The Christian Faith The End Times 1
1
ONE MINUTE AFTER DEATH
(The Intermediate State)
by
Bob Marcaurelle
Copyright 2009 by Bob Marcaurelle
A man laughed at a Christians comments about life after death, and said, “The only thing we can prove about a human being is that he is made of things like sulfur, iron, magnesium and water.” The Christian ignored the man and kept on talking.
The man sneered, “You can’t answer me can you?” The Christian said, “I can answer, but I am not in the habit of talking to a pile of sulfur, iron, magnesium and water.”
Death The term “death” means to cut or separate. When we die, the person we are, what we call the soul or spirit does not cease to exist; we enter the presence of God. Jesus’ dying prayer was, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” (Luke 23) Before that He had the criminal on the cross who trusted in Him, “Today, you will be with Me in Paradise.” (Luke 23)
That day, both of their bodies were buried, but they (who they were as persons) were alive and well in heaven. Looking death in the face Paul bravely said his desire was to be “absent from the body and present with the Lord.” (Philippians 1)
Scientists tell us we weigh less after death; and in recent years many people with near death experiences have reported leaving their bodies and looking down on them from above.
One little girl brought back to life, named people in the crowd around her. This may or may not be true. We base our beliefs on the afterlife, on the resurrection of Jesus.
For forty days after His resurrection, He talked, touched and ate with the disciples; and thousands of others (1 Corinthians 15:1f /Acts 1:1f). This and this alone explains the thousands of conversions in the Book of Acts (Chapters 1-6).
These converts were no doubt being beaten, robbed of their homes, and disowned by their families. And they could have easily found out if Jesus’ body was still in the grave.
Life is real, life is earnest
And the grave is not its goal
“Dust thou art and to dust returneth
Was not written of the soul.
The Intermediate (In Between) State Before The Return and Resurrection
At death we know our eternal destiny of heaven or hell. The saved go immediately into the presence of the Lord. Paul saw death as being “Absent from the body and present with the Lord.” (Philippians 2) Peter says they are “kept under punishment until the day of Judgment.” (2 Peter 2:9)
We do not, however, receive our resurrection bodies until the Return of Christ at the end of this age. At death we are with the Lord and when He comes back to earth, we will come back with Him and our bodies will rise from the ground and clothe our spirits for all eternity.
Our fellow Christians who are on earth with be changed and caught up to be with us and the Lord in the air. Paul wrote to those who will be on earth when Jesus returns:
1 Thessalonians 4:16
“God will bring with Jesus those who have
fallen asleep (died) in Him. We who are alive and remain will not go before those who sleep (bodies) for the trumpet will sound and the dead in Christ will rise (their bodies) first.”
1 Corinthians 15:52-53
“the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. And..”
1 Thessalonians 4:17-18
“after that we who are alive and left will be caught up (the rapture) to meet the Lord in the air.”
The Mystery of the Time Between
The intermediate state, between our death and our return with the Lord, is an extremely difficult subject; and is open to many different interpretations. We who are bound to this earth and its images cannot even imagine heavenly realities.
For example, this is why Paul says it is “foolish” to ask what kind of body we will have in eternity and compares that body and the one we have now as being as different as an acorn and an oak tree. (1 Corinthians 15:35)
The Bible does not tell us much. When it does, it often uses symbolic language, and it’s hard to know what is literal and what is not.
A. CHRISTIANS AFTER DEATH
The wonderful hymn that says, “We’re marching to Zion” is based on:
Hebrews 12:1 / 22-23
“We have a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us/You have come to Mount Zion to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God.
You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn whose names are written in heaven.
You have come to God, the Judge of all men, and to the spirits of righteous men (people) made perfect, and to Jesus.”
1. We are not in Purgatory
The Roman Catholic Church teaches that the sacrifice of Christ pays for original sin and all sins committed up to the time of our baptism.
Sin after baptism must be paid for by us before we can be allowed into heaven. Our payments began in this life with things like, penance, self torture, gifts to the church, etc.
But this is not enough, so God sends us to a place called “purgatory”, where we are purged and made ready for heaven.
This is not found in the Bible. The idea comes from 2 Maccabees; a book written between Malachi (400BC) and Matthew. It comes also from a false understanding of Matthew 12:31ff and 1 Corinthians 3:11-15, where Jesus talks about people receiving forgiveness “in the next life” and where Paul speaks of believers being, “saved by fire”.
