Salvation in the Spirit World!

Sheol
(Heb., "the all-demanding world" = Gr. Hades, "the unknown region"), the invisible world of departed souls. (See {HELL}.)
-- From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary

Can You Still Get Saved After You Die?

THERE ARE THREE DIFFERENT WORDS WHICH ARE TRANSLATED IN OUR ENGLISH BIBLES AS EITHER HELL OR THE GRAVE. The Hebrew word "Gehenna" is usually translated "Hell," meaning a fiery Hell, and the other word usually translated in the English as "grave" comes from two different words: The one in Hebrew "Sheol," and the other in Greek, "Hades." But neither one of the original words have the meaning of what we think of as a grave today--a hole in the ground! Do you know what both of them mean as plain as day, and it's right here?: "Sheol"--the unseen state! "Hades"--the unseen state!--The Spirit World!

NOW WHAT IS "THE UNSEEN STATE"? Where are spirits unseen? What kind of spirits are unseen? What's the common name for unseen spirits today?--People who have died and are now unseen? (Maria: Ghosts!) Exactly, they're called ghosts. In other words, they are living spirits, existent and living in the Spirit World, though unseen!--Not buried in a hole in the ground! How about that? My God, how these preachers get you screwed up!--Even the Seventh-day Adventists with their doctrine of "soul sleep"! They're not lying in some graves and holes in the ground, nor all in Hellfire, but they are there in the Spirit World, active but unseen!

I JUST GOT PROMPTED TO LOOK UP THE WORD, because I thought there was another word that they translate as "grave." I thought, "Well, I'd better look it up and throw it in!" And imagine my shocked amazement to find out that it says exactly what I've been saying all the time, that they are simply in their spirit state in the Spirit World and that's it!--Not lying around in some grave someplace, of all the crazy things! Isn't that terrific? In other words, every place it says "grave" in the Old Testament is "Sheol," meaning "the unseen state," and every place it says "grave" in the New Testament it's "Hades," meaning the same thing!--The Spirit World!

THAT'S WHAT I GET FOR DEPENDING ON THE WORD OF THE PREACHERS ALL THESE YEARS! It's a good thing to check on the original. Words so often translated "grave" or "Hell" as we think of them and as they have been interpreted to us by the preachers--that the grave or Hell is Hellfire, God-damnation and all that kind of stuff--do not necessarily mean that at all! Only the word "Gehenna" really means "Hellfire" in the Hebrew, real genuine Hellfire, the Lake of Fire! But those two words that are most often translated "grave," but sometimes even translated "Hell," do not mean Hell by any means, and they don't even mean the grave!--Neither one!

TODAY, TO YOU and ME, MODERN PEOPLE OF THE 20TH CENTURY, THE WORD "GRAVE" ONLY MEANS ONE THING--A HOLE IN THE GROUND THAT YOU BURY A DEAD BODY IN!--But that is not at all what the original words mean! They mean "the unseen state," the invisible state of those spirits!--Invisible to us except upon apparition or some manifestation. It means they're in the Spirit World!--Not in a hole in the ground, neither all in Hellfire either, but they are in the Spirit World!

AND THIS IS WHAT I'VE CONTENDED ALL THE TIME: THE GOOD SPIRITS NOT ONLY GO TO HEAVEN TO BE WITH THE LORD, BUT ARE ALSO OPERABLE IN THE SPIRIT WORLD HERE, HELPING US! That we know through personal experience. And recently I wrote "Satan's Saints!" ( No.1423 ) contending that if good spirits can be our helpers, serving the Lord on the other side, why are not the spirits of the departed evil dead still serving Satan on the other side? So there you are! They're merely in an unseen state. They're not all already in Hellfire, neither are they stuck in a hole in the ground. They are very very active, though invisible, usually unseen. So that both "Sheol" and "Hades," so-called Hell and the grave, are neither one, but they are the invisible unseen state of the Spirit World and the spirits of the departed dead!

We just took these preachers' word for it all those years without researching back into the actual original text. Even take those poor translators who translated the King James Bible, what it meant in their day, it doesn't always necessarily mean the same thing today. And I can imagine that probably the Church had something to do with that translation too in the King James. They didn't want anybody to get the idea that they weren't going to go straight into Hellfire, because that has been one of the pet doctrines of the Church, that if you are not in the Church, you are going straight to Hellfire and there's no alternative, period! So I'm sure they probably had something to do with how those words were translated as both "Hell" and "grave" rather than "the unseen state" or the Spirit World.

TOO MANY OF THESE TRANSLATIONS and INTERPRETATIONS ARE COLOURED BY THE DOCTRINE OF THEIR PARTICULAR CHURCH, JUST AS WAS THE KING JAMES TRANSLATION. Remember, it was translated, in a sense, by a bunch of Church men and by the Church, and that is why a lot of those moot points and controversial definitions like "ecclesia" were translated "church" or "kirk," meaning a building, instead of the "body of Christ" or the "congregation" or the "assembly of the saints." The Archbishop of Canterbury insisted that the word "kirk" or "church" be used rather than "assembly." He insisted on using a word that meant a building rather than the people, because he was afraid they'd lose their grip on the people if they weren't tied to the church building! Well, I can imagine there are a few other words like that where he probably insisted on "Sheol" and "Hades" being translated "Hell" and the "grave," rather than just the unseen invisible state of the Spirit World!--That sounds like there's too much liberty and too much freedom and too much of another life other than Hellfire or confinement to the grave!

I IMAGINE THAT THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND--BEING NOTHING BUT ANOTHER FORM OF ROMAN CATHOLICISM WHO EMPHASISED HELLFIRE--PROBABLY FOLLOWED THE SAME TRAIN OF THOUGHT and figured that the best way to keep their people in the church building was to scare'm to death that any place outside was going to be Hellfire, and that if they died out of the Church they went straight to Hellfire, regardless, with no alternative, no in-between. But this confirms what I've been saying all the time, that there is another state, the unseen state!--The invisible World of the Spirit where they go and where some are allowed immediate operable circumstances, such as God's Saints working for good there--as we know from experience as well as the Word!

THE CHURCH DOESN'T WANT TO ADMIT THAT THERE'S ANY PLACE ELSE TO GO BUT HEAVEN and HELL!--And that's been one of the things that has caught in the craw of many a sinner and many an unsaved and potential believer who just couldn't believe in that kind of Church doctrine, that God would send everybody to Hell who didn't happen to go to Heaven! Well, here is the original meaning in black-and-white, showing that where it says "grave" or "Hell" it doesn't always mean Hellfire!

JUST LIKE I WAS TELLING YOU ABOUT WHERE IT SAYS "FOREVER" OR "EVER" OR "FOREVER and EVER," DOESN'T ALWAYS MEAN WHAT FOREVER MEANS TO US, OR EVERLASTING EITHER, BUT THEY ALL COME FROM THE WORD "AGE" OR "AGE OF AGES." (See "Hell's End!") That again was probably influenced by the Church and their interpretation. They didn't want to give anybody any idea that there was ever going to be any end to Hell or that they were ever going to have any chance of getting out. They wanted to scare'm to death and scare'm to Hell if they weren't going to come to Church!

THERE ARE SEVERAL WORDS IN THREE MAJOR CATEGORIES WHERE THE KING JAMES TRANSLATION DOES NOT STICK TO THE ORIGINAL MEANING OF THE WORD, and all of them would have contradicted Church doctrine if they had given the original genuine true meaning from the original. With "ecclesia," they insisted on using the word "church," meaning a building, rather than the true meaning of "the people"; they insisted on using "everlasting" and "forever" instead of the true actual literal meaning of the words or the phrases, meaning "Age-lasting"; and they insisted on using these words for "Hell" and the "grave" instead of "the unseen state" or the spiritual state or the Spirit World, the invisible World of the spirits and ghosts!--Because they didn't want to give any idea that there was ever going to be anything outside the Church building that was a Church; nor anything outside of Heaven, but Hellfire; nor anything outside of forever rather than just for a certain period of time, for Hell.

