JESUS CHRIST PREACHED TO THE SPIRITS IN PRISON Excerpt From: Whose Voice Are You Listening To?" By Marlene Crouch On the Last Day, the Day of Judgment, the Lord Jesus Christ will return to earth with his one fold, which includes the spirits of the dead to whom Jesus preached when he descended into the heart of the earth after his crucifixion. Those spirits who heard his voice and believed his preaching were made alive in Christ and became members of his one body, his universal church. As the Apostle Paul said, "For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living (Romans 14:9). Jesus said: Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. John 5:24-25, emphasis added For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Matthew 12:40, emphasis added And there arose certain, and bare false witness against him, saying, We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands. Mark 14:57-58, emphasis added For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: 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 3:18-20, emphasis added 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, emphasis added Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things. Ephesians 4:8-10, emphasis added Jesus was in the heart of the earth three days and nights preaching to everyone who had died, from Adam to the thief on the cross-to whom he said, "Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43). As depicted in what some deem as the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, paradise and the bosom of Abraham are one and the same place, which is separated from hell by a great gulf (Luke 16:19-31). The Apostle Paul said, "The scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham" (Galatians 3:. He also said that it "was preached to every creature which is under heaven" (Colossians 1:23), which also includes the dead spirits to whom Jesus preached when he descended into the lower parts of the earth. As pertaining to those who came out of Egypt and died in the wilderness, Paul said: "For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it" (Hebrews 3:16-4:2). Jesus not only preached the gospel to the disobedient spirits of the dead but also to those of faith, such as Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, etc. (Hebrews 11:1-10). As pertaining to these same Old Testament saints, the Apostle Paul said, "And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect" (Hebrews 11:39-40). The promise the apostle referred to is the promise of the Holy Spirit of life, which is received through faith in the word of truth, the gospel (Galatians 3:2-3; Galatians 3:14, 21; 1 John 2:25; Revelation 11:11; Romans 8:2; Romans 8:10; 1 Peter 4:6; Ephesians 1:13). In the very next chapter, Hebrews 12, the apostle addresses these same Old Testament saints as spirits of just men made perfect and members of the general assembly and church of Jesus Christ, saying, But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. Hebrews 12:22-24, emphasis added The "members of the general assembly and church of Jesus Christ" in Hebrews 12:22-24 are the same "family of God in heaven and earth" the Apostle Paul referred to in Ephesians 3:14-16. The same family of God that Paul described as "the mystery of God" in Ephesians 1:9-10 and Colossians 1:26-28 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; Ephesians 3:14-16, emphasis added Having made known unto us the mystery of his will…that in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him Ephesians 1:9-10, emphasis added Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Colossians 1:26-28, emphasis added This is precisely what Jesus was talking about when, just before the passion, he prayed to the Father regarding his apostles, saying, For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me… Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth... Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me… I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. John 17:8, 20-21, 23, emphasis added This is the same Word of Truth, the same gospel Jesus preached to the spirits of the dead (1 Peter 4:6). Those who believed his preaching were sanctified and made perfect in one. "Both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one" (Hebrews 2:11-12). Being made perfect in one through faith in Christ's sacrificial blood for the remission of our sins is the essence of the new covenant message of the gospel of Christ. The same gospel where by faith we are saved, justified, sanctified, inherit God's promise of the Holy Spirit of eternal life, and become members of His one and only body, Christ's one true church. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Hebrews10:14