THE ABODE OF THE HOLY DEAD
By D. M. PANTON
The
statement will probably come as a great surprise to the vast majority of modern
Christians, even including the bulk of prophetical students, that for the first
five centuries after Christ the mediaeval and modern doctrine that dead saints
are [now] in
heaven was unknown. But such is the fact. "The most ancient of all the Fathers," says Dr.
Pearson in his classic work on the Creed, "were
so far from believing that the end of Christ's descent into Hades was to
translate the saints of old into heaven, that they thought them not
to be in heaven yet, nor ever to be removed from that place [from
Hades/Sheol] until the
general resurrection: very few (if any) for above five hundred years after
Christ did believe that Christ delivered the saints out of Hades."
While
this antagonism of the first five centuries to the modern view is not by itself
a sufficient disproof of the doctrine, it frees us at once from any obligation
to defend it as a sacred deposit reaching us from the Apostles, and puts us
instantly on our guard lest, in accepting it, we are accepting an error of the
later 'fathers.' The denial of the modern
belief of the first five centuries after Christ is a fact of the first
magnitude.
Now
there is no question, our Lord Himself being our Instructor, that in His
lifetime, as throughout all preceding ages, the saved dead were in
Hades; for "all" - as Solomon had said (Eccles. 3: 20) - "go
unto one place." It is obvious that the Hades to which
his angelic escort carry Lazarus is not
heaven, since within its confines is 'this place
of torment' (Luke 16: 28).³ The two compartments of the
abode of the dead our Lord unveils more clearly than has ever been done before
or since: Sheol, and Abaddon
(or Death); two places, so that our Lord says - "I hold the keys [in the plural] of Death and of Hades" (Rev.
1: 18); and, ultimately, Death and Hades, as outworn prisons, are cast
into the “Lake of Fire” (Rev. 20: 14), which in its turn is named 'Death,' the eternal abode of the wicked.
Thus we are on sure ground in stating, on Christ's authority, that
within His lifetime all the saved dead were in Hades. "No MAN,"
He says, at least up to the moment He spoke the words, "HATH ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN" (John 3: 13).
Next,
we find that our Lord Himself descended into Hades in His
compassing all human experience. Paul says:-
"He also descended into the lower parts of the
earth" (Eph. 4:10)
"who shall descend into THE ABYSS - that
is, to bring Christ up from the dead?" (Rom.
10: 7). So therefore Peter
spake of the resurrection of the
Christ, that "neither was HE left in Hades,
nor did his flesh see corruption" (Acts
2: 27,31). The Representative Man's descent
into Hades to fulfil all human experience proves that up to that moment the
descent was all human experience still.
But
this establishes a point crucial to the revelation of the intermediate state.
The Saviour said on the cross to the dying malefactor, - "This day shalt thou be
with me IN PARADISE" (Luke 23:
43): the Paradise of which He speaks must therefore be a section of
Hades, for into Hades He went immediately on dying: and this is put beyond all
challenge or doubt by our Lord Himself saying to Mary in the garden, three days
later, "I HAVE NOT YET ASCENDED UNTO MY FATHER"
(John 20: 17); that is, for three days
and three nights HE had been below, in the Paradise which is "IN THE HEART OF THE EARTH" (Matt. 12: 40). This Paradise therefore -
Paradise without an epithet - cannot be the Paradise on high, which is
described as "the
So
therefore in our Lord's lifetime, and in our Lord's own experience, the holy
dead are in Hades; and next, as a later stage, on the other side of
the Ascension - and this is critical - we have once again the solid
utterance of inspiration that the saved dead are in Hades STILL. For
speaking ten days after the Ascension, and so ten days
after the current view supposes that our Lord had taken all the saved dead to
heaven with Him, the Apostle says :- "David
is NOT ascended into the heavens" (Acts
2: 34). "His tomb," Peter says - his unbroken tomb -
"is with us," a proof positive (argues
the Apostle) of a spirit - [disembodied soul,
Ed.] – un-ascended into heaven, un-risen, left
in Hades. Therefore the conception that since the Ascension [of Christ] redeemed
souls in dying wing their way up to the Throne of God is quite untrue.
