Source/Author: by Rev. Lily Ho Swee Hoo

"Suffered under Pontius Pilate,
Was crucified, dead, and buried;
He descended into Hell;
The third day he rose again from the dead;”

INTRODUCTION
The Apostles Creed contains the essence of our Christian faith. I love the Creed; everypoint is important. I often recite it to reaffirm my own belief. I also encourage others to memorise it. I noticed that in some churches, the phrase “He descended into Hell” is omitted. I wondered why? Is it because the earliest Creed did not contain this phrase? The phrase must have been added in later years when the church leaders studied and understood the teachings of the Lord more clearly.

I believe its inclusion is necessary as it shows a natural complete sequence of Christ’s Redemptive mission for lost mankind. In fact, I believe this phrase is indispensable and forms a very important link in the whole composition of the Apostles Creed.

This phrase frequently came to my mind, and I was motivated to find the solution. As I meditated upon the related verses in the Bible, I asked God to help me understand its truth. What I learned I have recorded so as to share with other Christians, and would welcome any feedback.

THE MEANING
The word ‘Sheol’ is a Hebrew word, translated into Greek as ‘Hades’. In English it is translated as ‘Hell’ or ‘grave; it is the abode of the dead. I searched through the whole Bible, and found that the word ‘Hades’ is recorded in the Old Testament 73 times, in the New Testament 10 times.

The opposite of ‘Hades’ is ‘Paradise’. ‘Paradise’ is mentioned 3 times and it appears only in the New Testament. The first time it appears is in the Lord’s promise to the repentant criminal. The second time is found in 2 Cor 12:4 where Paul says, “...he was caught up to Paradise and heard the words, which man could not utter...” The third time is in Revelation 2:7 when the Lord spoke to the Church in Ephesus, “To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God”. (The earthly paradise, that is, the Garden of Eden, found in Genesis is no longer in existence.)

SOME BIBLE REFERENCES ON 'HADES'
In relating the story of the rich man and Lazarus, Jesus said, “Lazarus died, the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side....” (Luke 16:19-31)

In the Old Testament, when Jacob was told by his other sons that his beloved Joseph was devoured by ferocious animals, he cried aloud “…in mourning will I go down to Hades to my son…” Later in Gen.44:29 Jacob said of Benjamin, his youngest son,” If you take this one from me too, and harm comes to him, you will bring my grey head down to Hades in misery.

David speaks of the inability to escape the powers of Hades when he wrote Psalm 89:48. David said, “What man can live and not see death or save himself from the power of Hades?” Yet in Psalm 16:10 he wrote “because you will not abandon me to Hades nor will you let your Holy One see decay.” He was not speaking about his own experience here. Rather it was a prophecy about Jesus’ death.

HADES AS A PLACE OF THE DEAD
From the above scriptures, we understand Hades to be a place where all the dead, whether good or evil go. No one escapes this. However we read in Psalm 139:7,8 that even in Hades the Lord’s Spirit will find us. In other words, Hades is visible to God’s eye. This is affirmed in Job 26:6, which says, “Hades is naked before God.” Furthermore we read in Job 14:13, “if only you will hide me in Hades and conceal me till your anger has passed.” It sounds like Hades is a place where one can hide for a while. From the above verses we can understand that Hades is under God’s control or charge.

Such an understanding continued even until the time of Jesus. In the story of the rich man and Lazarus, Abraham is mentioned as one of those in Hades. In this story, we understand that there is a demarcation between those who trust and worship God, and those who disobey Him. There is however no mention of Paradise at this point. If Paradise was already in existence, Jesus would surely have used this word in the story. What this possibly means is that Jesus might already have long planned to have an entirely new separate place called Paradise after His redemptive death. It would be a place for the righteous people in the Old Testament and for the saints in the New Testament, while Hades remains for those who are evil and the unsaved.

UNDERSTANDING PARADISE
It is only from the words that Jesus spoke to the criminal when He was crucified that we learn about Paradise. It comes only after the New Covenant is ratified through His blood in which those who are saved through faith will be with Him in Paradise, while the unsaved continue to remain in Hades, waiting for the final judgment on the last day.

Here is another thought that came into my mind – Jesus said in John 14:2-3: “In my Father’s house are many rooms,…I am going there to prepare a place for you….I will come back and take you to be with me where I am.” Might this not be a reference to Paradise? According to Rev 21:1-3, the New Jerusalem will come down out of heaven from God…Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. Then we read in Rev 22:1-2a, regarding the river…of life, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life bearing fruit.

In Rev 2;7a we read, “To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.” From these scriptures can we not say that the Father’s house is the same as the Paradise where God promises to dwell with men? Little wonder then that Jesus promised the repentant thief on the cross: “Today you would be with me in Paradise.” The repentant thief is really fortunate, for although he was the last believer in the Old Testament, he was the first to be directly received by the Victorious Lord into Paradise.

WHEN DID THE DESCENT TAKE PLACE?
The question remains: At what point did Jesus descend into Hades? When He was hanging on the cross, his body, soul and spirit must have been totally exhausted after going through so much suffering. He had been enduring all the baseless accusations, slander, beatings and whippings. He bore the burden of the SIN of the whole of humanity, with God’s righteous wrath and severest judgement bearing down on Him. Then He was abruptly deserted by God, which left Him enduring the indescribable suffering. He cried aloud: “My God, my God, why hast Thou deserted me?” It was at that point that His work of redemption was accomplished. That is why we hear Him cry triumphantly after that, “IT IS FINISHED!”

Following that, He committed His spirit into the Father’s hand, and He breathed His last breath. It is at that very moment that the Son of Man triumphantly descended into Sheol or Hades or Hell (whatever you call it) and led the righteous souls out of Hades into Paradise. His descent into hell has this all important mission.

This is affirmed in The Apostles’ Creed which declares: He descended into Hades. Indeed He did, and in so doing, He let the wicked souls remain in Hades and led the saved ones into the Paradise which He had already prepared for them (Jn. 14:1:2).

For sinners, their descent into Hell is a just judgment as it was for the rich man. However for Jesus who is sinless, His descent into Hell was the result of bearing the sins of all mankind. He died for the redemption of the whole world. He accomplished the work of salvation for the whole of humanity, and conquered the Power of Darkness, sin, death, Hell and Satan. He descended there as the Victorious Lord! O what a surprise! One could imagine that there might have been an exceedingly great stir among the spirits of the dead in Hades – some were joyful while others were scared. For He would lead the saved into Paradise, while the rest remain in Hades waiting for the last judgment, and the final stage which is the lake of fire.

THE OTHER PURPOSE OF CHRIST'S DESCENT
There are two portions of scripture that we need to consider concerning Christ’s descent into Hell. The first portion is 1 Peter 3:18-20 “for Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous to bring us/you to God. He was put to death in the body, but made alive by the Spirit through Whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water...”

God’s love never change. After Jesus conquered sin and death He went to preach to those who ‘disobeyed God long ago’. Those people could possibly include those who had never heard of His Name in their lifetime.

The second passage is in 1 Peter 4:6: “For this is the reason the Gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to men in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit.” According to this verse, those souls who were bound in Hades were judged according to men in regard to the body. Now they have the opportunity to see Christ and hear His declaration. It is possible that many had already repented and were saved; now they live according to God in regard to the spirit (1 Peter 4:6).

THE HOURS OF CHRIST'S DESCENT
Let us now consider the timing. At dawn on Friday, Jesus was sent to Pilate’s Court to be judged. The sentence of death was pronounced and He was subsequently whipped, after which He carried the cross to Golgotha where He was crucified. The time taken for the entire episode would have been between three to three and a half hours. If the court started at 8.00am, the crucifixion would have taken place at about 11.30am.

The first three words that Jesus uttered from the Cross would have been from around 11.30am to 12.00pm. They are as follows:

1. He prayed to the Father to forgive those of his enemies around the cross who were mocking him.
2. He responded to the repentant criminal, “Today you will be with me in Paradise
3. He said to his mother, “See thy son”, to John, “See thy mother”.

