He Descended into Hell

The backdoor, where people exit the sanctuary into the hallway (foyer) and then into the parking lot, is becoming quite interesting for me.  I am a pastor and at the end of our worship time on Sundays, stand at the backdoor and greet each person who has come to worship that day.  It does not present the opportunity for lengthy conversations, but it gives me a chance to touch our church family.  I have my role in the family and a crucial part for me is to be connected as much as possible to everyone.

So there I stood, at my backdoor post, and one of our faithful members said, “A visitor just asked me a question: does the pastor believe Hell is a place?”  Then she looked at me expectantly.   I was to give an answer she would relay to the visitor.  I immediately thought this visitor wants a “right answer.”  But, I don’t know what that is.  Even if I did, I would have to give my honest answer, not what she thought was the “right” answer.   If she did not come back because of disagreement over my views of Hell, so be it.  I have to say what I truly feel.

What bothered me that day was my own lack of certainty.  I was not 100% sure what I believed.  That took me and our church down the road of a 7-part sermon series on the Afterlife.  Now, we are several weeks in, past the ‘Hell discussions,’ and it happened at the back door again! 

One of our elders said, “I was really hoping you’d talk about the creed where it says, “And he descended into Hell.”  He smiled and I smiled.  He is a man full of grace and if I just leave this alone, I know he’ll leave me alone.  But I have come to believe God is speaking to me through these backdoor conversations. 

Our church does not say the creeds and I am so unfamiliar with the Apostle’s Creed that I could not recite it from memory.  But I was already aware of that line.  I had been asked about it before, years earlier in my work as a pastor.  I really did not know either when I was asked in previous years, or this past Sunday.  On the face of it, it does not make sense to me that Jesus, sinless as He was and victorious over death, would have descended to Hell.  But, things are not true based on whether or not they make sense to me.  Did Jesus descend to Hell as the creed states?

It is important to note that as powerful as the creed is, for Protestants, it is post-canonical.  This means it is not on the same level of power or authority as scripture.  One can read and pose the question, does this in any conflict with the Bible?  This is a legitimate exercise. 

The results of an internet search are varied.  As with any Google search, there is a lot of material out there, but I did find an article in a source I trust – Christianity Today magazine.  The author is Millard Erickson, theology professor at Truett Theological Seminary.  [i]

Erickson reviews several possible interpretations of the line “he descended into Hell.”  First, it may simply be a way of stating Jesus was fully dead.  According to the cosmology of the day, Hell was literally in the earth or “under” the earth.  If Jesus was buried, where else would He be but in Hell? Erickson says this view seems to be supported by Acts 2:31.  This view is along the lines of thought offered by Luke Timothy Johnson in his book The Creed: What Christians Believe and Why it Matters (2003).[ii]

Another view described by Erickson is that the descent comes in the pre-incarnate form of Jesus, the Spirit of Jesus, speaking through the prophets, specifically Noah.  Erickson cites 1 Peter 1:11 for support.  There it says His spirit was in the prophets.  And 1 Peter 3:18-20 indicates that Jesus “went and preached to spirits in prison” and these were those who were “disobedient in the days of Noah” (3:20).

Thus from Erickson, two views stand out.  That Jesus “descended” simply means he was fully dead; or, he went to the world of the dead, referred to as “Hell,” in order to preach.  Does this allow for post-death conversation and salvation?  Not necessarily as there are numerous nuanced explanations for what it means that Jesus descended.  Besides that, Erickson and other sites refer to many other possibilities for what it could mean to say Jesus descended to Hell.  One suggests his time in Hell is his time of suffering.  Only in this was can he take the place of sinners in death.[iii]

In addition to the references from Acts and 1^st Peter and the allusion to Noah, other Bible passages sought out in this conversation include Luke 16:19-31; Philippians 2:5-11; Ephesians 4:8-10; and readings from Job and the Psalms.  But, there is no uniformity of thought.  And to take any of these passages or any combination of these to reach conclusions requires several hermeneutic steps.  It is a worthwhile process, but for me it is unresolved.

