THE SPIRITS IN PRISON.
“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust,
that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but
quickened by the Spirit; by which also he went and preached unto the
spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once the
longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a
preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water.” 1
Pet. 3:18-20.
The advocates of natural immortality are not long in finding their way
to this passage. Here, it is claimed, are spirits brought to view, out
of the body; for they were the spirits of the antediluvians: and they
were conscious and intelligent; for they could listen to the preaching
of Christ, who, by his conscious spirit, while his body lay in the
grave, went and preached to them.
Let us see just what conclusions the popular interpretation of this
passage involves, that we may test their claims by the Scriptures. 1.
The spirits were the spirits of wicked men; for they were disobedient in
the days of Noah, and perished in the flood. 2. They were consequently
in their place of punishment, the place to which popular theology
assigns all such spirits immediately on their passing from this state of
existence. 3. The spirit of Christ went into hell to preach to them.
These are the facts that are to be cleared of improbabilities, and
harmonized with the Scriptures, before the passage can be made available
for the popular view.
But the bare suggestion of so singular a transaction as Christ’s going
to preach to these spirits, immediately gives rise to the query for what
purpose Christ should take pains to go down into hell, to preach to
damned spirits there; and what message he could possibly bear to them.
The day of their probation was past; they could not be helped by any
gospel message; then why preach to them? Would Christ go to taunt them
by describing before them blessings which they could never receive, or
raising in their bosoms hopes of a release from damnation, which he
never designed to grant?
These considerations fall like a mighty avalanche across the way of the
common interpretation. The thought is felt to be almost an insuperable
objection, and many are the shifts devised to get around it. One thinks
that the word preached does not necessarily mean to preach the gospel,
notwithstanding almost every instance of the use of the word in the New
Testament describes the preaching of the gospel by Christ or his
apostles; but that Christ went there to announce to them that his
sufferings had been accomplished, and the prophecies concerning him
fulfilled. But what object could there be in that? How would that affect
their condition? Was it to add poignancy to their pain by rendering
their misery doubly sure? And were there not devils enough in hell to
perform that work, without making it necessary that Christ should
perform such a ghostly task, and that, too, right between those points
of time when he laid down his life for our sins and was raised again for
our justification?
Another thinks these were the spirits of such as repented during the
forty days’ rain of the flood; that they were with the saved in
Paradise, a department of the under world where the spirits of the good
are kept (the elysium, in fact, of ancient heathen mythology), but that
they “still felt uneasy on account of having perished [that is, lost
their bodies] under a divine judgment,” and “were now assured by Jesus
that their repentance had been accepted.”
Such resorts show the desperate extremities to which the popular
exposition of this passage is driven.
Others frankly acknowledge that they cannot tell what, nor for what
purpose, Christ preached to the lost in hell. So Landis, p. 236. But he
says it makes no difference if we cannot tell what he preached nor why
he preached, since we have the assurance that he did go there and
preach. Profound conclusion! Would it not be better, since we have the
assurance that he preached, to conclude that he preached at a time when
preaching could benefit them, rather than at a time when we know that it
could not profit them, and there could be no occasion for it whatever?
The whole issue thus turns on the question, When was this work of
preaching performed? Some will say, “While they were in prison, and that
means the state of death, and shows that the dead are conscious and can
be preached to.” Then, we reply, the dead also can be benefited by
preaching, and led to repentance; and the doctrine of purgatory springs
in full blossom into our creed.
But does the text affirm that the preaching was done to these spirits
while they were in prison? May it not be that the preaching was done at
some previous time to persons who were, when Peter wrote, in prison, or,
if you please, in a state of death? So it would be true that the spirits
were in prison when Peter makes mention of them, and yet the preaching
might have been done to them at a former period, while they were still
in the flesh and could be benefited by it. This is the view taken of the
passage by Dr. Clarke. He says:--
“_He went and preached_] By the ministry of Noah one hundred and twenty
years.”
Thus he places Christ’s going and preaching by his Spirit in the days of
Noah, and not during the time his body lay in the grave.
Again, he says:--
“The word πνευμασι, _spirits_, is supposed to render this view of the
subject improbable, because this must mean _disembodied_ spirits; but
this certainly does not follow; for the _spirits of just men made
perfect_, Heb. 12:23, certainly means righteous men, and men _still in
the church militant_; and the Father of _spirits_, Heb. 12:9, means men
_still in the body_; and the God of the _spirits_ of all flesh, Num.
16:22, and 27:16, means _men_, _not_ in a disembodied state.”
The preaching was certainly to the antediluvians. But why should Christ
single out that class to preach to, about twenty-four hundred years
afterward, in hell? The whole idea is forced, unnatural, and absurd. The
preaching that was given to them was through Noah, who, by the power of
the Holy Ghost (1 Pet. 1:12), delivered to them the message of warning.
