Questions
Preaching To The Spirits In Prison
Dear Brother Douthitt:
Your answers to questions in the Gospel Guardian are always interesting.
Here are some questions that I would like to have answered, and I believe they are of interest to a good many people.
In 1 Peter 3:18-20 we have a statement that Christ preached unto the spirits in prison. Did this preaching take place while the body of Christ was in the grave? Why did he just preach to those mentioned in verse 20 — that is, those that were disobedient in the days of Noah?
Christ told the thief on the cross that he was going to paradise. Were the spirits that were in prison in this paradise that Jesus said he was going to?
I would appreciate any light that you might shed on this passage, and since so many are puzzled, would you please answer the questions in the Gospel Guardian?
Answer
The preaching by Christ in the Spirit "unto the spirits in prison" did not take place while the body of Jesus was in the grave, and these spirits to whom Jesus preached were not in that paradise to which Jesus and the penitent thief went. The passage states that the preaching was done "in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing." This is the passage: "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 made alive in the spirit; in which he also went and preached unto the spirits in prison, that aforetime were disobedient, when the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water." (1 Peter 3:18-20)
The Spirit of Christ was in Noah and other preachers or prophets of the Old Testament. In 1 Peter 1:10, 11 we have this: "Concerning which salvation the prophets sought and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: searching what time or manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did point unto, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that should follow them." The point to observe here is that the Spirit of Christ was in the prophets of old, and that it was the Spirit of Christ prophesying of the grace that should come, and testifying of the sufferings of Christ. Then Christ, not in person but in the Spirit, preached through the prophets to the people then living here on the earth with the prophets.
Second Peter 2:5 says that Noah was a preacher of righteousness. Therefore, the Spirit of Christ was in Noah, as in the other ancient prophets. Hence, Christ was preaching in Spirit through Noah "while the ark was a preparing." As a result of Christ's preaching in Spirit through Noah, eight souls were saved by or through water.
Here is a summary of revealed facts: (1) The prophets of God preached to the "dead" — that is, to those who now are dead. (1 Peter 4:6) (2) This preaching was done by Christ in the Spirit, because his Spirit was in the prophets who did the preaching. (1 Peter 1:11) (3) This preaching was done by Christ in the Spirit through inspired men, while those now dead were living right here on the earth; to some, "while the ark was a preparing." (1 Peter 3:20) (4) Those who believed and obeyed the preaching are living now with God in the spirit. (1 Peter 4:6) (5) Those who rejected the preaching are "spirits in prison" now. (1 Peter 3:19; 2 Peter 2:4, 5; Jude 6) (6) Peter calls them the "dead" (1 Peter 4:6), some of them, "spirits in prison" (1 Peter 3:19), because that is what they were at the time he wrote; and not because that is what they were at the time the preaching was done by Christ in the Spirit.