passages, Paradise, is not in Hades at all, but totally separate.  The contrast between the two make this clear.   

One thing is clear.  There is no transverse from one realm to the other.

With this background we are ready to consider where the spirit of Christ went when He died.

First, He went into the realm of “paradise.” The Lord told thief: “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Lk 23:43). Paradise is a word of Persian origin signifying “a royal park or garden.”  From all indications it was a place of peace, joy, and comfort.  And, it was a place for those who had been faithful to God or who had believed in Jesus, as this thief did.  

Second, He went to Hades (Ac 2:27), which was the spiritual realm prepared for departed spirits of the wicked or sinful souls.  It is in this spiritual realm that punishment is administered to the sinful and unbelieving. Certainly this is the case with the “rich man” in the parable (cf Isa 53:9).  He was in torment, in flames, thirsty, and distress. 

Peter said on the day of Pentecost, quoting what David said of the Messiah, that two things were for certain (Acts 2:25-32):

First of all, the soul or spirit of Christ was not left in Hades.

I want to make it clear that the word “hell” in the KJV is very unfortunate. The Greek word is ‘Hades,’ not ‘gehenna,’ which is the word for Hell.  Hades in all places is a place of punishment, but it is not the final destination for the sinner.  

Peter is quoting from Psalm 16, which speaks of the Messiah, and there the Hebrew word is ‘Sheol.’ (Sheol is used by the Hebrews to mean both “the grave” and the realm of unrighteous spirits of those who have died.  In this passage Peter interprets it as being “hades.”[3]  Sheol refers to the entire scope of the realm of the dead: body, souls in hates, and souls of the fathers [faithful].

Peter states in verse 31 “that He was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh suffer decay.”  The emphasis here is toward the word “abandoned.”  Egkataleipo means “to desert, be abandon or forgotten, to leave helpless.”  A helpful parallel to understand the meaning is found in 2Timothy 4:10.  Paul, writing of Demas says, “Demas, having love this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.”  Demas was in the same place as Paul but “deserted” (abandon) him, or left Paul. 

The same word is used by Jesus on the cross when he says, “Eli, Eli lama Sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” (Mt 27:46)  Both the Hebrew and the Greek mean the same thing.  In Matthew Jesus ask God why He was “forsaking” Him; leaving Him.  However, in Acts Peter is saying that after leaving Jesus in Hades He was not “abandon” there, but was taken out of Hades. 

What is clear is that one cannot be abandon in a place unless He is, at that moment, “in” that place.  I cannot leave a book in a room unless I take the book into the room.

This is so with Jesus.  He was in Hades, but God did not leave Him there.  He was taken out by the resurrection of His Spirit from that realm.

Secondly, “nor did His flesh suffer corruption,” which is in the grave.  His body, being physical and real, just as our bodies are physical, was placed in the ground (in this case a tomb).  He was buried.  The normal condition of the physical body in the grave is to putrefy or become corrupt.  If it did, the resurrection reversed the process.  But since Peter, by revelation, states that the body did not see corruption, then we can be assured that corruption did not take place in the body of Jesus.

Therefore, two things are listed, not one: 

1) the grave (place of the body), and

2) Hades, the place of the soul. 

Certainly the resurrection is paramount in the narrative, and is viewed as one event.  But Peter lists these two different elements in the resurrection:  the salvation of the spirit or soul and the salvation of the body.  Resurrection signifies that both body and spirit have been redeemed.

What did Christ do while in Hades? 

This brings us to what did Christ do while in the realm of Hades? The Lord never went anywhere but that He did something. He had a purpose and a plan, and He accomplished it. We find that there were both a proclamation and liberation performed by Him. He both spoke a message and did a work.

His words or proclamation.

“For Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but alive in spirit: in which also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah….. (1Pe 3:18-20a).  Note the two elements:

put to death in the flesh (grave)

made alive in the spirit (spirit in Paradise/Hades, but in this case Hades is under consideration).

It was in His spirit that He went and proclaimed a message to the spirits who were “disobedient” during the days of Noah, and have been in Hades since the flood.

Jesus was not proclaiming a message of second chance.  This is not reasonable based upon “justice.”  However, I am not going to be dogmatic about what he spoke.  No one can say what the message contained.  It would be pure speculation for one to do so.

But that He preach to the disobedient dead is clearly stated. 

His Work

He suffered on behalf of mankind.  This we have already addressed.    (Hebrews 2:9).

Go back to the passages on the wrath of God.  Where was God’s judicial wrath administered?  In Hades.  Christ suffered the judicial wrath of God. Therefore, Jesus Christ was in Hades. 

There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus....Rm 8:1

"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him.  Therefore encourage one another, and build up one another, just as you are doing." (1Th 5:9-10)

It is through this act that He has provided a new and living way whereby we may approach the Father (He 2:10-18), on the basis of the blood of Christ (He 10:19).

But more than this, Christ had to be the firstfruit from death.

No one could enter into God’s presence through death before the Son did. (Col 1:18)

He is “the forerunner” (He 6:20), and the leader of many others, being their Captain (He 2:10).   .

This is why Christ said: “…I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it.” (Mt 16:18).

Not one person who is saved through Christ will descend into Hades

Thus through death Christ destroyed both the power and the fear of death.

