Where was Jesus for the three days

[Jennifer Rogers]

There are a number of views given such as:

​

One popular view (first view) is that Jesus went to hell during the three-day period His body was sealed in the tomb. This is based on the following scriptures:
1.“He was not left in hell (Hades, Hell) – this is explained as He entered and then came out, and His flesh saw no corruption.” (Acts 2:31), however, He was resurrected afterward.
2. Peter said that Jesus preached to “souls in prison.” (1 Pet 3:19). This verse is inferred that He went to hell to preach.
3. The apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:8-9, “Therefore it is written:
He ascended to a high place, leading many captives, And give graces to mankind.
Now, what do the words "He ascended" mean, did not He also descend into the lowlands of the earth?" At that time some believers believed that Jesus brought all the souls of the dead believers from their place in the Sheol (taken from "Sheol" and attributed to the meaning of hell) and brought them to heaven with Him because they had to wait for His death and resurrection before they could enter heaven. “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who sleep.” (1 Cor 15:20) Fruits of the spirit wall art
4. The Apostles' Creed declares that: Jesus has come down to the grave.
5. Some believers hold that no one can enter heaven until Jesus died, resurrected, and ascended to heaven (1 Cor 15:20; John 14:3)
6. The Word-Faith movement added unorthodox teaching to this view. They claim that Jesus defeated Satan in hell, and then He was born again.
Many Bible scholars believe that when Jesus died on the cross, His spirit ascended to heaven to be with the Father for three days before His resurrection and return to earth ( second point of view). This group is based on the following scriptures:
1. “Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Father, into your hands I leave my spirit! As soon as he finished speaking, he stopped breathing." (Luke 23:36). Thus the soul of Jesus returned to the Father after His death on the cross.
2. Jesus said to the robber as He was hung on the cross, “Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” ) either translates as the garden of joy or translates as heaven (Luke 23:43). This is explained as Jesus went to heaven (Paradise) after He died on the cross. They also interpret Paradise here as the third heaven when compared with Paul's words: “I know a man in Christ who, fourteen years ago, was taken up to the third heavens. (either in the body or out of the body, I don't know, God knows).” (2 Cor 12:2)
3. In the Old Testament Enoch was taken to heaven and did not have to experience death (Genesis 5:4; Heb 11:5).
4. Elijah was also taken to heaven like Enoch (2 Kings 2:1).
When we look at the first point of view, we can see:
1. “The lower regions of the earth” (Ephesians 4:9) do not refer to hell (as opposed to below earth in Philippians 2:10) but to the tomb where Jesus' body is located sealed.
2. The apostles' creed was not written with the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. The first version of this article does not include the phrase “He descended into the underworld….”
3. The word hell is not an accurate translation of the word “grave” used in Psalm 16:10-11 and Acts 2:31. We also refer to the EHV English Bible.

“Because God will not leave my soul in the grave (Vietnamese version translated as Hades)
Nor do you let God's holy people see corruption." (Ps 16:10)
“He was not left in the grave (the Vietnamese version of the KT translated this place as Hades), and His flesh did not see corruption.” (Acts 2:31)
“he saw what was coming and spoke about the resurrection of Christ, saying that he was neither abandoned to the grave nor did his flesh see decay.” (Acts 2:31 EHV)
Peter used this verse to announce Christ's resurrection from the Sheol, not to say that the Lord's spirit had gone to hell.
4. When Paul wrote, “Therefore it is written, He ascended to a high place, and led many captives,” (Ephesians 4:8), he may not have meant bringing up souls. to heaven because believers are not exiles. The apostle was referring to Christ defeating the devil (Read Colossians 2 and Hebrews 2) and proclaiming His victory over hostile forces through resurrection power.
5. Jesus defeated Satan through death (Heb 2:14) and through resurrection (Romans 4:25) rather than defeating Satan in hell. Before the hour of his crucifixion, Jesus said, “Now is the judgment of this world, and now the rulers of this world must be cast out.” (John 12:31). And then when He was hung on the cross He announced, "It is finished." (John 19:30; Heb 1:3)
6. “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who sleep.” (1 Cor 15:20). This means that no one can take a resurrected body and go to heaven until Christ is resurrected. But this does not mean that the spirit of man cannot enter heaven before the resurrection of Christ. After all, Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8; Ephesians 1:4). In God's plan salvation is an event that was accomplished even before Jesus had to die, because "God knows the end from the beginning." (Isaiah 46:10)
7. Peter writes that Jesus preaching to imprisoned souls does not mean that this preaching occurred between the death and resurrection of the Lord. The context of the verse is, “And Christ also died for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, to lead us unto God; in the flesh, He died, but in the spirit, He was resurrected. It was by the same soul that he went and preached to the souls in prison, the former rebellious, about the days of Noah…” (1 Peter 3:18-20). The text here makes it clear that after He was "resurrected" (resurrected), He preached to "the souls in prison, the former rebellious." When Peter wrote these words he was probably referring to Jesus' victory over demonic powers (Ephesians 4:8; Colossians 2:15).

