It is an established fact that Jesus went to hell after His death on the cross.\u00a0 The next question is, what did He do while He was in hell?\u00a0 The number one theory or doctrine concerning this matter is that Jesus went to hell to preach to the Old Testament saints.\u00a0 It\u2019s commonly taught that people of the Old Testament died prior to Jesus; therefore they never accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior. This was a great disadvantage to them because they never had an opportunity.\u00a0 The belief is that Jesus preached to them when He went to hell, giving them the same opportunity to accept Him as people in the New Testament<\/p>\n
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If this is true that Jesus gave them an opportunity to accept Him as Lord and Savior, then I submit to you that every person that died in the Old Testament is now in heaven.\u00a0 Consider the rich man that died and went to hell, how he wanted just a drop of water to cool his tongue; Luke 16:24, \u201c\u2026he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.\u201d\u00a0 Do you think this man or any man that is being tormented forever would refuse to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior if given the opportunity?<\/p>\n
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The teaching that Jesus gave Old Testament people and opportunity to accept Him, is based on 1 Pet. 3:19, \u201c\u2026he went and preached unto the spirits in prison.\u201d\u00a0 The only reason Jesus was in hell is that he died as a man; therefore He had to be judged; Heb. 9:27, \u201c\u2026it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.\u201d\u00a0 The people that died before Jesus had already sealed their fate.\u00a0 Consider Lazarus and the rich man, (Luke 16:19-31).\u00a0 Lazarus, being a righteous man was in a place of comfort when he died.\u00a0 On the other hand, the rich man being unrighteous was in a place of torment when he died. \u00a0Jesus is doing the speaking, so these men actually died prior to the crucifixion of Jesus.\u00a0 Their fate was sealed at their death.\u00a0 Some might say this story is a parable and not based on truth. Usually parables do not use people\u2019s names but this story uses names and it even make mention of Moses that had lived years earlier.<\/p>\n
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Yes, Jesus went to hell when He died, but He was not there in an effort to win souls.\u00a0 Jesus did all of His preaching before He died on the cross.\u00a0 The spirits that Jesus preached to was the people that were alive and well here on earth.\u00a0 They were the ones that are in prison because they were held captive by the law of sin and death; Rom. 8:2, \u201c\u2026the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Some say that Jesus descending into the lower parts of the earth is referencing Him going to hell; Eph. 4:9, \u201c\u2026what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth\u2026\u201d No, Jesus\u2019 mission was to descend from heaven to the planet earth, to preach to mankind while they are living so that they could repent; Mt. 4:17, \u201cFrom that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u201d<\/p>\n
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What did Jesus do in hell?\u00a0 He went to receive his judgment as a man because He was born of a woman.\u00a0 He did not preach to anyone in hell.\u00a0 Because hell could not find Him guilty, he took possession of the keys of hell and of death declaring all who repent to be free from the law of sin and death.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It is an established fact that Jesus went to hell after His death on the cross.\u00a0 The next question is, what did He do while He was in hell?\u00a0 The number one theory or doctrine concerning this matter is that Jesus went to hell to preach to the Old Testament saints.\u00a0 It\u2019s commonly taught that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-951","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epistleofchrist.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epistleofchrist.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epistleofchrist.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epistleofchrist.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epistleofchrist.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=951"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/epistleofchrist.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":952,"href":"https:\/\/epistleofchrist.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/951\/revisions\/952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epistleofchrist.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}