Did Christ go to Hell and Preach The Gospel?

What was Christ’s purpose in going and proclaiming to the saints in prison? What are 1 Peter 3:18 and 1 Peter 4:4 all about?

Excerpt From The Answer

There are two primary views of these scriptures and what they mean. Some believe Jesus went to hell to offer people who lived before the flood a second chance to accept God. There is no support in the Bible to back up ‘second chance theology.’ Second, others believe Christ descended into hell to proclaim victory over death to the fallen angels and those who lived during Noah’s day. Some reformers say that Noah was preaching by building the ark in the sense that he is showing the only way to salvation is God.

1 Peter 3:18-20 says, “For Christ also suffered for sins once for all time, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which He also went and made proclamation to the spirits in prison, who once were disobedient when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.”

1 Peter 4:4-6 says, “In all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them in the same excesses of debauchery, and they slander you. But they will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as people, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God.”

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Links Mentioned:

Constable’s Notes

Did Jesus Spend Saturday in Hell? 

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