Can Someone please give me some insight to 1 Peter 3:18-20? It seems that John Calvin believed (as most of his time) that Jesus did in fact go to Hell and preach to the spirits there. The revision of the Apostles Creed even includes this. Can someone please help clarify this confusing passage?
Did Jesus Go To Hell?
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Scott Shahan
Puritan Board Sophomore
I tend to agree with Piper on this, Doesn't it appear that Calvin went with Tradition in his interpretation of the 1 Peter text?
Did Jesus Spend Saturday in Hell? :: Desiring God
He Descended Into Hell
Catholic Catechism, Catechism of the Catholic Church - Christ Descended into Hell
Did Jesus Spend Saturday in Hell? :: Desiring God
He Descended Into Hell
Catholic Catechism, Catechism of the Catholic Church - Christ Descended into Hell
ColdSilverMoon
Puritan Board Senior
If the ultimate torment of hell is separation from God, then yes, Christ "descended into hell" in order to fully atone for our sins. God turning His back on Christ is the true atonement for our sins, not merely the physical torments He endured. Also consider Ephesians 4:9 (NKJV):
In John MacArthur's study Bible, the footnote says "lower parts of the earth" is basically a euphemism for hell.
In John MacArthur's study Bible, the footnote says "lower parts of the earth" is basically a euphemism for hell.
Bygracealone
Puritan Board Sophomore
Here's an excerpt from a sermon I preached on this passage, I hope it proves helpful:
The place where the disagreements begin are with the next questions that need to be answered. Questions like these: Who are the spirits in prison? What did Jesus preach? When did He preach it? How did He preach it? These are the questions that face each one of us as we attempt to understand what Peter is teaching us here.
Now, before we go on, I would like to take just a few moments to summarize for you the various interpretations that have been offered to explain what Peter is saying.
View 1. After Jesus died, during the three days before His resurrection, He went and preached the Gospel to people in Hell in order to offer them one final opportunity to believe and repent.
View 2. After Jesus died, during the three days before His resurrection, He went and proclaimed to the people in Hell His ultimate victory over them and to also proclaim that their condemnation was final.
View 3. After Jesus died, during the three days before His resurrection, He went to a place where the OT believers were kept until the coming of Jesus and freed them so that they could go to Heaven.
View 4. After Jesus died or after His resurrection, but before His ascension, Jesus went to Hell to proclaim victory over the fallen angels who had sinned in Genesis 6 by taking on human bodies and marrying the daughters of men.
View 5. During the days of Noah, Jesus preached the Gospel through Noah by the power of the Spirit to those who were disobedient back then, but who were already in Hell at the time of Peter’s writing.
Those are five popular views of this text. There are others, most of which are simply various combinations of these. Just so you know the direction we’ll be headed in, I believe the last view makes the most sense and seems to agree with the general context in which Peter is writing.
So, what we’ll do here is answer the questions that are before us. The first question being: Who are the spirits in prison?
As shown in the various views we just heard, some would say the spirits in prison are OT saints who have died. Others would say they’re fallen angels, but I’m going to argue that these spirits in prison are unbelievers who have died and are in Hell.
Well, those who believe that this is a reference to OT saints who have died actually believe that when OT saints died they went to a holding place until Christ came to earth to accomplish their salvation in real time. They believe that the OT saints had to wait for their redemption to be accomplished and applied in real time. This is a teaching that is popular in the Roman Catholic fellowship. They refer to it as the doctrine of the limbus patrum (limbo of the fathers) or limbo and they also use this passage as a proof text for the idea of purgatory—a place where believers are perfected before being able to go to Heaven.
Well, Scripture is quite clear concerning these matters. Hebrews 9:27 tells us plainly that it’s appointed unto man once to die and then comes the judgment. From the parable of the rich man and Lazarus from Luke 16, we’re shown that people go to their ultimate destinies immediately after death. Scripture also teaches us that there aren’t any second chances for anybody and there aren’t any holding places in between Heaven and Hell. Paul tells us that to be absent from the body is to be present with Christ. Jesus told the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with Me in paradise.” As for the OT saints, the same is true of them. Just as God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, so is the way by which He saves.
Jesus is the Lamb who was slain before the foundations of the world. Even before God created us, He had already made provision for our salvation in the Covenant of Redemption. The very moment that the Son agreed to redeem us, it was as good as done. Nothing could prevent it from happening, so by faith the OT saints also experienced the benefits of Christ’s redemptive work. They didn’t have to wait somewhere until He did His work. By faith Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness.
