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Okay, we got to digging last week when we read that Jesus said in chapter 1 verse 18:
18 I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.
I suggested that in relation to Jesus having the keys to both “the hades and the death” that we ought to know what this would mean or how it would apply to the Idealist, the Historicist, the Futurist and the partial Preterist view which all maintain that Jesus has yet to come back and so therefore the hades is still in operation and the second death still awaits.
We ended last weeks discussion by my asking, “If Jesus holds the Keys to the death” which “the death or deaths” would these keys work?
The physical (yes, via resurrection for all humankind good and bad)
Spiritual? (We said yes, for it is through Jesus that we are born again and become new Creatures through the Spirit that quickens us)
I then I posed the question if He also holds the keys to what scripture describes as “the second death?” To this I also suggested that, “Yes, Jesus holds the keys to the Second death too.” We will talk more about this today before moving on in our verse by verse study.
Now, eschatologically speaking, since Jesus has not returned (according to the views of all those in the first box), then we have to suggest that all who have died since Jesus ascended have either gone to heaven or they have gone to hades – and they are waiting for Jesus to return.
I suggest that in the hades these are not experiencing the fires but instead cold, desperate, never satisfied existences. Why are all who have ever gone to the hades still there?
Because according to the general consensus of these views Jesus needs to return to initiate the end of everything which will include, as we read last week in Revelation 20, even the hades giving up her dead and all the inhabitants THEN being judged at the Great White Throne Judgment to see if their names are written in the Lambs Book of Life.
So let’s write this here in these boxes:
Revelation 1.18 part II
December 4th 2016
Meat
(ON BOARD)
“Jesus having the keys to the hades and the death”
How this fact applies to the
pre-second coming of Christ
Which is how the . . .
Futurists
Historists
Idealists
Partial preterists
still interpret this.
How this fact applies to the post Second Coming of Christ
(To those after that age)
Which is how the
Full Preterists
interpret this.
Keys to the Hades
All who have died since Christ have gone to heaven or the hades. If the hades they are waiting the final judgment at which time hades gives up its dead and they are judged.
Keys to the Death
Then in the area of death the orthodox view suggests the following in relation to it:
Jesus overcame physical death for all as all will be resurrected – some to eternal life others to damnation.
Spiritual death is overcome by faith in Christ in this life. Unless a man is born again he cannot even see the Kingdom of Heaven.
But once someone dies physically their future is set. If they are in hades they will (in all probability and depending on who you ask) go into the Lake of Fire at the Great White Throne judgment, which is the Second death, and over this Jesus has no keys.
Therefore these views believe the second death is eternal – some saying it includes annihilation and others say that it includes suffering eternally in flames with Satan and his angels.
In the face of all this we took the time to examine the term “second death” and one of the first things we saw was the term is only used in the Book of Revelation.
We also discovered the following:
It is called the Lake of Fire so we know that it is the burning consuming place after this life, NOT the hades.
Those who are part of the first resurrection will “not be hurt” by the Second Death.
Those who are cast into the Lake of Fire will take their part in it.
That the Lake of Fire is in the presence of the Lamb and His angels.
That it is a place of fire and brimstone and all who are guilty of a list of inumerated sins will go there (which I take to mean as all who have not been covered by Christ’s shed blood by faith).
Again, relative to the views in the first box, many evangelicals get hades (the dark place) mixed up with the Lake of Fire or the Second death forgetting that scripture says plainly that the death AND the hades will be cast into the Lake of Fire.
So there is a quick thumbnail on last weeks coverage of hades, death, the second death, and how most Christians today view them as still being effective and in play – mostly because they do not believe Jesus has returned and the descriptions of Revelation 19-22 have yet to occur, which again, will include the hades giving up its dead and therefore kick-starting the Great White Throne Judgement and people being cast into the Lake of Fire.
Now, there is the Full Preterist view (which we will discuss presently – with one admitted caveat – I don’t study “ists and isms” so I don’t know what the Full Preterist views officially are. Honestly. My views in many ways happen to concur with the Full Preterist views but my views come from a study of the Word not because I have reached out and incorporated an ist or ism into my body of beliefs.
So all I can do is share with you what I believe to be the case here relative to Jesus holding the keys to the hades and the death and what it means to someone who believes that Jesus has already returned with judgment and reward.
The reason why my views are in all probability not in complete harmony with standard the Full Preterist views is I am also what you might call a total reconciliationalist (which runs along the lines of Universalist beliefs of old which say that all will be brought back to God through Christ once purged of their filth in the Lake of Fire which is in the presence of the Lamb and His angels.)
