May 29 – LD 22, Day 2: The
by Prof Herman Hanko
Read: II Corinthians 5:1-10
Our teacher who instructs us in the doctrine of the resurrection
of the body, wants us to understand not only what this confession means to us,
but also that, preceding the resurrection of our bodies is what has been called
“the intermediate state.”
This
doctrine teaches that at the moment of our death, while our bodies go to the
grave, our souls go immediately to heaven. These souls live in heaven until
Christ comes again at the end of time. This doctrine is taught in this
Lord’s Day in the words, “That not only my soul after this life shall be
immediately taken up to Christ its Head . . .”
This
doctrine has been a great blessing to God’s people, not only as they look ahead
to the time when they must die, but also when they must carry one they love
dearly to the cemetery.
There
are many who deny this truth, however. These teach a sort of soul sleep; that
is, that when we die, our souls go to sleep, and sleep until Christ comes again
when they are wakened to be joined with their bodies.
But
Scripture is clear that this is not the case.
Solomon
describes old age in Ecc 12:1 - 7 and ends his
picturesque description of old age with the words: “Then shall the dust return
to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.”
Christ
tells the thief on the cross when he repented of his sin and asked the Lord to
remember him when the Lord came to his kingdom: “To day shalt thou be with me in
In Rev
6:9 - 11, we are told that when the fifth seal is opened, John
“saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and
for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying,
How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on
them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of
them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season,
until their fellowservants also and their brethren,
that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.”.
Finally,
in II Cor 5:1 we read this: “For we know that if our
earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
Paul
does not say, “We will have” some day a house not made with hands; he says, at
that moment when our earthly house is dissolved, we do have a house not made
with hands.
We
look forward to heaven at the end of our pathway here in the world.