What Happens Between Death and Christ's Return?

By John @ http://thereformedbaptistthinker.blogspot.com/

This weekend, I am posting my next-to-last response to a question in my Systematic Theology III class. As usual, I have given the question followed by the answer I turned in.

List the four major positions on the nature of the Intermediate State. Which do you think is the most in accord with the Bible? Suppose for the sake of argument that you decide that the “unconscious intermediate state” position is correct. A church member comes to you and says, “My mother died recently. She was truly a believer, I have no doubt about that. Can you tell me if she is with the Lord right now as we speak?” What would you say?What happens to Christians after their deaths but before Jesus Christ returns? This classic and difficult question falls into the theological category of the "intermediate state." Christians today do not agree on what the Bible teaches regarding this subject, leading to different views held by various believers. Once we understand the four major positions of the nature of the intermediate state, we will be able to assess the perspective which is most in accord with the Bible. Then we will be able to apply our conclusions to a practical situation.The most common belief is that a Christian's soul goes to be with the Lord in a disembodied state upon death. Several biblical passages are used to support this view. In the Old Testament, Ecclesiastes 12:7 states the following about death: "and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it." While the physical body is buried in the ground, God takes back the spirit. In the New Testament, Acts 7:59 recounts the death of the first Christian martyr: "And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.'" Here, Stephen asks Jesus to receive his spirit or soul, not his body. Additionally, the Apostle Paul says, "I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord" (2 Corinthians 5:8). Paul contrasts being in his body on earth and being with the Lord upon death. Taken together, these passages seem to teach a Christian having a conscious but disembodied state when he or she dies. They await Jesus' Second Coming to be united to their resurrection bodies.However, this view is not the only one.

Another position held is that a Christian's soul goes to sleep, not having consciousness until the Second Coming of Christ. The main Scriptural support for "soul sleep" is the often-used imagery of sleep to refer to death (1 Corinthians 11:30, 15:1ff; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, 5:10; 2 Peter 3:4). Taking the usage of sleep literally, proponents of this view believe the souls of Christians will wake up upon Christ's return to receive their glorified bodies.

A third position is that Christians have some kind of bodily existence at death, but these bodies will be completed at the Second Coming of Christ. The main text used for this view is 2 Corinthians 5:1-10. While verse 8 was mentioned earlier, the imagery Paul uses in this passage seems to indicate gaining a body at death: "For we know that if the tent, which is our earthly home, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (v. 1). Therefore, Christians should look forward to gaining a body at death which will be completed when Jesus comes back.

Forth, some maintain that Christians receive their final resurrection bodies at death. Employing the same passage from the previous view, adherents note that the body mentioned in 2 Corinthians 5:1-10 is not an incomplete body but an eternal, heavenly body. As a result, believers do not need to wait until the Second Coming to receive their glorified bodies. One is clothed with this perfect and immortal body at death.Which position is correct? I believe the biblical view is that the soul goes to be with the Lord in a disembodied state. "Soul sleep" takes the New Testament imagery of sleep too far. Sleep is used metaphorically to refer to death. Receiving the glorified body at death cannot be correct either, since the New Testament connects the resurrection of the dead with the Second Coming of Christ.

As for the remaining perspective, I admit that interpreting 2 Corinthians 5:1-10 is complex. However, it ultimately does not lend itself to a position of some kind of bodily existence at death. Synthesizing all of the biblical data regarding the intermediate state, I recognize that the conscious, disembodied soul at death is what Scripture teaches.

With this conclusion in mind, what would I do if a church member came to me and asked: "My mother died recently. She was truly a believer, I have no doubt about that. Can you tell me if she is with the Lord right now as we speak?" My reply would begin as a simple one. Yes, if your mother was a believer in Christ, she is with the Lord. The Apostle Paul desired "to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord." Followers of Christ will be with their Lord at death.At the same time, this situation is not the end. The Apostle Paul comforts Christians grieving over the loss of fellow believers: "For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). Those who have died in Christ will be raised whole—with perfect, glorified bodies (1 Corinthians 15:35ff). And most importantly, we will always be with the Lord. As Paul goes on to say, "Therefore encourage one another with these words" (1 Thessalonians 4:18). We are comforted with the assurance that Christ has conquered death. When he returns, Christ will usher in a new heaven and a new earth, where his disciples will live. And "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away" (Revelation 21:4).

Until then, the intermediate state will be one where genuine believers will be consciously present with the Lord, but disembodied as they wait for their resurrection bodies. This truth should result in great encouragement and comfort for Christians.