According To King, What Is The Relation Between Death And Service?
The nowadays state is where you are now. You exist in this present state. From the moment of conception, you became a human, that is, a "soul." Your soul is eternal. Scripture teaches us that we exist from conception until death, from death until the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the General Resurrection from the dead, and then, the New Heavens and the New Earth. This article will seek to respond what happens at death to both your body and soul.
What Happens Afterward Death?
It is important to admit that the word "soul" is not merely a disembodied entity. In the Bible, "soul" is who you lot are. Consider Genesis:
God "breathed the breath of life" into Adam, and he became a "living soul" (Genesis 2:7; the New Revised Standard uses the word, "being"). Thus, in the biblical view, Adam does not accept a soul; Adam is a soul (i.e., a person, a living being). The soul is, literally, ". . . that which breathes, the breathing substance or being.[1] In his article "Soul," G.W. Moon says "In Christian theology the soul carries the further connotation of being that part of the individual that partakes of divinity and survives the death of the body."
Augustine and Thomas Aquinas rejected Ideal dualism, which saw the soul as good and the trunk equally corrupt. These two theological giants, separated by centuries, agreed the Bible teaches that the spirit is the eternal person, merely will ane day have an eternal body:
"According to Saint Thomas Aquinas, who follows Aristotle in his definition of the human soul, the soul is an private spiritual substance, the 'form' of the trunk. Both, trunk and soul together, constitute the homo unity, though the soul may be severed from the trunk and lead a dissever being, as happens after expiry. The separation, even so, is not final, every bit the soul, in this differing from the angels, was made for the body.[2]
The Psalmist spoke of our soul equally the very inmost being of our person: "Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy proper name" (Psalm 103:one NIV).
Jesus spoke of the costive value of the human soul (and simultaneously taught that soul and body will be reunited for either eternal life with or, in that example, without God):
"Practice not be afraid of those who impale the body just cannot impale the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who tin can destroy both soul and trunk in hell" (Matthew 10:28 NIV).
Your body and soul, like all of Creation, are marred by the Fall and its consequences. Or, every bit John Milton titled the state of affairs in his epic verse form, Paradise Lost.The fallen soul must be redeemed. This is the programme of God, the Covenant of Grace, that constitutes the unmarried scarlet thread that binds the unabridged Bible together.
Therefore, we must acknowledge:
Your Body and Soul Need Redeeming From the Fall
David wrote in Psalm 19 virtually the wonder of God'southward world, His creation. But in verse 7 David makes a turn. The "general revelation" gives show of Almighty God, simply "special revelation," God's Word, is necessary to do this one thing: "revive" the human soul. Psalm 19:17 says "The police of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul" (KJV).
Indeed, we are to be born over again, the soul undergoing a supernatural transition, making it "fit" for heaven. Our souls are "lost" without redemption.
The Bible teaches that at that place is no other redemption available except that "way" that Omnipotent God has provided through His merely begotten Son, Jesus Christ: "And there is conservancy in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men past which we must exist saved" (Acts 4:12 ESV).
Jesus Christ is the Redeemer According to the Covenant of Grace
When the Gospel is proclaimed and received by religion, the terms of the Covenant are imputed to y'all (the terms are expressed in "a slap-up substitution:" the repentant and believing sinner receives Christ's righteousness and His atoning sacrifice on the Cross; Christ received the sinner'southward sin and punishment for sin). You pass from death and judgment to forgiveness and eternal life. "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my discussion and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life" (John v:24 ESV).Not so the unrepentant. The soul remains in a fallen land, responsible for the terms of the Covenant of Works (the soul that sins must die). It is for this reason that the Psalmist, speaking in the voice of the Messiah to come up, declares that God volition not go out his soul to perish. This truth is likewise picked upwardly by Peter in his offset sermon at Pentecost. The soul without God will undergo unimaginable loss that is described past Jesus with the most severe imagery (e.g., Matthew 25:46: "And these will go abroad into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.").
