Hell or Hades

Hell or Hades - Dual Plan

The word hell is also misleading. It is translated from the Hebrew word Sheol and the Greek word Hades. Both of these words signify the grave. A few texts in which they occur will convince the truth-seeker of their true meaning.

Job says, "If I wait, the grave (Sheol) is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness." (Job. 17: 13.)

David says about the ungodly, "Like sheep they are laid in the Grave (Sheol) , death shall feed on them." (Ps. 49 : 14.)

In Is. 5: 14, where the same word is translated hell, the wrong meaning of the text can readily be detected, "Therefore hell (Sheol) hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it." This has reference to the time of famine.

The corresponding Greek word, Hades, is misused in a similar manner. It occurs eleven times in the New Testament; sometimes it is translated grave and then again hell. In Rev. 6: 8, its meaning is very plain, when it is considered in connection with the symbols representing pest, famine, and general war.

"And I looked, and behold a pale horse (representing the above mentioned death-reapers) : and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell (Hades—the grave) followed after him."

In Rev. 20: 13, 14, the word Hades is also translated hell, and hell generally means the lake of fire. If we then read the following, we can easily see that the translators have attached a wrong and misleading meaning to it. The second resurrection is spoken of here:

"And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell (Hades) delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to his works. And death and hell (Hades) were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death."

If hell represents a lake of fire, then a lake of fire, according to the above language, is cast into a lake of fire. Hades is the grave and not the lake of fire. But when "the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion comes, then the streams shall be turned into pitch and the dust into brimstone and the land shall become burning pitch." (Is. 34: 8, 9.) Then death and Hades (the grave) will be cast into the lake of fire, and when the rich man lifts up his eyes, he is in torment.