WHAT DID JESUS SAY WITH REGARDS TO HELL?
Jesus has the keys to “Hell” NOW.
Revelation 1:17-18
And when I [Apostle John] saw Him [God, Christ], I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I [Christ] HAVE THE KEYS OF HADES [Hell] AND OF DEATH.
[EXCERPT]
(The following is an EXCERPT copied from: “He Descended Into Hell” by Joe Rigney… http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/he-descended-into-hell
“First of all, what exactly is death? Death is separation, a dividing of things that ought to be united. Fundamentally, it is separation from God. Paul suggests as much in Ephesians 2:1: “You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked.” To walk in sin is to be dead, to be enslaved to dark powers, to be separated from God, to be children of his wrath. This type of separation is an estrangement, a hostility, an alienation from the life and hope of the living God. In this sense, all of us, by nature, are born dead, and it is this death that Jesus endured in his suffering on the cross [and hell]…”
THIS IS WHY JESUS SAID THAT HE CAME TO SAVE THE WORLD AND NOT JUDGE IT:
Jesus came to free the world [MANKIND], not judge it:
John 12:47
And if anyone hears My [Jesus’] words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but TO SAVE [bring Salvation] THE WORLD.
[Joe Rigney Continues] “In the Old Testament, Sheol is the place of the souls of the dead, both the righteous (like Jacob…) and the wicked (Psalm 31:17)… It is under the earth (Numbers 16:30–33), and it is like a city with gates (Isaiah 38:10) and bars (Job 17:16). It is a land of darkness, a place where shades, the shadowy souls of men, dwell (Isaiah 14:9; 26:14).
It is the LAND OF FORGETFULNESS [not remembrance] (Psalm 88:12), where no work is done and no wisdom exists (Ecclesiastes 9:10). MOST SIGNIFICANTLY, SHEOL IS A PLACE WHERE NO ONE PRAISES GOD (Psalm 6:5; 88:10–11; 115:17; Isaiah 38:18)…”]
[EXCERPT END]
[VERSES GIVEN IN THE LAST PARAGRAPH ABOVE]
Psalms 6:5
For in death there is NO REMEMBRANCE OF YOU; IN THE GRAVE WHO WILL GIVE YOU THANKS?
Psalms 88:10-13
Will You work wonders for the dead? SHALL THE DEAD ARISE AND PRAISE [thank] YOU? Selah
Shall Your lovingkindness be declared in the grave? Or Your faithfulness in the place of destruction? Shall Your wonders be known in the dark? And Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? But to You I have cried out, O LORD, and in the morning my prayer comes before You.
Psalms 115:17-18
THE DEAD DO NOT PRAISE [thank] THE LORD [our Father], nor any who go down into silence. But WE WILL BLESS THE LORD [our Father] from this time forth and forevermore. PRAISE THE LORD!
[NOTE: Christ gives us eternal Life in a place where we can praise and bless the LORD God our Father.]
Isaiah 38:18-19
FOR SHEOL CANNOT THANK YOU, DEATH CANNOT PRAISE YOU; those who GO DOWN TO THE PIT cannot hope for Your truth [God is the Spirit of truth]. The living, the [Eternally] living man, HE SHALL PRAISE YOU, as I do this day; the father shall make known Your truth to the children.
[Joe Rigney’s EXCERPT Continues] “While much mystery remains, the picture begins to take shape. All dead souls [in the Old Test] go down to Sheol/hades, but Sheol is divided into two distinct sides, one for the righteous and one for the wicked. The righteous who died prior to Christ dwelt in Sheol with Abraham, and though they were cut off from the land of the living (and therefore from the worship of Yahweh on earth), they were not tormented as the wicked were…
“…Based on Jesus’s words to the thief on the cross in Luke 23:43, some Christians believe that after his death, Jesus’s soul went to heaven to be in the presence of the Father. But Luke 23:43 doesn’t say that Jesus would be in the presence of God; it says he would be in the presence of the thief (“Today you will be with me in Paradise”), and based on the Old Testament and Luke 16, it seems likely that the now-repentant thief would be at Abraham’s side, a place of comfort and rest for the righteous dead, WHICH JESUS HERE CALLS PARADISE.
Following his death for sin, then, Jesus journeys to Hades, to the City of Death, and rips its gates off the hinges. He liberates Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, John the Baptist, and the rest of the Old Testament faithful, ransoming them from the power of Sheol (Psalm 49:15; 86:13; 89:48). They had waited there for so long, not having received what was promised, so that their spirits would be made perfect along with the saints of the [New Testament] new covenant [thru Christ] (Hebrews 11:39–40; 12:23).