I believe that the lack of a unifying theme means there are realities we will not know this side of Heaven and we may never know.  I do not think that because the Apostle’s Creed states “He descended into Hell,” we can conclude Jesus spent time in a fiery abyss being tortured either by God or by Satan.  Nothing in the Bible indicates that narrative.  However, nothing in the Bible completely rules it out either.  The fact that the Bible clearly indicates that Jesus claimed victory over death to me rules against the thought of Jesus in some kind of Hell.

The Creed is an ancient one. Even the English translation is quite old.  To say “Hell” does not mean what we mean when we say “Hell.”  Our study of Hell has been of a future punishment. Whatever Jesus experienced on the day of crucifixion and until his resurrection, it is not akin to a future punishment for sin.  Thus, whatever the Creed means to say, I cannot affirm that Jesus suffered helplessly in Hell.  In all places, He is Lord.  Demons cower before Him. 

I am happy to state that the Bible does not point us toward speculation.  Rather, the Bible assures us that if we are in Christ then we will become new creations and together, we stand on Judgment Day as the church, the spotless bride of Christ.  We face an eternity with him.  Hell is something we’ll never experience.   Even though this conversation is not about that, it is a fitting last word.

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[i] http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2000/february7/31.74.html?start=2

[ii] Johnson, p.174-5.

[iii] http://questions.org/attq/does-scripture-imply-that-jesus-descended-into-hell-after-his-death/

Declared Innocent (Hebrews 10:1-10)

You’re in a tough graduate school class – the subject matter is really advanced and the professor has high expectations. There are numerous quizzes but the major portion of the final grade is determined by the three exams. You must make at least a ‘C’ in this class to earn your degree. It is a required course. Going along, you do alright on the quizzes, making 9 out of 10 most of the time. But you’re nervous on the day of the first exam and with good reason. It is comprehensive. Everything that was covered in the course to that point is on this exam. The professor is tough, remember?

You fail it badly! Now what? You have to have this class. Your score was so low, mathematically it will just about take a miracle for you to pass. Even if you ace the next couple of exams – and oh by the way the material is getting more and more difficult –you’re still not sure it will pull your grade up to a passing grade. And you cannot see how you will possibly ace the exams. Your performance to this point has made that prospect pretty doubtful. The failing grade sticks to you. It clings and won’t release you. The ‘F’ in the class, or ‘D’ if you’re lucky, affects your overall GPA. And you will have to retake the class and pass it to graduate. Even though you admitted your failure, admission is no help. You have to make up for it.

This exact scenario happened to one of my best friends in seminary. We were required to pass one semester of Biblical Hebrew, the language of the Old Testament. The story is exactly as I laid it out. My friend made something like a 37 out of 100 on the first Hebrew exam. He and I had an emotional talk about him dropping out of seminary and giving up the dream of being a pastor. He knew he couldn’t pull that grade up. The professor knew it too, and he called my friend into his office.

My buddy was shaking in his shoes as he approached that meeting. He was a wreck. Surprisingly, this hard core academic professor was kind. He was pastoral. He said to my friend, “You’re averaging between 85 and 90 on your quizzes and you never miss class. If we get past the anxiety, I think you can get at least a ‘C’ on the next two exams. If you promise never to try to go into ancient languages as a specialty, we will not count the first exam against your final grade.”

My friend had no hope. But then, because of the professor’s grace, he passed. The failing on the first exam was washed away and not counted against him.

From Hebrews 10:10, “We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.”

Sanctified means made holy as God is holy. Sin is what makes it impossible for a human being to be holy. Made in God’s image, declared very good at the creation, we have marred what God has made by worshiping that which is not God, by going our own way instead of God’s way, and by doing harm to one another and to ourselves in large and small ways. We all sin. Most of us make mistakes and in some form or fashion disobey God every day. We cannot ever, ever be holy. We have no place in God’s new heaven and new earth. We will be banished from that place, sent to outer darkness, because our sin sticks to us. But, like my seminary friend who had the professor, a notoriously strict prof, mercifully forgive an awful exam, through what Jesus did on the cross, ours are forgiven and forgotten. As verse 2 implies, when we are in Christ, we no longer have any consciousness of sin.

I realize that saved persons still sin. We all do. Even though Hebrews says we are made perfect, we know that beleivers aren’t perfect. Churchgoers are not better than other people. But we are free from sin’s clutches and consequences. With the Spirit in us, we have help, so we can commit fewer sins and do more good things, acts that show we are God’s service as he works at establishing His kingdom. Because of His grace and mercy, we get to be part of what God is doing.

