Title: 13
Author: JOEG
Last saved by: Matthew C. Lawson
Company: Symcast

© 2001 Joe Griffin	                                   ▼                    01-07-22-A.JSH-516 /

The Inscrutable Question: Sea Gates of the Abyss, Rev 20:13: Nephilim Exist under the Permissive Will of God; Shafts to the Abyss, Rev 9:1-2, 11
26-	Closely associated with Tartarus is another compartment described in Scripture as the Abyss.  Here are the distinctions between the two:
	1)	Tartarus:  The abode of the fallen angels of Genesis 6, to whom Jesus Christ proclaimed His strategic victory in the angelic conflict.  1 Peter 3:18-22; 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6; Hebrews 2:9-17.
	2)	Abyss:  The place of imprisonment for the incorrigible demons who violated certain rules for the angelic creation, including the demon assault army under the leadership of Apollyon to be released at the middle of the Tribulation.  Luke 8:30-31; Genesis 1:2; Romans 10:7; Revelation 20:1-3.
	27-	We have already defined and studied the other two compartments of Hades which are Paradise, or Abraham’s Bosom, the abode of preresurrection saints, now vacant, and Torments, the place of detention for all unbelievers of human history and will remain so until the judgment of the Great White Throne.
	28-	There is yet another area of Hades that we have yet to discuss and now becomes necessary.  This is not so much a compartment as it is a holding tank.  We are going to call it the Sea Gates of the Abyss.  
	29-	These Sea Gates are the place of detention for the Nephilim who all drowned in the universal flood.  The explanation for this takes us to a passage that discusses the Great White Throne judgment and those who are to be arraigned and indicted before that court.
H.	The Sea Gates of the Abyss.
Revelation 20:13 - And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.
1-	Revelation 20:11-15 is a passage that deals with the Second Resurrection and the Last Judgment.  We have already established that there are two general resurrections:
1)	For believers:  This is resurrection into eternal life in resurrection body forever.  This resurrection occurs in four shifts, (a.) Jesus Christ on First Fruits following His crucifixion, (b.) The Church at the Rapture, yet future but always imminent until it does occur, (c.) Old Testament saints and Tribulational martyrs at the Second Advent of Christ, and (d.) Millennial saints at the end of human history.
2)	For unbelievers:  The arraignment of all unbelievers of history before the Great White Throne to face their indictment of rejecting Jesus Christ as Savior.  These will be found guilty as charged and condemned based on the invalidity of their works.  They will be cast into eternal incarceration in the lake of fire.
	3-	Arraignment is a legal term that means to bring a prisoner to the bar of the court to answer the matter charged upon him in the indictment.  The arraignment of a prisoner consists of calling upon him by name, and reading to him the indictment and demanding of him whether he be guilty or not guilty, and entering his plea.
	4-	In Revelation 20:13 two categories of individuals are arraigned before the judgment bar of the Supreme Court of Heaven, Jesus Christ serving as presiding Judge.  The verse begins with the sequential use of the conjunction:
		ka… / kai / -	“Then”
		This is followed by the nominative singular subject:
		q£lassa / thalassa / -	“the sea”
	5-	The verb comes next.  It is the aorist active indicative of:
		d…dwmi / didomi / -		“gave up”
It is accompanied by the accusative plural direct object from the noun:
		nekrÒj / nekros / -	“the dead” 
		And with this is the accusative masculine plural of the pronoun:
		toÚj / tous / -		“those”
Finally, there is a proposition ™n / en / with the locative of place from:
		aÙtÒj / autos / -	“in it.”
		The translation for the first sentence of the verse looks like this:
Revelation 20:13a - Then the sea gave up the dead, those in it; death and Hades gave up the dead, those in them.
	6-	Usually this sentence is interpreted as if it makes reference to all the unbelievers of human history by mentioning the places their bodies met physical death, i.e., the sea and the grave, or “death” in context.  Hades is mentioned as the place to which their souls were assigned prior to the arraignment.
	7-	However, on closer analysis, this cannot be the correct interpretation as we will demonstrate.  The phrase, “the sea gave up the dead,” does not refer to those unbelievers who drowned in the sea or who were buried at sea.
8-	At physical death, the souls of all unbelieving members of the human race go directly to the Torments compartment of Hades.  This occurs regardless of where their bodies might have been interred, whether land or sea.
9-	We have already learned that the place of detention for the Bene ha Elohim was the Tartarus compartment of Hades where they are immobilized by “chains of darkness.”
10-	In the first sentence it is clear that the sea gave up the dead, not Hades.  Therefore, we assume that “the sea” or thalassa, refers to the place of detention for the Nephilim.  Our burden is to prove this.
11-	The Nephilim are half-breeds, hybrids of fallen angels and human women.  Both angels and humans have souls.  With regard to the latter, the human soul is created and imputed to biological life at physical birth and part of its essence is free will or volition.
12-	This means that each Nephil ( lpn ) had an opportunity during the 120 years Noah presented the Gospel to believe in the coming Messiah for salvation.
13-	However we have learned that “all flesh” with the exception of Noah and his family were destroyed by the flood.  By the time the deluge began the only other form of life on the earth other than Noah and his family was the Nephilim.
	14-	Since the Nephilim were half human then at their physical deaths they could not enter into Tartarus or the Abyss because these compartments are reserved for fallen angels only.
15-	Since the Nephilim were half angels then at their physical deaths they could not enter into Torments because this compartment is reserved for human unbelievers only.
16-	As a result they had to be detained somewhere in the confines of Hades but not in any special compartment.  Therefore, they are presently imprisoned in the Sea Gates of Hades, specifically those of the Abyss.
17-	Apparently, there are certain ingress/egress thoroughfares going into and out from Hades.  You are already familiar with one that is mentioned in:
Revelation 9:1 - And I saw a star [ Lucifer as he is banished from the third heaven ] from heaven which had fallen to the earth and the key to the shaft of the Abyss [ ”Abussoj / Abussos / ] was given to him.
v. 2 - Then Satan opened the shaft of the Abyss with the result that smoke went up out of the shaft, like the smoke of a great furnace.  Both the sun and the atmosphere became darkened by the smoke from the shaft.
v. 11 - And they [ the first demon assault army ] have a king over them, the angel of the Abyss; his name in the Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek he has the name Apollyon.
18-	This demon general heads one of Satan’s top special-forces operations during the intensified stage of the Tribulation.  He is called upon to murder Moses and Elijah in:
Revelation 11:7 - And when Moses and Elijah have finished their testimony, the beast [ Abaddon or Apollyon ] who comes up from the Abyss will make war against them; he will both overpower them and violently kill them.
19-	From these two passages we learn that the Abyss has exit vents that open up at the surface of the earth.  They are referred to as shafts: fršar / phrear /.  
20-	By the same token there are also sea vents that lead into and out of the confines of Hades and into the Abyss compartment in particular.  These shafts that lead into the Abyss are called “doors” or “gates.”  To establish this we need to look first of all at Luke 8.

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