{"id":1942,"date":"2013-07-16T08:00:41","date_gmt":"2013-07-16T00:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=1942"},"modified":"2022-04-20T09:25:36","modified_gmt":"2022-04-20T01:25:36","slug":"82-%e2%80%9che-descended-into-hell%e2%80%9d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=1942","title":{"rendered":"84. \u201cHe Descended into Hell\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><span style=\"color: #008080;\">And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.\u00a0Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name,\u00a0that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,\u00a0and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Fathe<\/span><span style=\"color: #008080;\">r<\/span>.<\/strong> [<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Philippians 2:8-11<\/span>]<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008080;\"><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Christ-DEscended-into-Limbo-by-Andrea-Mantegna-1468.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1943\" title=\"Christ DEscended into Limbo, by Andrea Mantegna, 1468\" src=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Christ-DEscended-into-Limbo-by-Andrea-Mantegna-1468-300x264.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"260\" height=\"229\" \/>\u00a0<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Descent-to-Hell.duccio_di_buoninsegna.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"\" title=\"Descent to Hell.duccio_di_buoninsegna\" src=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Descent-to-Hell.duccio_di_buoninsegna-300x274.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"252\" height=\"230\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Christ-DEscended-into-Limbo-by-Andrea-Mantegna-1468.jpg\">\u00a0<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Harrowing-of-Hades-fresco-in-the-parecclesion-of-the-Chora-Church-Istanbul-c.1315.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1949\" title=\"Harrowing of Hades, fresco in the parecclesion of the Chora Church, Istanbul, c.1315\" src=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Harrowing-of-Hades-fresco-in-the-parecclesion-of-the-Chora-Church-Istanbul-c.1315.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"347\" height=\"231\" \/><\/a> <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">[L]<em> Christ Descended into Limbo<\/em>, by Andrea Mantegna, 1648. [M]\u00a0Duccio Di Buoninsegna&#8217;s <em>Descent to Hell<\/em>, 1308-11. [R]\u00a0<em>Harrowing of Hades<\/em>, fresco in the <em>parecclesion<\/em> of the Chora Church, Istanbul, c.1315.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Again, again and again, a seemingly endless string of friends and strangers have raised an emphatic question with us <em>and<\/em> made an adamant statement to us.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The emphatic but rhetorical question is:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cWhy does the new translation of the Apostles\u2019 Creed have to say Jesus descended to <em>hell<\/em>?\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">It is rhetorical because the enquirers needed no explanation, for the adamant and quite contemptuous statement that always followed the question is:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cI will <em>never<\/em> \u2013 repeat <em>never<\/em>! \u2013 say it during Mass.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">What is that all about?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Catholics have been used to professing in the Apostles\u2019 Creed that Jesus, after his suffering and death, \u201cdescended to the <em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">dead<\/span><\/em>\u201d and, as they emphatically say to us each time, \u201crepeat <em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">not<\/span><\/em> to <em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">hell<\/span><\/em>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Asked why they are so emphatic about it, their response is adamant: \u201cJesus, without sin, could not descend to hell. Hell is for sinners who have no chance whatsoever of ever coming out.\u201d On and on, they would continue, in basically the same non-negotiable vein.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">What is the problem here, do you think?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">We suggest that the first problem does not really lie with those enquirers, but with an inconspicuous shift over time in people\u2019s comprehension of the term \u201chell\u201d \u2013 a shift which these enquirers are not really aware.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>1. Understanding \u201cthe abode of the dead\u201d and \u201chell\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In paragraph 633 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC], we have an accurate and precise entry:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Scripture calls the abode of the dead, to which the dead Christ went down, &#8220;hell&#8221; &#8211; <em>Sheol <\/em>in Hebrew or <em>Hades <\/em>in Greek &#8211; because those who are there are deprived of the vision of God.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The inconspicuous semantic \u201cshift\u201d we referred to has to do with the past equation of \u201cthe abode of the dead\u201d with \u201chell\u201d, that has gradually been diluted and then separated. Today, the two are no longer understood by many \u2013 our enquirers included \u2013 as representing the same \u201clocale\u201d. Indeed, for these people, the two terms are clearly distinguished and represent two starkly different and sharply contrasting locations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In studying this question, it is best we turn to the Bible to see what it teaches about the realm of the dead. In the Hebrew Scriptures, the word used to describe the realm of the dead is <em>sheol<\/em>. It simply means the \u201cplace of departed souls.\u201d The New Testament Greek word for the place of the dead is \u201c<em>hades<\/em>.