Episode 143: Pascha 2023 - Christ's Descent & Glorious Victory

Pascha 2023 – Christ’s Descent


 


Apostle’s Creed - I believe in God the Father
almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His
only Son, our Lord, who was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born
of the Virgin Mary, who suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried,  descended to the dead
(lit. “to the lower”), rose again from the dead on the third
day,


 


Acts 2:22-28, 31-32



22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth,
a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and
signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves
know— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to
the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and
killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God
raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not
possible for him to be held by it. 25 For David
says concerning him,



“‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand
that I may not be shaken;
26 therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue
rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope.
27 For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or
let your Holy One see corruption.
28 You have made known to me the paths of life;
you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’…
31 he [David] foresaw and spoke about the
resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades,
nor did his flesh see corruption. 32 This Jesus
God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.


 


Eph. 4:9 - Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean but
that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?
 


 


1 Pet. 3:18-19 - 18 For Christ also suffered
once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might
bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive
in the spirit, 19 in which He went and
proclaimed/preached to the spirits in
prison, 20 because they
formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of
Noah, 


 


“Almost without exception in the NT, “spirits” (plural) refers to
supernatural beings rather than to people…The word “prison” is
not used elsewhere in Scripture as a place of punishment after
death for humans beings, while it is used for Satan (Rev. 20:7)
and other fallen angels (2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 6). In this case the
message Christ proclaimed is almost certainly
one of triumph…”


 


2 Pet. 2:4 – 4 For if God did not spare angels
when they sinned, but cast them into
tartarus and committed them to chains of
gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; 


 


Jude 6 - 6 And the angels who did not stay
within their own position of authority, but left their proper
dwelling, He has kept in eternal chains under gloomy
darkness until the judgment of the great day—


 


1 Pet. 4:6 - For this reason, the gospel was preached also to
those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in
the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.  


 


Christ rose from the place of the dead, and raised up the race of
Adam from the grave below.  Melito (c. 170, E), 8.757.


 


The Lord was made “the First-Begotten of the dead.” Receiving
into His bosom the ancient fathers, He has regenerated them into
the life of God.  Irenaeus (c. 180, E/W), 1.455.


 


For their benefit, “He also descended into the lower parts of the
earth,” to behold with His eyes the state of those who were
resting from their labors. ...For Christ did not come merely for
those who believed on Him in the time of Tiberius Caesar. Nor did
the Father exercise His providence only for the men who are
presently alive. Rather, He exercised it for all men altogether,
who from the beginning...have both feared and loved God. 
Irenaeus (c. 180, E/W), 1.494.


 


It was for this reason, too, that the Lord descended into the
regions beneath the earth, preaching His advent there also. And
He [declared] the remission of sins received by those who believe
in Him.  Irenaeus (c. 180, E/W), 1.499.


 


He gathered from the ends of the earth into His Father's fold the
children who were scattered abroad. And He remembered His own
dead ones, who had previously fallen asleep. He came down to them
so that He might deliver them.  Irenaeus (c. 180, E/W),
1.506.


 


For three days He dwelt in the place where the dead were, as the
prophet said concerning Him. “And the Lord remembered His dead
saints who slept formerly in the land of the dead. And He
descended to them to rescue and save them.” The Lord Himself
said, “As Jonah remained three days and three nights in the
whale's belly, so will the Son of man be in the heart of the
earth.”  Irenaeus 


 


The Lord preached the Gospel to those in Hades. ...Do not [the
Scriptures] show that the Lord preached the Gospel to those who
perished in the flood, or rather had been chained, as to those
kept in ward and guard? And it has been shown also...that the
apostles, following the Lord, preached the Gospel to those in
Hades. ...If, then, the Lord descended to Hades for no other
reason but to preach the Gospel (as He did descend), it was
either to preach the Gospel to all, or else to the Hebrews only.
If, accordingly, He preached to all, then all who believe will be
saved on making their profession there—even though they may be
Gentiles. For God's punishments are saving and disciplinary,
leading to conversion. He desires the repentance, rather than the
death, of a sinner. This is especially so since souls, although
darkened by passions, when released from their bodies, are able
to perceive more clearly. For they are no longer obstructed by
the paltry flesh. ...Did not the same dispensation obtain in
Hades? For even there, all the souls, on hearing the
proclamation, could either exhibit repentance, or confess that
their punishment was just, because they did not believe. And it
was not arbitrary that they could obtain either salvation or
punishment. For those who had departed before the coming of the
Lord had not had the Gospel preached to them. So, they had been
given no opportunity to either believe or not believe. 
Clement of Alexandria (c. 195)


 


He preached the Gospel to those in the flesh so that they would
not be condemned unjustly. So how is it conceivable that He did
not for the same reason preach the Gospel to those who had
departed this life before His coming?  Clement of Alexandria
(c. 195, E), 2.492.





Hades is not supposed by us to be a bare cavity, nor some
subterranean sewer of the world. Rather it is a vast deep space
in the interior of the earth. ...For we read that Christ in His
death spent three days in the heart of the earth. ...He did not
ascend into the heights of heaven before descending into the
lower parts of the earth. This was so that He might there [in
Hades] make the patriarchs and prophets partakers of
Himself.  Tertullian (c. 210, W), 3.231.


 


[Christ is Lord of] things under the earth, because He was also
reckoned among the dead. For He preached the Gospel to the souls
of the saints. Through death, He overcame death.  Hippolytus
(c. 200, W), 5.209.


 


[John the Baptist] also first preached to those in Hades,
becoming a forerunner there when he was put to death by Herod. So
even there, too, John revealed that the Savior would descend to
ransom the souls of the saints from the hand of death. 
Hippolytus (c. 200, W), 5.213.


 


Christ delivered the first man of earth from the lowest Hades,
when he was lost and bound by the chains of death. ...This is He
who was to become the preacher of the gospel to the dead. 
Hippolytus (c. 205, W), 5.170.


 


The jailers of Hades trembled when they saw Him. And the gates of
brass and the bolts of iron were broken. For, look! The
Only-Begotten, God the Word, had entered Hades with a soul—a soul
among souls.  Hippolytus (c. 205, W), 5.194.


 


It was the same among the dead. Christ was the only free person
there, and His soul was not left in Hades. As a result, then, He
is the first and the last.  Origen (c. 228, E), 10.315.


 


When Christ became a soul, without the covering of the body, He
dwelled among those souls who were also without bodily covering.
And He converted those of them who were willing.  Origen (c.
248)


 


Meanwhile, Hades was resplendent with light. For the Star had
descended to there. Actually, the Lord did not descend into Hades
in His body, but in His spirit. In short, He is working
every­where. For while He raised the dead by His body, by His
spirit He was liberating souls. ...For the Lord had conquered
Hades, had trodden down death.  Alexander of Alexandria (c.
324)