Hell Sheol Hades Tartarus Gehenna The Pit The Grave – Part 1 of 7

Hello and welcome to Social Media Ministries. My name is Spencer Coffman. Thank you for being with us. Today we are kicking off an excellent sermon series that I am calling, “The Resurrection, Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory.” So make sure to stay tuned.

You can find the playlist on YouTube, and also on our website, so make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel if you have not already liked the videos. I encourage you to comment below as well. Be kind, courteous, and supportive.

If possible also check out our Facebook page, Instagram, all that kind of stuff, you name it. As I said, today we are kicking off a sermon series, “The Resurrection.” So it is going to be about Jesus. He died, what He did when He was dead, and then when He rose again. He was alive.

So He was never really dead, we will get into all that. We are also going to talk about Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory.

Now for some of you, you might be like, “Whoa wait a minute, purgatory is not a thing.” We will get there. Believe me, Heaven, Hell, Purgatory. We are going to talk about them all. Today we are talking about Hell.

We are going to start with the worst of the worst. Hell is a place you do not want to go. Now one thing I want to say is, look around, look around. All the people, your neighbors, they are very nice, look at all these great people around. Guess what, if you do not do something, they are all going to Hell.

Seriously, they could be the nicest people you have ever met, but they are going to Hell unless you bring them to Christ. So this is a push, you have got to bring people to Jesus. You have got to introduce them because otherwise, they are going to Hell.

There was a skit I saw one time and it was super impactful. I am just going to tell you a little bit about it because the punch line is a real kicker. It is about this guy and his neighbor and they are in the afterlife.

The neighbor says to the guy because the neighbor is going to Hell and the guy is going to Heaven, and he says, “You knew and you did not tell me the way to Heaven?” That is pretty huge.

How do you get there when you are not telling your loved ones or your neighbor or your friend or your family member, you are not telling them? When you get to the afterlife they are going to look at you and say, “You knew and you did not tell me?”

They are going to be condemned and they are going to go to Hell and they are going to be miserable and you are going to Heaven. Now that may not happen, but that is something to think about.

What if that happened? What if your loved one was saying in the end, “I cannot believe you knew and you did not tell me?” Pretty powerful. So get out there and share Jesus and make sure all these people start going to Heaven. Let’s go.

All right, so today we are talking about Hell. What is it? Hell is the worst place. This is the worst place of all time. Believe me, now I have not been there, but it is the worst. It is a place you never want to experience.

The concept of hell, not the word hell. We are going to dive into it. You people who like the analytical, today this is a good one for you. The concept of hell is mentioned in the Bible many times. Interestingly the Bible though never says the word hell.

Huh? Why are we talking about Hell then, if the Bible never says hell? Well, today’s translations, some biblical translations say hell. But traditionally in original Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic hell was never mentioned. So what did they talk about?

Well, they used roughly 30 to 35 times the word “Sheol.” That is the old word. Its literal translation is the grave or the pit. This is many times in the Old Testament, like I said 30 to 35 times depending on your translation.

Psalms talk about it a lot. So when you are reading and you see that word “Sheol” or you will be like, oh that is what that is it means, the grave or the pit. Now this did not just mean like in a casket like today. This was the afterlife, the grave, the pit, this was what they called Hell.

Now another word that they have used in newer translations or this was more in Greek, was “Hades”. This is in the New Testament, Hades, which is used about 10 times. Now this of course Hades was probably from Greek mythology.

Again in Greek, they use the word Hades, so that all makes sense. It kind of lines up properly. Hades, Hell, we kind of get that. I am gonna propose that later on when we get into this, we are going to separate those two, and there were levels of Hell that they talked about.

Hades was like the introduction, and then after that was, like, Hell. Hell which was this pure misery. That is where the purgatory is going to come in later in this sermon series. So stay with us.

This is a fascinating topic. I enjoy it, so be prepared. We are going to dive deep. We are going to get into it. You have to get your Bible out. Get some historical companion text. Dive in, find some commentaries, comment on these sermons, and let’s get some discussion going because it is fascinating.

Okay, Hades, is used about 10 times, in the most modern translations it is sometimes about a dozen. So Hades is anywhere from 10 to 14 times. Now another word that is used, is called “Gehenna.” Now this is more Greek, this is newer. This is more like Hell.

Hades would have been like that first level, then Gehenna was used as this 12 times in other translations, and then we have one time where we see this is like the real Hell. This is a hell of Hell.

This is called Tartarus and this is the place that was like the end of the end, the deep pit, burning lake of fire, worms eating your flesh, nastiness, horrible, rotting. While you are on fire, worms eating you, pure torture and torment. We are going to get into that a little bit more later on.

