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Transcript 191C — Where, Exactly, are Heaven and Hell?
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Yes. I was wondering. I was talking to some fellows today, and they said they believed in Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, but they did not believe in the Bible. And they want to know if there's a physical Heaven on earth, and where the physical hell is. And I couldn't explain to them exactly where the physical hell was. Could you give me some Scripture on this please.
HC: Let me see if I can help you. First of all, let me make an observation. You indicate that someone says that they believe in Christ but they do not believe in the Bible. Well, then they don't really believe in Christ, that is, not insofar as saving faith is concerned, because the Bible indicates that if we say we know Him and do not obey His commandments, we are a liar and the truth is not in us.
Now the commandments of God are the Bible. And so if we don't believe the Bible, then we're not obeying the commandments. And this is evidence that we have not become born again. But that was not the thrust of your question.
The thrust of your question is, Where is Heaven and where is hell? Now the Bible speaks of hell as a present reality, in the sense that Satan and all the wicked are committed to hell. Christ endured hell for us, however, just by being in the garden of Gethsemane, and standing before Pilate and hanging on the cross. He didn't actually go to a place called hell, because the essence of hell is the wrath of God, to be under the wrath of God for our sins. And so in that sense all of the unsaved of the world are children of hell. They are identified with hell.
But as a place probably it doesn't exist at this moment, when we think very literally about this. Satan and all of his hosts, all of his evil spirits, his fallen angels, they are busy in this earth, as they seek to deceive mankind. They are on this earth. They are the evil spirits. This is the reason that we have occult activity, both in the secular world and in the church, because Satan and the fallen angels, the evil spirits, are busy.
Now the unsaved who have died, throughout time, have not gone to hell, because they have not been judged as yet. The Bible teaches that judgment is on the Last Day, at which time they will be resurrected to stand and give an account of all of their sins.
The unsaved, in their body, when they die, whether we're talking about Cain, 13,000 years ago, or whether we're talking about Pharaoh, or somebody who died last year (it's exactly the same truth), went into the grave to return to dust, and their soul went into the place of silence, which is also called Hades. It is not a place of torment, however. It's simply a place to await the Judgment Day.
And we read in Revelation 20, when Judgment Day comes, that Death and Hades will be cast into the lake of fire, that is, cast into hell. This place called Hades will no longer serve any useful purpose.
Now in the case of the saved people, and this is true of saved people in the Old Testament (it's true of Abel or Abraham or Isaac or Jacob or David), and it's true of people who live today who die, when they die, in their body they go into the grave and return to the dust. But in their soul they go to live and reign with Christ in Heaven. Jesus said, "I am not the God of the dead. I am the God of the living."
And so Christ didn't go down to some lower hell, or lower heaven, or something, and bring people forth. He went to the cross, in order to lead captivity captive. He went down to the lower parts of the earth. And the lower parts of the earth is a figure of speech to speak about the suffering of hell that He endured, in order to rescue us from bondage to Satan. And He claimed us and brought us forth from bondage to Satan into eternal life.
And so when we die, we go to live and reign with Him in Heaven. And Abraham was in Heaven before Christ went to earth to the cross.
CALLER: Okay. Thank you very much. I sure appreciate it.
HC: You're welcome. Good night.