Episode 143: Pascha 2023 - Christ's Descent & Glorious Victory

Pascha 2023 – Christ’s Descent Apostle’s Creed - I believe in God the Father almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, who suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried,  descended to the dead (lit. “to the lower”), rose again from the dead on the third day, Acts 2:22-28, 31-3222 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. 25 For David says concerning him,“‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken;26 therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope.27 For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption.28 You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’… 31 he [David] foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. 32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Eph. 4:9 - Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?   1 Pet. 3:18-19 - 18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which He went and proclaimed/preached to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah,  “Almost without exception in the NT, “spirits” (plural) refers to supernatural beings rather than to people…The word “prison” is not used elsewhere in Scripture as a place of punishment after death for humans beings, while it is used for Satan (Rev. 20:7) and other fallen angels (2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 6). In this case the message Christ proclaimed is almost certainly one of triumph…” 2 Pet. 2:4 – 4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into tartarus and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;  Jude 6 - 6 And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, He has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— 1 Pet. 4:6 - For this reason, the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.   Christ rose from the place of the dead, and raised up the race of Adam from the grave below.  Melito (c. 170, E), 8.757. The Lord was made “the First-Begotten of the dead.” Receiving into His bosom the ancient fathers, He has regenerated them into the life of God.  Irenaeus (c. 180, E/W), 1.455. For their benefit, “He also descended into the lower parts of the earth,” to behold with His eyes the state of those who were resting from their labors. ...For Christ did not come merely for those who believed on Him in the time of Tiberius Caesar. Nor did the Father exercise His providence only for the men who are presently alive. Rather, He exercised it for all men altogether, who from the beginning...have both feared and loved God.  Irenaeus (c. 180, E/W), 1.494. It was for this reason, too, that the Lord descended into the regions beneath the earth, preaching His advent there also. And He [declared] the remission of sins received by those who believe in Him.  Irenaeus (c. 180, E/W), 1.499. He gathered from the ends of the e(continued)