Revelation 14:9-11: All About Hades

Revelation 14

⁹ Then another angel, a third, followed them, crying with a loud voice, ‘Those who worship the beast and its image, and receive a mark on their foreheads or on their hands, ¹⁰ they will also drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured unmixed into the cup of his anger, and they will be tormented with fire and sulphur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. ¹¹ And the smoke of their torment goes up for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image and for anyone who receives the mark of its name.’

My heart sank when I read these verses while researching ‘The Lie of Hell’ The Lie of Hell (laddermedia.co.uk). Everything I had read in the Bible before these 3 verses was pointing me away from the Hell of Eternal Conscious Torment. Here, to my horror, seemed to be the opposite: confirmation that this Hell is real and to be taught.

I turned to Jesus. ‘What now?’ ‘Don’t be afraid. Keep looking carefully,’ was His reassuring response. Looking carefully at Rev. 14:9-11 has meant no longer seeing these verses confirming the Hell of Eternal Torment. Instead, these 3 verses contain 4 indicators which confirm the reality of the place the New Testament calls Hades and the Old Testament calls Sheol, together with the remarkable truth that the saving Jesus is present there.

Many other people have understood these verses to be the strongest, almost the only, clear Bible teaching for the Hell of Eternal Torment. ‘Hell Under Fire’ was published in 2004 to teach the awful reality of this Hell. In this book, these 3 verses from Revelation 14 form the foundation of the whole argument for Hell. If these same verses confirm Hades, rather than Hell, the Biblical foundation for Hell is removed. Much re-evaluating will follow.

First Indicator of Hades: The Angels

‘Then another angel, a third, followed them, crying with a loud voice…’ Rev 14:9 We are in a sequence of angels. The first calls people to worship God, the Creator. The second proclaims the fall of Babylon, the great spirit of Empire, in its manifestation, in New Testament times, as the Roman Empire. This Empire is also portrayed as the beast. The third angel proclaims the future of those who worship the beast.

This future is not, however, the ultimate future. In v 15 we read of another angel. This 4^th angel emerges with the appearance of the great white cloud where the Son of Man sits, with His crown and sickle. Jesus the King comes on the clouds. The 4^th angel announces that the hour of Judgement has come.’ The 3^rd angel, therefore, announces a future which is before the Final Judgement. Everything in v9-11 occurs before, not after Final Judgement.

Hades is the place where death tried and failed to hold Jesus. Acts 2:24-28. Hades in the place which holds people until the Final Judgement. Then Hades is itself destroyed, incinerated in the lake of fire, Rev 20:13,14. Hades is in operation before, not after Final Judgment. The place announced by the 3^rd angel, before Final Judgement, is Hades.

Hades is distinct from Gehenna, the place where body and soul are destroyed, Matthew 10:28, in the second death, after Final Judgement, Rev. 20:13-15.

Second Indicator of Hades: Torment

This future announced by the 3^rd angel is to experience ongoing torment – ‘basanismos’ in Greek. A very similar word ‘basanois’ is used by Jesus in Luke 16:23 of the torment of the rich man who ignored the beggar Lazarus. Jesus says, in the same verse, that this torment is ‘in Hades.’ The torment of the Rich Man in Hades involves intense, unbearable, heat. The torment of the people in Rev 14:9-11 involves intense, unbearable, heat, fire and sulphur. The torment is the same, so the place is the same.

We know from Rev 20:13,14 that Hades is not eternal. Hades comes to an end at the Final Judgement. Therefore, the torment in Hades is not eternal, it comes to an end at the Final Judgement.

The torment in Rev. 14:9-11 is an outworking of the wrath of God.  Isaiah 57:16, Psalm 103:9, Jeremiah 3:12 all say that God will not be angry for ever. God’s anger is not forever. God’s anger being expressed in Hades, which is not forever, is consistent with this clear Bible message. The Hell of Eternal Torment, understood as the eternal expression of God’s anger, is inconsistent with Bible teaching on the anger of God.

Third Indicator of Hades: Not ‘For ever and ever,’ but ‘for ages and ages.’

The dramatic fear-inspiring wording of Rev 14:9-11, combined with traditional Christian teaching of Hell which includes the misguided understanding that the wrath of God is forever, or people feel its effects forever, makes us think that this torment must be forever. We read that ‘the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever.’

A careful look at the Greek words, shows, however that ‘for ages and ages’ is a better translation than ‘for ever and ever.’ The Greek phrase normally translated ‘for ever and ever’ is, literally, ‘to the ages of ages.’ Here, though, the Greek phrase is ‘to ages of ages.’ The definite article, ‘the,’ is not in the text. This is a different phrase from ‘to the ages of ages,’ and should bot be translated as though it were that phrase. Better to stay close to the Greek words and translate ‘for ages and ages.’

Although Hades is not forever it is in operation for a very long time, with no clear idea of when the times will end – for ages and ages.

