Revelation Chapter One, Ownership

Revelation 1:18b Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and Death.

The Lord concludes verse 18 with the factual statement that he possesses the keys of Hades, or Hell, or Gehenna, and Death. The NKJV capitalizes the word Death, almost as if the idea of death was being personalized. We find Death and Hell together again in Revelation 20:13 and 14, where both are cast into the Lake of Fire.

The dead that dwelt in them were given up, we were told, and cast into the Lake of Fire before Death and Hades itself followed suit. I believe this may be John referring to the grave (Death) where the bodies of the unsaved reside, and Hades (Hell) where the souls of the unsaved reside. The bodies are inert, dissolved into their constituent elements as they molder in the ground. The souls, as we have demonstrated in earlier Biblical references, dwell in conscious torment in Hell, awaiting judgment. Think of Hell as a local jail, where felons are kept until the trial is given and final judgment is rendered. The Lake of Fire is the maximum-security prison where they will be confined for eternity. However, the judgment that is rendered will have nothing to do with whether they are guilty or innocent; it is a judgment of how guilty they are versus how aware they were, Revelation 20:12, Luke 12:46-48.

Death and Hades are referred to in 1 Corinthians 15:55, cited from Hosea 13:14. In Hosea 13:14, the prophet clearly addresses the concept of physical death as the grave, where the body of believers will be interred. Paul, building on Hosea’s writing, informs us that death’s sting is sin; a cycle of knowing our body’s end will come because man is a fallen creature and will return to the dust we were created from, physically speaking. Paul’s hope (as should be ours) is the resurrection of the body for our immortal spirit to be housed in when eternity overcomes time. The Lord is stating that He alone possesses the keys (ownership) of both Hades and Death; Christ alone steers the fates and welfare of the bodies and souls of men. He is truly the Judge of all the earth, and the God of all flesh, Jeremiah 32:27, Genesis 18:25.

I am not going to explicitly state that the unsaved experience a bodily resurrection like the saints, but the language of Revelation does suggest this. Daniel also records a seemingly complementary passage, writing, “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt,” Daniel 12:2. Jesus uses similar language, telling the Jews, “For the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth–those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation,” John 5:28, 29. If this is true, then the unjust will not be raised in the likeness of Christ, as is the blessing and privilege of the saints. Rather, it would be akin to being clothed in prison raiment. I am aware that certain godly Christian teachers such as Dave Hunt did not believe this idea, but Scripture does seem to lay out the plausibility of a bodily resurrection for unbelievers before they enter the Lake of Fire. The fate of the Beast and False Prophet also showcase this possibility, experiencing an anti-Rapture, if you will. They bypass death and judgment, being cast bodily and alive into the Lake of Fire before anyone else, Revelation 19:20. This, once more, suggests that the Lake of Fire is not a place necessarily or completely for discarnate spirits (though it will hold Satan and his angels, see Matthew 25:41); it also is a prison for the body, soul and spirit of men made in God’s image, but electing to reject His offer of salvation found in Jesus Christ.

It is written that in former times, before the triumphant death and resurrection of Christ, that Satan held, “the power of death,” Hebrews 2:14. Power is the Greek term “Kratos,” and means dominion or strength. Prior to the cross, men owed death a debt as sin kept man separate from God, both in this life and the next, until Christ’s sacrifice upon the cross brought man directly into God’s presence. Since the days of Abel, who died at the hands of his brother, the righteous have occupied what was once called Abraham’s Bosom, or Paradise. When Jesus died and the debt of sin was paid for humanity, Satan’s power or dominion was broken. Fear of death was rendered inert by the revelation of the cross and eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. He has not only dominion, but the key to Death itself. The grave holds our body, while the spirit anticipates the glorious reunion during the resurrection, making death’s sting moot. The idea of our Lord holding the key means He may lock, or unlock, Death and Hades at His pleasure. He is their owner, free to do with both as He sees fit.

Hades, of course, is another name for Hell. It is opposite Abraham’s Bosom with the shaft of the abyss or bottomless pit (see Revelation 9:1) running between them. Geographically speaking, the bottomless pit does seem to have an entrance on this earth, and at its depths are held the worst angelic offenders from prior to the Flood, Jude 6. This was the fate the legion was terrified of in Jesus’ time, Luke 8:31. This will also be Satan’s fate for one thousand years during the reign of Jesus over the earth before the new Heavens and earth are created, Revelation 20:1-3. Hell remains, while Paradise was taken into Heaven, since the saints enter directly into the presence of their Savior upon death since the resurrection. The dead within Hell are conscious of their state and station, waiting for the final judgment against them, desirous that no one else they know join them in this place of spiritual torment, Luke 16:27, 28, Mark 9:43, etc. Hell, like the grave, will be cast into the Lake of Fire together as the removal of the consequence of man’s sin from the new creation. They are no longer required in the new creation, since man will be perfected and entirely like his Lord in the sense that we will be incapable of sin at that point. More on these topics later, God willing, when we are further in our study. Just note that our Lord has ultimate and absolute authority over Death and Hades, or the bodies and souls of humanity. He alone determines where we shall go upon death and what will become of us after death, Matthew 10:28.