Perhaps the most important question
of all time, to a lot of people, is, What happens after we die? Is there
life after death? This question has puzzled mankind since Adam, and
there are many different theories suggested. But God is rather
clear in the Bible on this subject, as He would be, since Scripture claims in
various places that He loves His children—so He would tell us “where we’re
moving to” when we die.
So, let’s study what the Word says on the “moving”
issue. Let’s promise ourselves that what the Scripture says is more
important than what our church says—after all, different church denominations
interpret it differently. I believe the correct doctrine includes
an intermediate state (we're not speaking of Catholic
beliefs). Few people believe this anymore--it has either been warped or
lost. Most Protestant denominations believe that saved people, after
death, immediately go to be with Christ. But there is an intermediate state—the
earliest church, by 100 AD, believed that—and it’s definitely in
Scripture. Let’s take a look at it.
The ONLY detailed explanation of life just beyond the grave
is found in Jesus’ account of the rich man and Lazarus. See Luke
16:22-31, where Jesus says:
22 So
it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s
bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 And being
in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar
off, and Lazarus in his bosom. 24 Then he cried and said,
‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of
his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this
flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your
lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but
now he is comforted and you are tormented. 26 And besides
all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who
want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’
27 “Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that
you would send him to my father’s house, 28 for I have
five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place
of torment.’ 29 Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and
the prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No,
father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 But
he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they
be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’”
What do we see in these
verses?
1) The previously poor man is in “Abraham’s bosom,” v.22. He
is “comforted.” The rich man is “afar off”—a “great gulf fixed”
away--suffering. They can communicate with one another, so they’re both likely
in the same place. That place, with saved and condemned people, is
called "hades" in most Bible translations-- which is a correct
rendering of the Greek word. Abraham's bosom is the” good” part of this
place, but the "hot" section is the bad part. Beware--some translations
use “hell” in Luke 16:23, which is a different Greek word not in this verse,
and as a result, Christians reject Luke 16 as a “stopover” for them.
2)Getting back to Scripture, the pagan is “in
torments.” He “cries out” in agony. Thirst is a serious problem, since a
flame is nearby. He has a
memory--he is well aware of his previous life, since he remembered his brothers
and now wants to see them saved from this. This adds to his anxiety, and adds
to his suffering.
3) As
vv 27-31 show, there is no way that someone in hades can warn those still
alive. There is no communication between dead and living. Thus, we
conclude that seances would be meaningless, today as well as then.
4)
Those who are I the “bad” side of hades
will all later be thrown into hell. Revelation 20:14:
Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This
is the second death
5)
Jesus, as the designer of hades, speaks through Abraham, and is tough on the former
rich man. He is willing to let him suffer, acknowledging “you are
tormented” --yet without relieving him—because it’s too late for persuasion.
Might as well let him see the judgement side of God. His ultimate destination of
hell is fixed. When the man complains of his suffering, Jesus through
Abraham even taunts him, reminding him of the reversal of roles for the two of
them—and telling him: those who want to pass
from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’ This
man is tormented by a flame—here and in the real hell—forever.
A dreaded and powerful
scene! I'm saying that these statements are based on reality; they are not just
a "parable." Modern theologians don't want to consider this a
doctrine, because it makes God look incompassionate. I don't think it is
a parable; it's a doctrine, since it has named Lazarus, and parables don’t give
names. Plus, this is the only place in Scripture for what happens right
after death. Let's imagine it was a parable--would Jesus set forth a deception
about what happens when we die--would He express an untruth on such an
important issue? Especially considering we know so little about this
important subject elsewhere in Scripture. Would He say, "Hah!
I fooled you. This story is all a lie about what happens beyond
death. Now that I’ve still left you in the dark, you can continue
worrying about it. I didn’t feel like giving a straight answer to this very
important question." I think not.
Part of the reason I believe this intermediate state, hades, is a truth is that
it fits in with other verses in Scripture:
(1) If we have faith
and live for the Lord, at death our spirit and our body separate from one
another: We are in the spirit, comforted by the Holy Spirit (shown by the
comfort of Abraham’s bosom).
(2) We know there will
be a day of judgment. We will see God’s uncompassionate wrath. Matthew 25:31-32,
using the New King James version:
“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels
with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. 32 All
the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one
from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. 33 And
He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then
the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35 for
I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I
was a stranger and you took Me in.
An unfortunate aside: The
word "nations" is a poor translation from the Greek
"ethnos," which really means "a multitude of people of the same
nature." Using “nations” gives you the impression that an entire nation is
a sheep, or an entire nation is a goat. That gives you the impression that one
nation might end up on His right, going to heaven, but another nation ends up
on the left, or going to hell. But it cannot be that everyone in a nation will
be judged the same, and all of its people are sheep, or another nation has all
of its people lost. No, Scripture is clear that we are all individually judged. Perhaps verse 32 should read “All the people
will be gathered…” Or, I like the NIV:
All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will
separate the people one from another…(Unfortunately, the usually reliable NKJV above has “nation”
and then “He will separate them ( nations?) one from another…” My point in these verses is, nobody on the hell-side
is allowed to argue against the terribleness that awaits. You could be on the
right, and looking at your relative on the left. You know you will never see
them again. Imagine that.
