PGA Championship Tulsa

 

Golf for Non Golfers

This week has been busy with house repairs and painting. Usually I do some writing during the week and not much else. Summer is just about here though and that means mowing and taking care of the yard. I’ve talked about how much I enjoy yardwork, housework not so much. But my smoke room needed to smell less smoky. All those years of cigar smoke and neglect created a small headache for me. No problem, I’d do it again. But cleanup means Kilz paint and a lot of scrubbing. That’s been my week.

I had a reprieve Saturday in the form of golf. No I don’t play. But the PGA Championship was in town and Michael (left in the picture) scored some club tickets. Apparently this is the 5^th time Tulsa has hosted this event. I didn’t live here the last time (2007) but others who did told me it was quite a spectacle. I’d never been to any professional golf tournament and I’d never seen the grounds of Southern Hill Country Club. I’ve played a few public courses in my life but nothing on the scale of a championship course.

They prepare for these events years in advance. Tulsa just hosted a Senior PGA event last year so they were more prepared than most to turn around suddenly and host another one. The “suddenly” was the January 6^th event at the White House where agent provocateurs stormed Congress and blamed Trump for it. Trump was toxic after that and the PGA decided to pull out of his course in New Jersey and look elsewhere. They found Tulsa. Good for us, victory for the hometown. This event is expected to bring in somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 million dollars. So yeah, this was a huge win.

The city set up shuttle areas and rented 50 busses or so to ferry people from two separate lots. We showed up at 9:30 and took a short ride to the course. The first thing that surprised me was how quiet such a large group of people could be. We walked up to the 9^th hole and watched a duo (can’t remember who) finish their puts. Thousands of spectators in jackets looked on silently and clapped when the ball rolled into the cup.  Jackets, because the temperature never got above 57 all day; the day before a steamy 90. With an occasional breeze it was cold at times, unseasonably so for Oklahoma in May.

Our tickets entitled us to eat and drink for free. Businesses can pay for makeshift suites set up at strategic areas of the course. I image these only go up during big events. Our deck faced the 16^th hole. If we wanted we could’ve sat there all day and watched from the windows as the players hit their second shot. But the real action is right up along the green. That’s where a lot of spectators set up shop early in the day. It became difficult to get near the any of the green after noon. Too many people had set up their chairs. It was clear they weren’t moving.

There seems to be 3 different ways people watch the event. The first way is what I already described. Pick a hole, bring a camp chair and stay put. You can see every grouping come by and save your legs from what is a grueling walk from hole to hole. That’s actually the second way to watch. Find a golfer you like, or one who’s in the lead, and follow them around the course. This is tough. You won’t get a great look at them because of the alternate routes that exist for each hole. You need to avoid dead ends and blockages. It’s impossible to stand near the greens in the afternoon because of the camp chairs parked around the edges. Some fans prefer it because they can watch their favorite golfer. That brings up the third option, a mixture of both. We parked near hole 4 for a bit, then trapesed over to 2 and 3. We walked a lot but not as much as someone following a player.

We followed Tiger early in the day. He teed off early but still managed a huge crowd. He sunk a nice 30 foot put on 15. The crowd erupted. I like that about golf, no booing and very little heckling. There is the obligatory overserved fan shouting the golfer's first name hoping they look over. "Rory! Rory!" they never look. Other sports have good guys and bad, home teams and away. We boo the refs when they make calls against our guys. Not golf. Fans root for the ball to go in the hole. That’s basically it. Golfers are so lucky.

The grandstands were set up in front of the clubhouse. It’s an ideal place to watch because you can see 3 different holes from that point, 18, 9 and 5. Neither of us wanted to sit for hours at a time so we mixed it up. I enjoyed the whole experience. Tulsa was ready to go too. It was highly organized and professional.

Our next big event is 2029. I believe it’s the US Open. Here’s to hoping we can get the same club tickets again.

