Questions & Answers

ANSWERS

Components in the Millennial Kingdom: How do the ‘glorified ones’ live together with the living ones on earth?

Interesting question but no satisfying answer can be given until we see it! Based on sanctified imagination: The glorified ones will be immortal, sinless and will rule the world with Christ. They will be able to do things that Christ in His resurrected body was able to do – e.g. appear and disappear, walk, talk, eat. (Question of where they will live - in their mansions in heaven? I.e. Like Christ they can travel freely between heaven and earth) The living ones will be subject to them, but will continue to be capable of sin and under the curse of death, although they will live longer (Isaiah 65:20).

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What is the difference between the following terms: Hades, Hell, Bottomless pit, Lake of Fire?

a. Hades designates the realm of the dead, sometimes without any distinction of whether it is heaven or hell. E.g. Acts 2:31 – "He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell [hades], neither his flesh did see corruption." It also used to designate the place of eternal torment (i.e. Gehenna) where unsaved sinners go to immediately after death – Luke 16:23 – "And in hell (Hades) he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom."

b. Hell (Gehenna) designates a place of fiery torment. E.g. Mark 9:43,44 – "And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." (cf. Isaiah 66:24).

c. Bottomless Pit (abyss) designates a holding place for the plague of locusts that were released in the fifth trumpet judgment. It also seems to be the abode of demons (Luke 8:31 – ‘the deep’), of Satan (who is called "Apollyon" – Destroyer - the angel of the bottomless pit, 9:11), and of the Antichrist (11:7: 17:8). It later becomes the place where Satan is imprisoned for 1,000 years (20:1,3)

d. Lake of Fire and brimstone designates the final place of fiery torment for all unbelievers (20:14,15; Matthew 25:41) as well as for Satan, the Antichrist and the False Prophet (20:10). It is different from the earlier abode of the dead (Hades, 20:14).

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