Transcript

You know, there is a long-standing tradition in the Church that goes back to the early Church Fathers that after Jesus died, He did go to Hell for that period of time.

As the theory goes, He released people from Hell from bondage that were held captive to Satan because His atoning death not only dealt with our sin, but it also was a triumphant blow to Satan's power over us, sometimes called the doctrine of Christus Victor—that Christ had the victory over the powers of evil and Satan in particular.

So God went and delivered people who were under Satan's control and then brought them to Heaven.

That's in the Apostles' Creed, and so there is a long-standing tradition that has held this.

One of the places that this understanding is based is from Ephesians 4, where Paul speaks really of two things that Jesus does to assist the Church.

One is to this: he says in Ephesians 4, verse 7, Each one grace is given according to the measure of Christ's gift.

Therefore, it says, When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men.

So in that one statement, He led captive a host of captives, he's saying something defensively, and then He gave gifts to men, that's something that Christ does offensively, something that assists the Church in functioning—the gifts that take place.

Well, many have taken that first statement, He led captive a host of captives, to mean that He led a group of people out of Hell, that He went down and freed after His atoning death.

I'm not convinced that's the correct interpretation of Ephesians 4. I have strong respect for the tradition on this, but I'm not convinced that the Bible teaches what the tradition holds.

I think verse 8 is referring to the fact that when He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives.

He led them captive, and so what He did was take out of play a number of demons, is what I think this is referring to.

We read in 2 Peter 2, verse 4, that He holds in captivity angels who had disobeyed, and we're not sure which angels these were.

Perhaps they're the ones in Genesis 6 that cohabited with men.

Honestly, we don't know for sure, but I think this is, in other words, taking a group of opponents to the Church—opposition to the Church—taking them out of play and holding them captive until their time of judgment that would come in the future.

So that's how I read the first part of verse 7. So He took out of commission opponents to the Church, and then He gave to the Church gifts that would help them in accomplishing the work in the body of Christ to grow us up in Christ, as He develops in the following verses in Ephesians 4. The other passage that is sometimes referred to is 1 Peter 3, where Peter writes in verse 18, Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh but made alive in the Spirit.

So here is the death of Jesus, where He continues to live in spirit.

Verse 19 states, In which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits in prison.

So again, some of the early Church theologians understood this to mean that He descended into Hell and preached the Gospel to people in Hell and brought them out of that place of their bondage during that time.

But again, I don't hold this view.

This interpretation of this verse, I think actually the NASB that I'm reading from, notice in verse 19—this is the NASB reading—it adds a word.

Now, it puts it in italics so you realize this was not actually in the Greek text.

If you look at the Greek text, it doesn't have the word now there, but they're inserting it as a way to make sense of what he's saying.

So it reads this way: In which also He went and made proclamation of the spirits now in prison.

So the point is that they are now in prison, but they were not at the point when proclamation was made.

Proclamation was made to them, as verse 20 indicates, during the days of Noah.

So evidently, Christ proclaimed truth to them, which everyone would have rejected—all of them would have—because only Noah and his family were saved in those days; all the rest perished.

But nonetheless, some kind of Gospel proclamation was given by Christ through Noah to people that they rejected, and they're now in prison.

Those people are now in prison, but they were alive during that time.

So it's not referring to something that Christ did between His death and resurrection; it's referring to something that happened during the days of Noah.

And then His reason for developing that in the verses that follow is, as Noah was saved through water, so we're saved through water—that is, as baptism symbolizes the cleansing that we have through faith in Christ.

So those are the two main passages that are used.

Of course, they can be understood in a way that supports the traditional view that between His death and resurrection, Christ descended to Hell and was there for that period of time and set free a host of captives.

It can be understood that way; I'm just not convinced that is the correct understanding.

And honestly, one of the main reasons that I think this view, at least, is called into question is in Luke's Gospel.

This is the only Gospel where we read this account of Jesus' discussion with the two men who hung with Him on the cross.

One of those two men was evidently a believer in Christ.

So we have in verse 39, one of the criminals who was hanging there was hurling abuse at Jesus, saying, Are you not the Christ?

Save yourself and us.

So mocking Him, in other words, but the other answered and rebuked him.

He said, Do you not even fear God, since you’re under the same sentence of condemnation?

And we indeed are suffering justly, for we’re receiving what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.

And he was saying to Jesus, Please remember me when You come into Your kingdom.

So then Jesus responded to this believing criminal who was hanging on the cross next to Him, and He said, Truly I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.

So this does not indicate that at the death of Jesus, His soul—His human soul and His divine nature, which of course are joined together inseparably—go down to Hell, but rather ascend and go to Paradise, this place that Paul refers to in 2 Corinthians 12, where he believes that he ascended into Paradise and experienced these visions of Christ and so on.

So this is a place—I mean, we’re not exactly sure where this is, you know, in terms of location—but nonetheless, it is a place where Jesus was with this thief, who was a believing thief on the cross, who believed in Christ, and a place of joy and happiness—Paradise—not a place of suffering and agony as Hell would be.

So I think that statement indicates just the opposite: that He didn’t go to Hell; He rather went to Heaven.

He went to this place where He would be with the Father, be with those who were in the intermediate state already there.

The Bible teaches that at the point of physical death for believers, we are absent from the body and present with the Lord.

So we are at this place where we are bodiless, but we continue to live, and we live with Christ for that period of time, awaiting our resurrection.

And so that place, Paradise, is where Jesus was with the thief and where we will be if the Lord tarries and we die physically in this life.

We will also be in that place before Jesus comes again and we are raised from the dead.

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