How many strange phenomena happened when Jesus died on the cross-- -The veil of the Temple was ripped in two from top to bottom. There was a great earthquake and the tombs broke open, with the result that many of God's saints were raised from the dead -Matthew 27-51-52-, though they did not walk out and appear to people until after Jesus' resurrection -Matthew 27-53-.- -Jesus rose on the day after the Sabbath, the eighth day, the first day, not simply of the week, but the first day of the new creation -2 Corinthians 5-17-, a day that marks the end of one world order and the beginning of a new -Hebrews 9-8-18- Colossians 2-9-12- Genesis 17-12-.- -Jesus had obtained full forgiveness for all our sins when he cried out, -It is finished- -John 19-30- Hebrews 9-11-14-. But he did not complete his rescue of his people until he ascended to the Father -Hebrews 10-12-14-, and brought Old Testament saints into their heavenly possession -Hebrews 11-39-40-.--That's why he tells Mary Magdalene, -Don't cling to me- -John 20-17-. --It wasn't that he could not be touched- he wasn't a ghost. Though he could do things in his glorified human body that he could never do before, such as disappearing at will -Luke 24-31-, he ate and drank with his disciples and invited them to touch him -Luke 24-38-43- John 20-27-.--As with Elisha's command to Gehazi -2 Kings 4-29- and our Lord's instructions to the seventy -Luke 10-4-, the urgency of Jesus' mission does not allow him to delay with Mary Magdalene.

Palm Sunday demonstrates how fickle popularity can be. The Lord Jesus is welcomed as a hero, the crowds shouting that he is the long-awaited Messiah of Israel -Luke 19-37-38-. - -Not all are happy -Luke 19-39-, particularly the worldly profiteers of the Temple, the family of the High Priest -Matthew 21-15- Mark 11-18- Mark 15-10-11-.- -But the least happy person that day is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. In fact, he weeps over Jerusalem -Luke 19-41-42-, warning that the city is going to be under siege and destroyed -Luke 19-43-44-. - -God ordained the fulfilment of the curses of Leviticus 26-27-33 and Deuteronomy 28-52-57 at least three times in Israel's history- Samaria by Assyria in 722, Jerusalem by Babylon in 586, and rebuilt Jerusalem in A.D 70 by the Romans. Curiously, the first and second Jewish temples were destroyed centuries apart, but on the same day of the same month, Tisha B'Av -the ninth day of the Jewish month Av that falls between July and August-.- -Jesus also warned that what had happened under the Babylonians -Psalm 137-8-9- would happen again- Infants heads will be smashed against walls because war unleashes human savagery as nothing else -Luke 19-44-.- -The crowd is fickle- Within a few days, those who shouted -Hosanna- will be shouting -Let his blood be on us and on our children-- Matthew 27-25-- -What can break a blood curse- Only the blood of Jesus -Galatians 3-10-14- Romans 3-25-27-.

As we continue to study what the Bible says about the Abyss, we consider that the Bible indicates that heaven is -up,- and hell is -down,- as we saw when we looked at Romans 10-6-7.--While we speak of heaven as up, and hell as down, the Bible hints that those who have died are aware of what is going on here on earth -Revelation 6-9-10-, and part of the torment of hell is that it is not unlike walking on a dark street and observing through an open curtain a joyous celebration from which we are forever locked away -Matthew 8-12- 22-13- 25-30- Luke 16-27-28-.--When God judged the rebels Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, he caused the earth to open its mouth like the maw of a great beast and swallow them alive into the Pit, not simply a burial, but into Sheol -------- itself -Numbers 16-26-34-.--While the Lord Jesus' body lay on a stone slab within a rock-hewn grave, he himself descended into -the heart of the earth- -Matthew 12-40-. And after he conquered death, he ascended into heaven eclipsed from sight by a cloud -Acts 1-9-.--Where are these places- The Lord Jesus is with us when we gather in his name -Matthew 18-20-, and when we worship on earth, we are surrounded by an innumerable company of angels and the spirits of believers who have died and gone on to heaven -Hebrews 12-1, 22-24-.--Some of the theories of quantum physics such as -wormholes- -Einstein-Rosen bridges- illustrate how it is possible to pull the Biblical data together.

