Keep up the good work! But good works will not save you. Read Ezekiel 18. Read Romans.

Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God to salvation to every one that believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

The wicked will be destroyed. No question. They will die just as Jesus demonstrated how they will die when he died. And how was God involved? Did God execute Jesus???? NOPE.

Romans 2:4 Or despise you the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?

You can not command anyone to love. You can not force anyone to love.

The last message of mercy, illuminating in its power, is God's Character of Love. COL 415. And IF you read that, read ST Jan 20, 1890 while you are at it.

OH - and you do know who the speakers being quoted are in Matthew 21:41, right? Hint - it was not Jesus.

That is their reward before the 2nd coming of the Lord, the beginning of their fear, which has an opportunity to work for their salvation. By being helpful or trying to help those who hate you, it brings the opportunity of their repentance.

Psalm 120:4 "Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper."

"For the more we know God, the more intense will be our happiness, and the lips that are willing to speak, though unclean, will be touched with the living coals and purified. They will be enabled to speak words that will burn their way to the soul." {OW December 1, 1909, par. 12}

This is to work on their hearts to lead them to salvation before the second coming.

This is speaking the truth of scripture, not just being nice, it is using the words of God to speak truth like Jesus did when being tempted. This heaps coals on their heads and they become responsible to God for how they receive it from that point on. If they receive it and kill the messenger like they did the Prophets and the Son, what kind of coals do you think it heaps on their heads?

The coals of the altar of incense are what cleansed the mouth of the prophet because he wanted to be cleansed. This righteous fire was lit by the same fire that torments the wicked, come down from God out of heaven.

In contrast those who speak the words of confusion or Babylon are burning "strange fire" before the Lord, and what happened to Nadab and Abihu for burning strange fire before Him? They were consumed by righteous fire.

Numbers 3:4 And Nadab and Abihu died before the Lord, when they offered strange fire before the Lord, in the wilderness of Sinai,...

Those coals can either save or give torment to those who are against God through His people who speak the truth. Every time we bless those who curse us, it gives God the power to do what is right in the situation. That does not mean we should not try to present the truth before the witnesses of the conflagration, it just means that we are believing through Faith that God rewards our deeds and those who persecute us.

If they are warned in truth yet refuse or reject the seed from heaven then they get rewarded after probation, when the plagues are falling until Jesus shows up, and this is not the end.

They get fully reward at the second resurrection where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth and men sweat blood for their own sins because they neglected forgiveness. This is where the Spirit of God has fully withdrawn from the earth and demons are forced to show themselves while Gog and Magog are resurrected. They will be shown the lies that led them to hell, and when they turn on Satan in their anger, that is when the fires of hell come from the shining sword of truth held by the angel guarding the way to the tree of life to devour them.

I can prove all of this through scripture and the Spirit of Prophecy, but you will not be taught by me.

"A council was held in heaven, the result of which was that God’s dear Son undertook to redeem man from the curse and the disgrace of Adam’s failure, and to conquer Satan. Oh, wonderful condescension! The Majesty of heaven, through love and pity for fallen man, proposed to become his substitute and surety. He would bear man’s guilt. He would take the wrath of His Father upon Himself, which otherwise would have fallen upon man because of his disobedience. {Con 16.3}

Did Jesus sin? No. The wages of sin is death, but Jesus died. Why?

“Christ felt the anguish which the sinner will feel when mercy shall no longer plead for the guilty race. It was the sense of sin, bringing the Father’s wrath upon Him as man’s substitute that made the cup He drank so bitter, and broke the heart of the Son of God." {DA 753.2}



I underlined that response from the chief priests and scribes for the fact that even those men who were committing the highest crime against God through persecuting Christ, understood what would be the outcome of that parable. So if those blind men could figure it out why can't you?

They were being loured into pronouncing there own fate, this technique was used by the prophets to bring condemnation on those who would not repent or to bring them to repentance.

Remember when David Killed Uriah the Hittite so he could take Bathsheba? The prophet came and told him the parable of the rich man taking the lamb from the man who only had one, and David pronounced His own curse. But he repented.

Pharaoh pronounced his own curse when he hardened his heart against the descendants of Jacob and commanded all the first born of Israel should be killed. Then his own first born descendants died because of his pronouncement.

These pharisees were pronouncing their own fate, and they called to heaven saying let His blood be upon our heads. If you don't think God is involved in that execution of judgment you are wrong.

God wrath - - clearly defined in Romans 1. God did not execute Christ. Christ took our sin on Himself, 1 Peter 2:24. What killed Christ was sin. The wrath of God is His giving up, letting go. A removal on the enmity put in place against sin in the beginning, Genesis 3:15. The death of Christ is proof, that sin pays its wage, death.

If you say what you believe enough times, it might be true, right? At the very least, it will impact your own thinking to the point where you will firmly believe it. I'm sure you believe it beyond all possibility of persuasion to the contrary by now. Let it rest. This topic was about the correct interpretation of 1 Peter 3:18-20. Let's get back to that.

Have we settled the question of the proper interpretation? Do we understand the term "spirits in prison?" I believe they represent sin-bound souls. I believe the Holy Spirit worked through Noah's preaching and building of the ark to witness to many in his day who were in bondage to sin. I see Peter as telling us that Jesus' sacrifice on the cross enabled God's Spirit to witness to even those who lived before the Flood.

Blessings,

Green Cochoa.

Take a dig and then run? OK, fine. But who is the one entrenched in their ideas, not open to what the word says? As Jesus says, repent (change your mind) and believe the good news! Mark 1:14-15.

In the name of Jesus I completely support this statement.

1 Peter 3:18 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, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. ESV

Only eight found the truth in those days, how many do you think are going to get it right now? Maybe a 144,000 out of 7 BILLION...

Notice how the main word in question in most debates on this subject deal with the word 'spirit' or 'spirits'.

But look at the pronoun that establishes the motive for the next sentence. "in which also to the spirits in prison having gone he did preach".

The pronoun 'which' comes from the Greek word 'hos' and occurs 1207 times in scripture, and is as commonly translated 'who' or 'whom' as it is 'which'.

Put that word in this place and see the true intent of these sentences.

"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 whom 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, in who a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.

The only way Jesus can "bring us to God" in any generation is through the Holy Spirit, a 'who' not a 'which' or a what.

If you look at the Greek, then compare other parts of scripture that relate to the 1 Peter 3:18. The term spirit here does not necessarily mean Holy Spirit, and most likely does not. The previous post uses the ESV which is probably a better translation than the KJV on this verse. So the latter part of v18, “put to death indeed, in flesh, but made alive in spirit”. Christ died and was resurrected. (Romans 1:3-4; 1 Timothy 3:16) Who raised Christ? Romans 6:4; Galatians 1:1.

v19 spirits here means living beings. Prison, this is all our state with respect to sin. 2 Timothy 2:26 And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

v20 speaking of Noah's day, the antediluvian were without excuse, for God provided a way of escape, and they rejected it.