First of all, in order to clear the way for the study of what Jesus says on this subject, let me call your attention to the fact that Hell and Hades are not the same. There are numerous places in the Authorised Version where we find the word "Hell" but where that word does not occur in the Revised Version, and where the word "Hades" is substituted for the word "Hell." The Revised Version is right at that point, as every Greek scholar knows. Hades is not Hell. "Hades" is the Greek equivalent of the Old Testament Hebrew word "Sheol." This Hebrew word "Sheol" is frequently translated in the Authorised Version of the Old Testament by the English word "Grave." It ought never to be so translated, as it never means "Grave." I have taken the pains to look up every passage where this Hebrew word is used and in not a single instance does it mean "Grave." There is an entirely different Hebrew word which can properly be translated in that way. "Sheol," or New Testament "Hades," means the place of departed spirits. Sheol (or Hades) before the coming, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord, was _the place where all the spirits of the dead, good and bad, went_. Before the ascension of Christ, in Hades was Paradise, the place of the blessed dead, and Tartaros, the place of the wicked dead. At His ascension Christ emptied the Paradise of Hades, and took it up to Heaven with Him, as we read in Eph. 4:8, +"When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men."+ Before Christ ascended Paradise was down, now it is up. Christ said to the repentant thief on the cross, +"Verily I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise,"+ and Jesus Himself taught us He went down into +"the heart of the earth"+ (Luke 12:40) and the dying thief went down with Him into this subterranean Paradise. I think Jesus Himself went also into that part of Hades where the lost spirits were (1 Peter 3:18-20), but that is another story that we will consider later. All that is important now is that the repentant, dying thief went _down_ into Paradise, but after the ascension of the Lord, when Paul went to Paradise, he was +"caught up even to the third heaven into Paradise"+ (II Cor. 12:2-4). No blessed dead are now left in Hades, and ultimately "death" and "Hades," i.e., all that are dead who have not yet been raised, or caught up into the Celestial Paradise, all who are still in Hades, shall be +"cast into the lake of fire"+ (Rev. 20:14). This +"lake of fire"+ into which death and Hades are to be cast, is the true and ultimate Hell. II. THERE IS TO BE A LITERAL HELL