Identifying “the Spirits in Prison”

Biblegems #267

Question: Who are the “spirits in prison” mentioned in 1 Peter 3:18-19, and what was “preached” to them?

Here is the passage in both the KJV and the NIV (2011), with the most pertinent section underlined:

         1Pet. 3:18-19   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 (KJV).      

1Pet. 3:18-19 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits (NIV).

Interpretations of this passage have historically fallen into three general categories:

Interpretation #1       Between his crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus went to the realm of the dead in spiritual form and preached to Noah’s contemporaries. Some in this group believe Jesus offered salvation to the spirits of those who died in the Flood. Others in this group believe Jesus’ proclamation was to officially condemn the unbelievers of Noah’s time. A third view within this group is that Jesus preached good news to those of Noah’s day who had already been saved.

         Interpretation #2       Jesus, in His pre-existent, spiritual state, came from heaven to the sinful generation of Noah’s day and preached repentance, which they ignored.

         Interpretation #3       After His death on the cross and burial, Jesus went in the Spirit (either Holy Spirit, or in the spiritual realm) to the disobedient spirits (fallen angels) of Noah’s day, described in Genesis 6:1-4, and proclaimed his victory over sin and death.

The word “spirits” in Scripture can refer to humans, angels, God, or the demonic. Context generally determines what kind of spirit is in view. The context of 1Pet. 3:20 makes it clear that Jesus made His proclamation to spirits “who were disobedient long ago in the days of Noah….” Jude also refers to this same group of imprisoned spirits as “angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day” (Jude 6).

The New Testament, then, points to a specific group of angels who are imprisoned by God until the Day of Judgment for their disobedience in the days of Noah. These spirits are not in hell (Gk. gehenna), which is currently empty (Rev. 20:10ff.), but in a special prison called Tartarus:

         2Pet. 2:4   For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell (Gk. tartarus), putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment…

The only such distinct group described in Scripture in Noah’s day would appear to be “the sons of God who went to the daughters of humans and had children by them” (Gen. 6:4). Following His crucifixion, Jesus was made alive in the Spirit and went to these imprisoned angels, proclaiming His victory over sin, Satan and death!

Who Was Cain Afraid Of?

Biblegems #118

Question: After God banishes Cain for killing his brother Abel in Genesis 4, Cain complains that others on the earth will kill him for his crime when they find him (Gen. 4:13-14). Who are the others on the earth at that time that Cain is afraid of? Where did these other people come from?

Adam and Eve, the ancestors of the human race, and their children, Cain and Abel, were real, historical people. In addition to Cain and Abel, Adam and Eve had many other children  (Gen 5:4). And in the 930 years of Adam’s life (Gen. 5:5), these children grew up, intermarried, and had children of their own, resulting in a population of at least one hundred and twenty thousand people by the time of Adam’s death. We know from Scripture that these descendants of Adam and Eve spread out and established settlements all over the ancient Near East. 

Reading Genesis 4 -5 can be deceptive when it comes to following the passage of time. But a careful reading can be very revealing. For instance, chapter 4:1-2 takes us from the conception and birth of Cain and Abel right into their adulthood. By the end of verse two they are both living independent of their parents and working at their respective occupations. Abel is murdered in verse eight; and by verse sixteen Cain is in exile in “the land of Nod, east of Eden.” Then, in the very next verse, Cain has found a wife, who gets pregnant and has his child, Enoch—all while Cain is building a city, which he names after his son.

The point is, the account of Cain and Abel moves quickly from one key event to another. This is to show that within the first thousand years of human history God’s command to Adam and Eve to “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it” (Gen. 1:28) was already well under way. Thousands of people—the descendants of Adam and Eve—populated the earth, farmed the land, tended livestock, constructed cities, and brought with them the plague of sin and death.

So it is clear that Cain and Abel had many brothers and sisters, most of whom had hundreds of years of separation between them. In fact, in the “written account of Adam’s line” (Gen. 5:1) Cain and Abel are not even mentioned, nor are any of their siblings except Seth. Why? Because Seth represents the ancestral line of Noah (Gen. 5:28-29), who played a principal role in God’s plan of salvation. All the descendants of all the other siblings of Cain and Abel were lost in the Flood, except those who married into Noah’s family and were aboard the ark.

So who was Cain afraid of when he went into exile? His own brothers and sisters and their extended families. The same is true for all of us, for we are all related to one another, only separated by time, distance and multiple layers of intermarriage. We are one family—the human family—and each person’s sin impacts the rest of the family. That’s why salvation from sin and death had to come through a human being, but one who was without sin.

         1 Cor. 15:21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.

The death and resurrection of Jesus has reversed the curse of Adam and Cain!

