Did Jesus go to hell?

[PleaseHelpMe]

Yeah, this is probably complete nonsense, but isn't it possible?

Jesus suffered for our sins, right? And ALL the sins of the WORLD were placed on HIM when he suffered on the cross. Isn't that why God forsook him? Becuase at that time he WAS sin? (Where he yells "Father, father, why hast thou forsaken me?)

Well, three days later, he rose from the dead? But was he in hell during those three days? Then, when he came back to life, he had escaped hell, defeating the devil and "Killing death forever"? I dunno, just some random thoughts.

 

[Ave Maria]

Hi PleaseHelpMe. This is something that also confuses me. Also, the part where Jesus asks why God forsook him in the Bible is something that really puts doubts in my mind. If God forsook him than maybe Jesus wasn't really even God anyway? I really don't know. I believe Jesus was God but that doesn't necessarily mean I'm right.

 

[PleaseHelpMe]

I think that question is answered in the Trinity thread, explaining that God is 3 different, yet the same, people.

 

[HeatherJay]

Hi PleaseHelpMe. This is something that also confuses me. Also, the part where Jesus asks why God forsook him in the Bible is something that really puts doubts in my mind. If God forsook him than maybe Jesus wasn't really even God anyway? I really don't know. I believe Jesus was God but that doesn't necessarily mean I'm right.

There are different beliefs on that issue, Holly, but mine is that He was praying....and I would encourage you to read the rest of that Psalm. It's not as dismal as it sounds.

Psalms 22:1 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?

As far as Jesus going to Hell...I don't think so, but I don't know enough about it to explain it, sorry. The Apostles Creed said that He descended into Hades, but I think that is different than Hell. Not sure, though, sorry.

 

[Ave Maria]

Hmm, but doesn't forsake mean:

1. To give up (something formerly held dear); renounce: forsook liquor.
2. To leave altogether; abandon: forsook Hollywood and returned to the legitimate stage

If God had forsaken Jesus, why would he have either given up on him left or abandoned him??

 

[HeatherJay]

Hmm, but doesn't forsake mean:

1. To give up (something formerly held dear); renounce: forsook liquor.
2. To leave altogether; abandon: forsook Hollywood and returned to the legitimate stage

If God had forsaken Jesus, why would he have either given up on him left or abandoned him??

Did you read the rest of the Psalm? It's the prayer of an innocent man declaring his faith in God despite his tribulations (especially verses 19-31). Notice also the references to the passion story throughout the Psalm (verses 8, 16, 18).

Despite what you believe regard Jesus' last words, please never believe that He lost faith at any point. Even though there are those who believe that at the moment of taking the sin of the world upon Himself that God turned away because He can't be in the presence of sin...even they don't believe that Jesus ever lost His faith in God (at least I don't think they do ).

Psalms 22:1-311 To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? 2 O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent. 3 But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. 4 Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. 5 They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded. 6 But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. 7 All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, 8 He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. 9 But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts. 10 I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly. 11 Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help. 12 Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. 13 They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion. 14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. 15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. 16 For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. 17 I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me. 18 They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture. 19 But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me. 20 Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog. 21 Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns. 22 I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. 23 Ye that fear the LORD, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel. 24 For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard. 25 My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him. 26 The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that seek him: your heart shall live for ever. 27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. 28 For the kingdom is the LORD'S: and he is the governor among the nations. 29 All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul. 30 A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. 31 They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.

 

[shawn_h76]

Yes, Jesus did most certainly descend to hell. He smacked satan in the head. (gen 3:15). He emptied hell out and gave gifts to men. Hell is not empty now.

Matthew 12
38 Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.
39 But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:
40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.


ephesians 4:8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
9 (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?
10 He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)

 

[PleaseHelpMe]

Well, there I have it Thanks alot Shawn.

 

[Rechtgläubig]

"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 also he went and preached to the spirits in prison" (1 Peter 3)

 

[Reformationist]

ephesians 4:8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
9 (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?
10 He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)

Just for the record, "the lower parts of the earth" is not hell, it's here on earth with us. Christ was exalted through being humbled in the incarnation and taking on a human nature.

PleaseHelpMe, I'd have to study the Matthew reference a bit more before I could say that it means what shawn says it is, but the Epesians reference is absolutely NOT a reference to hell.

God bless

 

[shawn_h76]

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 also he went and preached to the spirits in prison" (1 Peter 3)

There we go.

 

[helmikaarina]

We cannot know for sure where Jesus was and what he did after his death before his resurrection. Bible says so little about it and not explain what it really means.

Jesus is both divine and human, totally. How it is possible is a mystery. As so many things in God.