Fearing the Lord: Society's Missing Piece

 

Fear the Lord

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: A good understanding have all those who do His commandments. His praise endures forever.” (Psalm 110:10)

Child Like Fear 

We read the verse differently as children than we do as adults. Fear to children is something to avoid at all costs. Not all kids have the same measure of fear either. My brother was more of a risk taker, likelier than me to get in trouble for recklessness. When we were young my parents would put us down for a nap. He would wait until they turned out the light and creep (carefully) over to his table and get out coloring books. Of course he wasn’t careful at all, he’d crash into the wall or trip on his way back to bed.

My fear of parental correction was greater than his. 

I laid in my bed just watching him and shaking my head in amazement. I’m sure I uttered something snotty like “Just wait till Dad sees you!” I don’t remember any of this of course. I’ve since heard these stories about his clumsy attempts to sneak out of bed and my 'saintly' refusal to follow along. My parents used to crack the door slightly and peer in to watch the show. We never knew they laughed themselves silly. Risky behavior or not, fear can be crippling and not how we would want to think of God. Nor would we want kids to think of the Heavenly Father as an old West judge dispensing punishment.

Correctly Understood Fear

Old Testament fear of the Lord is closer to awesome power than scary spirit. The ocean is an awesome force that we neglect at our own peril, but it’s not scary the way a horror movie is. But we’ve seen the devastating impact of tidal waves or tsunamis on communities close to the sea. Anyone spending time on the ocean should fear its power and respect the boundaries nature sets. But the ocean is critical to the life of the planet. Not to mention, it’s rich in natural resources. It’s a vast ecosystem we don’t even fully understand yet.  

Why is fear of the Lord the beginning of wisdom? The simplest explanation is this: society doesn’t fear the Lord because they don’t believe in Him. Obviously there are people around the world who fear the Lord. But in most countries the leadership believes in humanity. This has probably been the case for longer than I realize. I used to think of the New World Order as a conspiracy for nervous libertarians. I can see how blatant the NOW has become since Covid 19. Nearly every Western democratic leader has talked about the great reset like they’ve already decided what it means. They’re all reading from the same script.

Loosing Fear

The European Union has tried to dissolve sovereignty within the zone and toss decision making to Brussels. The World Health Organization is pushing for total control over pandemic preparedness in the United States. Their new bill would give the Director General carte blanch decision making within this country. Through lockdowns and surveillance they would run our lives. Our own country has debased the currency and flooded the borders with illegal aliens. There is no way any immigration system can keep up with this many people in the country. I can keep listing examples of lawless behavior from the top, not to mention the street violence (BLM, Antifa) being funded by wealthy communists.

Globalists don’t have the fear of the Lord because they act like their actions won’t have consequences in the next life. Likely their actions will have consequences in this life as well. I don’t know how long of a dark period we are facing but I know that God is just and His wrath is something to truly fear. Evil doers still have time to turn from their wickedness or face eternal damnation. Humanism is pride in the individual, his achievements, his progress and his indomitable will. It’s the philosophy that holds the evolving mind can overcome earthly constraints. Any world view that doesn’t recognize God as Creator begins as a lie and ends in destruction.

No Fear

Humanism works as a legitimate theory because man is an achieving creature, continually solving problems and making everyday life better. Science and technology have grown incredible in my short life. Today’s iPhone has a million times more memory than the computer that sent the Apollo 11 crew to the moon. I would never discount the power of the human brain, nor the determination to solve problems and conquer new worlds. We are made in God’s image and without that critical understanding we don’t have appropriate fear.

We don’t treat great works of art like they just materialized. Imagine standing in line to see the Mona Lisa and never acknowledging Leonardo Da Vinci as the creator. What if the Louvre removed all references to the artist and treated the painting like a beautiful accident with no author? That’s exactly what we do when we celebrate human achievement and pretend the individual is an entity unto themselves.

The lack of recognition is a slight against God. It’s offensive but we’re actually kind of used to this. But after years of ignoring the Creator, it begins to bleed into everything. It’s in inherent in the textbooks, awards, and laws that govern society. Slowly it takes over and sets up a primary position as the dominant way of thinking. Before you realize what’s happened, humanism is the default philosophy of the land. Judeo Christian attitudes are still around, like a Star Trek convention years after it was popular. Secular humanism, like an invasive weed, has choked out all opposition.

