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MarkA16
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From the Apostle’s Creed, “He descended into hell”. What caused him to go to hell?
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DeFide
Guest
Q: Why did Christ visit hell after his death?
A: He didn’t, if you mean by hell the place of the damned. There would have been no purpose in his going there.
The Apostles’ Creed contains this line in Latin: descendit ad inferos. In older English translations the word inferos was rendered as “hell,” but it was understood not to mean the place of the damned. The term actually refers to “those below”—that is, to the dead. It thus signified that he descended to visit the just who died in pre-Christian times and were waiting for heaven to be opened to them. This place is commonly called the limbo of the Fathers.
Jesus referred to this place when he said, “As Jonah was in the whale’s belly for three days and three nights, so shall the Son of Man be in the heart of the Earth three days and three nights” (Matt. 12:40).
The expression “heart of the Earth” doesn’t mean the grave, but the underworld, what the Jews called sheol, which was thought to be located at the center of the Earth. Sheol wasn’t a place of the damned but a place of departed souls both good and bad. It appears from the parable of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:19–31) that there was a place within sheol where the wicked were punished and another place where the righteous awaiting heaven were comforted. Jesus went to the latter.
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Missa_Solemnis
Guest
He descended to Limbo to save the Righteous Jews.
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MarkA16
Guest
Thanks. Makes sense.
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mchale
Guest
Not just Jews I think, but also any who died who were otherwise in essential friendship with God. Certainly, I can think of at least a few figures in the Old Testament who were not Jewish but whom would have been freed to go to heaven upon Jesus’s death.
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Bill
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Charlie_Zeaiter
Guest
Limbo? Sheol? 
Do Catholics nowadays refer to these places as Purgatory?
Do Catholics nowadays refer to these places as Purgatory?
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Alexius
Guest
Add this one: Abraham’s Bosom!Limbo? Sheol?
Do Catholics nowadays refer to these places as Purgatory?
Prayers and petitions,
Alexius
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mchale
Guest
No, the Limbo of the Fathers, was simply the place of waiting where the virtuous who died before Jesus opened the gates of heaven resided. This is distinct from the limbo for those who die unbaptised but free from other sin (which is only an hypothesis) and it is definitely distinct from purgatory which is the purification the soul from the effects of venial sin before it enters into heaven.Limbo? Sheol?
Do Catholics nowadays refer to these places as Purgatory?
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Bill
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HalleluYAH
Guest
Yahshua (Jesus) did NOT go to ‘hell’. He did, however, ascend into sheol (aka hades) after HIS death on the cross. While nailed to the cross Yahshua stated ‘Father, Father, why hast thou forsaken me’, and having said this HE was now confirming his seperation from the Father. He was seperated from the Father becuase the sin of the whole world was laid upon HIM. He then committed HIS spirit into the Father’s hands and died where he descended into sheol, which is the grave where the dead await resurrection and final judgement.
When Yahshua’s body was resurrected, He was restored to HIS place of glory at the right hand of the Father.
When Yahshua’s body was resurrected, He was restored to HIS place of glory at the right hand of the Father.
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Daniel_Marsh
Guest
I Peter 4:6 he preached to those in paradise. paradise was moved to heaven eph 4, and Paul was caught up to II cor 12.
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James_Carson
Guest
Limbo isn’t an official Church teaching by the way and the church recently stated that God in his infinite mercy could bring babies to heaven (limbo was invented by the Greeks theologians and then picked up again in the middle ages as a belief but not one taught by the Church)
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James_Carson
Guest
O I thought he went to hell to pay the debt of our sins…
something like God spending three days in hell was enough to save everyone or something. where do you come up with the argument that he went to Abraham’s Bosom and not hell?
(note im not arguing im wanting to learn)
something like God spending three days in hell was enough to save everyone or something. where do you come up with the argument that he went to Abraham’s Bosom and not hell?
(note im not arguing im wanting to learn)
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Malcolm_McLean
Guest
To preach to the spirits imprisoned therein, some of whom received Him.
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Carol_Coombe
Guest
I’m so sorry to query this answer. But it sounds to me like the interminable middle-ages squabble about how many angels can fit on the head of a pin.
Surely in 2007 we do not think in concepts like this? I suspect the Vatican might have a sense of this by its re-think on limbo. I am a convert-in-the-making, and a person of the 21st century. Many on the Forum have called me a relativist, but it is convoluted mental gymnastics like this that make one slow to accept ‘graciously and humbly’, as advised, and believe.
Blessings
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Titus
Guest
I don’t understand your point. This person seems to me to have made a very legitimate point: that jesus wanted to save those who died before he saved them, and so he did, by joining them in *limbo patrorum *and freeing them from it. I am also not sure that *limbo patrorum *is covered by the recent ITC document?
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Carol_Coombe
Guest
If and when I become a Catholic, am I required to believe the following, that there is an underworld at the center of the Earth. You and I know that this is not possible. Further, the anxiety of the Church to make sure there is an appropriate place for each category of person (good, bad, evil, unborn, aborted, other faiths, protestant Christians, Jews before Christ, inter alia) becomes exceedingly convoluted, unappealing in its interpretation of … what - the Bible? - and antithetical to scientific common sense.
I know that there may be miracles involved here; that it is all a matter of faith; that one needs willingly to suspend disbelief. But this is surely taking it too far?
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Godfollower
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No, we don’t believe that there’s a place of the afterlife in the center of the Earth. That was a popular understanding, but it’s not the teaching of the Church.
When we die, we will go to Heaven or to Hell. Some of those going to Heaven will have to be purged of sin first (because nothing unclean can enter Heaven) and will undergo Purgatory – which isn’t a third destination but more of a cleansing (purging) process prior to their entry into Heaven.
I imagine there might be some neutral place in the afterlife (like the place where Jesus will say to those on His right “Enter Heaven” and to those on His left “Enter Hell”), but if so it isn’t a destination.
Prior to Jesus’ Resurrection, Heaven and Hell were closed. Those who died went to the abode of the dead – sometimes called Sheol, Hades, Limbo (not the same “Limbo” speculated on as the destination for unbaptized babies), and similar names – even “prison” at one point, IIRC. We understand from the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man that the just were divided from the unjust there, and we understand that Jesus preached to them when He visited there. But they’ve all left that place now and are either in Heaven or in Hell.
The “Limbo” postulated by some theologians as the ultimate destination of unbaptized babies was a mere speculation in answer to the question “What happened to my baby? He died on the way to Church!” We don’t know what happens to those babies, and we trust in God’s infinite mercy. But we have no reason to assume that there’s some third destination just for them. As with those who commit suicide, we simply don’t know what happens to them, because God hasn’t explicitly told us. We simply hope for the best, knowing that God is Love.
To sum up, then: everyone – believer and unbeliever alike – is going either to Heaven or to Hell. Those of us bound for Heaven might make it in directly (best examples: the Saints, and anyone killed right after being baptized and before having the opportunity to sin); but many of us – though bound for Heaven ultimately – will die with some venial sin keeping us from entering Heaven, into which no unclean thing can enter. We will have to undergo Purgatory, but eventually we will end up in Heaven (saved, but “as through fire,” as Paul tells us).
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