\u201d The English translation for both <em>sheol<\/em> and <em>hades<\/em> is hell. And so, in Scriptures, hell simply meant the abode of the dead without distinction. The New Testament further indicates that <em>hades<\/em> is a temporary place, where souls are kept as they await the final resurrection and judgment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The next part is crucial. This realm of the dead \u2013 that is to say, <em>sheol <\/em>in Hebrew or <em>hades<\/em> in Greek or <em>hell in English<\/em> &#8211; is a realm with two divisions, the abodes of [a] the saved and [b] the lost. (Some references for the term <em>hades<\/em> may be found in <a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/biblia.com\/bible\/esv\/Matthew%2011.23\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Matthew 11:23<\/a>, <a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/biblia.com\/bible\/esv\/Matthew%2016.18\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">16:18<\/a>; <a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/biblia.com\/bible\/esv\/Luke%2010.15\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Luke 10:15<\/a>, <a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/biblia.com\/bible\/esv\/Luke%2016.23\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">16:23<\/a>; <a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/biblia.com\/bible\/esv\/Acts%202.27-31\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Acts 2:27-31<\/a>.)<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">From the parable of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16, we learn that the abodes of the saved and the lost are separated by a \u201cgreat chasm\u201d (<a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/biblia.com\/bible\/esv\/Luke%2016.26\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Luke 16:26<\/a>).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The abode of the saved was called \u201cparadise\u201d and \u201cAbraham&#8217;s bosom.\u201d When Jesus ascended to heaven, he took the occupants of paradise (believers) with Him (<a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/biblia.com\/bible\/esv\/Ephesians%204.8-10\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ephesians 4:8-10<\/a>).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The abode of the lost is called \u201cGehanna\u201d and there are lots of references for this in the New Testament. You will need to refer to the Greek New Testament to pick out this word, for most of the English Bibles just simply translate it as \u201chell\u201d as they do for \u201c<em>hades<\/em>\u201d, which is not very helpful for a closer analysis. If you are interested, you can check out Matthew 5:22; 5:29; 5:30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15; 23:33; Mark 9:43; 9:47; Luke 12:5; and James 3:6. Just for the fun of it, recall Matthew 10:28 \u2013 \u201cAnd do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.\u201d This translation in the Revised Standard Edition adds a footnote on the translation \u201chell\u201d that says \u201cGreek <em>Gehenna<\/em>\u201d. Or, recall Mark 9:47 \u2013 \u201cAnd if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell,\u201d where the word \u201chell\u201d is translated from the Greek word <em>Gehenna<\/em>. Or this citation from James 3:6 which is a perennial warning to us all \u2013 \u201cAnd the tongue is a fire. The tongue is an unrighteous world among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the cycle of nature,\u00a0and set on fire by hell\u201d where, again \u201chell\u201d is used for \u201c<em>Gehenna<\/em>\u201d.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Did Jesus go to the paradise division of sheol\/hades? Yes, according to <a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/biblia.com\/bible\/esv\/Ephesians%204.8-10\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ephesians 4:8-10<\/a> and <a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/biblia.com\/bible\/esv\/1%20Peter%203.18-20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">1 Peter 3:18-20<\/a>. Even more dramatically, recall Jesus saying to the \u201cgood\u201d criminal hanging on the cross beside him, \u201cAnd he said to him, \u2018Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise\u2019\u201d[Luke 23:43]. But did Jesus go to Gehenna? No, he did not.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">And so, in Catholic understanding, hell, as the abode of the dead, is a realm that has different areas for different categories of souls.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">We might itemize this Catholic understanding in ten points.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">First, the souls of all the dead, whether righteous or evil, leave their bodies upon death and go to the abode of the dead, which is hell, while they await the Redeemer. The abode of the dead is \u201chell\u201d because it is a place deprived of the vision of God.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Second, however, because of the lives people lived while on earth and the things they did or failed to do while they were alive, not all souls are identical in virtues and righteousness.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Third, CCC#632 explains that the many scriptural testimonies of Jesus being &#8220;raised from the dead&#8221; presuppose that the crucified one sojourned in the realm of the dead prior to his resurrection [see\u00a0<em>Acts<\/em> 3:15;\u00a0<em>Rom<\/em> 8:11;\u00a0<em>1 Cor<\/em>15:20; cf.\u00a0<em>Heb<\/em> 13:20.] We are to grasp this as the first meaning given in the apostolic preaching to Christ&#8217;s descent into hell: that Jesus, in solidarity with all of humanity on account of his incarnation, experienced death and in his soul joined the others in the realm of the dead, which is hell.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Fourth, by the expression \u201cHe descended into hell\u201d, the Apostles\u2019 Creed confesses that \u201cJesus did really die and through his death for us conquered death and the devil \u2018who was the power of death\u2019\u201d [Hebrew 2:14] (CCC#636].