Between dying and resurrection

The word “intermediate state” appears in various teachings where it is taught that man does not die when he dies, but only passes over into another form of life. People talk about going to Jesus when they die, going to heaven, crossing over to eternal life, or at best going straight to hell, purgatory, or some other place in a shadowy realm. There man then waits until the resurrection. The intermediate state is therefore the state between dying and resurrection. According to this view, death would be a temporary solution, in which one does not really die, but only a little and “not really”.

The idea that we simply live on when we die belongs in the “alternative facts” category.

The basic idea is this: man is not dead when he dies. Even though such things do not appear in the Bible, this is a widespread opinion. What exactly this “in-between life” looks like is subject to differing and even conflicting opinions. But despite all the differences, it should be noted that there is more than just “death”. The word “intermediate state” is an alternative expression for the word “death”. We would be dead, but we are actually alive. However, it is not only an alternative expression, but it is also a reinterpretation and a denial of death. Using a popular expression today, these are “alternative facts.

To be or not to be?

To be or not to be? That is the question here. What is the essence of death? “Am I” somewhere and living there, or “am I not” and waiting for the resurrection? Let’s listen to what Job says:

“My days glide by faster than a weaver’s shuttle and dwindle without hope. Remember that my life is a breath! My eye will see no more happiness. The eye of him who wants to see me will see me no longer preserve. If you turn your eyes to me I am no longer The cloud fades and passes away; so he who descends into Sheol descends, not up again. To his house he returns no more, and his place don’t know anything about him anymore.”
Job 7:6-10

“For now I will lie down in the dust, and if you look for me, I am no more.”
Job 7:21

“Why did you pull me out of the womb? If only I had perished, no eye would have seen me! 19 As if I had never been, so I would be.”
Job 10:18-19

“Man, born of woman, lives a short time and is saturated with restlessness. Like a flower, it comes forth and withers; and like the shadow, it flees and cannot stand (and does not persist ).”
Job 14:1-2

“Look away from me that I may be merry once more before I pass away and be no more!”
Ps 39:14

“Fear not when a man enriches himself, when the splendor of his house increases. For at his death he does not take all this with him; his splendor does not follow him down. Even though he blesses his soul in his life – and you are praised when you do well – it comes to the generation of his fathers, who never see the light again. The man who is in reputation has no insight; he is like cattle, that is consumed.”
Ps 49:17-21

“Thus says the LORD: Listen! In Rama one hears dirge, bitter weeping. Rahel weeps for her children. She doesn’t want to be comforted about her children because they’re gone. “
Jer 31:15; cf. Mt 2:16-18

In all these passages, the view is a very sober one: from today’s perspective, it is no further. We see nothing. The dead are no longer there. The testimonies of the Bible are consistent here. The biblical passages quoted here are not invalidated by other biblical passages. Death, according to the Bible, is a “non-being”.

No consciousness in death

The dead know nothing. They have no consciousness. They do not call upon God and are like animals in death.

“If a man dies, will he live again? – All the days of my service I wanted to wait until my relief came! … If his children come to honor, he does not know it, and if they become small, he does not pay attention to them.”
Job 14:14; Job 14:21

“Nothing I hope more! Sheol is my house, in the darkness I have spread my camp. To the grave I say: You are my father! To the maggot: my mother and my sister! So where is my hope? Yes, my hope, who will look at it? She descends with me to Sheol as we sink into the dust together.”
Job 17:13-16

“For in death you are not called; in Sheol, who will praise you?”
Ps 6:6, cf. Ps 30:10, 88:5-6, 88:11-13. See also Isa 38:18-19.

“The dead will not praise Yah, nor all who go down to silence.”
Ps 115:17

“His spirit goes out, he returns to his earth: the same day his plans are lost.”
Ps 146:4

“For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for their name is forgotten. Even their loving, even their hating, even their zealotry has long since been lost. And they will forever have no part in anything that happens under the sun.”
Eccl 9:5-6

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it in your strength! For there is neither doing, nor calculation, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in Sheol, into which you are going.”
Eccl 9:10

The picture that the Bible sketches is this: When you die, your life ends and you are dead afterwards. In death there is no cognition, no development, no survival. That is exactly what “death” means. That is why it takes God’s special intervention to give life back to the dead. Biblical hope is not in death because nothing happens there. Something is needed to free us from death.

