The Harrowing of Hell — The Doctrine Christianity Lost and Joseph Smith Restored
Between the crucifixion and resurrection, Christ preached to the dead. The early church fathers knew it. Later Christianity buried it. Joseph Smith restored it.
The Biblical Evidence
Three passages in the New Testament describe what happened between the crucifixion and the resurrection — and they are not metaphors.
“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient.”
“For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.”
“Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?”
Peter says Christ went and preached. Paul says he descended. The language is spatial, historical, and literal. Peter and Paul describe an actual ministry to the dead — not a symbol, not a figure of speech.
The Early Church Fathers Knew It
The early fathers read these texts the same way — literally.
Irenaeus — Against Heresies 4.27.2 (~180 AD)
“The Lord descended to the parts under the earth, announcing to them also the good news of His coming, there being remission of sins for those who believe in Him.”
Tertullian — Against Marcion 4.34 (~207 AD)
Tertullian explicitly affirms Christ’s descent to the dead as part of the redemptive work, consistent with the rule of faith.
And then there is the Apostles’ Creed itself — the single most widely recited statement of Christian belief in history:
The Apostles' Creed
“He descended into hell.”
Every major Christian creed contains this statement. The harrowing of hell was not a fringe doctrine. It was universal early Christian belief — held by Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and enshrined in the creed still recited by hundreds of millions of Christians today who have no idea what they are actually confessing.
What Was Lost
By the time of the Protestant Reformation, the creedal phrase “descended into hell” had become a theological problem. Luther and Calvin both struggled with it. The dominant Protestant solution was reinterpretation: “descended into hell” means Christ suffered the pains and torments of hell as part of the atonement — not that he literally went anywhere.
The literal descent was stripped out. The ministry to the dead was abandoned. The doctrine of post-mortal opportunity — the belief that those who never heard the gospel in mortality might still receive it — was effectively left without a framework.
The result: billions of pre-Christian souls, billions of souls who lived and died without ever hearing the name of Jesus Christ, were left in a theological void. Most Protestant theologies have no answer for them. The honest ones admit it.
D&C 138 — The Restoration
On October 3, 1918, Joseph F. Smith, then President of the Church, was meditating on the scriptures when he received a vision now canonized as Doctrine and Covenants 138. What he saw answers the question every serious Christian eventually asks.
He saw the righteous dead assembled — an innumerable company of the faithful who had lived on the earth — waiting. He saw Christ appear to them. And he saw Christ organize a missionary force from among the righteous dead to preach to those in spirit prison — to those who had not received the gospel in mortality.
“But behold, from among the righteous, he organized his forces and appointed messengers, clothed with power and authority, and commissioned them to go forth and carry the light of the gospel to them that were in darkness… And the chosen messengers went forth to declare the acceptable day of the Lord and proclaim liberty to the captives who were bound, even unto all who would repent of their sins and receive the gospel.”
The work Christ began in those three days between the crucifixion and the resurrection continues. Temple ordinances performed today — baptism for the dead, endowments, sealings — are the earthly complement to the missionary work happening in the spirit world right now.
Verdict
The harrowing of hell is not an LDS invention. It is primitive Christianity — attested by Peter, by Paul, by Irenaeus, by Tertullian, and enshrined in the creed that Protestants still recite without understanding.
The Reformation stripped the doctrine of its literal content because it was theologically inconvenient. The Restoration recovered what the Reformation discarded — not because Joseph Smith invented it, but because the New Testament required it, the early fathers affirmed it, and a just God demands it.
Every person who has ever lived will have the opportunity to hear the gospel. The doctrine that makes that possible is not new. It is old. Older than Nicaea. Older than Augustine. It is what the apostles taught.