Did Jesus go to hell when he died?

1 pet 4:3-6 in it's context —"For the time of life which is past is enough for us to have worked out the will of the nations, having gone on in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, parties, carousings, and abominable idolatries. In these things they are surprised, that you are not running with them into the same excess of riot, blaspheming. But they shall give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For to this end the gospel was preached also to the dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the Spirit."
In the context, above we see Paul is discussing unsaved people now (in his time, and of course it applies to our time as well), who taunt Christians for not living like them anymore. It was this same type of people in the "world" in Noah's time, who mocked as he built his ark to escape the coming judgment, and all soon perished. It was not those people in Noah's time who were being preached to by Christ, (unless you see Christ preaching to them through Noah) but just a comparison of the wickedness.
The point is, Christ's message is being offered to these people in the world today, enslaved in the prison of sin and condemnation. This passage even seems to be a reference to (fulfilment of) the messianic prophecy in Isaiah 42:1-7 "Behold My Servant, whom I uphold; My Elect, in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit on Him; He shall bring out judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not fail nor be discouraged until He has set judgment in the earth; and the coasts shall wait for His law. So says God, the LORD He who created the heavens and stretched them out, spreading out the earth and its offspring; He who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it. I the LORD have called You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand, and will keep You, and give You for a covenant of the people, for a Light to the Gentiles; to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness out of the prison house".
This is even recognized in chain references. Sin is many times over referenced as both "prison" and "death".

 

Here the point was already emphasize - Christ did not wrong - yet suffered and we are to follow that example.

Now back to 1Pet 3.

8 people - That is true - 8 were saved by entering the Ark. (And corresponding to that Baptism now saves you - the appeal to God for a clean conscience).
However the focus of the text is NOT on preaching to the 8 but to the wicked that were lost - in rebellion in the time of Noah WHEN the ark was being built.

Notice this SECOND example focuses SPECIFICIALLY on the wicked of Noah's day who LIVED "when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark". They obviously are examples of suffering for doing what is wrong.
Notice also that the focus is NOT on the saints of the OT – and preaching to them – rather it is on the “disobedient” – the wicked, the lost generation DURING the time of the building of the Ark WHEN the patience of God kept waiting. It is to them that the Spirit of Christ in the OT was drawing and speaking JUST as He does to us today. But the SAINTS went into the ark while all those rebellious disobedient wicked perished and will die the second death. And “Corresponding to That – Baptism NOW saves you”

And Noah - an example of suffering for doing what is right. Saved by the Ark and obedient to the Spirit of Christ.

The Spirit of Christ has already been stated by Peter (1Pet 1) as having gone to people in the OT and ministering to them WHILE they lived.

Peter directs us away from thinking of the "magic waters of baptism" and instead
states explicitly that INSTEAD of a "magic sacrament" the REAL saving aspect is in the heart's knowing - deliberate - active "APPEAL to God for a good conscience". THAT is the sense in which baptism saves for it is a public symbol that the sinner has already made that appeal.

Saved - Salvation to those who BELIEVE. The fact that one who BELIEVES and is saved will CONTINUE to read and study and obey - does not abolish the fact of salvation
JUST as stated above - at the time we believe.

And in this case – the “prison” is the prison of slavery to sin. For Christ came preaching “freedom to the captives” – and setting the prisoners free.

This is a message about those living – at the time of the flood – WHEN God waited patiently, IN the days of Noah WHILE the ark was being built.
Christ - BY the Spirit of Christ ALSO preached to those who were disobedient during the days of Noah - during the building of the Ark.


In Christ,

Bob