Neither of these point to a Christian suffering after death. When we sin after salvation, 1 John says to Christians (5:11-13),
1 John 1:7-2:2
“The blood of His Son, Jesus Christ, keeps on cleansing us of all sin.” “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. / If anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father; Jesus Christ the righteous One, who is the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
Spurgeon says he will be with Jesus and if it is purgatory, being with Jesus would make it heaven.
Limbo
From the time of Augustine (350-400’s) the term for “edge” or “fringe” (limbus) was taught to be a place of torture for unbaptized babies; not in hell, but on the edge or fringes. Modern Catholics tend to lessen the idea of torture and see it more as the loss of salvation.
Protestant Conservatives in the Calvinist tradition aren’t much better. Cotton Mather spoke of babies crawling through the flames of hell. No wonder people are so prone to reject the Christianity they hear about.
2. We are Awake
Most Christians believe that Christians after death are active and conscious. Hebrews 12 pictures us worshipping with the angels and the saints of all the ages, in the presence of God and Jesus.
In Revelation 6, the souls of martyrs under the altar ask God when He will avenge their deaths. Moses and Elijah were sent back to encourage Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17).
The many passages, like Daniel 12:1-2, which speak of dead believers and unbelievers as asleep, we believe refer to the bodies and not the souls.
Not all agree. Good conservatives, especially from the Lutheran Church, believe that the moment we die, we find ourselves instantly, with all the saints of all the ages, at the Return of Christ, and the end of the world as we know it.
This is known as “soul sleep”, and is like going through surgery. The needle goes in and the next thing we know, instantly, the surgery is over, and we have no recollection of the hours in between.
They get this from passages describing the dead as sleeping. They also point to Samuel. When brought back from death to talk with King Saul, he said, “Why have you disturbed me?” (1 Samuel 28)
Also, they say, when Lazarus was raised three days after dying and, as far as we know, he knew or said nothing about where he had been. They take the activity passages symbolically. For example, when the saints under the altar in Revelation 5 cry out for justice, they compare it to Genesis 4 which says, “the blood of Abel cried out to God” for justice.
3. We are with Jesus and God
Jesus told the criminal, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43) That day his body was taken down, buried, and began to decay.
But he, who he was as a person, was alive and well, walking down Hallelujah Avenue with the Son of God. And where was Jesus? He was with the Father.
He told His disciples he was going back to the Father (John 14) and it was to the Father that He committed His spirit (Luke 23:46). So if we go to be with Jesus, we go to be with the Father.
God is Spirit and we will never see Him, but in heaven His glory is there. The only God we will ever see is Jesus Christ. When the Bible speaks of Jesus at the right hand of the Father, we are not to see an old man and the young Jesus.
When God revealed Himself to Israel, he came as “blinding light”--the Shekinah glory. Revelation 21:23 says the glory of God is the light of heaven and Jesus, the Lamb, is the lamp. He holds all the light we can see and live. Beyond Him we will never go, because we cannot, and we do not need to. Jesus, the glory light of heaven is God’s eternal point of contact with the human race.
4. We are in Heaven
All this makes it clear that at death we are in heaven, and as we will see, the lost are in hell. It is not the full or final heaven because our fellow Christians who come after us are not there, and the full impact of our lives, that helps determine rewards has not run it course.
Revelation 14:13 says, “Our works follow after us.” Also, the final heaven will include this planet and this universe. (Revelation 21-22 / 2 Peter 3:10-13).
Paradise Many believe that at death we go to a temporary stopping place on the way to heaven or hell. The saved go to “paradise” or “Abraham’s bosom” and the unsaved go to “hades”.
Paradise was the Persian word for “garden” and between Malachi and the birth of Jesus the Jews adopted it as a word for heaven. It pictured heaven to them as the “Garden of Eden” restored.
Paul speaks of the time when he was caught up “into paradise”; into the “third heaven.” (2 Corinthians 12:2-4) To the Jew there were three heavens: the first or atmospheric heaven, where birds fly; the second, or space, where stars are; and the third, where God is.
Jesus, returning to heaven and the Father, said He was going to paradise (Luke 23:43). In Revelation 2:7 faithful Christians are promised the right to eat from the “tree of life” which is in “the paradise of God”.
And Revelation 22:1-2 says the tree of life is beside the river that flows from “the throne of God and the Lamb.”
Abraham’s Bosom and Hades In His parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:22-23) Jesus said the unsaved man was being punished in hades and Lazarus blessed at Abraham’s bosom.
Hades translates “sheol” in the Old Testament and is best translated with the word “the afterlife.” Jesus was saying in the next life or afterlife the man was being punished in hell.
