Jesus did not descend into Gehenna?
I was
recently told Jesus did not descend into Hell, because Hell is complete
separation from God and eternal death. The terms Sheol and Hades may be
synonymous in scripture, but do not mean Hell. When Jesus returns he will throw
Hades, death, and the devil into Hell. So this should be good news, your
brother didn't go to Hell when he died, he is only in Hades waiting to go to
Hell.
The
creed says Jesus went into Hell. Amazingly, in the Greek Apostles creed it says, κατελθόντα εἰς τὰ κατώτατα (descended
into the lower place). The Latin says, descendit ad ínfernos, (descended
into Inferno). In the vulgate, ínfernos is used in place of both
Sheol and Hades. Therefore, Jesus descended into Hades/Sheol/Hell!
FC SD
IX
Because
among the teachers of the ancient church as well as among some of us different
explanations of the article on Christ’s descent into hell may be found, we
remain with the simple explanation of the Christian creed, to which Dr. Luther
directs us in his sermon held in 1533 at the castle in Torgau on Christ’s
descent into hell. Therefore, we confess, “I believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord,
God’s Son, who died, was buried, and descended into hell.” In this Creed the
burial and Christ’s descent into hell are distinguished as two different
articles, and we believe simply that the entire person, God and human being,
descended to hell after his burial, conquered the devil, destroyed the power of
hell, and took from the devil all his power.
We
should “not bother ourselves with lofty, sophistical ideas about how this
occurred,” for this article can be grasped “with reason and the five senses” as
little as can the previous article, on how Christ was placed at the right hand
of God’s almighty power and majesty. This article can only be believed; we can
only hold to the Word. Thus, we retain the heart of this article and derive
comfort from it, so that “neither hell nor the devil can capture or harm us”
and all who believe in Christ.
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