(3) At the Judgment,
the unsaved people, from the "bad" side of hades, went to hell; and
the saved sheep, from the comforted in spirit side, get their bodies
resurrected, and then salvation is complete. Like Jesus, then we will
have new body and spirit--all perfect, all desirous of doing His will
(finally).
(4) Yet another reason to
believe in this Scripture as God’s version of the intermediate state is that
this was universally believed by the earliest church fathers; they were
brilliant men in their knowledge of Scripture, and believed it was truth.
They knew their Greek backward and forward, they knew the culture, they could
have asked questions of the apostles, and got answers, or from someone only a
generation removed from them. Consider also that that early church was
the most dynamic and godly church in history; so I believe their theology was
accurate, and God blessed them because of that by touching their evangelism
greatly.
Now here are other
supporting Scriptures for the intermediate state:
1. Luke
23:43 records Jesus’ words on the Cross to the dying and just-saved thief
alongside:
And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today
you will be with Me in Paradise.”
What's
Paradise? Think with me: if the saved poor man’s first stopover after
death, from Luke 16, is “Abraham’s bosom,” as we saw above, and if the first
stopover for the just-saved thief is in “paradise,” we have to conclude
paradise is the same thing as Abraham’s bosom. Namely, the good side of
hades. We conclude that paradise is NOT heaven, but an intermediate
state, hades.
2. Jesus
went to hades too, when He died, as proved by Matthew 12:40 and parts of Acts
2:22-27, Here are the words of Jesus:
For
as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so
will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the
earth
Here
are the words of Peter:
“Men
of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by
miracles, wonders, and signs…you have taken by lawless hands, have
crucified, and put to death; 24 whom God raised up, having
loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held
by it. 25 For David says concerning Him: Moreover
my flesh also will rest in hope.27 For You will not
leave my soul in hades, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption
From Psalm 16:10).
So
Jesus did not die and go straight to heaven because He was in "the heart
of the earth," which is definitely not heaven; nor did He go to hell,
called “gehenna” in Greek, the lake of fire, a different Greek word than the
two verses above. The only choice left is
that He went to the good side of hades. Jesus told the thief that he was going
to paradise with Him--yet the two verses above clearly show, He went to
hades. If the good thief was going to join him, hades can’t be hell,
because it makes no sense that the good thief would go to hell. This is proof
that hades and hell are not the same thing. Jesus is explaining hades in Luke
16. It makes sense that hades is deep in the earth. Jesus’ soul did not
remain in hades long—three days and nights; He then went to heaven.
These
truths about the intermediate state were so universally believed by the
earliest Christians that it became part of the original Apostles’
Creed: I believe in God the Father Almighty…and in Jesus
Christ…was crucified, dead and buried. He descended to hades (the
proper translation of the Greek word, which agrees with other verses we’ve
examined); on the third day rose from the dead…
3. John
14:1-3:
“Let
not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In
My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I
would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And
if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you
to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
Note
the underlined phrase. Jesus is saying that at His Second Coming (not
before), “where I am (heaven), there you may be also.” This proves that when the righteous die, they
do not go immediately to heaven to be with Jesus. Why? Well, Jesus
flatly tells them that they don’t get there until His Second Coming, the
resurrection, when all the saved go up there at the same time. He has to “come
again” (His second coming) and "receive" us, and then the
saved go up to heaven. If we were already in heaven when we die, He would
not have to “come (to earth) again” to get us. No, the truth is, our
spirits are in the heart of the earth, in hades, waiting to join our new body
for "pick up.” The pick up will be better than a really hot hot air
balloon, better than being the delivery token for an Amazon drone. And our
body? Well, speaking for myself—I will lose the fat and flabby and creaky.
4.
John 5:28-29:
Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who
are in the graves will hear His voice 29 and come forth—those
who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil,
to the resurrection of condemnation.
Thus, both groups will “come forth” (at
the second coming) to the Judgment, possibly at the same time. If that’s the
case, hades will be emptied all at once. It gets true believers, soul and
body, from hades to heaven, not from heaven to heaven+ body.
Hopefully these many Scriptures will be
convincing. But, you ask, "I don't think anyone teaches this, how
can it be correct?" Well, many Mennonites, some Brethren, some
Amish, some in the Restoration movement, some conservative Anglicans still
teach this. Am I saying, most of us has had it wrong for centuries?
