LBCF Chapter 31: Of the State of Man After Death

All right, we're up to chapter 31 of the London Baptist Confession of 1689, and this begins the last part.

The title of it is Of the State of Man After Death and of the Resurrection. Now the chapter is divided into two parts with three paragraphs.

All right, this is another one of those chapters which is essentially the same as the

Westminster Confession of Faith. Might be some minor differences, but essentially it's the same.

This chapter begins the last section of the Confession, the Doctrine of Last Things or Eschatology.

Now remember in our introduction we talked about you could divide the Confession in one way into four.

You know, you had the Foundation, then the Covenant, then Christian living, and now this is the fourth part, the

Doctrine of Last Things. And you'll notice the Confession doesn't state a particular millennial position, all right?

There's a difference between millennial—a millennial position is a part of Eschatology.

Eschatology is the broad spectrum of the Doctrine of Last Things.

Although pre -millennial dispensationalism, you can't reconcile it with our

Confession. So it would kind of eliminate, if that's your view, you would be in contradiction to the

Confession. But amillennialism, postmillennialism, both can be reconciled.

The Confession itself is broad enough for that, okay? All right, so part one of chapter 31 of the

State of Man After Death, paragraph 1a, is basically the distinction between the body and soul.

The Confession does make a distinction, and this is—I'll tell you why this is important in a minute.

This is the first paragraph, all right? First talking about the body, all right?

The bodies of men after death return to dust and see corruption. Now the reason

I'm pointing—I'm going to just pause for a minute. The reason I'm going to stop here is a lot of the

Church, especially in America today, especially in run -of -the -mill

Baptists or mainline denominations, teach a trichotomy view of the soul—of the person, rather, of the human, okay?

That is, they make three parts—body, soul, and spirit, okay?

Notice our Confession doesn't even get into that, but just presumes that it's only a dichotomy, body and spirit.

The soul and the spirit is the same thing, according to Scripture, just talking about different aspects of it, how it's viewed in certain ways.

But body, soul, and spirit are used interchangeably, and you can see that throughout. So a human being is made up of two parts—the inner man, which is the soul or the spirit, and the outer man, which is the body, okay?

And if you remember when we studied biblical counseling, do you remember how the trichotomy view of man leads to some strange aberrations in counseling?

All right, who remembers what it—go ahead, John. You go to a psychologist if you're having certain mental issues.

Yeah. Well, yeah, see, the way it works, if you hold to the trichotomy view, if you're physically sick, you go see a medical doctor.

Yeah. If you're spiritually sick, you go see the expert, the pastor of the church.

But if you have emotional issues or mental issues, you go see the psychologist because he's the expert in the soul.

But that's not what the Scripture says. The Scripture says that, of course, go see the medical doctor, but the pastor or the elders are those who are to minister

God's Word to the soul or the spirit, okay? So we don't make a dichotomy between those two, all right?

So the intermediate state, the bodies of men after death return to dust and see corruption, all right?

Now we look at the soul, but there's souls which neither die nor sleep, all right?

Now notice this, this is refuting certain teaching that goes within, so we have

Christian churches that teach about soul sleep and such things. The confession has no part of that.

They neither die nor sleep having immortal subsistence. In other words, once the soul has been created, it doesn't cease to exist, all right?

We have to be careful how we use the term die or death. What is the main, in Scripture when it talks about death, what's the main concept that it talks about?

Separation. Separation. It can be separation, and see what happens when man dies?

His body and soul are separated. That's death, okay? Not that it ceases to exist.

The confession also refutes the doctrines that you hear about annihilationism, where at some point the soul ceases to exist, all right?

So it starts by showing the distinction between the body and soul, all right?

Having an immortal subsistence immediately returned to God who gave them. Now, I mean, again, my purpose in this class is not to defend this, but you can see that, remember what

Christ said to the man on the cross? Today, you'll be with me in paradise, okay?

All right, part B of paragraph is the distinction between the righteous and the wicked.

Not only do we see a distinction between the soul and the body in what happens at death, but we see there's a difference between the righteous and the wicked.

So first the righteous, the souls of the righteous being then made perfect in holiness are received into paradise, all right, where they are with Christ, and they behold the face of God in light and glory, okay, waiting for the full redemption of their bodies.

That's what happens at death. That's why the apostle Paul could write in 1

Corinthians 15, you know, where death, well, where is your sting, you know?

For the Christian, there is no sting of death. What did Paul say in Philippians chapter 1?

For me to live is Christ, to die is gain. Now, what does he say? He says, I'm hard -pressed.