Furthermore, we have clear evidence that OT saints didn’t have to wait for the work of Christ to go to be with the Lord. Consider Enoch and Elijah. Both of these men went directly to Heaven.
In Exodus 3:6 God says to Moses, “I am the God of your father -- the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Jesus, when speaking to the Sadducees about the resurrection in Matt. 22 said,
Matthew 22:31-32 have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, 32 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living."
The OT saints even sang about this truth in the Psalms. .
Psalm 16:9-11 9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will rest in hope. 10 For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. 11 You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Psalm 17:15 15 As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness.
Psalm 49:15 God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave, For He shall receive me.
Psalm 73:23-26 I am continually with You; You hold me by my right hand. 24 You will guide me with Your counsel, And afterward receive me to glory. 25 Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. 26 My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
So, the spirits in prison cannot be a reference to OT saints waiting to be redeemed and it can’t be a reference to purgatory either. So, could they be a reference to fallen angels? That’s what some would argue and they do so primarily because they say that the Greek word for spirits pneuma is never used absolutely to refer to human spirits. Well, as Wayne Grudem has aptly shown in his commentary on 1 Peter, this understanding is based on erroneous data. The word is used this way in various places throughout the Scriptures (Matt. 27:50; John 19:30 both in the Greek text). In our English Bibles, Hebrews 12:23 tells us about the spirits of just men made perfect who are in Heaven.
Another helpful question to answer is whether these spirits are in prison “now” as in the time of Peter’s writing, or whether they were in prison at the time Christ preached to them. Well, the NASB actually inserts the word “now” in their translation even though it’s not there in the Greek and I think they do so for good reason. It’s quite natural for us to speak about the current status of people when talking about something that happened to them in the past.
For instance, somebody could say that Pastor Butterfield was in seminary in the year 2000. Well, he wasn’t a pastor when he attended seminary, but he is a pastor now. The spirits spoken of here are the spirits who were alive on earth during the time of Noah, but who are now spirits in prison since their death. Peter will go on to speak this way in chapter 4. Listen to what we read there:
1 Peter 4:6 6 For this reason the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.
Now, this doesn’t mean that the Gospel was preached to those who were already dead and in Hell. Rather, it’s describing their current situation… They are now dead, but they had the Gospel preached to them before they were dead. Since their death, their bodies have been in the grave and their spirits are currently in Hell, so it’s quite appropriate to refer to them as spirits now in prison. This will become even clearer as we move on…
Now, I will admit that I haven’t yet fully proven that these spirits are a reference to human spirits. However, I have at least shown that these spirits in prison are not necessarily fallen angels. The only way to get a more definitive answer is to continue to look at the context and the other details we’re given in the text.
Let’s look at the text again. 1 Peter 3:19-20 He went and preached to the spirits in prison, 20 who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.
Okay, in verse 20 we’re given a few more details to help us understand who these spirits are. We’re told that they were formerly disobedient, when God’s longsuffering waited, during the days of Noah, while the ark was being built. That’s actually quite a bit of information to go on.
First of all, Peter tells us that these spirits are those who were formerly disobedient. They were disobedient formerly and we see that formerly must refer back to the days of Noah. Peter says they were formerly disobedient. Well, Peter uses the verb “disobey” a few times in this letter and when he does, he uses it in relation to people disobeying the Word by which we understand he means not believing the Gospel (2:7-8; 3:1; 4:17). Well, let’s just say that angels aren’t sent to Hell for disobeying the Gospel. In fact, the Gospel isn’t meant for them, it’s for mankind; it’s for God’s image bearers. Jesus did not live, die, raise again for angels; He did so for His children.
Furthermore, the proponents of the fallen angel view also base their position on the assumption that the “sons of God” in Genesis 6 are a reference to fallen angels that married the daughters of men. As we learned when we went through Genesis 6, this view is highly speculative at best. First of all, we know that angels do not marry and cannot procreate. The Sons of God from Genesis 6 did both.
Now, even if we grant that angels could have possessed men and married the women, it still doesn’t mean that this is the disobedience referred to by Peter. That passage, like this one, must be interpreted in light of the overall context which has to do with the corruption of the godly line of Seth. The disobedience there is that believers were taking unbelieving women to be their wives and therefore corrupting the Church. For further study, I commend John Murray’s article in the appendix of his book “Principles of Conduct.”
Additionally, Peter does not say that these are spirits who are in prison for being disobedient by marrying humans. Rather, he says they were disobedient during the days of Noah while the ark was being built. Well, who does the Bible say were disobedient during the building of the ark? Well, it’s very clear that humans were being disobedient during this time. In fact, there’s no reference to fallen angels at all during this time; the focus is upon man and his wickedness. Listen to the account from Genesis.