 

[eddif]

Short answer:
In the grave Abraham’s bosom teaching the Gospel (good news) to those who qualified to be there. Probably turned Abraham’s bosom into a paradise as he handed out white robes to those who believed, and told them to wait a while longer. The thief would have been one of the hearers. The people would have been raised from looking for the Messiah to finding out Jesus was the Messuah.

John 20:16 kjv
16. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.
17. “Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

There may be other scriptures to explain more.

Colossians 2:14 kjv
14. Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
15. And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

After a post or two I may find out how you will handle comments. Take some time answering, before another long post.

eddif

 

[Jennifer Rogers]

Short answer:
In the grave Abraham’s bosom teaching the Gospel (good news) to those who qualified to be there. Probably turned Abraham’s bosom into a paradise as he handed out white robes to those who believed, and told them to wait a while longer. The thief would have been one of the hearers. The people would have been raised from looking for the Messiah to finding out Jesus was the Messuah.

John 20:16 kjv
16. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.
17. “Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

There may be other scriptures to explain more.

Colossians 2:14 kjv
14. Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
15. And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

After a post or two I may find out how you will handle comments. Take some time answering, before another long post.

eddif

Thanks for the reply, I'll pay attention to what you say. God bless you!

 

[eddif]

Thanks for the reply, I'll pay attention to what you say. God bless you!

2 Timothy 3:16 kjv
16. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

To quote opinions of men ( some of error without correcting those errors) runs the risk of teaching / introducing error. Growth requires a correct diet. I am not talking of foods we eat, but the word of God and not the word of man.

eddif

 

[T. E. Smith]

Hmm. It's odd that given that "God is not an author of confusion", so many people will read the same Bible but can't come to an agreement on this intriguing topic.

1 Pet. 3 definitely lends huge support to the first view. But the statement to the robber gives great support to the second. Perhaps there were different opinions among the biblical authors?

 

[T. E. Smith]

By the way, "Abraham's bosom" is heaven. Contrary to the claims made in the bizarre theology of the Harrowing of Hell, Abraham was not in Hell.

 

[eddif]

By the way, "Abraham's bosom" is heaven. Contrary to the claims made in the bizarre theology of the Harrowing of Hell, Abraham was not in Hell.

IMHO Abraham was in the grave, but the better part (paradise?). The rich man was in the worse section (torment). Lazarus was comforted near Abraham.

Never read the harrowing. I just read the Lazarus and rich man Jesus described. Sounds like prison.

eddif

 

[tim-from-pa]

I'll give you a clue what I believe. Man sleeps until he is resurrected. Same with Christ until the Father resurrected him again. He was then the firstborn among many brethren. He went from a flesh body to a glorified one raised by the Spirit. Whenever I read the bible, that's the same hope of the believer in Christ.

 

[eddif]

I'll give you a clue what I believe. Man sleeps until he is resurrected. Same with Christ until the Father resurrected him again. He was then the firstborn among many brethren. He went from a flesh body to a glorified one raised by the Spirit. Whenever I read the bible, that's the same hope of the believer in Christ.

Which is a very well accepted thought. What do you do with all the activity in the rich man and Lazarus? What about the location and defined constraints?

Jesus returned to his glory in heaven seated by the Father, and not the resurrection?

