p. 2 | 3159.- Preached to the Dead. 1 Peter 4:6 by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jun 14, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 23.

3159.— Preached to the Dead. 1 Peter 4:6

By Editor

Will you please give your explanation of 1 Peter 4:6?

The passage is but a statement of what had already occurred. It really looks back to the 18th to the 20th verses of the previous chapter. We are told that Christ by His Spirit went and preached unto the spirits in prison; to those who were shut up in their sins, in the prison-house of sin. See Luke 4:18; Isa. 61:1. The time when the preaching was done is said to be "when the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah." The thought of the text is not that the Gospel was preached to them that are dead, while they were dead; but it was preached in the past to them that are now dead—God has not left without witness the people of past ages. All shall give account to Him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead; and it is in order that they might be prepared for that judgment, that the Gospel has been preached. The Spirit of Christ was with the holy men of the past. 1 Peter 1:10, 11.