Origin Of The Races

Biblegems #75

Question: Where did the different “races” come from, since the Flood wiped out all humanity except Noah’s family?

This is a particularly important question, because the concept of “race” is so prevalent in society, even with all the cultural attempts to downplay it. Surprisingly, the answer is found within the question, as we shall see shortly.

When we speak of “race” we automatically think in terms of “red and yellow, black and white,” and associate the human color spectrum with the various ethnic groups (Asian, Hispanic, Caucasian, etc.). The Bible does recognize the obvious ethnic, national and language distinctions within the human family, but the term “race” is a uniquely cultural idea, not a biblical one. “Race” suggests subdivisions of ‘human being’ as a creature, which the Bible nowhere teaches or supports.

What the Bible does teach, however, is that all humanity ultimately descends from Adam and Eve, and from Noah and his three sons, Ham, Shem and Japheth.

         Gen. 10:32 These are the clans of Noah’s sons, according to their lines of descent, within their nations. From these the nations spread out over the earth after the flood. 

         And…

Acts 17:26 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.

Noah’s three sons, and especially their descendants, gradually moved away from the slopes of Mount Ararat in modern day Turkey, where the ark had settled after the Flood (Gen. 10-11).

As they and their extended families moved away from each other geographically and established communities, intermarriage between cousins was both common and necessary for survival. The genetic DNA pool would be limited, which would encourage particular traits to become dominant from generation to generation, such as darker or lighter skin and other physical characteristics. We see the very same effect when animals are closely interbred. As a result, there are now many more “breeds” of dogs than the canine ancestors which first entered the ark. Notice that these breeds are not considered different “races” of dog.

Basic people groupings can be traced back to Noah’s three sons and their descendants, but even here physical characteristics such as skin tone cross over between ethnic branches. There are dark and light skinned Hispanics, for example. So our modern distinction between Caucasian, Black, Hispanic and Asian is a completely arbitrary one that tends to divide more than it does unite us as people created in the image of God.

Generally speaking, Ham and his wife can be identified as the ancestors of the Egyptians, Phoenicians, Hittites, Canaanites, African tribes, and perhaps the Native American and South Pacific Island people groups. Shem is the ancestor of the Semitic and Arab peoples, and from Japheth descended the Europeans, such as the Greeks and Romans¹.

So the answer to this Bible Gems question is found within the question itself: There are no “races” in the human family. There is only the human race, descended from Noah, who was descended from Adam and Eve, and created in the image of God.

1. Morris, Henry M. The Genesis Record, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House,1976, pg. 240-243.

Dinosaurs On The Ark?

Biblegems #34

One young lady recently asked, were dinosaurs on the ark?

The first question that needs to be asked is, what, technically, is a dinosaur?

Today, most scientist agree that the term “dinosaur” generally refers to a variety of extinct, land-based reptiles whose limbs extend beneath the body, like that of a crocodile. Many were very large, some quite small. Most of these scientists also adhere to the theory of evolution, and so would assume that dinosaurs existed between 230 million and 65.5 million years ago. According to that point of view, dinosaurs were extinct long before humans came on the scene.

Biblically, of course, dinosaurs and humans did coexist. In fact they were both brought into existence on the sixth day of creation (Gen. 1:25-27). Roughly 1,600 years later the Flood inundated the entire earth, and nearly all land based animals and mankind were annihilated, including the dinosaurs. However, God had Noah bring onto the ark representatives of every “kind” of animal, including dinosaurs, along with the eight people of Noah’s family.

The term “kind” in the Bible refers to living creatures of the same type. Dinosaurs would be considered one “kind” of animal. So it was not necessary for the ark to have carried several variations of dinosaur, such as a brontosaurus or tyrannosaurus. It is certainly possible that a flying pair of dinosaurs were aboard the ark in addition to those that walked on the ground. It is also quite possible that infant dinosaurs of the larger variety were aboard.

What we do know for sure is that some dinosaurs were on the ark, because Scripture itself gives eyewitness accounts of humans interacting with them long after the Flood had receded (Job 40: 15-24; Job 41:1), and art work from post-Flood human settlements portray a great number of dinosaurs. Well known and respected historians and travelers such as Herodotus, Marco Polo and Alexander the great reported sightings of dinosaurs. And several Native American tribes have left oral and cave art records of interaction with dinosaurs, especially a giant flying reptile they call the “thunderbird.”

Most dinosaurs, of course, perished in the Flood. Those that did travel on the ark would have found it extremely difficult to survive in the radically altered landscape of the post-Flood world. Gone were the vast plains of tropical vegetation and the green-house-like conditions maintained by the pre-Flood water canopy around the earth. The Ice Age that followed the Flood would have wiped out many dinosaurs that struggled to breed and survive.

