"Christ also hath once suffered for sins. ... 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 Peter 3:18-20
If this passage seems to support popular theology with regard to the doctrine of an immortal soul, it also seems to support two ideas that Protestants believe are false: (1) purgatory, and (2) a second probation.
If Christ went to preach to certain sinners after their death, the clear inference is that He was extending a second chance, a second probation, to those people.
Moreover, the place where these souls were being confined seems quite close to the Roman Catholic idea of purgatory.
-- So, if read too literally, this passage is troubling to all Protestants, not just Seventh-day Adventists.
If this is the correct way to read the passage, and Christ at His crucifixion really preached to the undead in some sort of subterranean prison house, we are forced to ask:
If this is the correct way to read the passage, and Christ at His crucifixion really preached to the undead in some sort of subterranean prison house, we are forced to ask:
Q: Why did Jesus single out the spirits of those who were disobedient in the days of Noah?
Q: Why were no others among the living dead entitled to this second chance?
But we do not believe that this is the correct way to read the passage. The context of 1 Peter 3:13-22 is that the Christian will be called upon to suffer for doing good.
Peter warns us to be ready to suffer for preaching the gospel. There might be threats and actual violence against us, if we preach Christ Jesus.
Then Peter mentions how Christ, who did only righteousness, suffered and died for our salvation, but was raised back to life by the Holy Spirit.
The next part of the passage warns us that our suffering might seem to be of no avail, but we are not to be discouraged: through that same Holy Spirit who would later raise Christ from the dead, Christ preached, through Noah, to the antediluvians. But, despite this Spirit-filled preaching, only Noah and his family, eight souls in all, were saved from the deluge.
We believe Peter is saying, “if your work seems to be in vain, remember that through the Spirit the Lord Jesus Christ preached to the those who lived before the Flood, yet with no results other than Noah’s immediate family. So don’t despair or be discouraged, just continue to preach Jesus Christ.”
The next part of the passage warns us that our suffering might seem to be of no avail, but we are not to be discouraged: through that same Holy Spirit who would later raise Christ from the dead, Christ preached, through Noah, to the antediluvians. But, despite this Spirit-filled preaching, only Noah and his family, eight souls in all, were saved from the deluge.
We believe Peter is saying, “if your work seems to be in vain, remember that through the Spirit the Lord Jesus Christ preached to the those who lived before the Flood, yet with no results other than Noah’s immediate family. So don’t despair or be discouraged, just continue to preach Jesus Christ.”
F.D. Nichol
