He Preached To The Spirits In Prison

He Preached To The Spirits In Prison

In First Peter 3, Peter writes something that gives pause to many, namely, that Jesus went in the power of the Spirit and “preached to the spirits in prison.”  Peter goes on to explain that these spirits in prison are the sinners of Noah’s day, those who mocked and blasphemed against God when they saw Noah building the ark.  These were the people who died in the flood, and in rabbinic literature are considered the worst of the worst.  In other words, Jesus did not merely descend into the shallows of Hell but into the very depths.  He went all the way down.  In the next chapter, chapter four, verse six, Peter talks again on the same subject, saying that “the good news was preached even to the dead.”

Now, is this surprising that the Lord God would have the ability to speak to the dead and to enter into hell?  No, not really.  Are Hell’s gates so strong that they can keep the Lord out?  No one would suppose this.  This is not what gives people pause when considering the passage in I Peter. Remember the psalmist’s question in Psalm 139: “Whither can I go from thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence?  If I ascend into heaven thou art there... if I make my bed in Hell behold thou art there....even there thy hand shall lead me and thy right hand shall hold me, even the darkness is not dark to thee.” And then also, remember the power of God that we learn about in Psalm 71: “Thy righteousness O God is very high, O God who is like unto thee, thou who has showed me great and sore troubles, shall quicken me again, and shall bring me up again from the depth of the earth, thou shall increase my greatness and comfort me on every side.” Jesus preached to Lazarus and Lazarus stood up and walked out the grave.  In Ezekiel, the word of God, not only enlivens the dry bones of Israel, his word is forgiveness and healing and hope to those whose hope was altogether cut off.  No, I don’t think that people are surprised by the power of God in this regard, I think the hesitation and uncertainty that people have about this passage in I Peter comes from another source.

I have been fifteen years in the ministry and have noticed that when I would talk of Jesus going down into hell and preaching to the dead there, often people would say, “Pastor Amy are you saying that everyone will be saved?”  For many years I was caught completely off guard by this question.  I wondered why they would think that I thought that everyone will be saved?  But recently I started to understand where the questioners  might be coming from.  Let me introduce the subject in this way: The good news is not an offer.  I might offer my child and stick of gum, he might take it, or he might not.  The good news is not an offer like this; it is a proclamation, a proclamation that everything has changed.  The theologian N.T. Wright puts it like this, “it is the announcement of the coup d’etat, Jesus is the King of Kings.”  The good news is the announcement that something has already happened.  It is the announcement of Jesus’  victory.  As one friend of mine put it, if the dead have the good news preached to them, it's as if they have been transferred from the dominion of darkness into heaven.  They are standing in paradise.  All things are theirs through the Lord Jesus.  They are children of the King with unimaginable treasures of love and grace at their fingertips.  They have, moreover a future and hope, as children of the Heavenly Father. When the Israelites reached the far side of the Red Sea, when they stood there on the shore, not one of them turned on his heel at that point and started walking back to Egypt.  In the same way, how can we imagine any of the dead turning on their heels and walking back into torment?   This is the reason that so many parishioners ask me, “But Pastor Amy, do you think everyone will be saved?”  They understood the ramifications of Peter better than me. Jesus' preaching saves, even from Hell!

So, to answer the question, does Pastor Amy say that all will be saved?  The short answer is is "No, she does not."  We read,"God wills that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the Lord.”  We also know, as Markus Barth put it,  “God is willing and able to save all men,” and yet we do not say or even imagine that all will be saved.  If we were following logic we would say it, but we are not following logic, we are following the Lord.  We go where he goes.  If God had said, "all men will be saved," I would preach it too, but he does not, so I don’t.

What of those who die without believing in the Lord Jesus?   Can we say that the faithless dead will go to Hell and eternal torment?  No, we can’t say this, and it’s for the same reason.  God does not say that those who don’t believe during their lifetimes will go to Hell.  He doesn’t so we don’t.  We read in Revelation 21, that the “cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the fornicators, sorcerers, idolators and all liars” will be put into the lake of fire."  These people will not enter the New Jerusalem, but as my teacher said, “the question we must ask, is ‘Will there be any be any such people in the end?’”  We cannot answer yes, we cannot answer no.   We go where God wants us to go, and he has hidden the answer to that question in mystery, to be revealed only when Jesus comes again.  Nothing within human power can be done for the dead, but what will be done through the power of God?