Let this be the preaching referred to, and all is harmonious and clear;
and this interpretation the construction of the original demands; for
the word rendered in our version, “were disobedient,” is simply the
aorist participle; and the dependent sentence, “when once the
long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah,” limits the verb
“preached” rather than the participle. The whole passage might be
translated thus: “In which also, having gone to the spirits in prison,
he preached to the then disobedient ones, when once [or at the time
when] the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah.”
But how were they in prison? In the same sense in which persons in error
and darkness are said to be in prison. Isa. 42:7: “To open the blind
eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in
darkness out of the prison house.” Also Isa. 61:1: “The Spirit of the
Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good
tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to
proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them
that are bound.” Christ himself declared, Luke 4:18-21, that this
scripture was fulfilled in his mission to those here on earth who sat in
darkness and error, and under the dominion of sin. So the antediluvians
were shut up under the sentence of condemnation. Their days were limited
to a hundred and twenty years; and their only way of escape from
impending destruction was through the preaching of Noah.
So much with reference to the spirits to whom the preaching was given.
Now we affirm further that Christ’s spirit did not go anywhere to preach
to anybody, while he lay in the grave. If Christ’s spirit, the real
being, the divine part, did survive the death of the cross, then
1. We have only a human offering for our sacrifice; and the claim of the
spiritualists is true that the blood of Christ is no more than that of
any man.
2. Then Christ did not pour out his soul unto death and make it an
offering for sin, as the prophet declared that he would, Isa. 53:10, 12;
and his soul was not sorrowful even unto death, as he himself affirmed.
Matt. 26:38.
3. The text says Christ was quickened by the Spirit; and between his
death and quickening no action is affirmed of him; and hence any such
affirmation on the part of man is assumption. There can be no doubt but
the quickening here brought to view was his resurrection. The Greek word
is a very strong one, ζωοποιέω, to impart life, to make alive. He was
put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit. Landis, p. 232,
labors hard to turn this word from its natural meaning and make it
signify, not giving life, but continuing alive. It is impossible to
regard this as anything less than unmitigated sophistry. The verb is a
regular active verb. In the passive voice it expresses an action
received. Christ did not continue alive, but _was made alive_ by the
Spirit. Then he was for a time dead. How long? From the cross to the
resurrection. Rom. 1:4. So he says himself in Rev. 1:18, I am he that
liveth and was dead. Yet men will stand up, and for the purpose of
sustaining a pet theory, rob the world’s Offering of all its virtue, and
nullify the whole plan of salvation, by declaring that Christ never was
dead.
The word quicken is the same that is used in Rom. 8:11: “But if the
Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead, dwell in you, He that
raised up Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your mortal bodies by
his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” God brought again our Lord from the
dead by the Holy Spirit; and by the same Spirit are his followers to be
raised up at the last day. But that Christ went anywhere in spirit, or
did any action between his death and quickening, is what the Scriptures
nowhere affirm, and no man has a right to claim.
Mr. Landis, p. 235, argues that this preaching could not have been in
the days of Noah, because the events narrated took place this side the
death of Christ. Why did he not say this side the resurrection of
Christ? Oh! that would spoil it all. But the record shows upon its very
face that if it refers to a time subsequent to Christ’s death, it was
also subsequent to his resurrection; for if events are here stated in
chronological order, the resurrection of Christ as well as his death
comes before his preaching. Thus, 1. He was put to death in the flesh.
2. Was quickened by the Spirit, which was his resurrection, as no man
with any show of reason can dispute; and 3. Went and preached to the
spirits in prison. So the preaching does not come in, on this ground,
till after Christ was made alive from the dead.
Some people seem to treat the Scriptures as if they were given to man
that he might exercise his inventive powers in trying to get around
them. But no inventive power that the human mind has yet developed will
enable a man, let him plan, contrive, devise, and arrange, as he may, to
fix this preaching of Christ between his death and resurrection. If he
could fix it there, what would it prove? The man of sin would rise up
and bless him from his papal throne, for proving his darling purgatory.
Such a position may do for Mormons, Mohammedans, Pagans, and Papists;
but let no Protestant try to defend it, and not hang his head for shame.
Mr. Landis says that “Mr. Dobney and the rest of the fraternity
conveniently forget that there is any such passage [as 1 Pet. 3:19] in
the word of God.” But we cannot help thinking that it would have been
well for him, and saved a pitiful display of distorted logic, if he had
been prudent enough to forget it too.
THE WORD SPIRIT IN OTHER TEXTS.