He says, I'd rather die. He says, but it's more needful that I remain, all right?

So for the Christian, death is not something to be feared, all right?

What about the wicked? 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.

Besides these two places for souls separated from their bodies, the scripture acknowledges none, all right?

So the spirit immediately goes into hell, is torment, waiting for the day of judgment, which we'll get to in the next chapter, and on the last day, all of wickedness is cast into the lake of fire, okay?

That's just telling us what the intermediate state is. Yes? Explain paradise?

It's not heaven, right? Well, you know, yes and no.

You can get caught up on the names. The point is that you're with Christ, but, all right,

I might as well say it now, or get to it now. Heaven is a place, okay?

It's a real place. You can walk around in heaven. It's not just for disembodied spirits, because we know that, well, according to the scripture.

So paradise is kind of like a temporary place, just like hell is a temporary place, waiting for the final judgment when the believers will be joined together with their bodies, and then be in the eternal state.

And you expect me not to be sarcastic with that. I was setting you up.

Yeah. My spiritual gift is sarcasm. So, and he, okay, never mind.

All right, the final change. Paragraph two, the timing of the final change. At the last day, all right, this is why, this is where you start to see a difference, why premillennial, pre -trib rapture does not fit with our confession, because all of these things happen on the last day of history.

Okay, not seven years prior, okay? So it happens on the last day, and in fact, such, those who are alive.

At the last day, such of the saints as are found alive, all right, so if Christ were to return tonight, that would include all of us.

Okay, shall not sleep, and of course, what does he mean, shall not sleep? Shall not die.

That's a euphemism used in scripture a lot. Shall not sleep, but be changed, all right?

This comes from, again, from 1 Corinthians 15 or 1 Thessalonians, 1

Thessalonians, all right? And we were actually going to put this verse in our nursery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.

All right. Sorry, I couldn't help it. Okay. What was that?

Okay. All right. What about those who have already died, and all the dead shall be raised up?

Now again, this is, all right, and the character of that change, with their selfsame bodies, okay, and none other, although with different qualities.

We know that in the resurrection that we will have bodies. How do we know that we're going to have a body?

Yes, had. Jesus has a body. No, that's an, it's an important distinction.

I find myself doing this too. A lot of times talking about Jesus in the past because, you know, he was on earth 2 ,000 years ago.

But he's alive as a man. He is the God -man today. So that's why it's important that we make that distinction.

And we're going to be like him. So he's the first fruits, the first of the race to be raised.

And we will be raised in the same way. The permanence of the final change, which shall be united again to their souls forever.

So after the, after the resurrection, and we're changed, our bodies are raised, joined together again the way

God intended. Remember, why is there death? Why is there a separation? Because of sin, all right.

We'll be reunited with our bodies, all right. And we shall live forever in that state.

Okay, make sense? Okay. Paragraph three, still in part two, the final change.

The contrast in the final change. The bodies of the unjust shall by the power of Christ be raised to dishonor.

Remember, the unjust, where are their souls when they die? In hell, all right.

What happens in the last day? They're raised also, their bodies. They'll be joined together just like the believers, but to dishonor.

All right, and we'll see later on what exactly that means. But the resurrection of the just, the bodies of the just, by his spirit unto honor.

Okay. And be made conformable to his own glorious body.

That's what I mean, we will be like him. That's why it's important that we understand. There are churches today that don't teach, or actually that teach the opposite, that Jesus Christ is not in the body today.

But it's important that we understand that Jesus, when he took upon himself human flesh, it was for all eternity.

He has that, yes. That's the cremation, how do we deal with that? I mean, the

Catholics used to be against it, but I don't think they are anymore. It doesn't matter as far as the confession is concerned or the events of the last day, because what's the difference if your body was burned?

Because some bodies are burned in a house fire or industrial fires.

God is able to take all those molecules and put them back together exactly the way they were in the first place.

So it doesn't really make any difference. Okay. And I don't have a position personally.

I know there are Christian churches that teach against cremation. I don't have a particular view against it at all.

I don't think it really makes any difference. Isn't that supposed to be symbolic of like burning in hell?

Can you point me chapter and verse? No, that's a good point though.

Whenever somebody tells you something like that, ask them, where's chapter and verse? There's a lot of speculation going on out there.

By the way, I've never seen chapter and verse. All right, any questions?

That's chapter 31. Notice it's pretty brief, right to the point, and let you know.

I mean, there's no real wiggle room as to what happens when you die. Everybody good?