089. Does not 1Pe 3:18-19 teach another probation after death?

Does not 1 Peter 3:18-19 teach another probation after death?

It certainly does not. It does teach that Christ, when He was put to death in the flesh (i.e., in His body), was quickened in His spirit, and in His spirit went and preached to the spirits in prison. But we are not told that “the spirits in prison” were men who have lived on the earth and died in their sin. There is reason for supposing that they were the angels who were disobedient in the time of Noah (see v. 20; Genesis 6:1-2; Judges 6, 7; 2 Peter 2:4). But even supposing that they were the departed spirits of men who had died in sin we are not told that Jesus preached the Gospel to them. The word translated “preach” in this passage does not mean to preach the Gospel, but to herald. There is another word often used in the New Testament which means to preach the Gospel, and it is significant that this word is not used in this passage. Nor are we told that any of these “spirits in prison” to whom Christ preached repented, or even could repent. The passage simply teaches that the kingdom has been heralded in hell as well as in heaven.