Watchman on the Wall

Speaker 1: Welcome to Watchman on the Wall, a daily outreach of Southwest Radio Ministries and swrc.com. God is still on the throne, and prayer changes things.

Speaker 2: Welcome to a brand new week of bringing clarity to the chaos. This week, Micah Van Huss pulls back the curtain on the supernatural framework behind world events. Pastor Chad Roberts explores what it means to suffer well, and Josh Davis will share the latest headlines from the end times.

Friends, for over 93 years, Southwest Radio Ministries has been dedicated to equipping you with Bible-based teachings about end times events and Bible prophecy to guide your understanding of the signs of the times. We are a Christian nonprofit ministry with a God-ordained mandate to, through all forms of media, broadcast the urgency of God's prophetic messages found in the Bible to guide our lives.

We are financially supported by contributions from friends and partners of the ministry. With your continued financial support, we will be able to proclaim that God is still on the throne and prayer changes things. Please give your best gift today by visiting swrc.com or call 1-800-652-1144. Thank you for your prayers and support. Now, here's Lee's Cutshall, editor of the Prophecy in the News magazine, with today's guest, Micah Van Huss.

Lee's Cutshall: Welcome to another Watchman on the Wall program. I am your host, Lee's Cutshall, the crazy lady that does some editing and other mad things with Southwest Radio Ministries and Prophecy in the News. I'm excited today because I get to talk again with Micah Van Huss, who is our executive director of Marginal Mysteries and all things of the weird. He always finds interesting aspects that connect them with biblical times.

Micah, today we'd like to ask you some questions about your new DVD. You have two new DVDs based on Angels Eternal, your most recent book. Now, I know you're working on another one, but the most recently printed book. Today we're going to talk about Realm of the Dead. That's a cheery topic. Tell us why you've written about and spoken about Realm of the Dead.

Micah Van Huss: Lee's, it's good to be here with you as well. I think you do a great job for Southwest Radio Ministries, not just the mad stuff as you said. So, Realm of the Dead. It's a partial study of my last year's book, Angels Eternal: War of the Princes. When we get talking about the Realm of the Dead, we cover a number of topics.

First of all, what is hell? The English language, the word 'hell,' the King James, the Masoretic translations, they combine three different locations from the Hebrew and the Greek into one word called 'hell.' It doesn't really do us much justice to combine a bunch of different places into one word. So that's a part of the study.

Did you also know that giants exist in hell? Scripture specifically mentions them in hell, which we're going to study that too. Well, the pre-Christ righteous dead were in part of hell. Depends on what language you're using, but Sheol. We'll get into that.

The rise of Apollyon, the angel of the king of the abyss that we find in Revelation 9:1. He is intricately involved in this entire story. Here's a fascinating question for everybody. If Satan is the most powerful entity against which we war and God wars, then why is he freely roaming the earth while this king of the abyss is chained up? Well, we're going to get into that. Also, how Jesus has conquered all of these things. That is a broad overview of the two days that we're going to be spending talking about my DVD, Realm of the Dead.

Lee's Cutshall: All right, let's dive into the depths of this conversation about the differing levels of the underworld.

Micah Van Huss: You may think that statement is metaphorical, allegorical, symbolic, but there's actually some truth to diving into the lower parts of the physical earth.

Lee's Cutshall: Oh, okay. I wish I had a little music to throw in right here. Spooky music. Could we just start with—and you've really piqued my interest by mentioning the fact that what we call on earth today, what we call hell, is actually multiple levels? And why is that? Translations? Differing translations from differing languages? Tell us about hell and what the Bible actually means.

Micah Van Huss: So we need to be careful when we say things like different levels of hell. I'm not talking about different levels. Of course, that would be punishment, different levels of punishment for humans. That's not what's going on at all. Three different locations in the underworld or the afterlife according to scripture.

As we stated earlier, the word 'hell' is an English word and it doesn't do justice to the original Hebrew or the original Greek. In those originals, what we find instead of hell, one word, which we see as an underworld of punishment for the wicked, the devil existing there, demons and fire, there's actually three different locations in the Greek and Hebrew.

Sheol is the first location. In the Greek, it is Hades. So Sheol and Hades is the same thing, just Greek and Hebrew. And then we have Tartarus, which is the abyss or the bottomless pit mentioned in scripture. And Tartarus is mentioned by name in scripture once. The third location is Gehenna, which is the lake of fire, which is probably what most people are thinking when they think of hell, at least in the Christian context of sermons and salvation.

Lee's Cutshall: And the lake of fire is from Revelation?

