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Find the answers to all those questions you were too embarrassed to ask in Sunday School. Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. Hosted by Luke Taylor.
Baptism as Spiritual Warfare: Making Sense of I Peter 3:18-22
I Peter 3
Thumbnail: What Happened When You Got in the Water?
Introduction
What happened when you got in the water at your baptism?
Guess what? You didn’t just get wet.
You made a proclamation of faith- not just to any humans who witnessed your baptism- but a proclamation of faith that reverberated throughout the entire spiritual realm.
And if you have no idea what I’m talking about, you’re in the right place, because this episode today is going to explain the significance of baptism in the spirit realm.
And along the way, we’ll also explain one of the most puzzling passages in scripture:
I Peter 3:18-22. It reads this way, verse 18:
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,
OK pretty normal so far, that’s not so weird. What Jesus accomplished when he died on the cross. Verse 19:
19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison,
OK, that’s kinda weird. I missed that one. When did Jesus start a prison ministry in the spiritual realm? Verse 20:
20 because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.
Woah, we’re talking about spirits in prison, now we’re talking about Noah? Getting weirder. Verses 21 and 22:
21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.
Woah, baptism save us? This passage went off the rails real quick. I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible.
Turn to I Peter 3, and let’s get weird.
[theme music]
Dedication
Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. This is Luke Taylor, and today we’re going to be talking about what happened to you when you got baptized.
Guess what: you didn’t just get wet.
Now, you were probably told that baptism is important because it symbolizes the death and resurrection of Jesus, and how we are born again and receive new life in Christ. And that’s all good and true.
And you were probably told you should get baptized because it was one of the initial commands for any new believers in the New Testament, and that’s all good and true as well.
But then I Peter 3 comes along and adds a whole confusing new layer to baptism that most just aren’t sure how to interpret.
Michael Heiser is a name that probably several of my listeners are familiar with. He wrote the book The Unseen Realm and did a lot of scholarly work on the supernatural elements of the Bible, especially the weird things in the Bible that nobody talks about. Definitely, his work is an inspiration for this podcast here, especially because he passed away last year and I felt like now it’s up to many of us, his followers, to carry the torch and keep blazing the trail that he started.
And I Peter 3 is a passage that, you might say, radicalized him. He was visiting a church that did a verse-by-verse preaching series through I Peter. And Heiser says that when the pastor came to I Peter 3:18-22, he basically told the congregation, “This section of scripture is very strange, and lots of scholars aren’t really sure what to do with it, so we’re just going to skip right on past it to I Peter chapter 4.” And Michael Heiser was like, “What? You can’t just skip over something in the Bible because it’s too weird.” And so he made a ministry out of tracking down and researching weird stuff in the Bible, and you might say that I am doing the same.
So this episode is dedicated to Michael Heiser, as well as my friend Tim who I go to church with, because about a month ago our church had a service in the park and Tim suggested that I do an episode talking about Michael Heiser’s research of baptism as spiritual warfare.
The spirits in prison
So we’ll start with re-reading verses 18 and 19. Verse 18 is actually pretty typical New Testament stuff, but verse 19 is where it mentioned the spirits in prison and things took a strange turn.
(I Peter 3:18-19)
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison,
So who are the spirits in prison? We have to take all this one verse at a time if we’re going to understand the picture that Peter is painting.
And this requires you to understand the sin of the Sons of God in Genesis 6. If you don’t understand who the sons of God are or where the Nephilim came from, you’ll need to go back on this podcast to episodes 5 and 6 and listen to that series of episodes, because I explain it all, and I don’t have time to re-explain it all here.
So assuming you do know, in Genesis 6, these spiritual beings called the Sons of God came down to earth and mated with human women. The Sons of God were assigned the task of watching over mankind and reporting on their activities to God. Enoch calls these beings The Watchers in his book. Instead they produced offspring, and this is why the flood was necessary. The Nephilim DNA was becoming so prevalent all over the earth that it would have corrupted all of mankind, and so it all had to be wiped out with a flood, and Noah was chosen to restart the human bloodline because he didn’t have that Nephilim DNA. It said he was “perfect in his generations.”
