Posted on 04/23/2011 1:27:26 PM PDT by NYer
Where is Christ after he dies on Friday afternoon and before he rises on Easter Sunday? Both Scripture and Tradition answer this question. Consider the following from a Second Century Sermon and also a mediation from the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
An Ancient Sermon:
Today a great silence reigns on earth, a great silence and a great stillness. A great silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. . . He has gone to search for Adam, our first father, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow Adam in his bonds and Eve, captive with him – He who is both their God and the son of Eve. . . “I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. . . I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead.” [From an Ancient Holy Saturday Homily ca 2nd Century]
Nothing could be more beautiful than that line addressed to Adam and Eve: I am your God, who, for your sake, became your Son.”
Scripture also testifies to Christ’s descent to the dead and what he did: 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, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison….For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does. (1 Peter 3:18; 1 Peter 4:6).
Consider also this from the Catechism on Christ’s descent to the dead, which I summarize and excerpt from CCC # 631-635
[The] first meaning given in the apostolic preaching to Christ’s descent into hell [is] that Jesus, like all men, experienced death and in his soul joined the others in the realm of the dead.
But he descended there as Savior, proclaiming the Good News to the spirits imprisoned there [1 Peter 3:18-19; 1 Peter 4:6; Heb. 13:20]. Scripture calls [this] abode of the dead, to which the dead Christ went down, “hell” – Sheol in Hebrew, or Hades in Greek – because those who are there are deprived of the vision of God [1 Peter 3:18-19].
Such [was] the case for all the dead, whether evil or righteous, while they awaited the Redeemer: It is precisely these holy souls, who awaited their Savior …whom Christ the Lord delivered when he descended into hell.”[cf Psalms 89:49; 1 Sam. 28:19; Ezek 32:17ff; Luke 16:22-26]
Jesus did not descend into hell to deliver the damned, nor to destroy the hell of damnation, but to free the just who had gone before him.
[So] the gospel was preached even to the dead. The descent into hell brings the Gospel message of salvation to complete fulfillment. This is the last phase of Jesus’ messianic mission, a phase which is condensed in time but vast in its real significance: the spread of Christ’s redemptive work to all men of all times and all places, for all who are saved have been made sharers in the redemption.
Christ went down into the depths of death so that “the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.”[1 Peter 4:6] Jesus, “the Author of life”, by dying, destroyed “him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and [delivered] all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage” [John 5:25; Mt 12:40; Rom 10:7; Eph 4:9].
Henceforth the risen Christ holds “the keys of Death and Hades”, so that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth.”[Heb 2:14-15; Acts 3:15]
The tabernacle sits upon the stripped altar, open, empty and unadorned. How stark is the sight! This vessel in which Our Lord is daily held captive as a prisoner for us is today lifeless, is now Love-less. How comforting this dwelling place has been: surrounded with flowers, veiled in linen, accompanied with the flickering light of the sanctuary lamp, and most importantly, full of His abiding Presence. On all other days, we prayed in the presence of His Presence. But today, His Absence is gut-wrenching and sorrowful.
Today He is in Sheol but tomorrow, He rises from the dead.
Why preach to the dead if their fate is sealed?
So where EXACTLY does the Scripture say Christ was killed on Friday? He told the religious community that he would be as Jonah in the tomb 3 days and 3 nights... And it is only in liberal math class can anybody get 3 days and 3 nights out of His death happening on Friday. Because HE was NOT in the tomb before the ‘sun’ came up on the first day of the week.
You could ask the same question about Lazarus by Rabbi Joshua (aka Jesus) from the Christian’s replacement Torah (aka “New Testament”) or the boy who was raised from the dead Elisha the Prophet as written in the Tanach.
I tend to say that their soul goes back to from where it came before 40 days after conception.
Good on you, JMT ... It HAD to have been Thursday.
Perhaps it was different for faithful believers before the crucifixion. 1 Peter 3:18-19; 1 Peter 4:6; Heb. 13:20
Peter said he was in hell, dead, in the grave. so having to choose between Peter and Pope....Peter ahead by miles and miles!
"TODAY YOU WILL BE WITH ME IN PARADISE" (Luke 23:43)
JESUS said to the thief, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” I’ll believe Jesus.
And we should all know that He was NOT in the tomb before the sun rose on the first day of the week that his Resurrection took place before sun set on what we now call Saturday.... Counting is a big requirement for Christians in these last days... it does not matter what the so call ‘church’ fathers had to say about the way to count.
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Took upon himself the sins of Man!
Died upon the Cross.
Placed within the Tomb
Resurrected on the 3rd day!
He is the way, the Truth and the Life!
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This is how I see it. (part of) Friday is one day, sundown Friday to sundown Sabbath is two days, and sundown “sunday” to the morning was the third day.
From my understanding he saved those cast to hell. I am not a biblical scholar nor wish to be invited to this but wanted to give an input.
so he is crucified, dies, was buried, before rising we see in scripture he goes to somewhere to preach to the imprisoned, again, WHAT IS THIS PLACE THEN?
OK I am not going to attempt to change your mind. BUT before in Matthew 12 when Christ Himself was letting the high and mighty religious leaders know what was what HE said that the 'sign' was of Jonas... (Jonah) So Christ made Jonah one and the same as the Gospel. And that Christ would be in the tomb the same amount of time as Jonas was in the whale's belly.
We all know that when the women went to check before the sun rose on the first day of the week Christ was NOT in the tomb. So NO part of Sunday day can be 'counted' in the length of time He was in the tomb. AND the 'first' day of the Days of Unleavened Bread is a HIGHT Sabbath. He was killed on Passover Day.
But there is nothing new under the 'sun' as Solomon wrote and people have the free will to believe whatever they choose.
The “Church” cannot count anything. A second is what
I have always wondered.
I DO agree with Wednesday.
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