Hell by T. B. | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Oct 25, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 42.

Hell

By T. B.

3270.—Hell

What is hell, and where is hell? It can not be in this earth or on this earth, because hell is a bottomless pit, but if it were on this earth it would have a bottom; and therefore it must be separate from this earth. There will be a lake of fire, and into the lake hell and death will be cast (Rev. 20:14), and this must be separate from the earth.

The word "hell," which occurs about twenty times in the New Testament, comes from three different words: Hades, meaning the grave, the place of the dead, both wicked and righteous; Gehenna, from the Hebrew of the Valley of Hinnom, a place of punishment; and once from Tartarus, the aerial or dark regions surrounding this world, where the angels were said to have been cast. 2 Peter 2:4. But in every case these expressions pertain to this earth, and all the references to which our friend refers have to do with this earth. As far as the bottomless pit is concerned, referred to in Revelation 20 and elsewhere, it comes from the same Greek term as does the word "deep" in Gen. 1:2 in the Septuagint. That word is abussos. It simply means a dark, void, or empty place, and in Revelation 20 it refers to this earth in its desolate condition when men are destroyed from the face of it by the burning glory of Christ's second coming. At the end of the thousand years, the earth becomes a lake of fire, the wicked are raised from the dead, and with the devil and his angels are cast into the lake of fire. That lake of fire is upon this earth, for then will be fulfilled what is predicted by the apostle Peter in the third chapter of his second epistle, "The elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burned up." Into the burning mass will be cast everything that is identified with sin, and with it death and hell, or the grave—hades—shall perish forever. Then as the apostle declares, "We, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth." But the creative power of God will bring the earth forth from her fiery cleansing, clean swept from sin, and restore it to its primitive beauty, to be the home of God's children forever. "The righteous shall be recompensed in the earth: much more the wicked and the sinner." "The meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace."