Is hell or hades a literal place where the souls of the damned reside, filled with fire and worms? Or is it something much more terrifying than we could ever imagine?[/quot]
The English translated form "Hell" is a translation of at least three words in scripture; Hebrew "Sheol;" Greek "Tartarus" and Greek "Hades."
Consider:
Gen 3:5 For Elohim (God) doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as Elohim (gods), knowing good and evil.
Gen 3:22 And Jehovah (the LORD) Elohim (God) said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: 23 Therefore Jehovah (the LORD) Elohim (God) sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
Psa 82:6 I have said, Ye are Elohim (gods); and all of you are children of the most High.
John 10:34 (Quoting Psa 82:6) Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are Elohim (gods)? 35 If he called them Elohim (gods), unto whom the word of Elohim (God) came, and the scripture cannot be broken;
Psa 8:3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; 4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? 5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the Elohim (angels), and hast crowned him with glory and honour. 6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: 7 All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; 8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. 9 O Jehovah (LORD) our Adone (Lord), how excellent is thy name in all the earth!
Oikeeteerion [Strong's #3613]
Though God created Adam in flesh, it was never his intention that flesh and blood would inherit a kingdom intended for spiritual inhabitants. Indeed, he stands ready to exchange our clothing of flesh and mortality for an eternal clothing of incorruption and immortality. [II Cor 5:1-4][I Cor 15:42-54]
It was always God's plan to provide a "way of escape" for flesh, so his creation could be justified from a spiritual perspective rather than from a fleshly one, "For in thy sight shall no man living be justified." [Psa 143:2]
God originally created two types of spiritual beings; one he called "Elohiym," [Psa 8:5] who were clothed in "oikeeteerion" [Jude 6]; the other he called "Man," who, clothed in corruptible mortal flesh, waits to be clothed upon from heaven with that same "oikeeteerion." [II Cor 5:1-2][Oikeeteerion = Strong's #3613]
For man to be clothed with oikeeteerion REQUIRES more than original creation by which he was "clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life [II Cor 5:1-2]; it requires in fact, first, a "putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ" [Col 2:11]; and we are counted as circumcised with Christ, who are baptized into Christ, wherein we also rise with him. [Col 2:12]
Jesus was the first man raised from the dead; the first to "Put on immortality;" The first to "Put on incorruption; the first fruit of them that slept [I Cor 15:20]; the first born from the dead [Col 1:18]; firstborn among many brethren [Rom 8:29]; and therefore was the first man to both die and not see corruption, and the first man to put on the oikeeteerion which is from heaven, and which is worn by the elohiym.
Paul tells us we who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ [Gal 3:27] and if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection [Rom 6:5]; which we attain in baptism [Rom 6:3-4]; it remains for us to so live that it is no longer I that lives, but Christ living in me [Gal 2:20]. Any man in Christ is a "new creature." [II Cor 5:17]
With Christ as our high priest, and we being in Christ, a priesthood [I Pet 2:9], God expects us to crucify our flesh in living sacrifice with Christ [Gal 2:20][Rom 12:1-2] So that as Christ in the world we may present ourselves justified by the blood of the crucified Christ, by our faith therein, by the grace of the God who designed the plan, the logos.
I Cor 15:42 "It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption;
43 "It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory;
It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power;
44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.
I Cor 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
I Cor 15:51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
I Cor 15:54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
II Cor 5:1 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our (oikeeteerion) house which is from heaven: 3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. 4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
I Cor 15:20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
Jude 6 And the angels which kept not their (oikeeteerion) first estate), but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
II Cor 5:2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our oikeeteerion (house) which is from heaven: 3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.
II Cor 5:4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
I Cor 15:53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
Jude 5-6 I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. 6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own oikeeteerion [habitation], he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
II Pet 2:4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to tartarwsa [hell], and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
I Pet 3:18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: 19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; 20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
II Cor 5:1 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our oikeeteerion [house] which is from heaven: 3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
I Cor 15:51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
Gen 1-2 synopsys
God created Adam and Eve, male and female he created them and placed them in the garden of Eden, and instructed them that they could freely eat of every tree except one in the midst of the garden (2:9). But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they were forbidden access thereunto, being warned that "in the day that thou shalt eat thereof thou shalt surely die."
Gen 6:1-8 synopsys
After developing the account of the fall of man and his consequent expulsion from Eden, God begins the story of man's ultimate failure to survive in a moral setting; having become involved with the abomination of mixing with angels in unholy marriages.
Satan's attempt to counterfeit God's plan for salvation through an intermingling arrangement of marriage and begetting of a hybrid race, was defeated by God's action of flooding the Earth and destroying the demonic offspring by water.
Gen 6:1-2 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, 2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
II Pet 2:4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; 5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
II Pet 2:9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:
Genesis 6:1-8,11-13,17 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, 2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. 3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. 5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
Gen 6:8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
Gen 6:11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. 13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 17 And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.
Mat 8:28 And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way.
29 And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?
30 And there was a good way off from them an herd of many swine feeding.
31 So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine.
32 And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters.
Mat 12:43 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.
Gen 3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Gen 3:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
Psa 82:6 I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.
John 10:34 Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? 35 If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; 36 Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?
Jude 6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
II Cor 5:1 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:
Psa 8:4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? 5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
Will it be a suffocating darkness where a lost soul will always be filled with constant dread and a never ending conscience biting at him to suffer alone with no company of demons or other damned souls wondering forever in darkness? I assume the afterlife is a big mystery to us, that we cannot comprehend what lies ahead of that veil, whether it be heaven or hell. A spiritual realm that differs from our current reality, that what we find on the other side will blow our expections away. Also do you think there are levels of suffering in hell? For example will a murderer suffer more than a robber? And one more question
Also why can't a person in hell repent and be saved? Is it because our will is fixed when we die? The state we die in is the state we will meet our maker in? Is hell closed from the inside as C.S Lewis put it? What do you guys think?
We are told "Today is the day of salvation." It is a reference to this day of our life in flesh. It is our training time. It is the testing of our free-will learning experience and exercise thereof, to learn to make righteous choices.