Micah Van Huss: I don't know the specific reference for the lake of fire, I'm sorry. But Jesus calls the final punishment, the final separation from God, Gehenna. It was a physical, it is, it was a physical location outside of Jerusalem, a valley where Molech worship, child sacrifice took place. And Jesus refers to it as a symbol of the final judgment, separation from God. The lake of fire, Revelation is probably correct, but off the top of my head, you got me on that question. But Gehenna would be the third location. So shall we start with Sheol?

Lee's Cutshall: Yes, absolutely. And I recall Sheol being mentioned a number of times, at least in Psalms.

Micah Van Huss: It's mentioned a number of times throughout scripture, Psalms as well. The pit, a lot of times when the Old Testament uses the word 'pit,' at least in the King James, it's translated, it's from Sheol, the Hebrew word. So Sheol is the realm where humans go, or some humans go after death.

Before Christ, all humans went to Sheol after death. So Sheol has two different compartments in Sheol itself. That would be Abaddon where the evil people go, and Abraham's Bosom where the pre-Christ righteous went after death. Samuel, when he died, he went to Abraham's Bosom.

We know this primarily from Luke chapter 16. It's the story of the beggar named Lazarus and the rich man. And when they both died, the rich man was in Abaddon in torment. He reached up his eyes and he saw Lazarus across the great gulf and said, 'Go back and tell my family.' He's told that there's a great gulf between where he is and where Lazarus is, so you cannot pass.

Lee's Cutshall: And it's obviously very hot there because he says, 'Dip your finger in the water, come and cool my tongue.'

Micah Van Huss: Yes, ma'am. And of course, obviously inside the earth, which I do believe Sheol is in the earth, and we will get to that. I believe Tartarus is in the earth because scripture specifically says it. So yes, Abaddon would be where the evil people went and go in Sheol when they die. And Abraham's Bosom is where the pre-Christ righteous went when they died.

Probably tomorrow we're going to get into why the pre-Christ righteous are no longer there now. The quick answer is Jesus went and got them out of Abraham's Bosom during the three days in which his body was in the tomb. So that's Sheol, Hades is the Greek word. It's used in the New Testament. Sheol in the Old Testament, so Sheol and Hades.

Also, not only the dead humans in Sheol, but also demons. And demons obviously have some way of transcending from Sheol to the earth because we have demons roaming the earth. We have demons in Sheol. I'm not going to give it all away now, but eventually in these next two programs, we will talk about the demons who freely come out of Sheol towards the end times. Demons and humans are in Sheol.

The next location, let's give a few verses. We have 1 Samuel 28, the Witch of Endor. It's the story where Saul has banned witchcraft in Israel, but he goes to the Witch of Endor and wants to talk to Samuel who has passed away. And the Witch of Endor brings Samuel up, she summons him up from Sheol. And Samuel says, 'Why have you disquieted me? Why have you done this?'

So we see, that's a fascinating passage, 1 Samuel 28, the fact that humans can be summoned up from Sheol. And that's just a weird concept, but look, we see all this is weird, but scripture is plain not to divination, not to participate in witchcraft. So it is something that humans can do, summon up other humans who have already died. That's plain in scripture, that's what we're reading in 1 Samuel 28, the Witch of Endor encounter.

Numbers 16 is a fascinating passage and it gets more to the physical location of Sheol, that it is in the earth. Numbers 16 is the rebellion of Korah. We're talking about Moses is leading the children of Israel, that there's a rebellion led by Korah. What happens is the earth opens up and swallows them alive into Sheol. Their houses fall down in the pit, they fall down alive in the pit. I mean, this is real language that's terrifying. That's Numbers 16, the rebellion of Korah.

There are a number of other passages that talk about descending into the lower parts of the earth with the dead. And there's two or three of those, and I don't have those off the top of my head, but it's just fascinating. How real is Sheol? Could we ever touch it one day if you even wanted to try? So it does sound like from the language in scripture, talking about people going into the lower parts of the earth, that Sheol is actually here on this planet. Whether in the spiritual realm or the physical realm, that remains to be seen, but scripture's pretty literal in some of the things it says and pretty fascinating. So that's Sheol.

The second location in the underworld is Tartarus. Tartarus is mentioned once by that name, and that's 2 Peter chapter 2, verse 4. And it talks about the angels that sinned in the days of Noah being cast down in Tartarus in chains, reserved unto judgment. That gets a little bit into the Genesis 6 angels that rebelled.

