Holy Week - Saturday - Descent into Hell?

I was recounting the events of Holy Week for you, up to Friday, and then I had to pause to finish preparing worship services.  I’d like to go back to do a few more of these, even though Easter Day is past.  Extended consideration of these events is never out of season.

We ended with the burial of Jesus last Friday, and to stick with a strict timeline, we should next ask, what happened to Jesus between His death and His resurrection?  Put another way, in what sense did Jesus descend into Hell, as the Nicene Creed says?

There are 2 basic views on this.

The traditional Protestant view held by John Calvin and others says that Jesus suffered Hell on the cross as the Father punished Him for our sins.  That was the descent, and from His death to His resurrection, and whatever happened to the human spirit or soul of Jesus, it wasn’t in Hell.  Some say He was simply resting, which is appropriate as it was the last Sabbath of the old order.  Others might say He went to His Father, since He tells the thief on the cross that “Today you will be with me in paradise.”

Another view held by many respected readers of the Bible is called the Harrowing of Hell.  Based on 1 Peter 3:18-20, it says that Jesus did descend to hell, not to suffer more punishment from God for our sin – that was finished on the cross.  No, Jesus went to Hell to do 2 things in this view.  One, Peter says He preached to the rebellious spirits there, so we presume He was announcing His victory to them, maybe describing in detail just what His crucifixion and resurrection means for them in terms of defeat.  Two, He leads captivity captive, Eph 4:8-10.  The idea here is that OT saints until now, went to Sheol or Hades.  Plenty OT verses mention that believers and unbelievers alike go down to Sheol when they die.  Heb 11:39 says they did not receive the promise, but had to wait for Christ’s coming for that. 

If you remember your Greek worldview, Hades has two parts, a place called paradise for the good, and Tartarus, a place of torment for the wicked.  So Jesus is with the thief on the cross in paradise, as He frees all believers from there to ascend to glory in heaven, and await there in God’s immediate presence, the resurrection of the body at the last day.

I don’t take a strong position one way or another on this.  Scripture leans me toward the harrowing of hell idea, but I can’t easily accept that all believers in God for at least 4000 years until Christ were in a kind of limbo, not in God’s immediate presence, until Christ came.

So much for Holy Saturday, as it’s called. Tomorrow we’ll look at Easter events.