Explain"He descended into hell" PLEEZE

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Annemariels

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I need to teach 5th graders the Apostles creed. Who knows why we say, “He descended into hell”?:confused::confused::confused:
 
When the sin of Adam and Eve deprived us of full communion with God, the gates of Heaven were closed to those who died. It was called hell, Abraham’s bosom or limbo (probably other names as well). When Jesus died, he descended to that place to bring all the righteous up to Heaven because the gates were opened again because of His sacrifice. That hell is different from the Hell condemned souls go to now.
 
“Hell” in this case doesn’t mean the hell of the damned, but the realm of the dead. This line in the Creed is a reference to the Harrowing of Hell, when Jesus, after His death, descended to the realm of the dead and rescued the souls of the righteous from prison. References in Scripture:

1 Peter 3:18-20:
For Christ also died for sins once for all, 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; in which he went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water.
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1 Peter 4:6:
For this is why the gospel was preached even to the dead, that though judged in the flesh like men, they might live in the spirit like God.
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I think the links provided by Mark and the comments from bnb sum it up quite well.

About the only the I would add is, IIRC, the current English word “hell” is derived from an old proto-German or Old German word “helle” which refered to a “netherworld of the dead”.
 
Sorry Victorious. I didn’t ignore your post on purpose. :o

You just snuck it in while I was still typing! :tiphat:
 
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