PART II
CHAPTER 71
DEATH
HOME | contents | Eschatology- need for caution | necessary immortality of the spirit not a Christian doctrine | Death- Christian doctrine | condition of the lost | condition of the saved | prayer for the dead
Listen
to the choir of Clare College, Cambridge sing the negro spiritual 'Steal
away'. Music details HERE.
I. Eschatology: Necessity of Caution
The doctrine of the Last Things (τὰ ἔσχατα)
is called Eschatology.
These belong to the future and to a world that is outside our present experience.
We have no means of knowing anything about them except Divine revelation.
Reason fails us here, and God has not revealed to us much about the Last Things.
The few passages of Scripture that refer to them are obscure.
We do not know, for instance, whether the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus
is intended to give us information about what happens after death, or whether
it assumes the contemporary Jewish beliefs in order to teach a moral lesson.
But though revelation tells us little,
speculation has always been ready to fill the gaps in our knowledge.
We cannot accept the teaching of the Fathers where it goes beyond Scripture.
We have no reason to suppose that they knew more about the Last Things than
we do.
Still less can we accept the speculations of later divines, especially as differences
about the Last Things have been one of the causes of schism.
On this subject more than any other we ought not to assert what has not been
revealed to us.
The FOUR LAST THINGS are Death, Judgment, Hell, and
Heaven.
But first something must be said about the immortality of the spirit.
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II. Necessary Immortality of the Spirit not a Christian Doctrine
That man consists of spirit (πνεῦμα)
as well as body and animal life or soul (ψυχή),
and that the spirit survives death,
is believed by all, except materialists.
But the necessary immortality of the soul, or more accurately of the spirit,
as taught by some of the Greek philosophers, is not a Christian doctrine.
It does not appear to be taught anywhere in the Bible.
The following are the principal arguments put forward in favour of it.
Most men have believed that the spirit survives death;
and if it survives death,
there seems to be no reason why it should ever perish.
General belief gives a certain presumption in favour of it.
Those who believe in a righteous God (which is a doctrine almost confined to
those who accept the revelation to the Hebrew prophets) must believe that the
injustices of this life are set right in another;
but it does not follow that the other life is to last for ever.
Again, the aspiration of man to union with God is not fulfilled in this life;
but man does not possess any other powers that he cannot satisfy.
His aspiration to union with God must be capable of satisfaction,
or else it would not exist;
and as it cannot be satisfied in time because God is eternal,
it must be satisfied out of time.
Therefore the human spirit must be immortal or eternal.
It was a favourite argument of the philosophers
that the spirit was SIMPLE SUBSTANCE, not made up
of parts;
and that since decay and death arise from decomposition,
the spirit of man, which could not suffer from decomposition, was eternal.
An argument of a different and much more doubtful kind is the testimony from
psychic phenomena.
It is impossible to find any certain test of the genuineness of messages that
those who receive them believe to come from the spirits of the dead.
Christian tradition suggests that if they are really messages from another
world, they do not come from the spirits of the dead but from devils that are
trying to deceive us.
But even if such messages were really what they are said to be, they would
not and could not prove that the spirit is immortal but only that it survives
death.
It appears, then, that the arguments for the necessary immortality of the
human spirit are not convincing.
It is quite consistent with the Christian Faith to hold that the spirit of
man is not immortal or indestructible, but that God has given it immortality
as a privilege subject to certain conditions.
What we as Christians believe in,
is not the IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL,
but the RESURRECTION OF THE BODY AND THE LIFE EVERLASTING.
St. Paul taught that the resurrection of the body was a necessary part of the
Gospel (I
Cor.15.13-17).
St. John taught that our Lord had promised eternal life to those who believed
in Him (John 10.28; etc.).
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III. Christian Doctrine of Death
The Last things begin with Death,
the one event in the future that we know will happen.
We BELIEVE that we shall be judged,
but we KNOW we shall die (unless the Last Judgment
takes place in our lifetime).
Death is the separation of body and spirit (II
Cor.5.1-4).
The scientist regards death only as it affects the body.
The Christian regards it as it affects the whole man.
Death rends the human person in two.
The body is not, as Plato taught, a garment which the spirit puts off at death,
but a necessary part of the person.
To be deprived of the body is to suffer loss.
It is the "wages of sin" (Rom.6.23).
For this reason Christians reject sentimental ideas about death.
It is not the end of "life's fitful fever". [Shakespeare, Macbeth,
iii. 2.]
It is not "the gate of life".
[C. F. Gellert: Hymns Ancient and Modern, 140; English
Hymnal, 134.]
It is the punishment of sin,
and must be regarded seriously and solemnly for that reason.
Moreover, death is the end of our probation and is followed immediately by
the Particular Judgment (II Cor.6.2; Heb.9.27; Luke
16.23).
The brothers of the rich man in the parable were still alive, but he had been
judged.
If we are guided by this parable, the particular judgment follows death
and is not postponed till the end of the world.
The Bible tells us nothing of any "second chance".
As far as we know, we are to be judged by our conduct in this life,
account being taken of the knowledge and the opportunities given to us.
We should be very foolish to assume that we shall have any second chance given
us after death.
Death is to last only for a time (I Cor.15.23).
The body and the spirit will not be permanently separated by death.
The punishment will come to an end.
The body is to be restored.
We believe in the Resurrection of the Body.
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IV. Condition of the Lost
We know nothing of the condition of those who are condemned by the particular
judgment.
St. Luke 16.23-24 tells us that the rich man was in torment.
But the word translated "hell" is Hades, not Gehenna;
the abode of the dead, not of the lost.
We do not know whether that torment was to be permanent or how long it was
to last.
We are not even certain that our Lord meant, in this parable, to reveal anything
about the state of the dead.
It is possible that He merely took the current belief of the Jews as a scene
for the parable.
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V. Condition of the Saved
We are told a little more about those who will have been acquitted.
Since this life is our probation,
they are safe from eternal banishment from God's presence;
and they are free from temptation and from sin (Rm.6.7)
since it is these that constitute our probation.
Matt.22.32;
Heb.12.1, 23; and Rev.6.9-11 imply that they are conscious,
not asleep as some have supposed.
They live in comfort and peace (Rev.14.13: cf. Wisdom 3:1 which, being in the
Apocrypha, has not the authority of revelation).
They are, at any rate to some extent, united with our Lord (I
Thess.4.14; I
Cor.5.8; Phil.1.23).
This condition is commonly called the INTERMEDIATE STATE.
We must not speak of disembodied spirits as being in any "place"
or refer to them as anywhere.
We do not know what their relation to space is.
1. The Ancient Theory: Paradise
It seems probable that their condition is one of continual progress.
Whether any of them see the BEATIFIC VISION of God
is a disputed question.
The early Fathers seem to have taught that no one would see the Beatific Vision
until after the resurrection of the body, and that all the saints, even the
Blessed Virgin, were still in an imperfect condition.
Prayers were offered for them as they still are in the Orthodox Communion.
It was held that this condition will remain until the general resurrection,
when, having recovered their bodies,
they will be admitted into Heaven,
the state of glory, which will include the Beatific Vision.
Meanwhile, they are at rest in Paradise (the garden).
They are in Christ.
They are making progress towards perfection, and the prayers of their friends
on earth who ask God to give them refreshment, light, and peace help them.
Paradise is distinguished from Heaven.
The former is the temporary abode of the blessed dead,
the latter their permanent home.
The former is the state of rest, the latter the state of glory.
This was the theory taught, with minor variations, by the earlier Fathers,
followed until recently by most Anglican divines.
It seems to be supported by our Lord's words to the dying robber,
Today thou shalt be with Me in Paradise (Luke 23.43).
One would suppose that if anyone needed purgation after death,
it would be the one man in the Bible who repented on his death bed;
but our Lord promised him immediate admission to Paradise,
which, if we are to build any theory on this text,
is neither a condition of pain (Purgatory) nor a condition of glory (Heaven),
but a condition of rest (Paradise).
2. The Latin Theory: Purgatory
But in Latin Christendom quite a different theory has been developed.
According to this theory, since we shall not be fit for Heaven when we die,
we shall require purification after death.
This purification will be very painful.
According to medieval teaching,
it will only differ from Hell in being for a time, not eternal.
The condition of purification is called Purgatory.
Belief in it was made a dogma by the Council of Trent.
It is held that the spirits of the great majority of the faithful will enter
Purgatory immediately after death and the Particular Judgment.
A few will escape Purgatory altogether and go straight to Heaven,
with which this theory identifies Paradise.
The rest will remain in Purgatory for a shorter or longer time until the temporal
punishment due to the sins that they have committed in this world has been
accomplished.
Their time in Purgatory may be shortened by the prayers
and especially by the Masses offered by the faithful.
These prayers and Masses may be paid for.
From this arises the enormous organization of Masses for the dead supported
by appeals for pity for the poor souls in Purgatory, and of indulgences granted
by the Pope, which may be applied for the benefit of those in Purgatory.
The immense influence of this system on popular religion is well known to those
who have lived in any Romanist country.
"Purgatory pick purse", as our reformers
called it, is still so deeply rooted that Rome cannot be expected to alter
the doctrine or reform the system that is founded upon it.
There is no Scriptural evidence whatever for any belief in Purgatory.
The words
We went through fire and water,
and Thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place (Psalm 66.12)
refer to the Exodus from Egypt and not to the future of man after death.
Therefore the dogma of Trent,
There is a purgatory,
and the souls therein detained are assisted by the prayers of the faithful,
and especially by the holy sacrifice of the Mass,
must be rejected as a dogma.
It is not held by any part of the Church outside the Roman Communion.
The developed doctrine of Purgatory appears to be derived from three sources,
one rational and two speculative.
It is a reasonable opinion that we shall require purification after death;
and that, as purification and getting rid of bad habits is usually painful
in this life,
it will also be painful hereafter.
St. Augustine held that this opinion was "not incredible", and we
may well agree.
Belief in purgatorial fire appears to have been first taught explicitly by
St. Gregory the Great.
He seems to have thought that nightmares, which
took the form of visions of the future life, were Divine revelations, and by
means of his Dialogues they became part of the traditional teaching
of the Church.
The fires of Purgatory had by the time of the Schoolmen become a tradition
that they dared not criticize.
They combined it with the doctrine that every sin must be paid for.
They held that our Lord had freed men from suffering eternal punishment for
sin.
The temporal punishment remained to be undergone either in this life or in
Purgatory.
It is this third element in the system that is rejected by Article 22 as
the Romish doctrine of Purgatory.
The belief that God demands an equivalent for every sin has no basis in Scripture
and is contrary to the Christian doctrine of God.
Such passages as "
Thou shalt by no means come out thence
till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing (Matt.5.26)
refer, as the context shows, to human creditors, not to God's dealings with His children (cf. Matt.18.27).
The doctrine of Purgatory does not offer any one a "second chance".
Orthodox, Romanists, and Calvinists, whether they believe in Purgatory or not,
believe that all who are there are already saved and will reach Heaven at
last.
If Purgatory exists at all,
its purpose must be to reform the sinner,
to free him from evil habits,
and to make him fit for Heaven.
It is not an extension of our probation.
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VI. Prayer for the Dead
Listen
to the choir of Clare College, Cambridge chant the Kontakion for the departed.
Music details HERE.
The practice of prayer for the dead does not depend upon belief in Purgatory.
There is no certain case of it in Scripture except II Maccabees 12.44 in the
Apocrypha.
II Tim.1.18 is probably, but not certainly, a prayer for the dead.
It cannot therefore be regarded as dogma necessary to salvation,
but it has been practiced in every part of the Church and in every age.
The Church of England has never rejected it,
and even the civil courts have recognized that it is lawful.
It is implied by the Prayer Book, especially in the words
that we and all Thy whole Church may obtain remission of our sins,
and is quite explicit in the Revised Prayer Book of 1928 in the Liturgy and
in the Funeral Service and other places.
[It is found in epitaphs in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, and in literature in such unexpected places as Tennyson's Ode
on the Death of the Duke of Wellington (1851), which ends with the words "God
accept him, Christ receive him".]
The objections raised to it in some quarters are the result of the eschatological
theory of Calvin.
He was so violently opposed to the abuses of the doctrine
of purgatory that he denied the existence of any "intermediate state",
and taught that all men went immediately after death to Heaven if elect, and
to Hell if reprobate;
and that in either case prayer was useless and was therefore
forbidden.
There seems, however, to be no basis for this doctrine in Scripture.
It is contrary to the tradition of the Church and does not appear to be reasonable.
Most human beings are a mixture of good and evil and do not seem to be fit
either for Heaven of for Hell when they die.
Calvin and his followers thought (as indeed their medieval predecessors did)
that only a small part of mankind would reach Heaven, and that the great majority
were doomed to eternal punishment in Hell.
This severe belief is probably due to St. Augustine's interpretation of such
passages as Matt.7.13.
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