The concept of hell though, the times those words show all about 30 to 35 times, Hades about 10 to 13, Gehenna 12, and Tartarus once. Now the concept of hell though is talked about more, probably about a dozen more times throughout the Bible.

We have the weeping and the gnashing of teeth that Jesus talked about in the New Testament. We have the parable of the “Sheep and the Goats.” We have got “Lazarus and the Rich Man,” a very famous story. We have the “Revelation Lake of Fire.” We have got “The Pit.” We have Paul’s “Everlasting destruction” and several other instances are talked about.

Hell is very terrible. You never want to go there. Every time it is mentioned, it is horrible. It is a place that is separated from God. God is not with you and that alone is hell. You could have hell here on Earth and you could be living in hell if you are living apart from God.

If you are turned from God and He turns His back on you, you could keep rejecting Him and essentially separate yourself from God. In my mind, any separation from God is hell. I want to be with God all the time. So seek God, draw near to Him.

The Bible says He will draw nearer to you and you can create a great paradise here on Earth by drawing closer to God. If you separate yourself from God, you could be creating your hell here on Earth. Not like the deep pit, not like Tartarus, not like worms eating your flesh, but it is a separation, it is a type of and so it is a level of Hell. Do not do that for yourself.

Hell is a place of torture and torment, the place of lost hopes and dreams, anything you ever wanted to do you will be able to look at it in Hell. You will be like I should have done this, I should have done this, over and over again. You will know. It will be a pure regret.

Your mind will be torturing yourself over and over, and your body will be tortured over and over. Fire, worms, decay, rot, pain — times a thousand. It will be like in the movies where they give you a drug that sensitizes your pain so that it is like 10 times worse.

It is going to be a thousand times worse. A little prick of your finger is going to cause you to just scream in agony because it will be miserable. It is not like chopping off a finger, where it is a one-and-done or something.

It is going to be like it is on fire, burning, but you will never lose the feeling. When you burn your fingers, sometimes it could go numb or you get frostbite, sometimes it goes numb and then you do not feel it anymore. Or if it falls asleep.

You could smash it with a hammer, but you do not feel it. Guess what, you are gonna feel it on and on and on. This is miserable. You will see everything you could have accomplished, that you did not. That is going to play over and over in your head in front of you.

Regret lost hopes and dreams – and then the deepest thing is you are going to realize and understand that you have no hope. There is no way out. There is no hope for you to leave this place. There is nothing to look forward to because it is all done.

Whereas here on Earth at least, when you have a bad day, you can be like, “Boy, I cannot wait till the weekend, I cannot wait till I get my day off, I cannot wait for a holiday, I cannot wait for this.” That is not going to happen in Hell. There will be no, “I cannot wait for,” because you are not. There is no hope.

If I have not convinced you that it is a bad place, then I do not know. Man, it is a bad place. You do not want anyone going there, so get out and tell more people about Jesus. Every day there you will be filled with regret and despair.

This is miserable. You will be frustrated beyond belief because there is no hope to change the situation. You will be stuck there. If you do not believe in Jesus, you will be stuck there. So if you do believe in Jesus, share Jesus with more people.
But Hell was not made for humans. Wait a minute, what is going on? You just said we will be stuck there, we are humans, you are in a human body right now. You are in a human body, but what you are is a spiritual being.

You have a spirit, you have a body, you have a soul, you have a spirit. Your spirit is a spiritual being, you are in an Earthly body, and this is what is going on.

You are here in an Earthly body. You are a human right now, but you are a spiritual being. Hell was made for the rebellious angels and demons. Now you are a spiritual being, so if you rebel and reject Jesus, Hell could be made for you too.

This is from Matthew 25:41, “Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from me you who are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’” Now before we dive too deep into this, let’s go over to Tartarus. This is the only time it is mentioned in the Bible.

It is in 2 Peter 2:4, “For God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to Tartarus, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment.” Tartarus is a place where God is putting the angels and the demons and all those who rebelled, are being held there for judgment.

Now we skip ahead to Revelation and this is where it talks about the beasts and it says, “Then there will be a time where those who are held for judgment.” That is where they are in hell right now, it is like the first level of Hell is Hades they are being tortured day and night.

There is no hope, but they are waiting there for a worse impending doom so it is like they are stuck there without hope. Still, they have one thing to hope for — that is even more punishment even more agony even more suffering where they get cast into the deep dark abyss.

Under the sea and the oceans cover them. They are locked in that eternal pit forever and ever and that is like the lowest level of Hell that is like the worst so right now they are in torture and punishment.

Eventually, they get cast into that lake of burning fire and sulfur and then they are there forever and they are – I mean there is no hope. So save people while they are here on Earth. Save their being, save their spirit, get them to know Jesus.