<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Fifth, however, it is important to also know that it is in \u201chis human soul united to his divine person\u201d that Jesus went to the realm of the dead (CCC#637).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Sixth, so Christians understand that Jesus descended into hell, the abode of the dead, not as another human soul, but as Savior, proclaiming the Good News to the souls imprisoned there.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Seven, since not all the souls imprisoned in the abode of the dead are the same, they are kept separately in different divisions of hell. In Luke 16:22-26, Jesus tells the parable of the poor man Lazarus who was received into &#8220;Abraham&#8217;s bosom&#8221;, whereas the rich man in that parable was deprived of that reception. In <em>hades<\/em> [hell, abode of the dead], he was in an area \u201cfar off\u201d from where Lazarus was, the two being separated by \u201ca great chasm\u201d. While the rich man suffered torment and was in anguish, the poor man received comfort at the bosom of Abraham.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Eighth, while, therefore, both the rich and poor man\u2019s souls were in hell, the abode of the dead, the rich man was in a section known as \u201c<em>Gehenna<\/em>\u201d, a place where damned souls go after death.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Ninth, the other souls, known as holy souls await their Savior in Abraham&#8217;s bosom. They, like the poor man and the good thief nailed to the cross next to Jesus, were in a section known as paradise.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Tenth, Christ went down to hell to open heaven\u2019s gates for those just souls in paradise who had gone before him (CCC#637).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>2. Catholic understanding of where and why Jesus went on Holy Saturday<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">What happened on Holy Saturday? Where did Jesus go?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">CCC 631, quoting Ephesians 4:9-10, says:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Jesus &#8220;descended into the lower parts of the earth. He who descended is he who also ascended far above all the heavens.&#8221; The Apostles&#8217; Creed confesses in the same article Christ&#8217;s descent into hell and his Resurrection from the dead on the third day, because in his Passover it was precisely out of the depths of death that he made life spring forth.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">On Holy Saturday, therefore, Jesus descended into hell, the abode of the dead. He delivered the souls of those who awaited him in Abraham\u2019s bosom and opened heaven\u2019s gate to those just souls [CCC#635]. Citing ancient councils and medieval theologians, the Catechism states further:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Jesus did not descend into hell to deliver the damned, nor to destroy the hell of damnation, but to free the just who had gone before him.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Citing the First Petrine epistle, CCC#<a style=\"color: #000000;\">634<\/a> states categorically that &#8220;The gospel was preached even to the dead&#8221; [1 Peter 4:6]. Thus, the Catechism teaches:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The descent into hell brings the Gospel message of salvation to complete fulfilment. This is the last phase of Jesus&#8217; messianic mission, a phase which is condensed in time but vast in its real significance: the spread of Christ&#8217;s redemptive work to all men of all times and all places, for all who are saved have been made sharers in the redemption.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In the next paragraph, CCC#635, the Catechism follows through with this idea, and explains that \u00a0\u201cChrist went down into the depths of death so that \u2018the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live\u2019&#8221; [see John 5:25; cf. Matthew 12:40; Romans 10:7; Ephesians 4:9]. Further explanation details the fruits of Jesus\u2019 sojourn to the abode of the dead:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">&#8220;the Author of life&#8221;, by dying destroyed &#8220;him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and [delivered] all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage&#8221; [see Hebrews 2:14-15; cf. Acts 3:15].<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Henceforth the risen Christ holds &#8220;the keys of Death and Hades&#8221;, so that &#8220;at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth\u201d [see Revelation 1:18; Philemon 2:10].<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong style=\"font-size: 15px;\">3. Harrowing of Hades in the Eastern Tradition<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In <em>Harrowing of Hades<\/em>, raising Adam and Eve is always depicted in the East as part of the Resurrection icon, and is a great deal more common and prominent in Orthodox iconography compared to the Western tradition. It is the traditional icon for Holy Saturday and is used during the Paschal season and on Sundays throughout the year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">This traditional Eastern Orthodox icon does not depict simply the physical act of Jesus&#8217; coming out of the tomb, but rather it depicts what Orthodox Christians believe to be the spiritual reality of what his death and resurrection accomplished.