Recovering Fear

Now it’s becoming ever more prideful, any fear that existed in the Almighty is totally gone. Now notions of human achievement and progress means sex changes for pre-teens and gay literature for young kids. Why not though? Moral laws require boundaries and fear of crossing them. Humanism doesn’t recognize boundaries and actively works against the created order.

Christians raised in a moral country (mostly) aren’t familiar with resisting the culture. I’m convinced they’re waking up all over. I’m convinced they will see the rot at the heart of humanism and start dismantling corrupt institutions. Whether global organizations like the WHO or local ones like the school boards, all need a good cleansing. Most need to go away forever. There are hopelessly corrupt and/or antagonistic toward Christian beliefs. This war is upon us and has been for a long time. It won’t be easy to recover the lost ground but God is for us.

 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and we hurt ourselves when we don’t remember it. That’s the story of humanity. God’s unfailing love keeps bringing us back. But punishment is inevitable without repentance.

 

Jogging Loosens Mental Tightness

 

The Mental Ease of Consistent Running

Nothing brightens my mood like a long hard run. There is a strong connection between physical fitness and mental fitness. I can't imagine a better, healthier option for depression and anxiety.

Today was a perfect. I’ve decided I’m a morning person. Not that I hop out of bed and charge to coffee maker while singing showtunes, but I do function better early. Some people are born with a preference for mornings and some for late nights but the rest of us adapt. How many late nights did I have while working at Target? Or early mornings while in the Army? The point is I’m adaptable to either schedule, but when left to choose I pick early mornings.

My Preference

For the last 5 years or so I’ve chosen to run early because the sun is low in the sky. That’s my summer excuse at least. In winter the sun doesn’t show up for the first half of my run. That creates difficulty because I don’t like running in the dark. On occasion I’ll run through the city but it leaves me a little uncomfortable. Even with the street lights overhead I’ve tripped and tumbled on the concrete. I took a nasty scrape on my hand last year but nothing serious. The colder weather ensures that homeless people aren’t outside as much. When they are though they’re bundled up in blankets and not likely to bother me.

Loose dogs are a scarier than vagrants anyway. I cut through a neighborhood I don’t usually run in and noticed a dog trotting toward me. He didn’t seem aggressive but I stopped anyway and talked sweetly to him just in case. Thankfully he was friendly. I tried to walk away after petting him for a minute and I couldn’t shake him. He walked right behind me like my new best friend. This went on for a couple of minutes. Luckily a car pulled into the parking lot of an apartment complex and he lost interest in me and pursued the car instead. I’ll run past a group of sketchy homeless folks before I’d go down a random neighborhood again.

Another time I passed house with a stout Pitbull sitting on the porch of an old Victorian in need of a serious makeover. He stared me down intently but didn’t move. Again I stopped and walked slowly past the old house, just a guy minding his own business. I can’t outrun a dog and I won’t try, well maybe a dachshund.

But whatever the risks of jogging in the city, nothing tops the whole body release of an early run.

My Release

Running breaks up tension in the mind. If you’ve ever had to loosen a rusty nut on an old faucet you’ll understand what I mean. Once you spray on WD40 and torque the wrench it breaks free with a little muscle. Jogging does that by unwinding some mental tightness through sweat and endurance. I can’t decide if it’s the breathing or the leg muscles flexing and contracting. Maybe it’s just the body’s reaction to knowing that the effort is benefiting my health over the long term. It’s closer to a placebo effect but it still works.

Tulsa is about to get hotter than a stock car engine after 200 laps. It’s partly why I opt for jogging early. But at a certain point even early won’t be enough to avoid the heat. Longer runs have to give way to shorter until my endurance is up to summer level again. My tentative goal is to run the Route 66 Marathon this year. I’ve never attempted it but if I train correctly I like my chances. It’s a late fall run (November I think) so I have plenty of time. Last year I entered the Tulsa Run which is a 15K. It got my passion back up for racing. Without a race to work towards my jogging goals fade into oblivion.

