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]
OK, I’m in. My understanding is that the people of the Old Testament were taken away by Jesus upon his death. (He had to die from this dimension to get there). God had discovered that Satan corrupted the Earth to which he was cast. He manifest himself here to understand and guide that which he created.
No where does scripture say He went INTO hell or that anyone was FREED as a result of His preaching. What did Peter mean ?? There are various thoughts to what Peter meant by Prison ... but the bottom line is we can not be sure until the day we get to ask Christ Himself ... but we do know He was in paradise when He died.. because he told us.
Some have speculated that because Jesus is the judge He preached not a message of evangelization but of judgement and final condemnation to the souls in hell ..
but what we know as “Sunday” started at sundown on Saturday night, so there was plenty of hours he was in the tomb on the first day.
Jesus is not the judge. His Father is. He answers for you.
(One need MUST read the whole chapter of Matthew 12 to get the flavor of the instruction.) Matthew 12:40 For as Jonas was three days and three night in the whale's bell; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
WHY was Christ so specific? He did not count a few hours here and there He said three days and three nights... HE knew when each 'new' day began. I contend He knew exactly what some would claim in the last 'days'.
“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?”
Please do not attribute my posts with words I have not written.
Christ is the judge. John 5:22.
The OT refers to “Abraham’s bosom”. I confess I really don’t know what that means.
Their fate was not sealed. Heaven was not yet open. As a result, these dead resided in Sheol and that is where Christ went to free them.
Scripture calls the abode of the dead, to which Christ descended, "hell" - Sheol in Hebrew or Hades in Greek - because those who are there are deprived of the vision of God. Such is the case for all the dead, whether evil or righteous, while they await the Redeemer: which does not mean that their lot is identical, as Jesus shows through the parable of the poor man Lazarus who was received into "Abraham's bosom"
"It is precisely these holy souls, who awaited their Savior in Abraham's bosom, whom Christ the Lord delivered when he descended into hell." 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. (ref. Matthew 27:51-53).
And the Father is the Son.
Sheol. (ref. Matthew 27:51-53)
There are two sets of offspring.
You make a good point. Here is another place where I believe that tradition breaks with the truth. When it was the time of Passover there were some years where there would be two Sabbaths in the same week.
Taking the body down from the cross before the Sabbath (before sunset) would seem to be Friday afternoon. But when the Gospel of John speaks of the high day (John 19:21) - I believe that it points to a ‘second sabbath’ which could have begun on Thursday at sunset.
Jesus’ prophecy of 3 days and 3 nights would be satisfied with the Thursday afternoon death.
Praise God for Jesus’ death and resurrection!
Can you please expound on this. And, why 40 days after conception?
Yes .. for that one soul only.
He accomplished quite a bit during that time. Satan had a stranglehold on Earth and God had to witness for himself what it was.
John 20 "17Jesus saith to her: Do not touch me, for I am not yet ascended to my Father. But go to my brethren, and say to them: I ascend to my Father and to your Father, to my God and your God."
Now I see here that Jesus is not in heaven. Yet by using the word "ascended" it looks like he is going to heaven. If he did not ascend to "my Father". It has to mean he did not go to heaven. The Father is in heaven. If He was in heaven he would of saw God the Father. Thats what I see in the text.
See post #29.
Very powerful.
Why do doctors gestation of a baby is 40 weeks and then turn around and say a woman’s pregnancy only lasts 9 months? Last time I check 40 weeks was 10 months.
The rabbis say that a human being does not get a soul until the 40th day after conception.
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