Harrowing of Hades

and the nature of hell

https://www.earlychristianwritings.com/actspilate.html

Hell, Hades, Sheol -- the underworld

On the nature of hell. On what happens to our immortal soul after death. For in the end, death itself is thrown into the lake of fire.

Revelation 20:11-15

Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

There is a longing by nihilists -- from the humanists who don't consider themselves nihilists, to the realists who scoff at the very idea -- that after death is nothingness. They don't just believe this, they yearn for this. And note when they say, "I'll return back to where I was before I was born". They believe they came from a great nothingness, that their entire being was created from nothingness -- and they wonder why the astute theists will point out that they unconsciously believe in God (for who else creates ex nihilo?).

Is this really the end fate of a human soul? To return to nothingness? Of course they yearn for this, because any serious thinker will feel in their soul a terrible fear, a fear of immortality, a fear of God.

The naive half-educated "intellectuals" of our time imagine immortality as just the fantasy of "less evolved" superstitious Christians. That they are more evolved and accept the truth of their nothingness. But this, as we will see, is itself a feel-good fantasy. Note these same "intellectuals" will take seriously trans-hunanist arguments and want to "upload" their consciousness into a machine.

Truth is, Christians fear immortality, because they fear God -- they fear the judgment that is due. Because they know, deep down, that they are unworthy of His grace. And that only through the intercession of Christ will they receive salvation.

As much as some pious half-hearted Christians imagine themselves as already saved, deep down they know, that it was us who crucified the Son of God. The creator of the universe became man, and we killed him. And let's be clear, the creator of the universe didn't just appear as a symbol, but became man -- the totality of God fit within a single human being. For we were created in the image and likeness of God.

A single human life is worth more to God than the entire cosmos. The essence of God cannot be contained in all of the stars in existence, let alone the person of God. And yet, there He was. The creator of all, born in a manger.

The human soul is immortal, and even after the fall, we retain an immortal soul. We once beheld the face of God, and we shone with His radiance, with no shame or vulnerability in our being. It is after the fall, turning away from God, did we see our material bodily nature, our vulnerability, our nakedness. And in our sin of pride, of wanting to be as God, was death set upon creation.

And so, what happens to such exalted creatures, made in the image and likeness of God, when we die? Nothingness? This is the longing of the atheist -- because the alternative is too frightful to bear. For if God is real, then man's soul is immortal, and by not accepting salvation, salvation which is freely given, how will such a soul respond to eternity without God to sustain them? They will seek the cold nothingness, for the alternative is the light of God, who they were made to glorify. Such light would be unbearable. They exist in meaningless darkness, seeking for nothingness, turning away from God whose light burns their sin, their pride, yet they hold and cling to pride, to their resentment of God, for their desire is for God to erase their created soul as a mistake, which in their pride is what they would do. God's love is here, ready to save, and yet they still refuse, forever, burning in that lake of fire while desperate for the abyss of nothingness. This is hell.

If you want to understand hell, understand the value of your life, the value of a single human life. Recognize the divinity of the lowliest of human lives. Remember that our souls are immortal, and that we (created in the image and likeness of the creator of the universe) will not return to nothingness. A human soul is not destined for nirvana nor moksha -- every soul is destined for truth, be it glorious, be it cold, be it fire.

God have mercy on us.