of this book, with the unifying thread being an objective search for the existence and function of hell revealed in God’s Word.
My research began with the Westminster Confession of Faith, where in Chapter XXXII, section I, the Fathers wrote: “…And the souls of the wicked are cast into hell, where they remain in torments and utter darkness, reserved to the judgment of the great day.” As supporting references offered by the editor, these two stood out:
Jesus’s parable about a rich man who “in hades lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame’” (Luke 16:23–24).
“And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire” (Jude 6-7).
While hades is described as a dark, tormenting and temporal “place” for the wicked, I think these two citations were not that supportive inasmuch as Luke 16 is a parable and Jude concerns angels, not humans.
According to the Nicene Creed, after dying, Jesus “was buried,” which is similar to saying fell asleep in sheol/hades.’ But both The