My Plan

It’s not like I don’t run but I tend to settle for easier distances and a slower pace. For this past Cowtown half marathon (February) I put a lot of other work out priorities on hold. Everything I did became about sticking to the plan and hitting my pace goal. I didn’t finish with the time I wanted but I managed to shave off nearly 13 minutes from my first race 2 years before.

The best way to do that is to join a regular group again. I think I’m ready. I do love the teamwork idea of Saturdays spent with a consistent group. I only stopped because my injuries at the time made it impossible to keep going. But I’m a stronger runner today than I was then, thanks to early mornings in all kinds of weather.

 

 

 

DeSantis and the New Model for Education

 

A Model For Education: Start With Parents

Ron DeSantis is setting up a model for other Republican governors on how to protect kids and win over parents. In the process he is making it expensive for woke corporations to meddle in local affairs.

Fight the Woke Companies

Most people remember the national dust up over Florida’s bill to protect school children before 3^rd grade. In short, teachers can’t talk about sexual issues. Then Disney complained and the governor took away their sweet tax deal. He didn’t do it unilaterally of course. He got both houses to pass a bill to remove their self governing status. The governor (through parent groups) wanted references to sex and gender removed from their teaching instructions to young children. Disney and their allies protested. Ostensible because what, 1^st and 2^nd graders need to hear about sexual orientation? 

The whole thing was an own goal for the media company and I’m glad they paid an economic price.

Support the Parents

The long term problem for Disney isn’t the loss of tax advantages; it’s the idea in the minds of parents that the company that exists for kids, wants to push sexual issues down to the youngest possible levels. Does the stink from this go away anytime or do they keep rushing headlong into bankruptcy? When you lose the trust of the next generation you lose them for a long time. Governor DeSantis made this possible because he has guts and seems to understand where the country is on these issues. 

From CRT (Critical Race Theory) and masking to sexual identity for tots, parents are finally fighting back. The school board meetings across the country, Loudoun County, Virginia in particular showed parents railing against oppressive boards.

Will public schools be reformed through all of this or will parents opt for home schooling and alternatives? I’m curious what happens nationally. My optimistic take is that cities start electing common sense boards that aren’t antagonistic toward children. Curriculums move away from “woke” topics like race, gender and sexual orientation and get back to real school subjects like math and science. This will happen in some places while other districts go the other way and embrace left wing activism in all its forms. 

School districts will mirror the increasing urban/rural divide happening across the country.

Look for Alternatives

But some new ways of teaching and learning will replace the familiar classroom experience that most of probably grew up in. One option I really like is hiring one teacher for a small group of kids. Parents pool their money for a private teacher to homeschool small groups of kids. This took off during the pandemic as an alternative to teach through zoom that no one seemed to like. Private teachers for small groups is a cross between homeschool and small school. Called ‘pandemic pods’ they resembled one room school houses of last century. Obviously this isn’t an option for everyone. It’s expensive and not available everywhere.

I believe the idea of vouchers will take off as well. This is a great option for low income kids. Punish bad schools and reward good ones. Each parent gets a voucher and a choice of where to send their kids. I like the idea but I wouldn’t promise an end to all problems. But allowing parents (consumers) to treat schools like a marketplace should go a long ways toward killing off failing schools. Maybe it’s a pipe dream, but the current system is broken and needs serious reform.

Ignore the Critics

Critics of charter schools and vouchers like to say that it creates a system of haves and have-nots in education. But that’s exactly what we have now and keeping bad schools open is a guarantee that poor kids will go to poor schools and have less chance at success. I don’t have kids so a lot of this is purely academic, pun intended, to me. But I care about the future of the country the same as parents with a more direct stake. I heard a startling statistic about jail beds in Oklahoma prisons. The number of beds the state will need mirrors the number of drop outs in a given year.

Education is important but only if it insists on making kids learn practical subjects. The diversity and inclusion game is a racket and it’s ruining the minds of the next generation. We need a massive educational system that rewards learning and growth. Woke schools should die on the vine. They rob young kids of the ability to think for themselves and fill their heads up with resentment.

