Christ’s Descent Into Hell

Excerpted from Dr. David E. Seip’s upcoming book: Heaven.

In the last chapter we clarified why we can have confidence in believing that Jesus in fact descended into “hell” (Sheol) as the early church consistently believed. Now we will precede to understand why it was important for Jesus to descend between the moment of his death and his resurrection from the dead on the third day and ascent into heaven. In the interest of understanding that importance we need to take a look at couple of things. First, we need to understand the meaning of the phrase that is repeated in the Apostles’ Creed: “He descended into hell.” The original text would have been written in Latin and says descendit ad inferos, which literally means “he descended into the lower places.” Hell was not to infer gehenna, the place of torment. It would have only meant to descend into the realm of the dead. Furthermore, the Christian scholar Philip Schaff wrote, “The simple doctrinal statements within this creed are clear and concise, and their meaning cannot be misconstrued.” The words surrounding the descent of Christ, are often misconstrued — that is to say, there are numerous interpretations of what they mean, with some (as we have previously discussed) believing the words should not appear at all in the Creed.

One of the text of Scripture that perplexes scholars about what Christ was doing when he descended into the lower depths is 1 Peter 3:15–18, which reads, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.” Some commentators interpret these passages to mean that Jesus went to preach to those humans who died and went to the lower depths (or sheol). If Jesus in fact did go to preach to those who were confined in Sheol it would imply that Peter was affirming that Jesus was providing a second chance for salvation.

We have to also ask what the mention of Noah have to do with Jesus’ descent? Was Jesus gone to preach specifically to those who lost their lives in the Great Flood? Again, the Bible teaches that there is no opportunity for repentance after death. Hebrews 10:26, 27 read — “For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.”

How do we reconcile these passages? One explanation is that he descended to preach the truth, to announce that he had made it possible to save the human race from destruction. He had won the battle against death and sin and had successfully provided redemption. But to whom was he going in order to proclaim this truth? Christ uttered on the cross, “it is finished” (John 19:30), meaning in part that

2 Peter 2:4, 5 and 9, “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; … then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment.” It is speculative, but a good number of scholars agree that these who are imprisoned in darkness are the fallen angels (sons of God) mentioned in Genesis 6:1–6 who were those who resided on the earth at the time of the Great Flood and then became imprisoned by God, and also is the view of some Jewish literature. Nevertheless, there remains in theological circles to this day great debate and speculation over why Jesus descended into Hell (Sheol/Hades). The commentators have always differed greatly as to the actual meaning of 1 Peter 3:19–22.

Where do we find the earliest interpretations of 1 Peter 3:19 (“in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison”). The Descent dogma of the Christian Church has wide and intricate connections. In the literature of the Ancient Church and later times, we are given the impression that in so far as this dogma supposes there are three main types of activity which occurs in the underworld that can be distinguished in the writings: (1) that Christ subdues Hell by violence, (2) that he sets free the dead or some of the dead from the power of Hell, and (3) that he proclaims a message for the dead in general, or for certain dead people. From the early second century on, Peter was widely regarded as referring to Christ’s descent into Hades (Sheol) in order that he might (1) share fully the fate of humanity, (2) conquer death or Hates (or both), (3) rescue the righteous dead, and/or (4) proclaim salvation to the dead.

Still, we must come to a conclusion why Peter thought it important to place these verses on Christ’s descent into the underworld important in an epistle which is otherwise a pastoral letter. Jesus’ descent into hell and subsequent resurrection were commonly associated with two themes, the overthrow of evil powers or angels and the liberation of the righteous Jewish saints. In order to understand why the two ideas actually go hand-in-hand we need to remember what we mean when we refer to Christ descending into “hell.” We are not referring to the permeant location known as Gehenna. That is a place referred to as one of eternal punishment received by the unbelievers in the world (and underworld) upon the final judgment. Since the early days of the Christian church, it has been widely assumed that there is a place of woe to which the wicked dead descent to. There are four words in the original language of the Scriptures which are all translated “hell” in the English. In the Old Testament, one of the words, Sheol, was suggestive of a place of final darkness. In this present age, it has been concluded by learned scholars that three of the words — Sheol, Hades and Tartarus — do not mean such a place. And while conceding these words, they are positive that Gehenna does not have such a meaning.