THINK OF THAT! THREE MAJOR ABERRATIONS! THREE MAJOR LITERAL MISTRANSLATIONS BECAUSE THEY DID NOT WANT TO CONFESS THAT THEY HAD ANY OTHER MEANING!--But here it is plain as day! I've been harping on "ecclesia" long ago, recently I gave you that lesson on "Hell's End!", and then I gave the lesson on "Heaven, Hell and In-between!"--That there's an in-between state which is not yet determined and that many of these spirits are going to be judged at the Great White Throne Judgement as to whether they deserve to go here or there or yon or wherever.--Not the already Saved that are already in Heaven, but the dead of all ages who are raised for Judgement at the Great White Throne Judgement. ( Rev.20:11-13 )

IT SAYS THERE THAT THEY CAME OUT OF THE SEA and HELL and THE GRAVE, ALL THESE PLACES WHERE THEY'VE BEEN. But if you say "the grave," the picture that comes to everybody here is that He got those peoples' spirits right out of those holes in the ground where they bury their bodies. Nothin' doin'! They were alive and kicking in the Spirit World somewhere! (Maria: The sea and Hell must be where they're mostly confined.) Some places like "Treasure Ship" where we saw them there confined! (See No.614 .) (Maria: They must have much more freedom than in what's considered the grave.) Let's remember from now on that what's translated "the grave" does not mean a hole in the ground or a burial plot, it means the unseen state of the Spirit World!--Spirits and ghosts! And here's exactly what it says in Revelation 20:11-13, talking about the Second Resurrection:

"AND I SAW A GREAT WHITE THRONE, and HIM THAT SAT ON IT, FROM WHOSE FACE THE EARTH and THE HEAVEN FLED AWAY; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened"--several books, a lot of books, maybe millions of books, maybe their memories! "And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life"--a very important book! "And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works." Obviously that's their memory or record God keeps of their words and works.

"AND THE SEA GAVE UP THE DEAD WHICH WERE IN IT."--The ghosts and spirits which were in the sea in an unseen state, confined to wherever they sank as part of their punishment for not being Godly and not being Saints--but not Hellfire!

NOW BEING A "STATE," IT'S NOT PEOPLE! It is a state, a World in which they lived, a Spirit World or an unseen state. So that when He says that "death and Hell are cast into the Lake of Fire," it doesn't necessarily mean all the people. It can mean simply that He is destroying that particular phase or state thereafter, that there will be no such state for the spirits of the dead to dwell in any more--that invisible unseen ghostly state--neither for Satan's saints nor the Lord's saints. In other words, at the Great White Throne Judgement their fate is definitely decided and they're no longer allowed to linger in Limbo somewhere in-between. They are sent to wherever they deserve to be sent--either into Hellfire, as is obvious, or to Heaven, the New Earth or wherever!

SEE HOW LONG THE PREACHERS and THE CHURCHES HAVE MISLED PEOPLE IN SAYING THAT THAT MEANT DEATH and HELL and EVERYBODY IN IT WERE THROWN INTO THE LAKE OF FIRE?--WHEN IT AIN'T NECESSARILY SO! See how the Church has had to cling to those extreme doctrines about the building to support their own organisation?--And about Hell being fire and eternal to scare people into the building! According to the Church, if they did not come to the building and go through the rites of the church, they were gonna go to Hell! So they made sure that there weren't any loopholes that you didn't misunderstand, and you might think that maybe since it didn't say that Hell was really eternal, it might have an end. And since it didn't say that these words "Hell" and "grave" actually meant Hell-fire, you might think that it meant something else and there might be some escape from Hell after all, even if you're not saved.

THEY DIDN'T WANT THAT SPURIOUS DOCTRINE TO BE CIRCULATED WHICH WOULD RELIEVE THEM FROM THE CHAINS OF THE CHURCH and going through the ceremonies of the Church to escape Hellfire. What a travesty against the Truth! How horrible! My God, what the Churches are guilty of!--Misleading the people and even offending people's sense of justice and grace and love and mercy of God by using words which are not true expressions of what the Lord really intended for it to mean. Because by their exclusive doctrine precluding any chance of anything between Heaven and Hell, they've ruled out anything that's outside of the Church! If you didn't come to Church and the building and go through the rites, you were going straight to Hellfire, period--no alternative, no in-between--when here these words make it as clear as anything that there is an in-between! The spirits who are now in that in-between unseen state, their final fate is going to be decided at the Great White Throne Judgement.