Tartarus is a prison for fallen angels, for fallen watchers, which watchers are angels as well, named in Daniel chapter 4 as watchers. The watchers also appear in Zechariah chapter 1, verses 8, 9, 10, 11. Fascinating passage about the watchers moving back and forth through the earth and reporting what they're finding about the earth to Jesus Christ, the angel of the Lord in Zechariah 1:8.

We also see in Job 2, what is named as the Satan in Job 2, which is likely a watcher, likely Satan, an adversary, but either way.

Lee's Cutshall: But these are fallen angels?

Micah Van Huss: No, no. The ones that are chained in Tartarus, yes. The watchers are not fallen. 200 watchers rebelled in Genesis 6, so those watchers are fallen. But in Zechariah 1:8, 9, 10, 11, they're walking to and fro in the earth and reporting the condition of the earth to Jesus. Well, that's what we see in Job 2 when Satan is walking to and fro through the earth. God says to him, 'Where have you been?' He said, 'I've been walking to and fro.'

So I don't think this is Satan in Job chapter 2, I think he's a watcher who has been watching the earth like is his job. I think this particular watcher, which they title Satan, but it's really an adversary translated from that. I think it's his job to accuse rich people of loving their riches more than God. And so he has been watching Job. He has been watching rich people and saying, 'No, if you give them a chance, they will curse God to his face.' Anyway, that's my interpretation, take it or leave it.

So Tartarus is the prison for fallen angels, and it as well is located in the earth. This one's plain. Revelation 9:1: a star fell from heaven to the earth, a star being an angel. And to him was given the key to the bottomless pit. And he ends up opening the pit and Apollyon comes out, the king of the abyss. The locusts come with him, which are demons.

So we see that this is located inside the earth. It's a fascinating study and we're going to get to Apollyon maybe today, maybe tomorrow, definitely tomorrow if not today. So yes, Tartarus is in the earth. Again, as I said earlier, if you read the bottomless pit or the abyss in scripture, this is also Tartarus, the one time it's mentioned by the name Tartarus.

We also see Tartarus in Greek mythology. It is where the Titans, Cronus, the king of the Titans, is cast into Tartarus. The Sibylline Oracles is one of the books in Greek mythology that talks about Tartarus and the gods that are cast there. And of course, we know the gods, lowercase gods, as fallen angels. Scripture, God even uses the word 'gods' to describe fallen angels, Psalm 82:1, a number of other locations where God calls the fallen angels gods.

And of course, these fallen angels were the gods of the people of old. Yes, in Greek mythology, these Titans are cast into Tartarus. And I believe that these are a mirror of these fallen angels in scripture. And of course, as you alluded to earlier, my book later this year is Mythologies Decoded: Echoes of the Bible, where I obviously talk about the watchers who in Greek mythology are the Titans and they're cast into Tartarus by other gods.

Lee's Cutshall: We're talking today with Micah Van Huss, not only about his Realm of the Dead DVD, but also his new book coming up, which is called Mythologies Decoded. Please stay tuned for more about that, not only during this couple days of conversation with Micah, but also soon to be seen in print. Micah, we're talking about the differing places or locations that some of us think of as hell, but the Bible is much more specific about these differing locations. We've talked about hell and Sheol and Tartarus. Are there other references to hell that may be actually different locations?

Micah Van Huss: There is another, Gehenna. Let's get to that in just a minute. There's a number of other passages that talk about Tartarus and the angels that are cast there. And this gets us a little bit into the Genesis 6 idea of the sons of God saw the daughters of men, came into them and had children with them. There were giants in the earth in those days, after the sons of God did that.

So these sons of God, the B'nai Elohim is the wording in Hebrew, who are having giant offspring with human women. Now there are a lot of folks who will say that no, that didn't happen. Angels can't do that. And so they'll say this is the godly human line of Seth, the sons of God that are sleeping with women. Well, that viewpoint doesn't explain the giant offspring. Neither does it explain why God sends a flood to wipe out a corrupted earth if godly men are having children.

So these are angels. And here is more proof. Scripture talks about the angels that sinned in the days of Noah being cast into the pit into Tartarus, chained up. And it's not just 2 Peter chapter 2, verse 4 which we just talked about: For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment. And the next verse, verse 5, mentions Noah and the days of Noah.

Jude chapter 1, verse 6: The angels which kept not their first estate he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness but saved Noah, the eighth person. In Isaiah chapter 24, I believe verse 21 and 22, but Isaiah chapter 24, it prophesies that the Messiah will go down into Sheol into the underworld and visit these spirits that made trouble in the days of Noah, captives in prison.

