The Intermediate State of the Unbeliever Revisited

Yesterday I mentioned that the souls of the unbeliever remain with their bodies in the "intermediate state," which is the time between physical death and the eventual resurrection of the body. Looking at other New Testament texts, it is clear this wasn't correct. Point taken.

While the New Testament speaks emphatically, clearly, and fairly often about the believer's soul after death, it has less to say about the unbeliever. Perhaps this is because the New Testament is largely written by Christians and for Christians. What it does say is clear enough, however, to know for certain a few key things.

Two texts that help us see into this mystery are Jude 1:5-7 and Luke 16:19-31. The Jude text perhaps inspires as many questions as it answers, but it does answer our specific question:

Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day-- 7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. (Jude 1:5-7)

The key information for us here is that the unbelieving residents of Sodom and Gomorrah experience a fate "just as" the angels of verse 6, which is to be "kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day." Further, they are experiencing "a punishment of eternal fire" (v. 7). These residents of Sodom and Gomorrah are important for us because they represent unbelievers now deceased. Their fate shows us what happens to the unbeliever at death.

The Luke passage teaches us something similar, though it adds to the picture. Luke 16:19-31 is a parable about a rich man and Lazarus. This parable has the unique quality of having a named character, Lazarus. To some this is an indication that the parable was possibly a description of a known man of that time. Regardless of this aspect, however, the parable is teaching us something about the way our lives in this age connect to our experience after death. You can read the whole parable on your own but here are the verses that speak to our issue:

The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. 24 And he called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.' (Luke 16:22-24)

There are two places we can go after death, "Abraham's side" and "Hades." "Abraham's side" seems to be another way of speaking of "paradise" (Luke 23:43) and being in the presence of Christ at death (Phil. 1:23). The intermediate state of the believer has numerous descriptions in the New Testament (e.g., 2 Cor. 5:1-5).

The parable tells us that "Hades" is a place of fiery torment, where the unbeliever's soul is conscious but suffering. We also learn that this punishment is not a place for second chances, and it certainly isn't a Purgatory that purifies a soul for an eventual salvation. No, it is a place of suffering and punishment where someone is paying the price for rejecting the salvation offered by the Lord.

Elsewhere we learn that this imprisonment in Hades is temporary (Jude 1:6; 2 Peter 2:4), however. The eventual state of the unbeliever happens after his resurrection of the body (John 5:25-29). Then follows final judgment. We read about this in Revelation 20:12-15, which is important to see because it tells us about what happens to Hades and those in it:

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. 13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. (Rev. 20:12-15)

"Hades," then, refers to a temporary state for the unbeliever's soul as it waits to stand for final judgment at the great white throne. Hades itself is thrown into the lake of fire, and then all of its prisoners are thrown into that same eternal torment. This doesn't require that Hades be an actual place, only that the temporariness of the disembodied state will end and the permanent state of embodied suffering will begin. Thus, the unbeliever's soul does not remain with his body at the time of his physical death. It goes to Hades (hell) until the resurrection of the body. Then he is judged and cast into his eternal torment. William Shedd has an excellent (but long) article on this topic, and the Westminster Confession of Faith is helpful as well (Chapter 32).

Obviously, these are matters almost too sober and terrifying to talk about. We aren't engaging in theological "Trivial Pursuit." We all have names and faces we can connect to this horrific fate. So let us never lose our sense of the horrors of hell, the urgency of prayer for the lost, and an ongoing vigilance in evangelism. Salvation is of the Lord, but he uses us (Rom. 8:29-30; 10:9-15). Let us be watchful for when he wants to do just that.

Daniel