Spirits in Prison

By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; 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.

(1 Peter 3:19-20) KJV

Jesus descended into the lower parts of the Earth. We can resolve this as being a place in the lower mantle, euphemistically called “Abraham’s bosom” the location that he described in Luke 16.

So let’s back up and make sure that we understand who preached to which spirits in what prison? This passage is about Jesus. It’s part of the reason why some of us believe that after he died on the cross Jesus descended into sheol to do two things:

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We all have the same evidence. Our choice of paradigm determines what we think it’s evidence of.

– Matty’s Razor

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1. preach a message condemning,
   • the rebellious angels, and
   • those who died in sin:
     • in Noah’s flood,
     • after the flood but before the crucifixion.
2. gather up the souls of the Old Testament saints,
   • who had been waiting in sheol,
   • and take them to heaven.

Our passage tells us that eight souls were saved by water. Just to be on the safe side, let’s review what we believe hat a souls is a consider if this is something that could be saved by a boat.

A soul is a gravity node with a frequency unique to each individual, it encompasses the scriptural concepts of mind and heart:
– mind: the seat of our consciousness and personality;
– heart: the emotions and passion which drive and motivate us.
Our soul makes us sentient.

– Soul, definition

A soul is a gravity node and the center of the Earth is the source of gravity for the entire universe. What’s stopping our souls from being sucked down into hell? Two things. Firstly a physical barrier made up of our body and the crust and mantle of the Earth. This is why we don’t all go to hell immediately and it’s why acceleration due to gravity is approximately 10m/s². Evidently a boat is just as good a barrier as anything else, so long as your body is alive.

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Faith is believing in something that you can’t see, because of evidence.

– Faith, definition

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Spirits in Prison – Part 1

For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.

(1 Peter 4:6) KJV

In making the case that Jesus was the one who preached to the dead the very first issue that we have to deal with is: what does dead mean? How can someone who’s dead listen to preaching?

Alive or dead isn’t as simple as we would like it to be. It’s not merely a matter of whether or not our bodies are functioning vs. the cessation of metabolic activity. We can be biologically alive at the same time as being spiritually dead. We can also be both biologically and spiritually dead but still conscious, aware of our environment and receiving stimuli. This is because our consciousness is contained in a gravity node. It’s not the brain, even though it uses the brain to control the body to interact with the environment.

The word alive has some Biblical synonyms. Dead is the opposite of alive and it also has synonyms. Here’s a summary.

Alive or Dead?

Alive	Dead
Spiritual	Carnal
Giving	Receiving
Holy	Unholy (profane)
Clean	Unclean

If Jesus is descending into the lower parts of the Earth, the lower mantle, to preach to the dead spirits in prison, then he’s addressing the dead who are confined in the pit of corruption, which is also referred to the lowest hell and is the functional equivalent to the molten core of the Earth.

This is similar in a way to the parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31, when Abraham, who was in a chamber in the lower mantle, gave a mini-sermon explaining to the rich man, who was in the molten core, that there was more than enough testimony for his brothers to be able figure out how to avoid ending up in the fire.

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The reason for creation is the manifestation of sentient life with free will.

– The Reason for Creation

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Spirits in Prison – Part 2

And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.

(Matthew 27:52-53) KJV

The last piece of the puzzle which we have to solve is whether or not Jesus, having descended into the lower parts of the Earth, then took the Old Testament saints, who’d been waiting in sheol, to heaven.

The passage above gives us scriptural support for this idea, but it really comes down to you deciding for yourself what you can believe. Being a Christian is as simple as accepting Jesus Christ as your savior and asking for your sins to be forgiven.

Beyond belief in Jesus Christ, there’s really nothing that pins you down to niggling details of which is the right cosmological model or how old is the Earth. Maintaining your personal purity and living right before God are much more important than understanding a Biblical theory of gravity.

We hope that we’re being very clear that Matty’s Paradigm isn’t what you have to believe to be a Christian it’s what CAN be believed once you’re a Christian, which is faithful to the scriptures and congruent with all empirical observations and physical evidence.

Spirits in Prison – Navigation

Section	Title	Scripture
1	Introduction	1 Peter 3:19-20
2	He Also Descended	Ephesians 4:8-9
3	Spirits in Prison – Part 1	1 Peter 4:6
3.1	Rebellious Angels	Jude 1:6
3.2	The Days Before Noah	Amos 7:4
3.3	The Witch of Endor	1 Samuel 28:11, 15
3.4	Abraham and Lazarus	Luke 16:26
4	Spirits in Prison – Part 2	Matthew 27:52-53
5	Salvation	Romans 10:9-10

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Salvation

1. Call upon the name of Jesus Christ,
   • believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
2. confess your sin.

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Read through the Bible in a year

Reading plan	July 13
Linear	Proverbs 12-14
Chronological	2 Chronicles 27 Isaiah 9-12

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