There is nothing difficult about this Bob. The only difficult thing is one's belief or readiness to believe what the Scripture says:Brother Bob said:It is a difficult scripture and I feel that "phrase" has a lot to do with the meaning of the scripture, apparently you do not. I do have scripture where the spirit went and preached to them in prison back before the cross and you have nothing that "Christ went down" and proclaimed victory to those in hell. I am sure those in hell know they lost the opportunity not to go there. The rich man did anyway. He advocated a much better doctrine of repentance than many, I have heard on here.
BBob,
1 Peter 3:18-19 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
There it is. Christ went and preached unto the spirits in prison or hell. It is very simple when broken down into its simplest terms. It is one sentence. It takes place before his resurrection, after his death. That context is clearly mentioned in verse 18. The past tense "went" refers to before the resurrection, and yet refers to after his death. He went and proclaimed. He proclaimed his victory over death and sin. This has nothing to do with the rich man, Lazarus, repentance or any of the other red herrings that you have brought in. It is a matter of fact. There are many things in Scripture that we must accept by faith simply because God says so.