They can avoid all of those layers and levels of Hell, however, you look at it. Let’s dive a little bit more into Tartarus. What is this Tartarus? It is the closest translation to Hell that we have.

Hades, yes it is like punishment. Shoel is the pit or the grave. Someone could argue that it is not hell, but Tartarus says the eternal fire is prepared for the devil and his angels. This is bad, this is Hell.

This is the closest translation, it is a place worse than Hades which is normally known as the realm of the dead. Hades is the realm of the dead.

This is like again we have these levels and we are going to talk more about this as we go on. We had in the Old Testament or before Jesus died – again we are getting ahead of ourselves, so stay tuned. I am going to give you a little sneak peek.

Before Jesus died when a believer died they went to a place called Abraham’s bosom or paradise this is because the thief on the cross believed in Jesus, in Luke Jesus said “Today you will be with me in paradise” He did not say Heaven He said paradise.

This was like a place where all the believers went and then they waited because they could not get into Heaven until Jesus died and finished His mission then they go to Heaven.

So if you die today and you are a believer you go to Heaven you do not go to paradise you go to Heaven because Jesus made us a direct link to Heaven. Before we had to go to Abraham’s bosom place, and we were waiting for Jesus to bring us into Heaven now when we die we go to Heaven.

In addition, the unbelievers went to a place called Hades, or the realm of the dead we see this in the story of “Lazarus and the Rich Man” who says just please give me some water to cool my tongue he was in Hades the realm of the dead. Sheol the pit or the grave this place right here waiting could be purgatory he is waiting for his impending judgment.

Now this is still there because God has not come back to do the final judgment on satan the angels that rebelled and all of these spirits or us spiritual beings who have rebelled and who were not Christian were not saved did not believe in Jesus they are all waiting they are waiting in Hades this place of punishment this place of burning fire.

Finally, on the last day of judgment, they will be thrown into the eternal abyss, the lake of fire. These are kind of the levels. That is also where we get purgatory. Big sneak peek. Hope you stay tuned for the rest of the sermons as we dive into each of those things. But Tartarus is the closest translation to hell. Hades is the realm of the dead.

Tartarus, was a real place, of eternal torment. In Greek mythology, Gehenna was also a literal place. Today this is a valley in the Middle East with a street running in the middle of it. In the time of Jesus, when Jesus was around, this was a place of evil.

This was the trash dump. Seriously, this is where people dump all their garbage. If they had a lame animal or something like that, they would take it there to die and it would be alive, wailing and screaming.

This is where if people got terminally ill or something, it sounds morbid, they would go dump them off to die. Criminals who are stoned and beaten and left for dead, would drag them into this place and leave them there in agony and torment.

People would be screaming out, that people with leprosy were probably there, people with the full advantage — these people were there, they were alive and it was a trash dump. What happens when all of this stuff decays?

It stinks, and it burns, because heat happens when stuff rots, and worms and maggots come and eat it. These people, these lame animals, people who are invalids or cripples that were just cast out, they were there as well and worms would be eating them while they are alive. They are screaming in torment.

The place is hotter. Heck because it is number one in the desert, number two it has got all this rotting stuff around them, it is stinky, it is filthy.

People who are city servants and workers would also go there and start fires to burn up some of this filth and get rid of it so that they can make room for more that comes in.

It was a place of ashes and fires, that is what Gehenna was. It was a real place. So when Jesus would talk about this in the New Testament, He would say Gehenna and people instantly knew, oh whoa, I do not want to go there.

That is where they send the bad people. That is where they send the invalids, the cripples. That is where they send people who are left to die.

That is where the lame animals go, where they are being eaten by worms while they are still alive and they are crying out in torment and agony hoping to die. This is a bad place. We do not want to go there. It was a place of evil, a place of fiery torture, a place where pagans would go sacrifice.

That is where we get people, it might be a normal person, but pagans bring them there, start beating them up, chopping them up, cutting them open, and sacrificing them while they are still alive.

This is a bad place. It was a trash dump. They also burned the dead bodies there, so they would take them outside the gates of town and that is where they would cremate people and burn them up. This was a bad place. It was perpetual fire, worms eating flesh, a horrible horrible nasty place.

In Matthew 5:30, let’s go there. In Chapter 5, Verse 30, Jesus says, “And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. You should lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into Gehenna.”

That is what He is talking about when He says that it is for one part of your body. Other translations just say Hell, but He was saying, “Hey cut off your hand if it causes you to sin.

That one part should go into Gehenna and be burned up, then for your whole body to go there and be burned up.”

People are like, “Oh man, I do not want to go there.” That is in Matthew. Six of the 12 mentions of Gehenna are right there with Jesus talking about it.

