Acts 2:27

“Because thou wilt not leave my soul in Hades neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption.” We have two words used by the Holy Ghost and translated “Hell” in E. V., i. e., “Hades,” which in R. V. is not translated, but transferred very correctly to our language, while the other word Gehenna in R. V. is constantly and correctly “Hell.” The difference between the two is simply that of genus and species, Hades being a generic word simply meaning the “unseen world,” from Alpha, “not,” and aidoo to “see.” Hence Hades, the unseen, includes both heaven and hell. We have this illustrated in Luke 16, where the rich man and Lazarus are in the same world, actually enjoying conversational proximity. But Dives is tormented by the flame of fire. Hence he is in hell properly so called; while Lazarus is in that intermediate Paradise called Abraham's bosom, because it was the receptacle of all the spiritual children of Abraham, i. e., the Old Testament saints, saved in the Abrahamic covenant and there detained in a state of felicitous captivity (Ephesians 4:8) till the Abrahamic covenant was sealed and ratified by the blood of Christ The dying thief went to this paradise the very day of the crucifixion, (Luke 23:43), notwithstanding certain wicked heretics have had the audacity to even change the punctuation of the Greek in this passage in order to sustain the most senseless of all heresies which even brutalizes you by taking away your immortal soul. As our Savior assured the women in the garden that He had not yet ascended into heaven, though He had already, pursuant to His prediction on the cross, met the saved thief in paradise, i. e., in Abraham's bosom (Luke 16), the intermediate paradise of the old dispensation, where the saints enjoyed unmingled bliss, awaiting the great redemption on Calvary, and their risen and glorified Lord to lead them all into heaven, throwing wide the pearly portals evermore to stand ajar while angels welcome every saint into the New Jerusalem, the city of God, the home of the angels and glorified saints.

1 Peter 3:19: “Being put to death in the flesh and quickened in the spirit, by which going, he proclaimed to the spirits in prison.”

This is the pillar of popery and modern theories of a second probation for sinners after they die in sin. It is radically and literally untrue as manipulated by those heretics. The capital S in “Spirit” in E. V. was put there by the translators, because they thought it meant the Holy Spirit, which is incorrect, as this construction would break up the antithesis with “flesh.” The simple meaning is that while our Savior's body was put to death, His human spirit, not the Holy Ghost, was quickened by the Holy Ghost, so that His human spirit leaving His dead body on the cross [poor soul- sleepers even deny that Jesus had a soul] went down to the intermediate world and proclaimed to the lost millions of hell. The E. V. erroneously translates ekeeruxen, which simply means “proclaim as a herald,” “preach,” thus leading the people to believe that Jesus preached the gospel to the disembodied sinners in hell. The word which means to preach the gospel is not in this passage, but it simply means to proclaim as a royal herald. What did our Savior proclaim to the inmates of Hades? He proclaimed His own victory, gloriously and eternally won on the cross of Calvary. The devil had been after Him to kill Him all His life, vainly congratulating himself that if he could kill the man Jesus, the final victory would perch on his black banner, and he would have nothing to do but add this world to hell and reign forever without a rival. While the devil is paradoxically intellectual, his spirit is black as the midnight of hell, uncheered by a solitary ray. Hence he leaped to the conclusion that if he could kill the man Jesus, the last battle was fought and the final victory won. Therefore hell roared with shouts over the arrest of Jesus in Gethsemane, cheered and enthused more and more by the successive reports of His condemnation by Caiaphas, Herod and Pilate, meanwhile the black couriers constantly arrive from Calvary, reporting the bloody culmination of their hellish enterprise. Finally, Satan, sitting on his ebon throne in the center of the pandemonium, has ordered ten thousand tall demons to subscribe in glowing capitals, “Victory,” on the black walls all round the palace of damnation. Demoniacal hands have half written the word. Suddenly thunderclaps and lightnings flash from the opening portals of the pandemonium appalling all the inmates of the bottomless pit. Lo! Hark! Who comes there? It is none other than the human soul of Jesus. He has left His dead body on the cross and now walks into hell, the herald of his own victory won on Calvary. He proclaims in the face of all devils hell's eternal defeat and the redemption of the world. With the tread of a conqueror He walks round the pandemonium, with His Own hands pulling down the trophies of four thousand years of successful warfare and treading them beneath His triumphant feet. The tall peers of the pit wail on all sides, acknowledge Him conqueror and beg Him to depart. He now approaches Satan, the King of Darkness, sitting on his ebon throne in the center of the pandemonium; seizing him by the throat and dragging him down, puts His foot upon his neck, thus verifying the first promise made by Jehovah to Adam and Eve in fallen Paradise: “The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head.” Having proclaimed His victory in hell, He now crosses that abyss impassable to finite beings, but not to Him, intervening between the flaming hell of Dives and the Abraham's bosom of Lazarus (Luke 16:26), and there, pursuant to His promise on the cross, meets the thief before midnight, while it is yet Friday, the Crucifixion Day. As the thief died under the old dispensation, he went to that intermediate paradise, i. e., Abraham's bosom, the jubilant rendezvous of all the souls saved under the Abrahamic covenant in the former dispensation, there in joyful anticipation to await the verification of the covenant by the blood of Calvary. The thief runs to meet Him with a tremendous shout, Father Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, the Hebrew children and all the mighty hosts of Old Testament saints rend the firmament with triumphant shouts congratulating King Jesus on the victory won. Now the good old Jewish Sabbath sets in, the most wonderful they had seen in four thousand years. Oh! what an ovation! Golden harps are impoverished in the attempted proclamation. The first day of the week supervenes at midnight, eternally commemorated by the abolishment of the intermediate paradise, the emancipation of all the captives (Ephesians 4:8), and the resurrection of our glorious Lord. Here begins that wonderful ascension (Ephesians 4:9), when our Lord “descended into the lower parts of the earth” [which never did mean the grave], the Savior leading the way with the patriarchs and prophets on His right and on His left, followed by the mighty hosts of Old Testament saints, jubilant and ecstatic, reaching the sepulcher at day- dawn, calling His body into life and re-entering it; meanwhile the sacramental host, all invisible because they are disembodied spirits, accompanying our risen Lord the forty days of His abiding with His disciples, and ascending with Him from Mt. Olivet, constituting the mighty trophy of His victory, whom He leads into the heavenly metropolis and presents before the Father. David's prophetic eye in Psalms 24 caught a glimpse of this wonderful scene, while our Lord, accompanied by the mighty hosts of Old Testament saints, sweeps through trackless ether, passing rolling worlds, glowing suns, wheeling spheres, and flaming comets, finally draws nigh the celestial gates, saluted by seraphic voices:

“Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and let the King of Glory come in.” “Who is this King of Glory?” “he Lord, mighty to save and strong to deliver.”

The pearly gates fly high and swing wide, multiplied millions of celestial seraphs shout long and loud, “Welcome home, welcome home, welcome home, O King of Glory, Conqueror of Mt. Calvary. Heaven is stirred with such an ovation as archangels never knew, infinitely eclipsing the tremendous shout of the sons of God at creation's birth. Amid the jubilant congratulations of angelic millions, the triumphal procession, led by King Jesus, moves through the city and halts before the great white throne, “Father, here am I, and the children thou hast given me.” Now Abraham mounts a celestial pinnacle and testifies, followed by the thrilling witnesses to the wonders of redeeming grace, while multiplied millions of unfallen angels listen spell bound. Since our Lord has led the way, heaven is now accessible to every disembodied saint, nothing to do but die, and sweep with a shout into glory.