Christ did NOT go to "Paradise" (which is in Heaven) when He died, His spirit returned to God (Luke 23v46), His body was in the tomb (Luke 23v50) and His soul descended into Hades (Sheol) (Psalm 16v8-11, Jonah 1v17, 2v2, Matt 12v40, Acts 2v23-33, Rom 10v7, Eph 4v8-10, 1Peter 3v18-20, 4v6, Rev 1v18) to make atonement for sin suffering the pangs of death. (Isaiah 53v10).
(NOTE 1: The words “it is finished” (John 19v30) uttered by the Lord Jesus just before He gave up the ghost and died refer to His work upon earth, not to the work of atonement, for that could only be accomplished by His descent into the abyss in Hades where He would take the sinner’s place and pay the penalty for sin. Isaiah 53v10, Ezek 18v4,20, Luke 16v19-31, Rom 6v23.)
(NOTE 2: Luke 23v43 states "And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise." In the original (Koine) Greek there was no punctuation whatsoever (with no spaces between words or paragraphs. Texts were a continuous string of letters, with an occasional blank line inserted to mark the end of a major section, though even this was not always done, sentence punctuation came some centuries after Christ.), so the translator was free to put the comma where they thought it should be. Putting the comma after “today” makes Christ to have gone to Paradise (which is in Heaven, 2Cor 12v4, Rev 2v7) immediately when he died (and not into Hades, Matt 12v40, Acts 2v27, Eph 4v8-10), but as shown here that is NOT the case, the comma should have been put after "today", (“Verily I say unto thee to day, shalt thou be with me in paradise.") which is theologically correct and in harmony with the other Scriptures on this subject and NOT after "thee" which causes much confusion on this subject. The Lord Jesus was telling the repentant thief that his faith had saved him THAT day (and he could know it), and that he would not have to wait until the Millennium Kingdom to find out. So then, upon death, the repentant thief went to Hades, to the side where Abraham and the rest of the OT saints where, i.e. into Abraham's bosom, and the Lord Jesus, when He died, went to the Abyss in Hades where He suffered the "pangs of death." Luke 16v23, Acts 2v24,27, Rom 10v7)
Having made atonement for sin, He was quickened in spirit and proclaimed His victory over, sin, Hades, death, the Devil and the evil angels and to the evil angelic spirits who rebelled in the time of Noah, however none of them repented as they were all irrevocably hardened in sin (Gen 6v1-8, Col 1v20, 1Peter 3v18-20, 2Peter 2v4), He then preached the Gospel to the wicked and ignorant dead (1Peter 4v6), then He crossed the great gulf between them (Luke 16v19-31) to the Old Testament saints (ie. who were on "Abraham's bosom," Luke 16v22) who had died in faith and preached the Gospel to them (Heb 2v14,15), He then lead all who had received the Truth out of Hades, His soul and spirit then entered back into His body and He was resurrected, He then had a brief discussion with the women to encourage them, then He ascended into Heaven with those He had lead out of Hades (hence some OT saints went into Jerusalem after being raised from the dead to testify that The Christ was indeed Risen), being given a great triumphant choral welcome into Heaven. The first thing He then did was gave ministry and spiritual gifts to the Church, having received back His pre-incarnate glory, power and authority. It was also on the day of His Resurrection that He started His High Priestly ministry. Psalm 24, Matt 27v51-53, 28v18-20, John 16v7, 20v14-17, 1Cor 12v7-11, 15v23, Eph 4v8-16, Phil 2v5-11, Heb 5v1-10
The context of 1Peter 4v5,6 is physical death and NOT spiritual death.
ALL the early church fathers believed most emphatically that Our Lord's soul stripped of its body (which was in the tomb, His spirit having returned to God), descended into Hades (the Abyss) and there having made atonement, He preached to the spirits in prison, the wicked and ignorant dead and the OT saints who had died in faith. Matt 12v40, 27v59,60, Luke 23v43 (with Eccl 12v7), Acts 2v23-32, Rom 10v7, Heb 2v14,15, 1Peter 3v18-20, 4v6.
1) Irenaeus says explicitly that the Lord “descended into the regions beneath the earth, preaching His advent there also, and there mission of sins ready for those who believe in Him,” and he also states that remission of sins was received by, “all who had hopes towards Him, who proclaimed His advent and submitted to His dispensations.” Irenaeus 4.27,2.
2) Justin accused the Jews of mutilating a prophecy of Jeremiah's, which had read, “The Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, remembered those His dead who slept in the dust of the grave, and descended to them to proclaim to them His salvation.”
