One of the my close friends asked me this the other day in church, and I stopped dead in my tracks. I had actually never thought about it before.
I had always assumed yes. And based off of some church doctrine, such as the Apostles Creed (not sure on this one either, but that’s what was referred to as in our conversation as containing the source where it’s stated that Jesus went to hell), I’ve just thought that Jesus did go to hell when he died on the cross, and then was victorious over hell on the third day.
But before just spouting off the answer yes, i thought to myself, what verse in the Bible says that Jesus went to hell when he died on the cross.
So, i did a check in my Bible, and there were quite a few scriptures that talked about hell, but none of them stated that Jesus went to hell.
Comments, questions & thoughts are welcome on this one – if you have a verse that refers to this subject, please put it in your comments or email me.
~tj
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Found some verses on hell – New King James:
Ps 9.17 – The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
Ps 55.15 – Let death seize them; Let them go down alive into hell, for wickedness is in their dwellings and among them.
Pr 7.27 – Her house is the way to hell, descending to the chambers of death.
Pr 23.13-14 – Do not withhold correction from a child, for if you beat him with a rod, he will not die. You shall beat him with a rod, and deliver his soul from hell.
Pr 27.20 – Hell and Destruction are never full; so the eyes of a man are never satisfied.
Is 14.9 – Hell from beneath is excited about you, to meet you at your coming; It stirs up the dead for you, all the chief ones of the earth; It has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations (in verse 12 it talks about the fall of Satan, so i don’t think it’s referring to Jesus here, but not sure on that one).
Mt 5.22 – But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgement. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.
Mt 18.9 – And if you eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast if from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire
Mt 23.33 – Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?
Lk 12.5 – But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!
Jm 3.6 – And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members, that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.
im pretty sure jesus did not go to hell because as far as i know people who are sent to hell cannot return (lazarus and the man in hell passage? its in one of the gospels). i mean of course he is god and can do whatever he wants but i just cant see it happening, pure good in a place that is pure evil? doesnt work for me
and with hell being the place completely void of god how could jesus, who is god, be sent away from himself?
All great comments – too bad they don’t mean SQUAT – since you HAVE NO SCRIPTURE BACKING THEM UP.
I’ve also received a text from a buddy of mine who pointed out Ephesians 4:8-10 saying:
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Therefore He says:
“When He asccended on high, He led captivity captive. And gave gifts to men.”
(Now this, “He ascended” – what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)
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It took a little bit for me to comprehend my buddies point, but as i kept reading i understood what was being said. First though, i had to understand what, in this particular section of scripture, “ascended far above the heavens…” meant. Well it says, “far above the heavens…”, leads me to compare how far descended means.
One of the comments mention something that Jesus can’t be separated from God – it bring’s up a good thought – but it falls short until there’s some mention in the Bible that this isn’t possible.
For the July 10th comment – what scripture are you referring to?
Luke 16:26 And Besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us. — if that doesnt make sense to you you should read it in context with the story around it.
That Luke 26 was a great reference – thanks for listing it!
Sorry for this, but reading that section of scripture leads me to another question (maybe even more). We know now there’s a great chasm that lay’s between “Abraham’s side” (knowing that Abraham’s side is not earth, may or may not be heaven (need scripture reference to clarify)) and that “a great chasm has been FIXED, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us” between Abraham’s side and hell.
But it does go on to say “Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house, for I have five brothers. let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment. Abraham replied, They have Moses and the Prophets: let them listen to them…If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone RISES FROM THE DEAD.”
Now, it seems that Jesus was referring to someone rising from the dead on Abraham’s side, but He say’s nothing of hell (even though it says in vs. 26 that they can’t go between hell and Abraham’s place) doesn’t necessarily mean they can’t go from Abraham’s place or hell to earth.
Also, some facts from Revelation 20:1-3 & 7, 10 –
– There’s an abyss (a jail of some type – may or may not be hell)
– A lake of burning sulfur (which is more likely to be hell than the abyss – doesn’t say in the translations I’ve read – but if someone else has a different version, please let me know)
– And that Satan was released from the abyss, and a thousand years later bound to the “lake of burning sulfur”.
So from taking a 10,000 overview of these facts from Revelation’s and Luke where know that there’s hell, Abraham’s place (may or may not be heaven – for the sake of this post it doesn’t matter), an abyss (may or may not be hell, at this point i think the assumption is that it isn’t hell), and a lake of fire (may or may not be hell – leaning toward it being hell). So when Jesus died, before he was raised, where did He go, hell, Abraham’s place, abyss, lake of fire?
Also, Jesus was the only “Spotless Lamb”, one who didn’t sin, so as a perfect man he would of qualified for Abraham’s place &/or heaven (if there’s any disagreement, i will find verses here to back this up, just let me know – also, we won’t go into the subject of if heaven exists now or after the great judgement – that’s for a different post) – but b/c he bore our sin’s and took our transgressions this may change this particular outcome.
Lastly, did Jesus overcome just death, or hell and death? And Acts 2:23-24 says “This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the AGONY of death, because it was impossible for death to KEEP its hold on him.” From our 10,000 foot fact’s overview, we see there’s not a lot of options for a person if you’re not on earth, and in the Acts scripture, it says “agony” so, I’m assuming that’s not Abraham’s place, and probably not the Abyss, which leads me to the conclusion that it’s probably hell that couldn’t keep him, unless (and this is quite possible – and is the reason for this post) there’s some sort of fact that I’m missing or leaving out
Other scriptures I read for this study were; Matthew 27:50-43, Luke 24:46, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Got to got to bed – Any other thoughts are welcome!
~tj
ok how about this, if everything was finished on the cross why would jesus still have to go to hell? i dont think jesus would have said “it is finished” if he still had 3 days left of hell to go through. just a thought
I’ve thought about that too – good point – still not sure that’s enough to form an opinion either way.
Another scripture I read tonight –
Matt 12:40 “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
It doesn’t mean anything but that it refers to where the Son of Man will be.
Still need to define what the middle of the earth means – is it literal or figurative?
We to start asking the Lord for guidance on this subject, so we can come to some sort of resolution.
well first of all… in ephesians 4:8-10 when it says he descended it means to earth, not to someplace lower. “he who ascended (to heaven)… also descended (to earth).”
now for more to help enhance the idea that jesus did not go to hell:
1. Luke 23:43- and he said to them, “truly i say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (which is obviously not hell; but instead, “a place of bliss and rest between death and resurrection” as quoted by my study bible)
2. 2 Corinthians 12:2,4 talks about a third heaven in pauls vision from the lord which would be synonymous with the word paradise as well and is described as a place where believers who have died are “at home with christ”. hm…
3. Revelation 20: 14 says that death and hades were thrown into the lake of fire (the second death)…and until then, we are still waiting; so no one, even jesus is or was in hell/the lake of fire.
4. good point on jesus saying that it is finished…that was it, he didnt neeed to go to hell to defeat the enemy, it was finished already just on the cross.
5. and for the jonah reference in matthew, the heart of the earth would be the heart of man…as very well described on this website: http://www.blessedcause.org/BlessedCause%20Exclusives/The%20Sign%20of%20Jonah.htm
so theres all ive got for one night…siiiigh* goodnight
-dani*
hm…ill take this stand still of comments as a sign of defeat by “anonymous” and i
haha
Ooooo – I haven’t even gotten a chance to read it yet – I’ll catch up with it later tonight.