Genesis 6:3-7 3 And the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years." 4 There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. 5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7 So the LORD said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them."
Genesis 6:11-13 11 Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. 13 Then God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.
The cause for this great judgment is man’s wickedness, not the angels. If we’re going to refer to the disobedience of the fallen angels, we would refer to a time long before the days of Noah and the flood. Satan was already cast down when our parents were in the Garden of Eden. It would be odd for Peter to mention the fallen angels in conjunction with Noah and the disobedience of Noah’s days.
Not only that, but we might also ask ourselves what in the world would Christ’s communicating with the angels who are damned have to do with the saints living in Peter’s day? How would that offer any comfort or encouragement to them when their main concern was living in the midst of persecution from their fellow man?
Given the context of Peter’s writing, it makes much more sense to understand this disobedience in the same way Peter has used the term in his letter; as disbelief of the Gospel message. This makes all the more sense especially when we learn that Peter refers to Noah as a preacher of righteousness in 2 Peter 2:5. The unbelieving world did not heed the preaching of Noah and they went to Hell for not believing his message.
Peter also tells us that these spirits lived on the earth during the days of Noah when God’s longsuffering waited. Well, when we read about the longsuffering of our God, it carries the sense of His patience in waiting for man to repent. The Scriptures tell us that our Lord is patient and this is a wonderful thing. Because He’s patient and longsuffering, people are given time to repent and come to Him. That said, we never read about our Lord’s longsuffering in relation to fallen angels. It wouldn’t make sense to even think this way since angels cannot repent. Their status is fixed. We never read about the Lord giving the angels the time and the opportunity to repent. God’s longsuffering pertains to humans, not angels.
And perhaps the question we might ask those who hold to the view of the fallen angels is why would Christ make it a point to preach to these particular disobedient angels? If He were going to preach to fallen angels or to proclaim His victory over them, then why would He not include all the fallen angels? It would be odd to have only this group angels singled out by Jesus.
Now, based on these arguments, I would humbly suggest that it’s safe to conclude that these spirits in prison are in fact the spirits of those people who once lived on earth during the days of Noah, but who died in unbelief and are now in Hell.
Now that we’ve made that case, we’ll now attempt to deal with several questions that still need to be answered with regard to Jesus being the preacher. For instance, how can it be said that Jesus Christ preached to these people who lived way back then? What message did Jesus preach and when did He preach it?
I’ll try to be brief in answering these questions. Peter tells us that Jesus preached to these spirits who are now in prison, but who were once alive. How did He do this when He hadn’t even come to earth as a human yet? Well, we need to remember what Peter says about this. He said that this preaching was done by or in the power of the Holy Spirit.
As referred to earlier, Peter refers to Noah as a preacher of righteousness in 2 Peter 2:5. Peter also tells us about the prophets in chapter one and there we’re told this:
1 Peter 1:10-12 10 Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, 11 searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. 12 To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven -- things which angels desire to look into.
Furthermore, as we learned from the preaching series on worship, we know that when a lawfully ordained man preaches the Word of God, those words insofar as they agree with the teaching of God’s Word, are the very Words of Christ Himself. Now, we know that Jesus Christ doesn’t appear to us in bodily form in worship, but we know He’s here and we know He’s our preacher and that these things are so by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Given these reasons, we can easily understand how it is that Christ could have preached to these people of Noah’s day. He did so by the power of the Holy Spirit working through Noah as a preacher.
Along these same lines, we also know that the subject of Christ’s preaching was not victory over the principalities and powers nor was the message one of victory over those already in Hell. Rather, the message He proclaimed was the message of righteousness; the message that God is a righteous God who requires righteousness. Noah is called a preacher of righteousness and it’s therefore very likely that the content of Christ’s preaching through him was the message of man’s need of forgiveness and righteousness. This fits perfectly with what Peter has been teaching since 2:11. Peter has been teaching us that as Christians we live in the midst of unbelievers and that we ought to live in such a way that Christ’s righteousness is seen in us and through us so that unbelievers might see these things and be led to trust in Christ as well.
This brings us to the timing of Christ’s preaching. When did He do this preaching? You see, this is an area where people get hung up in attempting to understand this passage. People look at this passage and they automatically assume that Jesus had to have done this preaching either during the three days between His death and resurrection or after His resurrection but before His ascension.