Conclusion

It’s impossible to predict the future of elementary and secondary education. The place to start is with the parents. When they get serious about what their kids are being taught states and districts begin to fall in line. Ron DeSantis is as responsive a governor as I’ve seen, from the Right, in a long time. He doesn’t patronize conservative parents over their concern for curriculum and he punishes institutions that step out of line. 

 Governors in red states should take note. Get serious about protecting kids, the parents will back you up.

 

Writing for Posterity

 

This is the first day back from my short vacation where I can sit here and actually write something. Last night I recapped the trip to Estes Park but I always do that after a trip. I always feel the need to document these get-togethers. I’m specifically talking about writing, not taking pictures.

Of course I did manage to get a few. The rest I lazily stole from more efficient picture takers, my brother Justin. He took this one on the second day up the snow covered trail. There is a beautiful lake behind me completely covered in a late April blizzard. It seemed silly to take a picture here. There really isn't anything to see. Other tourists were there snapping away as well. I kept thinking, what am I missing here? But I didn't want to be left out. So here is a picture of me in snowstorm looking a little confused.

Pictures aren't my thing. They get in the way of enjoying the occasion.

The search for the perfect picture becomes the point instead of the search for adventure. You spend your time finding the perfect setting and the right light. My picture taking is somewhere between zero and Japanese tourist. No doubt I’ll update Facebook and share some pics on my page, but snapping pictures is pretty much a mystery to me. Not that I can’t figure it out, it’s easier than ever now. Modern camera phones adjust the light and auto zoom for you. My issue is with taking great pictures. It feels like the space for that is already so crowded. So many people doing wedding pictures and taking time to really learn Photoshop. I just don’t care that much.

But writing is different. It comes easier to me sure, but what I enjoy is knowing that I’ve given a little story line to the photos.  Pictures and movies are certainly the popular way to record for posterity. But writing creates a fuller idea in the reader’s mind of the time in question. Ask yourself what comes to mind when scrolling through a social media feed where pictures are prominent? What do most of the people in the pictures share in common? Happiness, peace, good times and fun? We tend to share the best of ourselves online through happy photos. Facebook and Instagram are all smiles and a sense of the good life.

Oh sure you can find the dark and scary and sad too, but we like fun more. Advertisers use fun to sell everything from alcohol to precious medals. Their images are as reflective of real live as those cat filter settings we use to distort our faces. But it’s also not a great idea to vomit sadness and regret all over the screen. Pictures are limiting the same way video is. We are consciously aware of our behavior when in front of a camera, video or picture. Writing allows some distance where a fuller idea of the time period can grow and expand. Words give the reader a sense of time, place, culture, relationship and importance. I realize the writer has to draw this out through either fictional characters or a detailed retelling of a situation.

In the case of short family vacation a little journaling is enough. We aren’t preparing a witness for cross examination or anything.

A good photo can do more than express the subject’s emotion. 

When I was a teacher I used to show stark photos of tenement life in New York City before some housing and building codes became law. Labor laws helped to change a lot of this too as did Christian charities like the Salvation Army. The picture above of the street kids sleeping in the street gives us an idea that this kind of thing was common. We can imagine they hustle to get by and struggle to eat. We might even be able to guess something about where they live and work based on their clothing. They probably don't have family or shelter. It's tough to look at and not feel heartsick.

 Newspapers advocating for labor laws would certainly capture the squalor of inner city life for kids with no families. Pictures are used to distort reality too.

How many police arrests make cops look like aggressors? We tell them to keep the streets safe and blast pictures of them roughing up a suspect that tried to flee the scene, risking everyone’s life in return. It’s maddening. I hope we can all get a sense of how easy it is to give a distorted picture of what’s taking place.

Words allow the subject to reflect on the event. With the benefit of time, even a few hours, your attitude can change significantly. This happens to me a seemingly every day. White hot anger turns to shame and apologies after a few minutes and a fuller picture of the event. Just the other day I got a phone call about an issue with one of my orders. I thought it could wait until I was back in the office. I was stuck, unable to help and feeling worthless. The whole incident felt unfair. I was angry. I started running through scenarios where I angrily defended myself to coworkers. I even managed to mentally prepare for an altercation. Time passed and I began to breathe again. After a while I started to see it from the other side and even became sympathetic.

