I believe that demons are the pre-Adamic race that at one time inhabited the earth under Lucifer’s rule. After his fall from heaven, these demons were placed in a pit, which is still their world today. But before going deeper into this, let’s examine the underworld itself.
There is a familiar passage in the New Testament that contains a fact many people overlook: “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should con-fess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11).
This speaks of what will eventually happen everywhere, including “under the earth,”
in the underworld. Every being is to confess Christ. This includes billions of people—in heaven, on earth, and under the earth.
My study of Scripture leads me to conclude that there are five worlds beneath us.
Let’s examine them:
1. Hell
The Hebrew word for “hell” is sheol, and we find it included in several verses.
“A fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell [sheol]”
(Deuteronomy 32:22).“I shall go to the gates of the grave [sheol]” (Isaiah 38:10.) “They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave [sheol]” (Job 21:13).
Hell is a world, with countless inhabitants, that still exists. Those sentenced to this place of torment don’t linger around after death. They go there instantly, “in a moment” (see also Psalm 73:19).
2. Paradise
I believe this second world is part of hell itself today.
After His death at Calvary, Christ “first descended into the lower parts of the earth”
(Ephesians 4:7) to set captivity free, and then ascended on high “that he might fulfill all things” (verse 10).
The story of the rich man and Lazarus also gives us an insight into this place.
Jesus shared the account of a wealthy man who dressed expensively and wasted his days spending money like there was no tomorrow. However, at his doorstep was a poor man named Lazarus who was covered with sores and eked out a meager existence eating the scraps from the rich man’s table.
One day “the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom”
(Luke 16:22). Abraham’s bosom is a term for paradise.
We also learn that the rich man died and was buried—and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom” (verse 23).
Two distinct destinations are mentioned here: paradise (where the beggar went) and hell (where the wealthy man was sent).
In this horrible place, the rich man was able to see to the other side because it said he “seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom” (verse 23). We also discover that in hell people can talk, pray, and know what is going on around them, because the wealthy man cried out, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame” (verse 24).
Abraham reminded the man of means that during his time on earth he enjoyed the good things of life, while Lazarus endured the bad. But now the tables were turned: “He is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence” (Luke 16:25-26).
At that point the rich man begged Abraham to send someone to warn his five brothers to change their ways so they wouldn’t end up in hell. Abraham told him, “‘They have Moses and the
prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead’” (verses 2931, NKJV).
Today, paradise is empty and has become a part of hell. Scripture says, “Hell hath enlarged herself” (Isaiah 5:14).
The Bible tells us that the moment Jesus died on the cross “the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent”
(Matthew 27:51).
We know that Jesus spent at least three days in paradise, because He told the thief on the cross He would meet him there (Luke 23:43).
After Christ came out of the tomb, all the saints that were in paradise rose with Him:
“The graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city [Jerusalem], and appeared unto many” (Matthew 27:51-53). Hallelujah!
Imagine the joy and excitement when countless Old Covenant saints rose from the dead to greet their families on the way to heaven.
On that day, untold millions were lifted out of paradise.
3. Tartarus
In a verse we mentioned earlier, God cast the angels that sinned “down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness” (2 Peter 2:4). “Hell” in the Greek here is tartarus, meaning “prison.”
These are the same angels found in Jude 6-7 and the ones Jesus preached to. “For Christ...being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the [Holy] Spirit: by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison [tartarus]; which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah” (1 Peter 3:18-20). Notice the connection with the second flood: “While the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water” (verse 20, NKJV).
Since living beings are never called “spirits” in the Bible, just men, I believe Jesus went to preach to a group of angels who were disobedient and slept with women at the time of the flood—the ones who obeyed Satan and his attempt to block Christ’s coming to earth.
Jesus descended into paradise to release the saints, but He went to tartarus to announce His victory.
4. The Pit
The habitation of demons is called “the pit.”
When Jesus cast the demons out of the man in Gadarenes, the one they couldn’t hold down with chains, the devils begged the Lord not to send them “out into the deep”
(Luke 8:31), or the pit.
The demons said they would rather be sent into some pigs nearby. So that’s what Jesus did, and the animals ran off a cliff and were drowned in the sea.
I have been asked, “How are demons loosed? How are they released from the pit?”
It happens because people’s desire for them on earth draws them out. Today, millions of demons exist on the earth and seek individuals they can reside in.
After the Rapture, the day will come when wickedness will be so rampant that virtually all demons will be loosed from the pit. There is a picture of this in Revelation 9, where an angel is given the key to the bottomless pit. As he opens the door, out of the smoke appears what looks like locusts (Revelation 9:3). But that’s just the beginning. The description of these demons is unlike anything we can imagine.
The shape of the locusts is “like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were crowns of something like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men. They had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses running into battle. They had tails like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails”
(Revelation 9:7-10, NKJV).
I don’t know what demons looked like prior to Adam, but according to this account the demons that will be released during the great Tribulation will be a mix of animal and man. At that time there will be such torment that “men will seek death and will not find it;
they will desire to die, and death will flee from them” (verse 6, NKJV).
Thank God, you and I will be raptured before that dreadful day.
5. Gehenna
The fifth underworld is Gehenna, the lake of fire and future home of the antichrist, sinful men and women, and all wicked angels. This will be the home of Satan forever.
Gehenna is described as a place of “everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41), where the “worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched”
(Isaiah 24).
The lake of fire is not a body of water as we know it, but a world unto itself. It will be the abode of untold numbers of human beings!
It is impossible for us to grasp how massive the world below us is. The Bible tells us that “death and hell were cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:14).
One thing is for sure: because we have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, we are not going there. Our home is heaven, because of God’s amazing grace!