Jesus died about three on Good Friday afternoon. As we picture Him dying on the cross, we realize that He still worked to save half of those around Him, even as His spirit was ready to leave His body. When He died, the Apostles’ Creed tells us, He descended into Hell. Dante describes how He wrecked Hell when He went there. Dante wrote of the walls He had torn down, the landslides He caused, and how He turned the symmetry of the circles into a ruin.
Catholic Fundamentalists picture His descent into Hell, preceded by screaming hordes of devils, dervishes, and demons fleeing before Him. He found those souls who were to be saved, and removed them from the pit. In the process, He tore down the vast structures that kept them in pain, chains, and away from God.
He scoured the deepest pits for every single soul whom He would save. There was no power below that could resist Him and He left no stone unturned as He searched for the souls He wanted to save. Every evil spirit in Hell cowered among the ruins He made of their fearsome, subterranean realms; all were utterly and completely afraid that they would be utterly destroyed by His complete, absolute power.
Revelations, 6;12 describes what would (or, did) happen: “In my vision, when He broke the 6th seal, there was a violent earthquake and the sun went as black as coarse sackcloth;” (This, of course, fits perfectly with the earthquake and eclipse in Jerusalem that day.) “the moon turned red as blood all over (during an eclipse, the moon frequently turns red), and the stars of the sky fell on to the earth like figs dropping from a fig tree when a high wind shakes it; the sky disappeared like a scroll rolling up and all the mountains and islands were shaken from their places. (The evil demons who soared through the fetid air in the skies of Hell were thrown down, the ethereal substance that let them be airborne was deleted, and their individual kingdoms in Hell were destroyed.) Then all the earthly rulers (those in, not on, the earth), the governors and the commanders, the rich people and the men of influence, the whole population, slaves and citizens, (every evil spirit, from the devil and his evil aristocracy to the lowliest imps in Hell) took to the mountains (of their vast, underground caverns) to hide in caves and among the rocks. They said to the mountains and the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us away from the One who sits on the throne and from the anger of the Lamb. (the Lamb is destroying their unhallowed ground, leaving them nooks and crannies in which to hide, while God is on His throne) For the Great Day of His anger has come, and who can survive it?”
Few writings in all of history describe what happened when He descended into Hell as well as that passage in Revelations. Conversely, few, if any, other occurrences in history are as perfectly described as Rev, 6;12 tell us what happened the day “He harrowed Hell”, as Dante puts it.
