By the intermediate state is meant the state or condition of human beings from the moment of their physical death until their resurrection and judgment.

In connection with the intermediate state of the unrighteous, there are two scriptural words that are relevant.

The Hebrew word --- is used 65 times in the Old Testament. It does not occur outside the OT, except once in the Jewish Elephantine papyri, where it means "grave." The A.V. translates it 31 times as "grave," 31 times as "hell," and three times as "pit."

When examined in context, appears to have three basic meanings: (a) the grave, the state of physical death; (b) the place or state or realm to which wicked persons pass at physical death; (c) a great depth, as contrasted with a great height.

Most of the uses appear to fall into the first category of meaning--the grave, the state of physical death. Three instances of this usage include:

Genesis 42:38 - "But Jacob said, 'My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he alone is left. If harm shall befall him on the journey you are taking, then you will bring my gray hair down to in sorrow."

Psalm 49:13-15 - "This is the way of those who are foolish,
And of those after them who approve their words. Selah.
As sheep they are appointed for ;
Death shall be their shepherd;
And the upright shall rule over them in the morning;
And their form shall be for to consume,
So that they have no habitation.
But God will redeem my soul from the power of ;
For He will receive me. Selah."
Hosea 13:14 - "I will ransom then from the power of ;
I will redeem them from death.
O Death, where are your thorns?
O , where is your sting?
Compassion will be hidden from My sight."

A few uses fall into the second category of meaning--the place or state or realm to which wicked persons pass at physical death:

Psalm 9:17 - "The wicked will turn to ---, Even all the nations who forget God."

Albert Barnes, commenting on this verse in his Notes of the Old Testament says:

"It is clear (a) that this cannot be understood here as referring to the grave in its ordinary sense, for the righteous will be as certainly consigned to the grace, or will as certainly die, as the wicked; (b) that is cannot refer to the invisible world, the abodes of the dead, in the ordinary sense of the term--for it is as true that the righteous will enter that world as that sinners will. There must be some sense, in which the word is used here, different from that of the grave, or differently merely from death as such. This sense can be only one of two--either (1) that the author means that they will be cut off by a sudden and violent death, considered as a calamity or as a punishment; or (2) that he regarded the Sheol mentioned here as a place of punishment . . . the spirit of the passage seems to demand to idea that the wicked referred to here would be consigned to a place of punishment, that they would be cut off as wicked persons, and treated accordingly. This interpretation is strengthened by the other member of the parallelism, where it is said, 'and all the nations that forget God;' since it is no more true that the nations 'that forgot God' will be 'turned into the grave, or the world of departed spirits,' that it is that the nations that serve and obey him will. It seems to me, therefore, that this is one of the passages in which it is clear that the word Sheol had connected with it the idea of punishment beyond the grave--of a region where the wicked would be treated according to their deserts, and in a manner different from the treatment of the righteous."

Proverbs 23:13-14 - "Do not hold back discipline from the child,
Although you beat him with the rod, he will not die.
You shall beat him with the rod,
And deliver his soul from .

The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament in its article on says that the word as it is used here could refer either to deliverance from future punishment or to deliverance from untimely death.

The third category of meaning--a great depth, as contrasted with a great height--is represented by three instances:

Psalm 139:8 - "If I ascend to the heaven, Thou are there;
If I make my bed in , behold, Thou art there.

Job 11:7-8 - "Can you discover the depths of God? Can you discover the limits of the Almighty? They are high as the heavens, what can you do? Deeper than , what can you know?"

Amos 9:2-3 - "Though they (the wicked Israelites) dig into , From there shall My hand take them; And though they ascend to heaven, From there will I bring them down. And though they hide on the summit of Carmel, I will search them out and take them from there; And though they conceal themselves from My sight on the floor of the sea, From there I will command the serpent and it will bite them."

There are three uses of that have been suggested as problematic:

Psalm 6:5 - "For there is no mention of Thee in death; in who will give Thee thanks?"