These presuppositions are what get people into trouble with this passage. But there’s no basis for either of these presuppositions. First of all, there’s no basis for believing Jesus went to Hell during those three days. This is easily proven by the simple fact that just before Jesus breathed His last breath before dying, He said to the Father, “Into Thy hands I commit My Spirit.” Just like you and me who are in Christ, when we die, we go directly to be with the Lord. The same happened with Jesus. When He died He went to be with His Father to await His resurrection, just like we do when we die. He received His resurrected body, but we have to wait till the general resurrection before we get ours. His resurrection is the firstfruit of what will one day happen to us.
As for the other view that says Jesus must have done this preaching to the spirits in prison after His resurrection but before His ascension has a weak foundation as well. Those who hold this view do so because of the seemingly chronological events of verses 18-22. Verse 18 speaks of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and then verse 22 speaks of His ascension. But what is it about this passage that should cause us to think that Peter is sticking to a chronological order here?
This doesn’t make sense, especially when we consider all that we’ve already considered concerning who the spirits in prison are. As has been shown, Jesus preached to these people back during the days of Noah and He did so, not bodily, but by the Holy Spirit through His servant Noah. This seems to make the most sense given all the details we’ve considered this morning.
So then, what does all this have to do with us? What does Noah have to do with us? Well think about this for a moment. During the days of Noah, he and his family were definitely in the minority. There were only eight of them who believed and lived according to God’s ways while the whole rest of the world was against them. Talk about being in the minority position! Not only that, but what about Noah’s preaching? His preaching certainly wasn’t filling the pews of his day.
Given all of the opposition Noah and his family faced, they must have wondered at times whether or not they were right. Given all the opposition and given the fact that they were so few in number, it must have been really difficult to live by faith; to believe what God had said despite the fact they had never seen anything like what God had said would come. Listen to what is said about him in Hebrews.
Hebrews 11:7 7 By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
When Christ came to earth, He faced quite a bit of opposition. He, too, was in the minority position. And even though He had a number of followers, they were still in the minority position. They were still looked at as strange for believing and following Jesus. Even after Christ’s ascension, the Apostolic Church was considerably small in contrast to the rest of the world.
And today, even though the Church has grown by leaps and bounds since the days of the NT, we still face the challenge of walking by faith and not by sight. The people of the world continue to make fun of us and think we’re strange for believing God’s Word. But guess what? The people of Noah’s day thought the same thing. They heard the Gospel, but never believed it. And where are they now? They’re the spirits now in Hell that we read about this morning.
And if people want to continue to mock us and our Lord, they should know that they will end up in the very same place as those who mocked the Gospel long ago… Indeed, that place has no shortage of people. Since the days of Noah, unbeliever after unbeliever has died and gone to the place of torment. And just as the people of Noah’s day mocked God and him by not believing judgment was on its way, they found out soon enough didn’t they? Well, the people of Noah’s day are used as examples in a couple of places in the NT as a description of what life will be like when Christ comes back to Judge the world and they serve as a warning as well.
You see, Christ suffered to the point of death and He rose from the grave on the third day so that Noah and his family would be brought safely through sin and death and so that you and I in Christ would also be brought safely through sin and death. Noah and his family are with our Lord even now and we shall be there shortly, Lord willing. Jesus was sustained and vindicated by the Spirit. Noah was sustained and vindicated by the Spirit and the same will be true of us who trust in Him.
Ephesians 1:11-14 11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, 12 that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. 13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
The place where the disagreements begin are with the next questions that need to be answered. Questions like these: Who are the spirits in prison? What did Jesus preach? When did He preach it? How did He preach it? These are the questions that face each one of us as we attempt to understand what Peter is teaching us here.
Now, before we go on, I would like to take just a few moments to summarize for you the various interpretations that have been offered to explain what Peter is saying.
View 1. After Jesus died, during the three days before His resurrection, He went and preached the Gospel to people in Hell in order to offer them one final opportunity to believe and repent.
View 2. After Jesus died, during the three days before His resurrection, He went and proclaimed to the people in Hell His ultimate victory over them and to also proclaim that their condemnation was final.
View 3. After Jesus died, during the three days before His resurrection, He went to a place where the OT believers were kept until the coming of Jesus and freed them so that they could go to Heaven.
View 4. After Jesus died or after His resurrection, but before His ascension, Jesus went to Hell to proclaim victory over the fallen angels who had sinned in Genesis 6 by taking on human bodies and marrying the daughters of men.
View 5. During the days of Noah, Jesus preached the Gospel through Noah by the power of the Spirit to those who were disobedient back then, but who were already in Hell at the time of Peter’s writing.
