Did Jesus Go to Hell?

In her book, The Most Important Decision You Will Ever Make, Joyce Meyer teaches that the gospel is that Jesus had to die spiritually, go to hell and become spiritually dead, that Jesus separated from God the Father on the cross, and that Jesus was the first born-again man from the dead. This is a common teaching in the Word of Faith movement,[1] which seems (unfortunately) to creep into the minds of those who began their journey in sound doctrine but veer off because of such false teachers.

Meyers writes in the latest edition of her book, “He became our sacrifice and died on the cross. He did not stay dead. He was in the grave three days. During that time, he entered hell, and defeated Satan.”[2]

On the following page she begins to elaborate, “He committed His Spirit to the Father and died. So they put Him—that is, His body—in a grave. And His spirit went to hell because that is where we deserved to go… There is no hope of anyone going to heaven unless they believe this truth. You cannot go to heaven unless you believe with all your heart that Jesus took your place.”[3]

From this, we must believe that Jesus went to hell in order to be saved. This is a false teaching because, contrary to the Bible, if someone does not believe that Jesus went to hell, then they will not go to heaven. Therefore, the gospel according to Meyers is a false gospel. The Bible teaches that we are to believe that Jesus is the Christ, and believe that He died, was buried, and rose again from the dead, and because of such, it is He in whom we place our trust, faith, and hope.[4]

She continues,

“Jesus went to hell for you. He died for you. He paid for your sins. God was faithful to Jesus. God did what He told Jesus He would do. He raised Him from the dead. But until that happened, He was alone for three days, satisfying the courts of justice and conquering the hosts of hell. He took the keys of hell and death. He preached to the prisoners held captive there about paradise. He led them out victorious.”[5]

First, she says above, “He was alone for three days…” This alone creates a huge theological problem. In the Gospel of Luke chapter 23, Luke records a conversation between Jesus and those who were crucified with Him,

One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”[6]

This biblical passage shows that Jesus was not alone in hell but was in paradise with the thief on the cross. This is where Jesus remained until He was resurrected.[7] Another verse that helps one reason that Jesus did not need to go to hell to “satisfy the courts of justice and conquer the hosts of hell” according to Meyers in the above citation, is John 19:30: “When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” If His work was finished on the cross, why then would Jesus need to go to hell?

The reason the Word of Faith movement teaches this is all for prosperity. If Jesus went to the farthest reaches of hell to take on all the punishment that hell could muster up, then there is nothing that hell could conjure up against those who believe that He went to hell for us. In other words, because Jesus took on all the punishments that hell has to offer and defeated them, we too can be free from all the evil that comes out of it, such as sickness, disease, poverty, and anything else that dampens our prosperity as believers. Prosperity theology itself is from the pits of hell (perhaps the pits of despair). Stay tuned for future articles regarding such. But for now, suffice it to say that in order to be consistent in one’s prosperity theology, it must veer by considerable distance off the path of sound doctrine, making it inconsistent with biblical teaching.

How else is this false view supported?

Meyers mentions in the citation above, “He preached to the prisoners held captive there about paradise. He led them out victorious.” This conclusion comes from a twisting of 1 Peter 3:18-19:

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared…”[8]

The imprisoned spirits are Noah and his family. For those who were the only obedient to the Lord at the time, the world was their prison. They are imprisoned by the world and Jesus set them free from that prison by way of the Ark. This does not mean that Jesus went to hell. “Believers, then, are akin to Noah. They are a small, embattled minority in a hostile world, but they can be sure that, like Noah, their future is secure when the judgment comes.”[9]The Spirit of Jesus ministered to those who were imprisoned by the world.

Contradicting Canon

It is significant that when it was being discovered what the actual canonical books of the Bible were, there were confirmations regarding such. These confirmations were like a blueprint to rule out which books were not considered canon. The reason this was necessary was because there were several pseudepigrapha (false writings) that claimed to be written by apostles, prophets, and even Jesus.

Confirmation for scriptural canon:

1. That it must be written in the 1^st century.

2. That it is written by an apostle or the disciple of an apostle.

3. That a text is widely accepted in ancient times that it is God inspired.

4. That a biblical text agrees with the other biblical texts.

If Jesus went to hell, it would disagree with the gospels as we have seen in John 19:30 and Luke 23 (see confirmation 4 above). There is an ancient creed that claims such—that Jesus went to hell—(The Apostles Creed), and people try to dance around it using this creed as proving such, but the creed is not included in canon. The ancient creed is not Bible, in other words.

R. C. Sproul explains,

First of all, we have to look at the creed from a historical perspective. We know that the Apostles’ Creed was not written by the apostles, but it’s called the Apostles’ Creed because it was the early Christian community’s attempt to give a summary of apostolic teaching. This, like other creeds in the church’s history, was partly a response to distorted teachings that were present in some communities; it was statement of orthodox belief. The earliest reference we can find to that “descent into hell” element of the Creed is around the middle of the third century. That doesn’t mean that it wasn’t in the original—we don’t know when the original was written—but it seems to be a later addition and has caused no small amount of controversy ever since. The reason for [the controversy] is theological as well as biblical.[10]

It seems that in order to be consistent with the rest of the biblical texts, there is only one option to which I already alluded: That the spirit of Christ entered into Noah as he proclaimed the truth to those imprisoned spirits.

This is not out of the question, biblically speaking. Earlier, in 1 Peter 1:10-11, Peter referred to “the spirit of Christ” in the old Testament prophets: “Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.” So, Jesus did not go to hell, there is no biblical support for such a doctrine, and to teach that He did is contrary to the gospel.

Can God be near sin?

Something else worthy of note is that in this same book, Meyer states that, “When Jesus hung on the cross, He took our sin upon Himself. God cannot stay in the presence of sin. As Jesus took our sin, He was separated from the presence of the Father. The same thing happened to Adam in the garden. As he sinned, the presence of God left him. God cannot dwell in the midst of sin.”[11]

The Bible teaches that Jesus is God, and He (Jesus) was near sin, and remained in the presence of sin when He came to earth (See John 1:14). Not only this, but when in the book of Job, Satan came with other angels to present themselves before God, wouldn’t God then be near sin?

If Meyer believes that Jesus went to hell, then she either believes that Jesus is not God, because she says, “God cannot dwell in the midst of sin”, or if she does believe that Jesus is God, then she is self-contradicting by saying that Jesus (God) went to hell to “satisfy the courts of justice and conquering the hosts of hell.” So, either way, whether she believes that Jesus is not God (heresy), or that she is speaking out of two corners of her mouth (fallacy), her teaching that Jesus went to hell is false.

Written by Nace Howell through the grace of the Lord Jesus

[2] Joyce Meyer, The Most Important Decision You’ll Ever Make: A complete and thorough understanding of what it means to be born again (New York: Time Warner Book Group, 2003), 31.

[3] Ibid., 32-33.

[4] See Acts 2:36-38; Romans 10:9-10, John 6:27-29, 1 Corinthians 15:3-11, et al.

[5] Ibid., 33.

[6] Luke 23:39-43.

[7] See John 20:17.

[8] Commentary in brackets added.

[9] Thomas R. Schreiner, 1, 2 Peter, Jude, vol. 37, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2003), 180.

[10] https://learn.ligonier.org/qas/what-does-apostles-creed-mean-when-it-says-jesus-d.

[11] Meyer, The Most Important Decision, 32.

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