Systematic Theology, by Louis Berkhof - New Leaven

III. The Intermediate State
A. THE SCRIPTURAL VIEW OF THE INTERMEDIATE STATE.
1. THE SCRIPTURAL REPRESENTATION OF BELIEVERS BETWEEN DEATH AND THE
RESURRECTION. The usual position of the Reformed Churches is that the souls of
believers immediately after death enter upon the glories of heaven. In answer to the
question, “What comfort does the resurrection of the body afford thee?” the Heidelberg
Catechism says: “That not only my soul, after this life, shall be immediately taken up to
Christ its Head, but also that this my body, raised by the power of Christ, shall again be
united with my soul, and made like the glorious body of Christ.” 6 The Westminster
Confession speaks in the same spirit, when it says that, at death, “The souls of the
righteous, being then made perfect in holiness, are received into the highest heavens,
where they behold the face of God in light and glory, waiting for the full redemption of
their bodies.” 7 Similarly, the Second Helvetic Confession declares: “We believe that the
faithful, after bodily death, go directly unto Christ.” 8 This view would seem to find
ample justification in Scripture, and it is well to take note of this, since during the last
quarter of a century some Reformed theologians have taken the position that believers
at death enter an intermediate place, and remain there until the day of the resurrection.
The Bible teaches, however, that the soul of the believer when separated from the body,
enters the presence of Christ. Paul says that he is “willing rather to be absent from the
body, and to be at home with the Lord.” II Cor. 5:8. To the Philippians he writes that he
has a “desire to depart and to be with Christ,” Phil. 1:23. And Jesus gave the penitent
malefactor the joyous assurance, “To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise,” Luke
23:43. And to be with Christ is also to be in heaven. In the light of II Cor. 12:3,4
“paradise” can only be a designation of heaven. Moreover, Paul says that, “if the earthly
house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made
with hands, eternal in the heavens,” II Cor. 5:1. And the writer of Hebrews cheers the
hearts of his readers with this thought among others that they “are come to the general
assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven,” Heb. 12:23. That the
future state of believers after death is greatly to be preferred to the present appears
clearly from the assertions of Paul in II Cor. 5:8 and Phil. 1:23, quoted above. It is a state
6 Q. 57.
7 Chap. XXXII, I.
8 Chap. XXVI.
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