Those are five popular views of this text. There are others, most of which are simply various combinations of these. Just so you know the direction we’ll be headed in, I believe the last view makes the most sense and seems to agree with the general context in which Peter is writing.
So, what we’ll do here is answer the questions that are before us. The first question being: Who are the spirits in prison?
As shown in the various views we just heard, some would say the spirits in prison are OT saints who have died. Others would say they’re fallen angels, but I’m going to argue that these spirits in prison are unbelievers who have died and are in Hell.
Well, those who believe that this is a reference to OT saints who have died actually believe that when OT saints died they went to a holding place until Christ came to earth to accomplish their salvation in real time. They believe that the OT saints had to wait for their redemption to be accomplished and applied in real time. This is a teaching that is popular in the Roman Catholic fellowship. They refer to it as the doctrine of the limbus patrum (limbo of the fathers) or limbo and they also use this passage as a proof text for the idea of purgatory—a place where believers are perfected before being able to go to Heaven.
Well, Scripture is quite clear concerning these matters. Hebrews 9:27 tells us plainly that it’s appointed unto man once to die and then comes the judgment. From the parable of the rich man and Lazarus from Luke 16, we’re shown that people go to their ultimate destinies immediately after death. Scripture also teaches us that there aren’t any second chances for anybody and there aren’t any holding places in between Heaven and Hell. Paul tells us that to be absent from the body is to be present with Christ. Jesus told the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with Me in paradise.” As for the OT saints, the same is true of them. Just as God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, so is the way by which He saves.
Jesus is the Lamb who was slain before the foundations of the world. Even before God created us, He had already made provision for our salvation in the Covenant of Redemption. The very moment that the Son agreed to redeem us, it was as good as done. Nothing could prevent it from happening, so by faith the OT saints also experienced the benefits of Christ’s redemptive work. They didn’t have to wait somewhere until He did His work. By faith Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness.
Furthermore, we have clear evidence that OT saints didn’t have to wait for the work of Christ to go to be with the Lord. Consider Enoch and Elijah. Both of these men went directly to Heaven.
In Exodus 3:6 God says to Moses, “I am the God of your father -- the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Jesus, when speaking to the Sadducees about the resurrection in Matt. 22 said,
Matthew 22:31-32 have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, 32 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living."
The OT saints even sang about this truth in the Psalms. .
Psalm 16:9-11 9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will rest in hope. 10 For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. 11 You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Psalm 17:15 15 As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness.
Psalm 49:15 God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave, For He shall receive me.
Psalm 73:23-26 I am continually with You; You hold me by my right hand. 24 You will guide me with Your counsel, And afterward receive me to glory. 25 Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. 26 My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
So, the spirits in prison cannot be a reference to OT saints waiting to be redeemed and it can’t be a reference to purgatory either. So, could they be a reference to fallen angels? That’s what some would argue and they do so primarily because they say that the Greek word for spirits pneuma is never used absolutely to refer to human spirits. Well, as Wayne Grudem has aptly shown in his commentary on 1 Peter, this understanding is based on erroneous data. The word is used this way in various places throughout the Scriptures (Matt. 27:50; John 19:30 both in the Greek text). In our English Bibles, Hebrews 12:23 tells us about the spirits of just men made perfect who are in Heaven.
Another helpful question to answer is whether these spirits are in prison “now” as in the time of Peter’s writing, or whether they were in prison at the time Christ preached to them. Well, the NASB actually inserts the word “now” in their translation even though it’s not there in the Greek and I think they do so for good reason. It’s quite natural for us to speak about the current status of people when talking about something that happened to them in the past.
For instance, somebody could say that Pastor Butterfield was in seminary in the year 2000. Well, he wasn’t a pastor when he attended seminary, but he is a pastor now. The spirits spoken of here are the spirits who were alive on earth during the time of Noah, but who are now spirits in prison since their death. Peter will go on to speak this way in chapter 4. Listen to what we read there:
1 Peter 4:6 6 For this reason the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.
Now, this doesn’t mean that the Gospel was preached to those who were already dead and in Hell. Rather, it’s describing their current situation… They are now dead, but they had the Gospel preached to them before they were dead. Since their death, their bodies have been in the grave and their spirits are currently in Hell, so it’s quite appropriate to refer to them as spirits now in prison. This will become even clearer as we move on…
Now, I will admit that I haven’t yet fully proven that these spirits are a reference to human spirits. However, I have at least shown that these spirits in prison are not necessarily fallen angels. The only way to get a more definitive answer is to continue to look at the context and the other details we’re given in the text.
