Intermediate state. The situation of those people who have died and who now await the future resurrection. Major theories about the intermediate state proposed in the history of Christian theology include “soul sleep” (dead persons, whether believers or not, are completely unconscious); “restful bliss or conscious torment” (dead believers consciously experience the loving presence of Christ, while dead unbelievers consciously experience torment); and purgatory (the Roman Catholic belief that dead persons experience degrees of suffering in order to purge them of their earthly sin). Some theologians deny the existence of an intermediate state, suggesting instead that those who die are ushered directly into eternity. -- Stanley Grenz, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordling, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 67.
"The souls of believers are, at their death, made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory [Westminster Larger Catechism 86 and Westminster Confession 1 say: into the highest heavens]; and their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves till the resurrection. At the resurrection, believers, being raised up in glory, shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment and made perfectly blessed in full enjoying of God to all eternity. -- Westminster Shorter Catechism (QQ. 37–38)
“The bodies of men, after death, return to dust, and see corruption; but their souls (which neither die nor sleep), having an immortal subsistence, immediately return to God who gave them. The souls of the righteous, being then made perfect in holiness, are received into the highest heavens, where they behold the face of God in light and glory, waiting for the full redemption of their bodies: and the souls of the wicked are cast into hell, where they remain in torments and utter darkness, reserved to the judgment of the great day. Besides these two places for souls separated from their bodies, the Scripture acknowledgeth none.” -- (WCF 32:1)Non-technical discussion:
If our souls continue after physical death it is certainly the concern of most Christians that we know where the Christian departed are going. And so we ask: when a person dies, where does his or her spirit go until the Second Coming of Jesus Christ?
One really interesting idea, not often preached upon, but developed as an idea by the Church, is the concept of what is called the “intermediate state” – our position between the time we die and the time when Jesus Christ consummates his kingdom and fulfills the promises that we confess in statements like the Apostle’s Creed when we confess that we believe in the resurrection of the body.
The “intermediate state” is something of a technical term (the German equivalent being Zwischenzustand) used to describe the state of the believer between his or her death and the consummation of the created order at the parousia of Christ, at which time a new bodily existence is begun. The phrase is not a NT one and is at best an inference which arises out of key passages dealing with eschatological hope and resurrection belief.
Now, we do believe that there will be a time when God reunites our souls and our bodies, and that we will receive a glorified body similar in fashion to the one that Christ came out of the tomb with when he was resurrected. That is, once we admit to an important assumption and an admission: that the idea of an intermediate state rest upon the dualistic assumption that in physical death there is a separation of soul and body. If in fact the soul does separate from the body in death, while waiting for the Resurrection, what happens?
In the New Testament, several authors, such as the Apostle Paul, suggest that in death we are departing this world and going to be with Christ. Now, what is really interesting is that Paul in no way implies that this ‘departing and being with Christ’ is the same thing as the eventual resurrection of the body. So many people reason that we go to be in some kind of state of blessedness, Paradise, a kind of anteroom of Heaven, where Christ is too.
Meaning: all the Christian dead have ‘departed’ and are ‘with Christ’. The only other idea Paul offers to explain where the Christian dead are now and what they are doing is that of ‘sleeping in Christ’. He uses this expression frequently and some have thought that by it he must mean we will be in an unconscious state, from which one would be brought back to consciousness at the resurrection. The probability is, though, that this is a strong metaphor being used by Paul, and it is a way of reminding us about the ‘waking up’ we will experience in the resurrection.
This picture of an intermediate state where will be with Christ. is confirmed by the language of the NT book of Revelation. In the book of Revelation, we are given a vision of the souls of the martyrs waiting, under the altar, for the final redemption to take place. They are at rest; they are conscious; they are able to ask how long it will be before justice is done (Rev. 6:9–11); but they are not yet enjoying the final bliss which is to come in the New Jerusalem – the New Heaven and New Earth.
