Long Island Abundant Life Church長島豐盛生命教會
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  Long Island Abundant Life Church長島豐盛生命教會

Luke 23:18–43

5/8/2012

 
Click here to read today's passage on Bible Gateway.

"Holy Saturday"
Today I want to mention a somewhat controversial and difficult issue.  I mention it so that we can practice some critical thinking and be aware of issues that we perhaps weren't aware of before.  So the question is this:  What did Jesus do on "Holy Saturday"?  The day between when Jesus was crucified (Good Friday) and rose from the grave (Easter) is traditionally called "Holy Saturday".  The problem?  Here is an excerpt from the "Apostles' Creed", an early creed (formulation) of Christian belief (actually, despite the name, it does NOT date all the way back to the apostles, but that's a matter for another time).  It says this:

"I believe...
...suffered under Pontius Pilate,was crucified, died and was buried;
he descended into hell;
on the third day he rose again from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty...."

The bold part is the point of contention.  Why?  Check out the last sentence of today's reading: "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."  So you see the problem:  Jesus clearly states to the thief that "today you will be with me in paradise".  Paradise is not hell, yet early formulations of Christian belief say that on Holy Saturday Jesus descended to hell.  This is traditionally called the "Harrowing of Hell".  If you're interested in what exactly people have believed through the years that Jesus did there, you can click the link to read the Wikipedia article.  I'm not going to spend time here writing about it because I don't believe that Jesus descended to hell.  Why?

In LIALC's Statement of Belief, it says this about the Bible: "[It is] the only infallible guide in faith and practice." This means that although there are other "guides" and "authorities" in our lives (parents, pastors, teachers, etc), the only INFALLIBLE authority for our faith and practice comes from the Bible alone.  In this case, that means that our beliefs (even very old historical beliefs) submit first and foremost to the Bible.  It seems very clear from our passage today that Jesus was in Paradise following His death on the cross.  We should allow history to inform our beliefs, but if there is conflict, all belief should submit to the Bible.  This is in contrast to Catholic belief, which considers tradition (historical beliefs), Church teaching (the Magisterium), and the Bible all to be of equal infallible authority.  This would lead in this case to the belief that the Apostles' Creed should inform our reading of the Bible. 

I'm simplifying the issue somewhat, but in addition to the passage from today, I would also cite that there are no really compelling reasons or verses in the Bible to believe that the "Harrowing of Hell" occurred, whereas indications seem to be that Jesus was actually in Paradise instead.  Would I die for this belief?  Absolutely not.  It's a complicated issue that isn't totally clear, but it is an EXCELLENT example of how our beliefs about the Bible and other authorities in our lives relate.  If you're interested in the issue, here is some further reading on it, a lot of it recent because there was a lot of discussion about this around Easter this year.

With the view that Jesus was in Paradise:
"What did Jesus do on Holy Saturday?" (I would side with Grudem and Piper mentioned in the passage)

With the view that Jesus descended to hell:
"More Creed Tinkering?" (specific response to the previous article)

"He Descended into Hell" (same site, but not in response - this is a listing of historical perspectives on the issue)


Okay..let me guess....you have questions?
Andrei
5/9/2012 07:04:33 pm

Whoa... crazy stuff. Definitely have questions. One of the main questions going through my mind as I was reading this was... you know how sometimes we say, 'oh, we can't know everything. There's always going to be stuff that is beyond our human understanding because we're talking about God.' How do we know what is on and off limits for our human understanding? Or is it just that we try to learn everything we can about God, and ascribe the stuff that we can't figure out to that principle?

Greg
5/10/2012 03:02:37 am

That's a really hard question. Our goal should be to understand and obey the Bible as much as possible, but as you said, there are definitely thing that are beyond our ability to understand and know - I think that those two words have two different meanings.

Understand: Eternity. The glory of God. Those would be two examples of things we can UNDERSTAND because our human minds are unable to contain the truth of those things. We literally cannot fully understand them.

Know: This issue. Did Jesus ever play tag as a child? These are things we can't necessarily know for sure because the Bible doesn't specifically address them. The second one is more ridiculous to ask and we have no real way to know at all, but the first issue involves taking the information we have and trying to figure it out. Because there is no verse that specifically says "on Saturday day Jesus did _________", there are always going to be disagreements over it. I can respect someone with a differing opinion who can tell me WHY they have that opinion and explain it to me. Issues like this aren't vital (since the Bible doesn't explicitly address them) and I'm not going to treat them that way. The bigger issue, as I said, is actually TRYING to responsibly understand. If someone says they believe in the harrowing of hell simply because they heard someone teach it, I find that to be unacceptable because we should always be examining the Bible and checking what people are teaching with what the Bible says. That's the key point: don't be lazy. There are definitely things we can't know, but many people jump to the "we can't know that" conclusion far too quickly because they don't have the knowledge to make an informed decision and are unwilling to put forth the effort to learn enough to make one.

It's a hard balance - I think there are people that are dogmatic about things that we can't really be dogmatic about, but I also think that there are far more people that don't really believe much of anything because they aren't willing to put in the time and effort to really know God and study His Word. I know that doesn't really answer your question very clearly, but those are just some thoughts on what you asked about.

Andrew S
5/10/2012 05:40:09 am

Ah, yes this issue. I went to a Presbyterian Church throughout college and also omitted that line in the creed. I saw this article someone posted in the comments section:
http://www.logia.org/features/feature181.pdf
The author mentions several times that the Jews believed that all people, righteous and unrighteous, go to Sheol after death due to the law and sin. So has that thought changed after Jesus' death?
Something I was trying to reconcile in my head as well depends on the previous question. Is the "immediate heaven" the same as sheol?

Greg
5/10/2012 08:31:47 am

Part of the problem is that this is where we enter into a lot of guesswork. It has been suggested that "sheol" was a generic term ("the grave") that could be used to describe both of the places in the "Rich Man and Lazarus" story. Lazarus is in "Abraham's Bosom" (a name sometimes used for what we call the intermediate heaven) and the rich man is suffering judgement, but both are in "the grave". A lot of the argument depends on defining terms as well. What is "hell"? Is it the holding tank of punishment for the unsaved until they are judged and thrown in the Lake of Fire, or is the Lake of Fire itself hell? The issue is made more difficult because we are very fuzzy in our thinking and terms. Some have suggested the translation "to the grave" instead of "to hell" in order to remedy the situation, but that's still a problem. If it's "the grave", are we only talking about Jesus' body? Because that still doesn't jive with the "today you will be with me in paradise" statement.

Your thought could be possible. If "sheol" here means simply an intermediate state (of punishment or paradise), then that line isn't a problem. It would be a little weird though because it would be saying "he descended to Paradise and on the third day rose again". It seems to be a stretch for a couple of reasons ("descended" being one of them). I think either way we can agree that the traditional "Harrowing of Hell" idea is a difficult one that lacks clear support.

I think personally if we were to be a "creed-reciting" church I would be okay with "descended to the grave", but I'm not sure that I would opt for reciting the Apostles' Creed anyway. I've always be more of a Nicene Creed guy myself.


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