What is meant by Sheol, Hell, Hades, Tartarus, and other destinations of the Wicked.

[Hobie]

So what is meant by Sheol, Hell, Hades, Tartarus and other destinations of the wicked given in Gods Word. The meaning overall are a bit hard to bring together because of being grouped together under the word 'hell' as a place of fire and torment, or 'Hades' as the abode of the dead, while Tartarus seems more obscure. Well lets go over the history as that is my background, and then get into the words used in Old Testament as well as the New Testament and its meaning, as well as the confusion that exists even today.

So what is meant by the Hebrew Sheol and the Greek Hades/Hell and how did it get twisted into this idea of a fiery underworld with Satan in charge, lets begin with some of the pagan ideas that caused much of the confusion, lets start with Purgatory and the Greek ideas that came in.

Purgatory as a doctrine teaches that a Christian's soul must burn in purgatory after death until all of their sins have been purged. To speed up the purging process, money could be paid to a priest so he could pray and have special masses for an earlier release, and much money was made with this doctrine. Purgatory is given as a way that no matter how sinful or unbelieving, when you die, you go to Purgatory and get things sorted out and finally get to heaven, so no acceptance of Christ is needed, you can buy your way in. But is it in the Bible, if you look it doesnt show it anywhere, so where did it come from. It comes from apostasy, it is a corrupt pagan doctrine, which was allowed into the church.

This pagan idea began creeping into the church around the end of the sixth century, and it has no scriptural support. In fact, Jesus warned us about this pagan practice in Matthew 23:14 when He spoke of those who devoured widows houses and made long prayers for a pretense. Psalm 49:6-7 tells us that a person couldn't redeem a loved one, even if such a place did exist: "They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches; None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him:" Peter addresses this issue in Acts 8:20 when he says, "Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money." God's word is clearly against the doctrine of purgatory.

The Greeks, as in some measure the Egyptians before them, created myths of the afterlife which spread throughout the Hellenistic world, and even into words which were used when the Hebrew text was translated into the Greek. Scripture clearly rejects the Greek notion of the immortality of the soul disembodied from the here and now as spirit beings, and early Christians affirmed the resurrection of the body just as Lazarus was resurrected by Christ. So there is no place for a underworld depicted in Greek myths or place of cleansing by fire such as purgatory where spirit beings are left till they are ready to be reunited with God, it comes from other origins which we shall see.

Purgatory as a transitional condition has from many sources, a origin from the pagan belief of caring for the dead and praying for them, and to the belief that prayer for the dead contributed to their afterlife purification. Pagan tradition created this place of purgatory which leaves hope after death for the wicked, who, at the time of their death, are unrepentant and cling to their love of sin.

In Egypt, substantially the same doctrine of purgatory was taught as in modern times and its priests created grand funerals and masses for the dead, along with celebration of prayer and other services for the soul of the dead. The priest who officiated at the burial service was selected from the grade of Pontiffs who wore the leopard skin; but various other rites were performed by one of the minor priests to the mummies, previous to their being lowered into the pit of the tomb after that ceremony. They practiced elaborate ceremonies to prepare the pharaohs for their next life, constructing massive pyramids and other elaborate tombs filled with luxuries the deceased were supposed to need in the hereafter. The famous Book of the Dead, a collection of ancient Egyptian funerary and ritual texts, describes in great detail how to meet the challenges of the afterlife. The pagan Egyptian belief was when the body died, parts of its soul known as ka (body double) and the ba (personality) would go to the Kingdom of the Dead. While the soul dwelt in the Fields of Aaru, Osiris demanded work as restitution for the protection he provided. Statues were placed in the tombs to serve as substitutes for the deceased.

The Egyptian belief in the immortality of the soul existed centuries before Judaism, Hellenism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam. According to Herodotus, eventually the Greeks adopted from the Egyptians the belief in the immortality of the soul. He wrote: 'The Egyptians also were the first who asserted the doctrine that the soul of man is immortal . . . This opinion, some among the Greeks have at different periods of time adopted as their own.' The Greek philosopher Socrates (470-399 B. C.) traveled to Egypt to consult the Egyptians on their teachings on the immortality of the soul. Upon his return to Greece, he imparted this teaching to his most famous pupil, Plato.......