James 3:6 is another one so let’s jump over to James. James Chapter 3, Verse 6 says, “The tongue is also a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person and sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by Gehenna.” Or other translations, Hell.

Very interesting. That is what it is saying. Gehenna and then people knew like, oh man, we know that place. You can look this up. It is a literal place, it is a valley right now with Gehennom Street running right through the middle.

That is where Gehanna was, a horrible place. People knew they did not want to go there. Back to Tartarus. When God judges the people of this world, all the demons and the spirits will be cast down into Hell or Tartarus, the eternal pit.

Right now they are in Hades, the realm of the dead. They will be cast into eternal Hell which is Revelation 20:3.

When John is talking about this, he says, “He threw him into the abyss and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the 1,000 years were ended. After that, he will be set free for a short time.”

That is during that 1,000-year reign. We have some short videos on that. Maybe someday I will do a big sermon on it, but, when God comes back to judge the world, He is going to cast everybody into that pit, in the deep abyss, lock up the gates, and put the oceans over them.

He is locked in fiery torment for 1,000 years while Christ reigns over the Earth. We are all here, it is going to be a perfect paradise, pure heaven on Earth.

Then after the 1,000 years is done — boom — we all go up into the real Heaven through heaven in the sky. God lets all those people out of the abyss and for a short time they are going to rain and terrorize the world.

Then God destroys the Earth and they get locked into Hell forever – Tartarus – where it is the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels, as we saw in Matthew 25:41 and also we read about it in 2 Peter 2:4.

Hell is a place to avoid. There is only one way to avoid Hell, you must believe in Jesus. John 14:6, “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” That means no one. Do not be a rebellious spirit. Save those that you love here on Earth.

What do you love? Do you love their bodies? No, that is lust. You love their spirit. When you are in love with someone or when you have siblings or relatives or friends that you love — I am not talking romantically, I am saying you care about them.

You care deeply for them, you are not in love with their body, you are not like, “Ah man I care so deeply about your hand.” No, you care about them.

What are they? They are not a body. This is a shell, this is a house that we live in. This is the temple we live in. What is a person? We are a spirit. So if you say, I like that Spencer guy, he is a great preacher, he hits home to me.

You do not like my body, you do not say oh that is a nice suit, that is why I like him. No. Oh, that is nice skin, that is why I like him. No. He has got a nice beard. No, I will shave it up. No. That is not what you like.

You like the spirit because my spirit is on fire and it is talking to you and you are liking it. If you care about anyone else in your life, you are caring about their spirit. Do you want that spirit to go into Gehenna? Tartarus? The Pit, Sheol? Hell? Hades?

All of this eternal punishment, save for the devil and his angels and those who rebelled against God? Or do you want them to go to Heaven? Do you want that person, that spirit, to go to Heaven? Hopefully, you want them to go to Heaven.

“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” Introduce them to Jesus and bring them into Heaven. I hope you stay tuned for the rest of this sermon series.

We are going to be diving into it in a lot more detail, so stay tuned. If you have any comments or questions, please put them below because this is an awesome and important topic.

Let’s pray. Lord Jesus thank you so much for the ability to dive deep into your Word. To get into what it means to learn more about Hell and about what a horrible place this is. Lord, I just pray that you would put the fear of God in all of these people watching and listening and seeing these sermons.

If people scroll past it in their feed, they click on it, that they watch it that they stay tuned, and that they become hooked. Lord, that they just see, like oh my goodness, this is a place I have to not be in.

I have to make sure my friends, my family, my co-workers, my loved ones, my neighbors, I need to make sure everyone stays away from Hell.

Give them a huge motivation, a fear of God, because guess what, you can send them to Hell. That you will judge, you are perfect Lord and we know that and we trust that. We know that if you are a perfect God, you cannot have imperfect people.

It is not like you are choosing to send us there. We are choosing to reject you and then that is where we go. You are telling us ahead of time. Here are your results, you can either do this or this. Lord, I pray that they would choose you, that they choose heaven rather than choosing Hell. Because it is a choice and we can all make it.

God, every single Christian out there, every single believer, in the body of Christ, fuel them. Light them on fire, put the fire of the Spirit in them to get out there and start saving people, grabbing them out of the depths of Hell. They still have a chance, they still have hope here on Earth.

You would inspire them to save as many people as possible so that we can just superpopulate Heaven and that Hell would have very, very little population of spiritual beings here on Earth. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Again I cannot stress it enough, you do not want to end up in Hell, you want to be in Heaven and you want every single person you talk to, to care about being in Heaven as well.

Get out there, and share with them, if you do not feel like talking to them about it, just share a sermon with them. Say “Hey, will you watch this?” It is 25 minutes. Then let them decide. Stay tuned for more sermons. I hope you love this series. God bless.