And in particular, we must take account of the well-known and striking saying of Jesus to the dying brigand beside him on the cross, recorded by Luke (23:43). ‘Today,’ he said, ‘you will be with me in paradise.’ ‘Paradise’ is not the final destination, it is an intermediate state; it is a beautiful resting place on the way there – something like Heaven’s waiting room. In the end, the point is that the Christian departed are with Christ awaiting their resurrection bodies. It’s a glorious thought.
Now, because many people grew up in the Catholic Church, when they hear the words “Intermediate State” – undoubtedly their minds have thoughts of a place called purgatory and are wondering about that. Which brings me to a point which many take for granted but which many others will find controversial or even shocking if you remember that information from your Catholic Catechism and Confirmation: I do not believe in purgatory nor do I believe it is a scriptural idea.
Purgatory was of course an idea that took some time to get going, not arising until the Middle Ages. When it was established it was only held by one part of the church, i.e. the Roman Catholic part. It was firmly rejected on good biblical and theological grounds by the sixteenth-century Reformers. That is why in Protestant churches the doctrine is not taught.
The arguments regularly advanced in support of some kind of a purgatory do not come from the Bible. They come from the common perception that all of us up to the time of our deaths are still sinful and from the proper assumption that something needs to be done about this if we are to be at ease in the presence of our holy and sovereign God.
The medieval doctrine of purgatory imagined that the ‘something’ that needed to be done could be divided into two aspects: punishment on the one hand and purging or cleansing on the other. It is vital that we understand the biblical response to both of these.
I cannot stress sufficiently enough that if we raise the question of punishment for sin this is something that has already been dealt with on the cross of Jesus. Paul says, in his most central and careful statement, not that God punished Jesus, but that God ‘condemned sin in the flesh’ of Jesus (Romans 8:3). Here the instincts of the Reformers, if not always their exact expressions, were spot on. The idea that Christians need to suffer punishment for their sins in a post-mortem purgatory, or anywhere else, reveals a straightforward failure to grasp the very heart of what was achieved on the cross. What should not be in doubt is that, for the New Testament, bodily death itself actually puts sin to an end. There may well be all kinds of sins still lingering on within us, infecting us and dragging us down. But part of the biblical understanding of death - bodily death - is that it finishes all that off at a single go when we experience the physical death.
So, what of the unrighteous – those who die outside of Christ in this life – who won’t experience Paradise? For them, it is a very different story. The New Testament seems to distinguish between “Gehenna” and “Hades/Hell.” Hades receives the unrighteous for the period between death and resurrection, whereas Gehenna is the place of punishment assigned permanently at the last judgment. The torment of Gehenna is eternal (Mark 9:43, 48). Further, the souls of the ungodly are outside the body in Hades, whereas in Gehenna both body and soul, reunited at the resurrection, are destroyed by eternal fire (Mark 9:43–48; Matt. 10:28).
On the basis of these biblical considerations, I conclude that upon death believers go immediately to a place and condition of blessedness, and unbelievers to an experience of misery, torment, and punishment. Although the evidence is not clear, it is likely that these are the very places to which believers and unbelievers will go after the great judgment, since the presence of the Lord would seem to be nothing other than heaven. Yet while the place of the intermediate and final states may be the same, the experiences of paradise and Hades are doubtlessly not as intense as what will ultimately be, since the person is in a somewhat incomplete condition.
Technical Discussion:
Admittedly, we know very little from Scripture about the intermediate state. Nearly all of the passages cited concerning heaven refer to the everlasting rather than the intermediate state. But there is still much which can be said.
The righteous dead in heaven are described as “souls” (ψυχὰς/ psuche, Rev 6:9; but cf. 20:4) or “spirits” (πνεῦμα, pneuma, Heb 12:23). Pronouns and nouns are used of them, suggesting personality. E.g., Lazarus, Christ, and pronouns “I, you.”
While the NT emphasizes joy during the intermediate state, both the OT and the NT teach that the state is incomplete, and even undesirable (except temporarily).