Let’s look at the text again. 1 Peter 3:19-20 He went and preached to the spirits in prison, 20 who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.
Okay, in verse 20 we’re given a few more details to help us understand who these spirits are. We’re told that they were formerly disobedient, when God’s longsuffering waited, during the days of Noah, while the ark was being built. That’s actually quite a bit of information to go on.
First of all, Peter tells us that these spirits are those who were formerly disobedient. They were disobedient formerly and we see that formerly must refer back to the days of Noah. Peter says they were formerly disobedient. Well, Peter uses the verb “disobey” a few times in this letter and when he does, he uses it in relation to people disobeying the Word by which we understand he means not believing the Gospel (2:7-8; 3:1; 4:17). Well, let’s just say that angels aren’t sent to Hell for disobeying the Gospel. In fact, the Gospel isn’t meant for them, it’s for mankind; it’s for God’s image bearers. Jesus did not live, die, raise again for angels; He did so for His children.
Furthermore, the proponents of the fallen angel view also base their position on the assumption that the “sons of God” in Genesis 6 are a reference to fallen angels that married the daughters of men. As we learned when we went through Genesis 6, this view is highly speculative at best. First of all, we know that angels do not marry and cannot procreate. The Sons of God from Genesis 6 did both.
Now, even if we grant that angels could have possessed men and married the women, it still doesn’t mean that this is the disobedience referred to by Peter. That passage, like this one, must be interpreted in light of the overall context which has to do with the corruption of the godly line of Seth. The disobedience there is that believers were taking unbelieving women to be their wives and therefore corrupting the Church. For further study, I commend John Murray’s article in the appendix of his book “Principles of Conduct.”
Additionally, Peter does not say that these are spirits who are in prison for being disobedient by marrying humans. Rather, he says they were disobedient during the days of Noah while the ark was being built. Well, who does the Bible say were disobedient during the building of the ark? Well, it’s very clear that humans were being disobedient during this time. In fact, there’s no reference to fallen angels at all during this time; the focus is upon man and his wickedness. Listen to the account from Genesis.
Genesis 6:3-7 3 And the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years." 4 There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. 5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7 So the LORD said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them."
Genesis 6:11-13 11 Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. 13 Then God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.
The cause for this great judgment is man’s wickedness, not the angels. If we’re going to refer to the disobedience of the fallen angels, we would refer to a time long before the days of Noah and the flood. Satan was already cast down when our parents were in the Garden of Eden. It would be odd for Peter to mention the fallen angels in conjunction with Noah and the disobedience of Noah’s days.
Not only that, but we might also ask ourselves what in the world would Christ’s communicating with the angels who are damned have to do with the saints living in Peter’s day? How would that offer any comfort or encouragement to them when their main concern was living in the midst of persecution from their fellow man?
Given the context of Peter’s writing, it makes much more sense to understand this disobedience in the same way Peter has used the term in his letter; as disbelief of the Gospel message. This makes all the more sense especially when we learn that Peter refers to Noah as a preacher of righteousness in 2 Peter 2:5. The unbelieving world did not heed the preaching of Noah and they went to Hell for not believing his message.
Peter also tells us that these spirits lived on the earth during the days of Noah when God’s longsuffering waited. Well, when we read about the longsuffering of our God, it carries the sense of His patience in waiting for man to repent. The Scriptures tell us that our Lord is patient and this is a wonderful thing. Because He’s patient and longsuffering, people are given time to repent and come to Him. That said, we never read about our Lord’s longsuffering in relation to fallen angels. It wouldn’t make sense to even think this way since angels cannot repent. Their status is fixed. We never read about the Lord giving the angels the time and the opportunity to repent. God’s longsuffering pertains to humans, not angels.
And perhaps the question we might ask those who hold to the view of the fallen angels is why would Christ make it a point to preach to these particular disobedient angels? If He were going to preach to fallen angels or to proclaim His victory over them, then why would He not include all the fallen angels? It would be odd to have only this group angels singled out by Jesus.
Now, based on these arguments, I would humbly suggest that it’s safe to conclude that these spirits in prison are in fact the spirits of those people who once lived on earth during the days of Noah, but who died in unbelief and are now in Hell.
Now that we’ve made that case, we’ll now attempt to deal with several questions that still need to be answered with regard to Jesus being the preacher. For instance, how can it be said that Jesus Christ preached to these people who lived way back then? What message did Jesus preach and when did He preach it?
I’ll try to be brief in answering these questions. Peter tells us that Jesus preached to these spirits who are now in prison, but who were once alive. How did He do this when He hadn’t even come to earth as a human yet? Well, we need to remember what Peter says about this. He said that this preaching was done by or in the power of the Holy Spirit.
