Wheaton College Alumni Magazine Spring 2014 | Page 20

Q

What happens when
we die?
&A: Dr. Beth Felker Jones, associate professor of theology
Well, we rot. Then, we wait in joyous anticipation of the
general resurrection.

Q

What is an
evangelical?
& A:

Dr. Timothy Larsen ’89, M.A. ’90, Carolyn and
Fred McManis Professor of Christian Thought

*
*

An evangelical is:

a Protestant orthodox Christian

who stands in the tradition of the global
Christian networks arising from the
eighteenth-century revival movements
associated with John Wesley and George
Whitefield

*

who has a preeminent place in her or his
Christian life for the Bible as the divinely
inspired, final authority in matters of faith
and practice

*

who stresses reconciliation with God
through the atoning work of Jesus Christ
on the cross

*

and who stresses the work of the Holy
Spirit in the life of an individual to bring
about conversion and an ongoing life
of fellowship with God and service to
God and others, including the duty of
all believers to participate in the task of
proclaiming the gospel to all people.

18

SPRING

141833_14-32.indd 18

2014

Death is the separation of the soul from the body. In death, a human
being, intended by God to be a whole creature, is split in two. Body
and soul are torn apart. Christians agree about what happens to
bodies at that point. They are subject to decay. We bury the body or
cremate it, and maybe we try not to think about it too much.
Christians are not in complete agreement about the condition
of the soul at this point. If I die tomorrow, and Jesus returns ten years
later, raising all his people to resurrected life, what is my condition
for the ten years between my death and the great day of resurrection?
This is the question of the “intermediate state.” The majority
Christian opinion is that the soul exists in a conscious intermediate
state, enjoying God’s presence while waiting to be reunited
with the body in resurrection. This interpretation of Scripture makes
sense of our common belief that those we love, who die in
Christ, are in his presence. It also makes sense of key biblical
evidence, most importantly the moment where Jesus tells the thief
on the cross that “today” he will be with Jesus in paradise
(Luke 23:43). Since neither Jesus nor the thief are resurrected on
Good Friday, and since both of their bodies are definitely dead on
that day, it makes sense to imagine “paradise” as a conscious life
of the soul.
A minority Christian opinion, sometimes called “soul sleep,” is that
the soul, like the body, is bound by death, and that it will only return
to life and consciousness at the general resurrection. This position,
held by important thinkers including Martin Luther, makes sense of
scriptural talk about the dead as “sleepers” (e.g., 1 Thess. 4:13).
It also makes sense of the horror of death and the importance of our
bodies. Notice that people who hold both positions agree that
our ultimate hope is not for whatever happens on the day of death
but for the general resurrection, when all humanity will share in the
resurrection of Christ.
The most important answer to the question of what will happen
after we die, then, is that we will be resurrected like Christ. Soul
and body will be reunited. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul talks about the
resurrection of the body using the metaphor of a seed and the plant
that will grow from it. When we die, our bodies are like seeds. At
the resurrection, we will sprout, gr