Here, Reformed systematicians have been helpful in helping sort out the arguments. On this topic, one of the most important doctrinal statements on the bliss of the saved in the intermediate state is given in the WCF:
“The bodies of men, after death, return to dust, and see corruption; but their souls (which neither die nor sleep), having an immortal subsistence, immediately return to God who gave them. The souls of the righteous, being then made perfect in holiness, are received into the highest heavens, where they behold the face of God in light and glory, waiting for the full redemption of their bodies: and the souls of the wicked are cast into hell, where they remain in torments and utter darkness, reserved to the judgment of the great day. Besides these two places for souls separated from their bodies, the Scripture acknowledgeth none.” (WCF 32:1)Then there is more in the Westminster Larger Catechism, Question 86:
Q. What is the communion in glory with Christ, which the members of the invisible church enjoy immediately after death?
A. The communion in glory with Christ, which the members of the invisible church enjoy immediately after death, is, in that their souls are then made perfect in holiness and received into the highest heavens, where they behold the face of God in light and glory, waiting for the full redemption of their bodies, which even in death continue united to Christ, and rest in their graves, as in their beds, till at the last day they are again united to their souls and live and reign with him upon the earth a thousand years. Whereas the souls of the wicked are at their death cast into hell, where they remain in torments and utter darkness, and their bodies kept in their graves, as in their prisons, until the resurrection and judgment of ungodly men, after the millennial reign of Christ. (WLC 86, BPC version)And then more in the Westminster Shorter Catechism, QQ. 37-38:
"The souls of believers are, at their death, made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory [Westminster Larger Catechism 86 and Westminster Confession 1 say: into the highest heavens]; and their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves till the resurrection. At the resurrection, believers, being raised up in glory, shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment and made perfectly blessed in full enjoying of God to all eternity. -- Westminster Shorter Catechism (QQ. 37–38)
Matthew Henry, well-known commentator and British non-conformist, writes in his A Scripture Catechism in the Manner of the Assembly’s answers this doctrine with the following questions and answers:
Do the souls of believers at death sleep with their bodies? No: for when we are absent from the body, we are present with the Lord, 2 Cor 5:8.
Do they go to Christ? Yes: Having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, Phil 1:23.
And will he receive them? Yes: Lord Jesus, receive my spirit, Acts 7:59.
Shall they be where he is? Yes: That where I am there ye may be also, John 14:3.
Will they be with him in heaven? Yes: We have a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, 2 Cor 5:1.
Do they pass into this glory at death? Yes: That when ye fail ye may be received into everlasting habitations, Luke 16:9.
Do they immediately pass into it? Yes: This day shall thou be with me in paradise, Luke 23:43.
Are they guarded by angels thither? Yes: he was carried by angels into Abraham's bosom, Luke 16:22.
Are they happy then in their death? Yes: Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, Rev 14:13.
William G.T. Shedd, great systematic theologian of the Presbyterian church, writes:
The doctrine of the intermediate state has had considerable variety of construction, owing to the mixing of mythological elements with the biblical. The representations of Christ in the parable of Dives and Lazarus have furnished the basis of the doctrine. The most general statement is that the penitent, represented by Lazarus, is happy and that the impenitent, represented by Dives, is miserable.
The doctrine taught in Scripture that the body is not raised until the day of judgment implies that the condition of all men between death and resurrection is a disembodied one. This doctrine has been greatly misconceived, and the misconception has introduced grave errors into eschatology. Inasmuch as the body, though not necessary to personal consciousness, is yet necessary in order to the entire completeness of the person, it came to be supposed in the patristic church that the intermediate state is a dubious and unfixed state, that the resurrection adds very considerably both to the holiness and happiness of the redeemed and to the sinfulness and misery of the lost. This made the intermediate or disembodied state to be imperfectly holy and happy for the saved and imperfectly sinful and miserable for the lost. According to Hagenbach (§142), the majority of the fathers between 250 and 730 [AD] “believed that men do not receive their full reward till after the resurrection.” Jeremy Taylor (Liberty of Prophesying §8) asserts that the Latin fathers held that “the saints, though happy, do not enjoy the beatific vision before the resurrection.” Even so respectable an authority as Ambrose, the spiritual father of Augustine, taught that the soul “while separated from the body is held in an ambiguous condition (ambiguo suspenditur).”
