ALONE WITH GOD------

QUESTION: Please explain I Peter 3:19.

ANSWER: This text says, "By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison." In order to get a proper understanding of this verse we must consider it in connection with the preceding verse (18) and the following verse (20) which cover the entire thought. The 18^th, 19^th and 20^th verses read: "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water."

These three verses belong together to form the complete thought, and to separate any of them from the others will leave us adrift with not certain direction. The 19^th verse is the difficult one, but it does not make any sense at all with relation to the other scriptures if it is singled out and separated from the 18^th and 20^th verses. Taken by itself it would seem to teach something which is entirely incompatible with the general, overall teachings of the Scriptures in regard to Christ and to God’s dealing with and attitude toward mankind.

The closing phrase of verse 18 says that Christ was quickened by the Spirit. Then the first two words of the 19^th verse are "BY WHICH." Here is the key to understanding verse 19. "BY WHICH" by what? By the same spirit and divine operation that quickened Christ and made Him alive again after He had died for our sins; it was the same Spirit and Divine Operation that carried out the action described in verse 19.

Let us realize that the Holy Spirit didn’t just become operative in this New Testament Dispensation. He was operative in a lesser degree in Old Testament times, but operative nevertheless. Peter says in II Peter 1:21, "For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." This was true of all the prophets of Old Testament times. In Acts 1:16, Peter said: "Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas,..." Here he declares that the Holy Ghost spake by the mouth of David. This was true of Noah also. Peter called him a "Preacher of righteousness" (II Peter 2:5), and the Holy Ghost spake through him as he preached righteousness to the people while the ark was preparing.

Verse 20 identifies the time of this action "...When once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing,..."

If the phrase, "The spirits in prison," is a sticker to you, just realize that the souls of men in sin are bound in prison. A prison is a place where a person’s liberty and freedom are taken away from him and he cannot do as he would. Describing the condition of the sinner, Jesus said in John 8:34, "...Whosoever committeth sin is the servant [bond slave] of sin." Again He said in John 8:44, "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do...." The devil is the master of the sinner and rules his life and his activities. Paul said in Romans 6:16, "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" So we see that the person who has yielded himself to sin is the servant of sin and is not free to do righteousness. Again Paul said in describing his condition in his law experience when he could not be free from sin, "For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members." (Romans 7:22-23.) He was not free to do what he wanted to do because in his mind he wanted to do right and serve God; but he was captivated by sin and was a servant of the devil and could not do what he wanted to do. This made him a miserable, wretched person, and he cried out for deliverance in verse 24 and found his deliverance through Jesus Christ in verse 25.

Jesus said in John 8:32, "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Again He said in John 8:36, "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." Hebrews 7:25 says, "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost [completely, entirely, through and through] that come unto God by him,..." Matthew 1:21 says, "...Thou shalt call His name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins."

The Psalmist said in Psalm 142:7, "Bring my soul out of prison,..." Note, he was talking about his soul being in prison. In such a state and condition his freedom and liberty was taken away. This is just the condition in which these ungodly sinners were in Noah’s time when God determined to destroy them all. In Isaiah 42:7, which is contained in a prophecy concerning Christ and His work and ministry and the effects of salvation, we read: "To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house." It was to people in this condition that the Spirit of God through Noah preached while the ark was a preparing. All souls in sin are in the prison house, and it is the work of Christ through His salvation and saving grace to liberate them and set them free from the bondage and slavery of sin by saving them from their sins, and this is just what He wanted to do and would have done for those people in Noah’s time if they would have believed and obeyed the preaching of Noah.

Hebrews 11:7 says that Noah condemned the world. How did he do it? He condemned the world by preaching righteousness to them in the power of the Spirit of God and then by believing and obeying it himself. The preaching of righteousness by the Holy Ghost had the same effect then that it does now either condemns or saves either a savor of life unto life or death unto death. It was a savor of life to Noah and his family (eight souls) because they believed and obeyed. It was a savor of death to all the others because they did not believe and obey.

They had their chance, and God waited on them for 120 years to repent and turn from their evil ways. Why would it then be thought, as some say, that people were supposed to be imprisoned and preach to them and give them a second chance for salvation? He does not do that for people now, so why should He be partial to this people who had a chance for saving themselves the same as people do now and turned it down as people do now? It is not so.

QUESTION: I am confused as to the meaning of the following scriptures: I Peter 3:19-20;

Jude 6; and II Peter 2:4. As I look up cross-references, I find nothing that is very explanatory. I had always thought that heaven or the angel’s abode was completely holy and there would be nothing to tempt angels. Also, that anyone dying in sin was lost; so I can’t understand Jesus preaching to spirits in prison. Nothing in the gospels seems to mention any such or else I’ve missed it.

ANSWER: I Peter 3:19-20, reads: "By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;

Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water."

The thought really begins in verse 18, and this verse holds part of the key to interpreting the other verses. Verse 18 reads, "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit." The "S" in the word "Spirit" here is capitalized, indicating that it is the Holy Spirit, the third person of the triune God-head that is meant here. It was through the power of the Holy Spirit that Christ was raised from the dead. Then verse 19 says, "BY WHICH also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison." Then it was through the power and operation that He preached unto the spirits in prison. Then verse 20 tells when it was "...When once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing,..."

The preaching to the spirits in prison here was done in the days while Noah was building the ark and all the while preaching righteousness unto them the people in the prison house of sin. Peter said in II Peter 1:21, "For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." It was the same Holy Spirit that raised Christ from the dead that preached through Noah in his day warning the people to turn from their wickedness and flee from the wrath of God which was to come. It was the same Holy Spirit then in Noah, or preaching through Noah, as in the Holy Spirit-filled ministers today through whom Christ is preaching His gospel of salvation and warning sinners to repent of sin, believe the gospel, and thus flee from the wrath of God which is to come.

These spirits are called "spirits in prison," and rightly so. Prison is a place where one’s liberties are taken away. Spirits who have yielded themselves to the devil forfeit their liberties and become slaves to Satan and the power of sin. Those souls in Noah’s day, who had their imaginations of the thoughts of their hearts only evil continually, were whipped and lashed by a relentless, tyrannical master (the devil), and had no power or liberty of their own. Jesus Himself said in John 8:34, that he that "...committeth sin is the servant [slave] of sin." But Jesus again said in John 8:32, that you "...shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." It takes the power of the gospel of Christ to free men from sin. Paul said in Romans 6:17-18, "But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness." Any person who will obey the gospel and believe in the merits of the blood of Christ to redeem them from sin shall be made free from sin. Being a servant of righteousness is much different from being a servant of sin, because when one is a servant of righteousness, he is living according to the nature God placed in man in the beginning, which is liberty and freedom in the fullest degree. Sinful man has had a sinful, fallen, corrupt nature imposed upon his true nature. This nature tends to rebellion against God and right, and consequently robs him of all his liberty and freedom. This is what Jesus came to free men from by His sacrifice and the power of His blood, and to restore him back to his true nature (the divine nature) in the image and likeness of God and thus to full freedom and deliverance.

The prophet Isaiah, in Isaiah 42:7, said that one of the particular functions of the ministry of Jesus was "...to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house." Even those in solitary confinement or the dungeon even the worst of them were to be brought out also. Again, Isaiah 61:1 says, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me...to proclaim...the opening of the prison to them that are bound." In Luke 4:18-19, Jesus read this very prophecy in Isaiah 61:1 concerning Himself, and then said to them in verse 21, "...This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears." Jesus, the great liberator, had come to open the prison houses of sin and let the prisoners come out free men. Ephesians 4:8 says that when He ascended up on high "...he led captivity captive,..." The margin here says, "A multitude of captives." Jesus led a great multitude which no man could number out of the kingdom of darkness and sin, and translated them into the kingdom of God’s dear Son through the abundance of His grace and the power of His blood.

This does not mean that He opened up the prison and penitentiaries and turned the criminals loose on society. No, not at all. But the psalmist said in Psalm 142:7, "Bring my soul out of prison,..." So we see that souls can get in prison the same as bodies and men can be imprisoned spiritually as well as physically. And it was to those who were imprisoned spiritually that Jesus in Spirit preached to through Noah, and it is to those who are imprisoned spiritually today to whom He preaches in His Holy Spirit-filled ministers, and to whom He opens the prison doors to liberate them when they obey from the heart that form of doctrine delivered unto them.

Jude 6 says: "And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day."

I have mulled over this and wrestled around with it at different times, but never came up with anything that was satisfactory even to myself. Finally, I came across Bro. C. E. Orr’s interpretation of this text. He said that the angels referred to in this text were Adam and Eve. That seemed plausible and correct to me when I considered that they were created beings just like the angels, and designed for everlasting life just like the angels so long as they ate of the tree of life. Before they sinned they were holy just as the angels. When they sinned, they lost their righteous estate (kept not their first estate), and were driven from the garden (left their own habitation). This is the best I have to offer on this text as of now.