As we celebrate the transfiguration of Christ that took place as He prepared to die on the cross, this event raises a lot of questions. What are the implications of Jesus being joined by Moses and Elijah for our understanding of what happens when we die? How does this fit with the doctrine of “the harrowing of Hell”?
The harrowing of Hell is an ancient doctrine of the Church that stems from 1 Peter. In 3:18-20 we read, “For Christ also suffered for sins once for all time, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which He also went and made proclamation to the spirits in prison, who once were disobedient when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.” This is clearly referring to people long dead (from the days of Noah), and not people literally in jail. We see another reference in 1 Peter 4:5-6: “but they will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as people, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God.” Most famously, the Apostles’ Creed (which predates the Nicene Creed) includes the line about Jesus that “he descended to the dead.”
So what exactly did Jesus accomplish when he “preached” to the dead, and what does that have to do with the transfiguration? Jesus clearly proclaimed His victory. It is debated among theologians whether or not this proclamation was an opportunity for those who had no knowledge of Jesus (because they lived before He came to earth) to accept Him and be saved. This is not a universalist idea, because this was a one-time opportunity for those who died before the ministry of Jesus.
Where did Jesus go to preach the gospel? It wasn’t Hell. Hell is the eternal place of judgment. Those who died before the ministry of Jesus was completed went to Sheol, or “Abraham’s bosom” (Luke 16:22). This is an intermediate place of rest until the Resurrection. It is likely the same place as Paradise, where Jesus told the thief on the cross they would be together (Luke 23:42-43). The only other reference in the Bible to Paradise is in Revelation 2:7, where it says the Tree of Life is there. We have no evidence that Paradise is the same as Heaven.
So when Moses and Elijah showed up at the Transfiguration, they didn’t come from Heaven, they came from Sheol. 1 Corinthians 15:20-21 says, “ But the fact is, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man death came, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead.” We have no biblical evidence that anyone apart from Christ is in Heaven right now. The Bible strongly emphasizes a one-time Resurrection of all the dead some time in the future, when all believers will be physically resurrected (like Jesus). That most likely includes everyone in Sheol at the time of Jesus’ proclamation, up until the Resurrection. That also includes us. When we die, we go into an intermediate state of rest until the Resurrection. Because Jesus preached the gospel to the dead, it seems most likely that they were not in some sort of “soul sleep”, so neither will we. What we do know is that we will be in Christ’s care (2 Corinthians 5:8). So even though all who die before the Resurrection will have to wait until then to receive our glorified bodies, the intermediate state will be a time of peace, joy, and rest. And this also emphasizes what the entire goal of the Christian life is: To be with Christ for all eternity. Eternal life in Heaven is not the goal. As good as that is, unending life in the presence of God is the goal. Let us live for that.