Ecclesiastes 9:10 - "Whatever your hand finds to do, verily, do it with all your might; for there is no activity or planning or wisdom in where you are going."

Isaiah 38:18-19 - "For cannot thank Thee, Death cannot praise Thee; Those who go down to the pit ( ) cannot hope for Thy faithfulness. It is the living who give thanks to Thee, as I do today; A father tells his sons about Thy faithfulness."

Of course, if is being used in the first sense--the grave, the state of physical death--the problem in all three of these uses disappears. Physically-dead bodies cannot mention God, or carry on any activity, or give praise to God.

The Greek word is used 10 times in the New Testament. The A.V. translates it all ten times as "hell." In the interests of thoroughness, all ten of these uses follow.

Matthew 11:23-24 - "And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You shall descend to ; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. Nevertheless I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you." (The parallel is found in Luke 10:15 - "And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will be brought down to !")

Here we find two ideas: Capernaum is to be humiliated and brought down to destruction, and its inhabitants are to be left in a miserable state of anticipation of coming judgment for their continuance in sin and unbelief in the face of Christ's teachings and miracles. In this usage could refer simply to destruction, or to a place or condition to which wicked men are brought.

Matthew 16:18 - "And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of shall not overpower it."

This could mean that cannot hold the Church in the state of physical death. Because Christ has gained the victory over death the Church will one day burst the bonds of death and break out through the gates of . Or it could mean that cannot swallow up the Church. Because of Christ's redemption, the members of Christ's Church are assured that they will never be swallowed up by (seen as the place to which wicked persons pass at death).

Acts 2:22-32 - "Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know--this Man, delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. And God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power. For David says of Him,

'I was always beholding the Lord in my presence; For He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue exulted; Moreover my flesh also will abide in hope; Because Thou wilt not abandon my soul to , Nor allow Thy Holy One to undergo decay. Thou has made known to me the ways of life; Thou wilt make me full of gladness with Thy presence.'

Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. And so, because he was a prophet, and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants upon his throne, he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that He was neither abandoned to , nor did His flesh suffer decay. This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses."

The A.V. translates verses 27 and 31 slightly different. Verse 27 reads: "Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." And verse 31 reads: "He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption." As mentioned above, the NASB translates these verses, "Because Thou wilt not abandon my soul to Hades, Nor allow Thy Holy One to undergo decay"; and "He was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh suffer decay."

Now although the difference in wording is only slight, the difference in meaning is significant. To leave Christ soul in is quite different from abandoning Christ's soul to . In the former, Christ's soul is in and He is assured that He will not be left there; in the latter, Christ's soul is not in , and He is assured that He will not be abandoned to . The NASB translation fits the parallelism of verses 27 and 31 much more satisfactorily than the A.V. translation, and also accords with the Hebrew of Psalm 16:10 (of which verse 27 is a quotation). The Hebrew text of Psalm 16:10 reads as follows: ("Because you will not abandon my soul to SHEOL") This rendering (the NASB) makes the two clauses parallel in force: Christ's soul was not permitted to experience ; Christ's body was not permitted to experience corruption. In this usage, does not mean death or the grave, for Christ certainly died and was buried; it does not mean a general place or state to which disembodied spirits go at death, for Christ certainly became disembodied at death; it must mean the place to which wicked disembodied spirits go at death. Christ is assured that He will not be abandoned to , the place of wicked disembodied spirits, and that He will not experience physical corruption.

Revelation 1:18 - "and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of ."

If and death are understood to refer to two realms (one pertaining to the disembodied souls/spirits of the (wicked) dead, and the other pertaining to the bodies of the dead), then the keys that Christ holds could be understood to refer to Christ's authority to open these two realms at the resurrection (in this case, of the unjust).

Revelation 6:8 - "And I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and was following with him. And authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence by the wild beasts of the earth."