After his resurrection, Jesus ascends to heaven and brings the ransomed dead with him, so that now Paradise is no longer down near the place of torment, but is UP IN THE THIRD HEAVEN, THE HIGHEST HEAVEN, WHERE GOD DWELLS (2 Corinthians 12:2–4 )…”
[END OF EXCERPT by Joe Rigney]
We know that those once held in the spiritual “prison”, hell, not Abraham’s bosom, were also set free:
1 Peter 3:18-19
For Christ also suffered once for [ALL] sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison [hell]…
JESUS’ OWN TRIP INTO HELL
Many years ago, Jesus spoke to me and said, “Jonah.” I was not sure why He had said this and went about my day as normal. Later in the day He again said, “Jonah.” This time I asked Him why He was saying this. He answered, “How did I conquer Hell in your behalf; how did I win over satan?”
I answered, “I believe you engaged and won through physical battle? Jesus said, “Go to Jonah and read the Truth.” His Holy Spirit then reminded me of Jesus’ three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a fish.
Matthew 12, below, tells us that Jesus, Himself, compared His own three days and three nights in the heart of the earth to Jonah’s three days and nights in the belly of a fish:
(Matthew 12:39-41)
But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.
After reading this, Jesus told me to go to Jonah and study how He had risen:
(Jonah 2:1- 10)
Then Jonah [ALSO Christ] prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly. 2 And he said: I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, and He answered me. “Out of the belly of Sheol [Hell] I cried, and You heard my voice. For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me; all Your billows and Your waves passed over me. Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight; yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’ The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; the deep closed around me; weeds were wrapped around my head. I went down to the moorings of the mountains; the earth with its bars closed behind me forever; yet YOU HAVE BROUGHT UP MY LIFE FROM THE PUT, O Lord, my God. “WHEN MY SOUL FAINTED WITHIN ME, I REMEMBERED THE LORD [His Father]; and my prayer went up to You, into Your holy temple. “Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own Mercy.
But I [Jesus] WILL SACRIFICE TO YOU WITH THE VOICE OF THANKSGIVING; I WILL PAY WHAT I HAVE VOWED. SALVATION IF OF THE LORD.”
So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
Please remember the THREE things that Jesus did in order to overpower satan and his realm of eternal death, darkness, sin, sickness…
(1) He “REMEMBERED the Lord, His Father”
[He remembered His Father and the intimacy they share/shared. He remembered His God’s goodness, holiness, righteous judgments…. He literally, because there is no remembrance in Hell, had to renew and fill His memory with all that God Almighty, His/our Father, is and was to Him.]
(2) He “SACRIFICED [with His lips] to God “with a voice of Thanksgiving [and Praise]
(Hebrews 13:15)
Therefore by Him let us CONTINUALLY offer the SACRIFICE OF PRAISE TO GOD, that is, THE FRUIT OF OUR LIPS, GIVING THANKS TO HIS NAME.
(3) He “PAID WHAT HE HAD VOWED” as He confesses, “Salvation is of the Lord,” His Father.
[NOTE: As Christ confessed that God His Father is Salvation, He was making the same kind of confession that all Believers are asked to make. Christ is both our intercessor and our example. Our confession that “Christ is our Lord” is the same kind of confession (see 1 Cor 12:20). Our salvation comes because of and through Jesus Christ’s sacrifice for us.
WHY ARE THE THREE STEPS LISTED ABOVE NECESSARY?
The following verses explain why Jesus REMEMBERED and PRAISED GOD, when He was in Hell, a realm in which no one REMEMBERS or PRAISES HIM; and why He was then victorious over satan, and then rose from hell:
PRAISE and THANKS STOPS GOD’S/OUR ENEMY! WHY?
You too can be raised from all darkness through God’s holy PRAISE and THANKS [from your lips] when engulfed in satan’s darkness:
Psalms 8:2
Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants YOU [God Almighty] HAVE ORDAINED STRENGTH, BECAUSE OF YOUR ENEMIES, THAT YOU MAY SILENCE and STILL [cause to fail] THE ENEMY AND THE AVENGER [satan, devil].
[NOTE: Strong’s Concordance defines “strength” as: “force, security, majesty, praise… boldness, loud, might, power, strength, strong.” We literally release the power of God into ANY GIVEN SITUATION OR PLACE, when we give God His Holy Praise and Thanks though our hearts, minds and mouths.]
Matthew 21:14-16
Then the blind and the lame came to Him [Jesus] in the temple, and He healed them. But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant and said to Him, “Do You hear what these are saying?”