The incompleteness arising from the absence of the body was more and more exaggerated in the patristic church, until it finally resulted in the doctrine of a purgatory for the redeemed, adopted formally by the papal church, according to which, the believer between death and resurrection goes through a painful process in hades which cleanses him from remaining corruption and fits him for paradise. The corresponding exaggeration in the other direction, in respect to the condition of the lost in the disembodied state, is found mostly in the modern church. The modern restorationist has converted the intermediate state into one of probation and redemption for that part of the human family who are not saved in this life.
The Protestant reformers, following closely the scriptural delineations, which represent the redeemed at death as entirely holy and happy in paradise and the lost at death as totally sinful and miserable in hades, rejected altogether the patristic and medieval exaggeration of the corporeal incompleteness of the intermediate state. They affirmed perfect happiness at death for the saved and utter misery for the lost. The first publication of Calvin was a refutation of the doctrine of the sleep of the soul between death and the resurrection. The limbus and purgatory were energetically combated by all classes of Protestants. “I know not,” says Calvin (2.16.9), “how it came to pass that any should imagine a subterraneous cavern, to which they have given the name of limbus. But this fable, although it is maintained by great authors and even in the present age is by many seriously defended as a truth is after all nothing but a fable.”
The doctrine of the intermediate or disembodied state, as it was generally received in the Reformed (Calvinistic) churches, is contained in the following statements in the Westminster standards:
The souls of believers are, at their death, made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory [Westminster Larger Catechism 86 and Westminster Confession 1 say: into the highest heavens]; and their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves till the resurrection. At the resurrection, believers, being raised up in glory, shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment and made perfectly blessed in full enjoying of God to all eternity. (Westminster Shorter Catechism QQ. 37–38)
According to this statement, there is no essential difference between paradise and heaven. Westminster Larger Catechism 86 asserts that “the souls of the wicked are, at death, cast into hell, and their bodies kept in their graves till the resurrection and judgment of the great day.” Westminster Larger Catechism 89 and Westminster Confession 1 say that “at the day of judgment, the wicked shall be cast into hell, to be punished forever.” According to this, there is no essential difference between hades and hell.
The substance of the Reformed view, then, is that the intermediate state for the saved is heaven without the body and the final state for the saved is heaven with the body, that the intermediate state for the lost is hell without the body and the final state for the lost is hell with the body. In the Reformed or Calvinistic eschatology, there is no intermediate hades between heaven and hell, which the good and evil inhabit in common. When this earthly existence is ended, the only specific places and states are heaven and hell.
Paradise is a part of heaven; hades is a part of hell. A pagan underworld containing both paradise and hades, both the happy and the miserable, like the pagan idol, is “nothing in the world.” There is no such place.-- William GT Shedd, Dogmatic Theology, ed. Alan W. Gomes, 3rd ed. (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Pub., 2003), 830–833.