Death is personified here, and also seems to be personified. During the period represented, when a temporal expression of the wrath of God is poured out on the inhabitants of the world, Death and are able to kill one-fourth of the earth's inhabitants. Are these all wicked persons? If this Scripture is placed beside Matthew 16:18, so that it is seen that the gates of cannot prevail over the members of Christ's Church, then Death and could here be seen as swallowing up only wicked persons.

Revelation 20:13-14 - "And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. And death and were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire."

It is important to note that those who are judged at this "white throne" judgment are unsaved. They are the wicked dead, whose names are not written in the book of life. The combination of the sea, death, and delivering up their dead would appear to be a reference to the reuniting of bodies and disembodied spirits at the resurrection. Out of the sea and the graves on land the bodies of the wicked dead are reconstituted and made alive, and out of come the disembodied souls/spirits of the wicked dead; their reunited bodies and souls/spirits are judged and cast into the lake of fire.

"Now there was a certain rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, gaily living in splendor every day. And a certain poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man's table; besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores. Now it came about that the poor man died and he was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried. And in he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried out and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue; for I am in agony in this flame.' But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, in order that those who wish to come over from here to you may not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.' And he said, 'Then I beg you, Father, that you send him to my father's house--for I have five brothers--that he may warn them, lest they also come to this place of torment.' But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.' But he said, 'No, Father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!' But he said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead.'"

Since this is the classic passage on the intermediate state, it deserves extended treatment.

(a) What is the genre of this discourse? Is it fiction? If fiction, is it a parable, an allegory, or an illustrative story? Or is it non-fiction?

It appears to have some characteristic elements of parabolic teaching, in that the characters could be representative and truth is clearly illustrated. And yet if it is parabolic, it is the only such instance in the Gospels in which a character is given a proper name. It therefore seems to have both parabolic and non-fictional elements.

(b) What is the truth-value of this discourse for knowledge concerning the intermediate state?

Part of the answer depends on our answer to the first question, that regarding genre. And yet we must ask a rather pointed question: Since very little is revealed elsewhere about the nature of the intermediate state, and since this discourse provides many details about human experience after physical death (something we could not know about except by divine revelation), we must ask whether Jesus would knowingly have misled His hearers about the intermediate state if He knew that what He was saying was not true. Thus the important question is not what is the genre of this discourse, but rather was Jesus communicating correct or erroneous ideas about the nature of the intermediate state (whether by parable, allegory, illustration, or non-fictional account). And it does not answer this question to say that any error of interpretation springs from the mind of the one who wishes to import into the discussion what Jesus never intended to teach, since the only information as to Jesus's intention is found in the discourse itself, and it is a straightforward account of what happened to two men at death.

(c) What is the character of the two men?

We are told that one man was rich, dressed splendidly, and lived gaily and splendidly every day. Although he was a Jew and had Moses and the Prophets, he apparently did not listen to them, so far as repentance of sin and obedience in righteousness was concerned; and he was not a righteous man, as witnessed by the fact that he went to . The other man, Lazarus, was poor, apparently a cripple, covered with sores, and reduced to beggary. He apparently was also a Jew and a righteous man, as witnessed by the fact that he went to heaven.

(d) What is the nature of physical death?

We are told that the poor man, Lazarus, died and was carried away by the angels to heaven, to Abraham's side or bosom. His body was probably buried in a pauper's grave, or burned in the Valley of Hinnon with the trash. The rich man died, his body was buried, probably in a richly ornamented tomb hewn out of stone, and his soul/spirit went into . Thus both men became disembodied in the experience of physical death.

In their disembodied state both men were conscious of their condition and their surroundings, could feel, think, and speak.

(e) What is the nature of the two places or states or realms into which the two men went?

Lazarus went to heaven, where Abraham was. He was carried there by angels and comforted, especially in view of his previous sufferings during his earthly life. The rich man went to . In this passage we are told that in he was in torment (verse 23), in agony in "this flame" (verse 24), in agony (verse 25), and in a place of torment (verse 28).

(f) Since these two men were is a disembodied state, how are we to interpret the physical terms used in the account?