Rev 14:10 pictures God’s anger as poured into a cup from which people have to drink. This echoes Isaiah 51:22:

Thus says your Sovereign, the Lord,
    your God who pleads the cause of his people:
See, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering;
you shall drink no more
    from the bowl of my wrath.

Drinking the cup of God’s wrath can come to an end. Hades, the place which comes to an end, is the location described in Rev. 14:9-11

Fourth Indicator of Hades ‘the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb.’

The presence of Jesus and His angels with the people in torment is the most striking feature of Rev. 14:9-11. After reading of people having to drink the cup of God’s wrath, of fire and sulphur, we are not expecting Jesus to be present in the same place. We need to look carefully at these words too.

In the Greek ‘in the presence of’ is one word ‘enopion.’ The same word occurs earlier, in Rev 14:3, where it is usually translated ‘before,’ ‘they sing a new song before the throne.’ Here it means close to the throne. These worshippers do not see the throne from a distance, they see it close at hand. They worship the one seated on the throne in a close, intimate, relationship. ‘Enopion’ is translated elsewhere most commonly as ‘before’ or ‘in the presence of’ or ‘in the sight of.’ Every time, it describes a close, not a distant, relationship.

In Rev.14:10 Jesus is not seated at an exalted distance, watching from afar. Jesus is close, present with, the people in torment as close, as present, as with the people worshipping Him and His Father in Rev.14:3.

In Matthew 25 Jesus tells a parable of His Final Judgement, separating the sheep and the goats. To the goats, those being sent into ‘the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels’ the Son of Man says ‘Depart from me…’ The fire after Final Judgement is away from the presence of Jesus. The fire in Rev.14:9-11 cannot, therefore, be this fire. Revelation 21 also describes the Lamb in the New Jerusalem and the wicked, the unrepentant, outside the city, away from the Lamb, not present with the Lamb.

Hades is the Greek, New Testament, name for Sheol, the Old Testament place of the dead. This is clear from Acts 2:27 where Peter quotes Psalm 16. The Greek words in Acts are ‘you will not abandon my soul to Hades.’ The Hebrew of Psalm 16 is ‘you did not give me up me to Sheol.’

Psalm 139:8 states ‘If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.’ The presence of God is known, even in Sheol, the place of the dead, Hades. Rev 14:10 states the same. Jesus, God-With-Us, the Lamb, is present in Hsdes, along with His holy angels.

Revelation 14:9-11 fit very well with Biblical teaching on Hades. The Four Indicators, together, lead to the conclusion that, although John, the writer, does not name the place, he is seeing Hades.  

How can the Lamb be present in Hades?

At the beginning of Revelation, John sees the glorified Jesus:

¹⁷ When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he placed his right hand on me, saying, ‘Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, ¹⁸ and the living one. I was dead, and see, I am alive for ever and ever; and I have the keys of Death and of Hades.

Having the keys to a place means having the right and ability to go on and out of the place at will. The Lamb of God, present with those in torment in Hades, has used His keys to go in. Rev. 14:10 confirms that Jesus uses His keys, not only to empty Hades at the Final Judgement, but also to be present with people in Hades before the Final Judgement.

Why is the Lamb present in Hades?

John the Baptist proclaimed that Jesus is ‘the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the cosmos.’ John 1:29. We are used to ‘takes away the sins of the world,’ but the Greek word is, literally, cosmos.

For John, and his Jewish readers, the cosmos was ‘the heavens, the earth and under the earth.’ ‘Under the earth’ was Sheol / Hades, the place of the dead. This map picture comes from the Wikipedia page ‘Biblical Cosmology.’

Jesus, the Lamb of God, takes away the sins of the cosmos, of those on the earth and of those under the earth, of those in this life and of those in the place of the dead, in Sheol / Hades. Jesus is present in Hades in order to take away the sins of the people in Hades. Hence His being called here ‘the Lamb.’

Jesus is present in Hades as He was present with the thieves on the Cross, the place of the dying. He hung, bloodied and suffering. One thief derided him. The other thief recognised his own sin and asked Jesus to give him a future. Jesus gave this second thief the assurance that he would be with Him that day in Paradise. Jesus, the Lamb of God, took away the sins of the repentant, believing, thief.

The Lamb in Revelation, seen first in Rev.5:6, looks ‘as if it had been slaughtered.’ The Lamb in Revelation 14:10 is the same Lamb. Jesus, the Lamb of God, suffers derision from some and elicits repentance and faith from some, taking away their sins.

Revelation 14:9-11 seems, at first glance, and according to much traditional teaching, the most gut-wrenching, hopeless, verses in the New Testament. A close look shows them, instead, to point to more hope, more grace, more of a future for more people, than Christians, and others, have been led to believe.

Tags: Bible, Hades, Hell, Revelation 14, Torment