My dear reader: your soul and mine must be redeemed from the sale block of sin and the devil lest we — that is, our souls — face sure loss and penalisation. And the just Redeemer of God's elect is the Lord Jesus Christ. Apologize. Trust in the resurrected and living Christ while yous are all the same reading this commodity. Stop what you are doing and turn to Jesus Christ by faith.
Our report leads usa, then, to the place of the soul between death and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
When we say, "the intermediate state," we are non speaking of "limbo" or "purgatory" or any such affair. We are speaking of that menstruation in which the soul is in heaven and our remains expect resurrection. That is the "intermediate state" in our personal eschatology.
Where Practice Bodies Get After Expiry?
The redeemed are ushered into the eternal presence of the Lord, and those without an advocate (righteousness to meet God'due south Law and sacrifice to atone for sin) are ushered into hell to look the New Heaven and New Globe.
The Bible teaches that the man spirit, upon departing the body, goes immediately into the presence of God for either His welcoming or His disapproval. Thus, our blessed Savior taught this truth when He gave the parable of the wicked in Hell crying out to Abraham for refreshment:
"There was a rich homo who was clothed in imperial and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every mean solar day. And at his gate was laid a poor human named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what vicious from the rich man'south tabular array. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man too died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, 'Father Abraham, take mercy on me, and transport Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.' But Abraham said, 'Kid, recollect that y'all in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in similar manner bad things; simply at present he is comforted here, and you lot are in ache (Luke 16:xix-25 ESV).
In that location is no more than concise and thoroughly Biblical expression of organized religion about the soul going immediately to be with God until the resurrection than the 38th question in the Westminster Shorter Catechism:
Q. 38. What benefits do believers receive from Christ at the resurrection?
A. At the resurrection, believers beingness raised up in glory (1 Cor. 15:42-43), shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment (Matt 25:33-34), and made perfectly blest in the full enjoying of God (Rom. 8:29, ane John 3:2) to all eternity (Ps. 16:11, i John three:2).
At death, the body returns to the elements: "grit to dust . . ." But the soul resurrects with a new heavenly torso.
At the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, the Full general Resurrection commences. The redeemed bodies are renewed with the eternal soul and rise to come across Jesus Christ, joining Him in the air, taking their place with the glorious visitor of angels, archangels, prophets, apostles, martyrs and the whole company of heaven. The Great White Throne Sentence has been the subject of classical Christian teaching throughout Church history: "And I saw a not bad white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose confront the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was plant no place for them" (Revelation twenty:11).
The unregenerate bodies are besides resurrected. United with soul, each appears before the Great Final Judgment. Without the Advocate, our Lord Jesus Christ, these suffer the righteous sentence of God for unbelief. The redeemed also announced before the Lord. Simply Jesus Christ is their Abet. His perfect life is accounted to theirs to meet the Divine requirement of perfect obedience (Christ fulfills the Covenant of Works). The Lord Jesus' apologetic death on Calvary's Cross provides the blood sacrifice of the only Son of God applied to their lives. The punishment of their sins has been placed upon the Second Person of the One true and holy God.
The redeemed are fully acquitted, by God in Christ, their Savior. The unredeemed are cast into eternal hell with the devil and his angels (demons). Walter A. Elwell and Barry J. Beitzel summarized it in their commodity "Eschatology" with brilliant concision and brevity:
"All who accept died will come to life. This will be a bodily resurrection, a resumption of bodily being of each person. For believers this will accept identify in connection with the 2d coming of Christ and will involve the transformation of the body of this present flesh into a new, perfected torso (one Cor xv:35-56). The Bible also indicates a resurrection of unbelievers, unto eternal death (Jn 5:28, 29).
The great Dutch commentator, William Hendriksen, wrote with unsurpassed theological and Scriptural fidelity as he described this outcome in his book "More than Conquerors: An Interpretation of the Book of Revelation":
"Christ's coming in judgment is vividly described. John sees a great white throne. Upon information technology is seated the Christ (Matt. 25:31; Rev. 14:14). From His face up the earth and the heaven flee away. Not the destruction or annihilation just the renovation of the universe is indicated here. Information technology will be a dissolution of the elements with great heat (2 Pet. three:10); a regeneration (Mt. 19:28); a restoration of all things (Acts 3:21); and a deliverance from the bondage of corruption (Rom. 8:21). No longer volition this universe be subject to 'vanity'. John sees the dead, the corking and the small, standing before the throne. All individuals who have ever lived on earth are seen before the throne. The books are opened and the records of the life of every person consulted (Dn. vii:x). Also, the book of life, containing the names of all believers is opened (Rev. 3:5; 13:viii). The dead are judged in accordance with their works (Mt. 25:31 ff.; Rom. 14:10; 2 Cor. five:10). The ocean gives up its dead; and then do Expiry and Hades. Here is the one, general resurrection of all the dead. The unabridged Bible teaches but 1, general resurrection (read Jn. 5:28 f.). This 1 and only and general resurrection takes place at the last day (Jn. 6:39 f., 44, 54)."
Fifty-fifty After Death - The New Heaven and the New Earth
The universe, earth, and all things are both burned and and then renewed as the New Heavens and the New Earth is unveiled. While the souls (and bodies reunited) of the unrepentant are cast into eternal hell, believers are welcomed into the New Heaven and New Globe. One of the nigh remarkable passages among and so many as astounding passages is found in St. Paul'south starting time epistle to the Church at Corinth. In Chapter fifteen, the inspired Apostle makes the resurrection the centering point for "eternity past" and "eternity future." Paul seeks to requite words to what he sees at the farthest reaches of the future state: "When all things are subjected to him, and so the Son himself will besides be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all" (one Corinthians 15:28).
Thus, the human soul. From the breath of life at formulation to the inscrutable event in ages to come when, body and soul, we witness the climactic fulfillment of the aboriginal Covenant, this is the soul of a laic. The soul without Christ is in peril. The soul of any who calls upon the name of the Lord to exist saved will be gloriously transformed.
Answering "What happens to my soul when I die?"
As a pastor and a educational activity theologian, this is ane of the most frequent questions I receive. However, the inquiry most often comes to me, not in the grade of an abstruse question, simply in the context of crisis. Indeed, this is how the question was posed by Mrs. Henley: in a defining moment of her faith on trial.
I was a young pastor. I was on assignment equally a pastoral intendance intern for a congregation not my own. I was a pastor "on loan," i might say. My mission? I was dispatched past the church leadership to provide pastoral ministry to a family I didn't know. I was told that the Henley family unit was gathered at a nearby nursing home and that they had requested a pastoral presence. The elderberry who telephoned me gave instructions that I would discover Mr. Henley, a long-time fellow member, in room 201. Mrs. Gladys Henley, his wife of 60-some-odd years would be in that location to greet me. Mr. Henley's forty-something-twelvemonth-old son and his married woman would also be in that location. They had flown in from the Westward Coast to exist with the matriarch and patriarch in this hard time.
I rehearsed the coming pastoral visit in my mind as I pulled into the covered parking garage. I guided my trusty old Buick sedan into that nigh appreciated of privileges — clergy parking. I put her in park. I killed the engine. I drew in a jiff of promise every bit I exhaled a prayer for aid: "Lord, guide me."
Earlier departing for the cursory stroll to the nursing home, I opened my Bible. I needed a passage that would serve as my "pastoral prescription" for the spiritual cure to the anticipated spiritual condition of this family unit. I go along a list of familiar Bible capacity and verses for infirmary visits. The passages are arranged, in smeared fountain ink from my ain manus, co-ordinate to spiritual cure of common conditions — aging, bereavement, conflict, and and so along. I came to "acuity." The family vigil is the gathering of family members (and shut friends) in apprehension of a loved 1'south passing. My optics constitute the words of Luke'due south Acts of the Apostles and Saint Peter'due south quotation of
Psalm 16:ten, "For you lot will not carelessness my soul to Hades or let your Holy One see corruption. You take fabricated known to me the paths of life; y'all will make me full of gladness with your presence" (Acts two:27, 28 ESV).