IN FACT, THOSE SPIRITS OF THE DEAD WHO ARE NOW IN THE SPIRIT WORLD, THEY ARE AGAIN IN A STATE OF PROBATION! They're going to be judged according to how they're behaving right now in the Spirit World--whether they're serving God or the Devil there! Think of that! No wonder some people's sins follow after! ( 1Ti.5:24 ) No wonder God has to wait till the Great White Throne Judgement to have the judgement when their cup of iniquity is full, having to do not only with what they did in this life, but what they did after death in the Spirit World!--Whether they served the Lord there or continued to serve the Devil.

IN OTHER WORDS, CONTRARY TO CHURCH DOCTRINE, THEIR FATE IS NOT ALWAYS COMPLETELY SEALED BY DEATH! This is the last chance as far as we now know for the Day of Grace and true salvation through Jesus Christ, although, who knows?--Maybe people in the Millennium will get saved the same way. Maybe people even on the New Earth will still get saved by faith in Christ! Who says they can't? Who has taught us all these centuries that they can't?--Only the Churches! The Churches have taught that death is the end, that's your last chance, and if you don't get saved before death, you're finished, and you go straight to Hellfire! That's what they want to teach and that's what they want you to believe, so it'll scare you into the Church building!

INSTEAD, ACCORDING TO THE WORD OF GOD, THEY GO INTO "SHEOL" OR "HADES"--THE UNSEEN STATE OF THE SPIRIT WORLD--and ARE STILL ALLOWED FREEDOM OF CHOICE EVEN THERE--as obviously were the demons which Jesus cast out, and as obviously are the good Spirit Helpers that we have who still are voluntarily serving the Lord. And since they are still working for the Lord, and the other departed spirits are still working for the Devil, they cannot have their final judgement until the Great White Throne Judgement, when all the deeds done in the body as well as out of the body are going to be judged. ( 2Co.5:10 ) In other words, they're still on probation in the Spirit World!

THOSE WHO WERE SAVED IN THIS AGE OF GRACE DURING THIS LIFE, OF COURSE, THEIR FATE IS SETTLED! They are definitely saved and strictly going to Heaven, and have gone there, no doubt, and been sent back to help us. And it's possible that some of Satan's saints who have finally and forever rejected Jesus Christ and are still rejecting Him in the Spirit World and still serving the Devil, that their fate is pretty much settled as well--except for how bad and how much damage and evil they did, which they're still doing! Therefore, they can't get their final judgement until the Great White Throne Judgement when their cup of iniquity is full and they have finished all their God-damnable dirtywork against us--including all the fiends of Hell and devils and evil spirits of the departed dead!

THEREFORE JUDGEMENT CANNOT COME UNTIL THE END OF THE SPIRIT WORLD, OF DEATH and HELL and SHEOL and HADES--THE END OF THE UNSEEN STATE--BECAUSE THEY'RE STILL OPERATING IN THE UNSEEN STATE! Ghosts are still haunting, spirits are still spiriting, our helpers are still helping, and the evil spirits are still cursing and damning and rebelling, so that all their dirtywork isn't done until the Great White Judgement. And all those who died unsaved and perhaps didn't know the Gospel--but maybe did the best they could with what they knew--are now on probation in the Spirit World and gonna be judged according to how well they operated in the Spirit World.

WHO KNOWS? MAYBE PEOPLE ARE RECEIVING CHRIST IN THE SPIRIT WORLD RIGHT NOW! Jesus went and preached to the spirits in prison who had died up till that time. ( Mt.12:40 ; 1Pet.3:19 , 4:6 ; Eph.4:9 .)