3) Clement of Alexander preached that the souls of the Heathen as well as Jews benefited from the revelation of Christ to them in Hades. The Jews being in bonds to the burden of the Law, and the Heathen being “those in darkness,” received the proclamation of the truth of the Gospel from Jesus. This proclamation involved the offer of salvation, and the possibility of repentance and forgiveness of all the sins that a man had committed in ignorance, when not clearly knowing God.
4) Origen Clement's pupil, as we have already stated, believed that Jesus preached to the dead. A famous infidel named Celsus was speaking with Origen and ridiculed this widespread belief of the Church, he said, “I suppose Christ, when He failed to persuade the living, went down to Hades to persuade those who live there?” Origen answered him, “Whether it please Celsus or no, we of the Church assert that the soul of our Lord, stripped of its body, did there hold converse with other souls, that were in like manner stripped, that He might there convert those who were capable of instruction, or were otherwise in ways known to Him fit for it.” Origen c. Celsum, 2.43.
5) Tertullian also stated that the belief that Jesus descended into Hades and preached there, had been held in the Church since the days of the apostles, his testimony is of great value since Tertullian censured anything that was new.
6) Cyril of Jerusalem states, in beautiful picturesque language, that: “The holy prophets ran unto Him {Jesus}, and Moses the law giver, and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob; David also and Samuel, and Isaiah and John the Baptist, who bore witness when he asked, Art thou He that should come, or look we for another? All the just were ransomed whom death had devoured, for it behoved the King who had been heralded to become the redeemer of His noble heralds. Then each of the just said, O death where is thy sting? O grave where is thy victory? For the Conqueror hath redeemed us.” Cyril Hieros., Catech. 14.9,10.
7) Athanasius said that more than the Patriarchs and prophets were delivered from Hades, he extended the circle of those who Jesus delivered from Hades through His preaching, “and thinks of the souls of Adam as held fast under sentence of death, and crying to his Lord ever more, and of those who had pleased God, and had been justified by the law of nature, as mourning and crying with Him till the mercy of God revealed to them the mystery of redemption.”
Christ's death brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel, so that when the Christian dies although they lose their body, they retain their spirit, and their soul and spirit ascend into God's Presence in Paradise in Heaven. Matt 16v18, 2Cor 5v8, Phil 1v23, 2Tim 1v10, Heb 12v23.
It was Augustine at the end of the 4th Century who changed all the Truth on this subject.
A very good book on this subject is "The Spirits In Prison by E H Plumptre" and is available as a free PDF download on Internet Archive
Yahweh Shalom...
(NOTE 1: The words “it is finished” (John 19v30) uttered by the Lord Jesus just before He gave up the ghost and died refer to His work upon earth, not to the work of atonement, for that could only be accomplished by His descent into the abyss in Hades where He would take the sinner’s place and pay the penalty for sin. Isaiah 53v10, Ezek 18v4,20, Luke 16v19-31, Rom 6v23.)
(NOTE 2: Luke 23v43 states "And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise." In the original (Koine) Greek there was no punctuation whatsoever (with no spaces between words or paragraphs. Texts were a continuous string of letters, with an occasional blank line inserted to mark the end of a major section, though even this was not always done, sentence punctuation came some centuries after Christ.), so the translator was free to put the comma where they thought it should be. Putting the comma after “today” makes Christ to have gone to Paradise (which is in Heaven, 2Cor 12v4, Rev 2v7) immediately when he died (and not into Hades, Matt 12v40, Acts 2v27, Eph 4v8-10), but as shown here that is NOT the case, the comma should have been put after "today", (“Verily I say unto thee to day, shalt thou be with me in paradise.") which is theologically correct and in harmony with the other Scriptures on this subject and NOT after "thee" which causes much confusion on this subject. The Lord Jesus was telling the repentant thief that his faith had saved him THAT day (and he could know it), and that he would not have to wait until the Millennium Kingdom to find out. So then, upon death, the repentant thief went to Hades, to the side where Abraham and the rest of the OT saints where, i.e. into Abraham's bosom, and the Lord Jesus, when He died, went to the Abyss in Hades where He suffered the "pangs of death." Luke 16v23, Acts 2v24,27, Rom 10v7)
Having made atonement for sin, He was quickened in spirit and proclaimed His victory over, sin, Hades, death, the Devil and the evil angels and to the evil angelic spirits who rebelled in the time of Noah, however none of them repented as they were all irrevocably hardened in sin (Gen 6v1-8, Col 1v20, 1Peter 3v18-20, 2Peter 2v4), He then preached the Gospel to the wicked and ignorant dead (1Peter 4v6), then He crossed the great gulf between them (Luke 16v19-31) to the Old Testament saints (ie. who were on "Abraham's bosom," Luke 16v22) who had died in faith and preached the Gospel to them (Heb 2v14,15), He then lead all who had received the Truth out of Hades, His soul and spirit then entered back into His body and He was resurrected, He then had a brief discussion with the women to encourage them, then He ascended into Heaven with those He had lead out of Hades (hence some OT saints went into Jerusalem after being raised from the dead to testify that The Christ was indeed Risen), being given a great triumphant choral welcome into Heaven. The first thing He then did was gave ministry and spiritual gifts to the Church, having received back His pre-incarnate glory, power and authority. It was also on the day of His Resurrection that He started His High Priestly ministry. Psalm 24, Matt 27v51-53, 28v18-20, John 16v7, 20v14-17, 1Cor 12v7-11, 15v23, Eph 4v8-16, Phil 2v5-11, Heb 5v1-10
The context of 1Peter 4v5,6 is physical death and NOT spiritual death.