In 1 Peter chapter 3, verses 18, 19, and 20, Jesus does just that. He fulfills that prophecy. 1 Peter chapter 3:18, 19, and 20. Jesus dies on the cross, his body is in the grave for three days and his spirit is on the earth. And he goes down into the abyss and he proclaims his victory. It says 'preached,' he preached in the King James, but he goes and he proclaims his victory over the spirits that made trouble in the days of Noah.

So these B'nai Elohim, these sons of God in Genesis 6, they are not human. They are these angels that sinned in the days of Noah that scripture talks about in multiple places. They are the ones that give rise to the giants. Their offspring are the giants, the Nephilim. That kind of wraps up Tartarus and that will lead us into demons and other things. But let's talk about Gehenna.

The third location of the underworld is Gehenna. Now this one is maybe in the earth, but I doubt it. Gehenna is the lake of fire. It's what we think of when people are cast into hell after the great day of judgment. So it's not just humans, it's fallen angels, Satan.

Scripture never says that demons are cast into Gehenna, but that's my only assumption, that the demons are cast there too, which we're going to talk about demons here in a minute. So Gehenna is the place of final punishment after the great day of judgment.

In my mindset, from my studies, you know I like to think about the weird stuff, but within the bounds of scripture. If it conflicts with scripture, I don't think of it as a theory. But I believe that God has countless creations, countless planets where he has created beings. I've got no problem with that at all. The Bible is written for us here on earth. Jesus Christ came for us here on earth because we sinned in the Garden of Eden. We have our story. I don't know why God doesn't have 10,000 other planets. You know, it's no problem for me.

I think of Gehenna as the final place of punishment for all of God's creations after the great day of judgment. Forget all the other creations. For us, after the great day of judgment, the angels and unrepentant humans and likely demons will be cast into the lake of fire, which Jesus says Gehenna. And the dragon, also Satan and the fallen angels. So yes, Gehenna would be that place and that's the third location of the underworld. Again, as I stated earlier, the English language, the King James Version, the word 'hell' kind of combines all three places, Sheol, Tartarus, and Gehenna, into one word: hell.

Lee's Cutshall: And do you think that at that final time that all the folks who are in the other locations of hell will end up in that pit?

Micah Van Huss: I think the people, the dead humans on the earth from Sheol, will be pulled out to the great day of judgment. And the angels which are in Tartarus will be pulled out to the great day of judgment. Scripture says the great white throne, right. Not just non-canonical writings that talk about the angels that are bound for 70 generations till the great day of judgment. Scripture even says the angels that are bound there until the judgment. So yes, humans will come out of Sheol, angels will be pulled out of Tartarus for the judgment at the great day of judgment. And you know, there's probably Sheols on other planets where those beings have died and the dead are awaiting the great day of judgment.

Lee's Cutshall: I like your theories about other planets, Micah.

Micah Van Huss: Well, it's a vast sky and I have a hard time believing God created it all for us to look at when we can't even see all of it. We are talking, if you have just joined us, with Micah Van Huss talking about the Realm of the Dead and his DVD, his new DVD, and he actually has a couple of those based on some of his research from Angels Eternal, his book. Micah, what on earth, pun intended, has caused you to focus on these things of the weird, but especially on the underworld?

Micah Van Huss: Well, the focusing on the weird I believe is what God has called me to do. Had the opportunity to do a number of things through my life. God has been great and here I am after Iraq, after the Marine Corps, after politics. Now I'm writing about the mysteries of God's word. I think God has called me to do this. I love doing it. He gave me a passion for it 25 years ago. God prepares us for the things he has for us.

The Realm of the Dead, it's obviously a partial study of my book Angels Eternal. It's weird how I'll write books, this is, I'm writing my fifth book right now. And I'll get done with a book, and now I'm working on presentations and videos. I'm like, man, I should have put this in the book, and there's things I learn. It's like, ah, I should have put this in the book or I should have organized the book a little differently. This is fascinating to me as I really deeply study this stuff, how it all works out.

The next thing that leads us into, we've talked a little bit about demons, about giants. Let's talk about the giants that are in hell. Because scripture mentions giants being in hell. Before we do this, there's a number of terms for giants in scripture. The Nephilim, Genesis chapter 6. The Gibborim—Gibborim is a little bit looser, it can mean mighty men, it can mean mighty humans, warriors. But the Gibborim is also used to describe Genesis 6 giants and a few other places, some of the giants.

