What do YOU think happened during those 3 days Christ descended into Hell?

Question

I don't want some internet links or passages from some theologians. I prefer to hear from Christians who thought about this time in Christ's legacy - the Bible says Jesus descended into Hell, and on the Third Day, rose again from the Dead. We know WHY. My Question is WHAT do you imagine ocurred to Christ while He was in Hell? What did He do? For 3 days He paid dearly...He conquered Death....but what possibly happened down there? Was there conversation? Confrontation? Wars? What is / are your theories?

*** For those who chose to not believe, that is your option, but please allow an exchange between believers ***

Thank you!
100107 8:04

It appears that some of the backlash from my prior Catholic-influenced Luthernism had by rote "...He decended into Hell, and on the Third Day He rose again, according to the Scriptures, and ascended into Heaven...". This is what I memorized since childhood. I did a verses lookup, and, indeed, all I saw were passages like
Luke 24: 46 reads which "Then he said to them, thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day". All references I found do not claim hell, but that Christ was dealing with the dead. Hmmm...puts a new perspective to mind. Shows I need to spend more time with the Bible and less going with the tradition of what I was raised with...

I don't have the priviledge to vote, since I was in error about Christ going to Hell. I will reiterate that He ascended into Heaven and conquered death, proving He had power over death and is indeed the Son of God. That is truth.
For now, I leave it to the Yahoo Community to decide who best to gain the 10 points, since my question took a twist...and I don't think it fair to delete this question when so many people put so much effort into their answers.
God's blessings to all who shared your perspectives! I hope all learned a little bit thru this question & corrections & responses.
People-learn your BIBLE!
=) Kim

Answer 1

What a wonderful question. I think that Jesus, literally, beat the Hell out of Satan. And I say Amen to that.

Answer 2

Here's what I wrote in an earlier post to someone else:

Here's what happened. Prior to Jesus coming to the earth, people were judged by their actions. When Jesus died, the Bible says he descended to the lower parts of the earth, or the place of the dead. In the parable of the rich man and lazarus, you see that the place of the dead was divided into two sections, one for the righteous, where Abraham and lazarus were and one for the unrighteous, where the rich man who wouldn't help lazarus was. When Jesus descended, he preached the gospel for three days, making converts of the righteous dead, so that they too could have resurrected bodies at the time of Christ's return. You can't go to heaven unless you accept Christ as your savior. So after He died, the provision had been made, and all that was needed was for someone to share the gospel with the righteous dead. Notice that when Jesus was talking to the thief on the cross next to him, he said, 'today you will be with me in paradise', not 'today you will be with me in heaven' because they are two separate places for two separate purposes. I hope this helped.

I might also add that Jesus didn't battle satan while he was there because satan is not in hell. he is the prince of the power of the air and is a daily accuser of the bretheren before God. he's certainly not omnipotent, so he cant be in two places at once. He doesnt get cast into hell until the millenial reign. That is found in the book of Revelation.

Answer 3

Jesus went down. The bosom of Abraham was also down. So was hell fire. There was a great divide between the two. And we know that Jesus went to paradise (Abrahams bosom) first. Since he told the thief on the cross who confessed Jesus Lord & King that he would see him in Paradise. Also, since the atonement was made, Paradise rose to the 3rd heaven (& I believe the Gospel verse that writes that Saints rose up (their souls/spirits) & walked around is when this happened.). And it is written that Paradise is in the 3rd heaven today, somewhere in the NT. But Jesus also took the keys of death & hell away from death. As the last enemy to defeat is death. But Jesus has the keys. It has also been preached that Jesus preached to those in death & hell & told them the situation. My Pastor likes to say something like this: that Jesus told them that they tried to mess things up, but that Jesus now came & paid the price for mans sins, so man can have eternal life now. That Jesus defeated death & hell. The devils lost.
See? Gods will is that no one would perish, but that all would come to repentence & receive eternal life through faith in Jesus.

I think Jesus also went to those who were in other areas like the souls of those who died in the flood. I think he went where ever people put who had died. I personally think there are more locations that just 'Abrahams Bosom' & 'hell fire'.

Answer 4

Can you imagine that sermon! Oh that anointing! My God, to think of it. To hear Jesus preaching to the thousands, to set the captives free. I believe that He was so filled with the Holy Ghost, that as the dead rose on earth, they rose that much more in Hell. A battle cry, A victory song! To hear and see the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords calling out the mighty triumphant call of the Father. I am blessed and on fire just sitting here thinking of it, and I can in no way understand how it must have been.