My whole attitude changed completely by the end of the day.

This is writing about history in a nutshell, or at least it should be. Even short term history like what happened at work today. Journaling (or reflecting) is a way of reasoning out a story and writing as honestly as possible.

Tell the truth and provide a story to the pictures everyone is going to see. Don’t do it for today, do it for tomorrow.

Cat's Cradle: Review

 

If I had to pick one word to summarize Cat’s Cradle, it would be “cynical”. But cynical can make for a funny read if done right. Kurt Vonnegut’s characters and situations are not just fictional but ridiculous in the extreme. Cat’s Cradle tells how the world ended through stupidity and accident, and how a lack of morality pervades all decision makers.

I think the problem with a highly cynical book is it lets evil off the hook. Good and evil aren't opposites but different shades. With all the horrors from the twentieth century, it’s as if these events are another bit of silliness we have to endure. It’s one thing to talk about the complex system of religious codes and government malfeasance, it’s quite another to make evil dictators part of the machinery of war instead of their cause. It’s true that conditions within a country can push citizens toward it, but atrocities are the result of greed and selfishness.

I get what he’s Vonnegut is doing. He’s making an absurd reality to show the contradictions in religion, belief and the future of civilization.

The basic premise is this: Jonah is a writer who intends to write a story about the effects of the atom bomb after World War II. Right off he tells us that he used to be a Christian but converted to Bokonism. We learn more about it as the story unfolds.

 He tries to find Dr. Hoenikker, the famous creator of the bomb and interview him. But since he is dead he talks to his youngest son (Newt) through letters. Jonah also goes to the lab where the Doctor worked to interview his colleagues. The book Jonah intended to write instead becomes about his interactions with Hoenikker’s kids. The oldest (Frank) is about to be married to the daughter of a dictator (Pappa) on a small island country.

Jonah’s travels to the island, San Lorenzo, to meet Frank constitute the bulk of the plot. Frank sold a dangerous chemical compound invented (Ice Nine) by his father to the dictator Papa. His younger sister Angela married a weapons manufacturer and Newt is a midget who once slept with a Russian spy. Papa is close to death and hopes to see his daughter married to Frank, who will become the new president once Papa dies. Frank doesn’t want the job and convinces Jonah to marry Mona and become the president instead. I won’t spoil the end but it’s not a happy one.

No one in the story has a conscience but that’s also the point. Vonnegut is saying that life is meaningless and so are the ways we try to make sense of it. That’s where Bokonism comes in. San Lorenzo is supposedly a Christian nation but no one actually believes it. It’s a convenient way to keep the natives in check and provide them with a common enemy, Bokonism. It’s a religion of ‘harmless lies’ that admits it’s a bunch of lies. Vonnegut uses the belief to tear apart religion and the systems built up around them.  

It’s clear almost right away that everyone is lying about who they are or what they want. They either lie or are too dumb to see how fake everything around them is. It’s an ugly view of humanity but done with a light touch. The absurdity of the island and the characters hides the cancerous rot at the heart of life itself. Obviously I don’t subscribe to any of it. But Kurt Vonnegut lived as a POW in Dresden when the allies bombed it into oblivion.

That’s not an excuse but I do think it probably colored his perception of humanity. Also his mother killed herself when he was very young and his father suffered from severe depression. I watched a documentary on him recently and realized I’ve never read any of his books. It struck me as interesting because I’m always looking out for writer inspirations. My motivations are less about type of books and more about how they got their start, what kept them going and so on.

The most useful thing about Cat’s Cradle is how technology can be insanely destructive. In part it’s so destructive because of the slavish devotion we associate with scientific achievement. Breakthroughs are automatically assumed to be beneficial despite the indifference of the scientists to the morality of the project. Dr. Hoenikker’s kids encapsulate this purely amoral look at research and development. Ice Nine is a stand in for nuclear fission. It wasn’t created to kill but became a weapon. The fact that Felix Hoenikker didn’t anticipate this shows indifference rather than carelessness.   

