In this chapter we will look at some of the objections that theologians and bible believers raise against the idea that Christ descended into the Underworld of Sheol or Hades. So, why do some have reluctance to believe that Christ went to Hell as the Apostles Creed affirms?
Objections & Reluctance
As we stated in an earlier chapter, it ought not to be shocking that Christ would be present in Hades because God is in Hell (Sheol) said the Psalmist:
"Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there." (Psa. 139: 7-8)
Further, many people resist believing that Christ went to "hell" because that word carries a meaning today, in the minds of most people, that it did not have in the first century, nor in the old testament time period. Words change meaning over time, and secondary meanings of words become predominant and primary. Further, there is the question of denotation and connotation when it concerns the meaning of words.
Christ "going to hell" does not denote or connote that he was a wicked man, nor that he was punished and tormented in the flames of Hell, though that is the common connotation of the words "went to hell" for most people today. But, as we saw in earlier chapters, when "hell" is the translation of the Hebrew word "sheol" or the Greek word "Hades," it does not mean "place of torment" but "the place of the dead," or "the Underworld," etc.
Many Protestants find it difficult to believe the Christ descended into Hell (Sheol, Hades, or the Underworld of departed spirits) because they think it upholds the false doctrine of "Purgatory" and a kind of "Limbo" where people can be saved in the afterlife who died in their sins. But, as we have seen, Christ' going to Hades does not infer such false ideas.
Some think that the promise of Christ to the thief on the cross, "today you will be with me in Paradise" shows that he did not go to Hades. However, this is no real objection for many Christians, and church fathers, believed in the fact that old testament children of God went to the side of Hades (Underworld) where the righteous were gathered ("limbus patrum") , seeing "Abraham's Bosom" as equivalent to "Paradise."
The word "paradise" (in Greek "paradeisos") is of Oriental origin, say the word scholars, and Strong says it signifies "a park, i.e. (specially), an Eden (place of future happiness, "paradise")." It was a word used by several cultures and languages and denoted a happy and beautiful place.
Even if we believe that old testament believers went in spirit directly into heaven, and not to Sheol, this still would not disprove that Christ descended there. The dead ones in the prison of Hades who were preached to, said Peter, were the ones who were like Dives, on the tormenting side of Hades. So, if he did not remove any righteous souls from the Underworld, there was still reason and purpose for Christ descending to that place.
Some think that the words "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit," also spoken by Christ while upon the cross and moments before he died, show that he went to the Father in spirit and thus did not go to the Underworld. But, this argument does not disprove the thesis, for Christ went both to the Father (in the most holy place when he presented his blood for atonement), as we have seen, and also went to Hades, as we have also seen. Christ went to both Heaven and Hell when he died. Paradise is wherever Christ is. As long as the thief was with Christ, he was in paradise.
Some object to the idea that Christ descended to the Underworld because it seems to uphold the idea that people may be saved after they have died lost and think there is no good reason for Christ to go there, believing that all suffering for sin was finished on the cross. These objections we have shown to be unconvincing. The fact is clearly stated in scripture that Christ went to Hades or Sheol and tells us something of the reason why.
We have also discussed the case of Enoch and Elijah, two old testament period prophets who went to heaven and shown how their cases do not disprove that old testament peoples died and went to Sheol, both saved and lost. We have seen how the Hebrew idea of the Underworld was as Jesus taught in the lesson of Lazarus and the rich man (Dives). Such lesson shows that both righteous and unrighteous go to the same Underworld and that the difference lay in each being in opposite sides of Hades, one being a side of festivity and freedom from all ills, and the other a place of torment and loss of all good.
We have also stated that we do not believe that old testament believers could not go to heaven because of sin but because Christ must have the preeminence, or be the first in all things. As old testament believers were saved "on credit," as it were, based upon the promise and covenant, so they could have gone to heaven for the same reason, and no doubt was the reason why Enoch and Elijah may have gone there.
In conclusion I would like to cite from the great English Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon. What he says in these citations are what I have contended for in this part of our series that deals with the death of Christ and his experience in the afterlife and in the Underworld.
Said Spurgeon:
"It may be well here to remark, that the word translated “hell,” though it may be rightfully referred to the region of lost and damned spirits, yet need not be restricted thereto. The word is “Hades,” which signifies the dwelling place of spirits, and so it may include both heaven and hell; no doubt it does include them both in many places, and I think in this. Our Lord then hath the keys of heaven, and hell, and death." (sermon "Christ with the Keys of Death and Hell" here)
The part of the Underworld where Lazarus was carried by the angels was heavenly, but not heaven proper. Likewise it was paradisaical though not paradise proper.
Said Spurgeon:
"As if to prove that he had the keys of the grave, Jesus passed in and passed out again, and he hath made free passage now for his people, free entrance, and free exit. Whether, when our Lord died, his soul actually descended into hell itself we will not assert or deny; the elder theologians all asserted that he did, and hence they inserted in the Creed, the sentence, “He descended into hell,” meaning, many of them, at any rate, hell itself."
Spurgeon said he would not assert nor deny that Christ went to Hades. However, his numerous statements on the point show that he was more in favor with the view I have espoused.
Said Spurgeon:
"It was not till Puritanic times that that doctrine began to be generally questioned, when it was, as I think rightly asserted, that Jesus Christ went into the world of separated spirits, but not into the region of the damned. Well, it is not for us to speak where Scripture is silent, but why may it not be true that the Great Conqueror cast the shadow of his presence over the dens of his enemies as he passed in triumph by the gates of hell? May not the keepers of that infernal gate have seen his star, and trembled as they also beheld their Master like lightning fall from heaven? Would it not add to his glory if those who were his implacable foes were made to know of his complete triumph? At any rate, it was but a passing presence, for we know that swiftly he sped to the gates of heaven, taking with him the repentant thief to be with him that day in Paradise. "
I do believe Christ went to all compartments of the Underworld. Though Spurgeon did not fully endorse that point, he confesses that there is no good reason to deny it.
Said Spurgeon:
"Jesus had opened thus the grave by going into it, hell by passing by it, heaven by passing into it, heaven again by passing out of it, death again by rising from it into this world, and heaven by his ascension. Thus passing, and repassing, he has proved that the keys are at his girdle. At any rate, by his achievements, by his doings, he hath won for himself the power of the keys."
I don't think that Christ merely "passed by" the Underworld but actually went there.
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