At SICM, I picked up a book by one of my favorite authors/preachers Mark Driscoll.  Death by Love: Letters from the Cross examines the theological implications of Christ's death on the cross in our daily lives through pastoral letters written in response to real life scenarios. Driscoll calls the cross a multifaceted jewel that cannot be divided and consists of an introduction explaining substitutionary atonement and twelve chapters each exploring a different facet: Christus Victor, Redemption, New Covenant Sacrifice, Righteousness, Justification, Propitiation, Expiation, Unlimited Limited Atonement, Ransom, Christus Exemplar, Reconciliation, and Revelation.

This book is solid, and is definitely worth reading. It has been so insightful and challenging that I could easily write a reflection on each chapter. However, I will spare you my thoughts in hopes that you will read the book yourself. You are not completely spared though, as I have already decided that I am going to share my thoughts on two points mentioned in Death by Love. This blog post is an aside about hell, and the next regarding this book will be about unlimited limited atonement.

In his introductory explanation of atonement, Driscoll briefly mentions that Jesus atoned for sin completely when he proclaimed "It is finished" (John 19:30) on the cross.

"At this moment, the atonement for sin was made, and the holiness, righteousness, justice, and wrath of God were satisfied in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Sadly, some have taught, based on a later revision in the Apostles' Creed, that Jesus did not fully secure our salvation on the cross but rather suffered in hell for three days prior to his resurrection as further atonement. As we have seen, however, Jesus said he was going to paradise on that day and that his work was finished, which negates three days in hell to conclude his work. The Scriptures merely say that Jesus went to the tomb but never declare that he went to hell (Matt 27:59-60; Mark 15:46, Luke 23:52-55; John 19:41-42)." (p. 27-28).

When I was in middle school, our Sunday school class had to memorize the Apostles Creed. I know it by heart, it reads: "He descended into hell, on the third day he rose again."  As I was reading Death by Love, I realized that I had never really considered the significance of this clause that our church repeated week after week when professing our faith.

My jaw literally dropped. Hell? Did Jesus go to Hell? Sheol? Gehenna? Has my church lied to me again? What does scripture say? He descended into death, He descended into the lower parts of the earth, and on the third day He rose again. What does that mean? What about the "harrowing of hell"? Did Jesus pass through Hell just to save the patriarchs and the faithful that died before his atoning sacrifice? Where did I even get that idea from? Did it happen? And, if it did, did Jesus need to physically go to the place of the dead to remove the souls of the patriarchs or did he just ascend into heaven saying that they could come with? Did they go with or is that yet to happen with the final judgment? What is going on here?

As you can see, one sentence threw me into quite the theological dilemma. To steal another idea from Driscoll, he often speaks of open hand versus closed hand theology. Open hand is the stuff that we cannot be absolutely sure of and that we have room to debate (i.e. predestination or end times theology). Closed hand theology consists of the non-negotiable factors (i.e. the hypo-static union revealing that Christ is both fully man and fully God, the historicity of the crucifixion). This is definitely an open hand issue, but that does not mean that it is not worth considering. 

Here are my thoughts thus far, and admittedly I have much to study on this topic. The Apostles Creed has historically undergone several revisions. It does appear that the hell clause is an addition, but it is also an addition seemingly based on Ephesians 4:9 which indicates that Jesus descended into the lower parts of the earth. The lower parts of the earth would be referring to the Hebrew concept of Sheol or a descending into death. Sheol should not be confused with Gehenna; Sheol is the return to the earth via the grave, Gehenna is descending to a place of torment and torture. Every human (with very few exceptions e.g. Elijah) descends into death because humans come from the dust of the earth and return to the dust of the earth. Jesus, being human, returned to the dust of the earth and His body was physically in the grave for three days. However, scripture also indicates that His spirit returned to Heaven the very day he died. In Luke 23:43, Jesus tells the thief on the cross next to Him that they will reunite in Paradise on that very day. Some theologians say that Christ momentarily did  go through Gehenna like torture because He was suffering through hell on the cross. That the humanity of Christ was in a state of hell because He was cursed by the righteousness of God so that the sin of humanity could be exchanged for the righteousness of Christ. So did He descend into death through the torturous hell of the crucifixion,  and then His human body lay dead for three days and His divine spirit return to heaven until the resurrection when the two were reunited?

As far as the Harrowing of Hell doctrine, that is another Pandora's box of theology all together. It seems like early church fathers like Origen and Tertullian believed that there was some sort of harrowing for the patriarchs. Some epistle passages vaguely leave room for this concept by saying that Jesus taught to the dead and captive, but normally those passages are taken to mean the spiritually dead and captive. If hell is the furthest thing from God, and Jesus is God. Is it even possible for Jesus to go to a place where He is absent? Then, there is that pesky Luke 16 passage that says that Lazarus is near Abraham's bosom which is far from the rich man's hell. If Abraham, a sinful man too, is not in hell, where is he? He cannot be in heaven because atonement has not been satisfied, can he? Elijah went straight to heaven via chariot though, but then again, Elijah didn't die.  So if Abraham is not in heaven, then where is he? Sheol as opposed to Gehenna? I think these plethora of questions are going to be chalked right up there with my end times theology. 

In other words, I have much to think about and no clear answers. All in all, this does not really matter to my salvation or the salvation of the world. However, it is still important to seek understanding of scripture and doctrine. Thus, I will store the "hell clause" in my mind as a "to be continued" topic that I pray that God gives me revelation concerning. In the meanwhile, "I don't know" will have to suffice.