David composed Psalm 68 to celebrate the arrival of the Ark of the Covenant in Zion. --Psalm 68-1 quotes Numbers 10-35, citing the very words proclaimed when the Ark set out. While God is omnipresent -Psalm 139-7-12-, there are places of his special presence -Psalm 16-11-. And the Ark not only symbolized God's special presence- it was where God communed with his people -Exodus 25-22-.--That is why carelessly handling the Ark was deadly -2 Samuel 6-6-9-. But when David followed the divine instructions -2 Samuel 6-13-15- 1 Chronicles 15-1-2, 25-28-, he had success and celebrated with great exuberance. This emotional display embarrassed and angered some people -2 Samuel 6-16, 20-23- 1 Chronicles 15-29-.--Thus this Psalm celebrates the coming of Israel's God to Jerusalem -- from Sinai to Zion -- accompanied by the armies of heaven -Psalm 68-7-17-. But Psalm 68-18 looks beyond David's bringing the Ark- it clearly points to the victory of David's greater Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who descended into Sheol in order to defeat Satan and the hosts of hell -Hebrews 2-14-15- Ephesians 4-8-10-.--The Lord Jesus has plundered the forces of evil and has imparted gifts to his Church -Ephesians 4-11-13-, and at the moment of death we now experience what Old Testament believers did not- -Absent from the body, present with the Lord- -2 Corinthians 5-6-8-.

Following his death on the cross, the Lord Jesus in his spirit proclaimed his victory over Satan and his minions -1 Peter 3-22-. This proclamation was not an offer of salvation or some kind of second chance for salvation- rather, it was a declaration of defeat to spiritual forces of wickedness -1 Peter 3-18-21-.----These imprisoned spirits are those -who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling.- They are the -angels -who- sinned- and were -cast into hell- --------- to cast into Tartarus-. God -committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment- -2 Peter 2-4- Jude 1-6-7-.----Not all fallen angels are currently imprisoned awaiting final judgment- some are free to roam the earth and greatly dread being sent to that dungeon -Luke 8-30-31-.----Jude quotes from the Book of Enoch -Jude 1-14-15, see the attachment for a photocopy of a fragment of this Pseudepigraphal book recognized as canonical by Coptic Christians-.----Evidently, these imprisoned spirits are the B'nai Elohim -------------------- of Genesis 6-2. -This expression always refers to angels in the rest of the Hebrew Bible.-----Their union with human females produced bizarre offspring- the heroes, giants ----------, nephilim ----------- of Genesis 6-4.----Though it is contrary to their estate to marry, the Bible does not indicate that angels are genderless. Why is it that the two angels who ate with Abraham were objects of lust to the male population of Sodom- -Genesis 19-4-7-----But God determined to save the only creatures made in his image. That's why Noah's family is preserved -1 Peter 3-20-, and the Lord Jesus came -Hebrews 2-14-18-.

Continuing our study of Bible prophecy, we returned to look at the Abyss again.----In Romans 10-7, the Lord Jesus is mentioned as coming up from the Abyss ---------. This is the place that the -free-range- demons begged the Lord not to send them to join their imprisoned compatriots -Luke 8-31-.----It is the Pit, Sheol --------- that the pre-Christian rabbis translated as Hades ------, and English translators sometimes translate as the grave and other times by hell -Isaiah 14-9-.----The abode of the dead is a murky and mysterious place until the resurrection of the Lord Jesus -2 Timothy 1-10-. It is a place of compartments -2 Peter 2-4- Jude 1-6-. In his parable of the rich man and Lazarus, Jesus uses the Old Testament picture of Sheol, the Underworld with at least two compartments, one for the righteous -Luke 16-22-, the other for the lost -Luke 16-23-26-.----The eternal Son of God, without ceasing to be God, became a real and true human being -Hebrews 2-14-15, 17-18- 4-14-15-. He experienced birth, life, and death. He not only died, he experienced what it was like to be dead, and having done so, he conquered death. This helps us understand John 11-26 in light of the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus- No New Testament believer will ever experience what it is to be dead.----It also illustrates that a cosmic change took place when Jesus joined the dead -Matthew 27-50-53-.----For some of these insights, I am indebted to my son's pastor, Gerrit Dawson, of First Presbyterian Baton Rouge, gleaned from his book, -Raising Adam-.

