Subject: What happens immediatly after you die? |
Bible Note: Hello ebrain, Timothy Dwight- the grandson of Jonathan Edwards- had this to say (in part)regarding the intermediate state: "There has been no small debate among divines, and those of great reputation, concerning the places where the dead will reside between their departure from this world, and the final judgment. This subject demands too extensive a consideration to be attempted at the present time. It must be acknowledged, that the language of the Scriptures furnishes a foundation for some difference of opinion concerning it. Several expressions, found in both Testaments, seem to indicate an intermediate place, as well as an intermediate state of existence, between this world, and the final scenes of retribution. After a considerable examination of this subject, and an examination of several able commentators, who have handled it to some extent, I am obliged to confess myself not altogether satisfied; and to say, that hitherto I have found difficulties on both sides. I know of no method in which they can be removed, except a direct recurrence to every scriptural passage which relates to the subject, a thorough consideration of each, and an attentive comparison of them all. It is undoubtedly true, that the Hebrew , shed, and the Greek hades, commonly rendered hell, or the grave, in our Translation, do not properly signify either; but always the world of departed spirits. As these words have so extensive a signification, and must be interpreted by every passage of Scripture referring to that world, there must be room for considerable difference of opinion. But, whatever may be true concerning an intermediate place of existence, there can, I apprehend, be no reasonable doubt concerning an intermediate state. St. Peter says of the angels that sinned, that God ‘cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.’ St. Jude, also, declares, them to be ‘reserved,’ is like manner, ‘unto the judgment of the great day.’ From these declarations it is manifest, that fallen angels have not yet received their final judgment, nor of course their final reward. This indeed seems evident from the phraseology used by St. Peter, as well as by the declarations of both hint and St. Jude, The word which is rendered from St. Peter, ‘cast them down to hell,’ is in the Greek, tartarwsav; literally rendered, ‘cast them down to Tartarus.’ While this phraseology plainly declares a state of punishment; it indicates directly a different state from that which is taught by the word geenna; the appropriate name of hell in the Scriptures. After ‘the rich man died and was buried,’ it is said by our Saviour, ‘he lift up his eyes in hell, being in torments;’ in the Greek, en tw aJdh, ‘in hades he lift up his eyes, being in torments.’ This word also denotes with sufficient clearness a different state of suffering from that which is intended by the word geenna. In the same parable Lazarus is declared to be ‘carried by angels to Abraham’s bosom.’ The state in which Lazarus was placed is denoted elsewhere by the word Paradise. ‘To day,’ said our Saviour to the thief on the cross, ‘thou shalt be with me in Paradise.’ But we know from ˆ our Saviour’s own declaration, that when he gave up the ghost on the cross, his spirit went, not to hell, but to hades, or sheol. For in the sixteenth Psalm, he himself says, ‘Thou wilt not leave my soul in sheol;’ rendered both by the Septuagint, and by St. Peter (quoting this passage, Acts 2:27, and referring to it in verse 31) by hades, the Greek word, by which sheol is always translated both in the Old and New Testament. Thus it is, ‘Thou wilt not leave my soul in hades,’ and in verse 31, ‘his soul was not left in hades.’ The thief therefore went to the state which is denoted by this word; and not to that which is denoted by heaven, unless this word is supposed to include heaven. In Hebrews 11:39, 40, St. Paul says of the ancient saints, ‘And these" [CONSEQUENCES OF DEATH- The Immediate Consequences of Death- Timothy Dwight] Speaking the Truth in Love, BradK |