Posted by PS on January 11, 2005 at 19:40:03:
In Reply to: Re: Christ in the realm of the dead posted by cav on January 11, 2005 at 06:49:19:
: I found one verse that indirectly indicates that he might have ministered to "spirits in prison" in 1 Peter. This could be interpreted as going to the place of the dead.
That is quite clear.
Ephesians 4:8-10 references Psalm 68:18-20 (below), where the context is clearly escape from death:
Therefore it is said, “When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people.” (When it says, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.)
Psa. 68:18-20:
You ascended the high mount, leading captives in your train, and receiving gifts from people, even from those who rebel against the LORD God’s abiding there.
Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up; God is our salvation. Selah
Our God is a God of salvation, and to GOD, the Lord, belongs escape from death.
1 Peter 4:6 also makes it very explicit:
For this is the reason the gospel was proclaimed even to the dead, so that, though they had been judged in the flesh as everyone is judged, they might live in the spirit as God does.
1 Peter 3:18-20 is the verse you referred to, referring to those souls who died in the great flood and would have been in Sheol:
For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water.