The awareness of a judgment day runs deep in the Bible and in our culture. Romans 12 says, “we will all stand before the judgment seat of God”, and “each of us will give an account of himself to God.” There are important details of this day that I have shared in other articles (search “Judgment Day” in the box above). For this article I would like to focus on what can be modified before the final day.
Most of us will not live until Judgment Day. Our physical death will come first. I reject the idea that we jump to Judgment Day at our death. This collides with Revelation 6:9-11 and others. Death, however, is a type of Judgment Day. It is a small version of the actual thing. There is serious judgment that happens at death. We do not stay in this world but we go somewhere. Either Sheol if we do not have a solution https://afterdeathsite.com/2025/07/22/sheol-as-a-waiting-room/for our sinfulness or Heaven if we have been connected to Christ.https://givingchrist.com/2024/02/06/what-makes-a-person-a-christian/.
Is that the final judgment then? It would seem that Judgment Day would be a bit perfunctory if this is so. Yes, there is movement on Judgment Day from Sheol to a resurrected body to formal judgment to lake of fire for the damned. The period of time from death to Judgment Day is just waiting in discomfort and without hope in that case.
Maybe that is it. That model of understanding does combine strangely with this:
8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
2 Peter 3:8-9 (ESV)
It is hard to see how delaying Judgment Day would help “all” to come to repentance. It would help some who are still alive. The long “delay” in Judgment Day would only fill Sheol faster than it fills Heaven since Jesus made it clear that a minority “find” the gate to life (Matthew 7:14). This irony and relegating Judgment Day to a perfunctory role adds weight to the understanding of 1 Peter 4:6.
6 For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.
1 Peter 4:6 (ESV)
This passage is in the larger context of a discussion of suffering for the faith. Within that discussion Peter recalls Jesus’ suffering which culminated with Jesus’ death. He then interjects a brief reference to Jesus’ “descent into Hell”. I use the phrase from how we speak the Apostle’s Creed. I make a distinction between “Hell”, which is what I would call the post-Judgment Day destination of the damned, and “Sheol” which is where I think Jesus went.
We are very conditioned to think of our death as the end of opportunity to be saved. Yet, can you point to a Bible verse that says that? Hebrews 9:27 is all that I have seen in this regard, and I don’t think it works. The context is not about this it all. It is talking about Jesus atoning for sin once with his death. To draw a conclusion that “just as it is appointed for a man to die once, and then comes judgment” means our judgment is sealed at our death adds to the verse and takes it from its context. We die once just like Jesus who died once. That is the meaning.
Does 1 Peter 4:6 in context speak about the gospel being preached to the physically dead rather than the spiritually dead? If 1 Peter 3:18-19 where not in the conversation, I would accept this as a reference to spiritually dead. Is the “preaching” in this passage past tense? That is so from the verb. Is it past like when they were alive or is it past as when Jesus did it to those in 3:18-19?
It is a tough passage. One would wish to have more to work with. If Christ still proclaims the Gospel in Sheol or if he doesn’t, our task doesn’t change. We want people to benefit from the promise, preferably sooner than later. If Jesus did respond to a need with a saving Gospel to those disobedient in the days of Noah and if he still does to other groups, then 2 Peter 3:8-9 makes sense. This is not to say that people don’t manage to be damned. It is pretty clear that they do. But it would explain God’s response to those who never heard the Gospel in life. It would also explain the purpose of an intermediate period between death and Judgment Day.