So Gibborim, Nephilim, Rephaim is a race. Anakim is a race, all mentioned in scripture. The Emim, Zamzummim are races of giants mentioned in scripture. If you remember King Og of Bashan was the last of the Rephaim giants. Moses's army killed him. I got to go to Israel three years ago now and see the Valley of Bashan up near the Syrian border where Moses defeated Og's army. It's weird to say Og's army.

Lee's Cutshall: Say that three times really fast.

Micah Van Huss: So scripture says Og had a bed of iron that was 18 feet tall and nine feet wide. Now whether that's where he slept or where his coffin was, whichever it's describing, he's a big man. And scripture says he's the last of the Rephaim.

So we have Rephaim, Anakim, Emim, Zamzummim, Gibborim, Nephilim, and mighty men is a lot of times translated in the King James as mighty men. But if you look at the original Hebrew for mighty men, it's either Gibborim or Rephaim usually.

Lee's Cutshall: You'll have a test, we'll have a test on this after he finishes.

Micah Van Huss: Or you could just buy Angels Eternal or the DVD and you can just look it up.

Lee's Cutshall: Good idea.

Micah Van Huss: So these giants are in scripture. Isaiah 14:9: Hell from beneath, Sheol, hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming. It stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth. Are thou also become weak as we?

We're seeing angels and demons are two different things. Scripture does not explicitly state this, so I am going to go outside of scripture. You take this with a grain of salt, however you want to, but there are non-canonical writings that talk about what demons are: the spirits of the giants is the short answer.

The giants, when they died during the flood, before the flood, God tells Gabriel to go cause the giants to kill each other off before the flood and any that are left die in the flood. Non-canonical writings say that when those giants died—giants are half angel, half human—there was no place for their spirits in Sheol, no place for their spirits in heaven. So they are destined to roam the earth. This is Second Temple Jewish literature, many non-canonical writings talk about demons being the spirits of the dead giants.

And so they are destined to roam the earth and cause trouble with mankind. They cause war and pestilence with mankind. They do all kinds of evil things, oppressing mankind. Again, that's not scripture, so take that however you want, but I believe it's correct history. Doesn't mean it's inspired, but I do believe it's correct history. Because in scripture, what do we see with the demons? They torment mankind. They seek inhabiting bodies.

Lee's Cutshall: Do you think they're in the world today?

Micah Van Huss: Yes, absolutely. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And there's a lot of them in Sheol too. And again, we talked about in Sheol, I think demons have the ability to come and go from Sheol. That they are on the earth on the surface and in Sheol as well, just like Samuel was pulled up in 1 Samuel 28. So we've only got a few seconds left, so we're going to have to finish these thoughts tomorrow.

Lee's Cutshall: Okay. A great reason to tune in tomorrow to hear more from Micah Van Huss about the Realm of the Dead, which is a new DVD from Micah and from Southwest Radio Ministries. And we're so thankful, Micah, for your having joined us today and introduced us, if we haven't heard about them or read about them before. And we've probably read it and not really realized we were reading about all these different kinds of creatures, angels, demons, etc., and the different locations of hell and where they might be. Thanks, Micah. We look forward to talking to you tomorrow on Southwest Radio Ministries Watchman on the Wall. Thanks, Micah.

Micah Van Huss: I look forward to it as well.

Speaker 2: Friends, history is not just shaped by kings and nations. It is influenced by an unseen spiritual conflict. In the brand new DVD Realm of the Dead, Micah Van Huss pulls back the curtain on the supernatural framework behind world events, revealing a reality often overlooked but deeply rooted in scripture. This compelling teaching explores the concept of the Divine Council and the spiritual princes assigned to the nations, powerful beings whose influence has shaped human history since ancient times.

But this is not merely a study of darkness or ancient mystery. At the center of Realm of the Dead stands Jesus Christ, the promised prince who entered human history to accomplish far more than personal salvation. Through his victory, he confronts the powers of darkness, reclaims authority over the nations, and begins the restoration of what was lost in humanity's earliest rebellion.

To learn more, order Realm of the Dead DVD today. Call 1-800-652-1144. That's 1-800-652-1144. You can also order Realm of the Dead on our website swrc.com. Rich with biblical insight and grounded in prophecy, Realm of the Dead challenges viewers to see the world through a broader spiritual lens, where scripture, history, and the unseen realm converge with purpose and precision. Realm of the Dead DVD by Micah Van Huss. 1-800-652-1144. Watchman on the Wall is a production of Southwest Radio Ministries and is supported by faithful friends like you. To learn more, visit swrc.com.