ALL the early church fathers believed most emphatically that Our Lord's soul stripped of its body (which was in the tomb, His spirit having returned to God), descended into Hades (the Abyss) and there having made atonement, He preached to the spirits in prison, the wicked and ignorant dead and the OT saints who had died in faith. Matt 12v40, 27v59,60, Luke 23v43 (with Eccl 12v7), Acts 2v23-32, Rom 10v7, Heb 2v14,15, 1Peter 3v18-20, 4v6.
1) Irenaeus says explicitly that the Lord “descended into the regions beneath the earth, preaching His advent there also, and there mission of sins ready for those who believe in Him,” and he also states that remission of sins was received by, “all who had hopes towards Him, who proclaimed His advent and submitted to His dispensations.” Irenaeus 4.27,2.
2) Justin accused the Jews of mutilating a prophecy of Jeremiah's, which had read, “The Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, remembered those His dead who slept in the dust of the grave, and descended to them to proclaim to them His salvation.”
3) Clement of Alexander preached that the souls of the Heathen as well as Jews benefited from the revelation of Christ to them in Hades. The Jews being in bonds to the burden of the Law, and the Heathen being “those in darkness,” received the proclamation of the truth of the Gospel from Jesus. This proclamation involved the offer of salvation, and the possibility of repentance and forgiveness of all the sins that a man had committed in ignorance, when not clearly knowing God.
4) Origen Clement's pupil, as we have already stated, believed that Jesus preached to the dead. A famous infidel named Celsus was speaking with Origen and ridiculed this widespread belief of the Church, he said, “I suppose Christ, when He failed to persuade the living, went down to Hades to persuade those who live there?” Origen answered him, “Whether it please Celsus or no, we of the Church assert that the soul of our Lord, stripped of its body, did there hold converse with other souls, that were in like manner stripped, that He might there convert those who were capable of instruction, or were otherwise in ways known to Him fit for it.” Origen c. Celsum, 2.43.
5) Tertullian also stated that the belief that Jesus descended into Hades and preached there, had been held in the Church since the days of the apostles, his testimony is of great value since Tertullian censured anything that was new.
6) Cyril of Jerusalem states, in beautiful picturesque language, that: “The holy prophets ran unto Him {Jesus}, and Moses the law giver, and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob; David also and Samuel, and Isaiah and John the Baptist, who bore witness when he asked, Art thou He that should come, or look we for another? All the just were ransomed whom death had devoured, for it behoved the King who had been heralded to become the redeemer of His noble heralds. Then each of the just said, O death where is thy sting? O grave where is thy victory? For the Conqueror hath redeemed us.” Cyril Hieros., Catech. 14.9,10.
7) Athanasius said that more than the Patriarchs and prophets were delivered from Hades, he extended the circle of those who Jesus delivered from Hades through His preaching, “and thinks of the souls of Adam as held fast under sentence of death, and crying to his Lord ever more, and of those who had pleased God, and had been justified by the law of nature, as mourning and crying with Him till the mercy of God revealed to them the mystery of redemption.”
Christ's death brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel, so that when the Christian dies although they lose their body, they retain their spirit, and their soul and spirit ascend into God's Presence in Paradise in Heaven. Matt 16v18, 2Cor 5v8, Phil 1v23, 2Tim 1v10, Heb 12v23.
It was Augustine at the end of the 4th Century who changed all the Truth on this subject.
A very good book on this subject is "The Spirits In Prison by E H Plumptre" and is available as a free PDF download on Internet Archive
Yahweh Shalom...
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