Without resurrection everything is over

This is how it looks: The reality of death needs the reality of resurrection to continue. This is the core of the gospel today. That is why Paul writes forcefully:

“For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised. But if Christ has not been raised, your faith is void, and you are still in your sins. Then even those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If only for this life we have set our expectation on Christ, we are the most pitiful of all men.”
1Cor 15,16-19

Without resurrection, everything would be over – even for those who have already fallen asleep. This should make it clear that the dead have not yet reached their destination. You couldn’t be further from the mark. They can no longer contribute anything at all to their well-being. They know nothing more. The one who is dead is powerless and powerless and totally dependent on God’s work. There, all people are equally powerless and – left to their own devices – without a future. If there were no resurrection, then even those “who have fallen asleep in Christ” would have perished. Without resurrection, there is no hope for anyone – believers or unbelievers. Without resurrection, everything is over with death. Death is the great equalization of all people.

“Why did I not die from the womb, did I not pass away when I came forth from the womb? Why did knees come to meet me and why breasts that I sucked? Because then I would lie there now and would be still. I would sleep – then I would have rest – with kings and counselors of the earth, who built themselves places of ruins, or with colonels who had gold, who filled their houses with silver. Or like a buried miscarriage I would not be there, like children who never saw the light. There the wicked desist from raving, and there they rest whose strength is exhausted. Carefree are there the prisoners all, they hear no more the voice of the driver. Small and great are equal there, and the servant is free from his master. “
Job 3:11-19

“For I have known it, unto death thou leadest me back, and into the house of meeting of all the living.”
Job 30:23

There is something both monstrous (Death is an enemy) and comforting in these words and statements. For in death all are equal. We are all dependent on Him who sustains our life, who gives us life, breath and everything(Acts 17:25). This is true today as well as when we have died. The prospect of the resurrection was denied by some in the church at Corinth. They had thus robbed the entire Gospel of its power and meaning. The Good News is centrally about the resurrection as one of the pillars of God’s salvation.

Only through resurrection will the dead be able to praise God again. Until then, it’s radio silence. When it says that one day all men will confess Christ as Lord, it means that they have been resurrected beforehand(Phil 2:9-11).

Death is a sleep

The only thing death is compared to in the Bible is sleep. Sleep is a visual language for death. Those who sleep, with healthy sleep, do not notice the time that they have slept. He is not “conscious” during this time. We do not perceive the time we sleep and it is the same in death.

“… so man lies down and does not get up again. Until heaven is no more, he does not awake and is not roused from his sleep.”
Job 14:12

“Look here, answer me, O LORD my God! Make bright my eyes, lest I fall asleep to death!”
Ps 13:4

The imagery, of course, goes much further: just as death is described as “sleep,” so too is the return to life described as “resurrection” or “resurrection.” These are also images that take a comparison with waking up from a sleep. Once you are awake, you can stand up.

“And many of those who sleep in the land of dust shall awake; some to everlasting life, and some to shame, to everlasting abhorrence.”
Dan 12:2

Figuratively speaking, death is much stronger than any sleep. It is just a comparison. Death can only be compared to sleep in one respect: Between falling asleep and waking up, we are not conscious. The comparison can also remain misunderstood, as here in the story of Jesus and Lazarus:

“After that He said to them, “Our friend Lazarus. sleepsbut I am going to remove him from the Sleep to wake him up.” Then the disciples replied to Him, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will be saved from death.” But Jesus had heard of his Death The latter, on the other hand, thinks that He is talking about the rest of sleep. Then Jesus told them frankly, “Lazarus has died, and I rejoice for your sake that I was not there, that you may learn to believe.”
John 11:11-15

No intermediate state, no soul sleep

A so-called intermediate state is a construct that we do not find anywhere in the Bible. This condition is invented because it is previously interpreted into the Bible that the dead are “not dead”. Eisegesis comes before exegesis. In the theological debate, there is another construct that comes up again and again. Thus, there is talk of a “soul sleep,” as if only the soul were asleep. Soul sleep is something of a dirty word. Those who believe that the dead live in full consciousness distance themselves from those who speak of a “soul sleep.” However, this is wrong once again. At death, not just a part of the person sleeps, but the whole person dies. Not only the soul sleeps, but man sleeps the sleep of death.

The radical nature of death must not be detracted from. Sleep is just a figurative comparison. To speak only of a sleep of the soul, leverages the meaning of the imagery. No matter whether one speaks of “intermediate state” or “soul sleep” – death is not taken seriously in its radicality. But only when we grasp the full seriousness of death can the power of resurrection and the uniqueness of God’s outlook shine in it.

It needs the resurrection and God’s intervention so that everything is not over with death. The expectation is in Him who raised up Christ and made Him alive as the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep and as the vanguard for making all alive(1 Cor. 15:22).