Last Things 2 - Death and the Intermediate State
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Psalm 38:9–11 (ESV)
9 O Lord, all my longing is before you; my sighing is not hidden from you. 10 My heart throbs; my strength fails me, and the light of my eyes—it also has gone from me. 11 My friends and companions stand aloof from my plague, and my nearest kin stand far off.
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.’ ”
Introduction
We have seen the absolute certainty of Christ’s return in glory. We do not know when this will take place but we do know that death will continue until he does return. Our main question today is what is the state of all those who die prior to the Lord’s return. This is known as the Intermediate State. The Scriptures make clear what this is and we will be considering this. However there are a number of erroneous views, we will be looking at some of these.
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Why Death?
Soul Sleep
Conditional Immortality
Second Chance
Biblical Certainty
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1 - Why Death?
1 - Why Death?
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21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
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a. Life
a. Life
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Genesis 1:26–27 (ESV)
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness....27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
Genesis 2:7 (ESV)
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.
b. Command
b. Command
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16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
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4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
c. Punishment
c. Punishment
Genesis 3:17–19 (ESV)
17 And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
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24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
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12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—
2 - Soul Sleep
2 - Soul Sleep
a. A Vague State of Being
a. A Vague State of Being
The notion of soul sleep, or psychopannychia asserts that physical death brings a temporary end to one’s conscious existence until a subsequent day of resurrection. This view denies an intermediate state of conscious existence after death and affirms that the souls of believers sleep rather than going immediately to heaven. Proponents claim scriptural support for soul sleep in Ecclesiastes 9:5 and Daniel 12:2. Defenders of soul sleep include Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh-Day Adventists, and Christadelphians. MacArthur, J. (Ed.). (2021). Essential Christian Doctrine: A Handbook on Biblical Truth (p. 238). Wheaton, IL: Crossway.
Sleeping is an euphemism for death
24 he said, “Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him.
11 After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.”
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.
5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten.
b. Sheol and Hades
b. Sheol and Hades
Sheol Often Means Hell. “Sheol signifies the place of future retribution. Cairns, A. (2002). In Dictionary of Theological Terms (p. 203). Belfast; Greenville, SC: Ambassador Emerald International.
Hades - The Greek equivalent of the Hebrew Sheol. Sheol is translated in the AV “hell,” “grave,” and “pit,” while Hades is ten times translated “hell,” and once “grave.” Cairns, A. (2002). In Dictionary of Theological Terms (p. 203). Belfast; Greenville, SC: Ambassador Emerald International.
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23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.
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14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
The Interpretation of St. John’s Revelation (John’s Vision of Christ, 1:9–20)
Until judgement day hell functions only for the souls of the damned and is thus termed “hades,” the unseen place. When hell is mentioned as receiving both the souls and the bodies of the damned, Jesus calls hell “the Gehenna” and “the Gehenna of the fire,” and in Rev. 20:14, 15, “the lake of the fire,” in 21:8, “the lake, the one burning with fire and brimstone, which is the death, the second.” How “the death and the hades” are at last thrown into “the lake of the fire” we shall see in 20:14.
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3 - Conditional Immortality
3 - Conditional Immortality
a. Annilationism
a. Annilationism
The belief that immortality is a gift conferred only upon believers and that the wicked are annihilated. Cairns, A. (2002). In Dictionary of Theological Terms (p. 107). Belfast; Greenville, SC: Ambassador Emerald International.
b. Man is Not Immortal
b. Man is Not Immortal
The teaching of the mortality of the soul is generally considered to be opposed to the Christian doctrine of man and to the dignity and responsibility of the human soul. It has, however, been recently revived by some *Evangelical theologians, who hold that annihilation follows a period of torment in *Hell. Cross, F. L., & Livingstone, E. A. (Eds.). (2005). In The Oxford dictionary of the Christian Church (3rd ed. rev., p. 397). Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.
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1 Timothy 6:15–16 (ESV)
15... God who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honour and eternal dominion. Amen.
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Power of the gospel
10 and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,
The Pastoral Epistles (6:11–16)
The only human beings who, as far as it is possible for creatures to do so, share this immortality, and thereby become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4), are believers, though also unbelievers exist endlessly. It is through the gospel that immortality or
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was brought to light (2 Tim. 1:10). For the believer immortality is therefore a redemptive concept. It is everlasting salvation. For God it is eternal blessedness. But while the believer has received immortality, as one receives a drink of water from a fountain, God has it. It belongs to his very being. He is himself the Fountain.
c. Destruction
c. Destruction
9 They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,
d. God’s Love
d. God’s Love
There are those who cannot conceive that a loving God would consign any to eternal punishment.
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4 - Second Chance
4 - Second Chance
a. Spirits in Prison
a. Spirits in Prison
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.
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1 Peter 3:19 (ESV)
19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison,
What is meant by the word preached? The verb stands by itself, so that we are unable to determine the content of preaching. In brief, only the fact of preaching, not the message, is important. That is, we understand the verb preached to mean that Christ proclaimed victory over his adversaries. In his brevity, Peter refrains from telling us the context of Christ’s proclamation. We would be adding to the text if we should interpret the word preached to signify the preaching of the gospel. “Hence we may suppose with reason that it is the victory of Christ over His adversaries which is emphasised in 3:19, not the conversion or evangelization of the disobedient spirits.” Kistemaker, S. J., & Hendriksen, W. (1953–2001). Exposition of the Epistles of Peter and the Epistle of Jude (Vol. 16, p. 142). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.
Peter says that the spirits are those “who disobeyed long ago” (v. 20a). He writes, “the spirits … who disobeyed.” He does not say, “the spirits of those who disobeyed.” If this were the case, Peter could mean the souls of departed men who had been disobedient during their lifetime. However, the word spirits as Peter qualifies it refers to supernatural beings. Peter’s use of this word agrees with the connotation in the Gospels, where it refers to “evil spirits” (see, e.g., Mark 3:11). This usage also agrees with intertestamental literature, in which the term spirits designates angels or demons. Kistemaker, S. J., & Hendriksen, W. (1953–2001). Exposition of the Epistles of Peter and the Epistle of Jude (Vol. 16, p. 142). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.
b. Encouragement to Those Suffering
b. Encouragement to Those Suffering
Peter speaks words of encouragement to the readers of his epistle and tells them that they must view life through God’s eyes. Peter contrasts the phrase according to men with the phrase according to God. The adversaries of Christian martyrs were of the opinion that by punishing the believers, perhaps even to the point of death, they were defeating the Christians. But they did not know that in God’s sight believers continue to live in the spirit. Fellow believers observing the injustice which these martyrs experienced, however, ought not to be discouraged. In the sight of God, believers continue to live in the spirit, because “the spirit returns to God who gave it” (Eccles. 12:7) and therefore is immortal. Kistemaker, S. J., & Hendriksen, W. (1953–2001). Exposition of the Epistles of Peter and the Epistle of Jude (Vol. 16, p. 165). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.
5 - Biblical Certainty
5 - Biblical Certainty
a. Mount of Transfiguration
a. Mount of Transfiguration
1 And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. 3 And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.
b. The Rich Man and Lazarus
b. The Rich Man and Lazarus
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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.’
c. The Thief on the Cross
c. The Thief on the Cross
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42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
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d. At Home with the Lord
d. At Home with the Lord
8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
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e. Be With Christ
e. Be With Christ
21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.
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f. Souls of the Martyrs
f. Souls of the Martyrs
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.
Conclusion
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Psalm 116:15 (ESV)
15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.
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24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.