Why did Jesus descend into Hell?

[boxman144]

Wouldn't He have gone to Heaven? Or couldn't He have if He wanted to?

Did the people in Hell see Him, or interact with Him?

What was His purpose there?

Why only three days?

Did He see Satan?

Did He save people in there?

 

[agapelove]

Yes, I'm sure He could have gone to heaven, but the point of his life, death and resurrection was so He could take us with Him. He descended into "death" which was where we were trapped (The wages of sin is death). His purpose was to free us from our bondage to sin & death. Three is a significant number in the Bible, for example the Trinity. Yes, He did see Satan and he defeated Him. Yes, he saved the world there.

 

[Brian Mcnamee]

think about Lazaus and the rich man. Abraham and many others who are righteous are in this holding tank. Jesus went down there to liberate Abraham and all the other righteous and in fact he was not there long as he told the thief on the cross that day he would be with Jesus in paradise. So Jesus in the grave for 3 days and nights. Jesus in hell long enough to liberate the righteous side of the grave.

 

[Radagast]

Wouldn't He have gone to Heaven? Or couldn't He have if He wanted to?

Did the people in Hell see Him, or interact with Him?

What was His purpose there?

Why only three days?

Did He see Satan?

Did He save people in there?

Not everybody agrees that Jesus "descended into Hell." For those that do agree, there are different opinions on what that means, and what happened there.

See Harrowing of Hell - Wikipedia

 

[TLSITD]

Wouldn't He have gone to Heaven? Or couldn't He have if He wanted to?

Did the people in Hell see Him, or interact with Him?

What was His purpose there?

Why only three days?

Did He see Satan?

Did He save people in there?

He preached the gospel to the spirits of those who hadn't heard it, as measure of God's justice, even though none of them would or could repent. (The "host of captives" Christ led on high when He ascended into heaven weren't souls from hell.)

He spent three days there because that was God's specified time for His own reasons, and in order to fulfill prophecy.

He didn't see Satan there because Satan had not yet been bound in the bottomless pit and was still free and roaming the earth (and probably going back and forth from heaven to earth, which he and most of his demons still have access too until their defeat in the coming angelic war---after which they will be barred from entering heaven anymore).

Satan doesn't live in hell, contrary to common belief. Most of the demons are free to roam the earth and to visit heaven for now, with the exception of a few that are bound in hell for their sin of having sexual relations with human women.

 

[Jeshu]

Wouldn't He have gone to Heaven? Or couldn't He have if He wanted to?

Did the people in Hell see Him, or interact with Him?

What was His purpose there?

Why only three days?

Did He see Satan?

Did He save people in there?

Hell is God's wrath manifested and therefore only came into existence when Jesus was crucified and died, As there was only Hades in the O.T. Jesus descended into Hades which was the domain all the dead were in, to rescue God's own and take them back into Heaven with Him and left His hell behind for His enemies to fry in. An Army He took along with Him, prophesied about in Ezekiel 37 and again in Revelation 7 to rule with Christ as kings over The Life.

And no satan wasn't there. The fiend was to busy ruling the world and the holy ones to crucifying their own Messiah, so he would become the undisputed ruler of this planet, but he lost his hold over Hades, Jesus is King over Hades as well as Heaven and Earth. For satan holds his position of power through the lies we people believe but outside of that he has no footing to put his feet on. Because we heed his lies we place ourselves under a curse. The very curse Jesus lifted when He arose from the dead and satan's plans came to ruin on that day. For God's Kingdom was open now for all to enter in, through faith in Jesus we can be saved from certain doom and live a life with Him even while we still live down here.

And yes souls did see Him Jesus even preached to the people who lived before the flood, to proclaim His victory over their evil. Easter turned out to be a bad day for satan. So thankful to God for sending us Jesus and to give us a way out of our lives destroyed by our own sins and shortcomings.

Truly i was dead in my sins, but He came and preached His goodness to me, and gave me faith in His love and took me by the hand, walking away from this world, and into His Kingdom. i will always love Him for that.

 

[angelsaroundme]

"Now to each one of us grace has been given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. This is why it says: 'When He ascended on high, He led captives away, and gave gifts to men.” What does “He ascended” mean, except that He also descended to the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the very One who ascended above all the heavens, in order to fill all things." Ephesians 4:7-10

This verse is interpreted by many to suggest Jesus went into Hades to free the spiritual captives there with the gift of His grace. It also states it was done in order to "fill all things" presumably with His glory and love.