What exactly is meant by "...He descended into hell"?
Welcome to Ask Pastor Randy, a blog by Pastor Randy Schutt of Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church. Ask your own question here.
Question:
The Apostles’ Creed says that Jesus “…was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead.” What exactly do we mean by “descended into hell” and on what is this teaching based?
Pastor Randy Responds:
The phrase you asked about, "descended into hell" was not even in the oldest form of the creed (which came into being in the middle of the 4th century), but was added sometime later, in the western church not until early in the 5th century. Which probably means it was something folks could not agree on, and in actually still don't agree on today.
Scripture that points to it is found in Matthew 12:38-41 (especially vs. 40), Ephesians 4:9 and I Peter 3:18-20 & 4:6 (which probably gets the most discussion). The argument then is what Jesus did there. I land (personally) on the side that he went there to offer the gospel to all those already dead who had not known of the Christ. Could go round and round on that and I can direct you to other things to read.
A particular Lutheran teaching dances around it. From the Formula of Concord (which came into being in the mid to late 16th century) there are these words, "It is enough to know that Christ went to hell, destroyed hell for all believers, and has redeemed them from the power of death... How this took place is something that we should postpone until the other world, where there will be revealed to us not only this point, but many others as well, which our blind reason cannot comprehend in this life but which we simply accept."
Hope that is answer enough for the moment.
Question:
The Apostles’ Creed says that Jesus “…was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead.” What exactly do we mean by “descended into hell” and on what is this teaching based?
Pastor Randy Responds:
The phrase you asked about, "descended into hell" was not even in the oldest form of the creed (which came into being in the middle of the 4th century), but was added sometime later, in the western church not until early in the 5th century. Which probably means it was something folks could not agree on, and in actually still don't agree on today.
Scripture that points to it is found in Matthew 12:38-41 (especially vs. 40), Ephesians 4:9 and I Peter 3:18-20 & 4:6 (which probably gets the most discussion). The argument then is what Jesus did there. I land (personally) on the side that he went there to offer the gospel to all those already dead who had not known of the Christ. Could go round and round on that and I can direct you to other things to read.
A particular Lutheran teaching dances around it. From the Formula of Concord (which came into being in the mid to late 16th century) there are these words, "It is enough to know that Christ went to hell, destroyed hell for all believers, and has redeemed them from the power of death... How this took place is something that we should postpone until the other world, where there will be revealed to us not only this point, but many others as well, which our blind reason cannot comprehend in this life but which we simply accept."
Hope that is answer enough for the moment.
POSTED at
2:25 PM
