Spirits in Prison

By Ronald R. Day, Sr.

Some might ask: If, as you say, Jesus was not in a place of fiery torture while he was dead, why do the scriptures say that he preached to the spirits in prison while he was dead? The scripture being inquired about is in 1 Peter 3:19, which reads in the King James Version: “By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison.” If we read the context we will note several things.

First, Peter is not talking about spirits of dead people supposedly being tortured in flaming fires. Verse 20 continues: “Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.” According to this next verse, we could reason two different ways: 1- That the spirits in prison that Jesus preached to were the humans that died in the flood of Noah’s day; or 2- That these spirits were the spirit creatures (angels) that disobeyed God before the flood in Noah’s day.

The latter, however, is the only explanation that would fit with the entire testimony of the scriptures. In Jude 1:6 we read that these angels did not keep their first estate. In many translations of  2 Peter 2:4, it would appear that Peter says that these angels were “cast into hell” and restrained in chains of darkness until the day of judgment. However, the expression, “cast into hell,” is translated from one Greek word, tartaroo. This expression has nothing whatsoever to do with Jesus’ soul in sheol/hades. These angels who disobeyed are spoken of in Genesis 6:2: “That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.” At that time God permitted these angels to take on the form of men and marry and have children.

Evidently, as it apparent from the scriptures, since the flood of Noah’s day only the obedient angels have been permitted at times to take on the form of men, as in Judges 13:3-20, where an angel of Jehovah appeared to the mother and father of Samson. They thought they were talking to a man, but it was an angel, because he ascended in the flame of the altar and disappeared. Likewise, we read in Genesis 18:2-19;25, when Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw three men coming to him, and he greeted them, he made them welcome, and prepared a meal, and they ate and talked with Abraham. Paul, mentioning them, said that we should not forget to entertain strangers, because some had entertained angels without knowing it. (Hebrews 13:2) He is referring to exactly what Abraham did when he entertained those angels without knowing they were angels. They appeared as men, and they were men to all intents and purposes until they had performed their work, and then they left the physical form of man and returned to the invisible spirit realm. So just as the angels of Jehovah appeared to Abraham, ate with him, and talked with him, and had all the functions of men, likewise the angels prior to the flood were able take on human form, and even have children. All the angels had this power, and not merely the good angels, for they were all originally good. But some of God’s angels disobeyed God, left their original estate as angels, and took on the form of men. They preferred not only to take the human form to appear to man, but preferred to live as human beings. They left their habitation, the spirit realm, and lived as men in the world, and they had wives. They raised families. Their children were spoken of as “men of renown.” They were gigantic in size. God saw that the whole earth was being corrupted by the influence of these disobedient angels. The imagination of the human mind was evil, and only evil, and that continually. Therefore God said: “I will destroy man from the face of the earth.” “The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” (Genesis 6:7,13) So Jehovah destroyed those giants as well as all mankind, save Noah and his wife, his two sons and their wives.

Additionally, Peter and Jude tell us that those angels who sinned at that time were sentenced by God. They were restrained in chains — not literal chains, but chains of darkness, which evidently included taking away their ability to take the form of man. These demons, or disobedient angels, had been cast out by Jehovah from his realm of light into a realm of spiritual darkness. Today, as in the days of Jesus, these demons are still not permitted to take on the form of man. So they may do the next best thing: that is, they may take possession of human bodies. Thus, the scriptures indicate that they get into a person’s body in order to continue themselves in their desires to live as humans, and in so doing they continue themselves as servants of the original serpent, Satan the Devil. 

We read that on one such occasion, there was a legion of these demons in one man. They said: “My name is Legion, for we are many.” Such demons are working more actively, yet with more subtlety, today than ever before. They represent themselves as being “ghosts”, “disembodied spirits”,  and possibly as “aliens from other planets”, and they may even possess a person when he is in a near-death condition, giving them “visions” of “heaven”, “hell”, “Paradise”, “Jesus”, “Mohammed”, “Buddha”, or whatever else a person might have a tendency to believe in. They know all about people who have died, so they can easily impersonate a dead person. Likewise, they can give persons all sorts of visions, or false “memories” about things that never really happened, or of another person’s life hundreds or even thousands of years before you were born. All of this activity is happening in order to keep people from looking into the truth about the only way provided by Jehovah to come to him, that is, through his Son, Jesus.