The family greeted me at the lobby of this elegant elderly care facility. Formal introductions in hushed tones formed the introduction to the family. The Henley son, Robert, Jr., asked me to follow them to Mr. Henley'south room. Mr. Robert Henley, Sr., Esq., was about 100 years old. The wise onetime jurist was a long-fourth dimension follower of Jesus Christ. Others recognized his gift of gentle leadership and patient wisdom. He was a well-honey elder, a lay officer, in his home church. Robert Henley had been a prominent attorney in the community where I served. The phrase "city father" comes to mind. Mr. Henley was known as a godly, devoted family homo, who besides gave much of his life, and not a small corporeality of his fortune, to the service and needs of his neighbors.
He never had political aspirations. Withal, if yous were a political leader and wanted to increase your chances of ballot, you likely would pay a visit to Robert Henley before you even filed as a candidate. I guess one could say that Mr. Henley had gravitas. He was a big man, a great man, and a faithful human. His immediate family unit—Mrs. Henley and her developed son, Robert, Jr., and his wife, Katherine—were gathered in a family unit vigil. For, past then, Mr. Henley was a dying homo.
It would be a familiar scene in my ministry for years to come. A grieving family gathered effectually a weakened figure. Prayers, hymns, silence, and memories converge to form a needed coating of peace for the one nearly to depart if non more so for those remaining. Being with a family at such a tender time remains ane of the greatest honors of my life. Ask any pastor. He will tell you the same.
I had been in Mr. Henley'southward room at the nursing home — for all intents and purposes, it was a hospital room — for more two hours. The family had been at that place much longer. I was thinking about the homo before me, the man I didn't know, merely the human being I was called to prepare for a journey home. My contemplations were pleasantly interrupted when a cheerful nurse came in to cheque for vital signs of her patient. Every bit she finished her monitoring, she looked at Mrs. Henley and smiled. The kind woman leaned over and put her arm around Mrs. Henley and spoke softly: "Hon, why don't you become to our café and get y'all some coffee and a sandwich? They accept got some expert sandwiches! And you lot certain need a break." I certainly agreed. Poor Mrs. Henley looked so tired. The nurse encouraged Mrs. Henley with some other whisper, as she helped her up, "Come on, now, Mrs. Henley. In that location we go . . ."
Reluctantly, Mrs. Henley agreed and stood cock in the room. Her son, Robert, Jr., and Katherine, his wife, the younger Mrs. Henley — a demure but smartly-dressed young lady with a pretty and seemingly permanent smile — guided the weakening wife away. I listened to the echoes of their steps in the hall. I heard the lift ring its arrival. And so a sacred stillness seemed to descend on the scene like someone's mother casting a cotton wool canvass on a bed in dull motility. Nevertheless. Slow. Silent. Holy.
I was lone in the hospital room with Mr. Henley. The various medical mechanisms mimicked the chirapsia of his heart, inhaling, and exhaling of his lungs. I listened to the rhythmic beep-beep of a monitor, and the oscillating hiss of oxygen. I had taken a seat when the family had walked out. Yet, at that moment, I felt led to stand. I also felt led to speak, "Mr. Henley, I am not sure if you can hear me, Sir. Mr. Henley, I have a Scripture for you from God's Word. It is a very simple and powerful truth. I am certain that you know information technology."
The blips, beeps, and hisses were unimpressed by my announcement. The background noises continued as a kind of technological witness. "Mr. Henley, this is the Word of the Lord: 'We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent-minded from the trunk, and to be nowadays with the Lord' (2 Corinthians five:viii KJV). Did you hear that Mr. Henley? Jesus will never leave y'all nor forsake you. And if He comes for you, your spirit — the real you! — volition be with Jesus. The Ane you have loved throughout all of the days of your life will receive you." He moved not. Nonetheless, I was not deterred. I was bedevilled by early experience in my internship to read Scripture even if a patient was in a coma. I would follow for over iii decades, occasionally with memorable results. This was one of them.
