THE DECENT INTO HELL
Hades means the 'grave' (Heb. Sheol):
not in heathen mythology, but in the Word of God. It was in hades
the Lord Jesus was put: for �He was buried.� As to His Spirit, He said,
�Father, into thy hands I commend my Spirit� (Luke 23:46). And as to His
body, it was �laid in a sepulchre.� Of this burial He says:
�Thou wilt not leave my soul (i.e. me. Myself) in Sheol (or Hades),
Neither wilt Thou suffer Thy holy one to see corruption.� (Psalm 16:10)
These two lines are strictly parallel; and the second
expands and explains the first.
Hence, sheol (Greek, hades) is the place
where �corruption� is seen. And resurrection is the only way of exit
from it. This is made perfectly clear by the Divine commentary on the
passage in the New Testament. We read in Acts 2:31:
�He (David) seeing this before spake of the resurrection
of Christ, that his soul (i.e. he) was not left in hades; neither
his flesh did see corruption.�
To make it still more clear, it is immediately added,
and expressly stated, that �David is not yet ascended into the heavens�
(v. 34), and therefore had not been raised from the dead. Note, it does
not say David's body, but David. This is another proof that resurrection
is the only way of entrance into heaven.
But this passage (Psalm 16:10) is again referred to in
Acts 13:34-37, and here we have the same important lesson restated:
�And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead,
now no more to return to corruption, he saith...thou shalt not suffer
thine Holy One to see corruption...For David fell on sleep, and was laid
unto his fathers, and saw corruption. But he whom God raised again saw
no corruption.�
He saw it not, because He was raised from the dead, and
thus brought out of the Sepulchre, where He had been �buried.�
This is the teaching of the Word of God. It knows
nothing whatever of a �descent into hell� as separate, and distinct,
from His burial. That is tradition pure and simple.
The Apostles' Creed>
<Hades a place of silence