The rich man had no physical body (he was disembodied); yet he lifted up his eyes, was in torment, saw Abraham and Lazarus, cried out, asked that Lazarus be sent, so that "he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue," was "in agony in this flame," and was in agony. These were not physical eyes, finger, tongue or flame! Remember, he was disembodied!

Perhaps is would help to draw a parallel from the figure of speech called anthropomorphism as applied to God. When we read of God as having an outstretched arm and a mighty hand, as having eyes that run to and fro throughout the earth, as being seated in heaven, or as using the earth as His footstool, we understand that since God is incorporeal (i.e., He does not have a physical body), these expressions are speaking of functions performed by human beings through physical organs, but by God through non-physical powers. By way of analogy, the language employed in this passage can be understood to be speaking of functions that disembodied souls/spirits perform in the spirit world which are spoken of in terms appropriate to the physical world.

Another possible explanation is that those who have recently experienced physical death may persist (for a time) thinking in and using physical terms to express non-physical functions in their disembodied existence.

(g) How do we know that these are intermediate and not final states?

If Jesus was speaking of final states, wouldn't this clear up all the problems of physical language, since souls/spirits are re-embodied in these states?

Since the final states begin following resurrection and final judgment, there is no more opportunity for the unrighteous to repent, once the final state has begun. In this account, however, we find the rich man begging Abraham to send Lazarus to his father's house in order to persuade his five living brothers to repent and avoid . Since in this account repentance is still envisioned as a possibility, we know that our Lord must have been speaking of the intermediate state and not of the final state.

(h) Is human destiny fixed at the final judgment or at death?

In this passage we are told that there is a great chasm fixed between heaven and , and that those who may wish to cross over are not able to do so. Although the rich man suggests that human beings who have passed from earth to heaven in the experience of physical death may be able to return to earth, there is no record (except in the case of Christ) of anyone every having done this. (This assertion is not contradicted by the appearance in a vision of Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration, as recorded in Matthew 17, Mark 9, and Luke 9, since appearance in a vision is not the same as coming from heaven to earth).

As far as human beings who have passed from earth to being able to cross over from to heaven, this passage places an unbridgeable chasm between these two places, and thus fixes human destiny at physical death. And since those who are in will be cast into the lake of fire, the eternal destiny of the wicked is fixed at physical death. The accepted time of salva-tion is now, during this present life!

Summary:

One meaning of is that of the place or condition to which the wicked dead, in their disembodied state, pass at physical death. In the New Testament, is the place or state in which the wicked dead remain in a disembodied state in torment until the resurrection of the unjust and the final judgment, at which time they come forth from to be reunited with their bodies, judged, and cast into the lake of fire.

For a number of years the view has been widely disseminated that during the Old Testament period SHEOL/HADES was comprised of two compartments: one a Paradise of bliss and the other a Hell of misery; and that SHEOL/HADES was a rather dark and dismal place in the depths of the earth in which disembodied spirits were imprisoned.

Since this view conflicts with what has been represented as the scriptural conception of , we must ask how such a view of arose. Let us note two representative authorities on the question.

In the article on HADES in M'Clintock and Strong's Cyclopaedia of Biblical Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, the following statement appears:

The Greeks, however, in process of time abandoned this use of Hades (as the personal designation of Pluto, the invisible-making deity), and when the Greek Scriptures were written the word was scarcely ever applied except to the place of the departed. In the classical writers, therefore, it is used to denote Orcus, of the infernal regions. . . .

Two or three points stand out prominently in the views entertained by the ancients respecting hades: first, that it was the common receptacle of departed spirits, of good as well as bad; second, that it was divided into two compartments, the one containing an Elysium of bliss for the good, the other a Tartarus of sorrow and punishment for the wicked; and thirdly, that in respect to its locality, it lay under ground, in the mid-regions of the earth.

This statement gives the meaning of as it was employed by classical Greek writers. As such, it reflects their pagan religious beliefs as well as their speculative thought concerning death.

