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I came across an article about the growing belief in Universalism in the U.S. This is a false gospel which essentially says that every person will eventually be saved, even if they are in hell or somewhere other than heaven. I say somewhere other than heaven because evidently some who embrace this lie don’t believe there even is a hell.
This doctrine is fortified by the belief that God is a loving parent and will not allow any of His ‘children’ to be lost. (Not all people are children of God. See my post The Spark of Divinity) The ‘loving parent’ concept, however, stands by itself in this false religion. It stands by itself without the balancing truth that God is righteous and just. It’s thankfully true that God is a loving and merciful God, but it’s also thankfully true that He is absolutely righteous and just.
One of the key passages, if not THE key passage of Universalism, is 1Peter 3:18-20.
“For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.”
To summarize, according to the Universalist belief, Jesus went down into hell and preached the gospel to souls in prison there to give them a second chance. It also implies in the verse, in Universalist thinking, that the souls are no longer disobedient. They have heard the gospel in hell and have believed in Christ, thereby achieving redemption. This is what they take out of the passage. This interpretation is a bastardization of the text.
In my experience, the American Christian church, in general, has avoided passages like this. “It’s just too difficult, so just ignore it” – is kind of how I’ve gauged the church’s accommodation of the text and passages like them.
This Scripture is actually a window to the magnificent and terrible spiritual world that really exists. First, let’s look at what this passage does say:
1. Jesus went to a prison.
2. Jesus made proclamation to some spirits.
3. The spirits were disobedient during the time Noah was constructing the ark.
Now, try to draw a logical line of thought from this passage to “Jesus went to hell and preached the gospel to dead people who didn’t believe that Jesus was the Messiah and Lord”. It doesn’t say Jesus preached the gospel. It doesn’t say who the spirits were but it does say that these particular spirits were disobedient during the days when Noah was constructing the ark.
The context of this passage comes straight out of the Book of Enoch. The Book of Enoch is a historical account of the antediluvian spiritual world. While it may not be canon, it is referenced a few different times in the Bible giving it historical validity by God. The ancient Hebrews acknowledged it as valid spiritual history noted by Peter’s reference to it in the aforementioned passage as well as 2Peter 2:4 and also Jude in verse 6.
All of these passages have this in common – they are talking about Genesis 6 and the abomination that was the fallen angelic beings who abandoned their spiritual domain and took women and had sex with them, spawning the demonic creatures known as Nephilim.
Genesis 6:1-4 says, “Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God (elohim) saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. Then the Lord said, ‘My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred.’ The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those (the children of fallen angels and women) were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.”
First, let’s look at 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6. They are a summary of the extra-biblical tradition found in 1 Enoch.
“For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into Tartaros and committed them to chains of deepest darkness to be kept until the judgment;” 2Pet. 2:4 New Revised Standard
If your Bible says hell instead of Tartaros it is a bad translation. Most Bibles do say hell. The Greek word is actually Tartaros (not Hell or Hades) which is regarded as the deepest nether regions of earth. This is the prison Peter is referring to in 1 Peter. The word for prison in 1 Peter 3:19 is ‘phulake’ which is the Greek word for a guarded prison. That’s where these spirits were sent and where they are today. They are in the deepest part of the earth under guard. Amazing isn’t it?
Here is what Jude 6 says about this situation: “And the angels who did not keep their own position, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains in deepest darkness for the judgment of the great day” New Revised Standard
It’s saying the same as Peter did. They are kept in the deepest darkest regions in prison, under guard and in chains. Now lets see what the Book of Enoch says.
“Enoch, righteous scribe, go and say to the watchers of heaven—who forsook the highest heaven, the sanctuary of their eternal station, and defiled themselves with women. As the sons of earth do, so they did and took wives for themselves. And they worked great desolation on the earth— ‘You will have no peace or forgiveness.’ Then I went and spoke to all of them together. And they were all afraid, and trembling and fear seized them.”
It is clear that 1 Peter 3 is not talking about Jesus going to preach the gospel to dead people. But there is more to consider. A case can be made that there is another mistranslation in 3:19.
The awkward wording of verse 19, “in which also he went…”, is just one letter away from containing the name “Enoch” in Greek. (Adding a xi to ΕΝΩΚΑΙ, “in which also”, produces ΕΝΩΧΚΑΙ, “and Enoch”.) It has been suggested that the original text had Enoch visiting the spirits in prison, creating a string of segues linking Christ’s spiritual resurrection to Enoch’s spiritual underworld voyage, Noah’s flood, and finally baptism. Later, either accidentally or on purpose, the reference to Enoch was eliminated by a minor scribal edit. Although this possibility is rarely acknowledged by scholars today and considered unlikely, it has been adopted by at least two New Testament translations in the past — the AAT (An American Translation) and the MNT (Moffatt New Testament). This reading is also mentioned in the marginal notes of the Jerusalem Bible.
“In it Enoch went and preached even to those spirits that were in prison, who had once been disobedient, when in Noah’s time God in his patience waited for the ark to be made ready, in which a few people, eight in all, were brought safely through the water.” 1 Peter 3:19–20 — AAT, 1939
This squares much better with the Book of Enoch where Enoch is told to go and tell the spirits that there will be no forgiveness for them.
If you argue that 1 Peter 3:19 is describing anything other than divine spirits (not dead humans) in prison that Jesus, or more likely Enoch, went and made proclamation to, then you are arguing against the context that a Jew would have understood. Remember, Peter’s letter was written to Jews (1Peter 1:1; 2Peter 3:1) who had been scattered from Jerusalem. They would have been informed by Enoch.
Another very plausible way to read this is that Peter is saying that Jesus, as the pre-incarnate Christ, made the proclamation through Enoch. In other words, the Spirit of Christ spoke through Enoch. I can accept this because it would be true that Enoch, a prophet, was speaking for God. The problem I have with it is the wording ‘in which He went’. That seems a strong statement that Jesus was the one that ‘went’ as opposed to Enoch.
I personally believe that the text should read that Enoch went and made proclamation. To me it holds up the best under scrutiny. The argument against this, and for Jesus speaking through Enoch, is that Jesus ended up in the verse as God willed. But either way, Enoch was physically at the prison speaking.
Lastly, the other verse that Universalism connects with 1Peter 3 is 1Peter 4:6 – “For the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God.”
This is an easy one. All this passage is saying is that the gospel was preached to people who are now dead. It’s not saying the gospel is preached to people while they are dead. The gospel has been preached since the fall in Eden (Gen. 3:15)
Dan Baker
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