As referred to earlier, Peter refers to Noah as a preacher of righteousness in 2 Peter 2:5. Peter also tells us about the prophets in chapter one and there we’re told this:
1 Peter 1:10-12 10 Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, 11 searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. 12 To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven -- things which angels desire to look into.
Furthermore, as we learned from the preaching series on worship, we know that when a lawfully ordained man preaches the Word of God, those words insofar as they agree with the teaching of God’s Word, are the very Words of Christ Himself. Now, we know that Jesus Christ doesn’t appear to us in bodily form in worship, but we know He’s here and we know He’s our preacher and that these things are so by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Given these reasons, we can easily understand how it is that Christ could have preached to these people of Noah’s day. He did so by the power of the Holy Spirit working through Noah as a preacher.
Along these same lines, we also know that the subject of Christ’s preaching was not victory over the principalities and powers nor was the message one of victory over those already in Hell. Rather, the message He proclaimed was the message of righteousness; the message that God is a righteous God who requires righteousness. Noah is called a preacher of righteousness and it’s therefore very likely that the content of Christ’s preaching through him was the message of man’s need of forgiveness and righteousness. This fits perfectly with what Peter has been teaching since 2:11. Peter has been teaching us that as Christians we live in the midst of unbelievers and that we ought to live in such a way that Christ’s righteousness is seen in us and through us so that unbelievers might see these things and be led to trust in Christ as well.
This brings us to the timing of Christ’s preaching. When did He do this preaching? You see, this is an area where people get hung up in attempting to understand this passage. People look at this passage and they automatically assume that Jesus had to have done this preaching either during the three days between His death and resurrection or after His resurrection but before His ascension.
These presuppositions are what get people into trouble with this passage. But there’s no basis for either of these presuppositions. First of all, there’s no basis for believing Jesus went to Hell during those three days. This is easily proven by the simple fact that just before Jesus breathed His last breath before dying, He said to the Father, “Into Thy hands I commit My Spirit.” Just like you and me who are in Christ, when we die, we go directly to be with the Lord. The same happened with Jesus. When He died He went to be with His Father to await His resurrection, just like we do when we die. He received His resurrected body, but we have to wait till the general resurrection before we get ours. His resurrection is the firstfruit of what will one day happen to us.
As for the other view that says Jesus must have done this preaching to the spirits in prison after His resurrection but before His ascension has a weak foundation as well. Those who hold this view do so because of the seemingly chronological events of verses 18-22. Verse 18 speaks of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and then verse 22 speaks of His ascension. But what is it about this passage that should cause us to think that Peter is sticking to a chronological order here?
This doesn’t make sense, especially when we consider all that we’ve already considered concerning who the spirits in prison are. As has been shown, Jesus preached to these people back during the days of Noah and He did so, not bodily, but by the Holy Spirit through His servant Noah. This seems to make the most sense given all the details we’ve considered this morning.
So then, what does all this have to do with us? What does Noah have to do with us? Well think about this for a moment. During the days of Noah, he and his family were definitely in the minority. There were only eight of them who believed and lived according to God’s ways while the whole rest of the world was against them. Talk about being in the minority position! Not only that, but what about Noah’s preaching? His preaching certainly wasn’t filling the pews of his day.
Given all of the opposition Noah and his family faced, they must have wondered at times whether or not they were right. Given all the opposition and given the fact that they were so few in number, it must have been really difficult to live by faith; to believe what God had said despite the fact they had never seen anything like what God had said would come. Listen to what is said about him in Hebrews.
Hebrews 11:7 7 By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
When Christ came to earth, He faced quite a bit of opposition. He, too, was in the minority position. And even though He had a number of followers, they were still in the minority position. They were still looked at as strange for believing and following Jesus. Even after Christ’s ascension, the Apostolic Church was considerably small in contrast to the rest of the world.
And today, even though the Church has grown by leaps and bounds since the days of the NT, we still face the challenge of walking by faith and not by sight. The people of the world continue to make fun of us and think we’re strange for believing God’s Word. But guess what? The people of Noah’s day thought the same thing. They heard the Gospel, but never believed it. And where are they now? They’re the spirits now in Hell that we read about this morning.
And if people want to continue to mock us and our Lord, they should know that they will end up in the very same place as those who mocked the Gospel long ago… Indeed, that place has no shortage of people. Since the days of Noah, unbeliever after unbeliever has died and gone to the place of torment. And just as the people of Noah’s day mocked God and him by not believing judgment was on its way, they found out soon enough didn’t they? Well, the people of Noah’s day are used as examples in a couple of places in the NT as a description of what life will be like when Christ comes back to Judge the world and they serve as a warning as well.
