Life After Death

by J.L. Ferguson, Barrhead, U.K. | Category: Never Man So Spake - Great Truths From The Lord's Min | Nov 1985

In the case of both the righteous and the unrighteous is there life, that is continuous, conscious existence, in the period between death and resurrection, or does death simply end all? That is the question. We are thinking of life in the intermediate state. That such a state exists is denied and mocked by many today. What the mockers say in no way weakens the faith of the believer. But what the Scriptures say is of present value and of eternal consequence. We consider first THE SCRIPTURAL FACT THAT THERE IS AN INTERMEDIATE STATE

The Lord Jesus in His ministry made specific reference to life after death and prior to resurrection. In doing so He was not bringing to light a new truth hitherto unrevealed, but rather confirming and expanding what God had already taught Israel in the Old Testament writings.

He referred, for example, to the word from the Lord to Moses at the place of the burning bush. "1am the God of thy father Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" (Ex. 3:6). These words might not have conveyed anything in particular to the ordinary reader, then or now. But on them the Lord Jesus, with His complete understanding of the mind of the Spirit, commented, "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living" (Mat. 22:32). So that all who have died still live to God, as Luke 20:38 expresses it. The three patriarchs had been dead for many centuries, each of their bodies had been laid in the Cave of Machpelah. Their spirits at death had returned to God in accordance with Eccles. 12:7. The Lord Jesus therefore taught us that their souls were still alive in continuous, conscious existence.

But an even more powerful presentation by the Lord, of life in the intermediate state, is what He said to the Pharisees in Luke 16:19-31. He spoke with the perfect knowledge and absolute authority of the One who received direct from the Father every word of His ministry. The verses referred to did not form a parable. The incident was an actual historical record of the real experience of two men, first in time, and then in the after-life in the intermediate state, waiting the day of resurrection.

The two men passed each other by in life. But when at death their souls went to Hades (with which expression we shall deal later), they found that

there was a great gulf fixed between them, an unbridgeable gulf which separated the souls of the righteous dead from those of the unrighteous. And there they found themselves living on in total consciousness after death, their souls finding no need for a body to enable them to remember, to speak, to feel sensations of pain or pleasure; a truth which is also confirmed in Rev. 6:9-11. We consider next:

WHERE THE SOULS ARE THROUGHOUT THE PERIOD OF THE INTERMEDIATE STATE

(a)THE TERMS USED

It might be useful to consider first the various Bible words used to describe the abode of the soul between death and resurrection.

Sheol - This is a Hebrew word used in the Old Testament, simply meaning "the world of the dead" (Dr. Strong). It is translated in the RV as Sheol 29 times, the grave 15 times, hell 15 times, the pit 6 times. Where translated, for example, the grave, man is in view as reaching the place where all activity ceases. But the main emphasis is clearly on the abode of the soul, rather than the body, after death. It is referred to as the place "beneath" (Prov. 15:24), where there is consciousness and recognition (Isa. 14:9; Ezek. 32:21).

Ha des - This is the New Testament Greek word equivalent to the Hebrew Sheol. It occurs in the RV 10 times. That it is the equivalent of Sheol can be verified from a comparison of Ps. 16:10 with Acts 2:27.

Gehenna - This is a Greek word occurring 11 times in the Revised Version of the New Testament. It indicates the place to which the unrighteous will go, body and soul, from the final judgement - hell or the lake of fire. This follows the intermediate state so is not within the scope of our subject. We consider now:

(b)THE ABODE OF THE SOULS OF THE RIGHTEOUS WHO DIED BEFORE THE RESURRECTION OF THE LORD JESUS

It must have been understood in Israel that the souls of the righteous dead went to Sheol. Take the first reference to the subject. Jacob was deceived into believing that an evil beast had devoured Joseph, so there was no body to lay in Machpelah's cave. Yet he said, "1will go down to the grave to my son mourning" (Gen. 37:35). The word translated 'grave' is Sheol. The souls of Jacob and Joseph would one day be together there. With their immediate ancestors, all of them men and women who had died in faith, their souls would live together in Sheol. In agreement with this David exclaimed, "Thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol... Thou wilt show me the path of life: in Thy presence is fulness of joy " (Ps. 16:8-11). Thus writing in the Spirit David foresaw his soul going to Sheol at death, but only for a period, for in due course it would be the path to life, to fulness of joy in the presence of the Lord.