At the risk of declaring the obvious, one of the reasons we are acceptable to God is Jesus takes care of our sins by taking the punishment on himself. Now in the post-crucifixion/post-resurrection world, the sins of all who trust in Jesus are erased. Yes, we sin, but those sins don’t count against us in God’s eyes, and it is because of Jesus.

Looking at Hebrews 10, especially the first five verses, and several other passages, the great reformer John Calvin in his monumental work Institutesdescribes an important distinction he sees in the passage. “In the Jewish ceremonies,” referred to in verses 1-6, “there was confession of sin rather than atonement for them.” Yes, the sins of individuals and the community were acknowledged. But as he reads Hebrews 10, Calvin says that in confession which happened in the old sacrificial system, “there was no release” from sin.

The sin was named and passed on to an animal that was then butchered. But that act did nothing for future sins and did nothing to change the status of the person. He or she was still a sinner, completely unable to be seen as holy in God’s presence.

Imagine the scene. You and I and all of us here are seated along with all others we have ever known. The room is large, but one by one we are called before God to be judged for all we have done in our lives. How many times have we spoken rudely? Or shouted “God,”only not in prayer but as an expression of anger or surprise? That would qualify as taking the Lord’s name in vain. How many times have we despised another human being or looked down on someone? Do these seem like nickel and dime sins? Maybe we could throw in pre-marital sex or cheating on an exam or gossip or gluttony. We might be tempted to be appalled that God would condemn someone for such fluff. But is it fluff, as it piles up over the course of a lifetime, year after year? Greed, selfishness, drunkenness, lust, sloth – without going into $20 and $50 sins like theft, rape, and murder, we can see we are indeed sinful and over the years we build up a sin record.

So, then our name is called and it is that sin record we carry in before God. It is on that record we stand when it is time for final judgment – a judgment that is repeatedly forecast in the Old Testament and the New. What do we say? O Lord, I went on 10 mission trips! But God, I gave not 10% to the church and other ministries, but 12% and some years even 15%. Our good deeds don’t outweigh our sins and even if someone did more good than bad, the bad is still there. The mistakes and times of disobedience and moments when we decided our way was better than God’s way or we just weren’t into the ‘god-thing’ right then – it all continues to soil the good creation God has made. In the renewed earth and new heaven, there will be no soiling, no spoiling, no polluting, no profaning – no sin. With our sin caked on us, we must go away. We cannot enter the kingdom. God won’t have us. We are banished to an outer, lonely, dark, miserable place.

A religion dependent on our ritual observance does nothing for us on that day. We’re only as cleaned as our most recent act of worship and even the admission of guilt does nothing to remove the guilt. Calvin juxtaposes the confession of sin that accompanied the worship rituals we read about in the Old Testament with the atonement Jesus achieves in his death on the cross. As Calvin holds side by side a sacrificial worship system and the sacrifice of Jesus, it becomes clear that Jesus’ death was a permanent solution whereas the sacrifice in the tabernacle or temple is only good until the person sins again.

Calvin says the people of faith from the Old Testament era were “partakers of grace” just as we are, but not because of their diligent worship practices but because of God’s love. God did not suddenly become loving and merciful. He has always been so. But the coming of Christ changed everything for everyone. Calvin’s point is not that Christians have a superior spirituality over Old Testament believers. His point is the sacrifice of one man one time – Jesus erases all sins for all time for those whom Calvin refers to as the elect. I believe – and I am sure I diverge from Calvin on this – any and all who turn to Jesus in faith are among the elect. God sent Jesus to die for the sins of all people. His grace is for all and all are intended to be elected by God. There is no limited atonement, at least not a pre-planned one. There is no irresistable grace. We choose to live in the election granted us when we bow before Jesus; we opt to increase our sin when we reject Jesus and thus reject God’s grace. God created us and sent Jesus to redeem us so we could be free from the sins we can’t shake even when we try. God chose us out of deep, deep love for us. When we choose to receive what God gives and live in faith, his Spirit fills us, we are born again, and we are free. We are free from guilt and free to live for God.

That means we are free to bask in God’s joy when we go on mission trips; we aren’t going to earn salvation. We’re going because Jesus earned our salvation and we know how good it is to be saved.

