Chapters 31 and 32 of 1689 LBCF

Eschatology - The doctrine or teaching of Scripture regarding the last things

1689 LBCF Chapter 31 Paragraph 1 specifically three teachings:

Conditional Immortality - this teaching is what we see in cults like Jehovah’s Witness’ which states that the soul is naturally mortal and only becomes immortal on the condition of belief in Christ. This eliminates the eternal punishment of the soul that is taught in Scripture

Soul Sleep - which essentially teaches that the body and soul are intricately connected, one cannot exist without the other, and since the soul cannot contiue without the body, then it must experience a type of sleep, until the last judgement. They point to Paul using the word sleep in the place of death as proof of this concept. This, however, is contradictory to the teaching that we see in Scripture that says when we depart this world, we are present with the Lord.

purgatory - there is no third option for souls in the intermediate state (after death but prior to the final judgement) Scripture teaches that souls are either cast in to hell or into heaven Luke 16:19–31

Luke 16:19–31 LSB

“Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day. “But a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man’s table; besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores. “Now it happened that the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom, and the rich man also died and was buried. “And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. “And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.’ “But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things. But now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony. ‘And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you are not able, and none may cross over from there to us.’ “And he said, ‘Then I am asking you, father, that you send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ “But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ “But he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’ “But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’”

Our stand before death is that of neither delight, in that we desire it to come, nor in fear but that of Paul in Philippians

Philippians 1:21–24 LSB

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know what I will choose. But I am hard-pressed between the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better, yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake.

Immediate progress from life to paradise or hell

A New Exposition of the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689 2. The Distinction between the Righteous and the Wicked (Paragraph 1)

Two passages will suffice to prove these assertions. One is Revelation 6:9–11:

When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.

Sam Waldron comments on this passage:

Here several dissatisfactory aspects of the intermediate state are revealed. The most prominent is the lack of vindication which the souls of the righteous feel because their enemies have not yet been judged. This unresolved injustice makes the blessedness of these souls incomplete. Two other dissatisfactory aspects are referred to more implicitly. The description, “the souls of those who had been slain,” in v. 9 alludes to their disembodied condition as disquieting. The mention in v. 11 of “their fellow-servants and their brethren who were to be killed” reminds us of the unity of the elect people of God. The blessedness of the spirits of believers must be incomplete as long as their brethren are yet subject to the hostility of a cruel world.

The second passage that proves the assertions made above is 2 Corinthians 5:2–4:

For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.

This passage also refers to the dissatisfactory aspects of the intermediate state. Paul mentions his desire to be clothed with his eternal house in the heavens, his transformed resurrection body. He mentions being naked and unclothed. He is alluding to the intermediate state entered at death, and the bodiless condition it entails. Clearly, Paul is thinking of the intermediate state as undesirable in certain respects.

1689 LBCH Chapter 32 Paragraph 1

A New Exposition of the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689 7. Its Implications

7. Its Implications

At the second coming of Christ, all humans will be judged. Whereupon the righteous will enter into eternal life, and the wicked into eternal punishment. Granting this, at least two important things are implied:

1. The biblical doctrine of a general resurrection and a general judgment are impossible to reconcile with all forms of premillenialism. Sam Waldron asks some penetrating questions:

If both the righteous and the wicked are raised and judged at Christ’s second coming … then who is left to populate the millennium which is supposed to take place for a thousand years after Christ’s second coming? Every premillennialist teaches that there remain unresurrected, wicked people during the millennium after the resurrection of the righteous at Christ’s second coming, but how can that be true if the resurrection and judgment which take place at Christ’s second coming are universal and general?

2. The biblical doctrine of a general resurrection and a general judgment are impossible to reconcile with popular easy-believism. Again, Sam Waldron observes:

It is commonly taught in our day that there will be at least two different judgments: one for Christians and one for the unsaved. Those who have made a decision for Christ go to the judgment for Christians. At this judgment their deeds don’t determine whether they are eternally saved or not, for, it is said, salvation is by grace and not works. Their deeds only determine how many rewards and crowns they’ll receive in glory. In this way it is maintained that our deeds have absolutely nothing to do with our basic destinies.

Understood in this way, the question of one’s salvation isn’t the issue at the last judgment, but the degree of one’s reward. The problem with this teaching, however, is that, according to the Bible, what is at stake in the last judgment is exactly whether or not one is a believer in Christ. Furthermore, the Bible is equally clear that both believers and unbelievers will appear at the same judgment. To charge that such teaching is legalism or salvation by works reveals ignorance about the basics of gospel salvation. It is true that gospel salvation is not by works, but the whole aim of gospel salvation is to produce good works (Eph. 2:8–10). Justification is by faith in Christ. Judgment is according to works because our works, taken as a whole, manifest our character, and our character manifests our relationship to Christ (i.e. the presence or absence of faith in Him, cf. Rom. 2:6–16).