Some question this because they wonder: could spiritual beings actually create physical forms and literally made with women and father children with them? And the short answer is: yes, they can, because the Bible literally says they did.
But these things only took place a long long long time ago, and the Watchers who did it before are not able to do it again. Why? Because any of the spirits who did this thing were locked away in torment in hell, and that is where they have remained to this day. They are locked away in tartarus, the deepest dungeon of hell. This is referenced in:
Jude 6
And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day—
And II Peter 2:4
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;
Now let’s dip into some content from the Book of Enoch. Once again, if you’re not a listener who is on board with the book of Enoch, I’d direct you to go back and listen to episodes 22 and 23. I spend those episodes establishing Enoch’s book as credible. Not scripture on the level of the Bible, but credible history. Long story short: if it was good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for me.
In Enoch 12 and 13, some spiritual beings come to Enoch and take him down to visit the Watchers who have been imprisoned in hell. Enoch comes to them and they ask him to petition God on their behalf and to get them out of their imprisonment. Enoch does, but God says no and sends Enoch back to the Watchers to tell them they are not getting out of their imprisonment and to “reprimand” them. So Enoch goes back down there, and then the Book of Enoch 13:10 says, “and I began to speak the words of righteousness, and to reprimand the heavenly watchers.”
Now maybe you’re saying, all this is interesting and everything, but what does it have to do with I Peter 3? Well, just as Enoch went down and preached to the spirits in prison and told them they would not leave, so also Jesus came to them during the time that His body was dead for three days and three nights. Jesus descended into the underworld.
We just had an episode last week where I talked about the Old Testament conception of the underworld, and how there was a good part called Abraham’s Bosom (also called Paradise by the way), and a bad part called hell, and that the saints went down to Abraham’s Bosom up until Jesus died, and when Jesus had officially died for the sins of mankind, He descended into the underworld and set the captives free. So it’s my understanding that Jesus went on a victory tour in the underworld during that time. And also as part of that, Jesus did what Enoch did and preached to the spirits in prison. Here is what Michael Heiser says about it:
I Peter 3:14-22 has Jesus descending to these same spirits in prison to tell them that they were still defeated, despite his crucifixion. God’s plan of salvation and Kingdom rule had not been derailed- in fact, it was right on schedule.
Baptism Now Saves You?
Well good, we’re halfway through the episode and we’ve finally gotten through verse 19. But now that we’ve got that piece in place, let’s talk about why baptism comes up.
You might notice that I took us on a history lesson with the Book of Enoch a few minutes ago, and I could have left that all out. I could have simply explained, “Jesus preached to the Genesis 6 Sons of God” and left it at that without bringing up Enoch, but instead I included a similar story of Enoch doing the same thing in his own book. Why did I do that?
Because Peter seems to be trying to make a parallel or establish a pattern here in I Peter 3. And understanding Peter’s pattern will help us understand why he brings up baptism in verse 20.
There are lots of patterns between Old Testament figures and the New Testament’s Jesus and the church. One of the clearest is Paul’s description of Jesus as the Second Adam. Despite how short the section on Adam is, you can actually identify a lot of parallels in the life of Adam and the life of Jesus. You can also do this with Moses and Joseph and a whole lot in the Old Testament. We call this typology. Types. And Peter seems to be inferring one here between Enoch, Genesis 6, and Jesus and the cross and resurrection.
Other than Enoch, there is nobody else in Jewish history who we could say preached to the spirits in prison. If Peter had said, “Jesus spent a night with the lions,” you’d understand that he was making a parallel with Daniel, even if he didn’t say the word “Daniel.” The Book of Enoch isn’t scripture, but we know from Peter’s other letter that it’s something he read and believed in. So Peter is pointing to a pattern here with Enoch.
Again, just as Enoch descended down to reprimand the Watchers, Jesus did the same. Now, what happened after the days of Enoch? God had to send a flood down on the world to cleanse it of evil. That was the only way to save the earth; but nearly destroying all life on it, wiping it all out.