Not all contemporary theologians are on the same page with Church history, however. Joe Rigley, President of Bethlehem College and Seminary suggests an unusual explanation of Christ’s descent. In a published article, neglecting the majority of history, he claims that after Christ’s resurrection, he ascends to heaven and brings the ransomed dead with him, so that now paradise is no longer down near the place of torment, but is up in the third heaven, the highest heaven, where God dwells. He continues stating that now, in the church age, when the righteous die, they aren’t merely carried by angels to Abraham’s bosom; they depart to be with Christ, which is far better (assuming Philippians 1:23). The wicked, however, remain in Hades in torment, until the final judgment, when Hades gives up the dead who dwell there, and they are judged according to their deeds, and then Death and Hades are thrown into hell, into the lake of fire (assuming Revelation 20:13–15).

In Revelation 1:18 we read, “I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.” When the Son of God came to dwell on earth he ushered-in a new era in time. Paul suggests that in his writings. For example, in 2 Corinthians 5:17, he writes, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. Death was always a part of the condition of sin. Life was granted to the Jew who was righteous before God. In the New Testament, “the new has come.” Righteousness and forgiveness of sin is achieved through Christ imputing righteousness and forgiveness to us simply by mercy and grace — nothing performed by us. Sin is expiated on our behalf.

Paul says in Colossians 1:15–19, that Christ “is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities- all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” In the fullness of God he also was fully man. When he died, like any other human, his soul departed from his body. Where do souls go when they depart from the body? They go to Sheol (or Hades). For the believer it is a descent into Paradise. For the unbeliever it is a descent into darkness and torment — but not a final place of torment; that occurs after the final judgment when they are eternally cast into Gehenna. In my book, With Me In Paradise, I articulate how Sheol is divided into two sections, one section for the believer, and one section for the unbeliever. No one can cross over to the other side. 1 Peter 3:18–20 says, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.”

At the time of Christ’s death and the descent of his soul to the underworld, the unrighteous who were in torment are symbolized by those who died in the Great Flood — the Sons of God, fallen angels, the Nephilim (as described in Genesis 6:4). On the other side of Sheol were the righteous Jews of the Old Testament, symbolized by the eight who were saved inn the ark (brought safely through the waters. 1 Perter 3:19 says that Christ went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison. The word prison (Greek, phulake) does not necessarily mean locked behind iron doors. In the Greek it can also mean “watch.” Those contained there are watching, unable to leave until the appointed time. The saints in Revelation 6:10,11 are depicted in Hades waiting, “watching,” and “They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.”

Just like the saints of the New Testament who died and are in Hades waiting for the full restoration of body and soul at Christ’s appearing, the Old Testament saints were waiting and watching as well for their full adoption with the adorning of a new resurrected body. On the other side of Sheol, the fallen were waiting as well as one condemned to eternal damnation and waiting, watching, for appointed time. Christ’s spirit descended, and declared that he had the authority over the keys to Death and Hades — over those eternally damned and those who resided in Paradise awaiting resurrection inn order to be in the presence of Christ in heaven. Christ preached fulfillment. When he said on the cross, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit (John 19:30), he was not just making a statement about his successful imputation of sin, he was also making an implied statement about accomplishing the plan of God to receive the righteous and judge the eternally condemned. Having accomplished that on the cross, he descends to Hades to declare the accomplishment, and in a final tribute to that accomplishment, he was resurrected from the dead by his Father and ascended to heaven.

The apostle Paul elps to place this understanding into perspective. At a number of places in his epistles he emphasizes that the coming of Christ inaugurated a new era (Greek aionos). Even though we await the full experience of the new age with “end time events” still to come, its presence can already be experienced. Yet, every aspect of the age to come hase been fulfilled in the present. The resurrection of Christ to Paul is an event which enables believers to live in the knowledge that death as been overcome. Christ’s soon return is to looked forward to because our our triumph over sin and death. Paul uses an Aramaic term, maranatha (literally, “come, O Lord!”) as an expression of our Christian hope.

Taken from D.E. Seip’s upcoming book: Heaven