In the entry under in Grimm's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, translated, revised, and enlarged by Joseph Henry Thayer (a widely used lexicon of New Testament Greek), the following appears:

1. a proper name, Hades, Pluto, the god of the lower regions; so in Homer always. 2. an appellative, Orcus, the nether world, the realm of the dead. In the Septuagint the Hebrew SHEOL is almost always rendered by this word (once by THANATOS, II Samuel 22:6); it denotes, therefore, in biblical Greek Orcus, the infernal regions, a dark. . . and dismal place . . . in the very depths of the earth . . . the common receptacle of disembodied spirits . . . Metaphorically, . . . to go or be thrust down into the depth of misery and disgrace.

The reasoning this lexicon employs in the phrase "it denotes, therefore, in biblical Greek . . . " is astounding! Think of the logic: Because HADES meant such and such a thing in the classical pagan Greek writers, and because HADES is used by the New Testament writers, therefore HADES has the same meaning in the New Testament as it had in pagan Greek mythology! If such an assertion were not in print, it would be incredible!!

It is admittedly very difficult for a person who has been brought up to accept uncritically a particular view as scriptural truth, only to discover later that that view is nothing less than a wholesale acceptance of pagan Greek mythology, and an imposition of that mythology upon the teaching of Scripture. However, once that person discovers that such is indeed the case, he or she must be willing to reconsider and modify or change his or her view, no matter how difficult the adjustment.

For some time the view has been disseminated that during the time between His death and resurrection, Christ descended to the Paradise compartment of HADES, unlocked its gates, brought out with Him all of the souls/spirits of the righteous dead imprisoned there, and placed them in the Paradise of the third heaven.

Since the view is often based on a few passages in the New Testament, we should note these passages.

Matthew 27:52-53 - "and the tombs were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many."

It should be noted that there is nothing in this reference to indicate that this was a general resurrection of Old Testament saints, but only a local phenomenon, in the vicinity of Jerusalem. In addition, it does not say that all of the saints in the vicinity of Jerusalem were raised, but "many" of them. Further, there is no hint here that these saints were raised because of an alleged descend into , or because of any preaching on the part of Christ to those who were (allegedly) there. Finally, if this passage refers to Christ's descent into , it proves too much, since in the descent into hades view it is the souls of the Old Testament saints that are freed from hades and taken to heaven by Christ; there is no resurrection of bodies! (The resurrection of Old Testament saints comes later, at Christ's Second Coming).

Ephesians 4:8-10 - "Therefore it says, When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men. (Now this expression, 'He ascended,' what does it mean except that He also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)"

Two clauses are particularly stressed in support of the descent into hades view: "He led captivity captive" (A.V.), or "He led captive a host of captives" (NASB); and "He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth" (A.V.), or "He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth." (NASB) The first clause is a quotation from Psalm 68:18. This may simply be understood as teaching that Christ broke the slave-hold of sin over His people and bound them as captives to Himself; or it may be understood as teaching that Christ broke the bondage of death and made death His own captive.

The second clause, "He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth," is linked to Isaiah 61:1 - "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me . . . he hath sent me . . . to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound." This is quoted by Christ in Luke 4:18. This clause really turns on the word "lower," as far as this view is concerned. However, is the contrast is not between Christ's descending to and then ascending to heaven, but between His descending to earth (which is certainly lower relative to His pre-incarnate state in heaven) and His subsequent ascending into heaven, then the use of this Scripture to support the view collapses. Again, if the adherents of this view want to press "the lower parts of the earth" idea, do they really want to locate the "Paradise compartment of Hades" in the interior of the planet earth?

The proclamation of liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound could surely apply to the marvelous deliverance from the guilt, penalty, bondage, and eventual presence of sin which every child of God experiences, rather than to the opening of the gates of to let out the Old Testament saints.

I Peter 3:18-20 - "For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ask, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water."