I am trying to deal with the scripture that seems to deal with the situation.

eddif

 

[T. E. Smith]

I am thinking that it is theologically important to the NT's authors that whatever happened to Jesus must be the same as what happens to every other human.

 

[tim-from-pa]

Which is a very well accepted thought. What do you do with all the activity in the rich man and Lazarus? What about the location and defined constraints?

Jesus returned to his glory in heaven seated by the Father, and not the resurrection?

I am trying to deal with the scripture that seems to deal with the situation.

eddif

The rich man and Lazarus was a parable. Jesus spoke in parables and were not as actually stated. For example, the parable of the man who sold everything he had to buy a field for the treasure in the field did not mean that Jesus came down to actually buy a field for treasure, but rather it all represented a certain truth. Parables were so that people could not understand and would filter out those spiritually discerning from those who did not understand, or maybe even took them at face value. Note he had to often explain them to even his own disciples. For example, when Jesus said beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, they thought he meant literal bread and because they did not bring their own.

 

[eddif]

The rich man and Lazarus was a parable. Jesus spoke in parables and were not as actually stated. For example, the parable of the man who sold everything he had to buy a field for the treasure in the field did not mean that Jesus came down to actually buy a field for treasure, but rather it all represented a certain truth. Parables were so that people could not understand and would filter out those spiritually discerning from those who did not understand, or maybe even took them at face value. Note he had to often explain them to even his own disciples. For example, when Jesus said beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, they thought he meant literal bread and because they did not bring their own.

I am not sure that the rich man and Lazarus was a parable. If the multitude was present it was a parable. If it was told to 90% disciples it may be an actual event. I will look and see if I can tell. He said nothing to the multitude except by a parable

Thanks

eddif

 

[daninthelionsden]

Hmm. It's odd that given that "God is not an author of confusion", so many people will read the same Bible but can't come to an agreement on this intriguing topic.

1 Pet. 3 definitely lends huge support to the first view. But the statement to the robber gives great support to the second. Perhaps there were different opinions among the biblical authors?

Trying to interpret the Word with so many levels of spiritual maturity/understanding breeds confusion.

 

[eddif]

Trying to interpret the Word with so many levels of spiritual maturity/understanding breeds confusion.

Or it gives answers to each persons level of understanding.

eddif

 

[daninthelionsden]

Or it gives answers to each persons level of understanding.

eddif

Agreed. This is why each person's viewpoint should be appreciated so, as together as a body, we may become enlightened by the Holy Spirit to see that which the Lord reveals through His Word.

 

[Hidden In Him]

Hmm. It's odd that given that "God is not an author of confusion", so many people will read the same Bible but can't come to an agreement on this intriguing topic.

God isn't the author of confusion, but Satan is. He is the father of lies, and the problem is that he and his demons have been inciting men to false doctrine ever since the early church age, in order to contradict and bring into question the original teachings of the church.

The Lord knows those who are His, however, and those who hold to accurate teaching will be given greater positions of honor in eternity than those who succumbed to deception, and became convinced that the lies were truth in their spiritual blindness (2 Timothy 2:20-22).

The harrowing of Hades was the original teaching of the early church.

 

[Hidden In Him]

Many Bible scholars believe that when Jesus died on the cross, His spirit ascended to heaven to be with the Father for three days before His resurrection and return to earth ( second point of view). This group is based on the following scriptures:

Greetings, sister! This would be one place where we disagree with each other, and pretty strongly I'm afraid. The harrowing of Hades forms a significant part of Paul's theology throughout the New Testament, and teachers of the word go completely askew if they reject it. So let me address your points one by one to show where I believe you are in error.

As Eddif pointed out, John 20:16-17 contradicts the view that He ascended to the Father immediately upon death. As Jesus stated in that passage, He was telling the disciples after He had already arisen that He had not yet ascended to be with the Father.

1. “Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Father, into your hands I leave my spirit! As soon as he finished speaking, he stopped breathing." (Luke 23:36). Thus the soul of Jesus returned to the Father after His death on the cross.

