Question: ... Did Jesus descend into hell or not? I searched and searched the Scriptures and asked ...

Question: The Apostles Creed says that Jesus “descended into hell.” I’ve read your rejection of the Hagin/Copeland teaching that Jesus was tortured in hell by Satan. Did Jesus descend into hell or not? I searched and searched the Scriptures and asked several pastors about this and still have no satisfactory answer.

Response: In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word sheol, meaning the place of the dead, is translated “hell” at times and at other times simply as “grave.” In telling the fate of the rich man and the beggar, Lazarus, Jesus taught that before the Cross there were two compartments in sheol: one for the lost, and one for the saved, called “Abraham’s bosom” (Lk 16:22). To the latter Christ went in death, as did the one thief crucified with Him, to whom He said, “To day shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Lk 23:43). There He proclaimed to the redeemed the good news of His death having paid for their sins. Those in the place of the damned could hear what Jesus said (see Lk 16:23-31); and He may even have addressed a few words specifically to them. Thus Peter writes, “He preached to the spirits [of the dead] in prison [sheol]; which sometime were disobedient…in the days of Noah” (1 Pt 3:19-20). After His resurrection, Jesus took the souls and spirits of the redeemed to heaven (“when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive” – Eph:4:8Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
See All...). Now the souls and spirits of the redeemed, upon death, go immediately to be with Christ (“absent from the body, present with the Lord” – 2 Cor:5:6-8 [6] Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: [7] (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) [8] We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
See All...), from whence He will bring them to rejoin their resurrected bodies at the Rapture (1 Thes:4:13-18 [13] But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. [14] For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. [15] For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. [16] For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: [17] Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. [18] Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
See All...).