When Jesus cried out: My God, my God... he felt himself forsaken and lonely. God didn't abandon Jesus but raised him from the dead. Sometimes when we are in the middle of our spiritual night in our life we feel that God has gone away. It's comforting to know that Jesus felt so, being God's son. I'm only a human being and it's not amazing that I sometimes feel so. But God doesn't abandon me either, whatever I feel. He is faithful also then when I cannot feel his presence.

 

[Rechtgläubig]

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 also he went and preached to the spirits in prison" (1 Peter 3)

There we go.

Here is a summary of how we understand the decent:

"We believe that there is no clearer, better, more to the point presentation of the doctrine of Christ’s Descent into Hell than that of the Concordia Cyclopedia of 1927. With a reading of it we should like to bring our efforts to a close: "A phrase, taken from the Apostles’ Creed, by which the Scriptural teaching Col. 2, 16, Eph. 4, 9 and particularly 1 Pet. 3, 18–20 is summarized. The passage in First Peter is the sedes of this doctrine. It can teach us nothing less than that Jesus went into hell, the place of the damned. It was Christ, the whole Person, with body and soul, the same who (v. 22) ‘is gone into heaven and is on the right hand of God,’ that appeared in the prison-house. He had already been ‘quickened by the Spirit,’ had been made alive by virtue of His divine nature. Body and soul were reunited. He appeared in the prison-house after His quickening and before His resurrection, before His rising from the tomb. In this prison there were men like those who were disobedient in Noah’s days, who would not listen to this preacher of righteousness. It was the place where lost and condemned spirits are. To them Christ preached. He could not have preached the Gospel of repentance to those lost spirits; for everywhere the Scriptures teach us that death ends the probation period of man. It was, then, the Law, the preaching of Judgment and eternal doom, that Christ proclaimed in hell. The preaching of Christ in hell was a triumphant proclamation of His victory over hell, over Satan, and over death. Cp Col. 2, 15. There is good ground for the Lutheran emphasis on the fact that Christ’s descent into hell occurred after He had returned to life, body and soul again being united. If Christ had made the descent while His body was in the power of death, it could not have been a triumphant descent. But being made after His soul had returned to His body, His descent into hell proclaimed that the grave would not be able to hold Him, that He was the One who had the keys of death and hell and was alive forevermore"

http://www.wls.wels.net/library/Essays/Authors/s/StruckDescent/StruckDescent.htm​

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[shawn_h76]

Thank you

 

[Rechtgläubig]

You're welcome Shawn.

 

[Serapha]

Yeah, this is probably complete nonsense, but isn't it possible?

Jesus suffered for our sins, right? And ALL the sins of the WORLD were placed on HIM when he suffered on the cross. Isn't that why God forsook him? Becuase at that time he WAS sin? (Where he yells "Father, father, why hast thou forsaken me?)

Well, three days later, he rose from the dead? But was he in hell during those three days? Then, when he came back to life, he had escaped hell, defeating the devil and "Killing death forever"? I dunno, just some random thoughts.

Hi there!



The place of the dead is known as she'ol, and it is divided into Abraham's bosom (paradise) and hades (hell) and there is a great chaism between the two. Before the resurrection, at death, the soul of man either went to paradise or hades. Christ took the Old Testament saints out of paradise, but those in hades are still there... a place of flames and torment ... until the second resurrection.

The Word of God says that Christ "descended", but it does not say that he descended into hell.

~serapha~

 

[Serapha]

Oh, I'm sorry,


we need a source to counter the previous posting....

here...for your reading pleasure...




[font=Arial, Geneva, Helvetica]John Gill's Exposition of the Bible[/font]

[font=Arial, Geneva, Helvetica][font=Arial, Geneva, Helvetica]1 Peter 3:19[/font] By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in
prison.
] Various are the senses given of this passage: some say, that Christ, upon his death, went in his human soul to hell; either, as some, to preach to the devils and damned spirits, that they might be saved, if they would; and, as others, to let them know that he was come, and to fill them with dread and terror; but though hell may be meant by the prison, yet the text does not say that he went unto it, or preached in it; only that the spirits were in it, to whom he sometimes went, and preached;

nor is his human soul, but his divine nature meant, by the Spirit, by which he went and preached to them: and as for the ends proposed, the former is impracticable and impossible; for after death follows judgment, which is an eternal one; nor is there any salvation, or hope of salvation afterwards; and the latter is absurd, vain, and needless.

Others, as the Papists, imagine the sense to be, that Christ, at his death, went in his human soul, into a place they call "Limbus Patrum", which they suppose is meant by the prison here, and delivered the souls of the Old Testament saints and patriarchs from thence, and carried them with him to heaven; but this sense is also false, because, as before observed, not the human soul of Christ, but his divine nature, is designed by the Spirit; nor is there any such place as here feigned, in which the souls of Old Testament saints were, before the death of Christ; for they were in peace and rest, in the kingdom of heaven, in Abraham's bosom, inheriting the promises, and not in a prison; besides, the text says not one word of the delivering of these spirits out of prison, only of Christ's preaching to them: add to all this, and which Beza, with others, observes, the apostle speaks of such as had been disobedient, and unbelievers;

a character which will not agree with righteous men, and prophets, and patriarchs, under the former dispensation: others think the words are to be understood of Christ's going to preach, by his apostles, to the Gentiles, as in (Ephesians 2:17) who were in a most miserable condition, strangers to the covenants of promise, and destitute of the hope of salvation, and sat in darkness, and the shadow of death, and, as it were, at the gates of hell; were in the bonds of iniquity, and dead in sin, and had been for long time past foolish and disobedient, serving divers lusts and pleasures, to which they were in bondage.

This is, indeed, a more tolerable sense than the former; but it will be difficult to show, that men, in the present state of life, are called "spirits", which seems to be a word that relates to the souls of men, in a separate state from their bodies; and especially that carnal and unconverted men are ever so called; and besides, the apostle is speaking of such who were disobedient in the times of Noah; and therefore not of the Gentiles, in the times of the apostles: add to which, that the transition from the times of the apostles, according to this sense, to the days of Noah, is very unaccountable; this sense does not agree with the connection of the words: others are of opinion, that this is meant of the souls of the Old Testament saints, who were (en fulakh) , "in a watch", as they think the phrase may be rendered, instead of "in prison": and said to be in such a situation, because they were intent upon the hope of promised salvation, and were looking out for the Messiah, and anxiously desiring his coming, and which he, by some gracious manifestation, made known unto them: but though the word may sometimes signify a watch, yet more commonly a prison, and which sense best suits here; nor is that anxiety and uneasiness, which represents them as in a prison, so applicable to souls in a state of happiness; nor such a gracious manifestation so properly called preaching; and besides, not believers, but unbelievers, disobedient ones, are here spoken of; and though it is only said they were sometimes so, yet to what purpose should this former character be once mentioned of souls now in glory?

but it would be tedious to reckon up the several different senses of this place; some referring it to such in Noah's time, to whom the Gospel was preached, and who repented; and though they suffered in their bodies, in the general deluge, yet their souls were saved; whereas the apostle calls them all, "the world of the ungodly", (2 Peter 2:5) and others, to the eight souls that were shut up in the ark, as in a prison, and were saved; though these are manifestly distinguished in the text from the disobedient spirits. The plain and easy sense of the words is, that Christ, by his Spirit, by which he was quickened, went in the ministry of Noah, the preacher of righteousness, and preached both by words and deeds, by the personal ministry of Noah, and by the building of the ark, to that generation who was then in being; and who being disobedient, and continuing so, a flood was brought upon them which destroyed them all; and whose spirits, or separate souls, were then in the prison of hell, so the Syriac version renders it, (lwyvb) , "in hell", see (Revelation 20:7) when the Apostle Peter wrote this epistle; so that Christ neither went into this prison, nor preached in it, nor to spirits that were then in it when he preached, but to persons alive in the days of Noah, and who being disobedient, when they died, their separate souls were put into prison, and there they were when the apostle wrote: from whence we learn, that Christ was, that he existed in his divine nature before he was incarnate, he was before Abraham, he was in the days of Noah; and that Christ also, under the Old Testament, acted the part of a Mediator, in his divine nature, and by his Spirit discharged that branch of it, his prophetic office, before he appeared in human nature; and that the Gospel was preached in those early times, as unto Abraham, so before him. [/font]

 

[PaladinValer]

The Apostle's Creed states that Jesus descended into the Dead, which is Sheol.

 

[OrthodoxyUSA]

Indeed, "descended to the dead" is probably the better description.. first lets define hell.

Holy Tradition says it's not a "place" at all. It's how we experience the light of God after death.
Upon death we experience a "foretaste" of eternity, but we are not yet raised up in our spiritual "body".
In death we wait in spirit only (we call it sleeping), at the second coming "all" will be raised in their spiritual body, the same body but transformed anew to perfection. Those who still have sin in their body will not transform to perfection, this is why they suffer in God's presence.

To say Jesus decended into Hell, brings us some images to mind that are too simplistic.

The term "hell" has been contorted, hey but thats Satan job, make it confusing...

Christ destroyed the real nature of death, eternal death, "trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs restoring life".

 

[shawn_h76]

Hell is an actual place.
luke16:22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;
23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.
25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.
26 And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.
27 Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house:
28 For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.
29 Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.
30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.
31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

Jesus emptied all of hell, before Jesus died everybody was under the old covenant.
ephesians4: 8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.

Hell is also called hades, the grave, sheol-its an actual place.
There is also another place, called Tartarus or "hell" thats where all the demons are locked up. (2 peter 2:4)