The Intermediate State
Heaven, Hell and the Intermediate State • Sermon • Submitted
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What can we know?
What can we know?
There are some things we can know with certainty. We can know without a shadow of a doubt that there is an afterlife. We can know from external evidence and clear biblical teachings that there is life after death.
There is life after death
The evidences that there is life after death (that the soul continues to live after the death)
The biblical evidence for a soul/spirit
Genesis 2:7
then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
Ecclesiastes 12:7
7 and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
Matthew 10:28
28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Luke 23:46
46 Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.
Acts 7:59
59 And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
The philosophical case for substance dualism (That humans have a soul)
C.S. Lewis says “you do not have a soul; you are a soul, you have a body.”
Darwin admitted that his theory (naturalistic evolution) could not explain the origin of the mind.
Particles (Lego’s) cannot produce Sentience (a child knows this well)
Can Robots ever have a conscience? (They cannot experience love or enjoy a moment a cool breeze or a beautiful view)
A.I. is not self aware nor can it love, feel, experience, or have rational thought.
We are more than bodies and brains. We are more than Lego’s and wiring. We are embodied souls.
How do you get mind from matter?
Bible: In the beginning was the logos (Intelligence, mind, Spirit, GOD)
Physicalism: In the beginning were the Lego’s (Particles, Material, matter)
Causal relationships do not determine identity. (Fire and smoke)
Brain activity and conscience thought are two different things
(Car and driver)
(unconscious pain)
Neuroscience has little to add to this subject given that it can only validate causal relationships not identity.
Neuroscience isn’t the discipline to determine identity since it studies the physical components of the brain (Lego’s, wiring, mechanisms)
Philosophy is the discipline to distinguish identity from causal relationships.
Near Death Experiences
latest studies show that over 9 million Americans (not counting the rest of the world) have had near death experiences
In many cases people are measurably dead (no heartbeat, brain activity etc.) and report data that can be backed up by police records
Near death experiences and blind people being able to see.
The historical evidence for life after death
Resurrection of Jesus
1 Corinthians 15:3-8
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
Romans 14:9
9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
Revelation 1:18
18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.
Acts 26:22-23
22 To this day I have had the help that comes from God, and so I stand here testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass: 23 that the Christ must suffer and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.”
Internal biblical evidences that there is life after death
The Resurrection of the dead is the final hope for every Christian
Job 19:25-27
25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. 26 And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, 27 whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!
Psalm 16:9-10
9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. 10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.
Daniel 12:2
2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
Isaiah 26:19
19 Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead.
Hosea 13:14
14 I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol; I shall redeem them from Death. O Death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion is hidden from my eyes.
John 5:29
29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
John 11:23-25
23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,
Acts 4:12
12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
Acts 23:6-8
6 Now when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.” 7 And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. 8 For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.
Acts 24:15
15 having a hope in God, which these men themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust.
1 Corinthians 15:13-18
13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
2 Corinthians 5:1-4
1 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. 4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Revelation 20:4-6
4 Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.
There is an intermediate state
At death the Christian is immediately with Jesus in a better place.
“Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43)
“To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8)
“it is far better for me to depart and be with Christ” (Philippians 1:23)
At the resurrection the Christian is given his new glorified body
1 Corinthians 15:52
52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
This verse speaks of the return of Christ and how at that time we will all be changed
1 John 3:2
2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
The phrase “when he appears” is a direct reference to Christ’s return. At that moment we shall be like him in his glorified body.
2 Corinthians 5:3
3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.
This verse speaks of a time when our ‘naked souls’ will be united to our new bodies.
1 Thessalonians 4:16
16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
Why would the dead need to rise first if we already had our glorified bodies?
A brief history of the intermediate state.
The Early church fathers
The Roman Catholic view
The Protestant view
There is a conscience intermediate state
Against soul sleep.
Philippians 1:23
23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.
Luke 23:43
43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Revelation 6:9-10
9 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 witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”
There is not a purgatory for those who die in the Lord
Against purgatory.
2 Corinthians 5:21
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Hebrews 9:13-14
13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Luke 16:19-31
19 “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20 And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21 who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. 24 And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ 27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— 28 for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’ ”
There is a longing for the return of Christ in the intermediate state
People on earth groan for the return of Christ
All creation groans for the return of Christ
Revelation 6:10
10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”
martyrs in heaven groan for the return of Christ
Revelation 6:9-10
9 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 witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”