The eschatology of the soul after death

[Neogillist]

I have actually started to pounder lately on what Bible teaches in regard to the eschatology of the soul after death, whether for the believer or the unbeliever. I came across an interesting article by John Calvin, refuting a heresy of the anabaptists called "pshychopannychia" which is the belief that the soul sleeps after death until the final judgment. Interestingly, it is the belief that my father taught me as I was growing up, and I don't know where he got it from, since if Calvin did not agree with it, it is not a Reformed doctrine.

I thought the classic amillennial position is that the final judgment occurs immediately after the death of the soul, from where it is sent directly to heaven or to hell. Interestingly, this is what the Roman Catholic church teaches, except that they also believe there is a purgatory. This position, however, seems to disagree with some passages in Revelations concerning the final judgment and the great white throne, where the souls are said to be judged together at the same time, after being taken out of hell. Then occurs the second death, where they are thrown into the lake of fire.

My personal belief lately had been that the souls of believers go straight to heaven to reign with Christ after death, while those of the damned go to hell, where they are bounds with chains in darkness. At the final judgment, all the souls are given a new body and judged before the great white throne. The damned then go to the lake of fire, which is where the torments of hell reach their zenith for eternity, while the saints dwell with God in the New Jerusalem, or new heaven and new earth. After talking to my pastor about it, he told me that he had not studied the issue carefully himself, and that my point of view seemed quite biblical.

Let me know what you guys believe, or if there is a classic Reformed position on the issue. I know that for the premillennial, the eschatalogy of the soul is quite different.

 

[MW]

I thought the classic amillennial position is that the final judgment occurs immediately after the death of the soul, from where it is sent directly to heaven or to hell.

No, the classic amil view of Rev. 20:4-6 is that it refers to the intermediate state of souls prior to the last judgment. This is the first resurrection; and the second resurrection is that which takes place at the last judgment, when body are soul and reunited to enjoy the blessed presence of God in heaven for ever.

For a clear and concise statement of reformed eschatology relating to the intermediate state, one may consult the Westminster Larger Catechism, Q & A, 84-90.

 

[Iconoclast]

CHAPTER 31; OF THE STATE OF MAN AFTER DEATH, AND OF THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD

Paragraph 1. The bodies of men after death return to dust, and see corruption;1 but their souls, which neither die nor sleep, having an immortal subsistence, immediately return to God who gave them.2 The souls of the righteous being then made perfect in holiness, are received into paradise, where they are with Christ, and behold the face of God in light and glory, waiting for the full redemption of their bodies;3 and the souls of the wicked are cast into hell; where they remain in torment and utter darkness, reserved to the judgment of the great day;4 besides these two places, for souls separated from their bodies, the Scripture acknowledgeth none.
1 Gen. 3:19; Acts 13:36
2 Eccles. 12:7
3 Luke 23:43; 2 Cor. 5:1,6,8; Phil. 1:23; Heb. 12:23
4 Jude 6, 7; 1 Peter 3:19; Luke 16:23,24

Paragraph 2. At the last day, such of the saints as are found alive, shall not sleep, but be changed;5 and all the dead shall be raised up with the selfsame bodies, and none other;6 although with different qualities, which shall be united again to their souls forever.7
5 1 Cor. 15:51,52; 1 Thess. 4:17
6 Job 19:26,27
7 1 Cor. 15:42,43

Paragraph 3. The bodies of the unjust shall, by the power of Christ, be raised to dishonour; the bodies of the just, by his Spirit, unto honour, and be made conformable to his own glorious body.8
8 Acts 24:15; John 5:28,29; Phil. 3:21

 

[Neogillist]

So I guess what I described is indeed accurate from a Reformed standpoint. I don't know how the premil would differ from us, but if the soul of the righteous according to the premil receives its body when Christ returns on earth to reign for a thousand years, he must conceive that either the soul of the righteous sleeps after death, or goes up to heaven to meet Christ, just as the amil believes; but then he must have two physical resurrections, which is really silly. That is why I am not a premil, it is just not really Scriptural.

 

[MW]

So I guess what I described is indeed accurate from a Reformed standpoint. I don't know how the premil would differ from us, but if the soul of the righteous according to the premil receives its body when Christ returns on earth to reign for a thousand years, he must conceive that either the soul of the righteous sleeps after death, or goes up to heaven to meet Christ, just as the amil believes; but then he must have two physical resurrections, which is really silly. That is why I am not a premil, it is just not really Scriptural.

Very true; for the premil the blessed hope turns out to be either not so blessed, or a transient hope to be deferred until after the millennium.

 

[a mere housewife]

The teaching quoted from the Confession thrills me. We were taught a premillenialism which I am not sure is more historic, or dispensational (my parents learned it from dispensationalists, but afterwards read people like Robert Murray M'Cheyne). I am not sure if it was because we were not taught the doctrine, or because in my mind it became clouded over with the terror of the tribulation period and the beast, etc., but I never realized until after I was married and Ruben told me, that our bodies would be raised at all. I thought we would be some sort of unclothed spirit, that this would be achieved once for all at death, and that this shedding of our flesh was final sanctification. It did change my life to realize that our bodies are not inherently sinful, and that creation will be finally saved in Christ.

 

[MW]

It did change my life to realize that our bodies are not inherently sinful, and that creation will be finally saved in Christ.