DISPUTED DOCTRINES -- Chapter Eight

THE DOCTRINE OF HADES

Upon this doctrine there has been considerable difference of opinion. Some hold that Hades is a generic term for the abode of the souls of all the dead between death and the resurrection, and that it includes two compartments, Paradise and Hades proper.

The word Hades occurs ten times in the New Testament.¹ In all these passages, with the exception of Acts 2: 27, 31, the word is applied to the abode of the wicked, the seat of Satan's power. Into this realm the souls of the impenitent and unbelieving enter at death to receive the due rewards of their deeds. The most elucidating passage on this subject is the Parable of Dives [The Rich Man] and Lazarus, Luke 16:19-31. It is from this parable that those who hold Hades to be a double compartment base their argument. But the parable teaches the very opposite. It nowhere says or intimates that Lazarus was in Hades. He was carried by the angels into "Abraham's bosom," a euphemism for Paradise. Only the rich man was in Hades (v.23), and was in torments there. And in v.26 it is declared that between these abodes -- the abode of the wicked and the abode of the blessed -- there is a great gulf, literally, chasm, fixed across which there is no possibility of passage. Into this place of torment believers never enter, because Christ, their Redeemer, who conquered Hades, preserves them from its power (cf. Rev. 1:18)

Hades is to be identified with the "abyss" of the Apocalypse. As such it is the present abode of the devil and his angels, and of the souls of the ungodly between death and the resurrection. According to Rev. 20:14, both death and Hades are represented as being cast into the lake of fire, which is declared to be the second death. This "lake of fire," or "second death," otherwise known as Gehenna, will be the final abode of the devil and his angels and of all the ungodly, to which they will be consigned on the Day of Judgment. (Cf. Rev. 20:10; Matt. 5:22; 18:9).

From all this it is perfectly clear that Hades is the temporary abode of unbelievers after death and previous to the Judgment and has no relation to believers. The one passage in which the word is differently used is Acts 2: 27 and 31, in the words quoted from 16:14, "Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption." In this passage Hades is represented as a personification of the death-power; and the meaning is, Thou wilt not relinquish my soul unto the death-power, or deliver it over to the power of death.

This doctrine is important on account of its hearing upon the Descensus of Christ. If a correct view of Hades is held, all that speculation, which is indulged in by some, about Christ's having first preached to the damned and afterwards in Paradise to the Old Testament saints, whom He then took with Him into heaven, is avoided. For such twofold preaching of Christ there is not the least scintilla of evidence in the Scriptures. Besides the saints could not be said to be "in prison." Our Confession in Chap. IX of the Formula of Concord describes the object of the descent to be the overcoming of the devil and all his power. This is borne out by Rev. 1: 18, where Christ affirms, "I have the keys of death and of Hades"; and is further confirmed by Col. 2:15, where immediately after speaking of the effect of Christ's death upon the cross, the Apostle says, "Having spoiled principalities and power, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it."

1. The word Hades occurs in the following passages in the N. T.: Matt. 11:23; 16:18; Luke 10:15; 16:23; Acts 2:27, 31; Rev. 1:18; 6:8; 20:13,14.

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