When you understand the context of the 1 Peter 3:18, this answer becomes clear:

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, (the subject of this reference is the Spirit) by whom (in other words, through the Spirit) He went and preached to the spirits in prison who formerly were disobedient, once in the days of longsuffering they waited in the time of Noah while the ark was being prepared” (1 Peter 3:18.)

Some believe this means that when Jesus died on the cross, He didn’t really die. Rather, He altered His physical state into a spirit, then went down into hell, and preached to the people who lived before the flood that they might have a second chance. This is a very bizarre interpretation.

Isaiah 61:1 indicates that part of the ministry of Christ would be to “proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to [them that are] bound.” This text in 1 Peter is simply saying similarly that Christ, through the Holy Spirit, preached to people in Noah’s time who were imprisoned by evil spirits.

You are either filled with God’s spirit, obeying Him, and having His angels guiding and directing us, or if not saved, you are imprisoned by the devil, disobeying God, and are filled with the devil’s spirits. Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, used Noah’s preaching at that time to give the “captives” an opportunity to be set free.

It is interesting that Peter himself was literally imprisoned and an angel, one of God’s ministering spirits, came to set him free. Peter had a literal experience of the spiritual things he was here writing about.

The major part of the work of Christ was to try to save people, even during the time of Noah, through the same Spirit; He tried to save those people whose spirits were imprisoned by the devil. Peter is not talking about how their ghosts were in hell, chained up, or anything of that nature.

The false doctrine that is a result of the twisting of the meaning of 1 Peter 3:18 is devastating in that it teaches that there is a second chance. The Bible says, “It’s appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). No, you can’t die and then while in hell hope that Jesus come preach to you.