Sermon Tone Analysis

Psalm 38:9–11 (ESV)

9 O Lord, all my longing is before you; my sighing is not hidden from you. 10 My heart throbs; my strength fails me, and the light of my eyes—it also has gone from me.

11 My friends and companions stand aloof from my plague, and my nearest kin stand far off.

Introduction

We have seen the absolute certainty of Christ’s return in glory.

We do not know when this will take place but we do know that death will continue until he does return.

Our main question today is what is the state of all those who die prior to the Lord’s return.

This is known as the Intermediate State.

The Scriptures make clear what this is and we will be considering this.

However there are a number of erroneous views, we will be looking at some of these.

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Why Death?

Soul Sleep

Conditional Immortality

Second Chance

Biblical Certainty

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1 - Why Death?

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a. Life

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Genesis 1:26–27 (ESV)

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness....27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Genesis 2:7 (ESV)

7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

b.

Command

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c. Punishment

Genesis 3:17–19 (ESV)

17 And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.

19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

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2 - Soul Sleep

a.

A Vague State of Being

The notion of soul sleep, or psychopannychia asserts that physical death brings a temporary end to one’s conscious existence until a subsequent day of resurrection.

This view denies an intermediate state of conscious existence after death and affirms that the souls of believers sleep rather than going immediately to heaven.

Proponents claim scriptural support for soul sleep in Ecclesiastes 9:5 and Daniel 12:2.

Defenders of soul sleep include Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh-Day Adventists, and Christadelphians.

MacArthur, J. (Ed.).

(2021).

Essential Christian Doctrine: A Handbook on Biblical Truth (p.

238).

Wheaton, IL: Crossway.

Sleeping is an euphemism for death

b.

Sheol and Hades

Sheol Often Means Hell.

“Sheol signifies the place of future retribution.

Cairns, A. (2002).

In Dictionary of Theological Terms (p.

203).

Belfast; Greenville, SC: Ambassador Emerald International.

Hades - The Greek equivalent of the Hebrew Sheol.

Sheol is translated in the AV “hell,” “grave,” and “pit,” while Hades is ten times translated “hell,” and once “grave.”

Cairns, A. (2002).

In Dictionary of Theological Terms (p.

203).

Belfast; Greenville, SC: Ambassador Emerald International.

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The Interpretation of St. John’s Revelation (John’s Vision of Christ, 1:9–20)

Until judgement day hell functions only for the souls of the damned and is thus termed “hades,” the unseen place.

When hell is mentioned as receiving both the souls and the bodies of the damned, Jesus calls hell “the Gehenna” and “the Gehenna of the fire,” and in Rev. 20:14, 15, “the lake of the fire,” in 21:8, “the lake, the one burning with fire and brimstone, which is the death, the second.”

How “the death and the hades” are at last thrown into “the lake of the fire” we shall see in 20:14.

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3 - Conditional Immortality

a. Annilationism

The belief that immortality is a gift conferred only upon believers and that the wicked are annihilated.

Cairns, A. (2002).

In Dictionary of Theological Terms (p.

107).

Belfast; Greenville, SC: Ambassador Emerald International.

b.

Man is Not Immortal

The teaching of the mortality of the soul is generally considered to be opposed to the Christian doctrine of man and to the dignity and responsibility of the human soul.

It has, however, been recently revived by some *Evangelical theologians, who hold that annihilation follows a period of torment in *Hell.

Cross, F. L., & Livingstone, E. A. (Eds.).

(2005).

In The Oxford dictionary of the Christian Church (3rd ed.

rev., p. 397).

Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.

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1 Timothy 6:15–16 (ESV)

15... God who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see.

To him be honour and eternal dominion.

Amen.

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Power of the gospel

The Pastoral Epistles (6:11–16)

The only human beings who, as far as it is possible for creatures to do so, share this immortality, and thereby become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4), are believers, though also unbelievers exist endlessly.

It is through the gospel that immortality or

.

was brought to light (2 Tim.

1:10).

For the believer immortality is therefore a redemptive concept.

It is everlasting salvation.

For God it is eternal blessedness.

But while the believer has received immortality, as one receives a drink of water from a fountain, God has it.

It belongs to his very being.

He is himself the Fountain.

c. Destruction

d.

God’s Love