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Course 10 · Lesson 6.1

Death and the intermediate state

12 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 10 outline

Module 1: Sin and Human Nature

  1. Human beings in the image of God
  2. The fall in Scripture: Genesis 3 and Romans 5
  3. Original sin in Augustine and the Western tradition
  4. Ancestral sin and mortality in the Eastern tradition

Module 2: Grace and Free Will

  1. Pelagius and Augustine
  2. The church responds: semi-Pelagianism and the Council of Orange
  3. Luther and Erasmus on the bondage of the will
  4. Monergism and synergism across the traditions

Module 3: Justification and Sanctification

  1. Justification in Paul and James
  2. Justification by faith alone in the Lutheran and Reformed traditions
  3. The Catholic teaching and the Council of Trent
  4. Sanctification, holiness and theosis
  5. Recent ecumenical discussion of justification

Module 4: Predestination and Election

  1. Election and predestination in Scripture
  2. Augustine, Aquinas and Calvin on predestination
  3. Arminius, Wesley and conditional election
  4. Eastern and Catholic views on election and foreknowledge

Module 5: Atonement, Redemption and Adoption

  1. Atonement and its extent: for whom did Christ die?
  2. Redemption: the images of ransom, freedom and return
  3. Adoption: sons and daughters of God
  4. The order of salvation across the traditions

Module 6: Death, Resurrection and Judgment

  1. Death and the intermediate state
  2. The resurrection of the dead in Scripture and the creeds
  3. The final judgment: Christ the judge
  4. Purgatory, the Orthodox practice of praying for the dead, and the Protestant objection

Module 7: Heaven, Hell and the New Creation

  1. Heaven and the vision of God
  2. Hell: eternal torment, annihilationism and universal hope
  3. The fate of those who have not heard the gospel
  4. The new heavens and the new earth

Module 8: The Millennium and Christian Eschatological Traditions

  1. Revelation and apocalyptic literature
  2. Premillennial views, historic and dispensational
  3. Amillennial and postmillennial views
  4. Preterist, historicist and futurist approaches
  5. What the traditions hold in common about the end

All courses

Program / Course 10: Salvation and Eschatology / Lesson 6.1

What you will learn

  • Define the intermediate state and explain why the question arises.
  • Read the main biblical texts on what happens between death and resurrection.
  • Compare the views that the soul is conscious with Christ, that it sleeps, and that a person is wholly recreated at the resurrection.
  • State the Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Reformed and Wesleyan teaching.

The big idea

Christians confess that the dead will be raised at the last day. A question remains about the time between a person’s death and that day. Is the person with Christ at once? Asleep? In a place of waiting? The Bible gives images and not a map. Most churches teach that the dead remain in God’s keeping, the faithful in his presence and the wicked in judgment, while they await the resurrection of the body. They differ in how they describe the waiting, and whether purification is needed.

Key terms

Intermediate state
The condition of a person between death and the resurrection of the body at Christ’s return.
Dualism (body and soul)
The view that a human being has a body and a soul that can exist apart. Most of the tradition has held a form of it.
Monism (holism)
The view that a human being is a unified whole, and that there is no part that survives death apart from the body. Some modern scholars favor it.
Soul sleep (psychopannychism)
The belief that the soul is unconscious between death and resurrection.
Particular judgment
In Catholic and Orthodox teaching, a judgment on the individual at death, distinct from the general judgment at the end of time.
Sheol and Hades
The Hebrew and Greek words for the realm of the dead. They are not simply the same as hell in later usage.
Beatific vision
The direct sight of God, which Catholic teaching says the blessed enjoy in heaven. The next module treats it.

Background

Death is not natural in Christian teaching in the same way it is in modern science. The Bible treats it as an enemy (1 Corinthians 15:26), connected with sin and removed in Christ. In the Old Testament, the dead go down to Sheol, a shadowy place from which no praise is offered (Psalm 6:5), though some texts express hope in God’s power over it (Psalm 16:10, 49:15). By the first century, many Jews expected a resurrection at the end, and some, like the author of Wisdom, spoke of souls in the hand of God (Wisdom 3:1).

