The Descent of Jesus into Hades--Singular Reserve of Preachers
--Purgatory--Dr. Gerhardt's Book--A Bodily Resurrection--The Spirit
World Requires a Spirit Body.
Here I would advert briefly to a topic that seems to me to have a strong
bearing in the same direction. I mean the descent of Jesus into Hades,
and the intimation that He "preached to the spirits in prison." On this
subject the whole Christian world--at least the Protestant world--has
maintained a singular reserve. In fact I have never heard the matter
even once casually referred to in any Protestant pulpit. It may be that
even a casual reference to it might be taken as favoring the Roman
Catholic doctrine of Purgatory. Such is the craven fear that men have of
being supposed to be tainted with Romanism. In other cases it may be
that the whole subject is thought to be involved in so much mystery that
it is better to leave it alone. But I believe that if we had a larger
and more sympathetic view of the entire domain of truth, this topic
would be seen to be radiant with eternal hope.
In this spirit it is referred to by Dr. Calvin S. Gerhardt in his book
on "Death and the Resurrection." That book came out some years ago, and
there were some letters passed between the author and myself in
reference to the contents. He holds the view that the body of Christ was
not raised, but His spirit only; and he tries to sustain that view by a
variety of arguments, some of which seem to me very unworthy. My own
view is, that the body was actually raised, but that now being a
spiritual body it had the power of transformation, so that at pleasure
it could become visible or invisible to fleshly eyes.
However, in the same connection Dr. Gerhardt refers to Christ's descent
into Hades; and he treats that matter with a candor and eloquence, along
with good sense, that in my opinion, leaves nothing to be desired. I
will here transcribe some passages of his on that topic, and so dismiss
further discussion of it. He says:
"The popular doctrine which teaches that the opportunity of salvation
_always_ ends with the present life, finds no support in sacred
Scripture and is completely overthrown by Christ's descent into Hades.
This important stage of His mission is often overlooked, or ignored; and
we must confess that we too stand with bated breath, before the problem
which its consideration presents, for we are confronted here with
mysteries. But the mysteries are not closed, and are not utterly
incapable of solution."
Again he says: "Christ's visits to the earth were few and brief after
His resurrection. Where then was He during the forty days when not
visible to His disciples? Not in heaven, for He had not yet ascended.
Neither was He on earth, for if any one truth was constantly more fully
enforced by Him, it was that through His death He had passed beyond the
sphere of the earthly. Where else then could He have sojourned but in
Hades--that unseen world of the dead into which all men pass when they
lay aside their mortal bodies, and begin to live in spiritual bodies."
Again: "To the penitent thief on the cross Jesus said, 'To-day thou shalt
be with Me in Paradise.' The Saviour, therefore, must have gone to the
regions of the dead, for to the Jews, Paradise meant the locality in
Hades to which the blessed dead were received."
Again: "St. Peter not only assures us that Christ descended into Hades,
but also tells us why He went thither, 'Because Christ also suffered for
sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to
God; being put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the spirit,' in
which he also went and preached to the spirits in prison."
Again: "Again 'For unto this end was the gospel preached even to the
dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live
according to God in the spirit,'"
Again: "These passages of Scripture, as well as the whole drift of the
New Testament, make plain the important truth that the great work which
our Saviour prosecuted on earth He continued also in Hades. His
incarnation and full union with us, in our earthly, mortal life,
involved Him in a similar revelation to the dead, according to their
altered conditions and environment. What He did for our earthly life He
did for them there in full harmony with the changed circumstances of
their post-mundane form of existence."
Again: "By His descent into Hades," says Martensen, "Christ revealed
Himself as the Redeemer of all souls."
Once more: "The descent into the realm of the dead gave expression to
the truth, that the distinctions Here and There--the limits of
space--are of no significance regarding Christ, and do not concern His
kingdom. No powers of nature, no limits of space or of time, can hinder
Christ from finding His way to souls. His kingdom has extended even into
the region of the dead, and still includes that region; and the
distinctions of living and dead, of earlier and later generations of
men, of times of ignorance and times of knowledge, possess but a
transient significance."
In confirmation of these views, I would add one consideration of rather
an abstract character. When our Saviour died on the cross, why did He
not revive at once? Instead of that we know that He waited until the
third day. I have no doubt that one reason was, that He intended that
all believers in Him might have a conclusive proof that He had really
died and revived. But one other reason may have been this, that He
intended to visit the spirits in prison, and in order to be en rapport
with them, He needed to go in the spirit. They were in the spirit; and
for Him to go to them in a human body would have been to interpose an
effectual barrier between Himself and them. If they are somewhere in the
spirit world, a spirit body alone could reach them.