A question about Jesus's descent into Hell.

After the crucifixion Jesus supposedly descended in to Hell to free us sinners from eternal damnation, correct?

A few years ago Pope John Paul II said that Hell was not the burning inferno that it is normally depicted as, but an hopeless existence in absence of the grace of God.

My question is if Jesus is supposed to be part of the triune God how could he have descended into an existence devoid of God?

"The worst part of Hell is that you are kept away from God" bit. Me, I think burning fire and pitch forks in my ass would bother me more. But that's just me...:shrug:

wouldn't that therefore be the answer to the question?

He would've been the grace of god in a place supposedly devoid of grace..Christian theology makes my brain bleed sometimes x(

So even in His triune form he could technically "harrow" Hell. Because, otherwise, He wouldn't be omnipotent - there would exist something God could not do.

/atheist

http://www.kencollins.com/question-37.htm

If you are a Methodist, you’ll notice that the Apostles Creed above has one extra line compared to the Apostles Creed you find in your hymnal at church. Apparently the phrase descended into hell offended someone’s sensitivities early on in American Methodism and that clause got left out. The phrase into hell in older translations and the phrase to the dead both translate the phrase into hades in the original Greek of the creed.

The ancient teaching of the Church is that all who died before the time of the crucifixion, whether they were righteous or unrighteous, went to the same undifferentiated realm of the dead, where they wait for the resurrection and the judgment. This realm of the dead is called sheol in Hebrew and hades in Greek. Neither the word sheol nor the word hades connotes punishment. It’s just a waiting room for the resurrection and the judgment.

When Jesus died on the cross, He really did die. That really is the same as saying that He went to hades, because hades is the realm of the dead. However, while Jesus was dying, He promised to take the thief on the cross into Paradise. So the historic teaching of the Church is that when Jesus went to hades, He established a special waiting room for His own, called Paradise. He preached to the spirits who were already dead and took the Old Testament saints into Paradise also, along with the thief on the cross.

<.......>

Modern translations of the Apostles Creed say that Jesus descended to the dead. That is a more accurate translation of the word hades. It says that Jesus really did die, He didn’t fake it.

If you're not a Catholic, you think the Pope was wrong because he's just a man like everyone else giving his opinion.

Not a way easy question if you're a Catholic though--although I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation if you want to hear it.

I'm guessing your post was more of a "Gotcha!" post though...

The talking snake and the 900 year old man told him how to do it.

For the answer ask the Council of Nicea. I am afraid they are all deceased, and Christian Scholars do not want talk about it. If they did we would either die of boredom, incredulity or laugh to death (maybe all three). Wars have been fought, people massacred over the argument of the dual and triune nature of God Christianity.

As you may guess my Synoptic Christian morals are twisted. If I lived 350 years ago I would have a good chance of being burned at the stake or hanged by both Catholics and Protestants. Go back another 1300 years I might have got along the Gnostic (heretic) Christians.

As a fat white guy who grew up in Jim Crow land I really like the Ethiopian Coptic's.

bush's america.

" but an hopeless existence in absence of the grace of God."

A hopeless existence from Democracy and Freedom. Now we dwell in Hell for 4 years. Hopefully we'll be able to crawl our way out in the future...

Jah is everywhere, including hell
Psalms 139; 7,8:
Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
If I ascend to heaven, thou art there
If I make my bed in Sheol (hell), thou art there.

Therefore hell cannot be the absence of God

Jesus could not have descended into a hopeless existence devoid of God's grace because Jesus in the Christian view is God. His existence could never be hopeless because he knows the outcome.

You confuse the fundies! :)

I don't see it as problematic since I think the physical death of Jesus would have made him more divine than He was while occupying a human body.

Beyond that, you would have to ask John Paul II himself, I suppose.