You might say that the earth was baptized. It had to be totally submerged in order to cleanse it of the wickedness. And so we see a parallel in our Christian life. One of the meanings- we can call it symbolism- of our baptism as New Testament Christians is that it symbolizes the washing away of our sins. A fresh, new start. Now let’s read I Peter 3:20 with that pattern in mind:
I’ll start at verse 19 again:
in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.
The days of Noah. 8 people brought through water. The earth was baptized, evil was washed away and they got a fresh start. Likewise, when we become Christians, we get baptized symbolizing our sins being washed away, and we have a fresh start.
Verse 21
21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
This verse is the one that most throws people for a loop. This verse says that baptism now saves you. This is one of those verses that cause some churches to think that salvation is by faith + baptism. Now, I disagree with that, because baptism is a work, and I believe our salvation is by faith alone. But this verse, on its surface, would seem to throw a wrench into that. It pretty clearly says “baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you…” What does that mean?
As I said a couple lessons back in the episode about faith and works, the Greek word for “save” is “sozo.” It can mean save in the salvation sense, but it can also be used in other senses as well, just like how we use it in English. I can say Jesus saves. I can say “saved by the bell.” I can say a penny saved is a penny earned. I can save my files on my computer. I can say I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to Geico, but this podcast episode isn’t sponsored by them so I won’t say that.
My point is, there are different ways of using the word “save.” And in I Peter 3:21, I don’t believe it’s using “save” in the salvation sense. It’s using save to mean “save us from evil spirits.” Things like fallen angels and demons. Which are two different things, if you listened to episode 25. I think verse 21 should be understood as telling us that we are saved from evil spirits when we get baptized.
Why do I say this? That’s the pattern going back to Noah’s flood. When God covered the earth with water, He was purging it of the evil Nephilim. Humanity was purified by removing all of the corrupted flesh.
Now, in a spiritual sense, our baptism corresponds to that. Baptism, he says in verse 21, now saves you, and it says this: “not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience…” Now let’s explain this phrase, because this is where the translation is not super clear, so I need to go back to the Greek to pick this one apart.
A Spiritual Loyalty
Let’s start with “an appeal to God.” The word appeal is in Greek “eperotema.” It can also mean a pledge. A pledge is when you announce your loyalty or your allegiance. Actually, we say it a lot when we say “I pledge allegiance to the flag.” Since I have pledged my allegiance to America, I can appeal to my citizenship for my rights. So you can see the relationship there between the word “pledge” and “appeal.” And that’s the idea here as you look at this Greek word “eperotema.”
Now let’s look at the word “conscience.” This is your inner Jiminy Cricket. Let your conscience be your guide. Your conscience directs you. And where does your conscience guide you? It guides you to what you’re loyal to. If you’re loyal to righteousness, your conscience guides you to what is right. If you’re loyal to Jesus, your conscience guides you to Jesus. If your conscience guides you to do wrong, that’s when Paul says your conscience is seared. Your conscience is guiding you to the wrong thing. Your conscience is the compass toward what you’re loyal to. For a Christian, you are loyal to Jesus, so your conscience will point you toward loyalty to Jesus.
So let’s understand verse 21 this way:
Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience
Here is another way of understanding that. I’m just going to rephrase a few words with our new understanding. “Baptism, which corresponds to the flood of Noah, now saves you from demonic forces, not in a physical way by removing dirt from your body, but in a spiritual way by publicly pledging your loyalty to Jesus.” I’m going to say that again because it’s so important for you to get this if you’re going to understand I Peter 3 and the point that Peter is making. “Baptism, which corresponds to the flood of Noah, now saves you from demonic forces, not in a physical way by removing dirt from your body, but in a spiritual way by publicly pledging your loyalty to Jesus.”
And then let’s finish the verses there:
Verse 22
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.
All the spiritual beings have been subjected to Jesus. He rose again and won the victory. He has the keys of death, hell and the grave. Every spirit, including the Watchers who were locked away in hell, came to this realization as Jesus died and rose again.
