The Harrowing of Hell¶
When the Lord Jesus cried “It is finished” and yielded up the ghost on the cross, His redemptive work did not end. It entered its most confrontational phase.
Modern man clings to the comforting lie of annihilation. He yearns for nothingness after death, hoping the soul he fears is immortal will simply dissolve into the void. Yet the soul does not dissolve. It is created in the image of God and stands under judgment. Christ did not descend into emptiness.
Christ descended into Hades -- the realm of the dead, the prison of immortal souls forged by the first Adam’s fall. The New Adam entered the stronghold of the enemy not as a captive but as Conqueror, carrying the victory of the Cross into the very heart of death’s domain.
Death and the Void¶
There is a longing among most secularists that after death comes nothingness. They do not merely believe this; they yearn for this. They will 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 astute theists 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 many 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 the fantasy of “less evolved” superstitious Christians. They claim to be more evolved and to accept the truth of their own nothingness. But this, as we will see, is itself a feel-good fantasy. Note that these same “intellectuals” take seriously trans-humanist arguments and will attempt 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 we who crucified the Son of God. The Creator of the universe became man, and we killed Him. And let us be clear: the Creator of the universe did not merely 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 in the persons 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 shone with His radiance, with no shame or vulnerability in our being. It is after the fall -- turning away from God -- that we saw our material bodily nature, our vulnerability, our nakedness. And in our sin of pride, of wanting to be as God, death was 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 the 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, whom they were made to glorify. Such light would be unbearable.
They exist in meaningless darkness, seeking nothingness, turning away from God whose light burns their sin and their pride. Yet they will still 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.
The Nature of Hell¶
Hell is the prison of immortal souls forged by the first Adam’s disobedience. Every soul survives death. None dissolves into the nothingness modern man desperately craves to escape judgment.
The soul, created in the image of God, stands under the eyes of its Creator. Fear of that judgment drives the longing for annihilation. Yet annihilation is the lie.
For in the end, death itself is thrown into the lake of fire.
Hades, Sheol, the underworld -- this is the place of waiting where the dead remain conscious, accountable, and exposed before God.
Revelation 20:11-15
And I saw a great white throne, and him that 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, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
This judgment reveals the true nature of the realm Christ entered. Death and Hades must one day surrender every captive. No soul escapes into the void. The Harrowing of Hell begins precisely here: the New Adam invades the prison the old Adam opened, to liberate what belongs to Him before the final casting of death and Hades into the lake of fire.
Descent into Hell¶
The body of the Lord Jesus was laid in the tomb. Yet His soul, united to the divine Person, descended at once into Hades.
He entered as the perfect man, the Word of God made flesh, the one man hell cannot contain. The realm the first Adam had opened by his disobedience now received the New Adam who came to close it forever. Hades, the place of waiting for all immortal souls since the Fall, trembled at His approach. Death, which had held humanity captive, confronted its Destroyer.
No angel announced Him. No trumpet sounded. The silent, sovereign entry of the crucified Christ into the underworld began the Harrowing. He came as the ransom was paid, the blood already shed, to claim what belonged to Him from the foundation of the world.
Christ advanced through the realm of the dead and trampled the gates of Hades beneath His feet. The ancient bronze doors, forged by the Fall and reinforced by centuries of captive souls, shattered at His presence. The bars of iron lay broken. The keys of death and Hades now rested in the hand of the risen Conqueror. This is the moment depicted in the Church’s oldest icons and hymns: Christ standing victorious atop the splintered gates, robes radiant, grasping Adam and Eve by the wrist and drawing them forth from their tombs while the powers of darkness flee in terror.
From the earliest patristic testimony the Church has proclaimed this victory. The Harrowing is no metaphor. It is the historical and cosmic reality that every soul in Hades witnessed: the God-man descending not as prisoner but as judge and liberator, fulfilling what the prophets foretold and the apostles declared.
Death and Hell Conquered¶
Christ grasped Adam and Eve by the wrist and drew them from their tombs. The patriarchs, the prophets, and every righteous soul who had waited in Hades followed the New Adam out of the prison the first Adam had opened.
The gates of Hell lay shattered beneath His feet. Death’s dominion was broken forever. The realm that once held all humanity captive now stood empty of its righteous dead.
Matthew 12:29
Or else how can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house.
The keys of death and hell now belonged to Christ. The Harrowing was complete. God invaded the stronghold of the enemy, liberated what belonged to Him from the foundation of the world, and then rose victorious on the third day.
Modern man still clings to the lie of annihilation. Yet the Harrowing stands as the eternal witness that no soul returns to nothingness. Every immortal soul created in the image of God will face the judgment the New Adam has already conquered. Death and hell are defeated. The victory is finished.