Theologians have wrestled with this question since the patristic period of Christianity. The majority opinion is that the body and soul separate at death, though there is disagreement regarding the destination and the state of the soul after death.
Charles Hodge describes the view of the dead in the Old Testament as follows:
The dead in the Old Testament are always spoken of as going to their fathers, as the sending into “Sheol,” i. e., into the invisible state, which the Greeks called Hades. Sheol is represented as the general receptacle or abode of departed spirits, who were there in a state of consciousness; some in a state of misery, others in a state of happiness. In all these points the pagan idea of Hades corresponds to the Scriptural idea of Sheol.[1]
The idea of Sheol/Hades is still present in modern theology, though there are various representations of this concept. To be sure, the terms Sheol and Hades may be rendered as the underworld, the state of death, the grave, or hell. Berkhof writes of Sheol/Hades as follows:
The words Sheol and hades do not always denote a locality in Scripture, but are often used in an abstract sense to designate the state of death, the state of the separation of body and soul.… When Sheol and hades designate a locality in the literal sense of the word, they either refer to what we usually call hell, or to the grave. Descent into Sheol is threatened as a danger and as a punishment for the wicked, Psa. 9:17; 40:14; 55:15; Prov. 15:11; 15:24; Luke 16:23 (hades). The warning and threatening contained in these passages is lost altogether, if Sheol is conceived of as a neutral place whither all go. From these passages it also follows that it cannot be regarded as a place with two divisions. The idea of such a divided sheol is borrowed from the Gentile conception of the underworld, and finds no support in Scripture. It is only of sheol as the state of death that we can speak as having two divisions, but then we are speaking figuratively. Even the Old Testament testifies to it that they who die in the Lord enter upon a fuller enjoyment of the blessings of salvation, and therefore do not descend into any underworld in the literal sense of the word, Num. 23:5, 10; Psa. 16:11; 17:15; 73:24; Prov. 14:32.[2]
There are various views today of the Old Testament Sheol and the New Testament term hades, which often but not always correspond to the Old Testament sheol. Some believe the Old Testament term sheol was related to the Gentile concept of the underworld, where all the dead go, which is not divided into a place for the wicked and a place for the righteous. It was a place where life had lost its meaning and where the dead existed in some semi-conscious inactivity. Those who hold this view differ as to the permanency of the residency of the dead. One group holds this as a permanent abode; others believe the righteous can go elsewhere.
A different view of the Old Testament conception of the dead holds that Sheol is the place of the dead, consisting of two compartments: Paradise and Gehenna. Paradise is the abode of the faithful Jews, and Gehenna is the abode of the Gentiles.
Many Christian commentators today hold that at death, the righteous and the wicked go to a place called Sheol. This place has two compartments: one for the righteous, which is referred to as the bosom of Abraham or paradise and is a place of peace and comfort. The other is a place of torment for the wicked, which is referred to as hades or the abyss.
Some commentators believe that all the Old Testament believers and those who died before Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven went to some “intermediate place.” This place of the Old Testament dead is divided into two compartments, one for the wicked and one for the righteous. They believe that the disembodied spirits of those Old Testament saints remain there until Christ’s death, burial, and ascension to heaven. At this time, Christ led the Old Testament believers to heaven.
These commentators often point to Paul’s statement in Ephesians 4:8 as proof of their position that Christ led the Old Testament saints to heaven. Here, the apostle speaks of Christ’s triumphant entry to heaven, bringing with him “a host of captives” (ESV). However, those offering this verse as proof of their position interpret this verse to mean that the host of captives being led by Jesus were the disembodied spirits of the Old Testament saints. But a correct interpretation of this verse reveals that the “captivity captive” (KJV) refers to Christ’s defeat of sin, death, and Satan, which are now His captives. Matthew Henry gives a concise statement regarding Christ leading captivity captive.
Christ, when he ascended into heaven, as a triumphant conqueror, led captivity captive. It is a phrase used in the Old Testament to signify a conquest over enemies, especially over such as formerly had led others captive; see Judges 5:12. Captivity is here put for captives, and signifies all our spiritual enemies, who brought us into captivity before. He conquered those who had conquered us; such as sin, the devil, and death. Indeed, he triumphed over these on the cross; but the triumph was completed at his ascension, when he became Lord over all, and had the keys of death and Hades put into his hands.[3]
One of the arguments these proponents of an “intermediate place” for Old Testament saints make is that since Christ had not paid the redemptive price on the cross prior to His first advent, the Old Testament believers could not have gone to “heaven,” and therefore, there has to be some sort of “intermediate place” to go at death to await Christ’s ascension. But this is not a valid scriptural argument.
God preached the gospel of Christ beforehand to Abraham (Gal. 3:8, 9). This was the gospel of salvation, the deliverance from the penalty of the law and restoration to the favor of God, through the Messiah. Believers before the time of Christ knew that they needed salvation, and thus, they desired salvation in the same way Christians do. The promise made to Abraham was that salvation was available only through faith in the Messiah and that the blessings secured for believers by Christ were enjoyed by those believers before the advent of Christ. Old Testament saints were saved in exactly the same way as those believers after Christ’s first advent.
