What Happens After Death? - Part 1

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Well, someone asked me tonight if, since I finished our study of death last week and since this is April 15th, if I was going to do a study of taxes tonight. The two certainties of life - death and taxes. But we're not going to do that. Instead, we're going to move on to the next issue in our study of eschatology.

After death, of course, comes the question of: what then? What happens to the soul after death? Now, there's no mystery of course about what happens to the body after death. It's buried, cremated, or somehow destroyed through accident, through fire, through destruction at sea - there's many things that can happen to the human body. Regardless of what happens, it eventually deteriorates or as the Scripture describes it, "from dust we were made and to dust we will return." Now, there is almost universal consensus on that.

But there is little consensus on what happens to the soul at death. People love to think about it. There's a lot of conjecture about it. There are countless books about it and, specifically, accounts of near-death experiences. Perhaps you've read some of them. There're plenty of reports of those who have come near death, been resuscitated, and revived, and then tell their story. And there's an endless stream of them. But here's one example. This is the one that really prompted the modern craze to document these sort of near-death experiences.

It's the one that prompted Ray Moody, the father of near-death experiences, to begin his "research". It's a man by the name of George Ritchie. Back in the 1940s, at the age of 20, supposedly George Ritchie died at an army hospital. Nine minutes later, he returned to life. What happened to him during those minutes was so compelling, he says, that it changed his life forever. He tells of an out of the body encounter with other nonphysical beings. He tells of travel through different dimensions of time and space. And, ultimately, he documents this supposed encounter with the Son of God Himself.

What you have to understand about these near-death experiences, is that they are just that – near death. They are not completely dead. They are nearly dead. And there is a huge difference.

Now, we don't have a single firsthand account from someone who is truly died and was raised to life. It, of course, has happened. It happened during Elijah's ministry in the Old Testament. It happened during Jesus' ministry on several different occasions and of course in the case of our Lord Himself. But none of them who actually truly died, not merely a near-death experience but a truly dead experience - none of them wrote accounts of what they experienced after death and before resurrection. But fortunately, the Scripture does speak to this issue with really amazing clarity. We do not have to wonder about what happens after death.

Now, let me just remind you, before we look at this issue specifically, where we are in our sort of ordo eschatos that we put together. You'll remember that the first event in eschatology is death, and then, the intermediate state, then the rapture, then the tribulation, the second coming, the millennium, a great white throne judgment, and then the eternal state. That is the biblical ordo eschatos we're working with. We put/pieced that together back several weeks ago, from the Scripture itself, and now we're going to go through and look at each of those elements one by one in a sort of chronological order - a coming order of events. We've looked now at death, and we want to move to that second item in our biblical ordo salutis - the intermediate state.

Now, when we talk about what happens immediately after death and yet before the resurrection, we are discussing what theologians refer to as this intermediate step - state rather. It's the state of, or the circumstances of, the human soul between this life and eternity.

Now, before we look at what the Bible teaches, let me briefly mention some of the aberrant views that exist about this matter. I say briefly - we'll deal with each of them as briefly as we can, but it's also important to understand that there are many of these sorts of aberrant views. There are several that are extremely common and we're going to look at them. You have heard of these, and we want to look at how they defend their position and how we can respond biblically to the position that they hold.

One common explanation for what happens after death is called "soul sleep". This is a view that was held by some Anabaptists at the time of the Reformation, by some heretics called Sasanians, and by modern Seventh Day Adventists. Essentially, it can be defined like this: the soul continues to exist after death but only in an unconscious state of rest. The soul will become conscious again at the resurrection. So truly, at death, the body dies, and the soul goes to sleep. Most of these believe that soul and body stay together in some way, but that's not necessary to the view.

How did they defend this position? Well, they would argue that first of all, Scripture itself often presents death as sleep. We saw that last time and that's true. On many occasions the Scripture does describe death as sleep. They would also say that there are certain passages that seem to teach that those who have died are in fact unconscious. They point to passages like Psalm 6:5 which says, "For there is no mention of You in death; in Sheol who will give You thanks [God]?" In Psalm 115:17: "The dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any who go down into silence..." Ecclesiastes 9:10: "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might; for there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol where you are going." Isaiah 38:19: "It is the living who give thanks to You, as I do today..."

A third sort of defense that they give is more of a philosophical one. They would say practically and scientifically, conscious thought is tied to the physical brain. When the physical brain dies, thought itself becomes impossible. So, that would be how they would defend this view that, at death, the soul goes into a silent slumber.

