The Rich Man and Lazarus
-the intermediate state-
 

WHAT IS DEATH?

Putting aside, therefore, all that we have thus been taught, let us see what God actually does reveal to us in Scripture concerning man, in life, and in death; and concerning the state and condition of the dead.

Psalm 146:4 declares of man:

�His breath goeth forth, He returneth to his earth;
In that very day his thoughts perish.�

God is here speaking of �man�; not of some part of man, but of �princes,� and �man� or any �son of man� (v. 3), i.e. Any and every human being begotten or born of human parents.

There is not a word about �disembodied man.� No such expression is to be found in the Scriptures! The phrase is man's own invention in order to make this and other scriptures agree with his tradition.

This Scripture speaks of �man� as man. �His breath�; �he returneth�; �his thoughts.� It is an unwarrantable liberty to put �body� when the Holy Spirit has put �man.� The passage says nothing about the �body.� It is whatever has done the thinking. The �body� does not think. The �body� apart from the spirit has no �thoughts.� Whatever has had the �thoughts� has them no more; and this is �man�.

 If this were the only statement in Scripture on the subject it would be sufficient. But there are many others. There is Ecclesiastes 9:5, which declares that:

�The dead know not anything.�

This also seems so clear that there could be no second meaning. �The dead� are the dead; they are those who have ceased to live; and, if the dead do or can know anything, then words are useless for the purpose of revelation. The word �dead� here is used in the immediate context as the opposite of �the living,� e.g.:

�The living know that they shall die, But the dead know not anything�

It does not say dead bodies know not anything, but �the dead,� i.e. dead people, who are set in contrast with �the living.� As one of these �living� David says, by the Holy Spirit (Psalm 146:2, 104:33)

�While I live will I praise the Lord:
I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.�

There would be no praising after he ceased to �live.� Nor would there be any singing of praises after he had cease to �have any being.� Why? Because �princes� and �the son of man� are helpless (Psalm 146:3,4). They return to their earth; and when they die, their �thoughts perish�: and they �know not anything.�

This is what God says about death. He explains it to us Himself. We need not therefore ask any man what it is. And if we did, his answer would be valueless, inasmuch as it is absolutely impossible for him to know anything of death, i.e. the death-state, beyond what God has told us in Scripture. We find the answer is just as clear and decisive in Psalm 104:29,30:

�Thou takest away their breath (Hebrew- spirit), they die,
And return to their dust:
Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created:
And thou renewest the face of the earth.�

With this agrees Ecclesiastes 12:7, in which we have a categorical statement as to what takes place at death:

�Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was:
And the spirit shall return unto God who gave it�.

Neither the�dust� nor the "spirit" had any previous, separate, independent consciousness before their union, which made the "living soul,� or after that union is broken, when man becomes what Scripture calls �a dead soul.� The other Scriptures we have quoted, and shall quote show that there is no such separate, independent consciousness after that union has been dissolved. The prayer in I Thessalonians 5:23 is that these three may be found and �preserved entire...at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ� (R.V.): i.e. preserved alive till (or �at�) that coming; and not to die and be separated before it.

This is the condition of man when this tabernacle has been put off (2 Peter 1:14), and when he is "unclothed" (2 Corinthians 5:4). Once separated from each other, we are shut up to the blessed hope of being reunited in resurrection. This is why the death of believers is so often called "sleep"; and dying is called "falling asleep" because of the assured hope of awaking in resurrection. It is not called "the sleep of the body" as many express it; or "the sleep of the soul." Scripture knows nothing of either expression. Its language is, "David fell asleep" (Acts 13:36), not David's body or David's soul. "Stephen...fell asleep" (Acts 7:60). "Lazarus sleepeth" (John 11:11), which is explained, when the Lord afterward speaks "plainly" as meaning "Lazarus is dead" (v 14).

Now, when the Holy Spirit uses one thing to describe or explain another, He does not choose the opposite word or expression. If He speaks of night, He does not use the word light. If He speaks of daylight, He does not use the word night. He does not put �sweet for bitter, and bitter for sweet� (Isaiah 5:20). He uses adultery to illustrate Idolatry; He does not use virtue. And so, if He uses the word �sleep� of death, it is because sleep illustrates to us what the condition of death is like. If tradition be the truth, He ought to have used the word awake, or wakefulness.

But the Lord first uses a figure, and says �Lazarus sleepeth�; and afterwards, when he speaks �plainly� He says �Lazarus is dead.� Why? Because sleep expresses and describes the condition of the �unclothed� state. In normal sleep, there is no consciousness. For the Lord, therefore, to have used this word �sleep� to represent the very opposite condition of conscious wakefulness, would have been indeed to mislead us. But all His words are perfect; and are used for the purpose of teaching us, and not for leading us astray.

Traditionalists, however, who say that death means life, do not hesitate to say also that to �fall asleep� means to wake up! A friend vouches for a case, personally known to him, of one who (though a firm believer in tradition) was, through a fall, utterly unconscious for two weeks. Had he died during that period, traditionalists would, we presume, say that the man woke up and returned to consciousness when he died! But, if this be so, what does it mean when it says,

�I will behold thy face in righteousness:
I shall be satisfied, when I awake with thy likeness�?

If death is waking up, what is the waking in this verse? Surely it is resurrection, which is the very opposite of falling asleep in death. Indeed, this is why sleep is used of the Lord's people. To them it is like going to sleep; for when they are raised from the dead they will surely wake again according to the promise of the Lord; and they shall awake in His own likeness.

What is life?>           <Introduction