Louis Berkhof, the great American Dutch-Reformed theologian, writes in his Systematic Theology:
1. THE SCRIPTURAL REPRESENTATION OF BELIEVERS BETWEEN DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION. The usual position of the Reformed Churches is that the souls of believers immediately after death enter upon the glories of heaven. In answer to the question, “What comfort does the resurrection of the body afford thee?” the Heidelberg Catechism says: “That not only my soul, after this life, shall be immediately taken up to Christ its Head, but also that this my body, raised by the power of Christ, shall again be united with my soul, and made like the glorious body of Christ.” The Westminster Confession speaks in the same spirit, when it says that, at death, “The souls of the righteous, being then made perfect in holiness, are received into the highest heavens, where they behold the face of God in light and glory, waiting for the full redemption of their bodies.” Similarly, the Second Helvetic Confession declares: “We believe that the faithful, after bodily death, go directly unto Christ.” This view would seem to find ample justification in Scripture, and it is well to take note of this, since during the last quarter of a century some Reformed theologians have taken the position that believers at death enter an intermediate place, and remain there until the day of the resurrection. The Bible teaches, however, that the soul of the believer when separated from the body, enters the presence of Christ. Paul says that he is “willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord.” 2 Cor. 5:8. To the Philippians he writes that he has a “desire to depart and to be with Christ,” Phil. 1:23. And Jesus gave the penitent malefactor the joyous assurance, “To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise,” Luke 23:43. And to be with Christ is also to be in heaven. In the light of 2 Cor. 12:3, 4 “paradise” can only be a designation of heaven. Moreover, Paul says that, “if the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens,” 2 Cor. 5:1. And the writer of Hebrews cheers the hearts of his readers with this thought among others that they “are come to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven,” Heb. 12:23. That the future state of believers after death is greatly to be preferred to the present appears clearly from the assertions of Paul in 2 Cor. 5:8 and Phil. 1:23, quoted above. It is a state in which believers are truly alive and fully conscious, Luke 16:19–31; 1 Thess. 5:10; a state of rest and endless bliss, Rev. 14:13.
2. THE SCRIPTURAL REPRESENTATION OF THE STATE OF THE WICKED BETWEEN DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION. The Westminster Catechism says that the souls of the wicked after death “are cast into hell, where they remain in torments and utter darkness, reserved to the judgment of the great day.” Moreover, it adds: “Besides these two places (heaven and hell) for souls separated from their bodies, the Scripture acknowledgeth none.” And the Second Helvetic Confession continues after the quotation cited above: “In like manner, we believe that the unbelievers are cast headlong into hell, from whence there is no return opened to the wicked by any offices of those who live.” The Bible sheds very little direct light on this subject. The only passage that can really come into consideration here is the parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16, where hades denotes hell, the place of eternal torment. The rich man found himself in the place of torment; his condition was fixed forever; and he was conscious of his miserable plight, sought mitigation of the pain he was suffering, and desired to have his brethren warned, in order that they might avoid a similar doom. In addition to this direct proof there is also an inferential proof. If the righteous enter upon their eternal state at once, the presumption is that this is true of the wicked as well. We leave out of consideration here a couple of passages, which are of uncertain interpretation, namely, 1 Pet. 3:19; 2 Pet. 2:9.
-- L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans publishing co., 1938), 679–680.
E. The State of the Soul after Death One of Conscious Existence
1. THE TEACHING OF SCRIPTURE ON THIS POINT. The question has been raised, whether the soul after death remains actively conscious and is capable of rational and religious action. This has sometimes been denied on the general ground that the soul in its conscious activity is dependent on the brain, and therefore cannot continue to function when the brain is destroyed. But, as already pointed out in the preceding (pp. 677 f.), the cogency of this argument may well be doubted. “It is,” to use the words of Dahle, “based on the error of confusing the worker with his machine.” From the fact that the human consciousness in the present life transmits its effects through the brain, it does not necessarily follow that it can work in no other way. In arguing for the conscious existence of the soul after death, we place no reliance on the phenomena of present day spiritualism, and do not even depend on philosophical arguments, though these are not without force. We seek our evidence in the Word of God, and particularly in the New Testament. The rich man and Lazarus converse together, Luke 16:19–31. Paul speaks of the disembodied state as a “being at home with the Lord,” and as something to be desired above the present life, 2 Cor. 5:6–9; Phil. 1:23. Surely, he would hardly speak after that fashion about an unconscious existence, which is a virtual non-existence. In Heb. 12:23 believers are said to have come to … “the spirits of just men made perfect,” which certainly implies their conscious existence. Moreover, the spirits under the altar are crying out for vengeance on the persecutors of the Church, Rev. 6:9, and the souls of the martyrs are said to reign with Christ, Rev. 20:4. This truth of the conscious existence of the soul after death has been denied in more than one form. -- L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans publishing co., 1938), 688.
