1 Peter 3:18-20 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine long-suffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.
The first thing that Jesus did after He was Crucified, was descend into Hell and preach to those who died during the flood of Noah.
Peter reminds us that only eight people believed the Lord at the time Noah was building the ark for 100 years. When the time came to enter the Ark and be sheltered from God’s judgment, only the members of Noah’s family actually believed God and went into the Ark.
It has been estimated by mathematicians, that at the time the flood of Noah occurred, there could have conservatively been over six billion people on the earth. Computing the explosion of population that occurred from the creation of Adam, to the time of Noah, people were living up to nine hundred plus years.
The following is an illustration of how quickly the earth’s population could have grown from Adam to Noah, using a very conservative life span of just 70 years:
- If we take a Mother and Father who have 4 children, who themselves each have 4 children.
- The average age at marriage being 25.
- 4 children are born by the age of 35.
- The average life span being 70 years.
- A Generation lasting 35 years.
After 5 Generations there would be 96 people from the original family of 4. After 10 Generations: 3,070 After 15 Generations: 98,300 After 20 Generations: 3, 150,000 After 30 Generations: 3,220,000,000 After 31 Generations: 6.5 billion.
The total amount of time for these 31 generations is just 1,050 years.
The Algebraic calculation used to compute this date is from the following formula:
Remember that this is an ultra conservative calculation because we only allowed for a lifespan of just 70 years, when men lived from the creation of Adam to Noah, as much as 900 plus years. In the above calculation we used 31 generations for a total of 1,050 years. The actual time period from Adam to Noah was about 2,500 years.
If we use a life span of 900 years and a total time period of 2,500 years, at the time of the flood, the population could have been in excess of 137 billion people! Taking into consideration wars, disasters and other catastrophic events, it is not unreasonable to expect that the population of the earth was more than 6 billion people at the time of Noah’s flood.
Getting back to our story: Jesus is crucified, He descends into Hell. He is preaching to more than 6 billion souls that are held in this place awaiting judgement. They are in hell because they would not believe God’s warning of Judgment if they did not turn from their sin in repentance and enter the ark.
Isaiah recorded that Jesus also had another purpose in Descending into Hell.
Isaiah 61:1-2 “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, And the day of vengeance of our God…”
Incidentally, this is the exact verse that Jesus quoted from before the leaders in the synagogue at Nazareth. Jesus stated that this prophecy from Isaiah was being fulfilled as He spoke. Jesus was making it clear that He was the one Isaiah was talking about when he wrote this verse 700 years before.
Luke 4:18-21 “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him, And Jesus began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.“
Jesus came to “Proclaim Liberty to the Captives and the opening of the prison to those who were bound”. What “Captives“, were Jesus and Isaiah talking about? Those that had died before Jesus came and Made His ONE Sacrifice for all of our sins.
In the Old Testament, “Hell” is called “Sheol”. Before Jesus came, “Sheol”, or “Hell” had two compartments, one for the righteous, one for the unrighteous.
Before Jesus made His sacrifice on the Cross, everyone that died in the Old Testament went into one of two places:
One compartment called “Abraham’s Bosom”, A place of comfort for those who died believing in the future promise of Jesus’ sacrifice for their sins.
A Second compartment, A place of Torment, for those who died that had rejected the promise of Jesus’ sacrifice for their sins called “Tartarus”.
At the end of the 1,000-year reign of Jesus Christ on the earth, there will be the Great White Throne Judgment. (Rev 21) At the end of that Judgment, those held in “Tartarus”, will be cast into “Ghenna”, “The lake of Fire”.
Tartarus appears to be for the Soul and Spirit. Ghenna appears to be for the Body soul and Spirit.
The following is a simple illustration that I drew many years ago to show what happened to those who died in the old testament, before Jesus came to make His sacrifice for sins:
Jesus Himself tells the story of these 2 compartments in Luke chapter 16:
Luke 16:19-31 There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, siring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. “Then he 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.’ But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’ Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’ Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses (Law) and the prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’ ”
Remember that this is Jesus describing this story. He describes Hell as a real place where people are alive, feel pain, regret for their decision to not believe God, and have no possibility of leaving Hell ever.
In Hebrews chapter 9, we learned that when Jesus died and descended into Hell, He preached to all those who died in the flood that would not believe God. Then Jesus “Ascended” back into heaven. When He did, He took with Him, all those Old testament believers who were waiting for the promise of God to send a Savior, to make atonement for their sins so that they could enter heaven.
Just as all those in the old testament could not enter heaven until their sins were judged and removed by Jesus sacrifice, so also can no person today enter heaven without the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 4:7-9 Therefore He says: “When Jesus ascended on high, (Back to Heaven) He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men.”
Jesus took with Him to heaven, all the Old Testament believers. He then closed the compartment called Abraham’s bosom forever. The second compartment that is refered to today called “Hell” is still open for business and is the holding place of everyone who rejects the sacrifice of Jesus Christ during their lifetime on earth.
On this Saturday between Palm Sunday last week, Jesus’ crucifixion on thursday, and the Resurrection tomorrow morning, Jesus was in Hell preaching to those who were formerly disobedient to God’s warning and perished during the great flood of Noah.
If you read the recent article called “Palm Sunday: A Day Chosen Out of Eternity“, you learned that Jesus was announced as the Messiah on the 10th day of the Hebrew calendar month of Nisan. This was the exact day that the Passover Lamb in the book of Exodus was to be inspected for defects before being offered four days later of the following Thursday, the 14th of Nisan.
Jesus as the fulfillment of the Passover Lamb was presented for inspection on the 10th of Nisan, Sunday April 6, 32 A. D. and was crucified four days later on Thursday the 14th day of Nisan, April 10, 32 A.D.
As we contemplate the immenseness of Jesus’ arrival on Earth, His submission to the Father at the Cross for our sins, and His descent into Hell to preach to the captives held there, we are stunned by God’s plan of Salvation once and for all delivered to all people.
Rob Robinson
