Preface to  Chapter Four  Hades: The Intermediate State

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 What exactly happens to the souls of the lost between the time of physical death, and the time of final judgment – the intermediate state?  Are they conscious or unconscious?  Are they in torment or just sort of there?  If in torment, is it a mental torment, or is it “physical”?  This is the topic of this chapter, and I wish I could tell the reader that I have all the answers.  However, I don't.  I've reseached it Biblically, prayed about it, and I've read the educated opinions of many who believe a number of different ways where this question is concerned.  And my conclusion as of the publishing of this volume is: I just don't believe the final concrete  absolute answer is given to us in Scripture, but I have personally come to lean fairly heavily on some middle ground, and I'll explain what I'm referring to shortly.  There are good arguments on all sides of the question, and we'll take a look at a number of them in this chapter. 

But as I indicated in the introduction to this book, I don't think that this is nearly as important a question as is the question of the state of the lost in eternity – after final judgment.  To give you some perspective on why I don't think the former question has the weight of the latter, imagine with me that Jesus returns 1000 years from now (most believe it will be much sooner), and if you trust the Bible, then you believe their have been approximately 6000 years of human history, and then most of you, if you are a Christian, believe that Jesus is going to reign bodily on earth for a thousand years prior to the final judgment of the lost, and the entrance to eternity.  So given this timeline, an early human who rejected the revealed knowledge of his or her Creator, if conscious and in mental and/or physical torment during this intermediate state, will suffer for about 8000 years.  I certainly do not mean to downplay the possible horror of such a fate and for such a length of time, but let's now consider eternity.  8000 years is not even a drop in the bucket of eternity, because the bucket will always overflow.  Even a billion years is not a drop. 

The fact is, it is impossible to compare any finite time period, no matter how lengthy, with eternity.  They have nothing to do with each other.  This is part of the tragedy of teaching that those who didn't find or accept His grace will suffer for all eternity, at the hands of God.  It is an incredible (and an un-credible) attack on the merciful nature of the Creator, who did not grant immortality to all, thankfully, but offers it only as a gift to those who please Him in faith, and mercifully destroys those who do not.