Did Jesus While Dead Preach to other Dead People?

1 Peter 3:18
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.

1 Peter 3:19
After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits —

1 Peter 3:20
to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water,

This passage of the Bible has caused many to wrongfully think that When Jesus died, He didn’t stay in the grave, He went out of the grave to go preaching before coming back to resurrect. What is the meaning of this passage of the Bible? Did Jesus while dead preach to other dead people?

First Peter chapter three has an assortment of topics being addressed. It begins with family issues on how a Christian couple should treat each other. It proceeds to address how we dress as believers. The topic changes back to the family on how husbands should be considerate when dealing with their wives.

First Peter chapter three also has words that directly encourage believers on how they relate with each other. The believers are told to do good even if they get hurt for doing good, they shouldn’t relent. It is after this that the topic on persevering through suffering shifts to Christ who also suffered. This suffering Christ message ushers in our pericope of consideration.

Christ was one hundred percent God and a hundred percent human. Christ suffered as a human being. Christ was put to death as a human being. But Christ remained alive in the Spirit, depicting His divinity that can’t die or suffer.

In His divine nature many years early before He was born as a human being in Bethlehem, Jesus existed as God. Those many years ago, Jesus through His inspiring Spirit, preached to contemporaries of Noah. The contemporaries of Noah were so wicked that God resorted to destroying all of them. As Noah built the Ark and preached, it was Christ preaching through him.

The contemporaries of Noah were so wicked that it was and still is right to say, they were prisoners of sin. They were so imprisoned in sin, that they didn’t see the wisdom of getting into the Ark to save their lives. It is to these prisoners of sin that Christ preached to through Noah. Unfortunately, the majority of them died in sin and never saw a need to respond to God by getting into the Ark.

Therefore, this passage has no business with a dead Jesus preaching to dead people. It is about the humanity and divinity of Jesus playing different roles for our salvation. His divine nature has been active throughout time and His human nature is suffering and dying for us.

Ecclesiastes 9:5-6
(5) For the living know that they will die,
but the dead know nothing;
they have no further reward,
and even their name is forgotten.
(6) Their love, their hate
and their jealousy have long since vanished;
never again will they have a part
in anything that happens under the sun.

To insist that a dead Jesus preached to dead people would contradict everything that scriptures teaches. When people die, they cease to exist until the day of resurrection when they will rise from their graves. If dead people remain alive and can be preached to after death, then there is no urgency of salvation in this life. You can always catch up with salvation later.

If dead people can listen to the gospel and return to Christ, is there a baptism in that world of the dead? How comes the Bible doesn’t talk about that world. How different is this world of dead people from what traditional Africans had in Ancestors and spirits of their land?

We should be careful not to misinterpret the scriptures or introduce contradictory messages. What we interpret must be consistent throughout scripture and with other teachings. The same Christ who preached at Noah’s time is now speaking to you and me today so that we can accept salvation and live a better life on earth and a much better eternal life when He comes back. May it be so in Jesus’ name, Amen!

1. Rei Kesis YouTube Channel (subscribe, click on notification and share) –http://youtube.com/reikesis
2. Rei Kesis books on Amazon (Amazon will sell and deliver anywhere in the world. For those in Kenya you can buy from any ABC close to you. ABC is Adventist Book Center) –https://www.amazon.com/s?k=rei+kesis&ref=nb_sb_noss
3. Rei Kesis daily blog –https://reikesis.com/