So let’s return to our original question that we started the show with: what exactly happened to you when you went down into the water and got baptized? We’ll answer that as we close down in just a moment. [music]
Housekeeping/Mailbag
Next time on this podcast, I’m going to do an episode that was submitted by a listener named Vern. He sent me an email and would like to know more information about the angel who stirred up the waters in John 5. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, go read John 5, and then make sure you’re subscribed to this show so you can learn more about it next week!
What weird stuff in the Bible do you want to know more about? You can send me an email, too: weirdstuffinthebible@gmail.com
Special THANK YOU to the guys over at the TWO WITNESSES LIVE podcast. They had me on as a guest on their show last week, and we chatted about, well, weird stuff in the Bible. They were very kind to have me on, and if you’d like to see that video interview I did with them, I’ll link to it in today’s show notes.
I’m going to skip the mailbag segment this week because this episode has ran LONG. But I do have some good news: I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by…
No, just kidding.
Closing Thoughts
Closing Thoughts. What happened in the spiritual realm at your baptism? When you got saved, you accepted God’s gift of salvation to enter heaven. That’s the most important thing. But when you get baptized, you send a message to the spiritual realm. You tell the demons and the evil spirits: I am off limits. I now belong to Jesus.
You probably did not realize that when you got baptized. You were probably told that it was a symbolic thing, and that’s all true. But there’s a spiritual effect as well: your baptism told the evil spirits in the invisible realm that you have a new loyalty. Your ties to demons have been severed.
So when the whole world was getting infected with these demonic creatures, Lord washed the world in water with the flood, and locked up those demons who started the problem. God washed the world to show the demons that he can give it a fresh start.
When we get baptized, it does the same thing. It tells the demons that God can wash us and give us a fresh start.
Baptism doesn’t literally wash our sins away, it’s accurate to say it’s symbolic. But it shows who we’re loyal to. Who is it showing? The demons. Just like God washed the world with a flood to teach the spirits back then a lesson about what they corrupted, God washed us with water to teach the spirits today a lesson about what they corrupted.
Just a couple years ago, some missionaries visited the church where I was serving, and they told this story about a woman whose family was really into witchcraft. They talked to demons and tried to put curses on people. But this woman in the story got saved, and the family didn’t like that. They kept trying harder than ever to put curses on her because they really wanted to punish her for accepting Jesus. But then when this saved woman got baptized, they got frustrated and said now every time we try to put a curse on you, it washes off.
Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
I’ll conclude with this quote from Michael Heiser: In effect, baptism in New Testament theology is a loyalty oath, a public avowal of who is on the Lord’s side in the cosmic war between good and evil. But in addition to that, it is also a visceral reminder to the defeated fallen angels. Every baptism is a reiteration o their doom in the wake of the gospel and the Kingdom of God. Early Christians understood the typology of this passage and its link back to the fallen angels of Genesis 6. Early baptismal formulas included a renunciation of Satan and his angels for this very reason. Baptism was- and still is- spiritual warfare.
So when you got baptized, you didn’t just get wet. Your baptism was spiritual warfare.
And if you’re a Christian who hasn’t got baptized, GET BAPTIZED.
By the way, God bless the ministry of Michael Heiser. I know this episode ran a little long today because I had this preamble about him and his effect on me, but I wanted to share that because I did not come up with all these spiritual insights. I am standing on the shoulders of Dr. Michael Heiser and I want to make that clear for anyone listening. If you’d like to hear more on this subject, I recommend his book The Unseen Realm from Lexham Press publishers. I was very privileged to speak with Dr. Heiser for an interview in 2015, and I was so fascinated by him that I had to go out and read all his books, and I truly believe God divinely orchestrated that I would come across his work because God has a way of bringing the right people into your orbit- and God seems to get a kick out of putting weird people together.
And if you’re listening to this podcast, I believe God brought you here for some reason- and you might just be a little weird, too.
Thanks for listening, God bless you for sticking around until the end, and we’ll see you next time on Weird Stuff in the Bible.