LOOK AT THE PATIENCE and MERCY OF GOD, THAT EVEN THE PEOPLE WHO NEVER HEARD WILL HAVE A CHANCE TO RECEIVE THE LORD IN THE NEXT LIFE IN THE SPIRIT WORLD--EVEN BETWEEN NOW and THE GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGEMENT!

SOME PEOPLES' SINS, AS JESUS SAID, "GO BEFORE THEM TO JUDGEMENT." ( 1Ti.5:24 ) In other words, their fate's settled. The minute they die, they go straight to Hellfire like Dives did, because of his wickedness and iniquity and selfishness and cruelty! And just so, those of us who have received Jesus in this life and are definitely saved, our fate's settled and we go straight to Heaven!--Though we may come back and help, and some do. But there are millions of people who die who are not that wicked and evil to go straight to Hellfire, but neither have they heard the Gospel in order to be saved, so therefore God gives'm a chance in the Spirit World!

THAT EXPLAINS ALL THE STRANGE VERSES IN THE BIBLE ABOUT JESUS PREACHING TO SPIRITS IN PRISON and ALL THAT SORT OF THING! That's right now in the Spirit World! He went and preached to the spirits in prison, it says so! What for? Well, what else would He preach but the Gospel?--And what Gospel?--Of salvation! "He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life!" ( Jn.3:36 )--To tell them that had not heard to believe on Him so they could live and be saved! So there's a specific example of a concrete case of spirits being saved in the Spirit World--now!--Or in Jesus' day. So why not now?

DOESN'T THAT GIVE YOU A PICTURE OF A LOVING GOD and AN EVERLASTINGLY MERCIFUL JESUS CHRIST?--That the people who never really had a fair chance here and now are going to get that chance? We're speaking of a different class of people, the departed dead being saved in the Spirit World, the Spirit Realm, the Unseen World, after death! When we're speaking about salvation during the Millennium, we're speaking about the mortal living human beings who have not yet died. So there is going to be salvation for both the living and the dead! (Maria: In other words, God has covered everybody!) Everybody's going to have a chance.

AND THIS BRINGS OUT ANOTHER SCRIPTURE: "THIS IS THE LIGHT WHICH LIGHTETH EVERY MAN THAT COMETH INTO THE WORLD!" ( Jn.1:9 )--And it's going to light them when they go out of the World too! How much more so in the next World they'll get that Light, in the World of the Spirit! How can you apply that Scripture when in this life, in this World, some of them never get the Light, never hear the Gospel? Okay, they come into the World and then they go into the World of the Spirit, so in a sense they're still in this World! The World of today consists of both the physical and the spiritual Worlds, right? So they have come into this World and gone into the next, which is still, in a sense, this World, but the spiritual side of it. So "this is the Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the World!" Now there it makes sense!

WHETHER DEAD OR ALIVE, THEY GET THE LIGHT!--SOONER OR LATER THEY HAVE A CHANCE TO BE SAVED!

IN OTHER WORDS, GOD'S GOING TO GIVE EVERYBODY A CHANCE--DEAD OR ALIVE, NOW OR THEN--TO HEAR THE GOSPEL, TO EVEN SEE and BELIEVE and RECEIVE JESUS CHRIST AS THEIR SAVIOUR! Boy, that sure fits the doctrine of Universal Reconciliation, that everybody's going to get a chance, either now or then, here or there, in this life or the next life, the Millennium or even Heaven on Earth!

BUT DON'T THINK THAT GIVES YOU ANOTHER CHANCE, BUDDY!--Your chance is now! You're hearing the Gospel now, so you don't deserve another chance! This is your last chance to go straight to Heaven when you die! Otherwise you may have to wait 1000 years in the Spirit World, Limbo, Purgatory, Hell or whatnot till the Great White Throne Judgement to find out your fate!

ONLY THOSE SAVED NOW GO STRAIGHT TO HEAVEN WHEN WE DIE!--Which way you goin', Bud?--Huh! God help you to make your choice today!--Tomorrow will be too late for Heaven now! "Choose ye this day whom ye will serve!" "Today is the day of salvation" for you! ( Josh.24:15 ; 2Co.6:2 )--What'll it be? Do it now! God help you, in Jesus' name, amen!

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family International

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