It is interesting to me that many Evangelicals interpret 1 Peter 3:18-22 as not referring to a second chance after death. The whole conversation is in the context of salvation. But however people want to interpret chapter three, chapter four is even more interesting to me. I Peter 4:6 says,
"For the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God" (NASB translation).
Several translations (NIV, NET, NLT as examples) add or insert the word "now" before the word dead which changes the meaning of the text. Now it means Christ preached to these people while they were alive but who are now dead. But that is not what the text actually says.
What is even more interesting is the whole history of early Christianity that understood these verses as people would accept Jesus even in the after-life. The early writing of the Shepherd of Hermas, the Acts of Paul and Thelca, Perpetua's prayer for Dinocrates (Perpetua has historically been celebrated by all Christians as one of the first women martyrs), The Gsopel of Nicodemus, Gregory's prayers for Trajen, and several major Christian interpreters from Origen to Gregory of Nyssa.
If someone wants to do some more study on this issue, there are several books on this topic but one of the best I have read so far is Jeffrey Trumbower, "Rescue for the Dead: The Posthumous Salvation of Non-Christians in Early Christianity" (Oxford Univ. Press, 2001).
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