Expert: Dr. Ronald E. Shultz - 3/15/2004

Question
Dear Rev. Shultz,
 Saw the Passion of the Christ. Got me thining about the Apostles Creed which I said every Sunday in the Reformed church. Do Baptists and or E-free denomintaion believe that "Jesus decended into hell" during the 3 days he was dead..?
 Where is it in the Bible or where would the people who say the Apostles Creed base it on?
Thanks for any info....
Laurie

Answer
Hi, Laurie! I am not much for creeds neither am I a Reformed Baptist, more of an unreconstructed one.  ;-)  I was sort of raised Methodist and I always wondered why I was in the Methodist church quoting the creed that says I believe in the holy catholic church and I had Roman Catholic friends. They never explained the concept to me but I knew the words.  So, I am not big on repeating creeds and reading written prayers.  High church has too many vestiges of Catholicism that they should have amputated years ago, but then that is another message.

Hell is more complex then what people think.

7585  she'owl (sheh-ole'); or sheol (sheh-ole'); from 7592; Hades or the world of the dead (as if a subterranean retreat), including its accessories and inmates:
KJV-- grave, hell, pit.

Hell can be the grave, the literal place of the dead, which before Christ ascended consisted of both the place of punishment that we think of as hell and also paradise or Abraham's bosom with a great gulf between them consisting of the bottomless pit or tartarus (Greek)where the demons are chained that will loosed during the Tribulation.

Ps 16:8-10
8 I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.
10 For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. (KJV)

This is David speaking but we know that he indeed is still in the grave bodily though his spirit is in Heaven and his body has suffered corruption and is most likely a few bones by now if not completely dust.  

Christ was not left in the grave and either did not decay in any way or did not see total corruption in that His body only decayed for three days. Good men see that both ways.  I believe that either would fulfil the prophecy.  

Now, to which place of the dead or Hell did He go to?   

1 Pet 3:18-22
18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
22 Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him. (KJV)

Some believe that since He was sinless He went to the paradise side and preached across the gulf to the ones who were disobedient to Noah's preaching.  This could have been done without any other group hearing Him.  He is God, after all.  Paradise is a part of Hell so that is a reasonable position.

Others believe that since He took on our sins that He literally went to the punishment side of Hell and preached there to those folks and sufferd the torments of Hell for those three days in our place.  Not an illogical argument at all.  

Yet, comparing Scripture with Scripture

Luke 23:42-43
42 And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.
43 And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise. (KJV)

Jesus said that the thief would be with Him in paradise.  So I believe that the first scenario is the correct one.  Jesus went to the paradise side and brought joy to the OT saints and then stood at the edge of the gulf and spoke to the Antediluvians. The message would be one of condemnation not salvation.  They were not getting a second chance.  What He spoke is not given to us.  All we know is that He did it.  That is one of those mysteries we will not get an answer for until we get to glory.

So, is the creed accurate? He went to the grave. He went to the the place of the dead hence He went to Hell, but not to gehenna or tartarus.  If He had chose to He could have actually visisted the other two, but I am sure that those in the gulf heard Him as well unless He chose not to let them hear.

I hope this has been helpful!  Stay in the Word!  Blessings unto you!!