Question:
Dear Greg,
Something
that’s been very confusing to me: I think it was Lazarus who was asked by the
rich man for a few drops of water? If
that is so, and these two can see and talk to each other, then it contradicts
the verse saying, “the dead know nothing.”
As I understand it, when you’re dead, you’re dead and totally
oblivious to anything. It’s also
passed through my mind that death might be like going under anesthetics during
an operation. When the fluid hits
the body, you’re out. You are
totally unaware of the hours of the operation and the next thing you are aware
of is waking up in the recovery room. There
is no knowledge of the passing of time. If
this holds true in death, then Abraham, Moses, both my parents and friends will
“wake” at the same time regardless of how long we’ve been dead.
Comments?
Charles
Answer: Dear Charles,
The
initial discussion we need to have is that this is a parable.
This is not a specific and exact description of an eternal, divine
reality. On the other hand, this
does not mean that something like this might not take place— why, we can ask,
would Jesus mention something about heaven and hell in a parable if it is
completely without any basis in divine reality?
Parables
are not intended to be stories that are to be examined with a microscope, giving
each word, topic, actor, change of scenery, etc. an exact and literal meaning.
Parables are true, profound statements of truth, but they are primarily
geared toward one or two main themes.
What
are the main themes here?
1.
That eternity is not an extension of the suffering or
the plenty we experience in this life. Eternity is based upon our
relationship with God, not with money and material possessions.
2.
That it is folly to trust in the things that make
humans secure, whether they
Lazarus,
of course, was a good friend of Jesus, who did die, and who Jesus resurrected
(John 11). It would seem that Jesus
chose Lazarus for a reason. The friend he knew was not in the same literal
position that this poor man was, but Jesus’ friend Lazarus lived in an
extremely poor village, along with his sisters Mary and Martha, and Scripture
gives us no reason to believe that they were well off.
This
passage (in Luke 16) cannot be taken as a primary passage that teaches us about
the afterlife. Other passages
do--you may find a number of helpful perspectives presented in my answers to
many questions we have posted here on the website under the heading
“Heaven/Hell”. Basically your
question concerns what is called “the intermediate state”.
The intermediate state is a term used by Christians to help us try to
understand what happens to our souls/spirits after our bodies die, and until the
time our bodies are glorified and made immortal (see 1 Corinthians 15) at the
Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Most
Christians agree that the Bible is clear— our souls/spirits go back to God at
this time— the intermediate state. The
central question is, are our souls/spirits awake/conscious, or are they asleep?
A minority of Christians down through time has believed that our souls
are unconscious—asleep. This idea
is primarily based upon a literal meaning of the metaphorical use in the Bible
of the term “sleep” when used as a euphemism for death.
Most Christians believe that in some way our souls/spirits are conscious,
but at this point most Christians stop, for there is nothing to suggest what
that means. We do not know, in spite
of some who speculate, that our souls and spirits can communicate with the
living. Nothing in the Bible
suggests this--in fact it warns against contact with the “spirit world” and
that if there is any contact like this, it is not with those who are dead in
Christ.
So
what do we know about the intermediate state?
Not very much. What do we
know about the resurrection? More
than we know about the intermediate state, but still not very much.
We know that we will see Jesus as he is, that we will be like him only in
respect to the fact that our bodies will be made immortal, as his was.
We will be given, by God’s grace, eternal life.
Our bodies will be incorruptible, not subject to aging and death.
What
happens then? We know very little.
The Bible talks about new heavens and a new earth (Revelation 21) as a
sweeping description of eternity spent in the presence of God.
In
Christ,
Greg
Albrecht