Thus the comfort Jesus gives to John thirty to forty years after the
Ascension, when the Apostle falls at His feet 'as one
dead,' is - "I hold the keys of Death
and of Hades" (Rev. 1: 18),
Hades thus being no more emptied than Abaddon, but
both being now in the direct, personal
custody and control of Christ. For our Lord has "led captivity captive" (Eph. 4:8) - He has
enslaved the underworld, dying "that he might
become Lord of both the dead and the living" (
Now
therefore we are prepared for a word of Christ which covers the whole Church
throughout the centuries until His return. "Upon this rock,"
He says, "I will build my church; and the
gates of HADES shall not prevail against IT" (Matt. 16: 18) - shall not overpower, shall not
master, the holy dead. Thus towards the close of His ministry our
Lord said:- "I will
build my church," which was then, therefore, non-existent; and
shortly after Pentecost we read - "great fear came
upon the whole church" (Acts 5:
11), thus mentioned as existing for the first time: therefore between
these two dates - doubtless (as almost universally believed) at Pentecost, the
Church was born. Now this is decisive. For if our Saviour had emptied Paradise at His
Ascension ten days before Pentecost, it could not have been the Church that was
removed, for the Church was then non-existent; and it follows that either the
Church has never been in Hades at all - which would exactly negative our Lord's
words - or else, if the saints are in heaven, a later emptying has taken place
of which Scripture knows nothing. The truth is obvious - the whole Church
(with the slender exception of the living rapt at the close of the Age)
experiences Hades down twenty centuries until, the moral fetters of sin having
been broken, in due time the massive gates roll back to let forth the rising
saints.
A
crucial fact finally crowns the evidence. Ten centuries after the
First Resurrection,
and in the moment of the final muster of the dead for judgement, from both departments
of the underworld - and not from one only - stream up the dual dead. "Death and Hades
give up the dead which are in THEM" (Rev. 20: 13). The dead issuing from Hades as
distinct from Death, or Abaddon, cannot have died
later than the First Resurrection, for no righteous die in the Kingdom (Isa. 65: 20), and the unrighteous, dying, go to Abaddon. Exactly in
accord with our Lord's words:- "All that are in the graves
shall come forth: they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and
they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation" (John 5: 28). Thus what the entire Church
held for the first five centuries after Christ is the truth;
namely, that HADES HOLDS ALL THE DEAD UNTIL RESURRECTION - THE FIRST,
and then the final - has done its work, when Death and Hades themselves - the
old prison-houses now useless in a deathless eternity - "were cast" - literal localities, for ever
ceremonially unclean - "into the lake of fire"
(Rev. 20: 14).
Scanty
but precious light is cast on our intermediate home - when we shall be "at home with the Lord" (2
Cor. 5: 8). "To
me to live is Christ, and to die is gain: to depart
and be with Christ; for it is far better" (Phil.
1: 22): "far, far better, even than a life
which 'is Christ'" (Bishop Moule).
"Dying is
hard," once said an old saint, "but death
is delightful." The revelation comes with great force,
for Paul alone of mankind had been in
-------
NOTES
[All matter in square brackets is mine. – WHT.]
In
the A.V. translation the reader is prevented from the study of death and
resurrection because of its indiscriminate use of the word "hell", which today is believed by the vast
majority of believers to mean the eternal state of the lost. Sheol (the Hebrew word,
equivalent in meaning to the Greek word "Hades")
and Hades in the A.V. are rendered "grave," "pit,"
and "hell." However, in any
Greek/English Interlinear, or the Revised Version (1881), the distinction is
made. This is one example, and a very
important one, where the R.V. translation (and even the N.I.V. translation in
certain places) are
superior to that of the A.V. - Authorised King James Version.
Hades
is taken for the whole abode of the dead in the underworld of Hades: for 'the rich man in Hades'
is said to have "looked up (presumably
from a lower region of Hades) and saw Abraham far away,"
(Luke 16: 23); so also Korah's
company "went down alive into [not
Abaddon, but] Sheol" (Num.
16: 30). Hades is sometimes confined to the holy compartment, (Rev. 1: 18; Luke 16: 26, etc.).
