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Darkness to Light - Vol. XXIII, No. 3
Darkness to Light
Christian Newsletter
Volume XXIII, Number 3
2025
Presented by
Darkness to
Light Website
Director: Gary F. Zeolla
In This Issue
Holy Saturday: What Was Jesus Doing? Part One
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Trusting Genesis and the Gospels
A Defense of Divine Creation, of the Resurrection of Christ, and of Salvation in Christ
This book addresses three vital subjects in regards to the Christian faith, as indicated in the subtitle. Available in hardcopy, ebook, and audiobook formats.
Audiobooks by Virtual Voice
I’ve been publishing books though Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) for many years now. I was one of the first to jump on board when Amazon started the service with the ability to make eBooks for its Kindle reader and app. Then later they added the ability to create paperbacks, then even later hardbacks, and I immediately jumped on board for those formats as well.
I knew the Kindle format would quickly become popular, and it sure did. For quite some time now, I sell far more Kindle eBooks than books in all other formats combined. And nationally, eBooks began to outsell hardcopy books many years ago.
But then last fall I heard on the news that audiobooks are now outselling eBooks. But sadly, my efforts with ACX to publish audiobooks have not proved to be fruitful. But now, KDP has begun a beta program to publish audiobooks through it, and I was asked to be a beta tester.
The books are read by “virtual voice” which is to say AI (Artificial Intelligence). The AI reads the Kindle version of the book. I thought it would be a breeze. Just pick the book to be read. Choice a voice. (There are dozens of male and female voices to choice from, with an American, British, or Australian accent.) Then let the AI do its thing. But sadly, the AI does not do a very good job, as it makes many stupid mistakes. Then again, in listening to the recordings, I caught several stupid mistakes I had made.
KDP gives the ability to edit the narration to correct those mistakes. But its editing system has lots of quirks, making it very difficult to use. As a result, it is time-consuming and tedious to fix those many mistakes. With ACX, I told the human narrator about the mistakes, and he or she fixed them. But with KDP and its AI, I had to correct all of those mistakes myself. If I had known the AI would make so many mistakes, and it would be so hard to fix them, I would not have bothered with it. This is the last time I will volunteer to be a beta tester.
However, a plus with KDP is I can set the price for the books, while with ACX, ACX set the retail prices, which are quite high due to me and the narrator splitting the royalty. But with KDP and its AI, I do not need to share the royalty with the narrator. That means, the retail prices of the audiobooks are less than with ACX. But I cannot redo books I did with ACX, as a book cannot already be available in audiobook format to be done with KDP. But, as with ACX, the audiobooks are available from Amazon and Audible, but not iTunes.
All that said, after two weeks of work and much frustration, I finished editing and publishing two audiobooks. But then, when I updated the associated Kindles to correct a few typos I found in them while reviewing the audiobooks, KDP declared one of them “ineligible” for an audiobook and “lost” four chapters at the end of the other one! The chapters were eventually restored to the latter. But I am still fighting with KDP over the former
In any case, the lone KDP audiobook now available is:
Starting and Progressing in
Powerlifting:
A Comprehensive Guide to the World’s Strongest Sport.
Available from Amazon and Audible.
Corrections for ALT3c
The book I am fighting with KDP about is my Analytical-Literal Translation of the New Testament Third Edition (corrected). I spent over a week spent reviewing the entire New Testament and making needed corrections. Most of those were due to KDP’s AI making stupid mistakes. However, I noticed a few mistakes of my own in the text.
Fortunately, only one was significant. A phrase from Galatians 4:4 got copied into Luke 10:8. I have no idea how that happened. But the phrase was in a different font than the rest of the text, so it was an obvious mistake.
It was when I corrected that mistake and the few other minor mistakes in the Kindle version that KDP rendered the audiobook ineligible. I also corrected the mistakes in all hardcopy formats of ALT3c. But if the reader previously purchased it, below are the needed corrections.
Luke 10:8: delete “born of a woman”
Acts Book Introduction: change “Spirt” to “Spirit”
Romans 10:11: change “not put” to “not be put”
1Corinthians Book Introduction: change “Sprit” to “Spirit”
Galatians Book Introduction: change “Sprit” to “Spirit”
also change “all the Spirit does” to “all that the Spirit does”
Galatians 2:12: change “legalist Jews]” to “legalistic Jews]”
Hebrews Book Introduction: change “God’ to “God”
Zeolla.org Updates
The home page and autobiography on my personal website have been updated. This is the first update in 1-1/2 years, so quite a bit needed updating, and I added a good bit to the autobiography.
New Home Pages Image
New image for the home page of my Christian Darkness to Light and personal websites. Generated by Gab AI.
Holy Saturday:
\What Was Jesus Doing?
Part One
I woke up early this past Holy Saturday (2025). As I lay there praying, I began to think, “What was Jesus doing on this day 2,000 years ago?” Below are the relevant Bible passages that came to mind to answer that question, with commentary by yours truly.
Just in case the reader does not know, Holy Saturday is the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. It was when Jesus’ body lay in the tomb. But what was His spirit doing? As I studied this issue, it ended up being much more complicated with even more relevant verses than I originally thought. That is why it grew to a two-part article.
Notes:
Bible passages are not placed in block quotes as is normally done for extended quotes for the sake of readability. But they are easily identifiable by the superscript verse numbers. My comments then follow after each quote. All Bible passages quoted from the Analytical-Literal Translation of the New Testament Third Edition (corrected).
Also, “soul” and spirit” are used interchangeable in Scripture, so I will be doing so in this two-part article. I demonstrate that point in Scripture Study #31 in my Scripture Workbook: Third Edition.
Luke 16:19-31
19”Now a certain man was rich and was dressing himself in a purple garment and fine linen, lavishly celebrating every day. 20But [there] was a certain poor man, by name Lazarus, who had been placed at his gate, covered with sores 21and longing to be fed from the crumbs, the ones falling from the table of the rich [man], but even the dogs, coming, were licking his ulcerated sores. 22Now it happened, the poor man died, and he was carried away by the angels to the bosom of Abraham. Then the rich [man] also died and was buried. 23And in the realm of the dead [Gr. hades], having lifted up his eyes, being in torments, he sees Abraham from a distance, and Lazarus in his bosom. 24And having cried out, he said, ‘Father Abraham, be merciful to me, and send Lazarus, so that he shall dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, because I am in agony in this flame.’
25”But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you received your good [things] in your life, and Lazarus likewise the bad [things], but now here he is comforted, but you are in agony. 26And besides all these [things], between us and you* a great chasm has been fixed, in order that the ones wanting to cross over from here to you* are not able, nor can the [ones] from there cross over to us.’ 27Then he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, that you send him to the house of my father—28for I have five brothers—in order that he should urgently warn them, so that they also shall not come to this place of torment.’ 29Abraham says to him, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear [or, pay attention to] them.’ 30But he said, ‘No, father Abraham! But if someone goes to them from [the] dead, they will repent.’ 31But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from [the] dead.’”
The importance of this passage to this discussion is what it teaches about the afterlife. First, it must be noted, the souls of the dead are conscious, not in some state of “soul sleep” as some claim, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs). I have read attempts by JWs to evade the force of this passage by trying to allegorize this clear teaching away by saying it was “just a parable,” though of what I could not quite follow.
The argument against this story being a parable but instead being a real narrative of something that actually happened is it is the only story Jesus told in which He names one of the persons. Think, for instance, of the parables of the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son (both of which occur in this same Gospel of Luke). In those parables, we never get the name of the injured man, the Levite, the priest, the good Samaritan, the prodigal son, his father, nor his brother. But here, Jesus tells us the name of the poor man was Lazurus. Most likely, these were real people who had recently died, know to His audience.
That said, here Jesus gives us two locations for the recently departed: “the bosom of Abraham” and “the realm of the dead [Gr. hades]”. The former is a place of comfort, while the latter is a “place of torment.” However, the former is not called “heaven,” and the latter is not called “hell.”
The latter word is the usual translation of the Greek word Gehenna. Sometimes hades is also translated as hell. But more often, it is rendered simply by transliterating the Greek letters into English, giving us the word Hades.
But I have rendered it in ALT as “realm of the dead.” The reason for that is sometimes the word just refers to the grave, but other times it refers to as here a place of conscious existence of the soul after death. The New Living Translation has similarly “place of the dead.” The older Catholic New American Bible has “netherworld.” All other versions I checked have either Hades or hell.
Hades is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word Sheol, which also has the possible meanings of the grave or a place of after death conscious existence, though the Old Testament conception of the latter is less clear than in the New Testament.
Now, the important point is Hades appears to be a different place than Gehenna. That is why “hell” is not the best rendering of the former. The difference seems to be that Hades would be equivalent to jail, while Gehenna would be equivalent to prison. That difference is that jail is where an accused criminal is held until trial, while prison is where he will serve out his sentence if found guilty at that trial.
For the afterlife, Hades appears to be where the souls of people go before the final judgment, while hell is the eternal residence of the damned. In that respect, hell would be equivalent to the lake of fire of The Revelation (19:20; 20:10-25). Both are described as a place of torment (Mark 9:42-48).
ᾍδης (Hades) – The temporary abode of the dead (Luke 16:23, Acts 2:27, Rev. 20:13).
Not the same as “Γέεννα” (Gehenna), which refers to eternal punishment (Matt. 10:28) (Gab AI; emphases in original).
But what about Hades? It is only here in Luke that it is described as a place of torment. And what about Abraham’s bosom? Is that also in Hades? If it is, then it is not a place of torment. As such, it would seem there are two “chambers” to Hades—one of torment and one of comfort.
What that means is, the general conception of this scene of the rich man being in hell below and Lazarus being in heaven above is wrong. The only directional element is when it says the rich man “lifted up his eyes.” But that phrase is used elsewhere in the Bible for looking up and noticing someone, not necessarily for looking up into heaven (Luke 6:20; John 6:5).
I would propose that Hades has two compartments: one for the righteous dead and one for the unrighteous dead. The directionality should be horizontal, not vertical. It is the “great chasm” between the two compartments that would be vertical.
It is only later that those in the “good compartment” go to heaven, while those in the “bad compartment” go to hell. The point is, though in comfort, the former are not yet with the LORD in heaven but in more of a holding place, not in torment, but still not in the full presence of God either. That then leads to the next passage.
Luke 23:23-34,39-43
32Now they were also leading others, two criminals, with Him to be executed. 33And when they came to the place, the one being called Skull [or, Calvary, Gr. Cranion], there they crucified Him and the criminals, one at [His] right [parts] [fig., on His right side] and one at [His] left [parts] [fig., on His left side]. 34But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Then dividing His garments, they cast a lot…
39Then one of the criminals having been hanged began deriding Him, saying, “Since You are the Christ, save Yourself and us!” 40But answering, the other [one] began rebuking him, saying, “Do you not even now fear God, since you are in the same judgment? [or, condemnation?] 41And we indeed [are suffering] justly, for we are receiving back [things] worthy of what we did, but this [Man] did nothing wrong.” 42And he was saying to Jesus, “Remember me, Lord, when You come in Your kingdom.” 43And Jesus said to him, “Positively, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
This is another passage JWs distort to try to evade it refuting its claim of soul sleep. They move the comma in the final sentence to after the word “today.” In that case, it would refer to when Jesus was talking not to when the repentant criminal would be with Him “in Paradise.”
However, Jesus uses the phrase “Positively, I say to you” 75 other times in the Gospels, including six other times in this very Gospel (Luke 4:24; 12:37; 13:35; 18:17,29; 21:32). And not once does He add the word “today.” The comma always goes after the word “you.” As such, it makes no sense He would add the completely unnecessary word “today” to His introductory clause at a time when He was fighting for every breath. And such would be no comfort to the dying criminal. But it would be great comfort for the repentant criminal to know that on that very day his suffering would end, and He would be in Paradise.
But for our purposes, what is “Paradise?” Is it the same as heaven? Or is it the equivalent of the “good compartment” of Hades? And in what sense or where would the criminal be “with” Jesus?
If., as I supposed, those in that “good compartment” of Hades were not in the immediate presence of God, then the criminal could hardly be going there when he died. But that assumes Jesus was going to heaven when He died, not Hades. But where did He go?
John 20:16-18
16Jesus says to her, “Mary!” That one, having been turned, says to Him [in Aramaic], “Rabbouni!” (which is saying, “Teacher”). 17Jesus says to her, “Stop holding [or, clinging to] Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father. But be going to My brothers, and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your* Father, and [to] My God and your* God.’” 18Mary the Magdalene comes reporting to the disciples that she has seen the Lord, and these things He said to her.
The Mary here is Mary the Magdalene, who went to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body (John 20:1:1; Luke 24:1). But she and the women with her found the tomb empty. Jesus later appears to Mary. We then have this scene.
In this scene, Mary has apparently fallen at the feet of Jesus and is grasping his legs. Jesus tells her to stop clinging to Him. Then He makes the astounding statement, “I have not yet ascended to My Father.” That tells us Jesus did not go immediately to heaven after His death. He indicates He will eventually be ascending to heaven, to His Father, but He has not done so yet, right after His resurrection. So where did He go at that time?
Acts 2:22-32
22“Men, Israelites! Pay attention to these words! Jesus the Nazarene, a Man having been attested by God among you* by miraculous works and wonders and signs which God did through Him in your* midst, just as you* yourselves also know—23this One, handed over by the having been designated plan and foreknowledge of God, you* having taken by lawless hands, having crucified, you* executed; 24whom God raised up, having loosed the pangs of death, because it was not possible [for] Him to continue being held by it. 25For David says in regard to Him:
I myself was foreseeing the Lord through all [fig. continually] before me, because He is at my right [parts] [fig., on my right side], so that I shall not be shaken. 26Because of this, my heart celebrated, and my tongue expressed great happiness, and yet my flesh also will rest on hope [or, confident expectation]; 27because You will not abandon my soul to the realm of the dead [Gr., hades], nor will You give [fig., allow] Your Devout [or, Holy] One to see decay [or, corruption]. 28You made known to me [the] ways of life; You will make me full of gladness with Your face [fig., presence]. [Psalm 16:8-11, verse 9 LXX]
29“Men, brothers! It is possible [for me] to speak with confidence to you* concerning the patriarch David, that he both came to the end [of his life] and was buried, and his tomb is with us until this day. 30Therefore, being a prophet and knowing that God vowed to him with an oath, from [the] fruit of his reproductive organs according to [the] flesh [fig., from one of his descendants], to raise up the Christ [or, the Messiah] to sit on his throne, 31having foreseen [this], he spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that ‘His soul was not left in the realm of the dead [Gr., hades], nor did His flesh see decay [or, corruption].’ [Psalm 16:10] 32This Jesus God raised up, of which we are all witnesses!
The point of Peter quoting the passage from Psalms is that David was obviously not talking about himself, as his body did indeed decay in his tomb. But for our purposes, there are three points to note.
First, Peter uses the Greek word hades where the Psalmist used the Hebrew word sheol. That verifies what was said previously, that they are equivalent.
Second, Peter and the Psalmist distinguish between Hades and the grave. Grave is not specifically mentioned, but that is what is meant by saying the “nor did His flesh see decay.” It is in the grave that the bodies of people decay.
Third, the corollary to this is the soul goes to Hades, while normally the body decays in the grave. But Jesus’ body did not decay, as He was raised three days later! But for our purposes, the important point is Jesus’ soul went to Hades after His death. But what did He do while there? That question leads to the next passage. It will be addressed in Part Two of this article, which will appear in the next issue of this Darkness to Light newsletter.
Notes:
All Bible passages quoted from the Analytical-Literal Translation of the New Testament Third Edition (corrected).
The links to Amazon are advertising links, for which I receive a commission in addition to my royalty if a product is purchased after following the link.
New on My Christian Darkness to Light Website
Below are new items on my Christian website that have been posted since the last issue of this newsletter was published.
Good Friday/ Easter Sunday Bible Passages is
a new page.
4/20/25
New on My Fitness for One and All Website
Below are new items on my fitness website that have been posted since the last issue of this newsletter was published.
Vol. XXIII, No. 2 is the latest issue of the free FitTips for One and All newsletter.
Sleep News Articles is a new page.
4/12/25
Powerlifting Workout Posts and Videos: January to March 2025 (Q1) has been completed with all of my workouts for this time period.
Powerlifting Workout Posts and Videos: April to June 2025 (Q2) will record
my workouts for this time period.
3/29/25
New on My Biblical and Constitutional Politics Website
Below are new items on my politics website that have been posted since the last issue of this newsletter was published.
Political Commentaries for Q1 of 2025 is a new two-part article. Much has
been happening politically and especially with the Trump White House that I have
not had the time to comment about. Thus, in this two-part article I will start
on Inauguration Day then go through the end of March 2025, commenting on
important happenings.
4/2/25
New on My Covid Fearmongering and Lies Website
Below are new items on my Covid website that have been posted since the last issue of this newsletter was published.
Covid Quarterly
Commentaries for Q1 2025 is a new article. Discussion
about long Covid, Covid vaccines side effects and exaggerations about them,
causes of blood clots other than the vaccines, and the 5th anniversary
of Covid.
4/4/25
God’s Sex
Plan
Volume
One
What the
Old Testament Teaches About Human Sexuality
Also by Gary F. Zeolla:
Zeolla.org
is the personal website for Gary F. Zeolla.
Author of Christian and of fitness books, Web sites, and
newsletters,
and a top ranked and multi-record holding powerlifter.
Fitness
for One and All website and
FitTips
for One and All newsletter.
“Helping people to attain their health, fitness, and performance goals,
with an emphasis on powerlifting.”
Biblical and Constitutional Politics
“Political articles and commentary from a conservative Christian and politically
conservative perspective”
Covid Fearmongering and
Lies
“Coronavirus
Fearmongering on the Left, Covid-19 Lies on the Right”
A Layman's View of What the Authorities Got Correct and Incorrect about
SARS-CoV-2
All material in this newsletter is copyrighted © 2025 by Gary F. Zeolla or as indicated otherwise.
The links to Amazon are advertising links, for which I receive a commission in addition to my royalty if a product is purchased after following the link.
5/1/25