The New Testament does not systematically answer the question of the intermediate state. It uses several images, including sleep, departure to be with Christ, and the situation of souls under the altar. Interpreters have built different views from these, and some of the disagreements were part of the Reformation. This lesson sets out the texts and the main positions.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: The texts

Jesus tells the thief on the cross, “To day shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). In the story of the rich man and Lazarus, the beggar is carried by angels to Abraham’s bosom and the rich man is in torment (Luke 16:19-31). Paul says he has a desire “to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better” (Philippians 1:23), and speaks of being “absent from the body, and ... present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8). In Revelation 6:9-11 the souls of martyrs under the altar cry out and are told to rest a little longer.

Other texts speak of sleep. Jesus says that Lazarus sleeps (John 11:11). Paul speaks of those who “sleep in Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 4:14). Ecclesiastes 9:5 says that the dead know not any thing. Some read these as figures for death, others as literal descriptions of unconsciousness.

Step 2: Three main views

The first view holds that the soul survives death, remains conscious and is either with Christ or in torment until the resurrection. This is the majority view in Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Reformed and most Protestant traditions. It draws on Luke 16, Luke 23, Philippians 1 and 2 Corinthians 5.

The second view, soul sleep, holds that the dead are unconscious until the resurrection. It has been taught by some Anabaptists, by Seventh-day Adventists and by Jehovah’s Witnesses, and was suggested at times by Luther in his private writings. Calvin wrote a treatise against it. A third view, advanced by some modern theologians, holds that the person dies wholly and is recreated at the resurrection, with no gap in experience. Its supporters say that the dead have no experience of time, so for them the resurrection follows death immediately.

Step 3: Body and soul

Behind the debate lies the question of what a human being is. Greek philosophy, especially Plato, taught the immortality of the soul. Hebrew thought, by contrast, stresses the whole person, a living being animated by God’s breath (Genesis 2:7). Many scholars argue that the Bible’s hope is resurrection, not the immortality of a soul. Others point out that Jesus, Paul and other New Testament writers speak of the dead as continuing with God, which suggests some form of survival.

The church has generally held that the soul is not immortal by nature, but is kept by God, and that the final hope is the resurrection of the body. The intermediate state is therefore incomplete: the dead await the full redemption of the body (Romans 8:23).

Step 4: What the traditions teach

The Catholic Church teaches that each soul at death receives its eternal retribution in a particular judgment: immediate entrance into heaven, or through purification, or immediate condemnation. This was defined by Pope Benedict XII in 1336. The Westminster Confession says that the souls of the righteous are made perfect in holiness and received into paradise, and the wicked are cast into hell, with no other place for souls separated from their bodies. Lutheran confessions affirm that believers are with Christ, and Lutheran writers often use the language of sleep for the body.

Orthodox teaching holds that the soul is judged at death and experiences a foretaste of its final state, with the full judgment still to come. Prayers for the departed continue, and the church is united with them. Popular traditions of toll houses, in which the soul meets obstacles on its path, are held by some Orthodox and rejected by others as not part of the church’s teaching.

Step 5: Why it matters

The question affects prayer for the dead, the communion of saints, the comfort offered to the dying and the sense in which death has been defeated. All traditions agree on the heart: those who die in Christ are not lost. They are in his hands.

  1. Why might the Bible speak of death as both sleep and departure to be with Christ?
  2. What difference does it make whether the soul is naturally immortal or kept by God?
  3. How would you read Luke 23:43 in light of the doctrine of the resurrection at the last day?
  4. Is the recreation view a form of soul sleep, or a different idea?
  5. How does your church’s practice of funerals reflect what it believes about the dead?
  6. What comfort can each view give to a mourner?

Examples

A funeral prayer

At a Lutheran funeral, the pastor says that the departed is at rest with Christ and that the body will be raised on the last day. At an Orthodox funeral, the hymns ask for rest for the soul and for memory eternal. At a Catholic funeral, the Mass commends the soul to God and prays for purification. The three services differ in language and share a hope that death does not end the person’s life with God.