In Greece the doctrine of a purgatory was spread through the Greek mystery religions and even was spoken by one of its major philosophers. Plato, speaking of the future judgment of the dead, holds out the hope of final deliverance for all, but maintains that, of "those who are judged," some must first "proceed to a subterranean place of judgment, where they shall sustain the punishment they have deserved." The ancient Greeks sacrificed on the thirteenth day (after death) to Mercury as the conductor of the dead, they also had sacrifice which, according to Plato, "was offered for the living and the dead, and was supposed to free them from all the evils to which the wicked are liable when they have left this world.

In ancient Rome, the pagan priests also picked up and spread purgatory to the pagans in the empire, but as a belief in the early church it was not immediately picked up. From earliest times Greek religious beliefs were a strong influence in Italy, and the Graeco-Roman world was essentially one in its religious and philosophic views of the afterlife. There was no mention of the doctrine during the first two centuries of the church, so it has no basis in scripture, the apostles did not teach it, nor did Christ. So we can see how that is a false doctrine that came about from pagan origin.

 

[Hobie]

The doctrine of Purgatory is not only without Biblical proof, but it is against the clear and consistent teaching of Scripture. As the Bible nowhere speaks of a temporary place of punishment after death for believers, however, it does clearly state that when the believer dies, he rests in the grave and becomes dust, a place that no living loved one can effect in any way:

Genesis 3:19
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Job 7:21
And why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away my iniquity? for now shall I sleep in the dust; and thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be.

Job 34:15
All flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust.

They basically lay in the grave as dust and await the resurrection.

Revelation 14:13
And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.

In fact, neither the word nor the concept of sin-purifying fire is found in Scripture or worse paying to cleanse a dead person of sin as a way to heaven. Scripture leaves absolutely no possibility for sin to be purged away by anything other than the blood of Jesus Christ.

1 John 1:7
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

John did not say "some" sins or "most" sins, but all sin and he is very clear on this..

Revelation 1:5
And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,

 

[Hobie]

Now lets look at happens for both the good and the bad after death, and where the saints will go and also the ultimate destruction of the wicked in the Lake of Fire in a consuming fire, but which because of the Greek words used in translating from the Hebrew text has become confused with Greek myths. Christians picked up these false ideas and pagan beliefs of immortality of the soul, that a part of, or essence of, or spirit being of an individual, which carries with it and confers personal identity, survives the death of the body of this world and this lifetime, by natural or supernatural means. This is at odds and in contrast to the scriptural teaching that the dead go to the grave and know nothing and at the end, a eternal oblivion of the wicked and a eternal life for the saints.

The Greeks had come up with myths that all the dead dwell below the earth in the realm of Hades and Persephon, good and bad alike, leading a shadowy and cheerless existence. The Greek god Hades was the king of the underworld, a place where souls live after death. The Greek god Hermes, the messenger of the gods, would take the dead soul of a person to the underworld (sometimes called Hades or the House of Hades). Hermes would leave the soul on the banks of the River Styx, the river between life and death. Charon, also known as the ferry-man, would take the soul across the river to Hades, if the soul had gold: Upon burial, the family of the dead soul would put coins under the deceased's tongue. Once crossed, the soul would be judged by Aeacus, Rhadamanthus and King Minos. The soul would be sent to Elysium, Tartarus, Asphodel Fields, or the Fields of Punishment.

From the sixth century BC onwards the Greeks developed pagan ideas for the dead, and of reincarnation and even transmigration of souls. These ideas are particularly associated with the pagan Greek Religious Mysteries or Eleusinian mysteries , where initiation in this life into its 'mysteries' are the prerequisites for getting to paradise in the next life. So you see where the Greek words used came loaded with ideas not in line with the original Hebrew, but since at the time, Greek was used as basically English is used today to communicate between people across the world, it was translated into these Greek words, and we have to go back to what the original Hebrew scribes words they wrote to understand their meaning.

