Why did Christ preach the gospel to ‘them that are dead’ (1 Peter 3:19; 4:6)?

This text is from a letter written by David Gooding in 1999.

This is a very large question, and I would not wish to be dogmatic about it.

Whatever answer one gives, I think it is important to distinguish between the preaching to the 'spirits in prison' (see 1 Peter 3:19), and the preaching of the gospel to 'dead ones' (see 1 Peter 4:6). These two phrases do not necessarily refer to the same thing. The verb in 1 Peter 3:19 means to 'herald a message', to 'make a proclamation'. It does not in and by itself imply that the message preached was the gospel. Whereas the term in 1 Peter 4:6 is the normal word used for preaching the gospel.

Secondly, I think it is important to notice the phraseology in 1 Peter 3:19 where it says he 'made a proclamation to the spirits in prison'. Here, as a matter of exegesis, you have to decide whether this verse is referring to spirits—that is, spirit beings, and not human beings; or whether it is referring to the departed spirits of deceased human beings. It is to be noticed that, when Hebrews 12:23 refers to believers who have died and gone to heaven, it refers to the 'spirits of just ones made perfect' and not just to spirits; and certainly not to spirits in prison.

It is also to be noticed that both 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6 refer to spirit beings—that is, fallen angels who at one stage were consigned to prison and are kept there by eternal chains, waiting for the great day of judgment. That much, then, is an undeniable fact and it may be that 1 Peter 3:19 is referring to these spirit beings. Furthermore, it may be that these spirit beings, who are now in prison, are the sons of God referred to in Genesis 6:2.

If this is so, then it may be that 1 Peter 3:19 is referring to the fact that Christ, after his death, made an announcement to these rebellious angels, pointing out that their attempt to corrupt the whole human race had failed. The man Christ Jesus, whom Satan and his evil hosts tried to destroy at Calvary, had now triumphed over them (see Colossians 2:15); and, having gone into heaven, is seated at the right hand of God, with angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him (see 1 Peter 3:22).

Other expositors, of course, understand this passage in 1 Peter 3 very differently. When Peter says that Christ, in the spirit, went and preached, they take it to mean that it was the 'Spirit of Christ' through the prophets (1 Peter 1:11)—and particularly the Spirit of Christ through Noah, who preached the gospel to Noah's contemporaries. These contemporaries, however, rejected the preaching of the Spirit of Christ through Noah, and therefore they are now disembodied spirits imprisoned in hades until the Final Judgment—though they were not disembodied spirits when the Spirit of Christ preached to them through Noah. But I must leave you to make up your mind on this question.

In 1 Peter 4:6, however, we have a somewhat different situation. For here it is explicitly said that the gospel was preached to 'dead ones'. Some expositors feel that this means that the gospel was preached in Noah's day to people who were then alive, but of course are now dead, and that Peter has telescoped his remarks by saying the gospel was preached to 'dead ones'. According to this view, what he really means to say is that the gospel was preached to people who are now dead, but of course were not dead when the gospel was preached to them.

I incline to the other view—that Christ, after his death, preached the gospel to the believers of Old Testament times. In other words, he preached the gospel 'to the spirits of just men' (Hebrews 12:23 KJV). When they left earth they were believers, of course; but they were not yet perfected according to the conscience (see Hebrews 10:1–3). You can see this from the fact that they continually offered sacrifices upon the altar in the temple at Jerusalem. Even King David himself, who praises God for forgiveness in Psalm 32, would never have dared to enter the holiest of all in the Old Testament tabernacle; he constantly repeated the sin offerings. He was a true believer, and he enjoyed forgiveness to some extent; but he did not yet have a conscience made perfect, and could not have until the one great sacrifice for sins was offered by Christ upon the cross.

The question is therefore: does King David now know about that sacrifice, and does he now experience the liberty that we as believers have to enter the holiest of all? Surely he does know; he has a conscience made perfect. While he still awaits bodily resurrection, you may refer to David as the spirit of a just man now made perfect, since Christ has communicated to him and to all the Old Testament believers the wonderful blessing that flows from his complete and perfect sacrifice.

Yours very sincerely in Christ,