So when the Lord Jesus spoke of conscious existence after death, He was putting His seal to what all Israel ought to have known from their Old Testament Scriptures. He put it very tersely when He pointed out that though men could kill the body, they could not kill the soul (Mat. 10:28). Even after death the soul lives on. Then one day in matchless grace He went there Himself, as David had predicted through the Holy Spirit in Psalm 16; went to what some have termed Upper Sheol/Hades, being the separated section of bliss referred to in Luke 16:22. And for the three days and nights that He was there, Sheol/Hades took on the character of Paradise. His word to the penitent thief was, "Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise". It is impossible to contemplate the scene there on His descent. Could it be that John the Baptist had told the righteous, longtime dead that Messiah was already on the earth? They would not have long to wait. And suddenly He was there in their midst, awaiting the third day of triumph when from Upper Sheol/Hades He would lead His captivity captive (Eph. 4:8) and deliver all those Old Testament saints who through fear of death had been all their lifetime subject to bondage (Heb. 2:15). This leads us to consider:

(c)THE ABODE OF THE SOULS OF THE RIGHTEOUS WHO DIE BETWEEN THE RESURRECTION OF THE LORD JESUS AND THE RAPTURE

For the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, the experience of the life of the soul between death and resurrection has been altogether transformed from that of the Old Testament righteous dead. The soul of the believer no longer goes to Upper Sheol/Hades but to a place and state of bliss to which the glory of "Abraham's bosom" was only a shadow of delight.

If ever a man loved the work of the Lord it was the apostle Paul. If ever a man knew how vital his presence was to the progress of that work it was Paul. Yet he confessed in Phil. 1:23 that he had "the desire to depart and to be with Christ; for it is very far better" Let his persecutors do what they may with his worn-out body, his soul at death would "depart", it would immediately go to be "with Christ" in heaven. And to him, to be there in the consciousness of his beloved Master's presence would not be better, nor even far better, but very far better than all his precious earthly experiences with Him.

Again, despite his passion for the advancement of the work of the Lord, he acknowledged in 2 Cor. 5:8 that he was "willing rather to be absent from the

body, and to be at home with the Lord". It was reminiscent of what is written of the Lord Himself, "Jesus knowing that His hour was come that He should depart out of the world unto the Father" (John 13:1). To Him, t6 leave the world was to be with the Father. Nothing between. And so it was with Paul's understanding through the Spirit; to die here meant the soul going straight home to the Lord. So he was "willing rather".

The Scriptures teach that in death the body sleeps; sleeps till awakened in the resurrection as, e.g. Dan. 12:2. But not so with the soul. It lives on, in conscious, continuous existence, and for the believer today, in indescribable bliss. "Unclothed" so far as the body is concerned, as in 2 Cor. 5:1-4 (although certain eminent scholars take a different view of this portion) until the day of resurrection and reception of the new body. Finally we consider briefly:

(d)THE ABODE OF THE SOULS OF THE UNRIGHTEOUS DEAD

We have already noted that the souls of the dead, whether righteous or unrighteous in life, live on after death. And it is from the lips of eternal Truth Himself that we learn that the souls of the unrighteous dead are in what is referred to by many as Lower Sheol/Hades. The expression may derive, although not entirely satisfactorily, from a scripture such as Deut. 32:22, "For a fire is kindled in mine anger and burneth unto the lowest pit (He b. Sheol)". In His condemnation of the unbelievers in Capernaum the Lord Jesus said that they would "go down unto Hades" (Mat. 11:23).

We have noted also that after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus there is only one recorded change in the place of the intermediate state and it affects only the believers in this present dispensation. There is no word from God in the New Testament indicating any change of place to which the souls of the unrighteous dead go, whether they die before or after the Lord's resurrection. We must therefore conclude that at death the soul of the unbeliever still goes to Lower Hades, there to live on in the fearful conditions of conscious existence outlined in Luke 16:19-31, awaiting the day of resurrection to final judgement.

Some may enquire, what about those who will be declared righteous at the Great White Throne judgement but who were neither of Israel nor in the Church the Body, where are their souls in the intermediate state? The question is not within our present study, but the reader can be assured that no person will ever go from the final judgement into eternal life but was in bliss throughout the intermediate state.

The whole matter of the conscious doom of the unrighteous in the intermediate state, to be followed by eternal judgement in the lake of fire is so awesome in its inevitable fearfulness that it must ever remain a powerful impetus to the believer to help arrest the unbeliever on his deceived and downward way.

J.L. Ferguson, Barrhead, U.K. | Nov 1985
Never Man So Spake - Great Truths From The Lord's Min