You see, Christ suffered to the point of death and He rose from the grave on the third day so that Noah and his family would be brought safely through sin and death and so that you and I in Christ would also be brought safely through sin and death. Noah and his family are with our Lord even now and we shall be there shortly, Lord willing. Jesus was sustained and vindicated by the Spirit. Noah was sustained and vindicated by the Spirit and the same will be true of us who trust in Him.
Ephesians 1:11-14 11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, 12 that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. 13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
Scott Shahan
Puritan Board Sophomore
Luke 23:46 "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit", that tells me that is an end to Christ's suffering, and His Spirit is with the Father.
John 19:30 "It is finished", Christ's suffering was finished right then. This implies to me that he wouldn't decend into hell, but would go to be with the Father.
And Luke 23:43 tells me that Jesus soul went immediately to Heaven, His body was buried. His words to the thief on the Cross, "Today you will be with me in Paradise". just my
John 19:30 "It is finished", Christ's suffering was finished right then. This implies to me that he wouldn't decend into hell, but would go to be with the Father.
And Luke 23:43 tells me that Jesus soul went immediately to Heaven, His body was buried. His words to the thief on the Cross, "Today you will be with me in Paradise". just my
Matthew1034
Puritan Board Freshman
Luke 23:43 And he said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."
Ephesians 4:8 Therefore it says, "When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men."
Ephesians 4:8 Therefore it says, "When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men."
kalawine
Puritan Board Junior
Luke 23:46 "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit", that tells me that is an end to Christ's suffering, and His Spirit is with the Father.
John 19:30 "It is finished", Christ's suffering was finished right then. This implies to me that he wouldn't decend into hell, but would go to be with the Father.
And Luke 23:43 tells me that Jesus soul went immediately to Heaven, His body was buried. His words to the thief on the Cross, "Today you will be with me in Paradise". just my
First Peter chapter one speaks about the Spirit of Christ being in the prophets of the Old Testament:
10Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. 12It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.
I don't believe that it is a coincidence that the passage that you started with is from the same book of the Bible as the one I've pasted above. There seems to be a references in First Peter of looking back. Surley Noah was an Old Testament prophet with the Spirit of Christ in him. If no one minds I'd like to paraphrase these verses a bit and see if I get any "amens" or "oh no's".
From First Peter chapter three...
18For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, 19through whom (that is, through the same Spirit that made him alive) also he went and preached to the spirits in prison (He went by the Spirit through Noah's preaching to the people of Noah's day who are now the "spirits in prison") 20who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently (Romans9:22 :: Bible Verse) in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.
In other words (I hope I'm being clear here
), Jesus went and preached to the people of Noah's day by giving Noah Holy Spirit empowered preaching. (This preaching did them no good because God did not grant them repentance unto life. Instead he "bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction.")It seems to me that this works gramatically:
He was put to death but made alive.
Made alive by who? By the Spirit.
Made alive by what Spirit? The Spirit through who he went and preached to the spirits (who are now) in prison
Did he go to "prison" to preach to them? No, he preached to them through Noah during Noah's day. Preaching would do them no good now that they are in prison.
To sum it up (I know you're thanking God!
)... He preached then to people who are now in hell.
Scott Shahan
Puritan Board Sophomore
with you and Steve, with the 1st Peter passage. Chris posted an article in defense of keeping, "He descended into Hell", in the Creed. I read it and don't really agree with the revision of the Apostles Creed. My comments were just concerning the Creed more so then the 1 Peter passage. I think Wayne Grudem makes some valid arguments against, "He descended into Hell". I think Piper does also. I don't know how you get "buried" as being "hell"?? Isn't hell a place one goes to?? Or at funerals, when we put people in the ground are we putting them in Hell?? If buried means hell....
kalawine
Puritan Board Junior
My brother-in-law thinks he is an ex-Jehovah's Witness though he still believes nearly everything he was taught there. He's just no longer in the "church." He gives the old, "hell means the grave" argument. There are places in the Bible where the English is hell when it probably should be grave. But I'm no expert in Greek or Hebrew so I'll leave that one for our seminary students.
Gesetveemet
Puritan Board Sophomore
These quotes teach contrary to a literal desent into Hell.
"Believing in the Jesus Who Descended into Hell" Lord's Day 16
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Presbyterian Deacon
Puritan Board Graduate
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