THE INTERMEDIATE STATE
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Where are the dead? is the question on the lips of all mankind. The only true and correct answer is given by the Word of God. Other answers, such as those given by spiritualism, are nothing but a babel of voices. Various cults have preyed upon unsuspecting souls, taking them captive at the Devil’s will.
The following are things to remember as we explain the intermediate state, the state of man between death and resurrection: Death is the separation of the soul and spirit from the body. The soul and spirit are together in death. The soul is the seat of the appetite, and the spirit is the seat of knowledge, and they both function in death, as shown by the example of the rich man in Hades. He was in torment; he had feelings. He reasoned; thus, his spirit and soul were together. The word “Sheol” and the word “Hades” are the same. “Sheol” is the Old Testament Hebrew word. “Hades” is the New Testament Greek word. We know they are the same, for the Apostle Peter, at Pentecost, quoted from Psalm 16, saying, “Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell [hades], neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption” (Acts 2:27). Psalm 16 uses the word “Sheol” for hell [Hades]. Thus, Hades and Sheol are the same. This is the place of departed souls and spirits. The mistranslation of the words “Sheol” and “Hades” by the King James translators has caused much trouble in the Church today. They translated these words to mean hell (the place of everlasting punishment), grave, pit, and the like. The wrong translation has led people to believe that the grave is the only hell. Sheol and Hades are the names of the same place for the departed spirits of man.
1. These words are never found in the plural.
2. Sheol and Hades are never located on the face of the earth.
3. The Bible never speaks of an individual’s Sheol.
4. Man never puts anyone in it, as the grave.
5. Man never digs or makes a Sheol, or Hades.
6. The Bible never speaks of a man touching Sheol.
7. The Bible never speaks of a body going into Sheol, but with one exception, and the exception proves the rule. Korah (Num. 16:28-33) defied the leadership of Moses and the priesthood of Aaron, and influenced many in Israel against them. God showed His displeasure by causing the earth to open up its jaws and swallow Korah and his family. The King James Version says that he went down alive into the pit, which should be translated “Sheol” (Num. 16:33).In Luke 16:19-31 we have the true account of Lazarus and the rich man both dying and existing in the intermediate state. There are some who claim that this story was only a parable. The Word does not so state. In all of His parables, the Lord never mentioned proper names, as He does here. If it were a parable, it would be true, for every parable that He spoke was built upon the truth (Matt. 13:3).
The following is a common interpretation of this so-called parable:
Rich man — the Jewish nation, rich in what God has given him.
Lazarus — the Gentiles — poor at the door of the rich man.
Both died — end of the dispensation, when both are blessed by the Gospel.
Why say this refers to Jew and Gentile, when the Scriptures do not say so? Why did the Lord use the rich man in picturing the Jewish nation, when in the preceding passages he was warning the rich? The idea of the Jews ever requesting aid of the Gentiles is farfetched.
There is no gulf between the Jew and the Gentile. No Gentile nation has ever begged from the Jews as Lazarus begged bread from the rich man. If the Jewish nation died (pictured by the rich man), who were the five brethren who were left? We still contend that this is a true account of two men who died and went to Hades.
A. Before the Cross.
The Cross is the dividing line of many Scriptural truths. We shall discuss the question, where did men go at death before Christ died upon the Cross? We shall show that they all went to the same place — Hades (Sheol) — but in different parts. From Numbers 16:33 we learn that Sheol, or Hades, is somewhere inside the earth. “They, and all that appertained to them went down alive into Sheol, and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation.” From Luke 16:19-31 we see that Hades was in two compartments: Abraham’s Bosom, the place of the departed righteous, where Lazarus went; and the place of torment, where the rich man went. A great gulf separated these two sections.
Since we know that Sheol (Hades) is somewhere in the earth, and that it is composed of two compartments, we turn to the Lord Himself to find the exact location. “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matt.12:40). Ephesians 4:9, 10 makes this clearer still. “Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth. He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.”
Philippians 2:9, 10 says, “God . . . hath highly exalted him . . . that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth.” This speaks of the future adoration of Christ by all creation. However, we want to call attention to the above underlined words. To go “under the earth” means to submerge, as a submarine which goes under water. Thus, we conclude that Sheol (Hades) is in the heart of the earth, composed of two sections, one part for the righteous dead and the other for the unrighteous dead, with a great gulf fixed between them. By the Lord’s revelation of the rich man and Lazarus, which occurred before He died on the Cross, we see where all men, whether righteous, or unrighteous, went after death, before the Cross.
B. At the Time of the Cross.
Under this heading we shall deal with only two persons, the Lord Jesus, and the penitent thief. Upon death, the Lord Jesus went to Hades. We know this from Psalm 16:10, which says, “Thou wilt not leave my soul in Sheol; neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption.” The Apostle Peter, on the day of Pentecost, quoted from this same passage, but, of course, he used the Greek word “Hades,” instead of “Sheol.” These words describe the resurrection of Christ, while fully stating that he went to Hades. We see this by the use of the word “leave.” The Holy Ghost would not have employed the word “leave” if he had not gone there. As to the thief on the cross, he went to Hades with Jesus, into the compartment reserved for the righteous dead. “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23: 43b). How many days was Jesus in Hades? Three days. On the first of the three days, the thief was to be with Jesus in paradise; therefore, we learn that paradise was another name given to Abraham’s Bosom, which was the place of the righteous dead.
C. After the Cross.
Now where do the departed go at death? The unrighteous still go to Sheol (Hades), awaiting the last judgment. The righteous, praise the Lord, go at once to heaven to be with the Lord. “We are confident . . . and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (II Cor. 5:8). When Christ arose from the dead “he led captivity captive” (Eph. 4:8). Christ emptied Hades (Sheol) of all the righteous, and took them and paradise with him to glory. Paradise was, at one time, in the heart of the earth; now it is in the third heavens. “I knew a man in Christ about fourteen years ago (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) how that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words which is not lawful for a man to utter” (II Cor. 12:2-4).
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