So, how would we respond to those arguments? Let me briefly walk through them with you. First of all, we would say that because of a preponderance of scriptural evidence, which hopefully we'll look at a little later, sleep when it's used of death must be a metaphor of a dead body, not the cessation of consciousness. You understand the difference. Sleep merely describes it metaphorically what has happened to the body, not what has happened to the soul. Vines, in his "Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words (Terms)" says, "The object of the metaphor (sleep) is to suggest that as the sleeper does not cease to exist while his body sleeps..." Some of you, you know, look like you've ceased to exist when you're sleeping. But that doesn't in fact happen. And so, just as the sleeper does not cease to exist while his body sleeps, so the dead person continues to exist despite his absence from the body. And he says there's a second picture that sleep gives of the reality of death, and that is, as sleep is known to be temporary, so the death of the body will be found to be also. So, sleep then is an appropriate metaphor for death for those reasons. But it's a reference to what happens to the body, and not the soul.

Secondly, we could say, in response to this view of soul sleep, that all the passages that seem to teach that the dead are unconscious are, in context, simply arguing that once death comes, we can no longer participate in the activities of this world. It's talking about life here in this world. It's not implying that there is no consciousness beyond this. It's simply saying that if you're going to do something in this life, in this world, you better do it before you die because you won't do it again here at all. In fact, it's interesting because one of the passages they cite to defend their view is Psalm 115:17. I cited in just a moment ago - "The dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any who go down into silence..." But the very next verse says, "But as for us, we will bless the Lord from this time forth and forever. Praise the Lord!" The clear implication here is that we will never cease to praise the Lord. The point is we won't do it here in this life from the perspective of this life, but we will continue to praise the Lord.

As far as the third view that they gave that the thought is tied to the physical brain, there are a number of good responses to this. Berkoff has one in his systematic theology, and he says this, "[Listen] the brain is simply a vehicle for the soul. The physical brain may merely transmit thought, so thought exists independent of the brain." He describes the brain as a kind of stained-glass window and thought as light. The light exists independent of the stained-glass window. Even so, thought exists independent of the physical brain. It merely transmits and expands that thought. So, this along with the positive evidence for the biblical view, we'll look at in a few minutes, gives us an answer to the issue of soul sleep. Scripture does not teach that your soul goes into some state of unconsciousness at the moment of death.

A second view that's very common, of course in Roman Catholicism, is the view of purgatory. I told the folks in the office on Friday, as I was studying, that I was in my office in purgatory. And I was because I wanted you to understand this issue. Let me give you a definition of purgatory as Roman Catholicism would define it. At death, the souls of those who were perfectly pure are admitted to heaven or enjoy what they call "the beatific vision of God". If you're perfectly pure, but that's not most of us. That's the saints. Those are the really special ones. Most of us fall into the second category - those who still carry the guilt of venial sins, that is, not mortal sins but those that can be dealt with and have not endured the temporal punishment those sins deserve, must go through a lengthy process of cleansing.

Here's how Ludwig Ott, Roman Catholic theologian puts it: "The suffering that goes on in that situation operates in such a matter that the satisfactory value of the good works is offered to God in substitution for the temporal punishments for sins, which the poor souls still have to render. It operates by way of remission of temporal punishments due to sin." They define eternal punishment differently than temporal punishment - those punishments that our sins deserve here if we die without having suffered those then we need to suffer them still.

So purgatory, then, is a place. It is a place where the souls of these believers supposedly suffer what the Roman Catholic church calls the "punishment of sense"; that is, you can experience this suffering with your senses. It's actual pain which afflicts the soul. But both the duration and intensity of your stay in purgatory, supposedly, can be alleviated by the living. They can offer prayers on your behalf - that's what those candles are when you go into Greek Orthodox or Roman Catholic churches. There're good works that can be offered. There's taking of the mass can be offered to alleviate the pain and suffering of those in purgatory. And indulgences special purchasable merit can be obtained from the church which then allows the person to either have less intense suffering in purgatory, or to be released sooner into heaven.

