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

JOEL 2 GENERATION PODCAST

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)