Today, when Christians become believers by the grace of God, through faith in Jesus Christ alone, God justifies them or counts them as righteous in a legal sense on the grounds of Christ’s merited righteousness. God accepts Christ’s payment of the redemptive ransom by His death on the cross and clears the believers’ sin debt account. Then He legally adopts the believers as his children subject to all the inheritance rights of His kingdom, a kingdom which will be consummated at the end of the age (1 Cor, 15:24ff).
This is exactly what happened to all believers from Abraham onward. They believed in the future Messiah, and God counted them as righteous, justifying and adopting them based on Christ’s merited righteousness and His payment of the ransom of redemption. And God counted them righteous or justified them based on the works of Christ that had not yet occurred in time. We see that Abraham believed in the Lord, and God counted him as righteous (Gen. 15:6). God deemed Abraham righteous based on his belief in the Messiah, who would not come until sometime in the future. Even though the works of Christ had not yet occurred, Abraham was deemed righteous based on these works, justified, and made a child of God.
We can understand this by looking at Romans 3:21-25 which states, “
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
In verse 25, the apostle uses the Greek word paresis, which means to ‘pass over.’ This explains what Paul is teaching:
In the context of the New Testament, “paresis” reflects the understanding of God’s forbearance and patience. During the Old Testament period, God “passed over” sins committed before the coming of Christ, withholding immediate judgment. This was not an indication of indifference to sin but rather a demonstration of His mercy and a foreshadowing of the ultimate atonement through Jesus Christ.[4]
Paul chose this word “not because the individual believers in the Old Testament did not receive full pardon of sin, but because during the old dispensation the forgiveness of sin assumed the form of a paresis, as long as sin had not been adequately punished in Christ, and the absolute righteousness of Christ had not been revealed in the cross.”[5]
Although believers before Christ’s first advent died before Christ’s redemptive work, they nevertheless were justified and guaranteed their salvation by God. At their death, their disembodied spirits went directly to heaven to be with God. They did not go to some “intermediate place” that was not heaven.
Another example in Scripture of God acting prior to the final consummation of His promise is salvation. When one becomes a believer in Jesus as the Messiah, one is considered “saved.” But is the believer’s salvation perfectly complete, then? The Bible teaches that our salvific inheritance is promised by God and guaranteed by the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:11-14) upon our belief through faith but that Jesus at His second coming will finally consummate our salvation. Jesus will make all believers’ salvation perfectly complete when He withholds His eternal condemning wrath from the elect believers at the final judgment on the Day of the Lord (Heb. 9:28). Thus, God makes certain in the present the future reality of the consummation of our salvation.
“The usual position of the reformed churches is that the souls of believers immediately after death enter upon the glories of heaven.”[6] Our understanding of Scripture is that at death, the disembodied spirits of ALL believers, including the Old Testament saints, enter the “intermediate state” and go immediately to heaven, where they await the full redemption of their bodies at the general resurrection. According to Berkhof,
The Reformers, one and all, rejected… the whole idea of a real intermediate state, which carried with it the idea of an intermediate place. They held that those who died in the Lord at once entered the bliss of heaven, while those who died in their sins at once descended into hell.[7]
The idea held by some that there is an “intermediate place” that is not heaven where the disembodied spirits of believers go at death is not biblical. Believers at death go immediately to the highest heaven, and unbelievers go to hell. There are no other places that the disembodied spirits go at death except heaven and hell. The righteous and the wicked remain in an “intermediate state” in heaven and hell, respectively, until the general resurrection at the end of the age when Christ returns. There is no “intermediate place” after death that is not heaven or hell.
CONCLUSION
We take the following position regarding the destination and the state of the souls of All human beings after death.
The state of the soul after death is a continued and conscious existence of the soul after its separation from the body at death. “The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness [Heb. 12:23], and do immediately pass into glory [Luke 23:43; 2 Cor. 5:6, 8; Phil. 1:23]; and their bodies, being still united to Christ [1 Thess. 4:14], do rest in their graves, till the resurrection” (WSC 37).
At death, the disembodied souls of believers, including the Old Testament saints, are immediately glorified and made perfect and taken into the presence of God in heaven, fully conscious and in a state of rest (Rev. 14:13), where they wait in the “intermediate state” for the full redemption of their bodies at the second coming of Christ (Phil. 3:20, 21) and the general resurrection. Moreover, the soul neither sleeps nor is annihilated [8] (See What Happens to People When They Die? www.christianinquiry.com).
Scripture teaches that there is only heaven and hell where the righteous and the wicked dead, respectively, including the Old Testament dead, remain in the “intermediate state” until the general resurrection.
[1] Systematic Theology. Charles Hodge, Vol. III, Hendrickson, 2009 (2016), 717.
[2] Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology. The Banner of Truth Trust, 2019, 716-17.
[3] Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible, New Modern Edition, vol. 6, Acts to Revelation, Hendrickson, 1991, 566.
[4] The New Strong’s Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Greek Dictionary of the New Testament (Thomas Nelson 2001), 193.
[5] Berkhof, 268.
[7] Berkhof, 712.
[8] From What Happens to People When They Die?, www.christianinquiry.com.
