Bishop Alford says: "I understand these words (I. Peter 3:19) to say that our Lord, in His disembodied state, did go to the place of detention of departed spirits, and did there announce His work of redemption; preach salvation in fact, to the disembodied spirits of those who refused to obey the voice of God when the judgment of the flood was hanging over them."
Professor A. Hinderkoper, a German writer, says: "In the second and third centuries every branch and division of the Christian church, so far as their records enable us to judge, believed that Christ preached to the departed spirits ." (Haley's Discrepancies of the Bible.)
These writers were willing to ignore the teachings of tradition, and let the words of inspired men mean just what they said, without any "private interpretation."
God, being no respecter of persons, it would be manifestly unjust for one portion of the human family to have the privilege of hearing the sound of the gospel in this life, while so great a proportion never hear it, and lie under condemnation from that fact. No; the plan of salvation is complete, and, reaching from our pre-existent state, applies to our present condition, and will extend to the future state, until every son and duaghter of Father Adam has had ample opportunity to embrace its tenets, and live in accordance with its spirit.
We have now examined the gospel proof of pre-existence, and quoted the testimony of Jesus and many of the servants of the Most High. We have gone over the ground of the duties that pertain to this life, connected with faith, repentance, baptism for the remission of sins, and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost,[A] and examined the scriptures relative to preaching to spirits in prison.
[Footnote A: Should the reader desire a more complete treatise on these important points, we refer him to Tract No. 1.]
We now take one more step in our investigation, and shall endeavor to learn if there is a way wrought out for the deliverance of the prisoners bound and captive in the grasp of Satan.
The fact of their being preached to, is one evidence that something could be done to mitigate their condition, for it would be cruelty intensified, if, after being taught the gospel, it would be necessary to inform them that there was no deliverance.
The word of the Lord through the prophet Malachi, was "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: and He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." (Mal. 4:5, 6.) Here was a work for the translated prophet of Israel to perform at some future period of time, with the fearful consequence of non-compliance placed before us, that the Lord would smite the earth with a curse. The nature of that work is briefly set forth as turning the heart of the fathers to the children, and that of the children to the fathers.
The apostle Paul asserts that they without us could "not be made perfect," or in other words, that their salvation was necessary to our happiness or perfection.