This is merely a presumption, however, and should not be used to base a theological premise on. Jesus committed His Spirit into the hands of His Father because He knew He was not only about to die but also descend into the Paradise side of Sheol in the Underworld, where until that time no man had ever arisen. But as He prophesied, the Gates of Hades did not prevail against either Him or the church. The Old Testament saints in captivity in the Underworld are led captive by Him into Third Heaven after His resurrection.

3. In the Old Testament Enoch was taken to heaven and did not have to experience death (Genesis 5:4; Heb 11:5).

Neither of these verses state specifically that Enoch was taken to Heaven, however. They only state that he didn't see death. Without definitive statements to the effect that he was taken directly to Heaven, there isn't enough justification to conclude he went anywhere other than where everyone else was going before the resurrection; to the Paradise side of Sheol.

1. “The lower regions of the earth” (Ephesians 4:9) do not refer to hell (as opposed to below earth in Philippians 2:10) but to the tomb where Jesus' body is located sealed.

The idea that by the "lower parts of the earth" the Lord Jesus merely went six feet under doesn't fit the context well either, and is inconsistent with the thrust of the passage. It reads as follows:

9 (Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?10 He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)

Paul was here juxtapositioning descending to the depths of the Underworld against His ascending "far above all the heavens." That he would be saying Jesus only descended six feet one way but far above the highest heavens in the other undermines the entire thrust of the passage.

2. The apostles' creed was not written with the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. The first version of this article does not include the phrase “He descended into the underworld….”

Not quite sure what you were saying here, but the Apostles Creed reflects this same juxtaposition clearly, in keeping with Paul's teaching:

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
and born of the virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
He descended to Hell.
The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended to Heaven
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.
From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

3. The word hell is not an accurate translation of the word “grave” used in Psalm 16:10-11 and Acts 2:31. We also refer to the EHV English Bible.

“Because God will not leave my soul in the grave (Vietnamese version translated as Hades)
Nor do you let God's holy people see corruption." (Ps 16:10)
“He was not left in the grave (the Vietnamese version of the KT translated this place as Hades), and His flesh did not see corruption.” (Acts 2:31)
“he saw what was coming and spoke about the resurrection of Christ, saying that he was neither abandoned to the grave nor did his flesh see decay.” (Acts 2:31 EHV)
Peter used this verse to announce Christ's resurrection from the Sheol, not to say that the Lord's spirit had gone to hell.

The Greek word used in Acts 2:31 is literally "Hades," and evidence is abundant throughout both the NT and Greek OT that this word was understood to mean the living abode of the dead in the afterlife. In the supposed "parable" of Lazarus, the rich man is lifting up his eyes in Hades, and asks Abraham for cold water because he is suffering in the heat. If this is merely a parable, it would have Jesus supporting a heretical and false doctrine by using it. Jacob in his sadness declares that in dying he will "go to his son" Joseph in Hades. This would be no comfort either if it were just a metaphor and not something he would actually experience (Genesis 37:35). Later in the prophets, Isaiah prophesies how the whole of Hades would be in an uproar expecting to receive the King of Babel (Isaiah 14:9), and the King of Egypt would go to Hades after death to meet those who were killed and were there before him (Ezekiel 31:17), and that they speak out of the midst of Hades about what would happen to Pharaoh (Ezekiel 32:27).

Many more evidences I could cite here in regard to the Old and New Testament teaching on Hades, but I will leave it with the above for now.

4. When Paul wrote, “Therefore it is written, He ascended to a high place, and led many captives,” (Ephesians 4:8), he may not have meant bringing up souls. to heaven because believers are not exiles. The apostle was referring to Christ defeating the devil (Read Colossians 2 and Hebrews 2) and proclaiming His victory over hostile forces through resurrection power.

The trouble here is, where would Christ have been leading the Devil to? Up unto Heaven with Him? The context suggests that Jesus led these captives with Him up into Heaven after the resurrection, and the Devil would have no place in Heaven. Only the saints would. “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.”

5. Jesus defeated Satan through death (Heb 2:14) and through resurrection (Romans 4:25) rather than defeating Satan in hell. Before the hour of his crucifixion, Jesus said, “Now is the judgment of this world, and now the rulers of this world must be cast out.” (John 12:31).