Eventually, dinosaurs became extinct, with the slight possibility that an extremely small number have continued to breed and may exist to this day in remote jungles, the ocean, or deep places in some large fresh water bodies where local inhabitants claim to encounter them.

The fossil remains of dinosaurs and the artwork and oral history of ancient peoples are a great testimony to the authority and accuracy of Scripture. God has left His signature upon the canvas of creation. The whole earth is indeed full of His glory!

A Young Earth & Diamonds

Biblegems #30

One Biblegems reader wants to know how, in a young earth scenario, diamonds are formed?

According to typical modern scientific theory, natural diamonds were formed millions—even billions—of years ago. The theory goes that deposits of pure carbon trapped deep in the earth’s mantle, under tremendous pressures and intense temperatures (1100 - 2900° C), eventually crystallized. Over millions and billions of years, these crystals gradually moved upwards through the earth’s crust, carried along by volcanic magma.

A standard scientific technique for determining the age of diamonds is applying the decay rate of Carbon 14 within them. Unfortunately for the popular scientific theory, carbon 14 is undetectable after 100,000 years, assuming the rate of decay remains constant. Yet carbon 14 is evident in diamonds, indicating that diamonds are only thousands of years old instead of millions.

Recent scientific studies by Andrew Snelling and Mark Armitage have also indicated that some structural formations peculiar to diamonds are likely due to water-born uranium 238. “It appears that Armitage's observations of etch trails, darkened linear features, and twisted tubes are remnants of fluid infiltration when the hot diamonds were in contact with hydrothermal fluids near the surface of the earth.”¹ For this to have occured, the process would have only required hours and weeks, not billions, millions or even thousands of years. It all could have taken place in the early days of creation.

The Bible plainly states that …

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters (Gen. 1:1-2).

That primordial earth, the hard material of dirt and rock, was completely submersed in water. On the second “day” (Hebrew: yom, a literal 24 hour time period) of creation the waters were separated and the dry land appeared. On that same day vegetation burst forth from the ground at a super-accelerated rate that would have appeared much like our elapsed time digital productions of blossoming flowers or changing seasons. This would have provided the perfect environment for the rapid formation of diamonds.

While the Bible is not a scientific treatise, it does frequently address scientific issues and makes claims regarding the nature of the natural universe, its origins and its purpose. When these claims are made as statements of fact and not poetic metaphor, they need to be taken as fact. We cannot hold the Bible to be the true revelation of God on the one hand, and then alter its plain meaning to fit the theories of the day on the other.

The very existence of diamonds is a testimony in the earth of God’s creation as revealed in the Scriptures. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse (Rom. 1:20).

1. Vardiman, L. 2008. Diamonds May Be a Creationist's Best Friend. Acts & Facts. 37 (6): 6.

How Did Lions Become Carnivores?

Biblegems #8

Question: How did lions become carnivores?

This is a great question from one of our Friendship kids!

What makes it such a great question is that it reveals an understanding that man and animals were not always carnivorous (Gen. 1:29-30). If they were, then death would have been part of the original creation, as evolutionary science teaches, not the later result of man’s sin (Rom. 6:23). And if evolutionary science were correct on that point, then Jesus’ death on the cross would be meaningless. As Paul writes in Romans, “so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 5:12).

So, what does the Bible have to say about how (and when) lions and other animals became carnivores?

First, we know that lions were strictly plant-eating animals when God first created them. Genesis 1:30 says, “And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food. And it was so.” This was true of the first human beings as well. Verse 29 reads, “Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.”

Secondly, we know that man was given permission by God to eat meat following the Great Flood: “Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything” (Gen. 9:3). We also know that animals were already eating meat by that time (Gen. 9:5-6).

It seems clear then that lions and other carnivorous animals began eating meat sometime between Adam and Eve’s expulsion from Eden and the worldwide Flood. Does that mean that a physical change took place in lions—the development of fangs and talons, for example—that made them capable of killing and eating other animals? It’s certainly possible, even as God caused thorns and thistles to grow where once only beautiful, healthful vegetation had grown (Gen. 3:18).

But it is equally, if not more, likely that animals such as lions were originally created with that carnivorous capability. God knew that Adam and Eve’s sin would radically change the balance of life across the planet, and that the struggle for survival would come to play a key role in the animal realm as well as the human realm. Although God’s command to man to rule over wildlife had never been rescinded, man’s ability to do so without force came to an end after the Fall. Man’s disobedience to God turned the garden-like earth into a dangerous place; and God probably prepared the animal realm in advance for surviving in that deadly new world.