In his Systematic Theology, Wayne Grudem writes:
C. What Happens When People Die?1. The Souls of Believers Go Immediately Into God’s Presence. Death is a temporary cessation of bodily life and a separation of the soul from the body. Once a believer has died, though his or her physical body remains on the earth and is buried, at the moment of death the soul (or spirit) of that believer goes immediately into the presence of God with rejoicing. When Paul thinks about death he says, “We would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8). To be away from the body is to be at home with the Lord. He also says that his desire is “to depart and be with Christ for that is far better” (Phil. 1:23). And Jesus said to the thief who was dying on the cross next to him, “Today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). The author of Hebrews says that when Christians come together to worship they come not only into the presence of God in heaven, but also into the presence of “the spirits of just men made perfect” (Heb. 12:23). However, as we shall see in more detail in the next chapter, God will not leave our dead bodies in the earth forever, for when Christ returns the souls of believers will be reunited with their bodies, their bodies will be raised from the dead, and they will live with Christ eternally. -- Wayne A. Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House, 2004), 816–817.
In Michael Horton's excellent The Christian Faith, Horton writes about the intermediate state and deals with several of the primary objections:
1. IMMEDIATE, CONSCIOUS EXISTENCE IN THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD
In the intermediate state, believers are not simply in contemplative repose. Nor are they lost souls wandering throughout the realm of shadows or crossing back and forth over the river Styx ferried by Charon. Rather, they are made part of the company assembled at the true Zion, with “innumerable angels in festal gathering” and “the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel” (Heb 12:22–24). Admittedly, we know very little from Scripture about the intermediate state. Nearly all of the passages cited concerning heaven refer to the everlasting rather than the intermediate state.
2. OPPOSITION TO IMMEDIATE, CONSCIOUS EXISTENCE IN THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD
Several views have been put forward against the immediate, conscious existence of believers in the intermediate state.
(a) Soul sleep. Advocates of soul sleep, also known as psychopannychism, hold that upon one’s death the soul enjoys neither heaven nor hell during the intermediate state, but unconsciousness until the final judgment. A similar belief is thnetopsychism, which teaches that the soul also dies along with the body and both are raised together. Some who hold this position adopt an anthropological monism, denying the existence of a soul distinct from the body.
Although these views found few champions in church history, soul sleep of the first type seems to have enjoyed a revival at the time of the Reformation. In fact, Calvin wrote his first theological treatise against this view, defending the position most closely associated with early Jewish and Christian teaching: namely, that at “Abraham’s side,” the soul does survive the body at death, which is neither the new heavens and new earth of the consummation nor a place of suffering, but a place of intermediate joy in the presence of the Lord with his people. The Scriptures speak of the intermediate state as conscious existence, not soul sleep (Ps 16:10; 49:14–15; Ecc 12:7; Lk 16:22; 23:43; Php 1:23; 2 Co 5:8; Rev 6:9–11; 14:13).
A variation of thnetopsychism is defended by Wolfhart Pannenberg as the restorationist theory. A similar perspective was suggested by G. C. Berkouwer.14 According to this view, Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus cannot be considered historical even if one adopts the traditional view, since the existence of the one in hell and the other in heaven presupposes that the final judgment has already taken place. Accordingly, as George Eldon Ladd concluded, the scope of this parable is not the intermediate state but “the hardness and obduracy” of the Pharisees who “refuse to accept the witness of Scripture to the person of Jesus.”
In my judgment, Ladd’s exegesis is entirely sound. Jesus’ parables are never historical narratives or doctrinal descriptions, and they all concentrate on the kingdom as it is dawning in Christ’s person and work. Yet the fact still remains that even in Sheol, believers are “gathered to [their] fathers” and are conscious of being in the presence of God and the saints, even when their body lies in the grave. The contrast between the wicked and believers is that the latter will be brought out of the pit of death (Sheol) and see the light of life (Ps 49:7–15), “for you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption. You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Ps 16:10–11). Jesus told the believing criminal, “Today you will be with me in Paradise” (Lk 23:43), even though Jesus himself would not be raised until the third day, and when he died he called out, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (v. 46).