I wouldn’t recommend the book for anything other than a look into the life of its author. Kurt Vonnegut doesn’t draw a sharp distinction between good and evil. War is hell, goes the saying. He certainly believes that. But are there redeeming qualities to be found whether heroism or sacrifice or charity? The answer is not obvious.     

 

Did Christ Descend into Hell?

 

This being Easter weekend my thoughts are on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It’s not a coincidence that the Holy Spirit had me research the topic of what Jesus did in the time after he died and rose again. I’m becoming a little more scholarly in my reading of the Bible over the last year or so. No I’m not reading the New Testament in Greek, or the Old Testament in Hebrew. But I’m more curious than before; the curiosity leads me to do a little study to find out what’s in the Bible that I haven’t encountered before.

My question for today: Did Christ decent into the lower parts of the earth after death and free the imprisoned souls from Abraham’s bosom? I think the short answer is No. I ran across a few dissenting views that assumed Paul’s phrase in Ephesians 4:8 was a reference to the birth of Christ. “When He ascended on high, He took many captives and gave many gifts to His people.” It’s originally found in Psalm 68:18, Paul also adds “He ascended” –what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?’

I think the when it says ‘He descended’ it’s a reference to Christ going to Sheol (Old Testament Hades) to rescue the imprisoned captives. But the Zondervan opinion I read gave a convincing definition that Paul is talking about Christ coming to earth as an infant. That’s the “descended” part of it. It’s based on the definition of the phrase from Psalm. Instead of “lower parts of the earth” it should, according to this opinion, say “lower parts which are the earth. I didn’t check on the Greek to verify so I’ll have to take his word for it.

Of course that changes it significantly from something below the earth, like Sheol, to just another word for earth.

The second verse scholars point to is from I Peter 3:18-20.

 “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. ¹⁹ After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits— ²⁰ to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water.”

Who are the imprisoned spirits? According to Zondervan the best explanation is that Christ in Spirit, was preaching to the hostile people during Noah’s time. This is a paraphrase of what Augustine said, according to the Zondervan passage. It’s not convincing to me though because God the Father used prophets to preach to the unbelievers. I’m unaware of another passage that describes Christ preaching in spirit before His time. God had other means of sharing with people.

But if I take this passage to mean that Christ went to hell to preach to the imprisoned spirits, are they the spirits of men or of demons? They can’t be angels because angels can’t sin. Demons fell with Lucifer so I don’t think this is about them. It’s unclear what he is preaching to them though. He does make a proclamation. That sounds to me like a new statement of principles. From this day forward and so on.

I remember my Dad telling me that Jesus went to hell and took to the keys of Hades and death from Satan. You might read that in Revelation 1:18 where Jesus tells John “I have the keys of Hades and Death.” It was the first time I’d thought about it. I just assumed He died and rose again, with nothing happening in those days between His death and resurrection. But even if Jesus met with the Father, To be absent from the body is to present with the Lord, it doesn’t really make a difference. It doesn’t change what He did.

But this added element of Jesus telling the thief, “Today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43) doesn’t sound like Heaven necessarily. Is Paradise not Abraham’s Bosom, the place near Hades that souls of the righteous departed await the resurrection? In Luke 16:19-31 the story of the rich man who spots Abraham and asks him to send Lazarus to dip his fingers in water, is suffering in Hades. Abraham refuses because of the life the rich man led, but also because of the gulf that resides between both dimensions. “…between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.” Here was a resource I used that supported the claim Christ descended into hell. 

This section of Luke provides the scriptural basis for a holding realm. At least some people think it does. They also believe that Jesus was saying to the thief, I’ll see you there with the others who are awaiting My victory. After reading some of the supposed passages that support Christ’s descent into hell, I’m less convinced that it went down this way. But like always, I’ll wait for other revelations or interpretations of scripture.

Most of this is esoteric stuff but it interests me just the same. I own a book called Bible Doctrine by Wayne Grudem. It’s a rich source of Christian beliefs with a scriptural grounding. I won’t say I subscribe to all of it but it gives me a foundation place to start.