We are free to give our money and some among us experience God’s joy in a uniquely wonderful way when they give; all of us are freed and invited into the joy of sharing. We don’t give 10 or 12 or 20% of our incomes to earn salvation. We give because we have been saved and we want our financial gifts to empower the church and empower international ministries to carry the gospel of salvation to the world.

By God’s will, we have been sanctified – made right, made holy. Hebrews 10 takes us from the frustration of having to repeat worship rituals over and over to the declaration that we are made to be holy. Just as Jesus said before his death on the cross so we now repeat, “it is finished.”

The last day then is different than we previously imagined. Go there with me to the final scene, the very end. We’ve died, and in death, we’ve waited. In sort of sleep, or in a place called Paradise, we have waited for God’s final consummation, and it arrives – the final judgment when God sets all things right in the world. Along with all others that we know, we wait in a large room. Individual names are called, and one-by-one, we enter. Carrying the burden of a lifetime of sins, we know this isn’t going to go well.

Entering in fear, we are surprised to see Jesus himself, and even more surprised to see his smile as he welcomes us. Suddenly we remember a theological term – justification. In means the court rules in your favor, sees you to be in the right. Here, at your final judgment and mine, Jesus looks at us and rules in our favor. He sees us to be in the right. But what about God’s demand for holiness? What about our sins, our mistakes, and our failures? Jesus has it covered for us – all of us. Because he took on himself the penalty for all our sins and we put our trust in Him, we are sanctified and he declares us innocent.

It means we are free to enter His kingdom, inhabiting our resurrected bodies as we live in glorious relationship with God.

If we have confessed our sins and received Jesus into our hearts and acknowledged him as Lord, we know that’s how it will go. Obviously I don’t the specifics down, no one does. But at the judgment, because of what Jesus did for us, the verdict will go in our favor.

That future hope and future freedom frees us to live as Kingdom people, resurrection people, today. We are free from sin’s hold and death’s shadow. In the here and now, sin still hurts, but it doesn’t stick to us at all. We’re forgiven and made new. We are free to go on mission trips, give our money to God’s work, to invest our lives in loving people and sharing the gospel. We’re free to be completely sold-out for Jesus in every phase of life.

His verdict? Innocent of sin, holy before Lord. Knowing that, we are free to follow the Lord and do His work in the world right now.

AMEN

Judgment of the Empire

Do we participate in an unjust system? Americans use considerably more natural resources than do people in other countries. This is especially true of resources that produce technology and resources that produce luxury type foods. For instance, Americans eat more beef than do most people in the world, including those who live in beef exporting countries. Some countries have abandoned much of the farming necessary to feed their people (wheat, corn, maize, etc) in favor of producing sugar, tea, coffee, and cocoa, most of which they export to Western Europe and North America. They become “tea and beverage economies” where more people are barely making it, struggling to survive. Are Americans guilty of participation in an unjust system every time we enjoy the riches of the world, knowing most people, including those who worked 14-hour days to produce what we consume cannot themselves enjoy the produce of their labors?

In Revelation 18, we read of the funeral of Babylon (Babylon is the symbolic way John referred to the Roman Empire as it is existed in 90 AD). As a judgment of God, Rome would fall. Much of the language in Revelation 18 mirrors the prophets, especially Jeremiah and Isaiah, as they described God’s judgment on the literal Babylon of the 6^th and 7^th centuries BC. God’s prophets predicted Babylon would fall and it did. In 90AD, John predicted Rome’s fall. There were between 500,000 and 1,000,000 people in Rome at the time, and a few centuries later, when the Roman Empire fell, there were less than 30,000 in the city (Craig Keener, The NIV Application Commentary, p.423). Again, God’s prophet spoke the truth.

Keener’s detailed description of Rome tells of a city where slaves from conquered lands produced food and numerous luxuries to keep the wealthy politicos and merchants in the finest finery. Revelation 18:11-13 lists the products that were no longer bought and sold. The most shocking is the last item listed, “slaves – human lives.” To the wealthy in Rome, conquered nations were nothing – just a people that existed to keep the mighty Romans happy. The people of conquered nations were not even human, just another resource to be exploited. Revelation 18 vividly shows God’s judgment.