Now, you and I look at our bibles and we say, "Where did that come from?" Well, let me tell you where it came from. The primary defense that Roman Catholicism offers for this view does not come from the canonical Scriptures. Instead, it comes from Maccabees - an apocryphal book. 2 Maccabees 12. This is the primary reference, okay? I've put it up here in it's total because I want you to see it. This is how they defend this view I've just shared with you. 2 Maccabees 12:42-45: "and [they] gave themselves to prayer, begging that the sin committed might be completely forgiven. Next, the valiant Judas urged the soldiers to keep themselves free from all sin, having seen with their own eyes the effects of the sin of those who had fallen..." Now, what happened here is idolatry had been committed by these soldiers. And so, they gave themselves to prayer begging that the sin might be forgiven, and some had died. Verse 43: "after this he took a collection from them individually, amounting to nearly two thousand drachmas, and sent it to Jerusalem to have a sacrifice for sin offered, an action altogether fine and noble, prompted by his belief in the resurrection. 44 For had he not expected the fallen to rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead, 45 whereas if he had in view the splendid recompense reserved for those who make a pious end, the thought was holy and devout. Hence, he had this expiatory sacrifice offered for the dead, so that they might be released from their sin."

On that passage, I just read to you, is based the entire Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory. This is the primary reference. Now, they will cite several other references from the New Testament. If you read those references, which I'm not going to take time to do, you will see that they have absolutely nothing to do with purgatory. This, from 2 Maccabees, is their defense.

So, how would we respond, then, to the idea that, at death, your body goes into the grave but your soul, if you're a Christian and you're not one of the saints who have this perfectly holy life, that you're going to go into this place of suffering, where you will endure a lengthy period of time being cleansed for the temporal punishments your sin deserved? How would we respond to this? Well, there are a lot of responses that come to mind, but I won't repeat them.

The first is: nowhere in the canonical Scriptures is this idea taught. Nowhere in the canonical Scriptures is this idea taught. They, as I showed you, mentioned a couple of verses. If you look those verses up, you will find that they don't teach anything like the doctrine of purgatory that I've just shared with you.

Secondly, this view, this doctrine, contradicts the clear teaching of Scripture on several different fronts. First of all, it contradicts the sufficient sacrifice of Christ for sins, once for all. The writer of Hebrews makes this point over and over again. In fact, turn to Hebrews. Hebrews 1:3 says, "[that Jesus] When He had made [in the past, now perfectly fulfilled] purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high..." You turn over later in the book of Hebrews and this point is sort of filled out - this purification of sins that Jesus has accomplished. Hebrews 9:26: "Otherwise, He [Jesus] would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." And this is further explained in 10:12: "but He, having offered one sacrifice for [a]sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God..." This view of purgatory undermines the sufficiency of the sacrifice of Christ.

And by the way, I might add that it undermines, as well, the application of that sacrifice to the believer that we call, what? Justification. What does justification teach? We studied that when we went through the doctrine of salvation - that God, as an act of pure grace, imputes or credits to the believing sinner, the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ and treats Him as if he had lived the perfect righteous life of Jesus Christ. Now, you tell me how justification can be true, and purgatory can be true at the same time? They're incongruous. They conflict irreconcilably.

This view also contradicts the clear teaching of Scripture by assuming that we can add something, that we have the capacity to add to the completed work of Christ. This is the other side. Not only does it undermine the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice, but it overestimates us, as if we can somehow satisfy the justice of God by some suffering that we endure.

It also assumes that temporal suffering can expiate sin. And it also assumes the joy and happiness of the departed believer is not a reality. Scripture clearly teaches, in a number of passages we'll look at in a few minutes, that the believer who dies, is immediately in a place of joy and satisfaction and happiness. And this contradicts all of that.

And one last little parting shot here at the doctrine of purgatory. This passage from Maccabees contradicts what Roman Catholic theology tries to make it teach. Why do I say that? Because Maccabees teaches that these soldiers who had died in mortal sin, the sin of idolatry, could be relieved of their suffering. But Roman Catholic theology teaches that mortal sins cannot be forgiven, that only venial sins can be dealt with in purgatory. So, this passage even overtly contradicts the position that the Roman Catholic church holds on the issue.

So, our souls don't go to sleep when we die, and our souls don't go into a place of suffering to somehow deal with ongoing punishment for our sin.

A third wrong or aberrant view is limbo. Technically, the word is limbus which means fringe or border. When you guys go to "On the Border" tonight, after church, you're going to limbo! This concept arose during the Middle Ages to explain what happens to two unique groups after death - unbaptized children who die in infancy, and Old Testament believers, that is, those who died before Christ's resurrection. Roman Catholic doctrine and that of some Lutherans, by the way, teaches that there are two actual places on the borders or on the fringes of hell where the souls of these two groups reside.

