Hi &Abel,
Since the definition of sheol is a stumbling block here I would like to address it if we could.
Lets compare the usage of Hades and Sheol to see if there is a similarity of the word meanings.
Both are translated hell in the old and new testament.
Example...
Psa 16:10 "for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell (Heb: sheol), Neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption".
Act 2:27 "Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell (Grk: Hade), neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption".
It is clear here that Psa 16:10 is being quoted in Acts 2:27, so whatever the definition of Hebrew sheol is, is the same as the Greek hade.
Now we establish that sheol and hades have the same definition.
In addition to this we also know that Enoch was of the same language so it too must carry the same definition.
For starters, it is evident that whatever sheol or hades is, one can be removed from it since it states "thou wilt not LEAVE my soul in sheol".
So sheol or hades is not the final state of the dead.
Next we notice that :thou wilt not suffer thine Holy One (Refering to Christ) to see corruption. In other words His body would not decay before He was removed from this sheol/hades.
Before I continue please notice that the word "sheol" was first introduced into scripture in the very passage I just quoted Psa 16:10. You would think that if the sin of Adam and Eve would lead to such an awful sentence of burning in a literal lake of fire for all eternity for their sin that God would have mentioned it when warning Adam and Eve and if not then, at least tell them that they would be going to eternal damnation at some point before David was born and wrote the psalms. The truth is God said that their punishment was simply death. They would die and not live again.
The devil lied and said "Ye shall surely not die". That lie is still being taught but of all places......in the churches. They do not believe the wages of sin is death, they believe that the wages of sin is to live forever but at the same time as living forever you are continually dieing being in torment for all eternity in literal flames that never burn out.
Now back to the word usage of Sheol and hades.
If sheol or hades is a literal abode of the damned and all who enter it remain there forever than what of this passage?
Psa 86:13 For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.
David said that God had mercy on him and delivered him from the LOWEST of sheol.
Psa 139:7 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
Psa 139:8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
David proves right here in this passage that God is even present in sheol. But Christianity teaches that in sheol man is seperated from them and this only adds to their torment. They teach that hell (sheol/hades) is seperation from God yet this passage is clearly stating that there is no way to be seperated from God. The passage is clarifying that God is everywhere at all times in all locatiojns and there is nowhere you can go that can seperate you from the presence of God.
Isa 14:15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
This is part of the parable God commanded Isaiah to speak unto the king of babylon, Melchisidek. We all know what happened to Him when God pronounced His judgment on him. He was hewn down just as the huge tree in his vision was. He has hewn down then left to the desert for many years. Insects made homes in and ate from his beard. He was absolutely depraved but was never sent to an abode of the damned. God brought Him to his lowest point then Melchisidek repented and God restored Him more than he ever had. You see, Sheol and hades are basically two things....
1: Physically dead having no perception of anything for the dead know not anything as scripture declares. Their very memories are gone and it is AS THOUGH they never existed yet we know they did, and we know that they will be raised but the question we are getting to is, raised to what and where?
2: Spiritually dead. Jesus said, let the dead bury the dead". He was refering to their present death which was spiritual because they were as the very dead in the ground (deaf dub and blind), not knowing anything (spiritual). They were dead as they walked and talked. They were already in sheol/hades.
As you know there is the carnal view of things and a spiritual view of things. Those who are burying the dead are the carnal ones. They have no spiritual understanding so they are spiritually dead.
Then there is the spiritual view of things and absolutely everything writtten in scripture is to be understood spiritually for those with eyes to see and ears to hear.
Take the demon possesed man, whom Jesus cast out that which defiled the man, and the man himself was made whole. This man was already in hades/sheol (state of the dead....not nowing any thing) in torments but notice.....Jesus did not leave him in that state. The man never made a prayer for forgivness, he never got on His knees and confessed the Lord with his mouth UNTIL AFTER CHRIST CLEANSED HIM AND MADE HIM WHOLE.
Notice the wording surrounding this text? The possessed man walked among the tombs (death/hades/sheol), He cut himself with stones (the law for He could not keep it). He was naked (exposing His sin and shame).
Now Jesus took that which defiled this man and destroyed it where????? IN A LAKE!!!
1Co 3:13 Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14 If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15 If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
Sound familiar? Resembles the demon possessed man doesnt it?
You see sheol/hades is not a literal geographical location. It is definately not the abode of the damned as our erronious translated bibles suggest.
It is nothing more than the "state" of the dead. That "state" is outlined throughout scripture for those with eyes to see and ears to hear what the SPIRIT is saying, not what the CARNAL MIND can only understand.
Sheol/Hades, is nothing more than not knowing anything which is the same as being physically dead (not knowing anything). So the spiritually dead are not unlike the physical dead in that they know nothing spiritual and are merely going through the actions of life ever learning but never coming to the KNOWLEDGE of the truth which is LIFE. They remain DEAD in this state until they are raised to judgment whereby this nature and state is then changed and the man himself is transformed through this Judgment of the lake of fire (here on earth with a symbolic fire).
"For when thy judgements are in the earth, the world will learn righteousness".
Lastly, I admit that the word "hell" was as good a translation as any at the time the scriptures were translated into latin, but then the definition of the word "hell" changed with the translation of hell into the King James.
The word Hell as of 400 years ago was defined as (the impercievable, unseen). If you go to a good library and find an early release dictionary dating back to roughly 1600 or earlier you will see that this was the proper definition for the word "hell".
The definition was then changed (approx year 1600) to "the abode of the damned where the devil and his agels preside over the lost, etc, etc".
400 plus years ago if someone told you to go to hell and get the potatoes they would simply go to the celler. It was dark and you had to bring a lantern with you to see anything.
So hell WAS a could word until the deifnition of the word hell took a huge change. As such many word defintiions change over long periods of time. First of all translation from one language to another is always imperfect and will always result in errors and this is admitted by scholars and theologians and translators alike. The problem is anyone reading the said translation promotes the reliability and perfection of it resulting in errors of theology.
So in conclusion "the abode of the damned" is not a definition given by Enoch or any other author of scripture. It was a definition that at one point was acceptable until its definition was then altered (drastically). The current definition is a blatant forgery of Gods word and was not and could not be an accident. You can be sure the Catholoc Church was behind this whole thing.
God Bless, Dave