How could that be? The speculation is, teaching on the intermediate state,
believed by the early church fathers’ writings, has gotten dropped because the Protestant
Reformation (Luther, Calvin) tried to get as far away from the Catholics’ false
teachings, including purgatory. Purgatory, the Catholic idea of the
intermediate state, teaches that (a) the intermediate state can cleanse your
sins and (b) it can change final status. Double False. Scripture shows
that hades (the real intermediate state) does not change final status,
as we saw in Luke. The sincere pleadings of the rich man were greeted
coldly. He encountered Jesus not as merciful, but as an uncompassionate Judge.
Remember, few are saved (Matthew 7:14). We are shocked and sometimes
uncomfortable about seeing this "negative side" of God. (That
might explain why theologians can’t connect Luke 16 with a real doctrine). But God
doesn't think as we do. We cannot imagine, for instance, how deep is
God’s hatred about sin. If you’re unsaved when you go into hades, you’re
unsaved when you go out. Period. There is no Scriptural basis for
“cleansing from sin” in that state either. The idea that you can purge
your own sin is completely false and anti-Biblical, as Scripture points out, and I point out in many
blogs. Jesus has done that cleansing from sin for us. The “works vs faith” argument was what
kick-started the Reformation—a just movement, but it went to wrong theology on
some minor points to get away from looking Catholic. (Yes, this discussion
is minor when you consider “how can I get to heaven?” THAT’S major.)
Next,
Catholicism teaches that there is a special status for those the Church
classified as “saints”—they get to go straight to heaven. Everybody else
has to go to purgatory to “work off” their sins. False. Scripture
is clear that everyone saved is a saint. It’s fixed at death. Also, there
are no “status” Christians. Philippians 1:1 says:
Paul
and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus
who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons.
If saints are the
“status” Christians, why is Paul calling every Christian a “saint,” and, oh
yes, let’s not forget the separate listing of bishops and deacons as saints.
How do you explain that?
John
Calvin, who formulated many Protestant doctrines (not my favorite person, as I
have a blog on him), dropped the intermediate state doctrine totally. So
both Catholics and most “mainline” Protestants have it wrong. You’ve got
to read Scripture for yourselves, folks. They had an agenda.
PS. This explanation of the “order of events” is simple and
uncomplicated, as long as you don't believe in a separate Rapture. Keep
in mind, a separate rapture means that Jesus comes three times, which is
un-Scriptural. They're saying, first coming was His Incarnation; second,
His "rapture;" third, His coming in judgment. I have a separate
series of blogs challenging this. If you DO believe in a Rapture, the
explanation for how 'who goes to heaven when' twists Scripture around like a
pretzel to figure out. I won't even try; somehow I feel that God would make it
simple to figure out the important question of "where do we go when we
die?" But people have “itching ears,” and are oh-so willing to lean away
from Scripture.
A
verse that the "straight to heaven" crowd likes: Philippians
1:23:
For
I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with
Christ, which is far better.
Paul
is not stating hard-and fast theology. He is just personally wondering which is
better--to live and support Christians, or to die and be with Christ? He could
mean “eventually” on that second option. Consider also that the Holy Spirit
could be in hades with the spirit of a Christian after death, so He is
"with" us in hades. So this verse, with the personal element, does
not lock the case for the "straight to heaven" group.
Another
favorite of theirs is Act 7:56, 59, at the martyrdom of Stephen:
and
(Stephen) said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man
standing at the right hand of God!” 59 And they stoned Stephen as he
was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
Well, Stephen is the first New Testament
martyr; plus, he has just given a severe verbal admonishment to the Jews about
their history defying God, and Jesus could be confirming or comforting him by
showing up. Naturally, a man near death would react by saying,
"Jesus, receive my spirit." Keep in mind, that's what a man
is quoting, and not necessarily God. Think of the musings of Job in
Scripture; they're not all correct for doctrine.
Finally, II Corinthians 5:8:
We
are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be
present with the Lord.
This
is clearly the "straight to heaven" folks' favorite verse. But...when
there are abundant verses above telling us differently, should we believe that
God changed the doctrine, and only indicated the change by this one
verse? Would God do that on such an important teaching as "where we
go when we die?"
So,
as I'm speaking with mostly "straight to heaven" crowd--we should
consider opening our mind to a different definition of these verses in Luke 16.
What I see is, none of
these ‘contrary’ verses lock down the "straight to heaven" idea. My
many verses on the intermediate state logically string together a solid case
for the good side of hades, then later heaven at His second coming.
It's
not a new idea. After all, it was doctrinal by the believing Jews, then
believed by the young church for another 600 years, then the Catholic church
perverted it. Then it was dropped by most.
If
you want to know more about what Scripture really says on How Do You Get Saved,
you need to know that Catholics and many Protestants have not emphasized the
right doctrine as well. I have a blog just on salvation, and
another on initial and final salvation. Also, though, would be to read
the Gospels over and over, noting what Jesus says on that very subject.
He is quite clear.
Acknowledgement:
David Bercot, CD, “Life After Death." Scroll Publishing
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