Hades

 •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 9
 
The place or state of departed spirits. In the eleven passages where it occurs in the New Testament, it is translated “hell,” except in 1 Cor. 15:5555O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? (1 Corinthians 15:55), where it is always translated “grave.” It is apparently where the Lord’s spirit went to (Acts 2:27, 3127Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. (Acts 2:27)
31He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. (Acts 2:31)
); where Abraham and Lazarus were; where also the rich man was in torment (but between the two a great gulf). It is thus evidently divided absolutely into two parts, the one for the spirit of believers, a place of perfect bliss, the other for the unsaved, a place even now of torment. The one side must not, however, be confounded with the New Jerusalem, the glorious home of the redeemed; nor the other, with the lake of fire, the eternal portion of the lost. At the coming of Christ the spirits of all that are His will leave Hades, and united to glorious bodies be caught up to heaven. At the great white throne the spirits of all the lost will be taken out of it for judgment, and Hades, thus being emptied and no longer required, will be cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:1313And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. (Revelation 20:13)). Of course in this we only go the length human language can reach which can but imperfectly convey to our minds these abodes of spirits. The blest, who are in Hades, are said even now to be “present with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5).