In the Apostles' Creed we say that after His death on the cross, Jesus descended into hell. The Catholic faith does not say that phrase "descended into hell". A friend of mine was wondering what the Lutheran faith bases that phrase on. I could not find the explanationin the Lutheran Catechism. Please help!!
Interestingly enough, our Lutheran denomination has just released a new worship resource called “Evangelical Lutheran Worship.” In there, the Apostles' Creed has been subtly changed to better reflect the original Latin that the creed was written in. The translation now reads: “he descended to the dead,” which is actually more accurate. The Latin, “ descendit ad inferna,” means that Jesus “descended to the place of the dead”, not to “hell” as we tend to understand it, which is a place of torment and damnation. The Old English meaning of the word “hell” implied that broader meaning which is lost in modern English. The significance of this part of the creed, therefore, is that Jesus, upon his resurrection, first went to the place of the dead in order to break down the gates and power of death over humanity…past, present, and future. This is the hope we profess in the Apostles' Creed! Also, we just recently began using this new version of the creed at worship!
Pastor Doug
Pastor Bill was asked the questions below by the 9th grade Confirmation class.
Why do I need to be confirmed if I believe in God? Faith is not just an individual thing between a person and God. Yes, a personal relationship with Jesus is important, but in addition, we as believers are asked to publicly confess our belief in God. Whereas some traditions will not baptize an individual until he/she makes a public confession of faith, our tradition practices infant baptism but lifts up the importance of adult confession with Confirmation.
Is ‘hell' a swear word? If used in the context of a specific location I would say no. Example: I do not fear hell because I place my trust in our Lord Jesus Christ. However, I would say yes to this question if the word “hell” is used to describe your feelings towards an individual or a group of people. Example: You can go to hell! Or, you can all go to hell! I am not quite sure where I stand of “hell” is used as an adjective. Example: Hell no I won't go.
Why do we have the Ten Commandments? Believe it or not, the Ten Commandments were given to the Israelites out of love from God. The commandments were never meant to make life miserable for humankind; in fact the total opposite is true. The commandments explain how to live in a loving relationship with God and with our neighbor.
When you die how long does it take to get to heaven? It depends if you are flying or taking the train. I would suggest flying, but there is the chance that the plane will be full and you will get bumped from the flight. In truth, Pastor bill does not have an answer to this question. After we die, it may take a million or a billion years, but my understanding is that it will only seem like a blink of an eye.
How has God always been on the earth/living? God has been on the earth since God created the earth. In terms of years we are unsure how long ago that took place, but science tells us that it happened a long time ago. Our Christian understanding is that God has always been alive. It is one of those things that is beyond our human understanding. In this matter we must rely on faith instead of human reasoning.
Did people in Biblical times have last names? I am not aware of last names being used in the Bible. However, there were other ways in which people in the Bible were identified. Here are a few examples, but there are many, many more. Jesus gave Simon the nickname of Peter which means “rock.” Matthew was often times identified by his occupation, “Matthew the tax collector.” Other times characters of the Bible were identified ion association with their father, “James and John the sons of Zebedee.” Still others were known by the place where they lived, “Joseph of Aramithea.” Even Jesus was at first identified by his hometown, “Jesus of Nazareth.” The list goes on and on.
Can you believe in evolution and still be a Lutheran? Let me begin by clarifying that there are different denominations (branches) of the Lutheran church and I can only speak for the one we belong to, the ELCA. The answer to your question is absolutely yes. Because of my time constraint I will only give a brief answer to this question, but perhaps I will elaborate in a future article on our website of ‘Ask the Pastor.' Science is concerned with the question “How did this happen?” Religion is concerned with the question, “Who did this?” In addition to “who,” religion also asks the question, “why?” Science continues to explore the “how,” while the vast majority of the world's population, including many if not most scientists believe the “who” is God. I will let you ponder on the “why” and we will discuss this at a later date.
Why does the Nicene Creed mention that Jesus “descended into hell?” Actually the Nicene Creed does not mention anything at all about Jesus descending into hell, but I believe you are referring to the Apostle's Creed. Religious scholars have wrestled with this question for a long time and there remains disagreement to this day on why Jesus descended into hell. Most would say that this event took place in order for Jesus to declare his victory over sin and death directly to Satan. What happened to the dinosaurs in the Bible? By the time the authors began to put the Bible into writing, the dinosaurs were long gone from the earth. It was much later in history that science discovered these lost giants.
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