Continuing our exploration of the Kingdom of God and the Millennial Kingdom of Christ focusing in the book of Revelation, we find many references and enlightening words about a closely related subject, the very misunderstood state of and the place of death and Hades… Rev 1:18, 6:8, 20:13, 20:14 and lake of fire 19:20, 20:10,14,15, 21:8 and the bottomless pit/abyss 9:1,2,11 11:7 17:8 20:1, 20:3.
That this place is occupied is clear in that some of the wicked are in the bottomless pit/great abyss now, is evident from the book of Revelation. “I saw a star fallen from heaven into the earth; [that is Satan, – compare Chap 12: 7-9, and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit: and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth; … And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon,” 9: 1-11.
This location is called Tartarus by Peter – “God spared not angels that sinned but cast them down to hell (‘Tartarus’ … See Greek.), and delivered them to chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgement,” 2 Pet. 2: 4.
Scripture reveals also THERE ARE SOULS OF MEN WAITING UNDER THE EARTH FOR CHRIST’S RETURN
Rev 5 v. 13 “And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and UNDER THE EARTH, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever.” Now this blessing of God would not mean evil spirits,…nor wicked souls of men in the Bottomless Pit/Abyss/Abaddon ….but they are the souls of the righteous rejoicing, who are also inhabiting a place UNDER THE EARTH at the time of Christ’s return.
And we discover, from other passages, that their peace, joy and contentment are considerable, but is still not complete and final.
We learn from Rev. 6: 9-11, that there is a state of waiting and longing among a special group of them, desiring for Christ’s return, as the day of their complete joy.
That fullness realized at Christ’s return and their resurrection from among the dead is described Revelation 20:4-6 1 Corinthians 15:52 and 1 Thess 4:16 as the Harvest.
And just after that awesome event of that “harvest” detailed again in Rev 14:15….
We have this: “And it shall come to pass in that day, That Jehovah shall punish the host of the high ones in the height, And the kings of the earth upon the earth; And their multitude shall be gathered as prisoners into the pit, and in the dungeon shall they be shut up. And after many generations shall be their visitation.” the words of the prophet Isaiah 24: 21, 22…
This corresponds with Revelation 19:11-20:3– where it is spoken of in these terms…. where the host of evil spirits assembled with Antichrist and his host against the Lord Jesus, at the great day of his return. They, as well as their master Satan, shall be shut up in that same place from where the Anti-Christ, the false Prophet, and Abaddon arose… “death/ the pit/abyss, in Hades, imprisoned for the thousand years; and after many generations – even a thousand years – shall be their ultimate visitation and sentence be finished…. Revelation 20:10-15.
There then is a great difference between the present place of all the dead and the future place of the lost and finally saved, and those who will come out from among them resurrected in the first resurrection. This can be comprehended from here in Rev. 20 after Christ’s return and Millennial reign, at the Great White Throne of judgment…. “DEATH and HADES delivered up the dead which were in them; and they were judged every man according to their works. And afterwards Death and Hades were cast into the Lake of Fire.”
Death, or the place of the sinful dead, give up its souls: and “Hades” here representing the place of the righteous dead, surrenders its tenants; and then once these are emptied, this place, and those judged deserving, are cast into the everlasting place of torment,… that place is called ‘the lake of fire’; and to be cast thither, is to suffer the second, or eternal death.
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