The Spirits in Prison

Mike Johnson

I Peter 3:18-20 is a passage, which has prompted many questions. It speaks of Jesus having gone to preach to the spirits in prison.

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, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, 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. (NKJV)

What does this passage mean?  One interpretation is that Christ went to the place of torment, between the time of his death and resurrection, and preached to the people who lived in the days of Noah, who had died in disobedience.  Some use this viewpoint to teach that a person will get a second chance after death.

The above explanation raises many questions.  First, why would Christ go and preach only to those living before the flood?  We know God is not a respecter of persons (Rom. 2:11).  Second, what message could Christ have preached to them?  A message of condemnation would not have had any effect, as these people already stood condemned.  Further, it could not have been a message of salvation as the Bible teaches we are going to be judged based on things done in the body i.e., in this life  (II Cor. 5:10,  Rom. 2:6).  Also, a person cannot pass from the place of torment to paradise once death has occurred (Lk. 16:26).  This interpretation is contrary to general Bible teaching, and, as we shall see, does not fit the context.

The explanation of this passage is simple.  The text helps to identify when this preaching took place.  It says, “in the days of Noah.”  Whatever preaching occurred, took place, not during Christ’s entombment, but in the days of Noah.  Was Christ literally preaching during the days of Noah?  One would think not.  Consider the following.  I Peter 1:11 tells us that the prophets spoke by the “Spirit of Christ.”  Christ did preach to the people of Noah’s day before the flood.  However, Christ preached through Noah, who was, in fact, a preacher of righteousness (II Pet. 2:5). Noah was an instrument of Christ.

What about verse 19, which refers to the people, preached to as “spirits in prison?”  It is not saying they were spirits (i.e., separated from the body) when the preaching took place.  Instead, that would have been their state at the time of Peter’s writings (also note II Pet. 2:4, 9).  The NASB says, “He went and made proclamation of the spirits now in prison.”

We do need to prepare for the Judgment now.  Man will not get a second chance.