Hell: What the Bible REALLY Teaches
 

REFERENCES

13 There are some scholars who would have us believe that we cannot take Solomon's statements in Ecclesiastes at face value, since he was discoursing on things "under the sun." Others claim such statements are invalid because Solomon was "backslidden" when he penned them. BUT WHAT SAiTH THE SCRIPTURES?

And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart; even as the sand that is on the seashore. And Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all men ... (I Kings 4:29-3 1, KJV)
And God said unto him ... I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall there arise any like unto thee. (I Kings 3:17-12, KJV)
And further, because the Preacher [Solomon] was wise, he still taught the people knowledge, yea, he set in order many proverbs. The Preacher sought to find out acceptable words, and that which was written uprightly, EVEN WORDS OF TRUTH. (Eccl. 72:9- 10, KJV)
Those who downplay Solomon's teaching on the state of the dead overlook the fact that his statements on this subject ore in full agreement with those of King David and Job. Are we to believe that these men also were discoursing on things "under the sun," or, worse yet, that they were "backslidden"? GOD FORBID!I!

14 Scholars generally agree that the Old Testament writings, with the possible exception of Isaiah 26 and Daniel 12, do not contain explicit references to the resurrection of the dead. At death the individual simply is gathered to his final (or father's) place, the tomb. Sheol and the netherworld ['eres] is described as the abode of the dead, not of people who continue to live after death [cf. Isa. 38:38; Sir. 77:28;7 4:12-191"(emphasis ours). The Old Testament Pseudepiarapho, Volume 1, p.xxxiii. (Ed. James H. Charlesworth).

15 Jerome, Of Illustrious Men 2. Quoted in: What Is Nazarene Judaism? A Brief Historical Synopsis (James Trimm), pp. 9-10.

16 "…Ephrem and other early Syriac writers took over another idea of Jewish origin, that of 'the sheep of the dead in Sheol,' a period of unconscious existence which bridges the gap between death and the Resurrection" (Sebastian P. Brock, St. Ephrem the Syriac: Hymms On Paradise, p.56; see also p. 131).

17 The Reformer and martyr Michael Sattler has been called the most significant of the first-generation leaders of Anabaptism. On the basis of the Biblical doctrine of the sleep of the dead, Sattle attacked the Roman Catholic doctrine of Mary, as "mediatrix."(C. Arnold Snyder, The Life And Thought of Michael Sattler; pp.130-131; John H. Yoder, The Legacy of Michael Sattler; p.72 [number 5] and p.75 [w/p.83n.43]).

18 There are an estimated 125 similar references in Luther's writings. Although he appears at times to have wavered in his views, Luther probably died believing in the sleep of the dead.

19 It is certainly one of the great ironies of Church History that a direct descendant of Heinrich Bullinger---namely E.W. Bullinger---has been used so mightily of God to restore the Biblical truth on the state of the dead!

20 Among the more recent evangelicals to defend the Biblical teaching on human mortality and the state of the dead are: Reformed Theologian Oscar Cullman, Lutheran theologian, Paul Althaus, Lutheran theologian T.A. Kantonen, Mennonite theologian Thomas N. Finger, Clark Pinnock, J. R. W. Stott, and Edward William Fudge, to name but a few.

21 "Although individuals are sometimes pictured as carrying on conversations in Sheol or engaging in other such lifelike pursuits (Isa.14:9-18)…personified for dramatic purposes….This is mythological language…borrowed from its pagan time and place…We should not supposed, however, that the Hebrews took the language literally or used it with its original pagan meaning….the Old Testament 'demythologized' such language and uses it only for effect, contrast or literary purposes." [emphasis ours] (E.W. Fudge, The Fire that Consumes, pp.83-84).

22 The Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). This account should not be taken literally! It is a parabolic SATIRE in which Jesus reprimands the Pharisees by taking their own false teaching on SHEOL-HADES and applying it to them. (See Otis Q. Sellers, The Rich Man and Lararus on this web site, and E.W. Bullinger, The Rich Man and Lazarus). Interestingly, in the early Syrian churches, which retained the Jewish teaching of the sleep of the dead in SHEOL, the Rich Man and Lazarus was regarded as a PARABLE (Sebastian P. Brock, St Ephrem The Syrian: Hymns On Paradise VII:27 [p.1 29]).

23 David himself "did not ascend into the heavens" (Acts 2:34) but "is both dead and buried and his tomb is with us to this day" (Acts 2:29).

24 On the other hand, Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, never uses the word HADES in his writings. "Some [late Greek] manuscripts insert the word HADES in 1 Corinthians 15:5 where Paul seems to be loosely quoting Hosea 13:14, but these manuscripts are incorrect. Vaticanus, Sinaiticus and Alexandrinus --- the three oldest and best manuscripts --- each read THANATOS rather than HADES"(G. Marsh Hilbourne & Micheal Wark, Thou Shalt Surely Die p.42). As German theologian and philologist Walter Bauer pointed out: "... what, for instance, Paul said, conditioned as he was by his Jewish past, was not always understood in the some terms by his gentile Christian hearers, who were also unable to dissociate themselves entirely from their previous ways of thought.... When Paul speaks of sacrifice, of the wrath of God or the dikaiosune Theou, it is quite correct to understand his words from the standpoint of Judaism. But what about his public, who have heard these words before, but with different connotations and associations? The way a passage is understood by its first readers has an immediate effect upon its later interpretation"(Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature p.xxiv). Paul was careful not to use the Greek word HADES with Gentile converts who would, for the most part, be unfamiliar with its Old Testament usage, and would be in danger of understanding it along the lines of pagan Greek mythology.

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