RE:* THE GATES OF HELL   #2

THE PRISON IN HELL

The “gates of Hell.” For part #1, go to 12/18/2014      The Gates of Hell

"And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18).

In Matthew 16:18, Jesus refers to the “gates^G4439 of Hades (Hell)” (i.e., the gates of death). The word “gates” is the same word used of the gate (pulōn^G4440) of the rich man's palace where Lazarus lay (Luke 16:20). When the owner of that gate died, his soul went to suffer in Hadesⁱ (Luke 16:23). Strong's Dictionary of Greek defines Hades as a word that referred to a “place of departed souls”; i.e., beyond the grave. Jesus describes existence in two parts of Hades. One is comforting for deceased innocent souls like the beggar Lazarus and the other is a place of torments. There's a impenetrable gulf between the two. Hades has been interpreted as a waiting or holding place for souls until their resurrection and the final Judgment Day.

DEITY OF JESUS. Peter confessed that Jesus was "the Christ, the Son of God" (in Matthew 16:15). Jesus told Peter that the "gates of Hades" would not prevail against this rock confession upon which He would build His church. Jesus was thereby asserting the Truth that the grave would not defeat His mission. As the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul later says that Jesus was " ... declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead" (Romans 1:4).

Some denominations have creeds that say that there is no consciousness in Hades. The followers of Ellen G. White and Russell & Rutherford used to teach that. Their Scriptural quotes usually came from Ecclesiastes' “no knowledge” in death; however, the book of Ecclesiastes explores our existence, consciousness, and opportunities as being “under the sun” which precedes the grave. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest" (Ecclesiastes 9:10).

Our opportunities to please God are described there as only “under the sun.”

In Jesus' parables and illustrations Jesus uses every day activities to teach truth. Conclusively, Jesus does not take a single opportunity to make up a fanciful nonexistent setting. When He speaks of a field and sowing, there are actual experiences of fields and farming experiences such as sowing and harvesting. Would there not then be a conscious realm of comfort divided from that of torture as Jesus describes in the Lazarus and Rich Man account?

Jesus was crucified and His soul went to Hades (Acts 2:31, ASV). The King James Version translates it as "hell." On the cross Jesus called the place of His destination “paradiseⁱⁱ” (Luke 23:43). He promised the thief hanging on a nearby cross that he would be with Him that day. It is an error for those that would deny this fact by trying to move the comma in the KJV English to indicate that Jesus did not mean the very day of their common death on the cross. Jesus did not speak in English. Wherever Jesus went that day, it is a sure thing that the penitent thief traveled also. Jesus called it “paradise.” Wherever Hades' paradise is, it is comforting to know that Jesus said that He immediately commended His spirit to the care of the Father (Luke 23:43). The Holy Spirit inspired apostle Paul writes later and calls "paradise" the "third heaven."

DID JESUS GO TO PRISON? Another issue is whether Jesus bypassed the blissful state of “paradise” (or its equivalent, the Jewish “bosom of Abraham") and visited the prison in "Hell." Did He go there to preach to lost spirits and rebellious angels who were suffering in torment as they waited for their eternal condemnationⁱⁱⁱ on the resurrection day? Did Jesus go there to either add to their torment with regrets or to offer them a second chance?

First, the passages used in 1 Peter 3:18-20 and 2 Peter 2:4-5 actually teach otherwise.

1 PETER 3:18-20. Peter wrote that Christ “... being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; 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.” (1 Peter 3:18-20).

SPIRITS IN PRISON. Peter does say that there is such a place as “a prison.” That is, a phulakē ^G5438 defined by Strong's as “a guarding or (concretely guard), the act, the parson; figuratively the place, the condition, or (specifically) the time (as a division of day or night), literally or figuratively: - cage, hold, (im-) prison (-ment), ward, watch.” In what appears to be a complementary passage in 2 Peter 2:4, Peter declares that fallen angels are in Hell (there it is tartarus in the original) where God "delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment." Whoever was in this prison is reserved ("kept") unto judgment; i.e., "condemnation". The context of both passages by Peter actually connects this prison to the antediluvian world of rebels and sinners who rejected safety in the ark. Jude 6 parallels this passage as well. "The Lord"^iv writes Jude, "hath reserved [them] in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day."