The body, apart from the soul, is dead (Jas 2:26), yet for believers, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Co 5:8). Neither the everlasting consummation nor unconsciousness, this intermediate state is God’s preservation of the personal consciousness of believers in his presence awaiting the resurrection of the dead. In the book of Revelation, “the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne” cry out from before God’s throne, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?’ ” (Rev 6:9–10). Conscious of their blessedness, the souls of the martyrs are also conscious that their complete salvation has not yet been fully realized.
At the same time, it should not be surprising that the resurrection of the body was especially pushed to the forefront with “the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Ti 1:10). Christianity therefore does not build on the pagan ruins of the immortality of the soul, but brings “immortality to light through the gospel.” It is an immortality that is bestowed as a gift in the resurrection, not a given of our nature as such. In other words, immortality finds its definition in eschatology and soteriology rather than anthropology.
(b) Postmortem salvation. Another challenge to immediate, conscious existence in the Lord’s presence is the concept of postmortem salvation. Since the ancient church there have been those who have argued that the intermediate state offers the opportunity for condemned souls to repent and be saved. This view is increasingly attractive especially among Christians who want to affirm both the possibility of salvation for non-Christians and the necessity of hearing and responding to the gospel. However, this position is also contradicted by passages that teach explicitly the decisiveness of repentance and faith in this life, followed by judgment (Lk 16:26; Heb 9:27; Gal 6:7–8).
(c) Purgatory. Also at odds with immediate, conscious presence of the soul with God is the Roman Catholic dogma of purgatory. According to this teaching, even if the guilt of sin is forgiven, the punishment for particular sins must be suffered before entrance into paradise. Purgatory is but an extension of the doctrine of penance, which denies the sufficiency of Christ’s active and passive obedience. If the guilt of our sins has been fully remitted, then punishment would be capricious and unjust. Besides contradicting central doctrines of the gospel, the idea that after people die they enter a state of purgation has no biblical support. Rather, the idea can be traced through Origen to the speculations of Plato and the Greco-Roman belief in three levels of existence in Hades: the lower region Tartarus (hell), a middle region for those who were neither good nor evil, and the Elysian Fields, often identified with the Isles of the Blessed.
The wide evidence of belief in a period of probation—of testing—before attaining everlasting glory in many religions may be considered a relic of the original covenant given to humanity in Adam. However, the Bible identifies this probation with the representative headship of Adam, recapitulated and fulfilled by the Last Adam. Non-Christian religions, however, place this trial in the hands of every person, to be fulfilled personally by works, if not in this life then in the next.
By contrast, some in early Judaism taught that the soul at death goes to Gehenna, a holding place for final resurrection and judgment, and, as we have already seen above, Jesus taught that while unbelievers go to Gehenna at death, believers are with him in paradise. Roman Catholic theology bases the idea of purgatory on 2 Maccabees 12:42–45, which speaks of Judas Maccabeus having “made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin.” However, this act of Judas Maccabeus was a large sum of money that he sent to the temple “for a sin offering.” This is precisely the background of the temple worship that the writer to the Hebrews (among others, including Jesus) says has come to an end with Christ’s sacrifice of himself. By using this apocryphal (i.e., noncanonical) verse as a proof text for purgatory, Roman Catholic interpretation returns to the shadows of the law after the reality has come. Those who die in mortal sin go directly to hell, but with few exceptions all believers die with some venial sins that must be atoned for.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church,
All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven. The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned. The Church formulated her doctrine of faith on Purgatory especially at the Councils of Florence and Trent.… The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead.