This brings us to the second thing to be noticed in Peter’s words in 1 Peter 3:18-21. Peter does not say that Jesus preached to the spirits in Sheol or in Hades. Nor does he say that he preached to them while he was in Hades. Rather he says that this preaching to these spirits in prison occurred in this manner: “Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God; being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which he also went and preached to the spirits in prison.” (verses 18,19, World English Bible translation) By this we can definitely say that while Jesus was a spirit being after his resurrection, he went and preached to the spirits in prison. However, it could also be that Peter is saying that by means of all these things that he had just spoken of, Jesus went and preached to the spirits in prison. That is, while he was suffering in the form of a man, he went and preached to the spirits in prison, and after his resurrection as a spirit being, when he, as a spirit being, took the form of man, he preached to the spirits in prison. Viewed from this standpoint, everything Jesus did while he went upon the earth, even his death and resurrection, was a preaching to the demons. Not only this, he at times directly preached to demons when he expelled them from demon-possessed people. (Luke 4:33-36; 8:27-33; Matthew 4:24) These demons knew that Jesus had left the glory he had before and had humbled himself and become a man. They watched as he died and they saw that, unlike themselves, even until his death, he remained in obedience to his Father, Jehovah. Then they watched as Jesus’ Father raised him from the dead. It spoke a great sermon to these fallen angels. It was a wonderful lesson he was preaching, not necessarily by words, but actions. He preached by his obedience to his Father’s will. After his resurrection, these fallen angels saw all power in heaven and earth given to Jesus. (Matthew 28:18) They saw that his Father again permitted him to take the form of man, that is to have a body of flesh and bones, as they, being “fallen” spirits could not do. (Luke 24:37-43) They saw that God had rewarded him for obedience, and they realized that God had punished them for their disobedience. Whether there was any additional personal preaching to the spirits in prison sometime after Jesus was raised from the dead, the Bible does not say.

Why did Jesus preach to the spirits in prison? If God, in his mercy, did so much as to have his only-begotten Son to leave his estate and take on the form of man, not to permanently take on the life of humans, but give up his human life for all the human race, is it possible that he may be making a similar provision for the deliverance of any fallen angels that would wish to return to him? That intimation is given by the apostle Paul when he says that not only will the church judge mankind, but also, “Know ye not that we shall judge angels?” (1 Corinthians 6:3) The saints will not judge the holy angels in any sense that would mean to lead them away from sin. They will not need such judging. The angels that will need judging will be the fallen angels, the angels that sinned. Just how the saints will do this is not given in the scriptures, but the apostle Paul’s words are there and must mean something. It is possible that some of the fallen angels would repent and return to God, if given the opportunity to do so. 

But we have no reason to think that many of them are in this condition of repentance. All through this present evil world these demons have been fighting hard, and the apostle tells us of doctrines of devils, doctrines of demons, that have troubled the whole world. You will find the demonic doctrines in all the popular religions of the world. If you go to any popular religious group whether claiming to be Christian or something else you will find that all believe practically the same thing in at least one of the major lies by which Satan is deceiving the whole world. The major lie is that disobedience or worship of the creature in place of the Creator do not result in death. They would have the whole world to believe that when you die you are not really dead. (Genesis 3:4,5; Revelation 9:20; 12:9; 13:4,8,12; 14:9,11) However, even if the preaching done by Jesus only served as an announcement to these fallen angels that they could have been obedient, even as he was, with no offer of repentance, it would still be within the scope of the scripture cited. In any case, the scripture does not say that Jesus was alive and preaching to human souls eternally lost in Hades (Sheol). Such would be completely out of harmony with the rest of Bible which assures us that those in Sheol/Hades cannot reason, think, or plan, etc. — Ecclesiastes 9:10.

In conclusion, we hope that all our readers will realize the times in which we are living, that now we have opportunity to consecrate ourselves to God that we may become children of God and thus heirs of God. And if we joint-suffer with Christ, we may then attain the prize Paul wrote of in Philippians 3:12-14, the prize of not just being heirs of God, but also of joint-heirship with Jesus. (Romans 8:17) However, the culmination of the great tribulation is before us. There may be very little time left to joint-suffer with Christ so as to become joint heirs with him in the celestial glory. (1 Corinthians 15:39-41) This should not deter us from consecrating with the hope of being exalted with Jesus to that high glory. Nevertheless, our hope in Christ, our hope of glory (1 Corinthians 15:19; Colossians 1:27) does not specify that all will attain that highest level of glory. Those who are consecrated but do not attain the prize still may come out of the great tribulation to receive everlasting life in the glorious earthly realm of Jehovah’s kingdom. (Revelation 7:9-17; Zephaniah 2:3) If you have not already done so, we urge you to exercise faith in Christ for justification now (Romans 5:1), to let your mind be transformed by the holy spirit “that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God” -- Romans 12:2.