Because we have read that Jesus has the Keys to the hades and the death I am of the opinion, taking Paul’s admonition to believe and hope for all things, that He will use His keys even in the second death (perhaps especially in relation to the second death) and once the most rebellious have received Him He will let them out and they will not only bow and admit Him Lord, they too will be reconciled to God.
But remember what we read last week about those who do NOT encounter the Lake of Fire –
“Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.”
Here we see that there is a great difference between those of the first resurrection, who as priests and joint heirs will reign with Christ and those who are cast into the Lake of Fire.
So reconciliation does NOT mean saved, glorified, honored or even a Son of God – it just means reconciled – after being purged in the fire and light of Christ.
Purged? Reconciled? What is all of this about? Don’t lose track here. We are talking about all of this because Jesus has plainly stated that He holds the keys to the hades and the death – since He has admitted this we need to explore what this means across the board.
I try to avoid the term universalism because today in our age Universalism is often defined as all road leading to God, all being saved, no after-life punishment, and the like.
What I would like to do here is follow my own path to epistemology which says:
The Spirit is primary and preferential. When it comes to this subject the Spirit has not brought all believers to a unity of the faith. And so we turn to The Word as our secondary source. But again, the Word – and the various interpretations of it – do not solve the impasse between believers on this subject.
When the first to sources for truth and understanding faith we go to our third – though not as reliable source – church history.
I think you will be surprised by the information. Total Reconciliation is not some new kid on the block.
It was more than present in the early church. Similarly, we also note that from the writings of the early church leaders eternal torment wasn’t commonly accepted until around the year 500?
Now there is a vast amount of reseach and information on this subject online and in books – of which I’ve read very little but I did gather the following facts from these very reliable sources.
First, the doctrine of Eternal Torment is not found anywhere in ancient Judaism.
Sometime after the close of the Old Testament and in and around Jesus’ time, this error began creeping in from the surrounding . . . paganism.
Jesus and the apostles were more about sharing the Good News, apologetics, and warning about the eminent coming end of the age than focusing on the eternality of afterlife punishment.
By the time we get to those referred to as the “early church fathers” total reconciliationism through Christ was the predominant view – and it was a view that came from scripture – prior to the influences of Paganism crept in.
Turning to the earliest church leaders who were well versed in Greek (the language of the New Testament) almost all did not believe in endless, torment for the sake of retribution.
They believed in limited, corrective punishment. Why? It was based on their understanding of several key Greek words that had been mistranslated.
Augustine, the first church father to really promote Eternal Torments to the exlusion of other beliefs, hated Greek and studied mostly in Latin. When the power of the church shifted from the Greek fathers (Alexandrian) to the Latin, the teachings became largely corrupted. This was the same with the ideas on Free Will.
Anyway, by 200 AD, there were three schools of thought within Christianity concerning the after-life destiny of the wicked:
Endless punishment
Annihilation (the wicked would simply be wiped out no longer to exist) and
Total Reconciliation.
However, prior to this there was not much, if any, controversy over these opinions.
Origen, who was the first to really systematize Christianity, and though errant in a number of ways to the point he was ultimately condemed, was a reconciliationist.
The interesting thing about Origen is that his Reconciliationism was never a subject he was condemned over.
In fact, Reconciliationism wasn’t really attacked until around 540 AD when Eternal Torments took hold around the beginning of the Middle Ages. Up until this time some of the most revered early church fa-leaders were staunch universalists and they all supported their views from scripture.
So let me rattle off some bullet points on the subject as a back drop to completing our discussion of Jesus having the keys to the hades and the death.
First of all Clement of Alexandria was a Total Reconciliationalist.
And where he and Origen represent the doctrine of scholars and the educated the Catacombs give us the views of the unlearned and not one syllable is found hinting at the horrors of Augustinianism, but the inscription on every monument harmonizes with the Reconciliationism of the early fa-leaders.
Clement declares that all punishment, however severe, is purificatory; that even the “torments of the damned” are curative.
Origen even describes Gehenna as signifying limited and curative punishment, and both he and Clement (along with others) say that “everlasting” (aionion) punishment, is consonant with universal salvation.
The early Christians taught that Christ preached the Gospel to the dead, and for that purpose descended into Hades. This is described in 1st Peter.
Within this view many held that He “released” all who were in ward at that time which supports the notion that repentance beyond the grave was accepted which conflicts with todays dogmatism that once dead punishment is fiery and forever.
Additionally, prayers for the dead were universal in the early church, which would be an absurd practice if their condition is unalterably fixed at the grave.
The first comparatively complete systematic statement of Christian doctrine ever given to the world was by Clement of Alexandria, A.D. 180, and universal reconciliationism was one of the tenets.
Then as stated, the first complete presentation of Christianity as a system was by Origen (A.D. 220) and universal reconciliationism was explicitly contained in it.