The first is called limbus infantum. You can see immediately that that's a place for infants. It's a place - we could define it this way: limbus infantum is a place on the fringes of hell where the suffering and fires don't reach and where all unbaptized children will be kept eternally. Most Roman Catholic theologians believe that there is no pain of sense or no positive punishment in this place. In fact, they enjoy, they believe, full natural happiness and in their natural capacities these children love and know God. But, and here's the big problem, they are forever excluded from the presence of God and the blessings of heaven, forever! There's no hope for these infants who die without being baptized.

You say, "How is that view defended?" Well, the primary defense of that view comes from John 3:5: "unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." That's the text from which it's defended.

My response to that is, first of all, John 3:5 is not talking about water baptism at all. In context, it's talking about Ezekiel 36 and the amazing work of regeneration, the work promised in the New Covenant promises of Ezekiel and Jeremiah. It's utter conjecture. It certainly, I believe, contrary to the character of God and contrary to the attitude of Christ toward children when He was here. Now, the issue of what happens to children who die is the issue for another night's discussion. But it certainly isn't limbus infantum.

Second part of limbo, they would say, is limbus patrum. This is defined as the place where Old Testament saints - where the souls of Old Testament saints were kept until the resurrection of Christ. They teach that the Jews referred to this place as "Abraham's bosom" and as "paradise", choosing those two texts from the New Testament. Essentially, they would say this: that Roman Catholic doctrine would say that after His death, Christ descended into Hades, the place where all the dead dwell, and that place they would say is divided into two compartments. One compartment is a place of suffering for the wicked, and the other a place of joy for the righteous. This is before His resurrection. When He died, out of that righteous compartment, Jesus went and took the souls of the righteous back to heaven.

Now, a slight variation of this view is a Protestant one and it's one that I was taught while I was growing up. Protestants don't call it limbo or limbus patrum. Instead, they refer to it as the two-compartment theory - that before the death of Christ there was this sort of compartment down near hell called paradise and Jesus, when He died, went down there and took all the souls of Old Testament believers to heaven. And that was the first time that they had ever enjoyed heaven was after the resurrection. You say, "Where does this come from?" These, you know, these seem like odd views, don't they? And you have to ask yourself, "Who came up with this?" So, where did this come from?

Well, the first thing they would say is Christ's descent into hell, that concept of His descending into hell, is based loosely on two primary passages. First of all, on Ephesians 4:8-9 which speaks of Christ descending "into the lower parts of the earth". The other passage is 1 Peter 3:19: "[that Jesus] He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison..." Those would be the defense of this view that Jesus went down to this place where the Old Testament saints' souls resided until His resurrection, or until His crucifixion rather (His death) and He brought them out at His resurrection.

Again, how would we respond to this view? Well, there's several things I want you to know. First of all, you may have grown up in a church that recited the Apostles' Creed. And that may have given this view some feeling of legitimacy, because in the Apostles' Creed that we recite today, there's a phrase that says, "Jesus was buried, and He descended into hell". Now, you need to know that according to the eminent church historian, Philip Schaff, the part of the Apostles' Creed "He descended into hell", was not added until 650 AD. There is one previous reference to it, about three, in the 300s, but (Rufinus was the man's name) and he meant it and explained it only as Jesus was buried, not that He went into hell. And so, the first time that it was used in that context wasn't until 650 AD - certainly not the Apostles' Creed.

Now, secondly, what about Ephesians 4? What's going on there? Turn briefly to Ephesians 4. And I mean briefly because I don't want to run out of time tonight. Ephesians 4. Now in verses 7 through 10, Paul is telling us that we have received spiritual gifts. Every believer has received a spiritual gift. And like for us, when we give gifts, there are usually occasions. And Paul tells us that there was an occasion for giving us our spiritual gifts and here it is. He quotes Psalm 68:18, and he refers to the fact, "When He [that is Christ] ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men." Now, who are these captives? Well, we can't be absolutely sure, but we can't say this: that in Psalm 68, the captives are Israel's enemies. So, that would lead us to conclude that the captives in Ephesians 4 are the enemies that Christ defeated in His victory at the cross. And then he says He "descended into the lower parts of the earth". This refers to the earth itself, to His coming to the earth in the incarnation. This phrase is used in Isaiah, for example, very similarly to refer to the earth. So, essentially, here's what Paul is saying: for 40 days after His resurrection (after His resurrection), Christ ascended back to heaven and as He returned, He led his enemies in triumph behind Him and He also gave gifts to men, specifically, spiritual gifts to every believer and gifted men to the entire church. That's what that passage is teaching, not that He went into hell. It's speaking of His amazing condescension that He came from heaven to earth. What about 1 Peter 3? 1 Peter 3:19 says, "in which [in the Spirit] also He [that is Christ] went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison..."

