We will examine Ephesians 4:8 and 9, “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. Now this expression, ‘He ascended,’ what does it mean except that He also
We will examine Ephesians 4:8 and 9, “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. Now this expression, ‘He ascended,’ what does it mean except that He also descended into the lower parts of the earth”. We should note that He ascended into heaven after His resurrection, from the earth. Therefore He first descended into the lower parts of the earth. He could only descend to the place from which He ascended. The comparison has to be logical and orderly. Therefore, this ascension does not show any meaning of Him having been in hell. Also, the early creeds did not say “He descended into hell”. This belief did not arise in a creed until the sixth century, in the Athanasian Creed of the Roman Catholic Church that is also now used in the Anglican churches. The use of that creed with its belief that Jesus descended into hell in death, led many other denominations and believers to take on that doctrine. However, it was not the belief of the early church. Neither is it a belief that can be found in the Bible or in this verse in particular. Jesus did not descend into hell as there is no indication He was ever in hell. Ephesians 4:9 does not give a meaning that He went into the middle of the earth, which is what some preachers have taught. The middle of the earth is full of material fire. We should ask ourselves, “How could spirits of men, that are not material, be placed in material fire?” In any case, nowhere in the Bible is it stated that hell is in the middle of the earth. Rather, it is a place distinct from the earth. This passage of scripture refers to Psalm 68:18, “You have ascended on high, you have led captivity captive; you have received gifts among men”. The meaning in the Psalm was about earthly kings at that time who, after they won in battle, received or took gifts so that they could then be distributed to men. The Psalm uses that historical event as a metaphor for describing the power and authority of God. We should remember that the Psalms are poetry and the language is flowery. Looking at Ephesians 4:11 “He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists and some pastors and teachers”, we see that Paul quotes the Old Testament to show that Christ was victorious in a spiritual way. He took the spoils of battle. He was victorious on the cross. He defeated sin, the power of the law bringing death, Satan and his demons, Romans 6:10, “The death He died He died to sin once for all”; Romans 8:2-3, “Because through Christ Jesus the law of the spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man”; Revelation 1:18, “I hold the keys of death and Hades”; Colossians 2:14,15, “Having cancelled the written code (of the Law), with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross, and having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross”; Hebrews 2:14b,15, “So that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death”. Thus He was able to give gifts to believers who in the exercise of these gifts can be victorious over the enemies of the gospel, i.e. Satan and men whose eyes are blinded, Ephesians 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places”. This was what David did in Psalm 68, when he, through his armies, robbed his enemy of their gifts and gave them to his men. This is what the Psalm is based upon. Let us look at the following:
- What Happens After death: In the Old Testament, the souls of believers went to heaven. This is known by reading Luke 23:43, where as Jesus hung upon the cross He said to the dying thief, “Today, you will be with Me in Paradise”. We read about Paul’s visit to the third heaven in 2 Corinthians 12:2,4. He did not know if he went while leaving his body or whether he was in the Spirit in a vision. It was very real. Again, in Luke 16:23, we read of Lazarus, who after he died was in “Abraham’s bosom” which is a description of heaven and never a descent to Hell. There is no mention in the Scriptures of any intermediate place. The Purgatory of the Roman Catholic Church is not found in the Scriptures and neither is the place Paradise as taught often by Protestant believers, found in the New Testament or indeed in the Old Testament.
In Revela