Truly, Universal reconciliationism was the prevailing doctrine in Christendom as long as Greek, the language of the New Testament, was the language of the faith.
Total Reconciliationism was lesser and lesser known or taught when Greek, again, the language of the New Testament was least known.
And listen, when Latin was the language of the Church the faith was in its darkest, most ignorant, and corrupt age.
Not a single writer (among those who describe the heresies of the first three hundred years of the faith) ever suggests that Total Reconciliationism was a living heresy, though it was believed by many, if not by a majority, and certainly by the greatest of the early church leaders.
Additionally, not a single creed for five hundred years expresses any idea contrary to universal restoration or one in favor of endless punishment.
With the exception of the arguments of Augustine (A.D. 420), there is not an argument known to have been framed against Universal Reconciliationism for at least four hundred years after Christ by any of the ancient leaders.
Additionally, while the councils that assembled in various parts of Christendom and anathematized every kind of doctrine supposed to be heretical, no ecumenical council, for more than five hundred years, condemned Universalism, though it had been advocated in every century by the principal scholars and most revered saints.
Then as late as A.D. 400, Jerome says “most people” (plerique) and Augustine says “very many” people (quam plurimi), believed in Universal Reconciliation.
The most celebrated of the earlier advocates “of endless punishment” were all heathen born rather than those born in the faith showing that eternal punishment could have come directly over from pagan influences.
Tertullian one of the first to promote eternal torture followed by Augustine, the greatest proponent.
The first true advocates of endless punishment were Minucius Felix, Tertullian and Augustine – all Latins, ignorant of Greek, and less competent to interpret the meaning of Greek Scriptures than were the Greek scholars before them.
The first advocates of Reconciliationism, after the Apostles, were Greeks, in whose mother-tongue the New Testament was written.
To them total reconciliation was present in the Greek versions of the Bible. Herein is one of the best supports we find by looking to the early church for direction – the Latin based leaders were supportive of eternal torments but the Greek endorsed reconciliation.
The beautiful thing about the Greek inspired views is that there was nothing in their non-biblical literature to support Total Reconciliation of the very wicked world around them.
This fact suggests that it was their view of the Good News to the World, read and taught by the Greek, that led them to their conclusions.
All ecclesiastical historians and the best Biblical critics and scholars agree to the prevalence of Universalism in the earlier centuries.
From the days of Clement of Alexandria to those of Gregory of Nyssa and Theodore of Mopsuestia (A.D. 180-428), the great theologians and teachers, almost without exception, were Universal Reconciliationists.
The first theological school in Christendom, that in Alexandria, taught Universalism for more than two hundred years.
In all of recorded Christendom, from A.D. 170 to 430, there were six Christian schools. Of these four, the strictest of the schools theologically, taught Universal Reconciliation with one teaching endless punishment.
The three earliest Gnostic sects, the Basilidians, the Carpocratians and the Valentinians (A.D. 117-132) were all condemned by Christian writers with all of their heretical views described but each one of them taught Universal Reconciliation and this doctrine was NEVER condemned by those who opposed them.
The first defense of Christianity against Infidelity (Origen against Celsus) puts the defense on Universalistic grounds.
Celsus charged the Christians’ God with cruelty, because he punished with fire. Origen replied that God’s fire is curative; that he is a “Consuming Fire,” because he consumes sin and not the sinner.
Again, for emphasis, Origen was a huge proponent of Reconciliationism and was bitterly opposed and attacked for his various opinions but he was never confronted for his universalist views.
In fact the very council that anathematized “Origenism” eulogized Gregory of Nyssa, who was as explicitly a Reconciliationist as Origen.
Again . . .LISTS of his errors are given by Methodius, Pamphilus and Eusebius, Marcellus, Eustathius and Jerome, but his Universalism is not named by one of his opponents.
Looking at all the lists of heresies in the church and Total Reconciliationism is not EVER one of them.
Hippolytus (A.D. 320) names thirty-two known heresies, but Universalism is not mentioned as among them.
Epiphanius, “the hammer of heretics,” describes eighty heresies, but he does not mention universal salvation.
Justinian, a half-pagan emperor, who attempted to have Universalism officially condemned, lived in the most corrupt epoch of the Christian centuries.
He closed the theological schools, and demanded the condemnation of Universalism by law; but the doctrine was so prevalent in the church that the council refused to obey his edict to suppress it.
Lecky says the age of Justinian was “the worst form civilization has assumed.”
So, to the views of the early church, the first clear and definite statement of human afterlife destiny by any Christian writer after the days of the Apostles, includes universal restoration, and that doctrine was advocated by most of the greatest and best of the Christian Fathers for the first five hundred years of the Christian Era.
So . . . if the idealist and historicist and the futurist and the partial preterist believe that the hades is still in place and the Great White throne judgement and casting into the Lake of Fire awaits, what is the view of all this to a full Preterist who thinks Jesus did in fact return and with Him initiated the first resurrection, the emptying of the hades, and the manning and initiating of the Great White Throne judgment (which is followed by the casting into the Lake of Fire for those not found in the Lambs Book of Life?
I must admit here that the views are seemingly endless. There are full preterists/Universalists,
Preterist/Pantilism/Comprehensive Gracers
Preterist Noyianists
And truly . . . on and on and on.
So let me reel it all back in and try and explain what I think scripture is saying from this view.
I see Jesus suffering for the sins of the world, dying, going to hades, preaching the Good News to them and taking those in paradise with Him into heaven.
I see the apostles sharing the Good News with living earthly Israel (and then the Gentile world) and warning them of impending judgment for 40 or so years.
I personally see Jesus completing all His work by returning (as the High Priest coming out of the Holiest of Holies) with judgment and reward in 70 AD and at that time the hades emptying out and the Great and the dead beginning judgment before the Great White Throne with those whose names not written in the Lambs book of life being cast into the Lake of Fire, which I am convinced is the consuming fire that God is.
At that point I see the hades, the covered place being empty forever more. It is done, emptied and plays no more of a role in afterlife human affairs.
Since Jesus introduced the Resurrection of the Dead at the advent of His coming, and since I believe that Resurrection is entirely spiritual with spiritual bodies being given by God to all – some to eternal life and some to eternal damnation, I believe that at death all people – since the end of the age in 70 AD – are raptured, judged, and receive their eternal bodies from God.
Those who are His by faith enter into His kingdom, those who are not enter into the Lake of Fire and in accordance to early church beliefs, are purged by the fire and the brimstone (which is a rubbing away) in the presence of the Lamb and His angels.
Stay with me. Since all who enter this Lake of Fire are physically dead, and spiritually dead and since the Lake of Fire is called the Second Death that hurts, where there is loss experienced, what exactly is dying in this second death?
To answer that we have to ask ourselves, if the Lake of Fire is called the Second Death, what was the first death?
I suggest the first death was spiritual not physical. When God told Adam the day that he ate the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil he would surely die, he died – spiritually – because he didn’t die physically for another 930 years.
So the first death is spiritual. What could the Second death be – especially in light of the fact that it is in the presence of the Lamb and His angels?
Here is where many say this is the annihilation of souls, or this is when there is no return for those in the Lake of Fire and they die over and over and forever in eternal flames.
But I suggest something different. Since they are already dead physically and spiritually, and since the universal teaching of the early church was total reconciliation, and since I do not believe God and Jesus lose any due to Satan or human will, and since I believe that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess, and since I believe that those who enter the Lake of Fire are hurt and not destroyed and that they have their part but not the whole, I suggest that the Second Death they are experiencing is the (listen now) is the death of their spiritual death. I suggest that this is not pleasant – and that it is entirely avoided by all of the first resurrection who are priests that reign with God and Christ.
But I propose that the Lake of Fire second death is God putting to death the Spiritual death the inhabitants of the lake already possess.
Dave pointed something out to me of great benefit to this view.
When Jesus walked the earth John the Baptist said something that, like most things, I assumed meant one thing but always nagged me because of my explanation of it.
It’s found in Luke 3:16 and Matthew where John says to the people:
“I baptize you with water; but he who is mightier than I is coming, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”
Dave believes this is describing two respective and mutually exclusive baptisms Jesus brings to human kind and our existence.
The first is the baptism of the Holy Spirit and then He has a second, a baptism of fire.
In his estimation those who receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit escape the baptism of fire, which is awaiting all in the Lake of Fire.
This makes come great and excellent sense since baptism is a symbol for death and as the Lake of Fire is called the Second Death I am convinced this insight is dead on.
However, after thinking about it I differ with Dave in a non essential point. I agree that Jesus came with baptism of the Holy Spirit and of fire.
I also agree that if someone isn’t “baptized by the Holy Spirit in His name by faith here” they will be baptized by fire in His name (and until He lets them out) there.
But where I just slightly differ with Dave is I do not believe these baptisms are mutually exclusive but suggest that when you are baptized by the Holy Spirit here you will also be baptized by fire here thereafter.
And those who are first baptized by fire there will afterward – after bowing and confessing and suffering loss – will also be baptized by the Holy Spirit, there – before Joining God in his Kingdom.
In the end this is how I understand the implication of Jesus saying:
I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.
To that age then, and to us now.
And with all of that behind us and being said, we will continue on with verse 19 next week.
Q and A
Prayer
