Intermediate State

Definition and Meaning

The intermediate state refers to the condition of a person from death until the Second Coming of Christ and the resurrection of the body, that is, the state "between" death and resurrection. It belongs to the area of eschatology concerned with what follows an individual's death. It addresses three principal questions: whether the soul, once separated from the body, remains conscious; where it resides; and how this state differs from the final state.

Biblical and Historical Background

Frequently cited passages include the following:

• The account of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31)
• Jesus' words to the thief on the cross, "To day shalt thou be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43)
• 2 Corinthians 5:8, which describes death as being "absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord"

On the other hand, passages such as 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 refer to the dead as "them which are asleep," and interpretations diverge depending on how such language is read.

Understandings vary among traditions:

• The Catholic Church teaches purgatory, a state of purification after death.
• The Eastern Orthodox Church does not accept the doctrine of purgatory but prays for the dead.
• The Reformers rejected purgatory. John Calvin wrote a treatise refuting soul sleep, the view that the souls of the dead sleep without consciousness.
• Chapter 32 of the Westminster Confession of Faith confesses that the souls of the righteous are received into heaven immediately at death, while the souls of the wicked are cast into hell. It further states that Scripture acknowledges no place besides these two.

Practice in Korean Churches

The major Protestant denominations in Korea, including Presbyterian, Methodist, Holiness, Baptist, and Full Gospel churches, generally teach that the soul of a believer enters into conscious rest with God immediately upon death and that the body will be raised on the last day. In the Methodist tradition, John Wesley is known to have distinguished paradise from the final heaven. The common expression at a funeral service that the deceased has been "received into God's embrace" likewise reflects this understanding.

Protestants generally do not pray for the dead. This underlies the understanding of a memorial service as worship offered to God and as comfort for the bereaved, rather than as something directed to the deceased. By contrast, the Anglican Church of Korea, following church tradition, remembers and prays for the departed. The Seventh-day Adventist Church and Jehovah's Witnesses regard death as a state without consciousness and thus teach differently from the views above.