Jesus Went to Hell?

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00:02

What? So after Jesus died on the cross, did his spirit then descend into hell? No, Jesus Christ did not go to hell between his death and resurrection.

00:10

In Ephesians 4, where it says he ascended on high, he also descended into the lower regions so that he might fill all things.

00:16

But this does not mean he went to hell. It means he was buried in the earth. That's literally how that translates. Psalm 16 says,

00:22

You will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your Holy One see corruption. The King James translates Sheol as hell, but the word means grave.

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Not a place in the afterlife. We read in Acts 2 .31 that Christ fulfilled this prophecy because indeed, his body was raised to life and did not decay.

00:36

In Matthew 12 .40, Jesus said that he would go into the heart of the earth. But again, this is the grave. In 1 Peter 3, it says that after Christ died, he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison who did not obey in the days of Noah.

00:46

But Colossians 2 .15 explains that Christ triumphed over the dark forces and put them to open shame.

00:52

That doesn't involve going to hell. The Gospel of Nicodemus says Jesus descended into hell, but that's an apocryphal text written in the 4th century.

00:59

Likewise, the Apostles' Creed says that he descended into hell, but the Creed came over a century after the apostles had all died.

01:05

It isn't scripture. And the phrase, he descended into hell, likely has the same meaning as Ephesians 4 .9.

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Jesus said to the thief hanging next to him, Today you will be with me in paradise. He said to his father, Into your hands

01:16

I commit my spirit. And as he breathed his last, he said, It is finished. The work was done. Christ had no reason to descend into hell.

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So then where was his spirit for those three days that his body was in a tomb? Well, he said, Paradise, when we understand the text.