Is America in danger of a similar judgment? Everything said about Babylon (Rome) throughout Revelation and especially in chapter 18 was previously said by Biblical prophets about other ancient, exploitative empires (Egypt under the Pharaohs, Assyria, Babylon). These types of criticisms from God through the mouths of God’s spokesmen were even aimed at Jerusalem when God’s people were guilty of disproportionate distribution of wealth, exploitation, and idolatry. Throughout history what we read here equally applies to evil empires including the inhuman cruelty of the Church during the era of the Spanish Inquisition, Nazi Germany, and Apartheid South Africa.

I know America is a democracy. I know there are catalogues of rags to riches stores in our country’s history. I believe our nation gives people a fighting chance, even poor people. But what about poor people who aren’t from here? Most poor people in America have a chance to improve their lives, albeit a small chance.

The poor person from the third world country has no access to public education. He has no real opportunity for climbing out of the hole he’s in. The question is not do we help the poor right around us (of course we should help), or the poor in other countries. The question is this. Is America a 21^st century exploiter as Rome (the nation condemned in the book of Revelation) was a 1^st century AD exploiter of other peoples? Is ours a system that keeps people in other nations in poverty? By participating in our system, as consumers, are we average, everyday American Christians participating in the exploitation?

In Revelation 18, the people who have become wealthy off the exploiter, those who have taken the mark of the beast (Revelation 14:9) mourn the fall of Babylon (18:11, 19). The saints rejoice the death of the empire (18:20). Most who read this column and read Revelation 18 are American Christians. When the exploiters of our day are judged guilty by God, will we who worship at HillSong join in the rejoicing of Revelation 18:20 or the mourning of verse 19? Will we have sack cloth and ashes on our heads at the loss of our wealthy life styles or will we be singing in Heavenly choirs because our hearts are filled with God’s passion for people, especially poor people?

Revelation 16: Judgements that are Just and True

I recently read about a court case that is of interest to me. In light of the intense scrutiny that our State Board of Investigation is under, with several instances of mishandling of evidence, most capital cases are being reviewed. People have gone to execution and later review evidence has shown that maybe some who were executed were actually innocent! Is there any great miscarriage of justice? To be sure, prosecutors are now covering their tracks and doing everything twice. They don’t want any innocent people punished. And, they don’t want any guilty criminals set free because of prosecutorial or investigative carelessness.

Lack of justice is not a problem with God. “You are just, O Holy One” an angel sings to God (Revelation 16:5). God indeed does not make mistakes. God knows who is guilty and punishes accordingly. “Because they shed the blood of saints and prophets, you have given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve” (16:6)! This chorus is echoed in the next verse, “Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, your judgments are true and just!”

For sinners like you and me (and everyone you know and everyone I know, Romans 3:23), the unfailing justice of a Holy and blameless God is a problem. We don’t face the crisis of injustice. We face the horrible reality that God’s justice is perfect justice and we are sinners, guilty, and deserving of punishment. Revelation 16 is the fourth cycle of punishments (seals in 6 and 8:1-2; trumpets in 8:6-9:21 and 11:15-19; thunders 10:3b-4). In Revelation 16:2-20, seven angels pour out seven bowls of God’s wrath. The seals, trumpets, thunders, and bowls each bring to mind the plagues that God sent on Egypt in Moses’ day, when the Pharaoh refused to release God’s people the descendants of Abraham (see Exodus 7-11).

In Revelation, the central issue is not the specific images of each judgment. Rather it is that God will not tolerate sin and that sin is punished severely and eternally. In life, we live with the painful consequences of our sins and of those around us. In death, we are eternally cut off from God’s love, God’s presence, and God’s protection.

In Revelation 16, the bowls of wrath are poured out on those who killed God’s saints and prophets (v.6), while those who are in Christ, the conquerors (15:2) are in Heaven worshiping. But how did they conquer? By great feats of heroism? No, they are conquerors because of what Jesus did. They are those who have been washed in the blood of the Lamb – Jesus (Revelation 7:14). To be washed is to come to the cross, kneel before the crucified, resurrected Jesus, and receive forgiveness. Just as God punishes sin, God receives all who turn from their sins in honest confession and humble repentance.