So lets first look at the translation of the words closely to see their original meaning:

· Hades was the Greek work used in some places for the Hebrew term, Sheol or grave as "the place of the dead". Thus, it is used in reference to both the righteous and the wicked, since both wind up there eventually.
· Gehenna refers to the "Valley of Hinnon", which was a garbage dump outside of Jerusalem. It was a place where people burned their garbage and thus there was always a fire burning there. Bodies of those deemed to have died in sin without hope of salvation were thrown there to be destroyed. Gehenna is used in the New Testament as a metaphor for the final place of punishment for the wicked after the resurrection.
· Tartaro (the verb "throw to Tartarus") occurs only once in the New Testament in 2 Peter 2:4, and basically means the abyss or oblivion.
· The Hebrew word Abaddon, meaning to perish or "destruction", is sometimes used and basically means the same as the abyss or oblivion.

In most translations they often translate Gehenna as "Hell" which was the Greek closest to the meaning. Young's Literal Translation is a notable exception, simply using "Gehenna".

As you can see, Hades is the Greek word used for the Hebrew word Sheol in Greek translations of the Hebrew Bible. While earlier translations most often translated Hades as "hell", as does the King James Version, modern translations use the transliteration "Hades", or render the word as allusions "to the grave", "among the dead", "place of the dead" and many other like statements in other verses. In Latin, Hades began to incorrectly be translated as Purgatorium (Purgatory in English use) after about 1200 A.D., but no modern English translations put Hades as Purgatory. In the King James Bible, the Old Testament term Sheol is translated as "Hell" 31 times. However, Sheol was translated as "the grave" 31 other times.[54] Sheol is also translated as "the pit" three times. Modern translations, however, no longer translate Sheol as "Hell" at all, instead rendering it "the grave," "the pit," or "death."

In the Hebrew text it teaches that when people die they go to Sheol, the grave, we also have the word Gehenna which is the consuming by fire of the wicked. Which when the grave or the eternal oblivion of the wicked was translated into Greek, the word Hades was sometimes used, which is a term for the realm of the dead. Nevertheless the meaning depending on context was the grave, death, or the end of the wicked in which they are ultimately destroyed in the specific way in which scripture shows at the end, which is a consuming fire which destroys them for eternity at the lake of fire.

So we see where the grave or death or eventual destruction of the wicked, was translated using Greek words that since they had no exact ones to use, became a mix of mistranslation, pagan influence, and Greek myth associated with the word, but its original meaning was simple death or the destruction of the wicked at the end. 'Hades' was simply the word closest in meaning to the Hebrew 'Sheol'. The new versions now leave the word 'Sheol' untranslated, which is better than the Greek words used which cause confusion if the necessary basic Hebrew to Greek word translation used at the time is not understood.

 

[Hobie]

So now that we clarify some the translation issues, we can more clearly see what scripture teaches. If we read the Hebrew text, we see the prophets who wrote the Bible did not know the word "Hell"; they used the Hebrew Sheol, which meant the grave, and also descriptions which with the translation to Greek, three different Greek words are used that are translated as Hell. As shown, there is a meaning for each of them, and its important to know this, for they each mean something different. They are "Tartarus," "Gehenna," and "Hades", and lets look at them.

The Scripture says,
God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell [Tartarus], and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment (2 Peter 2:4).

This verse says that "the angels that sinned"(which would include Lucifer, too) have already been cast down "to hell" by God Himself. Yet they arent burning right now, obviously, and they certainly arent suffering somewhere far beneath the earth. Tartarus means "dark abyss" or "place of restraint." It isnt a place of punishment either. Look carefully. 2 Peter 2:4 says Satans angels are "reserved unto judgment," which means their punishment is yet future. For Satan and his evil angels, the fire hasnt started yet.

