Why preach to the dead if their fate is sealed?
Perhaps it was different for faithful believers before the crucifixion. 1 Peter 3:18-19; 1 Peter 4:6; Heb. 13:20
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).
DelphiUser:
Because at some point in salvation history, before the Incarnation, the gates of heaven had been closed. Thus those who died in communion with God, while dead in the flesh, their spirits [which don’t die] were in prison. Thus, Christ went to the abode of the dead referred to as the “Spirits in Prison” (cf 1 Peter 3:18-20).
As the Iganatius Catholic Study Bible edited by Prof. Scott Hand and Curtis Mitch, published by Igantius Press indicates, this has been one of the most difficult passages to interpret throughout Christian history and there is no consensus of theological opinion among the Church Fathers. For example, the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible’s commentary [p.456] notes that St. Clement of Alexandria [150 to 215 AD] interpreted these verses to to mean that Christ, during the silence of Holy Saturday descended to the dead to make a final offer of salvation to deceased sinners of Noah’s time.
St. Augustine, as the Ignatius commentary notes, posited that Christ because of his prexistant Divinity, preached to the ancient world through the person of Noah urging sinners to repent before the flood.
My thoughts on this is that it is interesting that while St. Augustine’s theology has had a major influence on Catholic Doctrine and theology, this interpretation never was the dominate one.
The Ignatius Commentary points to St. Robert Bellarmine, who lived in the from 1542 to 1621 and was among the best Catholic biblical scholars of that era [ohh how the Jesuits use to be!] interpreted the passage similar to St. Clement of Alexandria as he reconnected it to Holy Saturday but he proposed that Christ descended to the dead to announce his salvation to those sinners who had privately repented before the onset of the flood.
The Ignatiuis commentary also notes that more modern Catholic Biblical scholars sugges that these “spirits in prison” may be fallen angels that are alluded to in 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6.
Now the Navarre Bible and Commentary points out that Some Church Fathers [e.g., St. Hippolytus of Rome] viewed the spirits in prison as the Just of the OT who were in the bosom of Abraham and were waiting for Christ Resurrection, etc.
1 Peter 4:6 also has the passage where Christ “preached the Gospel to the Dead”. Again, the Navarre Bible and Commentary suggest that it could mean the OT Just who are in the bosom of Abraham or alternatively, Christians who die before witnessing the final victory of Christ. Regardless, the Navarre Bible and commentary notes that 1 Peter 4:6 is clearly referring to those who have stayed true [persevered] to God.
In closing, the Bible does not specifically or clearly say where Christ went betwen his Crucifixion and Resurrection only that he went to preach to the abode of the dead and he also preached to the spirits of prison. The Church Fathers and Tradition give us some hints to where this is, so as a Catholic and also the Eastern Orthodox, we have some parameters of interpretation via Tradition and the Church Fathers, although there is also not one definitive interpretation.
Regards and hope this helps
As a Mormonism apologist, the least you could do is read the posted material before trying to divert the thread to your LDS agenda. The answer to your question —which obviously you want to challenge— is given in the excerpted portion of the homily.