Again this is presumption. 30 Jesus answered and said, “This voice did not come because of Me, but for your sake. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out (future tense)." The word "now" here is essentially in reference to "now that the sacrifice is about to be made for the redemption of mankind from Hades, and now that they will be delivered from Hades into Heaven, the next step in God's judgment will be for Satan to be cast out of the heavens to the earth in preparation for judgment upon the kingdom of the Antichrist." Both these events are referred to in Revelation, but the judgment upon the kingdom of the Beast did not occur during New Testament times; it still lay ahead of us, as does the hour when Michael and his angels will cast Satan and his demons down to the earth, and Satan will realize that his time is now short because of it (Revelation 12:1-17)

Continued next post...

 

[Hidden In Him]

6. “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who sleep.” (1 Cor 15:20). This means that no one can take a resurrected body and go to heaven until Christ is resurrected. But this does not mean that the spirit of man cannot enter heaven before the resurrection of Christ. After all, Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8; Ephesians 1:4). In God's plan salvation is an event that was accomplished even before Jesus had to die, because "God knows the end from the beginning." (Isaiah 46:10)

On this one we agree.

7. Peter writes that Jesus preaching to imprisoned souls does not mean that this preaching occurred between the death and resurrection of the Lord. The context of the verse is, “And Christ also died for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, to lead us unto God; in the flesh, He died, but in the spirit, He was resurrected. It was by the same soul that he went and preached to the souls in prison, the former rebellious, about the days of Noah…” (1 Peter 3:18-20). The text here makes it clear that after He was "resurrected" (resurrected), He preached to "the souls in prison, the former rebellious." When Peter wrote these words he was probably referring to Jesus' victory over demonic powers (Ephesians 4:8; Colossians 2:15).

Oooh... I have a strong word of advice for you here, Jennifer. In other respects you are a pretty solid teacher of the word, but be very careful about using paraphrased or near-paraphrased "translations" of scripture. Whatever version you are using there should be discarded as far as rightly dividing the word is concerned. Paraphrased Bibles are ok for beginners in the faith, but a disaster for those assuming the responsibility of teaching others the oracles of God. One single word loosely translated can lead to the development of completely erroneous suppositions, let alone a whole slew of them in just one passage, and the actual text in the original there varies greatly from that rendering in a number of places. A more exacting rendering would be as follows, and there are particular words used there that make it evident he was not talking about Jesus preaching after the resurrection but before it.

18 For Christ also died once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh but made alive in the Spirit, 19 in which also, having gone, He preached to the spirits in prison...

This is more precise. The preposition "by" is not supplied in the Greek - in fact no preposition is supplied at all in that clause - but the word "in" is supplied in the next (in the phrase "in which also"), which means the writer intended for it to be inferred as the preposition he was using in the former. Thus, the text is stating that when Jesus went to preach to the spirits (not souls) in prison, He did so while He was still in the Spirit. Moreover, the reason the Greek uses the words "spirits" there and not "souls" is specifically to delineate that Peter was not talking about Jesus preaching to people on the earth. Those he was preaching to now were disembodied spirits, having passed from this life, and now awaiting the time of the resurrection when they would receive their physical bodies back.

 

[Hidden In Him]

and the King of Egypt would go to Hades after death to meet those who were killed and were there before him (Ezekiel 31:17), and that they speak out of the midst of Hades about what would happen to Pharaoh (Ezekiel 32:27).

Jennifer Rogers,

Sorry, sister. I meant Ezekiel 32:21, not Ezekiel 32:27.

 

[BB1956]

T. E. Smith said,
Hmm. It's odd that given that "God is not an author of confusion", so many people will read the same Bible but can't come to an agreement on this intriguing topic.[/QUOTE\]

I don't believe it's odd if you remember what Jesus said that there will be wheat and weeds, and sheep and goats. The weeds and goats who will honestly believe they are true Christians, will be believing and teaching a different gospel that's not of the Bible, although they will honestly believe that what they're believing and teaching is the truth from the Bible. The weeds and goats will even expel true Christians from the synagogues and even kill some and honestly believe they're doing a sacred service for the true God.
So it's not odd that different people will read the same Bible but can't come to an agreement about the truth that's in the Bible and about who God is, and what the truth is about God's only begotten son.