Next lets look at the word "Gehenna." All authorities admit this word is derived from the name of the narrow, rocky valley of Hinnom just south of Jerusalem where trash, filth, and the bodies of dead animals were burned up in Bible days. Here is a quote from Bible Facts" by Jenny Roberts "..Gehenna meant "the valley of Hinnom", and was originally a particular valley outside Jerusalem, where children were sacrificed to the god Moloch (2 Kings 23:10; 2 Chron. 28:3;Jer. 32:35). In later Jewish literature Gehenna came to be associated with a place of torment and unquenchable fire that was to be the punishment for sinners. It was thought by many that lesser sinners might eventually be delivered from the fires of Gehenna, but by New Testament times punishment for sinners was deemed to be eternal...."

Jesus Christ spoke about Gehenna many times such as in Matthew 5:22, 29,30 where He warned about "the danger of hell [Gehenna] fire"(Matthew 5:22). Gehenna definitely suggests real flames. The key question is when will this fire burn, Christ shows us when the fire will burn:
"As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. 41The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; 42And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 13:40-42)

Peter taught the same thing when he wrote:
But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. 2 Peter 3:7

Peter also adds even more, as to what will come to pass after the wicked are destroyed and the earth is cleansed of all sin and its affects.

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. 2 Peter 3:10

Now lets look at what will happen to the being created by God who brought sin into the world..

Ezekiel 28 King James Version (KJV)

"11 Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
unto me, saying,
12 Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.
14 Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.
16 By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.
17 Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.
18 Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.
19 All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more."

So its clear even the devil will meet his end, so there is no way he will be somewhere under the ground with his minions, overseeing any fiery burning place in the underworld.

 

[Hobie]

Well, lets take a closer look at the word Sheol", which is a Hebrew word used for the abode of the dead, and basically is the grave. Although the dead in sheol are apparently cut off from God, He is not absent, and is able to deliver souls from Sheol. We see how it came about to be connected to Hell and Hades and even more
sheol: Sheol
Original Word: שְׁאוֹל
Part of Speech: Noun Feminine
Transliteration: sh'owl
Pronunciation: sheh-OL
Phonetic Spelling: (sheh-ole')
KJV: grave, hell, pit
NASB: Sheol
Word Origin: [from H7592 (שָׁאַל שָׁאֵל - ask)]
1. Hades or the world of the dead (as if a subterranean retreat), including its accessories and inmates

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance
grave, hell, pit
Or shol {sheh-ole'}; from sha'al; Hades or the world of the dead (as if a subterranean retreat), including its accessories and inmates -- grave, hell, pit.

see HEBREW sha'al

NAS Exhaustive Concordance
Word Origin
of uncertain derivation
Definition
underworld (place to which people descend at death)
NASB Translation
Sheol (66).

 

[Hobie]

Sheol (grave) is the common destination of both the righteous and the unrighteous dead, as recounted in Ecclesiastes and Job, and also is shown by the many scriptures showing man returning to dust.

Genesis 3:19
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. upward, and the spirit of the animal, which goes down to the earth?"

Psalm 104:29
Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.

Ecclesiastes 12:7
Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
They are dead, in the grave, sleeping the unconscious state of the dead, knowing nothing.

Ecclesiastes 9:5
For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.

Similarly we find the same in Psalms:
Psalm 146:4
His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.

We find the following showing he knew of the resurrection in the book of Job:
10 But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?
11 As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up:
12 So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.
13 O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!
14 If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.

Now Christ himself tells us that dead will be raised, but it will be at the judgment at the end of the world, and there is the resurrection of the just, but the wicked will also be brought up after that to face their judgment at the lake of fire.

Luke 14:14
And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.

John 5:29
And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

By the time of Jesus, some Jews had come to believe that those in Sheol awaited the resurrection either in comfort (in the bosom of Abraham) or in torment. This belief is reflected in Jesus' story of the rich man and Lazarus which was being brought in by Hellenistic influences and had begun to make inroads. At that time most Jews believed that Sheol meant simply the grave. Although many use this account to support that the wicked go to Hades when they die, most readers forget the story is actually a parable, not an account of real events.

