Posted on 04/07/2012 12:28:31 AM PDT by Mighty_Quinn
In the 'time' we humans experience in this dimension, Jesus suffered the full wrath of The Righteous God for all; that is, all mankind that came out of Adam's flesh, and all Creation that was damaged by Sin. Was there any such thing as 'time' in the dimension beyond the pale of separation which He bridged from the sixth to the ninth hour? I do not know, but it lasted for three hours on this side of the brink before He gave up His Spirit. And yet He Who is Truth incarnated promised to the malefactor that subsequently, before sundown, they would be together in the Paradise realm ("Abraham's bosom") of Hades.
Yet in those awful three hours, Jesus soul and spirit were not yet sundered from the body in which he was made to be sin, and in which Body He bore our sins on the Cross until He cried out,"Tetelestai!" "Fully finished forever!"
It was done in our kind of time, but how can we grasp the duration and place of His passionate love for erring humanity put to its greatest test?
Of course, Jesus earlier had related to the Pharisees that there was an insuperable chasm separating the hot waterless Hell from "Abraham's bosom" (=Paradise, it is believed) where Lazarus was comforted.
Did not Jesus, having conquered Sin, death, Hell, and Satan at the Cross; and as our Eternal High Priest, propitiate The God's righteous demands by the offering of His Incorruptible Blood upon the Mercy Seat of Heaven? As human, did He not obtain both reconciliation with The God, and all authority in Heaven and Earth? And having this authority, did he not lead Captivity captive, by separating that residence (Paradise, Abraham's bosom) of just souls, justified by faith in Him Jehovah under the First Covenant, by separating Paradise from Sheol and attaching it to The Heaven, together with all the souls therein?
No longer do we hear about those souls possessing eternal absolute life ever having to be detained from entering God's Presence when death of the body frees one's soul/spirit. To be absent from the body is to be present with The LORD.
Now the Hell of Hades and the remainder of Sheol are not they synonymous, to be cast together with death into that terminus prepared for Satan, his angels, and defiant faithless human children of wrath -- the eternal Lake of Fire?
I can’t say, myself, but it looks like a excerpt from the Philokalia - wonderful writings and exigesis of Scripture, originally written in Greek.
I always like to think that He stuck His head into Satan’s office, smiled and said “I’m baaaacck.....”
Oooh, thanks! Never knew there was a youtube!
You see Christ surrounded by the oreol of glory standing on the broken gates of Hell and reaching to Adam and Eve, -- and in their persons to all of us. The hardware from teh gate is scattered underneath. The kings and prophets of the Old Testament form a welcoming party: we recognize King Solomon and King David by their crowns and Abel by his shepherd's staff.
His Cross is sometimes shown in the background; sometimes Satan is shown bound underneath.
The icon is known as Descent to Limbo, or Descent to Hades, or simply (as in this case) The Resurrection of our Lord.
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