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Bible Questions with Michael Pearl
Episode 073: What is the Bottomless Pit?

By Michael Pearl

Episode Transcription:

Michael Pearl:  Alright, here we are to answer your questions. Jared has the questions. I haven't seen them; I'm going to hear them for the first time just like you are right now. What's the first question, Jared?

Jared:  In the book of Revelation, it speaks of a bottomless pit. Could you please explain this?

Michael:  Alright, let's go to the chalk board here, if you will. Now, my mind is poor so a lot of verses I will refer to, that I can't give you the reference immediately, but the Bible speaks of hell as down—like this. The Bible speaks of sinners as descending into the bottomless pit. It speaks of devils coming up out of the pit. All you need to do is get your concordance, look it up, and you'll find all these verses. Now the Bible speaks of the gates of hell, a place of opening. And then it also speaks—in addition to the bottomless pit—it speaks of lake of fire and it speaks of outer darkness. So, in the book of Isaiah, it speaks of those who are on the sides of the pit: the “damned.” And then it speaks—in the book of Luke, chapter 16— of the rich man dying and being buried, and he lifted up his eyes being in torment and he saw “Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom.”

And he said, "Father Abraham, send Lazarus over to dip his finger in this water and cool my tongue; for I’m tormented in this flame." And Abraham said, "Son, between you and us”—Abraham was in what called Abraham's Bosom, or Paradise, and the rich man was in the pit, on the sides of the pit, in torment, in flames, in fire; Abraham, on his side [of the pit], was not in flames or in fire. So, Abraham said that, "There's a great gulf that separates us, and those of us on this side which would cross over to you cannot; and those of you on that side cannot cross over." So he said, "We are physically prevented from bringing any of our water over to the side where you are."

Now…the Bible said that, when Christ died, he that ascended into Heaven first descended into lower parts of Earth—this is in Ephesians, maybe chapter five—descended into the lower parts of Earth. It said he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men and then he said many of the saints which slept in the Earth were seen walking around on the Earth during the time after Christ's resurrection, before his ascension into heaven. And then he took with him those that were raised, took [them] with him into heaven, and they will come back with him at his second coming.

Now, why is it a bottomless pit? It's a bottomless pit because…if you have in space a donut, a planet that's a donut, an asteroid that's a donut, and another object is floating nearby, gravitational forces are going to pull the two together. Now, where would the small object end up? Attracted to this donut, it would end up in the middle without touching the donut; in the hole, because that's the center of the gravitational pull. Now it would gyrate there in that center, seeking equilibrium as the mass changed in structure and in size or volume or shape as it moves throughout space. Now there is a pit that leads into the heart of the Earth. It's called bottomless because it has two openings. It goes all the way through the Earth like this and has gates and bars that can be locked. And in the middle of it is the lake of fire called “outer darkness.”

This lake of fire is the place, the ultimate place of the damned, right here. This is the federal prison. This is the local jailhouse, prior to trial. The guilty have gone where the rich man went and are awaiting trial. The Bible says in the book of Revelation, chapter 20, that the sea gave up the dead which were in it—that's here in the oceans—and Death—that's in the grave—Death and Hell—that's anywhere in this contraption—Death and Hell gave up the dead which were in them, and they all stood before God and were judged, and the books were open, and another book was open, which was the Book of Life. And whosoever's name was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, he said.

So this rich man has not yet experienced the second death. He is in the first death right now just as Abraham was in the first death. Just as the beggar Lazarus experienced the first death and was preserved in—let's call this Paradise an elite prison, a place where the prisoners go that are rich and wealthy and haven't committed great offenses. We have those in this country. There are golf courses there and they have a great deal of liberty and there's really no suffering or punishment, but they're confined. That's the only problem.

So God has, as it were, air-conditioned a spot in Hell. There's where he put the Old Testament saints who were saved; who were not to be damned. He kept them there until the resurrection at which time there was atonement made for them and they were raised to go into heaven. So Paradise right now is empty. But on the other side of Paradise and in many other sides of the pit the damned await, like a wasp takes a spider and sticks it into a cocoon and wraps it up to preserve it in a semi‑state, waiting. So the damned are like in cocoons preserved on the sides of the pit waiting for the day of judgment when they'll be resurrected.

So if a soul, a body, or any substance, is cast into this bottomless pit and goes all the way to the center, it won't hit bottom. There's no bottom to the pit. It reaches the center of the lake and continues to gyrate in a falling state, never reaching the bottom. So it's a pit with two openings is the only possibility; a pit with two openings on a round planet with gravitational pull, pulling towards the center, so that it never reaches a bottom: a bottomless pit and a lake of fire. That's called outer darkness because this molten center doesn't have any oxygen so it doesn't create light. So this is pitch dark, red hot, and forever.

Announcer: If you would like to ask a Bible question, email us at [email protected] or call at 931‑805‑4820.

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