Did Jesus really stand into hell? Answer to that as other questions on this edition of Key Light. Hi, I'm Mike Kellogg, and you are now listening to Key Light, where you can find honest answers to honest questions about God's Word. Now, here is Steve. Thanks, Mike. As always, on Fridays are almost all ways. This is my pastor, Pete Owl, once in his come in to help these questions. You know, we've been doing a number of radio rallies with you sitting up front and answering questions. That's been fun, hasn't it? It's going to be good. Yes, it has been fun. It has been good. It's fun when we do it again. The truth is that we haven't done them yet, but we've planned them. But by the time you've listened to this, we will have done it. And I just can't get my pastor to lie. He just won't do it. And that's the reason I do appreciate your coming in. Good to be here. On Fridays, Pete and I answer the questions. And we get thousands of questions from you guys, and you always get an answer from me or a staff member on the magazine or on the broadcast. But you've got to write them down. And send them to Key Life, post office box 5,000, maintenance lawyer, the 32794, or in Canada, Key Life Canada, post office box 32150, Cambridge, Ontario, in 3H5, in 3, or you can email us. And if you want a response, give us your regular mailing address. You can email us at stebetkeylife.org. Incidentally, don't use the 1-800 number, 1-800 key life, to ask a question. You can make orders. You can make a contribution. You can become a part of our key life, take family free, get the booklets free, or whatever. But you do have to write your questions down. And try to limit it to no more than three. When you ask us 40 questions, it ties up Key Life because we're a small ministry. We've got a good library, but we're a small ministry. And that means that the entire staff is tied up for three weeks. And the ministry could go down, and it would be your fault. So, moment. Pete, why don't you lead us in prayer, and then we'll turn to some of these questions. All right. Our father, we do come into your presence today. And Lord, thankful that we can say that we're your sons and daughters. Grateful that we can say that you have really changed our lives. And we're not the same because of what you've done. Father, we thank you for your goodness and your mercy, your kindness, your power, your holiness. And father, there are times when we see who you are and the word and we tremble. And other times, we just about dance for joy that we're your sons and daughters. And so Lord, today we ask that wherever we're at right now, driving or at home, listening here, we pray that you would speak to us and answer our questions. We have a deep need for that. And we pray that you would be very close to us and us to you. And Lord, lead us into your presence on Sunday. We look forward to worship and pray for those who are going to be leading us. Pray for our pastors and teachers. Pray for the priests. We pray for all the families involved in ministry that Lord, you would encourage them, strengthen them. And Father, we pray for the ones that you give messages to for this weekend. May they speak strong and clear but with grace. And we just ask now that you would bless this ministry. But it was Steve and all those at key life were thankful for how you have used this ministry. Continue to do that for your honor and glory. And we commit this time to you now. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Pete, this is from Ontario, Canada. Did Christ descend into hell? If so, what did he do there? You know, that is controversy. It comes from that phrase in the Apostles Creed. He descended into hell. And historically, where did that come from? We know the Apostles Creed is an early credal formula. And second century at least. So the way I take it, and then you can tell them the truth. I do think it is a statement about what Christ did on the cross experiencing separation from the Father for us, for our sins. Which is what hell is. So when he said, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? And he really, our Lord really was experiencing hell for the first time in eternity, separation for us. And then there are in the scriptures a variety of words that are used. Gayena, a shield that are used to describe, that we translate sometimes in our English versions as hell. One simply means the place of the dead. And so there are those that suggested in the credal statements that it's simply referencing the fact that he really died. This wasn't a game. That's right. And then there's always, and I'm going to tell you, in 1 Peter 3, and then also in 4, Peter says something. And when I've taught it, and so don't send me letters, okay, because I've read the commentaries. But it says that Jesus preached to those who were in prison in the time of Noah. And then you get over the 4th chapter, and it's almost like God wants to kind of get you again. And he said, this is why the gospel was preached to the dead or to those. And so you begin to think, well, you know, and I sit from the pulpit one time when we were sending out tapes. I said, I know what that seems to say, but it doesn't say that. Because we know the Bible says it's appointed and demand once to die. And after that, the judgment, that's right. And if you don't have something sticking out of your theological suitcase, then it's probably not a God. Because God doesn't fit in a box. And I'm not sure what this means. So if it's okay with you, I'm going to the next bird. That drives people. But it really does. And so, you know, I'm not sure what those passages mean. We want to have everything all nice and neat. And I am that way big time. Yeah, me too. You know, so I take that Peter's passage saying that Christ went and preached through Noah the preacher of righteousness in his day. Kind of a Christophany. Yeah. And that's how I make sense of that. And I think that's pretty good. I do too. You know, my book is coming on. If I had known that then, I would have said that. But it was instructive to me to say, I don't know and have people get angry at me. And I, you know, there are a lot of things I don't know. I go through script. We don't know. And I remember one time, S. Lewis Johnson, in seminary, taught and he said, listen, you never, you never base major doctrines on obscure passages. Absolutely. And that was important to me. So, like you said, there's mystery still. We don't understand everything. True, true. I've got, I've got, you know, know what I'm going to do. I want to deal with this real quickly. I have a good friend who is a manager of a station. I'm going to use his name. He's been very supportive of key life. And so, when he writes, he never writes as a critic or anything like that. And I told him, I was going to use it on a broadcast, but I didn't get his permission. So, I'm not going to use his name. But he said when Pastor Pete prayed on a broadcast, and he has in print, this is, I really like him. He said, thank you, Father, that we're your daughters and sons. Thank you that we're your children forever, that everything we've done, even though most of it's been bad, has been redeemed. You've cleaned up our slate, our record. You don't look at us as dirty rotten sinners. Look at us as sons and daughters, et cetera. And then he complimented you on the prayer, and then he said, and then he refers to both you and me. We answered, a question was, do believers still have a sin nature if so, what changes when one becomes a Christian? And one of us said we're new creatures in Christ, so we're new. Or we perfect know the rest of the answer was one of the, was confusing, et cetera, et cetera. Steve, if God did intend to make me a new creation, if the old man was indeed crucified with Christ, if I indeed have been made complete, and indeed a citizen of heaven, and yet still have a sin nature, even though that old nature was crucified, that old man did and buried, well, you see the point, everything's going out, and I just said we would address that. And he makes a good point. Yeah, it is a tough subject because we do see the remnants of our sin nature still in us. Are we new creatures in Christ? Yes. Are we saints? Yes. You said that's undisturbed. Yeah, we're set apart. We belong to him. Are we glorified? No. We're not glorified yet. And I guess that was the tension. That's what I was bringing up. Are we in the process of sanctification? Am I better than I used to be because of Christ? Absolutely. And there is, you know, when Paul says, there's something to be said. He says, reckon yourself dead in that Romans passage. In other words, consider that dead. And when that stuff is doing its thing, it's a dead man doing stuff that's irrelevant. And it's hopeful, not only helpful, but probably doctrinally right to reckon yourself dead. Absolutely. However, to my dear friend, the problem is, when you're teaching people, is that sometimes when you give an inch, they'll take a mile. And there are a lot of people that want to play games with God and say, I've got this thing together when they don't. And so a part of the ministry of radical grace that we teach is grace is irrelevant except in the context of sin. Where sin abounds grace abounds all the more. So while he makes a very good point, and I think I wrote him back and told him why we were doing it that way, but he makes a good point. And we don't want to say you're dirty, rotten sinners. You're an awful, totally depraved. You could wallow in it, go ahead, it's your nature, and you're always fighting at it. If we said that, it would be doctrinally incorrect, because you had been given a new nature. That's right. Somebody said, did being a Christian caused me to stop sinning? And you say, well no, but it sure took the fun out of it. But again, even, so it's a matter of emphasis, and it's a pedagogical point that we've got to face the reality and as does our friend in this letter that people, that we're not perfect, that we do sin. You know, he is stressing the side of the coin of the Roman Six. Therefore consider yourself dead to sin, but alive to God and Christ Jesus. And probably not enough of us as Christians do that. And we feel like we're victims to sin. And we don't have to be. No, because we're new creatures. That's right. So his point is well taken. I think we were spanked on that. I'm not sure. No, it was kind. I mean, that's when he says something I listen to. And I noticed that you quoted from the New International. I quoted from the King James Version of 1611. Well, it was good for Paul. It's, you know, it's good for me, man. I think we'll move on. Let's see. Yeah, we got a little bit of time. Was Judas say that's from Kentucky. Not Judas. The question was from Kentucky. And how would you answer that? Because the Bible calls him the son of perdition. Yeah. I think it's very clear in script. You know, there was a cult, a small cult that developed around. I'm told in the early church around Judas that he really was saved. It was performing God's will. But I think the text doesn't give you much wiggle room on that. No. Now, when he's called the son of perdition, and I can't remember where that is, but that's in one of the gospels. Yeah. The son of perdition, that means the son designed for. And then Jesus makes it clear in the gospel of John at the last supper. And even in his prayer, you know, I say to all of them except the one. And then he goes on to talk about Judas. So there's not a lot of wiggle room there. If Judas had said the only difference in Judas and Peter is the matter that Peter went back to Jesus and Judas didn't. Had Judas done that, he could have been saved. How do you explain the attitude of Judas when he threw the money back to the priests? I think that was feeling dirty. I don't know if you were running back to Jesus. But in any way, however, the text doesn't give us much wiggle room. That's right. We're out of here. Hey, by the way, whenever you write a call, would you give us the call letters of this station? And if he can be an ex-moderate? Yeah, I'll see you. You're a good man, Charlie. Guys, we gotta go. Key life is a production of Eli's Network.