At Jesus' death His soul went to Hell to preach the exact same Gospel He preached in the world above. But according to Theodore of Mopsusetia (4th century), whose one of the teachers of our church, The Anointed didn't go there glowing and surrounded by angels.
This is an important because God The Word incarnated into the world of the living as an every-man. He was Joe Q Human who was born in a manger to "regular folk" parents. He made himself of no reputation and put on the garments of our humanity so that in every single way he exchanged his life for ours. Not just with floggings and death, but in his every day life, including temptations. As creator He was also uniquely a man of the people because only a creator could truly understand his creation.
He dies a criminals death, we all know this, and went to Hades to preach the good news. This point has actually been a bone of contention, take a look at what the holy apostle Peter wrote:
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, 19 by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, 20 who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. 21 There is also an anti-type which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him. (1 Pet 3 NKJV)
So he wasn't just preaching to the righteous dead like Father Abraham, he was preaching to the "disobedient". He went below exactly as he went above and preached exactly the same gospel to the dead as to the living.
There were dead blasphemers, prostitutes, sorcerers, adulterers and murderers just as there were living above. But as the King of Righteousness He went there in tender loving kindness to save them as well. God the Father left nothing to chance and nothing to be left behind in any aspect of His Creation, even through history.
Everyone, whether living or dead, had an opportunity to hear the Gospel before the final judgement and could freely accept it or refuse it. Faith for the living and faith for the dead were exactly the same. Same Jesus, same Gospel, and same faith for the same Salvation.
17 Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. (Jonah 1)
39 But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. (Matt 12)
So you see! We have a God who sees everything and from every angle. Nothing goes unnoticed, but not so He can get us for every little thing, but so that nothing is ever left behind. Including us! As we can see, anyone in Hell is there because they want to be, even if God doesn't want hem to be there. The God who sent His Son to the Living and to the Dead did that so not a single chance would be missed. And this is because our king is a king of righteousness and love.
This is an important because God The Word incarnated into the world of the living as an every-man. He was Joe Q Human who was born in a manger to "regular folk" parents. He made himself of no reputation and put on the garments of our humanity so that in every single way he exchanged his life for ours. Not just with floggings and death, but in his every day life, including temptations. As creator He was also uniquely a man of the people because only a creator could truly understand his creation.
He dies a criminals death, we all know this, and went to Hades to preach the good news. This point has actually been a bone of contention, take a look at what the holy apostle Peter wrote:
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, 19 by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, 20 who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. 21 There is also an anti-type which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him. (1 Pet 3 NKJV)
So he wasn't just preaching to the righteous dead like Father Abraham, he was preaching to the "disobedient". He went below exactly as he went above and preached exactly the same gospel to the dead as to the living.
There were dead blasphemers, prostitutes, sorcerers, adulterers and murderers just as there were living above. But as the King of Righteousness He went there in tender loving kindness to save them as well. God the Father left nothing to chance and nothing to be left behind in any aspect of His Creation, even through history.
Everyone, whether living or dead, had an opportunity to hear the Gospel before the final judgement and could freely accept it or refuse it. Faith for the living and faith for the dead were exactly the same. Same Jesus, same Gospel, and same faith for the same Salvation.
17 Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. (Jonah 1)
39 But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. (Matt 12)
So you see! We have a God who sees everything and from every angle. Nothing goes unnoticed, but not so He can get us for every little thing, but so that nothing is ever left behind. Including us! As we can see, anyone in Hell is there because they want to be, even if God doesn't want hem to be there. The God who sent His Son to the Living and to the Dead did that so not a single chance would be missed. And this is because our king is a king of righteousness and love.