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thredj said:
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...he does appeal to 1 Pet 3:19-20 saying that Christ preached to the spirits in prison

I've never really understood this verse. Could someone elaborate? Thanks

TJ,

Here is the explanation I gave a friend of mine about the meaning of I Peter 3:19:

It means that Christ, in the same Spirit in which He was made alive after His death, made proclamation (through Noah) in Noah's day to those once disobedient spirits who are (now) in prison (i.e., hell). If we look at the overall context, vv. 13–22 are written to comfort believers who are suffering for doing right. The comparison is being drawn between believers, who are reviled by the world for their good conduct, and Noah and his family. This is especially clear when Peter gets to baptism: just as Noah and his family were delivered through the floodwaters from their evil generation, so we are delivered through the baptismal waters from our evil generation, with our appeal to God from a good conscience.

So the verse has absolutely nothing to do with Christ descending into hell to preach between His death and His resurrection. How this doctrine initially entered into the church is unknown to me, but it is not biblically founded, and it certainly contradicts Jesus' words to the thief on the cross, that they would be together in Paradise that same day.

Kyle

I tell you, this man went down to his house justified.