178 – THE  BOTTOMLESS  PIT

What is the bottomless pit? It is an open chasm, a dreadful vortex, and the abyss. Biblically, what is the bottomless pit? “And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth; and the key of the bottomless pit was given to him. And he opened the bottomless pit; and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit. And out of the smoke came forth locusts upon the earth; and power was given them, as the scorpions of the earth have power” (Rev. 9:1-3). This was the horrible description. Locusts are demons come to torment men; therefore, the bottomless pit is the dark dwelling place of these demons, and of the fallen angels (Rev. 9:4-10). Next, the text of Revelations discloses that the bottomless pit has a king over it, the angel of the abyss; in Hebrew his name is Abaddon, which means DESTRUCTION, and in Greek this same name is Apollyon (Rev. 9:11). This abyss is also the place where Satan was kept for a thousand years. John describes it: “And I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hands. And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he should not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed” (Rev. 20:1-3). Isaiah reveals that the bottomless pit is also hell, where Satan will be cast. “But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol, to the recesses of the pit” (Is. 14:13-15). It is the place of the beast (Rev. 17:8).

We need to know where the pit is, this dark and monstrous place. In the abyss there is only darkness.“Thou hast put me in the lowest pit, in dark places, in the depths. Thy wrath has rested upon me” (Ps. 88:6-7). The Psalmist is declaring three things. The first one is that he was thrown into the pit, and the second one is that Jehovah was responsible for it, out of his wrath. The third one is that this pit is here on the earth. May that be possible? May this earth where we live be the abyss, the place where demons dwell, Satan’s prison, and the kingdom of the beast? This beast overcomes God’s witnesses(Rev. 11:7).

The Scriptures present a peculiarity about the abyss. It is the place of the dead. The psalmist David said,“O Lord, Thou hast brought up my soul from Sheol; Thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit” (Ps. 30:3). The apostle Paul makes the localization of the pit clearer: “ ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead)” (Rom. 10:7). Now that we know that the abyss is the place of the dead, the place of darkness, and the very hell where the devil and the demons will be thrown to, and also the place of the devil’s angels, we need to know when this earth where we live turned into a bottomless pit. Could that have been when Adam and Eve sinned and Jehovah cursed the earth? (Gen. 3:17; 5:29). By the descriptions found in the Scriptures, the earth did not turn into an abyss on account of sin. The abyss was created with the earth, that is: the creation of the earth is the creation of the abyss. We will transcribe the texts that clarify this subject leaving no room for doubts.

Solomon, in the book of Proverbs, tells us, “While He had not yet made the earth and the fields, nor the first dust of the world. When He established the heavens, I was there, when He inscribed a circle on the face of the deep” (Prov. 8:26-27). The face of the deep is the face of the earth where we live. “He established the earth upon its foundations, so that it would not totter forever and ever. Thou didst cover it with the deep as with a garment; the waters were standing above the mountains” (Ps. 104:5-6). Moses’ narrative describing the work of creation says, “In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep; and the Spirit of Elohim was moving over the surface of the waters” (Gen. 1:1-2).

According to the descriptions in the Scriptures, the abyss was created, that is, the dwelling of the demons, Satan’s prison and kingdom (Luke 4:5-8). Since the abyss is hell and the place of the dead, when a man was created, he was sent to the pit and to the hands of the serpent (Gen. 3:1-6).

Men were condemned before they sinned. They were condemned to death before the serpent ever tempted them. This is why the apostle Paul says, “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of Adam’s offense” (Rom. 5:14). When Jehovah says that he reigns over the earth, he reigns over the abyss. “For Jehovah Most High is to be feared, a great King over all the earth” (Ps. 47:2). “For Jehovah is the king of all the earth; sing praises with a skillful psalm. God reigns over the nations” (Ps. 47:7-8). Jehovah reigns over the dreadful pit, and over hell together with Satan and Abaddon. He reigns over death and destruction, and over the condemned, which were already condemned before the fall of Adam. This is frightening (Ps. 8:5-9). Since the earth is the abyss, hell, the house of demons, place of the condemned and of darkness, the glory with which Jehovah crowned men is false, for men was given the task of ruling over this chaos, over this dark and dreadful abyss. Jesus offered men another glory and another kingdom.

Thanks to God the Father, Jesus declared, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world; I am not of this world” (John 8:23). When Pilates questioned him, Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). And He said to his disciples, “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:19). And Jesus goes on to say, “I have given them Thy word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (John 17:14-16). Jesus could have said: They are not of the pit or of hell, even as I am not of the pit or of hell.

Christians do wrong in loving the blessings of the abyss, and by doing it confessing that they are from below, not from above; they say they belong to Jesus, but they belong to the kings of the bottomless pit.

By Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira