I just read something that I always thought I knew what it meant and now I am thinking it might mean something else.
What is 1 Peter 3:18-22 talking about? I always thought this was Jesus declaring victory over the devil and the lost—over the chained, fallen angels who took daughters of men to be wives in the days of Noah. Now I am wondering if this is Jesus giving the people of Noah's day an opportunity to repent and be saved.
I can't imagine that's right but I have been shocked over a lot of things these past few months!
This is a great question and the answer from the word is even greater! Hold on to your seat because our Father's word is both deep and awesome and has a wonderful answer for you!!! My answer is also long because I have to prove my point with a lot of verses because this is a very difficult passage. So you will probably have to read it through a few times to fully grasp it, but it will be worth it! It will definitely keep you very busy the next few days studying it out for yourself, and make your appreciation and awe of God's Word increase!
1 Peter 3:18-20
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.
Yes, many people have been taught that this passage has to do with our Lord going down into hell or "prison" when His soul left His body after dying on the Cross. They claim that He went down there to declare His victory over the devil and the lost souls of mankind that are in hell.
Unfortunately those who are being taught this are being taught by men who do not rightly divide God's Word as commanded in 2 Tim 2:15, nor do they understand what God is doing in His Prophetic program in the earth with the Nation of Israel, or today in His Mystery program with us gentiles, so they confuse the passage.
Not only did our Lord not go into the "prison" side of hell, that is, the "torment" side (Luke 16), He went into the "paradise side,” that is, Abraham's bosom, so He did not go to the side with the Devil in it, nor lost human souls!
Luke 23:43
And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.
Also, Satan is not in hell right now. He is still allowed by God to go back and forth between the earth and the heavenly places.
Job 1:6-7
Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them. And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
1 Peter 5:8
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary THE DEVIL, as a roaring lion, walketh about [in the earth], seeking whom he may devour:
Ephesians 6:12
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Anyway, in the passage from 1 Peter 3, the Apostle Peter (who is speaking to Israel and not to us gentiles....that's Paul's job...Romans 11:13) is explaining to his readers how our Lord Jesus Christ suffered unjustly for the sins of Israel and went to the Cross for their sins. He says that our Lord's physical body died on the Cross, but then on the third day He was raised again physically by the Spirit of God!
1 Peter 3:18
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:
Peter goes on to say in v. 19, that our Lord, by this same spirit, went to speak unto the "spirits" in prison. Who are these "spirits" and what/where is this prison? It is here that most get confused. But when you study the bible out thoroughly, you can see what these are.
Let's deal with the "prison" first...
In the bible, just like it is today in our time, prison is a place of punishment for those who are offenders....
Isaiah 24:21-22
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.
In this text from Isaiah, the Jewish prophet is looking forward to the future Day of the Lord when He returns in His wrath and sets up His earthly kingdom in Israel. During this time, the Lord Jesus will "punish" the "high ones,” the fallen angels, and the rebellious "kings" of the earth, humans. He will put them in a prison/pit (hell), and then after "many days" (1,000 years...Rev 20:1-7), judge both fallen angels and lost humanity for their sins at His Great White Throne.
So we see here in Isaiah that both fallen angels and souls of men are down in this prison hell.
Now back to 1 Peter 3...
1 Peter 3:19-20
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.
From v. 20 we can see that these "spirits" that our Lord spoke to through the Spirit, and that are in this prison of hell, are those which were "sometime disobedient.” And when were they disobedient? During the days of NOAH (way back in Genesis as Noah, right before the flood, was preparing the Ark)!
Okay, but who specifically are these spirits that Peter is referring to in 1 Peter 3? What we will see that in 1 Peter, these "spirits" are a mixed race of both fallen angels and human beings!
To prove that we need to, go back to Genesis 6, when Noah first shows up!
Genesis 6:1-8
and it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of god saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. and the lord said, my spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of god came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. And god saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the lord.
Notice here that the first time Noah appears is when this evil mixing of the species began to take place. The "sons of God,” the angels who had fallen, began to marry and have sex with the "daughters of men,” human women, and from this union produced a mixed-race of corrupted human beings called giants, and it pleased not God!
God still called this mixed race/corrupted humanity "man" in verse 3. And God gives these beings 120 years (the time it took Noah to build the Ark) to repent and turn to Him. If they did, He would transform them back into His ORIGINAL creation, but if they did not, He would destroy them in the flood and send them to prison/hell. As we know, they did not believe God's preaching to them. When and how did God preach to them? Through the Spirit of Christ speaking through Noah's mouth!
Peter gives us more light in his second epistle when he writes about all this...
2 Peter 2:4-5
For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, A preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
Here Peter talks about two groups of people that God condemned before saving Noah and his family: the "angels" that sinned,” that is, those "sons of God" who had carnal relations with women; and then "the old world,” the people on earth at the time of the flood.
So not only did God send those angels that had sex with women to hell, He also sent their demonic offspring to hell after their human offspring refused to believe His Word through Noah. Notice in v.5 that Noah is called a "preacher.” Who did he preach to? Evidently, he preached to these human/angelic offspring, and he did it for 120 years while building the ark!
It is this episode that Peter is talking about in 1 Peter 3 when he says that Christ, through the Spirit spoke to the spirits in prison...
1 Peter 3:18-20
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 [by the Spirit] went and preached unto the spirits [these demonic offspring] 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 Jewish writer Jude also mentions these fallen angels in his book to Israel when he writes...
Jude 6-7
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. Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
We see that just like the men of Sodom went after "strange flesh,” v. 7, by going after other men, these fallen angels went after "strange flesh" by going after humans!
Why this is important is because both Jude and Peter, although they wrote nearly 2,000 years ago, God put their writings in the part of scripture that will pertain to a future time in the Middle East on earth during the Tribulation period. This is important because just like in the days of Noah, there will be another demonic possession of people there in the Middle East before the Lord's return. Both Daniel (Israel's prophet) and even our Lord Jesus Christ Himself mention it...
Daniel 2:43
And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.
Here Daniel is prophesying about the future right before the Lord's return. The iron represents angels and the miry clay represents humans. There will be another mixing of the races (or at least devilish doctrines in the minds of men....and in my opinion the Muslim doctrine...I'll explain later below) in the future!
The Lord also, during His earthly ministry to Israel, makes reference back to those days in Genesis 6 when angels married and mated with women and had these offspring.
Luke 17:26-27
And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man (at His return). They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.
That is why the Lord went around casting out devils during His earthly ministry and will again give Israel the power to do it in the future.
Mark 16:17
And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
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I told you earlier in this study that I think that Islam will play a part in all this. I believe that Islam will be the religion of the Anti-Christ and that he himself will be a Jewish man who converts to Islam. This is probably HOW he will be able to bring peace between Jews and Muslims...by being both a Jew and a Muslim.
Anyway, it seems as if the Satanic doctrine of Islam will infiltrate Israel (in the middle of the Tribulation when the Anti-Christ stops Israel's Mosaic Temple worship, and then implements Islam instead). It will be through this Anti-Christ doctrine that denies Jesus is the Christ in that day that Satan will "dwell" within the people of Israel. It will be this doctrine that the Spirit of God tries to dispel out of the Nation of Israel!
So who knows, but whether it is a literal indwelling of devils in the Middle East in that day, or simply Satan's thinking that possesses them, either way it will be this doctrine that the Spirit of God tries to dispel out of the Nation of Israel and the scripture makes reference to both!
Here's what I think...had the Dispensation of Grace not happened, that is, Israel would have trusted Christ as Messiah and received their kingdom, then all the literal devil possessions mentioned in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John would have happened. But now, since the dispensation of Grace did take place, then maybe this future devil possession will be through Satanic doctrine, and that the religions of both Judaism and Islam in the middle east where the bible focuses on in Prophecy!
The Lord mentioned something similar to Israel during His earthly ministry. According to God's Prophetic Word to Israel, both Moses and Elijah were to show up before the Day of the Lord and His kingdom. The Lord told Israel that if they would have received the kingdom in His day, He, the Lord would have been "Moses,” or that Prophet spoken of by Moses, and that John the Baptist would have been Elijah...
Deuteronomy 18:15
The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;
Matthew 11:12-15
And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
In other words, God promised to send Moses and Elijah, but our Lord and John both came in the "spirit" of Moses and Elijah, and had Israel believed, those two would have fulfilled the prophecy. But because God knew that they would not believe (although He offered them a legitimate opportunity to), He will send Moses and Elijah back for real in the future as the two witnesses of Revelation.
Revelation 11:3
And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
That is because in the bible, when one speaks the words of another, he operates in the spirit of that person!
Even Paul says that Satan works/dwells in the lost through words, just like our Lord does in us believers!
Ephesians 2:2
Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.
We see that with Satan and Judas and Peter...
Satan "entered" Judas, but the way that he did was by putting his word in Judas...
Luke 22:3
Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve.
John 13:2
And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him;
Matthew 16:23
But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.
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Because Satan and the angels are spirit beings, he and his devils desired to have "flesh" like men. That is why they would possess mankind and even animals.
Matthew 8:31-32
So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine. And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters.
This is what I think happened with the dragon and the dinosaur. I believe that although God created dinosaurs, that Satan and his angels infiltrated some of God's creatures and possessed their physical bodies and thereby corrupted the Genetics, like with the dinosaur being a evil fire breathing dragon! Maybe Satan did that with the serpent...it was a different type of animal until Satan entered it and corrupted it and God judged it! And why the gentiles/heathens as they worship in idolatry go after all these beasts.
Romans 1:23
And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
This is all just a theory from my studies over the years...maybe study it out for yourself one day!
The point is that devils do somehow intermingle with things with flesh like mankind and animals and God does not like it!
Hopefully this helps!
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