Revelation 16:9 makes the point that those who were scorched with fire after the pouring out of the fourth bowl of wrath cursed the name of God. The suffering of judgment did not lead them to faith. Their sin grew bolder and more evil. “They did not repent and give him glory,” the text says. A similar indictment comes down after the sixth trumpet of judgment is blown (Revelation 9:21). At issue is not our ability to identify future events that correspond to this first century prophecy. Everything John wrote was born out of his knowledge of the Old Testament story and the current conditions – Roman persecuting Christians. All of the symbols, images, and metaphors can be located either in the Old Testament or in John’s world.

At issue then is do we learn from the mistakes of others. When we sense God’s hot, heavy hand of judgment, do we admit our sins, confess them to God, aided by the Holy Spirit; and, do we turn from sin to Him? The graphic, creative pictures in the book of Revelation are there to humanity to turn from sin and to God. And in Revelation we see that all who do that receive Heaven, not punishment. Before it is anything else, Revelation is Gospel.

Judgment - Eternal Gospel?

I do not read the book of Revelation as future-forecast, not as prophecy, not as road map for the end times, but rather as Gospel. No doubt, Revelation is prophecy and it is apocalyptic literature. But that is problem if we get caught up in how it sounds strange to our modern ears. As 21st century listeners in the Western World not accustomed to the subversive nature of 1st apocalyptic literature, we risk missing what God is saying in Revelation as we try to force the message into our context. I propose reading it first and foremost as Gospel, God's good news.

Chapter 14 is an example. "I saw another angel ... with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth - to every nation and tribe and language and people." We know the word Gospel means 'good news,' and comes from the same Greek root word that gives us evangelism. Gospel is only truly good when it is shared, which is evident in this verse. So what is this good news we who are in Christ are to share with everyone everywhere in the world? What specifically is the "eternal gospel" proclaimed in Revelation 14?

Verse 7 - "Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment has come." Along with Alan Johnson who writes the entry on Revelation in the Zondervan NIV Bible Commentary, vol. 2 (p. 1197), I ask, why is judgment good news? A second angel comes along in the passage and proclaims the fall of Babylon (the ancient Roman empire which actively persecuted the church when Revelation was written). A third angel declares that those who worship the beast (the Roman emperor) will drink the cup of God's wrath. "They will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the Lamb" (v.10).

Good news? It sounds horrifying. The prospect of a fiery eternity scares me. I am confident in Christ and I know that I have been saved from such a future. But it scares me that anyone would have to face that, even my worst enemy. I long for an afterlife in I which experience God's goodness; I do not eagerly anticipate the demise of the ungodly. So why is this good?

I think the hope of this judgment passage is contained in verse 6, quoted earlier. Recall that in Revelation 5:9 and also 7:9, there was a vision of believers gathered in Heaver - Christ followers from every nation, all tribes and peoples and languages. There we are told the outcome of the effort that is put forward in 14:6. The angel had an eternal gospel that was to be shared to every language and tribe and nation and people. As Craig Blomberg points out, angelic activity in Revelation is mirrored by the church's activity on earth (NIV Application Commentary: Revelation p.372) . Verse 6's depiction of the angel evangelizing is seen in real time in our world when the body of Christ, the church, takes the good news to all peoples. And all who receive Jesus and acknowledge him as Lord are not subject to the wrath reserved for the wicked on the Day of Judgment.

Thus, judgment is gospel because it is an opportunity for the church to be at work.

I recently read about Physicist Stephen Hawking's 'discovery' that God is not needed for the creation of the universe. He proposes a scenario in which all that exists can be explained apart from God or the Bible. The article from Associated Press was posted on Yahoo News. Over 26,000 people commented on the article. Many of comments I read came from professing Christians who sanctimoniously judged the heart and declared the fiery eternity of Mr. Hawking and any who would agree with him. I was saddened. People claiming Christ almost took glee in how lost Hawking is.

That must not be. Our attitude is not that of Christ if we revel in someone's spiritual downfall. The "eternal Gospel" as spelled out in Revelation 14 tells of an awful eternity for those who worship anything other than Jesus. But also contained in that gospel is the call for the church - you and me - to share the Gospel with the world so that they will turn to the Lord on not suffer under the weight of God's wrath. What we read here is a summons to action. We are called to be Jesus' witnesses in the world.