S. Michael Houdmann Supporter Got Questions Ministries

The "spirits in prison" are mentioned in the context of what Jesus did in the time between His death and resurrection. First Peter 3:18-20 says, "He was put to death in the body but made alive in t...

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July 01 2013 • 2 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Aurel Gheorghe Supporter

1 Peter 3:18-20 is a difficult text to digest and naturally, there is a considerable misunderstanding of its meaning. The text is saying that Christ suffered for sin that He might bring us to God being out to death in the flesh. But quickened by the spirit by which also He went and preached. Notice that Christ preached to those spirits in prison and He did it by the Spirit, which in KJV Bible is capitalized, and refers to the Holy Spirit. 

So whatever Christ did in preaching during this period of time, He did it through or by the Holy Spirit. And verse 20 clearly tells us when the preaching was done; in the days of Noah, while the ark was being built (1 Peter 3:20). Also, we learn that the preaching was done there to the spirits in prison. Throughout the Bible we find this terminology used in describing those who are bound in the prison of sin (Romans 7:23; Psalm 142:7; Isaiah 61:1; Luke 4:18). 

What Peter is telling us here is simply that Christ through the Holy Spirit was present while Noah preached; Christ was there through the Holy Spirit to speak conviction to their hearts and appeal to them to come into the ark. 

There is absolutely nothing here which indicates that Jesus departed from the body during the time He was dead to go to some mysterious place to minister to wicked spirits. The text clearly say three things: 
1.That Christ preached by the Holy Spirit
2. He did it while the ark was preparing 
3. He did it to the spirits in prison or to those individuals whose sinful lives were bound in the prison house of sin.

May 27 2016 • 3 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Jeffrey Johnson Supporter

Who were the spirits in prison?

Jude 1:6 informs us who the spirits were and where they were placed in prison: And the angels who did not keep their original position but forsook their own proper dwelling place, he has reserved with eternal bonds in dense darkness for the judgment of the great day.

The Bible states that the disobedient angels are now "spirits in prison," having been 'thrown into Tartarus' and "reserved with eternal bonds under dense darkness for the judgment of the great day." This passage seems to indicate that the wicked spirits were greatly restricted, unable again to materialise as they did before the flood.​—1 Pe 3:19; 2Pe 2:4; Jude 6.

Supporting this are the apostle Peter's references to "the spirits in prison, who had once been disobedient when the patience of God was waiting in Noah's days" (1Pe 3:19, 20), and to "the angels that sinned," mentioned in connection with the "ancient world" of Noah's time (2Pe 2:4, 5), as well as Jude's statement concerning "the angels that did not keep their original position but forsook their own proper dwelling place." (Jude 6) 

The scriptures stress that even before that, when the wicked angels still had access to heaven, they were outcasts from God's family and under definite restrictions. For instance, Jude 6 reveals that already in the first century C.E., they were "reserved with eternal bonds under dense [spiritual] darkness for the judgment of the great day." Likewise, 2 Peter 2:4 says: "God did not hold back from punishing the angels that sinned, but, by throwing them into Tartarus [a state of utter debasement], delivered them to pits of dense [spiritual] darkness to be reserved for judgment."

The apostle Peter likened this spiritually outcast condition to being in "prison." However, he did not mean the future "abyss" that the demons would be cast into for a thousand years.​—1 Peter 3:19, 20; Luke 8:30, 31; Revelation 20:1-3.

However, God did not allow the demons to enjoy their former privileges in heaven but consigned them to figurative "pits of dense darkness," cut off from all spiritual enlightenment.

3 days ago • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report