I believe in God the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
And born of the Virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
Was crucified, died, and was buried;
[He descended into hell.]
The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven,
And is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.
From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
The holy catholic church,
The communion of saints,
The forgiveness of sins,
The resurrection of the body,
And the life everlasting. Amen.
Today we turn our attention to the most contentious clause in the Creed. You may have wondered why I placed the clause he descended into hell in brackets above. The oldest extant version of the creed comes from Bishop Marcellus of Ancyra and it does not contain this clause about descending into hell. Apparently the clause first appeared in AD 359. Furthermore, we must note that there is no Scripture that clearly teaches that between Good Friday and Easter Sunday Jesus preached to souls imprisoned in hell or Hades. For these historical and biblical reasons it would seem best to me to omit the clause from our reciting of the Apostles Creed. However since the clause has occasioned much speculation as well as confusion I think it is necessary to give an understanding of the text of Scripture on which the teaching is most commonly based.
HE DESCENDED INTO HELL –
In 1 Peter 3:19-21 we read; He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also – not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
There are many erroneous doctrines both ancient and modern that emerge from an inadequate understanding of these verses.
- Some modern prosperity preachers have taught that Jesus’ death at the cross
was only the beginning of Christ’s work of redemption. One prosperity preacher has gone to the blasphemous extreme of saying; “do you think that the punishment for our sin was to die on a cross? If that were the case, the two thieves could have paid your price. No, the punishment was to go into hell itself and to serve time in hell separated from God . . . Satan and all the demons thought that they had Him bound and they threw a net over Jesus and they dragged Him down to the very pit of hell itself to serve our sentence.” There is a word for this – HERESY! When Christ uttered the word tetelestai (it is finished!) from the cross he meant that no further debt remained. These prosperity teachers downplay the cross, by exchanging Christ’s conquest over Satan, into merely the first stage in a war. What does the apostle Paul say in Colossians 2:15 and having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. - Other church groups would find warrant in this clause of the Creed for an offer of salvation to those who have already died. In 2 Corinthians 5:10 we are clearly taught for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. Would people repent and believe if given a second chance? The bible says they would not because people’s hearts are not changed simply because they die. In Luke 16:19-31 we have the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. If ever someone should have repented when given a second chance to see the truth clearly, it was the rich man. Although he was in torment in hell, he only asked that Abraham send Lazarus back to earth to warn his brothers so they didn’t have to suffer the same fate. There was no repentance in his heart. No second, third, or fourth chances would be enough to turn the heart of stone into a heart of flesh. The Scriptures speak quite emphatically in Hebrews 9:27. Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.
- John Calvin understood this phrase in the Apostles Creed a little differently. He argued that Christ’s descent into hell did not involve a literal descent. Rather on the cross he suffered not just bodily pain but all the torments that a soul in hell, cut off from God’s presence would experience. Calvin believed that the clause “he descended into hell” referred to Christ experiencing the full wrath of His Father being directed at our sin. We would have no problem affirming such an understanding.
- How then should we interpret 1 Peter 3:19-21? He is saying that the Spirit of Christ raised the body of Christ from the grave. This much is clear. However what is meant by saying that through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built? The one who does the proclaiming of verse 19 is not the risen Jesus. It is Jesus who preaches, but it is not during the window between his death and ascension. It’s during the lifetime of Noah. When Peter wrote this letter those disobedient people were dead. This is why Peter refers to them as spirits in prison. But they were not in prison when Christ preached to them in history through Noah. We should not be surprised to read that the spirit of Christ was preaching in the OT. In 1 Peter 1:10-11 we read; concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. The Spirit of Christ was in the OT prophets who predicted his coming. Now we see from vrs 19 that the spirit of Christ was in Noah preaching to the people of Noah’s day. They remained disobedient and in the end they were drowned and their spirits were cast into hell which is called prison. If Peter meant that Christ went and preached in hell between his death and resurrection why would he only liberate people from the days of Noah – and not from every generation!
It is because there is not a single clear and unambiguous text of Scripture which points to Jesus’ descent into hell, that I concur with others who suggest that we omit it when we recite the Apostles Creed. The encouragement from 1 Peter 3 for us today, is that the same spirit of Christ that was present in Noah’s preaching, is with us as we share the gospel.