What is the abyss of Revelation 20-1-----Why are some spirits currently confined in the abyss and some not- -Luke 8-31-----In 2 Peter 2-4 some fallen spirits are confined to Tartarus, being -kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day- -Jude 6-.----Before the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus -2 Timothy 1-10-, people sometimes thought of life after death as a kind of hibernation.-----Again, as in 7-7-10, Job expresses the standard OT view, shared by his friends. There is no afterlife worthy of the name. The torpor of the shades in the netherworld cannot be regarded as life.- -Pope, Marvin H. -1974-, -Job. The Anchor Yale Bible-. -New Haven- Yale University Press-, p. 108-----Death was terrifying---'The Canaanites understood death as a god with one lip touching the earth and the other touching the heavens so that he swallowed up everything. According to Bildad, -the firstborn of death,- following in the footsteps of his father, eats away the skin and devours the limbs of the wicked. According to Is. 25-8, the Lord will -swallow up death forever.-' -Sproul, R.C., eds. -1995- -The New Geneva Study Bible- -Nashville- Thomas Nelson, Inc.-, p. 721-----How should we view death and the grave in light of Job 14-10-14 and Job 18-13-14-----Death is our last enemy -1 Corinthians 15-26-.----Do the concepts of the Ancient Near East throw light on 1 Corinthians 15-54 and Isaiah 25-6-8-

After healing the lame man on the Sabbath, Jesus is hatefully attacked -John 5-5-16-.--As he loosens the tightness of the Sabbath, he affirms that he is the Son of God -John 5-17-18-.--He then points to the divine pattern of life -John 5-19-23- and affirms that the believer's Day of Judgment has come and gone -John 5-24-.--He shows the similarities and differences between his work of raising the dead and that of the Father's.--Jesus' work of raising the dead is both future and here and now- -AND NOW IS- --John 5-25-. The Father's work of raising the dead is only future- the words -AND NOW IS- are missing -John 5-28-.--The resurrection Jesus performs is not universal, but only for those who hear his voice -John 5-21, 25-.--The Father raises everyone- -ALL THAT ARE IN THE GRAVES- -John 5-28-. This includes both the saved and the lost -John 5-29-.--How wonderful to know your Day of Judgment has come and gone on the Cross- -John 5-24---How dreadful to stand before a sovereign God for a resurrection of damnation- -John 5-24-

What was Satan's status before the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ-----He continued to have access to the throne room of God -Job 1-2- Zechariah 3-1-5-, and he had moved in to replace Adam when Adam sinned -Luke 4-6- 2 Corinthians 4-4-.----What happens when Satan is cast out of heaven-----The Bailiff removes him from the Court because he no longer has standing there and an eviction notice is served on his occupying property that never belonged to him -Luke 10-18- Revelation 12-1-9- 20-1-3-.----He is progressively bound as the Kingdom expands. This may be understood as his being put into the Abyss, where some other fallen angels are -Luke 8-31- 2 Peter 2-4- Jude 6, 13-15, reference to the book of Enoch- Job 38-7-.----What happens shortly before the return of Christ-----He is released from the Abyss and rages against the people of God -Revelation 12-13-17- 6-12-17- 16-12-21- 20-7-9- 2 Thessalonians 2-1-12-.

Until the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, Satan appears to have had unhindered access to the throne room of God.--We see that in Job 1-6 and Job 2-1, where Satan stands among the sons of God, the ben' Elohim -------- --------------Earth's golden age could only begin when Satan is cast out.