Many
of the ancient fathers understood of the descent into Hades, as placed in the
lowest parts of the earth; and this exposition must be expressed so probable,
that there can be no argument to disprove it. "That the soul of Christ was in Hades," says Augustine, "no Christian can deny" (J. Pearson, D.D.). St. Basil, commenting on Psalm 49: 15, - " But
God will redeem my soul from the hand of Hades, for he shall
receive me," - writes thus - "He
clearly prophesies the descent of the Lord into Hades, who will redeem the
prophet's soul also together with those of his saints from that place, so that
they shall not remain there." This can only happen at the
time of resurrection, when body, soul, and spirit, are reunited.
In
2 Corinthians chapter twelve, verses two and four, there is no indication of any particular
direction. The Greek reads
:.. "I know not, God knows, caught such a
one to the third heaven" (verse 2).
"that he was caught into the paradise and heard unspeakable words …"
(verse 4). The English translators have inserted the word "up", apparently on the assumption that the third
heaven and
[Every
Scriptural truth is a death-blow to all error. - "Paradise"
(according to Scripture) is (at present) the intermediate home of God's people
of all dispensations (Ages) between the Paradise (in
[King
David's unbroken tomb, is not a positive proof that his
decomposed body has not been
resurrected, for it is evident that the resurrection body can pass through solid matter.
Proof of the latter is stated in the
case of our Lord, as recorded in John 20: 19.
Furthermore, it is not the spirit that ascends from Hades, but the soul.
There are spirits in Hades, but they are angelic creatures. The ‘spirits in prison’ in the underworld,
may possibly refer to the Nephilim, (Gen. 6: 2, 4)..
The
expression "led captivity captive," is
one used frequently to endeavour to disprove that the disembodied souls of the
godly dead are no longer in Hades. It is
asserted that the words refer to the godly dead who were (supposedly)
transferred from Hades into heaven at the time of the resurrection of Christ. But in Judges 5:
12, where we have the first mention of the expression, it refers to enemies,
not friends! This is another instance where a false doctrine is asserted
by means of one reading into a portion of Scripture what is not stated in that
Scripture. We must always interpret
Scripture by Scripture, not by our personal beliefs, which may be biased.
If all (or any of) the godly dead were transferred out of Hades at the time of
Christ's resurrection, then what is the meaning of the numerous passages which
teach us the contrary? Resurrection is the reuniting of the soul and
spirit to an immortal body, and according to the Word of God,
this has not yet taken place.]
[I do not
agree with Mr. Panton's definition of the "Church." I
believe the Church is a called out company of believers chosen by God, which
began with Adam and will continue at least until the end of the Lord's
Millennium. We read of "the Church in the
wilderness" (Acts 7: 38),
referring to the redeemed "children of
"The assumption that the souls issuing from Death and Hades
embrace only such as incur the punishment of the Lake of Fire is based upon the false hypothesis that all
believers rose from the dead at the beginning of the Millennial Kingdom"
(Lange). This is what the
Scriptures teach. The first resurrection
is one of reward (Phil. 3: 11; Heb. 11: 35):
for the righteous, (Luke 14: 14).
If all believers rise in the first resurrection, why would it be necessary to
open and examine "the Book of Life,” a
thousand years later? (Rev. 20 :
11-15; 20: 4-6)].
"Where can I go from your presence? If I go up to
the heavens, you are there. If I make my bed in the depths (Hebrew,
"Sheol), YOU ARE THERE," (Psalm 139: 8) "The
fundamental fact, so constantly ignored, is that, until resurrection,
the body is unredeemed (Rom. 8: 23),"
(Panton).
For disembodied souls to enter into the Divine presence in heaven without
a resurrected, immortal body, is for uncleanness to
enter the Holy of Holies: for death, (with the Curse clinging to it), to enter
into the presence of Life. "In the Lord's
trenchant words: ‘GOD IS NOT THE GOD OF THE DEAD’
(Matt. 22: 32).
By resurrection ONLY can He prove Himself the God of a Patriarch now
(Luke 16: 23) in
Hades,"(Panton).
"The falling into oblivion the truth of Hades not only dislodged
the doctrine of the millennium - for who would wish to descend from the
supernal Glory even to a millennial earth, after (in some cases) thousands of
years in the immediate presence of Deity? - but even more disastrously
dislodged the truth of the resurrection, which, for spirits [i.e.,
disembodied souls] already in the full glory of God,
becomes as fantastic as it is unnecessary." (Govett).
-------