Death and Hades

As we've been studying Revelation this year so far, there's several mentions of death and hades.  I'm interested to see what else I can find out about this.  One of the inductive study methods is to list. 

1)  So let's start out by listing mentions of death and hades together in the Bible.

Revelation 1:18:

and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.

Revelation 6:8:

I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.

Revelation 20:13:

And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.

Revelation 20:14

Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.

The reason I'm intrigued about this is that I know I had seen death and Hades usually mentioned together.  What caught my attention was Rev 6:8 because it said Death was on the ashen horse and Hades was following him - as if they were two separate things.


2)  Word Study 

My next inductive study method is to go back to the Greek and see what we learn.  Let's go to Rev 6:8 and do a word study.  I use www.blueletterbible.org for this.

Death is Strongs number G2288. In Greek, the word is thanatos.   One of the definitions is  the death of the body.  And that separation (whether natural or violent) of the soul and the body by which the life on earth ended.  I think we all know what death means and do not need to explore that concept any further.

Hades is Strongs number G86.  The Greek word is Hades (the same).  And it's a noun - a proper locative noun - meaning a place.  One of the definitions is a later use of this word: the grave, death, hell.   i.e. "Hades" or the place (state) of departed souls:—grave, hell.   Another word that means the same is in the Old Testament in Hebrew is Sheol or Strongs number H7585.

At this point in my study of death and Hades, I would summarize it by stating that through physical death, people enter Hades.   Which is why Hades was following death in Rev 6:8.

3)  Cross Referencing:

Another inductive study method is to cross reference with other scriptures.  Scripture always confirms scripture.  So if we don't understand something, there may be another Scripture that explains it more fully.

 To explain this further, let's look at Luke 16:23: In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom.  This is the story of the rich man being tormented in Hades on the hot side and he sees Lazarus also in Hades, but on the cool side.  So from these observations, we can say that Hades is the place where departed souls go after their physical death.  From other study that I've done,  In the Old Testament, all souls went to Hades.  There was a "cool side" and a "hot side" (as evidenced from this scripture above).  Those on the "cool side" were those who believed and had faith and looked forward to the coming of Messiah.   When Jesus was resurrected, He "cleaned out" the "cool side" of Hades and those souls were taken to heaven with Him.   Those on the "hot side" stayed there in torment.  Hades keeps enlarging itself to this day, to hold all those who had physically died without believing. (Isaiah 5:14).

Looking at the above verses again, refer to Rev 20:13.  It says that death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them and they (those in death and Hades) were judged.   This says to me that Hades is "cleaned out" of the souls of those who had died in their physical body.  They will be brought before the Great White Throne of Judgment to be judged.  Remember, as a Christ follower, you will not be judged.  You have been made righteous, once you have believed that Jesus Christ died for and paid the penalty for your sins.  You have been washed clean.

Let's look at the final scripture above - Revelation 20:14 -  we see that death and Hades are thrown in the lake of fire, which is the second death.  I believe this means that after this event, there will be no more death, no more hades.  Everything will be made new.  We can see this if we continue reading in Revelation 21, specifially Rv 21:4a:  and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death.

We can finish up this study of death and hades by looking at Revelation 1:18.  We see that Jesus alone holds the keys to death and hades.  Everything in Revelation is God's plan and Jesus is in control.  When we accept Jesus' offer of eternal life, we overcome the power of Hades and death, just like Jesus did.  (1 Cor 15:55).

Earthquakes in Revelation

We've been studying Revelation all year so far - 1 more full year to go.  As we've been studying, there are several mentions of earthquakes.  One of our inductive bible study methods is listing.  So I thought I would list out every mention of earthquakes and see what we learn about them.  Interestingly, there are only 17 direct instances of the word earthquake in the entire Bible:

1 Kings 19:11-12

So He said, “Go forth and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord was passing by! And a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.  After the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing.

(Note:  The wind, and earthquake, and fire, did not make him cover his face, but the still voice did.)

Isaiah 29:6

From the Lord of hosts you will be punished with thunder and earthquake and loud noise, With whirlwind and tempest and the flame of a consuming fire.

 Ezekiel 38:19

In My zeal and in My blazing wrath I declare that on that day there will surely be a great earthquake in the land of Israel.

(this seems to be a cross-reference to the same earthquake in Rev. 16:18)

Amos 1:1

[ Judgment on Neighbor Nations ] The words of Amos, who was among the sheepherders from Tekoa, which he envisioned in visions concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.

Zechariah 14:5

You will flee by the valley of My mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach to Azel; yes, you will flee just as you fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord, my God, will come, and all the holy ones with Him!

(these verses in Amos and Zechariah both refer to the same great earthquake that happened in the days of Uzziah king of Judah.  Archaeologically, they’ve found evidence of this earthquake in several places in the middle east and have dated it to 760 bc, which correslates exactly to the timeline of Amos the prophet.   There’s a really great website that explains this earthquake:  https://patternsofevidence.com/2019/01/20/biblical-quake-confirmed/)

Matthew 24:7

For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes.

Matthew 27:54

Now the centurion, and those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, became very frightened and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

Matthew 28:2

And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it.

(a strong earth shaking and movement occurred, done by an angel, which rolled the stone away from the grave of Jesus.  Jesus had been resurrected).