Now, we can't be completely dogmatic about this, but there are number of explanations of this that don't have Jesus going into hell. My own belief is, and I could defend it to you if I had the time - I'm not going to do that. If you're interested, by the way, it is well defended in Wayne Grudem's commentary on 1 Peter in the Tyndale series - great little section in the back where he has defended this view. But I think he's right. Essentially, the best way to understand this is that Christ preached, through Noah, to those whose spirits are now in hell. He went and preached in the days of Noah to those people who were alive - He preached through Noah, in the Spirit, and now those people are spirits only because they died in the flood and now, they're in prison. They're in hell. Okay? So, the spirits now in prison refers to those who were alive at the time of Noah, heard the preaching of Noah, refused to believe, and now find themselves in hell forever. It's certainly not a conclusive text for limbo.

We also can look at the Old Testament. Both Enoch and Elijah are both swept away, we're told, into God's presence, into heaven, not some temporary holding facility down near hell. In Matthew 17:3 Moses and Elijah appear at the Transfiguration, and they seem to indicate that they are already in God's presence. And Jesus Himself, as He died, didn't anticipate His soul going to hell, as some would teach, but what does He say? "Father, into your hands I commit My spirit." It's every indication that Jesus' body went in the grave. Of course, His being as God still filled the universe, but His human body went in the grave and His human soul was with God in heaven, with his Father in heaven.

Now, you're going to gain a much more complete rebuttal of all those false teachings as we look at what the Scripture actually teaches about the intermediate state of the soul. And, as I look at the notes I have left to go tonight, there's no way that's going to happen. So, here's what we're going to do. I want you to turn to 2 Corinthians 5.

In contrast to all of those false views that rob our hope, that steal our joy, that create fear in the heart of believers about what they will encounter at death, listen to what the Scripture says. Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:6 says, "Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord - for we walk by faith, not by sight — we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body..." Stop there. Now, think about that for a moment. If any of these other views were true, Paul could be anything but happy to leave this life and happy about the state into which it would usher his soul. But he says here, "we are of good courage...and we prefer rather to be absent from the body". Why, Paul? What about that excites you? I mean, after all, isn't there limbo or purgatory or one of these soul sleep or one of these other views? He says, "No, not at all! I prefer to be absent from my body because to be absent from my body is to be at home with the Lord."

I love that expression. You know the word "home" itself is one of those warm, inviting words that for most of us, who have good homes, excites a great sense of peace and comfort and joy. And if you don't have that kind of home here and you're in Christ, that is the kind of home you'll have when you go home to be with the Lord. That's what we have to anticipate - not soul sleep, not purgatory, not limbo, but rather to be absent from the body is to be at home. This isn't home. That is. That is why as believers we don't have to fear death. We don't have to fear the intermediate state as theologians call it, because we close our eyes here and we open them, in a moment's time, in the presence of our Lord.

We'll study more about this together next week. And I want you to know that because of what Christ has done, because of justification that we talked about a few minutes ago, because of His sufficient sacrifice, there is none of this purging that needs to happen. He's already drunk the cup of the wrath of God to the dregs. And Paul can say in Romans 8:1, there is what?" Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." To be absent from the body - to be at home, to be home with the Lord.

Let's pray together.

Our Father, we thank You for the time we've had together tonight. We thank You that Your Word speaks so clearly and directly to these issues. Thank You that we don't have to live in uncertainty, nor do we have to live in dread and fear about what happens to us who are in Christ after death. Lord, we thank You that while these bodies that are decaying will someday be put in the grave, they'll someday return to the dust, into the elements from which they're made, that our eternal souls will be ushered, at the moment of death, into Your very presence where we will be at home. Lord, we thank You because we know we don't deserve this. We know this is only because of the sacrifice of Your Son. But this is only because of the justification that You have given us in Him, that You have forever forgiven our sins and declared to us to be righteous in Him. And there is therefore now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. We praise You Father. We thank You. We can never adequately thank You for such amazing grace. Help us to live in a way that expresses our joy and our gratitude by our love for You and by our obedience to You. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen!