Theological Term of the Week
Tuesday, June 12, 2012 at 9:32PM
rebecca in theological terms

intermediate state
The condition or mode of being in which the soul exists between the time of death and the time of the resurrection of the body.

  • From The Christian Faith by Michael Horton:
  • In the intermediate state, believers are not simply in contemplative repose. Nor are they lost souls wandering throughout the realm of shadows or crossing back and forth over the river Styx ferried by Charon. Rather, they are made part of the company assembled at the true Zion, with “innumerable angels in festal gathering” and “the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God,, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus , the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Able” (Heb 12:22—24).

Learn more:
  1. Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary: Intermediate State
  2. Blue Letter Bible: What Happens to a Believer after Death?Do Believers Experience All God’s Promises in the Intermediate State?
  3. Matt Perman: What do you believe about the intermediate state?
  4. Loraine Boettner: Death, Immortality and the Intermediate State
  5. Wayne Grudem: Death and the Intermediate State (mp3)
  6. Joseph A. Pipa: Death and the Intermediate State (audio)
Related terms:

Filed under Salvation

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Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms in alphabetical order.

Article originally appeared on Rebecca Writes (http://rebecca-writes.com/).
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