What is hell all about anyway?

It is death, the grave, or the lake of fire, and the place of utter darkness (scriptural context). Traditional teaching has taught us that hell is a physical place below the earth, blazing with fire and brimstone. Where the devil and his demons as vile looking reddish creatures, with a tail and two horns reigns over all those who didn't quite make it to heaven. As picturesque as this may be, it does not fit with the context of scripture. Hell is referred to by scripture as a place or state of darkness, death, and decay. It is used basically as a figure of speech, and how it is used depends on the context of the scripture is is used in. | Ps 16:10 For thou [God] wilt [will] not leave my soul in hell [the grave]; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption [decay]. | Jonah 2:1-2 Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish's belly, And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell [the darkness] cried I, and thou heardest my voice. | Matt 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him [God] which [who] is able to destroy both soul [breath life] and body [physical body] in hell [death and destruction - total annihilation (to reduce to nonexistence). Matt 16:18 And I [Christ] say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and {but} upon this rock {Christ - the cornerstone} I [Christ] will build my church; and the gates of hell [death and destruction] shall not prevail against it. | Acts 2:31 He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. | Jude 1:6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. | 2 Pet 2:4-5 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 spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; | These angels that sinned were responsible for bringing in the flood in Noah's day because they caused wickedness to prosper. Because of this, God cast them into the place of darkness nevermore to corrupt the world again, awaiting their final judgement of complete destruction. Because these were spirit beings and not flesh and blood, hell cannot be referred to here as the grave which is physical, but instead as a place of darkness where these evil spirit beings were imprisoned. Were they alive or not? I don't know since the word never tells us. All we really know is that they were removed from the presence of the world, and chained into darkness somewhere beyond our vision. | 1 Pet 3:18-20 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: | Christ was put to death as a man, but raised up with a spiritual body. | By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; | These spirits he preached to were the same angels mentioned before which sinned. In his resurrected form he appeared unto them declaring to them that they have lost the battle with God. The word does not say whether these imprisoned spirits heard his words or saw his presence, therefore we must leave the complete understanding of this verse to God, Christ and the angels for now. | Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. | Eph 4:9-10 (Now that he [Christ] ascended [up to heaven], what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth [the grave]? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things. | Where is far above all heavens? Is this where he appeared unto the imprisoned spirits? These are questions that we can't answer at this time, but only can speculate at. | Rev 1:18 I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. | The above verse is referring to Christ: He lived once among us as a man; was crucified and died; and is alive now forevermore in his resurrected spiritual body; and holds the power over death and the grave. It is he he who has the keys of hell and death.