To the excitement of many PC gamers, Diablo III has just been released after about 12 years of waiting. For those of you who don’t know, Diablo III is the third installment (obviously) of a series of dark, roguelike/hack-and-slash/dungeon crawler computer games where you more or less descend into hell in order to kill various demonic entities and ultimately ‘Diablo’ himself/itself.
Besides the 2010 videogame ‘Dante’s Inferno’, which received a lukewarm reception, I can’t off the top of my head remember which recent videogames allow the player to descend into hell, although I imagine there were quite a few.
I’ve seen all sorts of jokes and memes popping up on the internet: “Diablo III is out, how many Koreans are going to die in cybercafes?” and “Who said gamers are fat? Now that Diablo III is out, I’m forgetting to eat” and “Diablo III? Shut up and take my money!” and “Girls, say goodbye to your boyfriends” and a great many sight gags about ‘Error 37′.
Well, what if I told you that Jesus Christ once descended into hell? Not in a fantasy videogame world, but in reality.
I’m not talking about the Lake of Fire at the end of time, but about the pre-Final Judgment underworld, so to speak, as it exists currently. Now, for you learned theologians out there, please… PLEASE correct me if I misguided here, but let’s look at the scriptural evidence:
JESUS TOOK ON OUR SINS
1. Peter 2:24a – “…He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross…”
2. Isaiah 53:4b – “…the punishment that brought us peace was upon him…”
3. Matthew 27:46 – “About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?” that is, “MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?”"
At the cross, it seems that Jesus bore in His body the past, present and future sins of all mankind, and the corresponding punishment. What an incredibly heavy burden to bear, especially for somebody without sin! Because of the great darkness and evil, it seems that God the Father had to actually distance Himself from Jesus for a time.
This reminds me of Paul’s statement in Romans 9:3 that he could wish that he was accursed and separated from Christ for the sake of his brethren.
Now, the Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death. I don’t know what other unit of measure to possibly use to calculate sin, so let’s just whimsically say for the sake of math that a single sin is worth one DU (death unit). I saw one estimate last year that said there have been a total of 108 billion human beings born throughout existence. The current average life expectancy across the planet is 67.2 years. Let’s pretend that people sin only an average of 5 times per day. I really have no clue about this number, but 5 is great for multiplication purposes. 365 days x 67.2 years x 108 billion human beings x 5 sins.
That comes to 13,245,120,000,000,000 units of sin… wow. And in reality probably much more than that. I’m sure there have been days that I have sinned 100 times, meaning a hundred single instances of violating God’s law. So let’s imagine that mind-numbing, soul-crushing weight of darkness coming undeservedly upon the perfect, sinless Son of God.
JESUS DIED AND SPENT THREE DAYS IN THE GROUND
Jesus died on the cross and was buried. Although he lived a perfect and sinless life, he took on the sins of all mankind. When somebody dies, they either go to Paradise/Heaven or Hades/Sheol, as the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus illustrates.
1. Luke 16:22-23 – “Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s side; and the rich man also died and was buried. In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus at his side.”
Logically, if you die while bearing the sins of all mankind, there is only one place you can go. And it isn’t Heaven.
2. Ephesians 4:9 – “Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth?”
Now perhaps Jesus died and did go to Heaven for those three days until His resurrection. He did, after all, say to the thief of the cross beside him that “today you will be with me in Paradise.” Jesus is God and can do whatever he wants, he could perhaps even could go back and forth as he pleased… BUT, 1 Peter 3 tells us of a very interesting event and, comparing scripture with scripture, it seems that after the crucifixion would be the logical time that this occurred.
JESUS MAKES AN APPEARANCE IN THE NETHERWORLD
1. 1 Peter 3:18-20 – “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.”
Where else can spirits in prison be but Hell/Hades/Sheol? As 2 Peter tells us…
2. 2 Peter 2:4 – “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment…”
The Bible talks about the Abyss / the Bottomless Pit where various demonic entities are locked away, awaiting judgment. See also Jude 1:6, Luke 8:13, Revelation 20:3, etc. I don’t know if this is the same place where the spirits of sinful men go, perhaps not. 2 Peter 2:4 uses the greek word tartaroō; some say ‘tartarus.’
Maybe Tartarus/Abyss/Bottomless Pit is one such prison for fallen angels, and Hades/Sheol/Gehenna is another prison from human spirits. I don’t know. The dungeon/prison imagery used is quite similar. Ultimately both rebellious angels and rebellious humans face the same Lake of Fire destination.
Gamers playing Diablo descend into a horrific netherworld to battle demons. Jesus did something a little different. He went and preached! Those who seemingly never had a chance to respond to the gospel, living in a pre-Abrahamic / pre-Moasic / pre-Jesus world, had a chance to make a decision with eternal consequences. Did Jesus suffer agony and torment in Hell? I would say… HECK NO! He was on a rescue mission.
JESUS ON A RESCUE MISSION
1. Ephesians 4:8 – “Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.”"
These captives and the spirits in prison could very easily be the same. It seems that Jesus proclaimed the gospel to the disobedient spirits in prison, and then brought the ones who responded with Him to Heaven when He ascended.
