I would equate it to the Twilight Zone...........
Christian views on Hades - Wikipedia
Old Testament
In the
Septuagint (an ancient translation of the
Hebrew Bible into
Greek), the Greek term ᾅδης (Hades) is used to translate the Hebrew term שאול (
Sheol) in, for example,
Isaiah 38:18.
[1]
New Testament
This is a folk-art allegorical map based on Matthew 7:13–14 Bible Gateway by the woodcutter Georgin François in 1825.
In
New Testament Greek, the Hebrew phrase "לא־תעזב נפשׁי לשׁאול" (you will not abandon my soul to
Sheol) in
Psalm 16:10 is quoted in
Acts 2:27 as "οὐκ ἐγκαταλείψεις τὴν ψυχήν μου εἰς ᾅδου" (you will not abandon my soul to
Hades).
In the
Textus Receptus version of the New Testament, on which the English
King James Version is based, the word "ᾅδης" (Hades), appears 11 times;
[2] but critical editions of the text of
1 Corinthians 15:55 have "θάνατος" (death) in place of "ᾅδης".
[3] Except in this verse of 1 Corinthians, where it uses "grave", the King James Version translates "ᾅδης" as "hell". Modern translations, for which there are only 10 instances of the word "ᾅδης" in the New Testament, generally transliterate it as "Hades".
In all appearances but one, "ᾅδης" has little if any relation to
afterlife rewards or punishments. The one exception is Luke's parable of
Lazarus and the rich man, in which the rich man finds himself, after death, in Hades,
[4] and "in anguish in this flame",
[5] while in contrast the
angels take
Lazarus to "the
bosom of Abraham",
[6] described as a state of comfort.
[7]
Death and Hades are repeatedly associated in the
Book of Revelation.
[8] The word "Hades" appears in Jesus' promise to Peter: "And I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it",
[9] and in the
warning to Capernaum: "And thou, Capernaum, shalt thou be exalted unto heaven? thou shalt go down unto Hades."
[10]
The word "Hades" in Christian usage in English
In English usage the word "Hades" first appears around 1600, as a transliteration of the Greek word "ᾅδης" in the line in the
Apostles' Creed, "He descended into hell", the place of waiting (the place of "the spirits in prison"
1 Peter 3:19) into which Jesus is there affirmed to have gone after the
Crucifixion.
This development whereby "hell" came to be used to mean only the "hell of the damned" affected also the Latin word "infernum" and the corresponding words in Latin-derived languages, as in the name "Inferno" given to the first part of
Dante's
Divina Commedia. Greek, on the other hand, has kept the original meaning of "ᾅδης" (Hades) and uses the word "κόλασις" (
kólasis – literally, "punishment"; cf.
Matthew 25:46, which speaks of "everlasting
kolasis") to refer to what nowadays is usually meant by "hell" in English.
Church teachings
Main article:
Intermediate state
The dead as conscious
Most mainstream Christian denominations and churches believe in some form of conscious existence after the death of the body.
Eastern Orthodox
The teaching of the
Eastern Orthodox Church is that, "after the soul leaves the body, it journeys to the
abode of the dead (Hades).
The
Church of the East,
Oriental Orthodoxy, the
Eastern Orthodox Church and the
Roman Catholic Church, hold that a final
Universal Judgment will be pronounced on all human beings when soul and body are reunited in the
resurrection of the dead. They also believe that the fate of those in the abode of the dead differs, even while awaiting resurrection:
Roman Catholic
The
Latin word
infernus or
infernum (
underworld) indicated the abode of the dead and so was used as the equivalent of the Greek word "ᾅδης" (hades). It appears in both the documents quoted above, and pointed more obviously than the Greek word to an existence beneath the earth. Later, the transliteration "hades" of the Greek word ceased to be used in Latin and "infernum" became the normal way of expressing the idea of Hades. Though "infernus" is usually translated into English as "hell", it did not have the narrow sense that the English word has now acquired. It continued to have the generic meaning of "abode of the dead". For the modern narrow sense the term "infernum damnatorum" (hell of the damned) was used, as in question 69, article 7 of the Supplement of the
Summa Theologica of
Thomas Aquinas, which distinguishes five states or abodes of the dead: paradise, hell of the damned,
limbo of children,
purgatory, and
limbo of the Fathers: "The soul separated from the body is in the state of receiving good or evil for its merits; so that after death it is either in the state of receiving its final reward, or in the state of being hindered from receiving it.
Anglican
The Anglican Catechist states that "there is an intermediate state between death and the
resurrection, in which the soul does not sleep in unconsciousness, but exists in happiness or misery till the resurrection, when it shall be reunited to the body and receive its final reward."
[14] John Henry Hobart, an Anglican bishop, writes that "Hades, or the place of the dead, is represented as a spacious
receptacle with gates, through which the dead enter."
[15] This space is divided into
Paradise and
Gehenna "
Methodist
In the
Methodist Church, "
hades denotes the intermediate state of souls between death and the
general resurrection," which is divided into
Paradise (for the righteous) and
Gehenna (for the wicked).
[20][21] After the
general judgment,
hades will be abolished.
[21] John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, "made a distinction between
hell (the receptacle of the damned) and hades (the receptacle of all separate spirits), and also between paradise (the antechamber of heaven) and
heaven itself."
[22][23]
Reformed
John Calvin held that the
intermediate state is conscious and that the wicked suffer in hell.
The dead as unconscious
Main article:
Christian mortalism
Several groups of Christians believe in
Christian mortalism or "
soul sleep" and in
general judgment ("
Last Judgment") only. Denominations that see the dead in the
intermediate state as not having consciousness include early Unitarians, Christian
Universalists,
Christadelphians,
Seventh-day Adventists[25] and
Jehovah's Witnesses.
[26]
The views of Lutherans and Anglicans vary.
Martin Luther himself appears inconsistent in his views though generally maintained that souls remained asleep until the resurrection whereupon hell awaited the condemned.
[27] "I am not so sure what hell is like before the Day of Judgment
The
Church of England has a variety of views on the
death state. Some, such as
N. T. Wright have proposed a view of the grave which considers Hades to be a place where the dead sleep, and
E. W. Bullinger argued for the cessation of the soul between death and resurrection.
[28]
Some Christians believe in the soul's
mortality ("
Christian mortalism" or "
soul sleep") and
general judgment ("
Last Judgment") only. This view is held by some
Anglicans such as
E. W. Bullinger.
[29] Proponents of the mortality of the soul, and general judgment, for example Advent Christians, Conditionalists,
Seventh-day Adventists,
Jehovah's Witnesses,
Christadelphians, and Christian
Universalists, argue that the story of the rich man and Lazarus is a parable using the framework of Jewish views of the
Bosom of Abraham, and is
metaphorical, and is not definitive teaching on the intermediate state for several reasons. After being emptied of the dead, Hades and death are thrown into the
lake of fire in
Revelation 20:13–14.
.