Abraham’s Bosom was not a place were the Old Testament saints were until Jesus’ sacrifice set them free. The word “bosom” pointed to the Jewish family meal with friends, where people lay on their sides. It means basically fellowship with Old Testament saints in heaven.
5. We are Worshipping (Hebrews 12:22-23)
This beautiful picture of saints and angels in “joyful assembly” should not be taken so literally, that we see ourselves in church all the time, singing hymns and praising God. All of heaven, and one day of the Universe, is God’s Temple; and every act, whatever we are doing, is worshipful service. The word “worship” means to elevate and to value something, and our whole existence will be one of love, joy and praise as we lift up God as the greatest of the greatest.
6. We are Reigning with Christ
Revelation 20:1-6
“I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony
for Christ. They came to life and
reigned with Christ a thousand years /
This is the first resurrection.”
Some see Revelation 20 as a thousand year reign of Christ upon the earth before the final Judgment. This scene is where Jesus is, where souls are, and where thrones are; and in Revelation all three are always pictured in heaven.
7. Do We Agonize?
Revelation 6:9-11 NIV
“When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar, the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They called out in a loud voice: ‘How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?’
Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to rest (be at peace; wait peacefully and patiently) a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed.”
Are those we love and are in heaven right now really worried and perplexed? Are we living under an altar? These sound like earthly symbols of blessed realities in heaven.
For example, after Cain killed Abel, God said, “The voice of your brother’s blood is crying out to Me from the ground.” (Genesis 4:10) We certainly don’t believe “blood” talks and we know the passage means the feelings of the martyrs who suffered speak volumes to God.
8. We are Not Far Away (John 20:26 / Acts 7:56)
At His baptism Jesus saw the heavens torn open and He heard the voice of God. (Matthew 3:16) After His resurrection, He would just “appear” in locked rooms; having no need to open any door. (John 20:26) When Stephen was being stoned, he cried out,
Acts 7:56
“Look! I see heaven opened up and the
Son of Man (Jesus) standing at the
right hand of God.”
The distance to heaven should not be calculated in miles. Like unseen radio and TV waves that fill this room, heaven is on another dimension. Those we love and have lost for awhile, are only a whisper away.
9. Do We Minister on Earth?
(Acts 1:3 /1 Samuel 28 / Mark 9:4)
After his death Jesus ministered to the disciples for forty days. (Acts 1:1) Samuel was brought back to pronounce judgment upon Saul. (1 Samuel 28) Moses and Elijah came to earth in visible form to encourage Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. (Mark 9:4)
Norman Vincent Peale, who founded Guideposts Magazine, was a very intelligent man, not given to emotional excesses. Yet he told how, in deep depression, sitting on the pulpit platform; he saw his dad, dead for 12 years, walk down the aisle and smile at him. He told how God used that to give him new courage.
The Danger We should never limit God and it could well be that loved ones can be sent back, and many stories like Peale’s have come up in church history. The danger in this is that we might be tempted, in our grief, to try and communicate with the dead; something strictly forbidden in Scripture. (Deuteronomy 18:11; Leviticus 19:31; 20:6)
10. Do We Have Bodies?
2 Corinthians 5:1-5
“We know that if the earthly tent we live
in is destroyed, we HAVE a building from God, an eternal house in heaven...We groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked.”
Most Protestants believe that we exist as spirits in the next life until Jesus returns and we receive our new body. There are hints, however, that we might have some kind of temporary, visible form or body after death.
In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul seems horrified at the thought of his soul or spirit being “found naked” (5:3) after death. He says when this body (tent) is dissolved at death;
2 Corinthians 5
“We have (present tense) a building, not made with hands (5:1) /When we are clothed, we will not be found naked.”
Luke 16 speaks of the thirst of the Rich man’s tongue. Revelation 6 talks about the saved crying out and wearing white robes. This does not prove we have bodies because the Bible speaks of God’s eyes and ears and hands, etc., yet God is “spirit.” (John 4:24)
Probably the best we can say is that we have some kind of recognizable form, but will not get our final resurrection body until we return with the Lord.
11. Do We Witness Earth’s Events?
Hebrews 12:1
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by
such a great cloud of witnesses, let us
throw off everything that hinders...”
Is the Bible speaking here of people described in Hebrews 11 watching us? Good people divide. I don’t personally believe they are watching us like spectators in a grandstand. Jesus will tell them anything they need to know.