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The white and gold vestment of Jesus symbolizes his divine majesty. His posture on the brazen gates of Hades (also called the &#8220;Doors of Death&#8221;) symbolise the breaking of the door on account of his cross. The message is, by his death on the cross, Jesus trampled down death. His left and right hands each grabs hold of Adam and Eve, pulling them up out of Hades. Traditionally, he is not shown holding them by the hands, but by their wrists, to illustrate the theological teaching that mankind could not pull itself out of its ancestral sin; rather, salvation depended entirely on the work of God. Surrounding Jesus, we see various righteous figures from the Old Testament, and they include Abraham, David and so on. At the bottom of the icon, we can see Hades depicted as a chasm of darkness. Often in these icons, one or two figures are shown in the darkness, bound in chains, who are generally identified as personifications of the Devil or Death.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>4. A follow-up question<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Once people have listened attentively to your explanation that \u201chell\u201d is the same as \u201cthe abode of the dead\u201d, that Jesus descended to the \u201cparadise\u201d side of \u201chell\u201d, and that he opened the gates of heaven to those just souls kept temporarily in paradise, you are likely to get an immediate follow-up question. That question is along the line of: \u201cIf saved souls are already lifted to heaven, and lost souls are kept in Gehenna, why do we still need the Last Judgment?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">For our answer, we need to imagine a three-part play:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">1. Upon death, the soul separates from the body and goes to the abode of the dead.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">2. There is \u201clife after death\u201d: good soul goes to paradise to await lifting to heaven by Christ; bad soul goes to Gehenna.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">3. There is \u201clife after life-after-death\u201d [- a famous expression by Bible scholar N.T. Wright]: this is the time of the Last Judgment, the time of the resurrection of the body, when body is reunited with the soul. We find St Paul\u2019s famous arguments for the truth of the resurrection of the body in 1 Corinthians 15.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>5. What does it all mean for us?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">We return to where we started. Would you now say \u201cHe descended to hell\u201d during Mass or in private prayers? From where we stand, so long as we know what it is that we are praying, and that we are praying <em>with the Church<\/em> in meaning and substance, the question of semantics does not seem all that important any more.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">More important, perhaps, is when we face the question \u201cWhat happens to me when I die?\u201d There, Scripture as the authoritative Word from God draws us to the caveat that we shall not take our eyes off Jesus of Nazareth. In order to know what will happen to us after death, we must look carefully at what Scripture reveals about the paschal mystery of Jesus. This basic connection between the fate of Jesus and the fate of the Christian is of critical importance. Not only does it act as a timely corrective to those currents of contemporary thought that are overly <em>apophatic<\/em> (that is, \u201cwe do not know\u201d) about personal eschatology, it positively asserts that we are by no means left in complete darkness. Furthermore, there is absolutely no need for us to depend primarily on those anecdotal evidence of so-called \u201cnear-death experiences\u201d or to some private mystical experiences for answers to questions about what lies beyond the grave.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The message from the Bible is: keep the faith, fight the long fight, stay virtuous and upright, stay the course no matter what. In his death, Jesus went down to the abode of the dead to lift up just souls to heaven. In raising Jesus from the dead, God affirmed Jesus and all that he stood for. Christians contemplating \u201cthe end\u201d must stay focused on Jesus Christ and his earthly sojourn. An authentic Christian eschatology cannot but be a Christological eschatology. So a robust Christian vision of \u201cthe end\u201d looks first and foremost to Jesus Christ whose Passover \u201cfrom death to life\u201d (John 5:24) reveals the truth about the fate of the Church as a whole and the individual Christian in particular. Like Jesus, therefore, we can expect the descent of our living-but-disembodied soul to the realm of the dead, and our final resurrection to bodily but unending life, and this bodily ascension into the heavenly realm where we shall be face to face with the glory of the Trinity. God is faithful. He did it for Jesus. He will do it for us, provided we live the faith.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Copyright \u00a9 Dr. Jeffrey &amp; Angie Goh. July 2013. All rights reserved.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">You are most welcome to respond to this post. Email your comments to us at <span style=\"font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;\">jeffangiegoh@gmail.com.<\/span> You can also be dialogue partners in this <em>Ephphatha Coffee-Corner Ministry<\/em> by sending us questions for discussion.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.\u00a0Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name,\u00a0that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,\u00a0and every tongue <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=1942\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Dr. Jeffrey &amp; Angie Goh","author_link":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?author=1"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?cat=1\" rel=\"category\">From Our Perspective<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.\u00a0Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name,\u00a0that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,\u00a0and every tongue&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1942"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1942"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7092,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1942\/revisions\/7092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}