Saturday, January 13, 2018

Intermediate State

The Intermediate State


Our present existence is mortal. We will die, if not caught up in the “rapture.” Immortality will take place at the rapture or resurrection, see 1Cor15.51-55.


Eternal life and immortality are applied to what will happen to believers at the resurrection or rapture, yet everyone will rise again.


For the nonbeliever, their experience will be as Jesus said concerning destruction of "body and soul in hell," see Mat10.28


Whatever the exact nature of this experience for the nonbeliever, it is not "eternal life," though it is a resurrected body-life: "And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt." Dan12.2


Concerning the intermediate state between death and resurrection, there must be a keeping intact by God of every individual's identity. Maybe the identity is intact with the "spirit that goes upward" Eccl3.21. Maybe there is a component of the soul that resides with that spirit.


Why did Jesus commit his spirit to God? See Lk23.46


The believer has a new spirit ("that which is born of the Spirit is spirit," Jn3.6) and is sealed by the Spirit of God for the day of redemption (Eph4.30), so there must be some continuation of that essence and identity that makes up and defines the person.


But whatever the intermediate state may be, there must be a keeping of the essence and identity of the individual by God, especially the believer who has a new spirit and sealing by the Holy Spirit. Since “sleep” is used for the state between life and the resurrection, could it be that that state is like a kind of dream state? “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake...” Dan12.2

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