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- Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text, promote sound doctrine while exposing the faulty.
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- Here's your host, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. As we've been doing devotionals in the book of Romans, there have been times that I have said
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- Roman Christians or Roman Church, and I hope that it's understood that I'm talking about the church in Rome in the first century as Paul was writing to.
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- I'm not talking about Roman Catholicism. There's a distinct difference there.
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- I thought of that today as I came to the question that I'm going to be answering from a viewer because that somewhat comes up in this question.
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- First, we're playing this video about the myth that Jesus descended into hell.
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- So after Jesus died on the cross, did his spirit then descended to hell? No, Jesus Christ did not go to hell between his death and resurrection.
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- In Ephesians 4, where it says he ascended on high, he also descended into the lower regions so that he might fill all things.
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- 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,
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- 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, not a place in the afterlife.
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- We read in Acts 2 .31 that Christ fulfilled this prophecy because indeed his body was raised to life and did not decay.
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- 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.
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- But Colossians 2 .15 explains that Christ triumphed over the dark forces and put them to open shame.
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- 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.
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- Likewise, the Apostles' Creed says that he descended into hell, but the Creed came over a century after the apostles had all died.
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- 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
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- 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.
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- Our question today comes from Avery in New York who says, dear what, I was watching your video on Jesus didn't descend into hell, and in the video you say that the
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- Apostles' Creed was not written by the apostles. Do you think it's something that we should pay attention to or not?
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- And on the subject of the Apostles' Creed, I'm guessing the part that says the Holy Catholic Church is not talking about Roman Catholicism.
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- Avery, thank you for your question. First of all, I didn't mean for it to sound like in the video that I was just blowing off the
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- Apostles' Creed. I do think that it's important and significant, but we should not consider it necessarily scripture because it wasn't written by the
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- Apostles. I do think, however, the Apostles' disciples would have taken some essential truths that were taught by the
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- Apostles and arranged them together in this sort of creed. Now creeds are very important.
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- Perhaps you've heard it said deeds, not creeds. That's a ridiculous statement because we actually see all throughout the history of the church, even in the
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- New Testament, that it is organized and intentional, founded on things like creeds.
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- We have one such creed given in First Timothy, chapter three, verse 16. Paul says, great indeed, we confess is the mystery of godliness.
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- He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.
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- And this was not just something that Paul was writing to Timothy for the sake of writing it.
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- He was reciting something that was a creed that had been recited in just about every church that had been planted.
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- So he reminds Timothy of these things. Whenever you see Paul say something like the saying is trustworthy, likely that saying is part of a creed that would have been recited in a church to remember essential truths of doctrine.
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- So I do think that the Apostles' Creed is important. Matt Chandler just recently went through the whole Apostles' Creed at the
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- Village Church, going through it line by line and talking about this is why we believe this as Christians.
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- So using that as a guidepost to kind of lay out essential doctrines. A beautiful sermon series, by the way, and I highly recommend it.
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- And yes, you're correct. The part of the Apostles' Creed that says Holy Catholic Church is not talking about Roman Catholicism.
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- The word Catholic means universal. So we're talking about churches everywhere in Jesus Christ being as one, even though they might be in different parts of the world.
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- The Roman Catholic Church has taken that term and abused it and practices a number of things that we do not see in Scripture.
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- So always come back to the Bible and know that what is being spoken is truth, even when it comes to creeds.