I began to pray the Lord'southward Prayer audibly: "Our Father . . ." Suddenly, and quite astonishingly, Mr. Henley's lips began trying to motility. I drew closer, notwithstanding praying, "who fine art in heaven . . ." The old saint was seeking to pray with me. I continued. "Hallowed be Thy Name . . ." This dear man of God was giving the last measure of forcefulness to do what he had washed for nearly five thousand Sundays. He began to worshipGod. It was equally if the words to the Lord's Prayer sparked an autonomic response of the soul. He opened his dry, not bad lips for but long enough to pray with me. He uttered the next phrase as if waiting to catch upward with me. "Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done . . ." As I continued, more than confident in my own faith because of his, his voice went silent. The small motion of his lips ceased in mid-sentence. And equally suddenly as he had begun, he stopped praying. Mr. Henley had stopped animate. At just most "Thy Kingdom come up . . ." Mr. Henley'due south prayer was answered. Mr. Henley was in the presence of the Lord.
I stood without movement. I was transfixed past the sight. In that location was fifty-fifty a kind of dazzler, though I was holding the hand of a dead homo. I idea of the Psalmist's words, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the decease of his saints" (Psalm 116:fifteen KJV). My fixed gaze of wonder was interrupted by the necessary practicality of nurses, residents, and orderlies hastening to the scene. In witnessing this phenomenon of the migration of the human soul, I didn't even notice the alarms. The mechanical sentries had sounded their call. The compassionate health care professionals answered in a 2d. But every bit I watched them, the scene was less of an emergency and more than of, well, more of a tender moment of confirming what all were anticipating.
Soon enough, the family returned. Robert Jr. and Katherine both put their arms around Mrs. Henley. It was a holy moment. Soft sobs replaced the electronic sounds of the medical machinery. I knew the power of the ministry of presence every bit Mrs. Henley moved from her son to look at me. This new widow needed the promises of God, the assurance of the dear of God, and the hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this reason, I was in that location. I embraced her — perhaps, better put, she embraced me — and she wept, always so softly. This elderly woman of God, smaller than I, nestled her grayness head on my chest. I was being inaugurated into the ministry by Mrs. Henley.
And and so it happened. Right after I spoke these words, it happened: "Mrs. Henley, the Bible says that your dear husband is in the presence of our Lord Jesus at this very 2d. He passed from this life into the loving artillery of Jesus. I was with him equally his soul departed this room. He is more alive than always."
She confirmed my words by nodding her caput as I held her. But something happened that I volition never forget. The still, repose sobs were cleaved by a rather stern give-and-take from her son. "Mother, I am sorry, merely that is non right. Daddy is non here. And Daddy is not anywhere else. He is, well, for all applied purposes, just asleep." He spoke the words for his mother, but he aimed his arrows at me. I was stunned, not past the theological error as much every bit the inappropriateness and even callousness of his words. "Mother, come out hither and let me talk to you." Mrs. Henley followed obediently. Scolded as her husband had died, she had, in the opinion of her son, succumbed to "nonsense." She followed obediently. What else could she do? I stood motionless every bit both the family departed, and the medical professionals began procedures for removal of the body.
Information technology could not have been more than about three minutes when Mrs. Henley returned. Past this time, her late hubby's remains had been removed from the room. I extended my hands to welcome Mrs. Henley dorsum. She took my hands without ever moving her optics from mine. I smiled as if, peradventure, a warm gesture could erase the recent unpleasant words. Mrs. Henley bankrupt downwards in heaving tears. I could barely hear her words: "Oh Pastor, my son says that my husband'due south soul is just asleep! He is not with the Lord! Oh Pastor, everything I take always known, ever believed, must exist wrong!" I held Mrs. Henley and felt the deep grief rising through her sobs. "He is gone, Pastor. Simply where? Where is my hubby?