Calvin’s treatise

In 1534, the young Calvin wrote a work against soul sleep, called Psychopannychia, arguing from Scripture that the souls of the faithful live and are conscious with Christ. It was not published until years later. The incident shows that the question was alive among Reformation Christians from the beginning.

Different perspectives

Catholic

At death the soul is judged. The faithful enter heaven, directly or after purification in purgatory, and the unrepentant are condemned. The body awaits the resurrection. The Church prays for the dead and honors the saints, who are alive in Christ.

Orthodox

The soul goes through a personal judgment at death and receives a foretaste of its eternal state, while the final judgment is reserved for the last day. The Church prays for the dead, since they are still members of the Body of Christ. The East has no defined doctrine of purgatory.

Lutheran

Believers who die are with Christ and at rest, and their bodies sleep until the resurrection. Lutherans reject purgatory and prayers to the saints, and teach that the dead are in God’s hands. Some Lutheran writers have discussed the soul’s state with caution.

Reformed

The souls of the righteous are made perfect in holiness and received into the highest heavens, where they behold God’s face in light and glory, waiting for the full redemption of their bodies. The souls of the wicked are cast into hell. Scripture acknowledges no other place.

Arminian and Wesleyan

Wesley taught that the souls of the faithful go to paradise to be with Christ, and the wicked await judgment. Wesleyan teaching rejects purgatory. Some Wesleyan and Holiness writers have shown openness to other views about the intermediate state.

Why it matters

How a Christian thinks about the dead shapes funerals, hymns and the way the living speak to the grieving. The intermediate state is also a test of how each tradition reads the Bible’s images. It shows why the churches agree on the heart of the matter and differ on details. A student should learn to say what is taught by all and what is added by some.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: The Bible teaches that the soul is naturally immortal.

Correction: The Bible’s central hope is resurrection. Christian teachers have held that the soul survives by God’s keeping, not by its own nature, though Plato’s idea of natural immortality influenced some writers.

Misunderstanding: All Protestants believe in soul sleep.

Correction: Only some groups do. Most Protestant confessions teach that believers are conscious with Christ. Soul sleep appears in a minority.

Misunderstanding: Heaven and hell are the intermediate state.

Correction: In most traditions the final states follow the resurrection and the final judgment. The intermediate state is a time of waiting, although some traditions describe it as the beginning of heaven or hell.

Misunderstanding: Purgatory is taught in all of the churches that pray for the dead.

Correction: Catholics teach purgatory. The Orthodox pray for the dead but have no defined doctrine of it. Protestants reject both.

Knowledge check

What is the intermediate state?

It is the condition of a person between death and the resurrection of the body at the last day. The Bible does not give a systematic account of it, and the churches have worked from images such as paradise, sleep, departure to be with Christ and souls under the altar. Most hold that the dead remain in God’s care.

What are the three main views on whether the dead are conscious?

The majority view is that souls survive and are conscious, with Christ or in torment. The second is soul sleep, held by some Anabaptists, Adventists and others, in which the dead are unconscious until the resurrection. The third is that the person dies wholly and is recreated at the resurrection, so that death and resurrection are experienced as immediate.

What did Benedict XII define in 1336?

He defined that the souls of the just who need no purification enter heaven and see the divine essence immediately after death, and that those who die in mortal sin go to hell. It established the Catholic teaching of an immediate particular judgment, while the resurrection of the body and the general judgment still await the end.

How does the Westminster Confession describe the state of the dead?

It says that the bodies of men return to dust and the souls, which neither die nor sleep, return to God. The souls of the righteous are received into paradise, and those of the wicked are cast into hell, where they await the judgment of the great day. It acknowledges no other place for separated souls.

Think it through

  1. What do you hope for those you have lost, and which of the views supports that hope best?
  2. Does the idea of a gap between death and resurrection trouble you or comfort you?
  3. Why might the church have kept silent on some details?

Independent assignment

The dead in Scripture

In your notebook, write 400 to 600 words. Gather six texts on the dead from this lesson, two from the Old Testament and four from the New. For each, note what image is used (sleep, Sheol, paradise, under the altar) and what it seems to teach. Then write a paragraph arguing what a Reformed reader would say, and one for a Catholic reader, about how the texts fit together.

Further study