Kingdom Come

“Blessed of the LORD be his land,

The writings directed to the Gentile converts – Luke’s gospel, Paul’s ministry documented in Acts, and Peter’s letters – did not need explanation because their audience understood them from paganism. 

1. Tartarus = In Greek mythology, Tartarus was a “place of punishment under the earth, to which, for example, the Titans were sent.” 
2. Bottomless pit / the deep = ἄβυσσος, the abyss, unfathomable depth. “And I saw an angel come down from heaven…And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit,” (Revelation 20:1-2)
   • This condition of entrapment and inactivity is well portrayed in Netflix’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman. When the Immortal Sandman was separated from his sources of power he reverts to a horrible state of inactive energy yet still sensate in a glass bubble.
   • “And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there…came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power / authority, irresistible control, as the scorpions of the earth have power.” (Revelation 9:1-3)
3. Hades = ᾍδης  “(from 1 /A “not” and idein/eidō, “see”) – properly, the “unseen place,” hell, the (invisible) realm of pure energy disembodied souls in fiery torment for those who rejected a relationship with the giver of life. “Christ also hath once suffered for sins…he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;” (I Peter 3:17-19) Whom God hath raised up…David speaketh concerning him…thou wilt not leave my soul in hell / hades.” (Acts 2:22-36) 
   • When we understand where exactly it was that Jesus knew he was going to as part of suffering the penalty of sin for all humanity, his experience on the cross pales in comparison, and we should be shocked into awareness of what exactly he suffered to save our souls from our own justly earned wrath of God. 
4. sheol: שְׁאוֹל (Hebrew) underworld to which people descend at death to Rest In Peace.
   • I will go down into sheol / the grave unto my son” (Genesis 37:35) Consistent with the First Law of Thermodynamics which states that energy can only transformed from one form to another, the grounding of souls at the loss of the body converts active kinetic energy to inactive potential.

Ancient Hindu records refer to the underworld as Patala, ruled by the king of the underworld Ahiravan.

Buddhists believe in Naraka.

In Thracian and Dacian legends, it is said that there are caverns occupied by an ancient god called Zalmoxis. 

In Celtic mythology there is a legend of a cave called “Cruachan“, also known as “Ireland’s gate to Hell”.