Seminary says “Catholics find it in some of the
creeds, and if something is creedal, it tends to lock
in.” The idea of Christ descending into hell is gen-
erally embraced not only by Catholics but also by
Lutherans, Presbyterians and Methodists.
Evangelicals, however—roughly 25 percent
of the U.S. population, though estimates vary
depending on how the term is defined—largely
reject the notion of Jesus visiting Satan in the
underworld. J.D. Hall, for instance, a controversial
Baptist preacher who runs Pulpit & Pen, a website
visited by about one million Christians a month
says,“The concept of Christ descending into hell
is less scripture and more a manufacturing of the
Roman Catholic Church.”
Alan Gomes, a professor of theology at Biola
University, an evangelical university in La Mirada,
California, and author of the book, 40 Questions
About Heaven and Hell says, “I believe the view of
the Creed is wrong based on what the scriptures
teach.” Gomes told Newsweek there are
several evangelical interpretations of
what happened between the crucifix-
ion and resurrection. One is that souls
of the Old Testament’s righteous “were
upstairs in Hades and weren’t in a state
of punishment while the wicked were
in the lower regions.” It wasn’t until Jesus died for
humanity’s sins that he could then lead the righteous,
including Adam and Eve, into heaven. “They had to
cool their heels and wait for Christ to spring them,”
Gomes says. “I’d guess Gibson may want to portray
that in the movie, as well as the idea that the wicked
in hell received a triumphal proclamation where
Christ basically tells them that they’re hosed. Many
people take this position.”
Dallas Theological Seminary’s Bock points out
that there are scant descriptions of the resurrec-
tion in the Bible itself although there are a few pas-
sages that can be interpreted as Jesus preaching in
hell, though not necessarily during the three days
between crucifixion and resurrection. “A two-hour
film about something you could read in 10 minutes
is a challenge in terms of filling in narrative gaps,”
Bock tells Newsweek.
Four years ago Gibson tapped Randall Wallace,once upon a time, mel gibson was box-office
gold as the face of the Lethal Weapon franchise
and as star and director of Best-Picture Oscar win-
ning Braveheart. In 2004 he reset the record books
with The Passion of the Christ, his intense and bloody
depiction of Jesus’ crucifixion, which became the
most successful R-rated movie of all time. But after
several PR nightmares, starting with a 2006 DUI
arrest accompanied by a rant about Jews, Gibson
became persona non grata in Hollywood. Since then,
he has been in rebuilding mode. He’s appeared in a
few forgettable films, but his most recent effort as a
director, the 2016 war drama Hacksaw Ridge, won
mostly favorable reviews and respectable box office
numbers. Now he’s embarking on a big gamble, a
sequel to Passion currently in pre-production and
tentatively titled Resurrection.
Gibson declined comment for this story. But actor
Jim Caviezel, set to reprise his Passion role as Jesus,
set the bar extremely high recently when he told USA
Today the sequel “is going to be the big-
gest film in history. It’s that good.”
What is unclear—and likely key to
whether the film succeeds or fails—is
how Gibson will navigate the tricky ques-
tion of what Christ was up to between
his death and resurrection. The world’s
Christians are divided: millions of Catholics believe
Jesus visited hell while millions of Protestants—
including the evangelicals who Gibson courted care-
fully for Passion—do not. If Gibson, who is Catholic,
chooses to portray what’s known as the “harrowing
of hell” or the “descent of Christ,” he risks turning off
a sizable portion of his intended audience. Accord-
ing to Pew Research, Protestants, at 43 percent of the
population, are the largest Christian group in Amer-
ica while Catholics are second at 20 percent.
The theological divide over the harrowing stems
in part from the Apostle’s Creed based on the
teachings of the 12 Apostles though written about
six decades after the last of them had died. About
200 years later, text was added to the Creed stating
that Jesus “was crucified, died and was buried. He
descended to the dead. On the third day he rose
again.” Darrell L. Bock, senior research professor
of New Testament Studies at Dallas TheologicalBYPAUL BONDA TASTE OF HOME
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