So over time as the Greek pagan traditions and ideas were picked up by Hellenistic Jews and mixed in with the beliefs from the Hebrew Canon, you can see where even for the Jews, Sheol began to be compared to Hades of Greek mythology to refer to the abode of the dead, when they spoke of death, the grave, or the judgement. So when the ultimate translation of the text to Greek from Hebrew came about, the Greek words were not seen as an issue, and thus the confusion we see today.

 

[Hobie]

So lets look at what seems to come nearest to the idea of it which is 'Hades.' This Greek word is 'Hell' in many English Bibles, such as the King James Version. In Revelation 6:8, the King James Version refers to 'Death, and Hell [Hades].' It does this same in Revelation 20:14. Yet some English Bibles leave the word 'Hades' itself, such as the New International Version, which translates Revelation 6:8 and 20:14 as 'Death, and Hades.' Now here's a key point: in Revelation 20:14 'Hades/Hell' is eventually 'cast into the lake of fire.' Thus 'Hades' itself is not a fiery place, but is cast into 'the lake of fire', so we see it basically refers to death or the grave.

Here is Revelation 20:14 in both the KJV and NIV:
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire(King James Version)

Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire (New International Version)

In King James Version, there is a marginal reference beside the word 'Hell'(Hades) listed in Revelation 20:13 and 14. It says 'Hell' literally means 'the grave.' Thus Revelation 20:14 could properly be translated, 'death and the grave were cast into the lake of fire.' This makes sense.

To make it simple, 'Hades' also is also death and literally means 'the grave.' This is easy to prove from 1 Corinthians 15:55, which states,
'O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?'(King James Version)

If you look in any Strong's Concordance, you'll discover that the original Greek word here translated 'grave' is 'Hades.' By looking at the context, it's obvious that 'Hades' means 'the grave' because it is Gods saints who rise out of 'Hades' when Jesus Christ returns as we see..

Behold, I shew you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up on victory. O death, where is your sting? O grave [Hades] where is your victory? 1 Corinthians 15:51-55 (King James Version,)

Thus 'Hades' here cannot mean a place of burning, for who can imagine God's people writhing in flames as they await the resurrection?

So the meaning of the three Greek words translated 'Hell' in our English Bibles:
'Tartarus' means 'a place of darkness or restraint'(2 Peter 2:4). Satan abides there now.

'Hades' means 'the grave', Jesus Christ's body rested there, and His saints rest there now awaiting the resurrection.

'Gehenna' means a place of fire, brimstone, and punishment.. These flames are yet future, at the end of the world at the lake of fire.

So Greek mythology and myths along with the translation caused many issues but at the end when Christ comes and sin is destroyed in the final fire, as the wicked perish, the Bible declares it
Revelation 20:15
Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire .

 

[Hobie]

Now the Bible clearly shows where the punishment and destruction of the wicked happen and lays it out:
Revelation 2:11
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.

Revelation 20:6
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.

Revelation 20:14
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

Revelation 21:8
But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

Now this is punishment and destruction as they will be no more is not just for Satan but clearly is also for the wicked...

Psalm 37:20
But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.

Psalm 68:2
"1 Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him flee before him.
2 As smoke is driven away, so drive them away: as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God."

Psalm 73:27
"27 For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee."

Isaiah 41:11 King James Version (KJV)
11 Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish.

Malachi 4 King James Version (KJV)
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
3 And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts."

They will perish and be separated from God for eternity...

Luke 13:3
I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

John 3:15
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

2 Thessalonians 2:10
"10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved."

2 Peter 2:12
"12 But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;"

2 Peter 3:9-12
"9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?"

 

[Hobie]

We have to understand what the Bible means when it says to perish, which was considered a absolute condition of destruction and you will find it in what is given in the Old Testament if you truly look.....

Proverbs 13:9
The light of the righteous rejoiceth: but the lamp of the wicked shall be put out.

Daniel 2:35
Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

Isaiah 1:28
And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed.
Obadiah 1:16
For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually, yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been.

This shows the fate of the wicked, they cease to exist as they are totally destroyed, there’s not a trace of the wicked as if they had never been.