Usually quoted together with this passage is I Peter 4:6 - "For the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as men, they live in the spirit according to the will of God."

Several interpretations of these passages have been suggested:

(1) Christ went to HADES to preach the gospel to the disembodied saints in the Paradise compartment

(2) Christ went to HADES to preach the gospel to the disembodied sinners in the Hell compartment (thereby giving them a second chance)

(3) Christ went to HADES to preach the gospel to the disembodied sinners in the Hell compartment who never had a first chance

(4) Christ went to HADES to announce the condemnation of the disembodied sinners in the Hell compartment

However, at best the interpretation would appear to be that Christ did not go to at all ("Thou wilt not abandon my soul to ") but rather that He preached by the Spirit through Noah ("a preacher of righteousness") the gospel of salvation to the unsaved people who were disobedient to the gospel in the time immediately preceding the Flood, those very people who are now in prison (the prison of ).

Incidentally, the New Scofield Reference Bible, in a footnote on I Peter 3:19, makes the following statement: "The theory that the Lord Jesus, after His crucifixion, preached to the unsaved dead in hades and gave them a second chance is not found in Scripture." Since I Peter 3 speaks of preaching to disobedient persons preceding the Flood, and since I Peter 4 speaks of the preaching of the gospel, this statement is significant, referring as it does to the unsaved dead.

I Peter 3 would therefore best be understood to teach that Christ preached the gospel through Noah to Noah's contemporaries, who rejected Noah's preaching and are now in the prison of . I Peter 4 would best be understood to teach that the gospel was preached in time past to those who have since died, in order that their flesh (sinful nature) might be judged and condemned, and that their spirit might be made alive. Thus I Peter 4 says nothing about

One strand of development of the descent into hades view is that of a particular understanding of the abovementioned Scriptures; the other strand is found in speculative thought in the history of doctrine. The idea of Christ descending to hades appears in the writings of several Church Fathers.

Eusebius of Caesarea mentions it. Clement of Alexandria extended the purpose of the descent to include, not only the saints, martyrs, and prophets of the Old Testament, but all of the heathen as well. Clement held that all men would have opportunity to repent, right up to the day of judgment. Origen wrote, "We say . . . that His (i.e., Christ's) soul, stripped of the body, did there hold converse with other souls . . . that He might there convert those who were capable of instruction, or were otherwise known to Him fit for it." Origen held that eventually there would be a restitution of all things, and that even Satan would be saved! The descent into hades view also appears in the writings of Cyril of Jerusalem, Athanasius, Ambrose, and Jerome. Augustine, however, rejected the view and called it a heresy.

During the middle ages the view dominated the great scholastic writers, and was frequently used to support the dogma of purgatory. Generally speaking, the leaders of the Reformation rejected the view, and for three reasons: (1) it was regarded as a traditional, not a scriptural belief; (2) it appeared to give some support to the Roman Catholic view of purgatory; and (3) it appeared late in the creeds of the Church.

In fact, the phrase "He descended into hell" did not appear in the accepted version of the Apostles' Creed of A.D. 150, or in that of A.D. 350. Not until A.D. 700 did the phrase appear in the accepted version.

As a result, most of the confessions and catechisms of the Reformed churches ignored the descend into hades view. The Roman Catholic Church maintained the article; and gradually a minority of Anglicans and Lutherans came to accept it.

In the twentieth century the view has again become widespread. However, among churches that have retained the clause "He descended into hell" in the Apostles' Creed, a number have understood this to mean, not that Christ went down into the prison of HADES to deliver the Old Testament saints, but rather that "He continued for a time under the power of death."

Because of the tendency to adopt pagan Greek mythology as background to this view, and because of the tendency toward universal salvation which has at times accompanied this view, the "Descent into Hades" view would probably be better dropped from evangelical Christian doctrine.

In connection with the intermediate state of the righteous, there are two scriptural words that are relevant. They are and .

The word is used three times in the New Testament. The A.V. does not translate the word, but transliterates it each of the three times.