Thank God for the deaths Christ died. He tasted death for every man. He through death has conquered death, and stands the Victor over death. (Jn 11:25-26; 8:51). Christ has changed death for every believer.

He removed the realm of Paradise to the place of His presence. 

Ephesians 4:8-10 (Ps 68:18). 

[1] booz'-um (kolpos Abraam; kolpoi Abraam): Figurative. The expression occurs in Luke 16:22-23, in the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, to denote the place of repose to which Lazarus was carried after his death. The figure is suggested by the practice of the guest at a feast reclining on the breast of his neighbor. Thus, John leaned on the breast of Jesus at supper (John 21:20). The rabbis divided the state after death (Sheol) into a place for the righteous and a place for the wicked; but it is doubtful whether the figure of Jesus quite corresponds with this idea. "Abraham's bosom" is not spoken of as in "Hades," but rather as distinguished from it Lk 16:23) -a place of blessedness by itself. It is in this place that Abraham receives, as at a feast, the truly faithful, and admits them to closest intimacy. It may be regarded as equivalent to the "Paradise" of Luke 23:43.  ISBE

[2] Job 10:21; Ps 89:49; Is 14:9; Mt 11:23; 16:18; Lu 10:15; 16:23; Acts 2:27, 31; 1Co 15:55; Rev 1:18; 6:8; 20:13-14

[3] The Abode of the Dead: Into Sheol, when life is ended, the dead are gathered in their tribes and families. Hence, the expression frequently occurring in the Pentateuch, "to be gathered to one’s people," "to go to one’s fathers," etc. (Ge 15:15; 25:8,17; 49:33; Nu 20:24,28; 31:2; De 32:50; 34:5). It is figured as an under-world (Isa 44:23; Eze 26:20, etc.), and is described by other terms, as "the pit" (Job 33:24; Ps 28:1; 30:3; Pr 1:12; Isa 38:18, etc.), ABADDON (which see) or Destruction (Job 26:6; 28:22; Pr 15:11), the place of "silence" (Ps 94:17; 115:17), "the land of darkness and the shadow of death" (Job 10:21 f). It is, as the antithesis of the living condition, the synonym for everything that is gloomy, inert, insubstantial (the abode of Rephaim, "shades," Job 26:5; , Pr 2:18; 21:16; Isa 14:9; 26:14). It is a "land of forgetfulness," where God’s "wonders" are unknown (Ps 88:10-12). There is no remembrance or praise of God (Ps 6:5; 88:12; 115:17, etc.). In its darkness, stillness, powerlessness, lack of knowledge and inactivity, it is a true abode of death; hence, is regarded by the living with shrinking, horror and dismay (Ps 39:13; Isa 38:17-19), though to the weary and troubled it may present the aspect of a welcome rest or sleep (Job 3:17-22; 14:12 f). The Greek idea of Hades was not dissimilar.

(1) Not a State of Unconsciousness. Yet it would be a mistake to infer, because of these strong and sometimes poetically heightened contrasts to the world of the living, that Sheol was conceived of as absolutely a place without consciousness, or some dim remembrance of the world above. This is not the case. Necromancy rested on the idea that there was some communication between the world above and the world below (De 18:11); a Samuel could be summoned from the dead (1Sa 28:11-15); Sheol from beneath was stirred at the descent of the king of Babylon (Isa 14:9 ). The state is rather that of slumbrous semi-consciousness and enfeebled existence from which in a partial way the spirit might temporarily be aroused. Such conceptions, it need hardly be said, did not rest on revelation, but were rather the natural ideas formed of the future state, in contrast with life in the body, in the absence of revelation. In this aspect of Sheol it is the body that is being considered and not the spirit. 

(2) Not Removed from God’s Jurisdiction.

It would be yet more erroneous to speak with Dr. Charles (Eschatology, 35 ff) of Sheol as a region "quite independent of Yahweh, and outside the sphere of His rule." "Sheol is naked before God," says Job, "and Abaddon hath no covering" (Job 26:6). "If I make my bed in Sheol," says the Psalmist, "behold thou art there" (Ps 139:8). The wrath of Yahweh burns unto the lowest Sheol (De 32:22). As a rule there is little sense of moral distinctions in the Old Testament representations of Sheol, yet possibly these are not altogether wanting (on the above and others points in theology of Sheol).

 

[George Hayduke]

Where was Adam before Jehovah created him from the dust? Nowhere. He did not exist.

 

 

Seriously...?

 

How do you reconcile your claim with Ephesians 1:3-5?

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,…

 

How can God choose someone who doesn't exist?

 

Edited August 19, 2015 by George Hayduke

[Nelg]

Fly, I am seeing more and more how the JW's are an example of the "natural man" in First Corinthians 2:14-16.  

[EagleEye]

 Luke 16:19-31 spells out what Jesus Christ had to say about eternity and the afterlife...most telling the final statement "...if they don't hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one rose from the dead..."

 

on Aug 11 Texas Granny posted " If you don't believe in miracles watch this"....a man raised from the dead to give his testimony to the United Nations April 2015...my dear friend the late Dr Richard Eby also was brought back...Fly there have been numerous cases of people who have experienced both heaven and hell and returned to speak of it...

 

BUT....if the Words of Jesus Himself : ie THE LOGOS (the WORD) do not persuade you their testimony likely wont impact you either...