From 12 noon there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour, that is 3:00pm. During that period all the innumerable Sins of mankind, one after another, heavily pressed upon His bleeding body which was so fully drenched with humanity’s detestable SIN that the full wrath of the Holy God came upon him. The Father deserted him. Painfully and deeply He cried aloud, “My God My God why hast Thou deserted me?” (Matt 27:46). We recall how in the Garden of Gethsemane, He prayed that if it were possible, God would not let Him drink the cup. That would have meant desertion by the Holy God who is His dearest and inseparable Father. That is the fourth word.

By now it is the ninth hour which is 3:00pm. The work of redemption undertaken for all sinners is near completion. To fulfil the prophetic words, He exclaimed: “I thirst” (John 19:28), which is the 5^th word. After that, the people offered him vinegar to drink, and after tasting it, He shouted aloud: “IT IS FINISHED!” (John 19:30). That was the 6^th word. The seventh and final word of Jesus came as He prayed: “Father, I commit my spirit into your own hand” (Luke 23:46). After that He gave up His spirit.

The time that Jesus gave up His spirit is recorded as taking place at about 3:00pm on Friday. According to Jewish calculation, Saturday commences from 6:30pm and it ends at 6:30 the following day which is the start of Sunday.

The table below should provide us a clearer picture:

Friday 3:00pm ~ 6:30pm is about 3 ½ hrs / 4 hrs
Friday 6:30pm ~ Saturday 6.30pm 24 hrs
Saturday 6:30pm ~ Sunday 6:30am 12 hrs
This makes a total of 39 ½ to 40 hours.

So those 40 hours can be taken as the period in which the Son of God went down to Hades to proclaim His victory over death and Hades, and bring the separation of Hades and Paradise. He led the righteous into Paradise while the unrighteous continue to be judged in Hades.

As regard to the time between Jesus’ death and that of the criminals’, it could be a difference of between 1 1/2 - 2 hours, because Jesus suffered heavily: spiritually, physically, emotionally, and He suffered for all our sins. Hence by the time the repented criminal died, Jesus must have already gone to be with the righteous ones in Paradise. So naturally He was able to welcome the repentant to be with Him in Paradise.

THE PROOF OF CHRIST'S DESCENT
A passage of importance related to Jesus’ death is found in Matthew 27:52-53. After “Jesus gave up his spirit,... the earth shook... the tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised, they came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.”

Every time I read the Bible, I could not understand the meaning of this text. But when I considered it in the light of the descent of Jesus into Hades, it became meaningful. It is almost like the missing piece of a puzzle that fits right into the whole. Here is what could have happened. The repentant criminal entered into Paradise the moment he died. The saints who were raised were waiting in the tombs until Jesus ascended from Hades. Then they came out and went into the holy city, which may be a reference to Paradise, because Jerusalem is for the living. If they had gone into Jerusalem, then stories would be told about them. Perhaps Matthew, the writer of the Gospel was not sure of what had happened. Nevertheless they appeared to many people, serving as a powerful witness of Jesus’ Resurrection. They represent the multitudes of those saints who were invisibly moved from Hades to Paradise.

THE LOCATION OF PARADISE
Where is Paradise? St. Paul wrote in 2 Cor.12: 2-4 about his experience of being “caught up to the third heaven”, and that “he was caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words …” It is the house of Christ’s Father! It is the place where He had gone to prepare for us who are His children, and where we will be forever, with our God. How marvellous!

THE CHOICE OF PARADISE
It is my wish that if you have yet to make the right decision, you will even now seriously consider your life’s ultimate destination. Heaven and Hell are real; you must grasp the opportunity to accept Jesus Christ’s sacrificial love so that you will not fall under God’s righteous judgement, and suffer eternal condemnation with great regret. Remember that this was not God’s original plan for you, God is love and His original plan is to love you always, but it is your own foolishness to reject this invaluable offer of eternal life.

Dear friend, do you really want to suffer utter loneliness, and bear the horrible eternal condemnation of God’s just judgment?