Luke 23:42-43 - "And he was saying, 'Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!' And He said to him, 'Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in .'"

If we reject the pagan Greek mythological concept of with its Elysium of bliss and its Tartarus of misery, and if we refuse to identify the Paradise of Scripture with the Elysium section of the pagan Greek , then we are free to understand for what it really is--a word that comes from Persian and means a garden or park, and that is used in the New Testament as a figure for heaven, the garden of God. is heaven, the abode of God, of the angels, and of the blessed. Just as Enoch was caught up to God, to the third heaven, to ; so when Jesus commended His spirit into the Father's hands and breathed His last, His soul/ spirit passed into heaven, to , and the repentant thief's soul/spirit with Him.

II Corinthians 12:2-4 - "I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago-- whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows --such a man was caught up to the third heaven. And I know how such a man-- whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows--was caught up into and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak."

This concept of the "third heaven" reflects a common Jewish mode of thought. The first heaven was the air above the ground, the atmosphere in which the birds flew. The second heaven was the sky in which the sun, moon, planets, comets, and stars moved. The third heaven was the abode of God, the angels, and the blessed. In this passage Paul equates with the third heaven.

Revelation 2:7 - "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the of God.

This tree of life, which first appeared in the Garden of Eden, appears again in the holy city, the New Jerusalem (Revelation 22:2, 19). Also in the New Jerusalem is found the throne of God and of the Lamb. Since God makes His abode in the New Jerusalem, the third heaven is located in the holy city. Since the tree of life is said to be in and in the New Jerusalem (which, following the creation of the new heavens and the new earth, comes down out of the sky to earth), and since the New Jerusalem will be the third heaven, then , the New Jerusalem, and the third heaven will be one and the same place. However, since this occurs after the Second Coming of Christ, it would not appear to have any direct bearing on the nature of the intermediate state.

The word is used 284 times in the New Testament. The A.V. translates this word 268 times as "heaven," 10 times as "air," five times as "sky," and once as "heavenly."

Although it would be interesting (and doubtless profitable) to examine all of the uses of , we will note merely three.

Philippians 1:21-24 - "For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake."

Now it may have been noticed that the word is not used in this passage. However, Philippians 3:20 states, "For our citizenship is in , from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;" Here we learn that at the present time, Jesus Christ is in

At His coming He will descend from . When Paul therefore says that he has a desire to depart and to be with Christ, he is saying that he desires to be with Christ in . To depart from the flesh in this passage means to depart from the body, to depart from this present life. His statements that to die is gain, and to be with Christ is far better, suggest all sorts of positive, encouraging, exciting ideas about the intermediate state of the righteous!

II Corinthians 5:1-9 - "For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the . For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from ; inasmuch as we, having put it on, shall not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed, but to be clothed, in order that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now he who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord--for we walk by faith, not by sight--we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore also we have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him."

Here we learn that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord in . At physical death, the union between the soul/spirit and the body is dissolved, and the soul/spirit passes into the intermediate state. For the one trusting in Christ, physical death means that the soul/ spirit passes into heaven (the third heaven) where Christ is present, both in His divine and His human nature. For the believer, physical death is the portal into .

John 14:1-6 - "Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way where I am going.' Thomas said to Him, 'Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?' Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.'"

Again, this passage does not employ the word , yet it clearly refers to in the sense of the third heaven (the abode of God) under the expression "My Father's house." In this passage Jesus was attempting to comfort His disciples and to answer (in a very general way, without getting into details) some of their questions. Where was Jesus going? How was He going to get there? And what was the place like where He was going? One outstanding evangelist and Bible teacher has suggested that Jesus answered these very questions by His assertion in verse 6. What is the way to ? Jesus is the way, through faith in Him and His redemption! Where is ? Where Jesus is, 'tis heaven there!' And what is like? It is like Jesus! He is the life of . Heaven is filled with His light, His truth, His goodness, His beauty. And apparently this is all that His disciples need to know about !