There are a few other texts which contain the word spirit an explanation
of which may be properly introduced at this point:--
Luke 24:39: “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me
and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have.” These
are the words of Christ as on one occasion he met with his disciples
after his resurrection; and as he then possessed a spiritual body which
is given by the resurrection, it is claimed that his words prove the
existence of spirits utterly disembodied in the popular sense. But we
inquire, What did the disciples suppose they saw? Verse 37 states: “They
supposed they had seen a spirit;” and on this verse Greenfield puts in
the margin the word _phantasma_ instead of _pneuma_, and marks it as a
reading adopted by Griesbach. They supposed they had seen a phantom,
apparition, specter. This exactly corresponds with their action when on
another occasion Christ came to them walking on the sea, Matt. 14:26;
Mark 6:49, and they were affrighted and cried out, supposing it was a
spirit, where the Greek uses phantom in both instances. The Bible
nowhere countenances the idea that phantoms or specters have any real
existence; but the imagination and superstition of the human mind have
ever been prolific in such conceptions. The disciples were of course
familiar with the popular notions on this question; and when the Saviour
suddenly appeared in their midst, coming in without lifting the latch,
or making any visible opening, as spiritual bodies are able to do, their
first idea was the superstitious one of an apparition or specter, and
they were affrighted.
Now when Jesus, to allay their fears, told them that a spirit had not
flesh and bones as he had, he evidently used the word spirit in the
sense of the idea which they then had in their minds, namely, that of a
phantom; and though the word _pneuma_ is used, which in its very great
variety of meanings may be employed, perhaps, to express such a
conception, we are not to understand that the word cannot be used to
describe bodies like that which Christ then possessed. He was not such a
spirit as they supposed; for a _pneuma_, such as they then conceived of,
in the sense of a phantom, had not flesh and bones as he had.
Bloomfield, on verse 37, says:--
“It may be added that our Lord meant not to countenance those notions,
but to show his hearers that, according to their _own_ notions of
spirits, he was not one.”
Acts 23:8: “For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither
angel nor spirit, but the Pharisees confess both.” Paul declared himself
in verse 6 to be a Pharisee; and in telling what they believed, in verse
8, it is claimed that Paul plainly ranged himself on the side of those
who believe in the separate conscious existence of the spirit of man.
But does this text say that the Pharisees believed any such thing? Three
terms are used in expressing what the Sadducees did not believe,
“resurrection, angel, and spirit.” But when the faith of the Pharisees
is stated, these three are reduced to _two_: “The Pharisees confess
_both_.” Both means only two, not three. Now what two of the three terms
before employed unite to express one branch of the faith of the
Pharisees? The word angel could not be one; for angels are a distinct
race of beings from the human family. Then we have left, resurrection
and spirit. The Pharisees believed in angels and in the resurrection of
the human race. Then all the spirit they believed in, as pertaining to
man, according to this testimony, is what is connected with the
resurrection; and that, of course, is the spiritual body with which we
are then endowed. “It is sown,” says this same apostle, “a natural body,
it is raised a _spiritual_ body.” 1 Cor. 15:44. That the term spirit is
applied to those beings which possess a spiritual body is evident from
Heb. 1:7, which reads, “Who maketh his angels spirits.” Angels are
personal beings, but their bodies are spiritual bodies, invisible, under
ordinary circumstances, to mortal eyes. Hence they are called spirits.
So of God, John 4:24: “God is a Spirit;” that is, a spiritual being; not
an impersonal one, as much in one place as another.
1 Cor. 5:5: “To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of
the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”
Although this text is quoted to prove the separate conscious existence
of a part of man between death and the resurrection, the reader cannot
fail to notice that the time when the spirit is saved is in the day of
the Lord Jesus, when the resurrection takes place. This text proves
nothing, therefore, respecting the condition of the spirit previous to
that time; and, so far as our present purpose is concerned, we might
dismiss it with this remark; but a word or two more may serve to free
the text still further from difficulty. What is meant by delivering the
person to Satan? and what is the destruction of the flesh? Satan is the
God of this world; and if any man is a friend of the world, he is on the
side of Satan and an enemy of God. The church is the body of Christ, and
belongs to him. A person committing the deeds spoken of in this chapter
must be separated from that body, and given back to the world. He is
thus delivered unto Satan. This is for the destruction of the flesh. The
flesh is often used to mean the carnal mind. Gal. 5:19-21. The
spiritually-minded man has crucified, or destroyed, the flesh. Now, a
person who desires eternal life, when he finds himself set aside from
the church, and placed back in the world, the kingdom of Satan, on
account of his having the carnal mind, understands that to gain eternal
life he must then put away the carnal mind, or crucify and destroy the
flesh. If he does this, he becomes spiritually minded, joined again to
the body of Christ, and the old man, the flesh, being destroyed, he, as
a spiritually-minded man, will be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
Spirit we understand to be used in contrast with the flesh, the one
denoting a person in a carnal state, the other, in a spiritual. To deal
with a person as the apostle here directs, set him aside from the church
till he sees, and repents of, his sins, is often the only way to save
him. In the day of the Lord Jesus, a person is saved by having his body
fashioned like unto Christ’s glorious body, not destroyed. Phil. 3:21.
The destruction spoken of in the text cannot therefore be the literal
destruction of the body in contrast with the disembodied spirit.