First of all, in order to clear the way for the study of what Jesus
says on this subject, let me call your attention to the fact that
Hell and Hades are not the same. There are numerous places in the
Authorised Version where we find the word "Hell" but where that word
does not occur in the Revised Version, and where the word "Hades" is
substituted for the word "Hell." The Revised Version is right at that
point, as every Greek scholar knows. Hades is not Hell. "Hades" is
the Greek equivalent of the Old Testament Hebrew word "Sheol." This
Hebrew word "Sheol" is frequently translated in the Authorised Version
of the Old Testament by the English word "Grave." It ought never to
be so translated, as it never means "Grave." I have taken the pains
to look up every passage where this Hebrew word is used and in not a
single instance does it mean "Grave." There is an entirely different
Hebrew word which can properly be translated in that way. "Sheol," or
New Testament "Hades," means the place of departed spirits. Sheol (or
Hades) before the coming, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of
our Lord, was _the place where all the spirits of the dead, good and
bad, went_. Before the ascension of Christ, in Hades was Paradise, the
place of the blessed dead, and Tartaros, the place of the wicked dead.
At His ascension Christ emptied the Paradise of Hades, and took it up
to Heaven with Him, as we read in Eph. 4:8, +"When he ascended on
high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men."+ Before
Christ ascended Paradise was down, now it is up. Christ said to the
repentant thief on the cross, +"Verily I say unto thee, to-day shalt
thou be with me in Paradise,"+ and Jesus Himself taught us He went
down into +"the heart of the earth"+ (Luke 12:40) and the dying
thief went down with Him into this subterranean Paradise. I think Jesus
Himself went also into that part of Hades where the lost spirits were
(1 Peter 3:18-20), but that is another story that we will consider
later. All that is important now is that the repentant, dying thief
went _down_ into Paradise, but after the ascension of the Lord, when
Paul went to Paradise, he was +"caught up even to the third heaven
into Paradise"+ (II Cor. 12:2-4). No blessed dead are now left in
Hades, and ultimately "death" and "Hades," i.e., all that are dead who
have not yet been raised, or caught up into the Celestial Paradise, all
who are still in Hades, shall be +"cast into the lake of fire"+
(Rev. 20:14). This +"lake of fire"+ into which death and Hades are
to be cast, is the true and ultimate Hell.