And Jesus said to them, “Yes. Have you never read, ‘OUT OF THE MOUTH OF BABES [all God’s children] AND NURSING INFANTS YOU [His/our Father] HAVE PERFECTED [completed thoroughly] PRAISE’?”
[NOTE: We are PERFECTED and completed as God’s Praise and Word is spoken through us, especially in High Praise: which is God’s Holy Spirit speaks/prays through you.]
When we enter into God’s High Praise, Praise given by God’s Holy Spirit through our mouths, we enter into God’s Will and Way for us. This stops God’s enemy, who never stops his relentless pursuit of God’s people; He never ceases attempting to stop us. God’s praise through us CAUSES us to remember who God is: we REMEMBER our Father and Christ, just as Jesus did in hell (a realm in which there is no REMEMBERANCE and PRAISE). Yes, THANKS and PRAISE truly stops God’s/our enemy in his tracks when we offer it up to God through our born again spirit’s soul, mind, and heart.
Remembering and thanking God for who He is CAUSES YOU to place God and His love for you foremost in your mind; you no longer concentrate on satan’s fear and temptation.
Psalms 16:9-11 teaches us:
Psalms 16:9-11
Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will rest in hope. FOR YOU WILL NOT LEAVE MY SOUL IN SHEOL, NOR ALLOW YOUR HOLY ONE [ones] TO SEE CORRUPTION. YOU WILL SHOW ME THE PATH OF [ETERNAL] LIFE; IN YOUR PRESENCE [God our Father] IS THE FULLNESS OF JOY [Christ endured the cross for the joy that was set before Him; Heb.12:2]; at Your right hand [where Jesus sits] are pleasures forevermore.
Romans 8:10-11 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead WILL ALSO GIVE LIFE TO YOUR MORTAL [human] BODIES through His Spirit who dwells in you [as He praises God, our Father, through you/your lips].
[SUMMATION]
Jesus Christ, in our place, was delivered from all evil and hell in the same way that you can be while you are still on earth. We too must:
(1) “REMEMBER the LORD, our Father God Almighty; and His Son, Jesus Christ”
[We must remember our God/the Trinity, and the intimacy God shares with us; we must remember God’s goodness, holiness, righteous judgments… not only toward us, but toward all mankind (even when we do not feel like it).]
(2) We must then “SACRIFICE [with our lips] to God “with a voice of Thanksgiving [and Praise]
[This begins the holy process within us that is called “Salvation and Transformation into God’s nature”; and this begins our own resurrection into the Kingdom of God within us (see Luke 17:21).
Soon we begin to literally witness to, and feel the love of God within our heart as it rises in God’s own celebration, praise, and thanks of who He is and His perfect gift to us and for us: His Eternal Life with Him. Our own love for God and all mankind becomes much more intense and sincere; it is given to God on a much higher plain than we have known before (this is God’s High Praise)]
Hebrews 13:15
… BY HIM [as the Spirit in His name speaks through us] LET US CONTINUALLY OFFER THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE TO GOD, THAT IS THE FRUIT OF OUR LIPS, GIVING THANKS TO HIS NAME.
Psalms 149:1-6
Sing to the LORD a new song, and His praise in the assembly of saints. Let Israel rejoice in their Maker; let the children of Zion [New Jerusalem] be joyful in their King. Let them praise His name with the dance; let them sing praises to Him with the timbrel and harp. For the Lord takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the humble with salvation. Let the saints be joyful in glory; let them sing aloud on their beds. Let the HIGH PRAISES OF GOD be in their mouth…
(3) We have, and always will confess, “Salvation is of God, and came from our Lord”.
[When you feel that you are under siege by God’s enemy, REMEMBER GOD YOUR FATHER AND JESUS CHRIST THROUGH GOD’S HOLY SPIRIT WITHIN YOU. REMEMBER THEIR LOVE FOR YOU; literally REMEMBER, CONCENTRATE and MEDITATE ON their love for you and all mankind. OFFER THANKS AND PRAISE AS THE HOLY SPIRIT SPEAKS THROUGH YOU, because He knows what is best for you and for all; AND REPEAT THE WORDS GIVEN BY CHRIST, HIMSELF, “SALVATION IS OF THE LORD [His Father, and Christ Jesus His Son].
GOD IS ONE:
(Galatians 3:20)
Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.
(Ephesians 4:6)
One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
(John 17:3)
[Jesus said] And THIS IS ETERNAL LIFE, THAT THEY MIGHT KNOW YOU [Father] THE ONLY TRUE GOD, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
*******
(*1a) “REUNITED HIS SOUL WITH HIS NOW GLORIFIED BODY”: See
“All Souls Are In The Blood, Including Christ’s” (Biblical Proof)