I shared that intimate story with y'all because I believe that information technology illustrates the deep emotions that are involved with the question, "What happens to the soul at the time of death?" The question is not an esoteric inquiry into the unknowable. God has revealed to us in his word what happens to the homo soul at the moment of death. In order to understand the reply to this question according to the Scriptures, we would do well to utilize a systematic theological reportof the Christian faith concerning the question of the soul. To do so, let u.s. arrange the biblical material according to the Bible's explanation nigh the soul and the soul's destiny. We will see that at that place is a nowadays land, an intermediate land, and a final state. Theologians call this a personal eschatology. Eschatology speaks about the last things. We often retrieve of eschatology in more cosmic terms, for case, what happens to the heavens and the earth in the future. That is a cosmic eschatology. But a personal eschatology is concerned with what happens to you. And so let u.s. begin.
As I opened my Bible and asked his grieving widow to read the Scriptures, she wiped her eyes, sought to etch herself, and adjusted her 1960s-framed-spectacle before leaning in to read: "Nosotros are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the torso, and to be present with the Lord" (2 Corinthians 5:viii KJV). Mrs. Henley looked up again, her silver-haired, intelligent head raising, her eyes coming together mine. "Pastor, I read that according to the Bible my Robert — my husband, Mr. Henley — is with the Lord. As soon as his spirit left his trunk he went to be with Jesus. That is what I had always been taught. But my son . . . Oh, pastor, is this the truth?"
I put my right paw on her shoulder seeking to agree. "Yes, Mrs. Henley. I watched as the soul of your married man departed his trunk. According to the Word of the Lord, there is no doubt that he is in the presence of the Lord Jesus." I gently placed my left hand to a shoulder, now looking at her intently, holding her shoulders, directing my gaze with the strongest possible position of attention: "My dear Mrs. Henley," I paused to prepare for an unequivocal declaration to this grieving adult female: "Ma'am: According to the promises of our Lord Jesus Christ I say to you that in the name of God, you willsee your hubby again."And she rested in the promises of God.
Simply have you? I say to anyone reading: God created you as a person: soul and torso.The soul lives forever in one of ii places: with your Creator or without Him. The adjudication of your eternal life rests with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And He welcomes whatever and all who volition turn from all other persons and plans and turn unto Him. For Jesus our Lord says, "Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give yous balance." Residue from the frantic search for answers. Trust in Christ Jesus the resurrected and living Lord of life. His Covenant of Grace — Christ's righteousness accounted for what you lack, and Christ'due south sacrifice applied for your sins — has secured your destiny. And you will never walk alone.
God'south promises are your destiny: when you die, your soul goes immediately to the Lord. Your earthly remains are precious to God. "If the farmer knows where the corn is in the befouled, then our Father knows where His precious seed is in the earth." And in Christ, God volition enhance those remains to eternal life. If y'all accept received Jesus Christ every bit Lord, you will be acquitted of all sins by the righteousness and the sacrifice on the cross by your Savior. And safe in the arms of Jesus. Why not pray with me?
Lord, our Heavenly Father: I am in awe of Your mighty creative ability demonstrated non but in the wonder of the stars above or in the microscopic invisible earth, but, peculiarly, in the coming of Your Son Jesus our Lord; and in Him, in His perfect life lived for me and His sacrificial death offered for me on the cross, I do repent — plough away from — my sin of unbelief, self-sufficiency, and trusting in anyone and thing other than Your Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth; I know that I am a soul and body, and I ask that You lot transform my soul according to Your promises and Your power; I ask that you forgive me and receive me as Your kid; and I believe that when I depart from this life I will go immediately to You, O honey Lord; So, take me and utilise me for Your glory. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Notes:
[1] Richard Whitaker, Francis Brown, et al., The Abridged Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew-English Lexicon of the Old Testament: From A Hebrew and English language Lexicon of the Onetime Testament by Francis Brown, South.R. Driver and Charles Briggs, Based on the Lexicon of Wilhelm Gesenius (Boston; New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1906).
[two] F. Fifty. Cross and Elizabeth A. Livingstone, eds., The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church building (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Printing, 2005), 1531.
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According To King, What Is The Relation Between Death And Service?,
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