The traditional ideas of the overwhelming majority of the earth's peoples about the structure of the universe presuppose the existence of two or three worlds. Most often this means...
The traditional ideas of the overwhelming majority of the earth's peoples about the structure of the universe presuppose the existence of two or three worlds. Most often this means the upper world, the world of gods and higher spirits; the middle world, the world of human beings; and the lower world, the world of the dead or the world of shades, where lower, evil spirits usually dwell together with the shades of the dead.
In some cases the middle and upper worlds are joined, but the lower world is always perceived as separate, set apart from the world of the living. In principle, the biblical picture of the world is not fundamentally different from the traditional one: it speaks of "the heavens," the spiritual world, the world where God abides, the world that can be considered "upper"; of the "middle" world of the living; and of the "lower" world of the dead, which in Hebrew is called Sheol (in the Greek-language biblical books Sheol is called in Greek "Hades").
The biblical picture of the world begins to change already in the time of the later prophets, to whom the reality of the messianic Kingdom was revealed (they also sometimes called it the Kingdom of God). And in the liturgical, worshiping experience of the First Temple era, the Kingdom was revealed to the people as visions of the Throne of Glory, that Throne of God which some prophets also saw, for example Isaiah of Jerusalem.
These revelations changed the view of the people-community regarding the "upper world." The Kingdom of God, which was associated exclusively with "the heavens" and remained alien to the world of people, according to the testimony of the prophets was someday, with the coming of the Messiah, to enter the world of people as well. In the context of the prophetic tradition, the Savior's words about the Kingdom that has "drawn near" become understandable. He in fact came so that the Kingdom could enter our world, transforming it.
But if the whole world becomes part of the Kingdom, all the former divisions within it cease to be relevant. Now, after the coming of the Messiah, one can no longer speak of "the heavens" existing separately from the "middle world": the Kingdom now enters our world, and the former boundary between it and our world no longer exists. On the other hand, there is no longer a "lower world," Sheol in its former quality, since in that quality it is incompatible with the Kingdom.
Only the Kingdom remains, expanding its spiritual space in our world, and what the New Testament books call "the outer darkness." This darkness external to the Kingdom exists because in the world there are powers and people for whom the Kingdom is unacceptable and who, in turn, are incompatible with the Kingdom. They are the ones who find themselves in the outer darkness, on the underside of the transformed world. Not because they are driven out, but because of the choice they make of their own will.
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22:13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last - Who exist from everlasting to everlasting. How clear, incontestable a proof, does our Lord here give of his divine glory!