"JESUS IS QUICKENED.” Quickened means to be “Made alive; revived; vivified; reinvigorated.”^v That is, Jesus is resurrected; He is made alive from death. How was He quickened? He was "put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit" (1 Peter 3:18b). He "was put to death" is in perfect tense^vi; "a completed action in the past but with ongoing results." The effect of the sacrifice of Jesus continues even to today. But the "quickened" is aorist tense.^vii This is unique to Greek but means that it occurred some time in the past without being specified and does not mean that it had to have happened at the same time Jesus was "put to death." We know from the records that it didn't; i.e., Jesus was quickened on the third day.

JESUS "BY THE SPIRIT." Some manuscripts omit the definite article "the" from "Spirit" and without "the" it is possibly speaking of Jesus' own spirit (says some commentaries) and not the Godhead's third divine person but the spirit that Jesus commended to the Father while on the cross. However, some manuscripts include the "the" which identifies the Holy Spirit.

Romans 1:4 is a similar passage on the subject and it omits also the definite article with "spirit" which would mean that Jesus' own sacred spirit was the power behind His resurrection (Romans 1:4). "And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead."

WHO RAISED JESUS? (1) The Bible teaches that God raised up Jesus.^viii (2) Jesus likewise raised Himself (John 10:18) “I have authority to lay it down [his physical life], and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” Jesus: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” And John adds, “He was speaking about the temple of his body” (John 2:19, 21). (3) But the Bible also teaches that God's Spirit raised up Jesus (Romans 8:11). "But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you..." (Romans 8:11). The Spirit that quickened Jesus was conclusively Deity's Spirit.

BY THE SAME MEANS. By the same means of that Jesus is raised, He had gone and preached. "By (or in) which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison" (1 Peter 3:19). This verb participle ("having gone") is in the aorist tense. Remember that this means that this visit occurred some time in the past without being specified and does not mean that it had to have happened at the same time Jesus was "put to death."

The passage specifically says that there was preaching. Jesus had gone (aorist tense) in this Spirit to "preach." To Whom? It was definitely to those who had missed Noah's ship and consequently ended up in prison of torment. Since Jesus went with or by the means of His Spirit, the preaching would have occurred as it did through Jesus' apostles on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2. Jesus existed as God, the Logos, during the days of Noah (John 1:1-3). God's Spirit, Genesis 6:3, strove with man while the ark was in preparation. Therefore, we can ascertain when that preaching took place. It was while the spirits in prison were in the flesh and rebelling against the patience of God in the days of Noah. Remember it was a 120 years longsuffering to save them (Genesis 6). There is no reason to place Jesus in the prison where the rebellious are currently "in chains."

PREACHING TO THE DEAD IS DONE IN THE FLESH. In the next chapter Peter clarifies this particular point. "For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit" (1 Peter 4:6). 1. Man is to be judged according to "men in the flesh." Hence, the value of preaching is while living in flesh. 2. The tense is again "aorist" which puts it in the past. It is "was preached" (completed in past) and not "is preached" nor is it "shall be preached."^ix The ones in prison that Jesus preached to were disobedient in the flesh in the days of Noah. Jesus' Spirit used Noah to preach salvation to them in those days (2 Peter 2:4-6). Jesus, the Logos of God, preached through the prophets of old. “Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow” (1 Peter 1:11). As Ecclesiastes points out man's opportunities are when they are under the sun and can repent and serve God and live in the Spirit.

"For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them [those who died in Canaan]: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it” (Hebrews 4:2).

Second, Hebrews 9:27^x teaches that there is no second chance after death. There is no such thing as a "temporary" place designated as purgatory^xi in which one can later be promoted to paradise. One's sins are either purged by the blood of Jesus or the soul remains stained and condemned. "In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins" (Colossians 1:14).

APPLICATION. "Wherefore (as the Holy Spirit saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness” (Hebrews 3:7,8).

Gaylon West

Throw Out the Lifeline

subjects: trinity, under the sun, prison, when Jesus preaches, work of the Spirit, the work of the preacher, the work of the teacher, the duty of those alive