Hallelujah, for such a day! A conquering king preaching to the lost, raising them from the dead and being so in the will of his Father.

Answer 5

Mat 27:63 Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Mat 27:64 Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first.

Answer 6

I have heard it taught that when Christ descended into hell that he preached to those poor souls in hell about who he was, why he came, why he died, and what was going to happen next (his resurrection).

Being in hell but not bound by it proved that Christ had completely conquered death and held dominion over everything in and under heaven.

Worthy is the Lamb!

Answer 7

Hell, to the Jews, is the grave... so he laid in a grave for 3 days - which corresponds with the "3 days and 3 nights in the grave" verse. He didn't do anything, but lay in the grave. He didn't "conquer death" till he woke up, "escaping" the clutches of death (so to say). There is not "down there" except 6' under.

This isn't a theory... this is taken directly from Jewish beliefs, which if his followers were actually Religious Jews, they would have believed this, as there is no fiery hell in Jewish beliefs. Seems more reasonable to me than to say that God suddenly created a fiery hell for those who don't believe in him.

Pagan

Answer 8

Jesus had to go to hell before heaven, to gain the keys to both heaven and hell, so that now the Spirit is giving back to Gods ppl, since His death and resurrection, to give to us to be able to overcome sin. He conquered hell and He conquered sin, He lived a perfect life, thru obedience to the Father. Once HE got the keys to heaven and hell, He could pass this on to us, that will now love Him and obey Him, and give us the HOly Spirit power to live as He lived, doing all that He did, except bringing salvation. WE are saved thru Jesus alone but because of His death on the cross, and His shed blood, He was able to go to hell and get the keys to hell, so that He could pass this on to us. Once Adam and Eve fell, they lost that gifting of the Holy Spirit, and only Jesus death brought it back. Now, we can have the Holy spirit power and leadings in our life to know Gods word, and be able to keep it. Holy Spirit is our councelor and our guide. HE will convict of sin and show us how to say No to it. We have all of this because of Jesus death upon the cross. Jesus conquered hell and the grave, so we wont have to. Just like He died, so we wont have to have a spiritual death, only an earthly death, if we die before Jesus comes again. But He is coming soon. and we need to be getting ready to Meet Him. SO few answer the call Many will say they love Jesus. But, the wont answer the full call of God. that says. IF YOU LOVE ME< OBEY ME> Obedience is the key to all blessing and we must know we cant do it on our own. We are so blessed already, just to know God, know Jesus, and to have the Holy Spirit given to us to get us thru. When ppl say I DONT FEEL BLESSED> I must be sad and then try to explain it. WE are so blessed to be Gods children already, and more blessings daily come, including the receiving of the Holy Spirit. Now, we can conquer sin and the grave too, by the filling of the Spirit of God.
We are called to be more than conquereros.... amen

Answer 9

well, the scriptures say that when christ decended into hell, that he went to preach to the spirits there in prision, therefore we know it was not the hell of devils, hell is not a prision becuz you are released after a time in prision, he went to the saints of old to tell them the good news that christ had ackomplised our redemption and that when he assended into heaven he would be taking all of them with him, Chirst opened the gates of heaven finally, that had been closed since the sin of adam and eve. the old saints died and went to the bosom of abraham or another name is hell, which is just any place other than heaven.

Answer 10

I believe that Christ battled with Satan over souls -- I bewlieve that the same battle takes place today in peoples hearts and it did those 3 days in hell -- and I believe that the devil fought to gain victory over Christ , but Christ won the keys of Hell and Death -- i dont knwo for sure what happened -- but I know that Christ prevailed and because of His victory, we have the victory!!

Answer 11

I believe He ministered to the souls there. I also believe that He took the keys of Hell & Death from satan and holds them in His hand to this day! I would like to think that satan and his demons were celebrating when they heard a knock on the door to hell. Satan asks one of his demons to see who it is, and when he asks, "who's there?", a voice says, "Jesus Christ". The demon reports back to satan, and enraged, satan goes to the door himself and asks the same question, "who's there?" Jesus replies, "I am He who was dead, but lives for evermore." Satan replies, "that's impossible, I saw you die!", to which Jesus says, "evidently you didn't read the Sunday morning edition of the Jerusalem Post." Then Jesus walks through the door and takes the keys from satan.