I väntan på Jesus

Within the realm of Hades, is thus, before the resurrection, all the dead, where heaven, taken in the highest meaning, and Gehenna are empty of people. Paul therefore says: »When Christ, our life, is revealed, then you also shall be revealed with him in glory (Col. 3: 4).» And in Eph. 2: 6, it is said that God has raised us up with Christ, that in the ages to come he would show the indescribable riches of His grace. And of the entire line of believers during the time of the Old Testament it is said: »Though all these by faith have received testimony, yet they have not obtained the promise,
because God had provided for us something better, so that without us they would not be perfected (Heb. 11:39, 40).» And with regard to the ungodly it is said that the Lord does not delay his promise — but he is long-suffering and doesn't want that anyone shall perish, but that all shall turn to repentance (2 Pet. 3: 9). One can understand from this what a violent mutilation of the evangelical truth and what an unfortunate confusion it brought with it, that it was taught and is still taught that with physical death the state of all men for the age to come is irrevocably settled. Thereby, the exceedingly great importance of Christ's descent to Hades is nullified and his preaching of the gospel (chyrisso, a word which, when it is, as here, without object, always in the New Testament denotes preaching of the gospel to salvation) for those who did not believe in Noah's days, yes, in short for the dead, so that they, like God, would live in the spirit. If now these people had been in a hell from which no salvation was given, then it would have been of no use to proclaim to them the gospel of salvation. Paul says in Eph. 4: 9, 10: »But this: 'he has ascended', what does it mean, except that he first has descended to the lower parts of the earth. The one, who descended, is also the one who ascended above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.» What meaning should one, we ask, attribute to Christ's descent to the nether parts of the earth, and his coming forth from thence to fill all things, namely, as lord and saviour, if the lower parts of the earth were inhabited by spirits, who were already condemned to endless torments and sufferings? Surely the merciful savior, who has come to seek out and save the lost, did not descend down there to increase the sufferings and woes of the unfortunate. Far from it! Such is not the saviour of Christianity, nor that God, whom he in all his doings reflects.

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