As for those who die in mortal sin, “the teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, ‘eternal fire.’ ”
The clear teaching of Scripture, however, is that every believer goes to be with the Lord upon death. Therefore, there is no point in praying for the dead, much less for purchasing indulgences, or otherwise expending effort on behalf of securing an earlier release of the departed from their punishments in purgatory. “Just as it is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes the judgment …” (Heb 9:27). Furthermore, it is just as clearly and centrally taught in Scripture that believers do not “achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven,” but are clothed in the righteousness and holiness of Christ’s sufficient merit.
-- Michael Horton, The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), 911–915.
There is of course much more to be said. Not the least of which is an exposition of two of the most important NT texts that bear on the topic: 2 Corinthians 5:1-10 and Philippians 1:21-23. A fine exposition on these two texts as they bear on the topic of the intermediate state has been written by Cornelis P. Venema, who is the author of The Promise of the Future, a most helpful book on biblical theology from a Reformed perspective. In an article in the Banner of Truth (Issue 497, February 2005), Venema writes:
The first of these texts is 2 Corinthians 5:1-10, a passage that follows immediately upon the heels of the apostle Paul's acknowledgement of death before the return of Christ (4:16-18). Though acknowledging this prospect of death and the dissolution of the earthly 'tent' of the body which death inevitably brings, the apostle declares his hope in the provision of a 'building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens' (5:1). He also declares his confidence that though death brings a diminishment of the believer's creaturely existence in bodily form, it will not separate the believer from fellowship with the Lord. For our purposes, the most relevant section of this passage is found in verses 6-9. After acknowledging in verse 2-5 the diminishment that death brings (the apostle Paul compares death in these verse to 'being unclothed'), we read:
Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord - for we walk by faith, not by sight - we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and be at home with the Lord. Therefore also we have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to him.
The contrast in these verses, between being 'at home in the body' and being 'away from the body,' and between being 'away from the Lord' and being 'with the Lord,' corresponds to the contrast between our present bodily experience and our subsequent bodiless existence after death. This contrast characterizes the respective states of believers before and after death. Thus, these verses affirm that death (being away from the body) means for the believer that he or she will be at home with the Lord.Venema writes the following about Philippians 1:21-23:
A second important text that affirms an intermediate state is Philippians 1:21-23. Here we find the Apostle Paul making a bold and initially startling declaration about the relative desirability of life and death:
For 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 which to choose. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better.
According to the apostle Paul, he finds himself torn between two desires. On the one hand, recognizing that 'to live is Christ' he find himself pulled in the direction of continued life in the flesh in which he can fruitfully labour for the church of Jesus Christ. But, on the other hand, recognizing that 'to die is gain' he finds himself pulled in the direction of wanting to depart in order to be with Christ.
The contrast in these verses, like that in 2 Corinthians 5:1-10, is drawn between life in the body and life (after death) apart from the body. Life in the body does not permit the more intensified communion and fellowship with Christ that only death, putting off the body, will bring. Again, though the expression to be 'with Christ' is not explained in any detail, it conveys the idea of a more intimate communion than that presently known or enjoyed.
Let me close this with a summary of the implications of the doctrines of Death and the Intermediate State which I’ve talked about in this post:
1. Death is to be expected by all, believer and unbeliever, except those who are alive when the Lord returns. We must take this fact seriously and live accordingly.
2. Although death is an enemy (God did not originally intend for the human to die), it has now been overcome and made captive to God. It therefore need not be feared, for its curse has been removed by the death and resurrection of Christ. It can be faced with peace, for we know that it now serves the Lord’s purpose of taking to himself those who have faith in him.
3. There is between death and resurrection a kind of intermediate state in which believers and unbelievers experience, respectively, the presence and absence of God. While these experiences are less intense than the final states, they are of the same qualitative nature.
4. In both this life and the life to come, the basis of the believer’s relationship with God is grace, not works. There need be no fear then, that our imperfections will require some type of postdeath purging before we can enter the full presence of God, no purgatory.
In the end, we should cast all our hopes upon the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our Savior. His good Gospel guarantees our safety in the life to come.
