He Rose Again or He Arose Again

"HE DESCENDED INTO HELL. ON THE THIRD 24-hour interval HE ROSE AGAIN"

Jesus "descended into the lower parts of the earth. He who descended is he who also ascended far in a higher place all the heavens."476

The Apostles' Creed confesses in the same commodity Christ'due south descent into hell and his Resurrection from the expressionless on the third day, because in his Passover it was precisely out of the depths of death that he made life spring forth:

Christ, that Morn Star, who came dorsum from the dead, and shed his peaceful light on all mankind, your Son who lives and reigns for ever and always. Amen. – (Roman Missal, Easter Acuity 18, Exsultet.)

Christ Descended into Hell

The frequent New Attestation affirmations that Jesus was "raised from the dead" presuppose that the crucified 1 sojourned in the realm of the dead prior to his resurrection.478

This was the kickoff significant given in the apostolic preaching to Christ's descent into hell: that Jesus, like all men, experienced expiry and in his soul joined the others in the realm of the dead. Merely he descended there as Savior, proclaiming the Good News to the spirits imprisoned there.479

Scripture calls the abode of the dead, to which the expressionless Christ went down, "hell" – Sheol in Hebrew or Hades in Greek – because those who are there are deprived of the vision of God.480

Such is the case for all the dead, whether evil or righteous, while they await the Redeemer: which does not mean that their lot is identical, as Jesus shows through the parable of the poor human Lazarus who was received into "Abraham'due south bust":481

"It is precisely these holy souls, who awaited their Savior in Abraham'southward bosom, whom Christ the Lord delivered when he descended into hell."482

Jesus did non descend into hell to deliver the damned, nor to destroy the hell of damnation, but to gratuitous the simply who had gone before him.483

"The gospel was preached even to the dead."484

The descent into hell brings the Gospel message of salvation to consummate fulfilment. This is the concluding phase of Jesus' messianic mission, a phase which is condensed in fourth dimension just vast in its real significance: the spread of Christ's redemptive work to all men of all times and all places, for all who are saved have been made sharers in the redemption.

Christ went down into the depths of death and then that "the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear volition alive."485

Jesus, "the Author of life", by dying destroyed "him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and [delivered] all those who through fright of death were bailiwick to lifelong bondage."486

Henceforth the risen Christ holds "the keys of Death and Hades", so that "at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on globe and under the globe."487

Today a dandy silence reigns on globe, a bang-up silence and a corking stillness. A not bad silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is notwithstanding considering God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised upward all who have slept ever since the world began. . . He has gone to search for Adam, our first father, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who alive in darkness and in the shadow of decease, he has gone to free from sorrow Adam in his bonds and Eve, captive with him – He who is both their God and the son of Eve. . . "I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. . . I order you lot, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead."488

IN Brief

By the expression "He descended into hell", the Apostles' Creed confesses that Jesus did really dice and through his expiry for us conquered death and the devil "who has the ability of expiry" (Heb two:xiv).

In his man soul united to his divine person, the expressionless Christ went downwardly to the realm of the expressionless. He opened sky'southward gates for the simply who had gone before him.

476 Eph iv:ix-10.
477 Roman Missal, Easter Acuity 18, Exsultet.
478 Acts 3:15; Rom eight:11; one Cor 15:20; cf. Heb 13:20.
479 Cf. 1 Pet 3:18-19.
480 Cf. Phil 2:10; Acts 2:24; Rev one:18; Eph 4:9; Pss 6:half dozen; 88:xi-13.
481 Cf. Ps 89:49; 1 Sam 28:19; Ezek 32:17-32; Lk xvi:22-26.
482 Roman Canon I, half-dozen, iii.
483 Cf. Quango of Rome (745): DS 587; Benedict XII, Cum dudum (1341): DS 1011; Cloudless VI, Super quibusdam (1351): DS 1077; Council of Toledo IV (625): DS 485; Mt 27:52-53.
484 i Pet 4:half-dozen.
485 Jn 5:25; cf. Mt 12:40; Rom 10:vii; Eph 4:9.
486 Heb ii:14-15; cf. Acts 3:15.
487 Rev 1:eighteen; Phil 2:10.
488 Ancient Homily for Holy Sabbatum: PG 43, 440A, 452C; LH, Holy Sabbatum, OR.