- 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
and as the theory goes,
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 four where Paul
speaks really of two things
that Jesus does to assist the church.
And one is to this, he says in Ephesians 4:7,
"To 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
"and 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 four.
I have strong respect for the tradition on this,
but I'm not convinced that the Bible teaches
what the tradition has held exactly.
I think verse eight is referring to the fact
when he ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives,
He led them captive.
And so what He did was took out of play
a number of demons is what I think this is referring to.
We read in 2 Peter 2:4
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 six
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 seven.
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 four.
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's the death of Jesus
where He continues to live in spirit, verse 19,
"In which He also went and made proclamation
"to the spirits in prison."
So again, the early church,
some of the early church theologians anyway,
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 up, puts it in italic,
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 it is saying.
So it reads this way, "In which also He went
"and made proclamation to 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've rejected.
All of them would've
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.
"And 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,
"today you will be with me in paradise."
So this does not indicate that at the death of Jesus,
that 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 in terms of location,
but nonetheless it is a place
where Jesus was with this thief
who was a believing thief on the cross,
believed in Christ, at 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 intermediates state already there.
The Bible teaches that at the point of physical death
for believers absent from the body, present with the Lord.
So we are at this place where we are bodyless
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 a thief
and where we will be if the Lord tarries
and we die physically in this life,
we will be also in that place before Jesus comes again
and we are raised from the dead.
- [Narrator] Thanks for watching "Honest Answers."
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