Mark 13:7-8

When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be frightened; those things must take place; but that is not yet the end.  For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will also be famines. These things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.

Luke 21:11

and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places plagues and famines; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.

(In the mark 13 and Luke 21 passages, these both refer to when Jesus spoke about the things to come.  This could be a reference to the same earthquakes that are described in Revelation).

Acts 16:26

and suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened.

(An earthquake, in such circumstances, was regarded as a symbol of the presence of God, and as an answer to prayer.  See cross reference Matthew 28:2)

Revelation 6:12

[ The Sixth Seal—Terror ] I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood;

 (the seals are God’s judgment.  It says later in verse 14 that every mountain and island were moved out of their places).

Revelation 8:5

Then the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it to the earth; and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake.

(this earthquake brought in the 7 trumpet judgments. )

Revelation 11:13

And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell; seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

(This happened after the 2 witnesses were raised from the dead and taken into heaven.  This event happens after the 6^th trumpet but before the 7^th trumpet).

Revelation 11:19

And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm.

(This happens after the 7^th trumpet is blown and before the bowl judgments).

Revelation 16:18

And there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder; and there was a great earthquake, such as there had not been since man came to be upon the earth, so great an earthquake was it, and so mighty....... verse ²⁰ And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.

(This happens after the 7^th bowl judgment was poured out on earth.)

It seems, from looking at these verses, that earthquakes either represent God's presence or his judgment.   And looking at the ones in Revelation, I think about how intense they will be and that we really have no concept of how bad they will be.

In today's modern world, it seems that the instances of earthquakes have been getting more intense.  I found an interesting article that did a graph of this.  It is a graph of 5.0 magnitude earthquakes since 1900. https://ocean.si.edu/planet-ocean/seafloor/graph-magnitude-5-or-greater-earthquakes-1900-april-2011

From looking at the graph, one can clearly see how many more earthquakes there have been in the 2000's.  And we think about how many people have been killed by these quakes.  Most recently, the large quake and tsunami in Indonesia that killed 230,000 people.  But this will pale in comparison to the quakes that will happen in Revelation.  It will be much, much worse during the events of Revelation.  I cannot even imagine every mountain and island moved out of their place (Rev 6:12), or every island disappearing and every mountain leveled. (Rev 16:20).  Humans during this time will face horrifying hardships.  But to tribulation Christians during this time, they will have to remember that this time will be short (7 years) and Jesus will be returning quickly.

God is The God of second chances

We've been studying Revelation all year so far - 1 more full year to go. One of the things that's been hitting me is that throughout this book is that God keeps giving people chance after chance, to accept the reality that only through faith in Jesus Christ the Messiah, will you have eternal life with God in heaven.

Some people say and write that God is a God of wrath, violence and judgment.  But it's quite the opposite.  Throughout history, He shows his complete patience and love for us. 
"But God demonstrates his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8. 

God is always wanting us to turn to Him - to love Him and accept His Son, Jesus Christ as our Savior.  My mentor Karen says that God is a gentleman - He never forces Himself on us.  We have our own freewill to make a choice for Him.  But with our own freewill, there are consequences for not following God's Laws and accepting His free gift of eternal life.

God could have just wiped us all out at any time  -  time's up!  But He didn't.  Even during the endtimes and during the time of Revelation, God keeps giving us humans, more chances to turn to Him.  In the context of Revelation, here's what I see:

1)  He first directs John to write what is in the book of Revelation.  So that we would know the things which John saw, the things which are and the things which will take place after these things. (Rev 1:19).   We have the complete counsel of God in His Word  and in the book of Revelation.  We know what will happen.  Time is short.  He's giving us more time and chances to repent and turn - even before the events of Revelation chapters 4 through 22 start.

2)  Then the judgments start - first the seals, then the trumpets, then the bowls.  The seals are bad, the trumpets are worse and then the bowls - which are the worst of all.   With every judgment, there is more time to turn to Him.  People will know it is the wrath of God, yet they still will not turn to Him:

 Rev 6:16: "and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; ¹⁷ for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"

Rev 9:20: "The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; ²¹ and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts."
 

Rev 16:21: "And huge hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, came down from heaven upon men; and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, because its plague was extremely severe."

We know from Revelation that there will be an uncountable multitude of tribulation saints who have been saved during the tribulation.

Rev 7:9:  After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; 
Rev 7:14b: “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."

But we also know from Revelation that there will be an uncountable multitude who will not believe, even while Christ is reigning on earth for 1000 years.  Yet they won't believe.  Satan is released from his chains in the abyss and gathers people together to fight against the armies of God.  Rev 20:7-8: "When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, ⁸ and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the seashore."

Humans are eternal beings - after our physical death here on earth, we will be in 1 of 2 places:

1)  With God and Jesus forever in heaven;
2)  In Hell, waiting for the great white throne of judgment, and then eventually into the lake of fire and brimstone and eternal punishment.  Rev 14:11: " And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name."

Jesus says in Revelation that time is short.  He is coming quickly:
Rev 3:11: "I am coming quickly; hold fast what you have, so that no one will take your crown."
Rev 22:7: "“And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book.”
Rev 22:12: “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.

Please my friends, do not wait to make the most important eternal decision of your short life here on earth.  Do not wait.  No one is assured of tomorrow.