The Apostle's Creed, Part 1
I grew up going to a Lutheran Church in Green Bay, Wisconsin. I went there all my life, but never really got a lot out of it. But I do remember saying a few things in unison with everyone at every church service. One of them was the Lord's Prayer, which most everyone knows, and the other one was the Apostle's Creed. At the time I agreed with most of it. Here's what the Apostle's Creed says:
"I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
Creator of Heaven and Earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.
He 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 into Hell.
On the third day he rose again,
and ascended into Heaven.
He is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen."
Its pretty straight forward. It states that I believe in God the Father who created Heaven and Earth, and in Jesus Christ His son, who was killed on a cross, died, was buried, and rose again. Its interesting to me that I had always straitforwardly believe that Christ had decended into Hell, then into Heaven three days later. Now, at first this confused me - why would a holy and perfect God need to go to Hell? Was it because He took on all our sins? But didn't they die when He died? It was very confusing.
Then I heard a sermon on this, and the pastor said that Jesus decended into Hell, not for punishment, but to bust the door down and say "Ok chaps, I'm here now and I've got the power. The Devil's no longer in control, because I've defeated Him just now on the cross. He's been allowed to endure for a time, but will soon be in here suffering his own fate. Now I hold the keys to Heaven and Hell."
But what does the Bible have to say about this? Its interesting that (to my knowledge) it makes no clear-cut reference to this. There are a few verses that hint at it:
Matthew 12:38-41
Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, "Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you." He answered, "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here."
This says that just as Jonah was in the dark belly of the fish, so Jesus will be in the "heart of the earth". Now, I don't know what that means exactly, but I supposed it could be translated as "Hell". The concordance wasn't too helpful. All it basically said was the "center of our land".
Romans 10: 5-8
"Moses describes in this way the righteousness that is by the law: "The man who does these things will live by them". But the righteousness that is by faith says: "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?'" (that is, to bring Christ down) "or 'Who will descend into the deep?'" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).
I think that this is mainly saying that if you live by the law, you cannot be saved. It says that living by the law would make Christ's death on the cross meaningless. But, it does make a reference to "bringing Christ down into the deep" or "up from the dead". But that might just be referring to death, and not some form of Hell. But I don't know.
Ephesians 4:7-10
"But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says:
"When he ascended on high,
he led captives in his train
and gave gifts to men."
(What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.)"
This does talk about "decending", but i don't think it necessarily means to Hell. It could just mean to Earth from Heaven, and taking on Human form to be a living example for us to follow, and to take our sin away on the cross.
1 Peter 3:18-20
For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.
This I find very interesting. It says that Jesus will preach to the "spirits in prision" who had died long ago. This one could be the best proof I found. I think this is saying that people who died before Christ came had judgement withheld to them until Jesus died on the cross. Then they were judged in some way - perhaps if they accepted or rejected Christ's message, now that is was made known. Perhaps "decended into Hell" therefore means that Christ hung out and chatted them up for three days before he rose from the dead. Any thoughts?
In researching this, I did find out some other people's view points on this. "To some, the descent into hell represents the physical agony of death upon the Cross - it was hellish in its pain. To others, the word hell means Hades or Sheol - collective abode of the dead, divided into Paradise or Abraham's Bosom (the state of God-fearing souls) and Gehenna (the state of ungodly souls). Thus the descent into hell may suggest that the Son of God carried the sins of the world to hell; or the Son of God carried Good News of deliverance to the godly dead such as Lazarus the beggar and the repentant thief. A third-century Syrian Creed speaks of Jesus, "who was crucified under Pontius Pilate and departed in peace, in order to preach to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the saints concerning the end of the world and the resurrection of the dead." Still others believe that the descent into hell accounts for the problem of God's justice by providing an opportunity for all mankind, in eternity as well as in time, to hear the message of redemption from the Word Himself." (taken from http://www.creeds.net/ancient/descendit.htm)
"I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
Creator of Heaven and Earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.
He 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 into Hell.
On the third day he rose again,
and ascended into Heaven.
He is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen."
Its pretty straight forward. It states that I believe in God the Father who created Heaven and Earth, and in Jesus Christ His son, who was killed on a cross, died, was buried, and rose again. Its interesting to me that I had always straitforwardly believe that Christ had decended into Hell, then into Heaven three days later. Now, at first this confused me - why would a holy and perfect God need to go to Hell? Was it because He took on all our sins? But didn't they die when He died? It was very confusing.
Then I heard a sermon on this, and the pastor said that Jesus decended into Hell, not for punishment, but to bust the door down and say "Ok chaps, I'm here now and I've got the power. The Devil's no longer in control, because I've defeated Him just now on the cross. He's been allowed to endure for a time, but will soon be in here suffering his own fate. Now I hold the keys to Heaven and Hell."
But what does the Bible have to say about this? Its interesting that (to my knowledge) it makes no clear-cut reference to this. There are a few verses that hint at it:
Matthew 12:38-41
Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, "Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you." He answered, "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here."
This says that just as Jonah was in the dark belly of the fish, so Jesus will be in the "heart of the earth". Now, I don't know what that means exactly, but I supposed it could be translated as "Hell". The concordance wasn't too helpful. All it basically said was the "center of our land".
Romans 10: 5-8
"Moses describes in this way the righteousness that is by the law: "The man who does these things will live by them". But the righteousness that is by faith says: "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?'" (that is, to bring Christ down) "or 'Who will descend into the deep?'" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).
I think that this is mainly saying that if you live by the law, you cannot be saved. It says that living by the law would make Christ's death on the cross meaningless. But, it does make a reference to "bringing Christ down into the deep" or "up from the dead". But that might just be referring to death, and not some form of Hell. But I don't know.
Ephesians 4:7-10
"But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says:
"When he ascended on high,
he led captives in his train
and gave gifts to men."
(What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.)"
This does talk about "decending", but i don't think it necessarily means to Hell. It could just mean to Earth from Heaven, and taking on Human form to be a living example for us to follow, and to take our sin away on the cross.
1 Peter 3:18-20
For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.
This I find very interesting. It says that Jesus will preach to the "spirits in prision" who had died long ago. This one could be the best proof I found. I think this is saying that people who died before Christ came had judgement withheld to them until Jesus died on the cross. Then they were judged in some way - perhaps if they accepted or rejected Christ's message, now that is was made known. Perhaps "decended into Hell" therefore means that Christ hung out and chatted them up for three days before he rose from the dead. Any thoughts?
In researching this, I did find out some other people's view points on this. "To some, the descent into hell represents the physical agony of death upon the Cross - it was hellish in its pain. To others, the word hell means Hades or Sheol - collective abode of the dead, divided into Paradise or Abraham's Bosom (the state of God-fearing souls) and Gehenna (the state of ungodly souls). Thus the descent into hell may suggest that the Son of God carried the sins of the world to hell; or the Son of God carried Good News of deliverance to the godly dead such as Lazarus the beggar and the repentant thief. A third-century Syrian Creed speaks of Jesus, "who was crucified under Pontius Pilate and departed in peace, in order to preach to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the saints concerning the end of the world and the resurrection of the dead." Still others believe that the descent into hell accounts for the problem of God's justice by providing an opportunity for all mankind, in eternity as well as in time, to hear the message of redemption from the Word Himself." (taken from http://www.creeds.net/ancient/descendit.htm)
posted by Laura Ibsen @ 11:35 AM
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