But if they are aware of what is happening on earth, they aren’t burdened or worried. They have looked at the last page of the Bible and at the face of Jesus; and they know WE WON.
In golf tournaments those who finish the last hole (18) often stay there until all the others come in. They may see some in the distance, some in creeks, some fighting briars, and some angry over missed putts. But all is joy because they know their friends will make it and like them, finish 18 and join them on the hillsides of glory.
B. UNSAVED PEOPLE AFTER DEATH
2 Peter 2:9
“(The Lord) knows how to hold the unrighteous under punishment until the day of Judgment.”
The Bible says very little about the state of the lost or the saved after death. The Book of Job looks forward to standing bodily on the earth before God (19:25-27), but after that the Old Testament is very vague. It pictures all men going to sheol or hades; the grave (Genesis 37:35) or the afterlife; but gives few details.
Hell Fire Between the Testaments, (400BC-AD1), largely from Persian influence, the Jewish people spoke more and more of the bliss of the people of God after death and the torment of God’s enemies. One book written during this time spoke of “a place of rest” and others in a “pit of torment.” (2 Esdras 7:36)
This was also when fire came in as a symbol of hell’s suffering. The term for this eventually became “gehenna” (the valley of Hinnom south of Jerusalem’s walls). This was the garbage dump for the huge city where the fires burning the refuse never went out. Jesus, being a Jew, using the terms of the Jews, used it for hell. (Matthew 5:22)
He also pictured it as the “outer darkness” where there will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 8:12) John called it the “lake of fire.” (Revelation 20) Jesus had this in mind when He pictured the lost rich man in the afterlife – hades, being “tormented in flames.” (Luke 16)
Gentile Pictures When Christianity went out to the Gentile world, the Apostles dropped the symbol of “fire” and used Gentile symbols like prison, pits, chains, and dark dungeons.
1 Peter 3:18
“He (Christ) was put to death in the body
but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits
in prison, who disobeyed long ago...in the days of Noah.”
2 Peter 2: 4
“The Lord committed the angels that sinned to ‘tartarus’ (To throw into a pit) / and kept them there in ‘gloomy pits’.” (Some old Manuscripts have “chains of darkness.”)
Jude 6
“The angels who did not stay in their position/He (God) has kept in ‘deep darkness’/‘bound with everlasting chains’ for Judgment on that great day/They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of everlasting fire (Jewish picture again).”
Conclusion
It is amazing how people dread the end of the world, when the end of the world for each of us comes at death. Let us all be trusting Jesus, living for Jesus, and telling others about Jesus; so that if He comes to us in death or in the Second Coming, we will not be afraid or ashamed.
Right now, sins and all, questions and all; give your sins to Jesus and trust that His sacrifice has purchased forgiveness for all of them and for all you ever will commit. Give Him your life to change and control and He will work in you the miracle of new birth; giving you the desire and the power to live a life of love for Him.
A lawyer pushed a young boy from the path of an oncoming car and was crippled by the car. Years later that boy, guilty of murder, appeared before that lawyer, now a judge, for sentencing. He sentenced him to die and the young man asked, “How could you, who saved my life, now take it?” The judge said, “Back then, I was your savior; but today, I am your judge.”
Many people who have died and “come back” tell of “seeing a light” and feeling “peace” and “love”. Many of them are not Christians, but this should not surprise us. God is love and all men go to that love at death. But those unwilling to admit sin and seek forgiveness in Christ have rejected that love. He died for them and is to them a Savior they rejected; so He is their Judge. If songs rise from hell, this will be the main one:
Of all sad words of tongue or pen
the saddest are these, “It might have been.”
No “In Between”
Growing up with a sensitive conscience and the habit of attending church, I was never an evil person and I never felt I was not a Christian. I believed God loved me and Jesus died for me, and when I sinned I asked for forgiveness and help. I was not committed to live for Jesus, but I was not “against” Him. I felt like I was in between serving Jesus and serving myself and the devil.
At age 22 I made the commitment to live for the Lord and even though I didn’t know the term, I was repenting; and since God was doing it in me (Hebrews 6:6), I was being changed on the inside or being “born again” (John 3). Later I learned these words from Jesus, “He who is not for me is against me.” (Luke 11:23)
Today is the day of salvation. None of us are promised tomorrow. Right now give Jesus your sins to forgive and your life to control and change.
A man saw these words on a tombstone:
“Pause stranger, as you pass by / As you are now, so once was I
As I am now, so you will be / So be prepared to follow me.”
He wrote below it:
“To follow you I’m not content / until I know which way you went!”
