Posted by Yong TM (202.172.43.132) on March 10, 2003 at 17:43:33:
In Reply to: Meaning of spirits in prison in 1 Peter 3:19 posted by Khew Chee Keong on March 07, 2003 at 19:48:05:
You have asked a difficult question on a difficult verse. This verse has been problematic because of little cross-references from other portions of scripture.
Many theologians believe that these are the fallen angels, primarily because of verse 20. So there is this concept of Jesus Christ going to preach to these angels. But one must remember that the Bible is primarily concerned with the purpose of man and his salvation, so it does not 'bother' to cover other issues and realms not relevant to man (for example, Jude v9). So glimpses of the existence of other realms or salvation plans may be present through the Bible here and there, but not further elaborated.
However, Dr Tong does not believe that God allowed the angels the privilege of being saved, since fallen angels are devils and no salvation plan was given to the devils, only eternal demnation.
What is clear is that the Bible does not tell us everything about what Christ did in His resurrected form; only those that are relevent to us. So any theories relating to verses like these would at best be speculative, and certainly non-conclusive in nature. It would not be correct therefore, to develop one whole doctrine (like Christ would go to hell to preach to the lost there) based only on one or two verses.