In some forms of Christianity, the intermediate state or interim state is a person's existence between death and the universal resurrection. In addition, there are beliefs in a particular judgment right after death and a general judgment or last judgment after the resurrection. It bears resemblance to the Barzakh in Islam.

Early Christians looked for an imminent end of the world and many of them had little interest in an interim state between death and resurrection. The Eastern Church admits of such an intermediate state, but refrained from defining it, so as not to blur the distinction between the alternative definitive fates of Heaven and Hell. The Western Church goes differently by defining the intermediate state, with evidence from as far back as the Passion of Saint Perpetua, Saint Felicitas, and their Companions (203 AD) of the belief that sins can be purged by suffering in an afterlife, and that purgation can be expedited by the intercession of the living.

Those in the intermediate state have traditionally been the beneficiaries of prayers, such as requiem masses. In the East, the saved are said to rest in light while the wicked are confined in darkness; the dead can be assisted by prayer.Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford University Press 2005 ), article purgatory Prayers are said to benefit those in Hades, even those who were pagans."Dead, prayer for the." Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005

In the West, Augustine described prayer as useful for those in communion with the church, and implied that every soul's ultimate fate is determined at death. Such prayer came to be restricted to souls in Purgatory, which idea has "ancient roots" and is demonstrated in early Church writings.

The Roman Catholic Church offers indulgences for those in purgatory, which evolved out of the earlier practice of canonical remissions."Indulgences." Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005 Others, such as Lutherans and Anglicans, affirmed prayer for the dead. Nonconformist Protestants, such as Baptists, largely ceased praying for the dead. Protestants universally reject the Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory, while a number of Protestants do affirm the existence of an intermediate state, usually termed Hades. John Calvin depicted the righteous dead as resting in bliss.John Calvin, Psychopannychia , @ lgmarshall.org

Jewish background

The early Hebrews had no notion of resurrection of the deadBelief in the resurrection "first became prevalent in Judaism during the time of the Maccabees, after 168 BCE." Harris, Stephen L., Understanding the Bible. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985. p. 415 and thus no intermediate state. As with neighboring groups, they understood death to be the end. Their afterlife, sheol (the pit), was a dark place from which none return. By Jesus' time, however, the Book of Daniel () and a prophecy in Isaiah (26:19)Harris, Stephen L., Understanding the Bible. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985. had made popular the idea that the dead in sheol would be raised for a last judgment. The intertestamental literature describes in more detail what the dead experience in sheol. According to the Book of Enoch, the righteous and wicked await the resurrection in separate divisions of sheol, a teaching which may have influenced Jesus' parable of Lazarus and Dives.New Bible Dictionary 3rd edition, IVP Leicester 1996. "Sheol".

History

In the Septuagint and New Testament the authors used the Greek term Hades for the Hebrew Sheol, but often with Jewish rather than Greek concepts in mind, so that, for example, there is no activity in Hades in Ecclesiastes.Ecclesiastes 9:10 πάντα ὅσα ἂν εὕρῃ ἡ χείρ σου τοῦ ποιῆσαι ὡς ἡ δύναμίς σου ποίησον ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν ποίημα καὶ λογισμὸς καὶ γνῶσις καὶ σοφία ἐν ᾅδῃ ὅπου σὺ πορεύῃ ἐκεῖ An exception to traditional Jewish views of Sheol, Hades is found in the Gospel of Luke parable of the Rich man and Lazarus which describes Hades along the lines of intertestamental Jewish understanding of a Sheol divided between the happy righteous and the miserable wicked.George W. E. Nickelsburg Resurrection, immortality, and eternal life in intertestamental Judaism and Early Christianity Harvard Theological Studies Later Hippolytus of Rome expanded on this parable and described activity in the Bosom of Abraham in Against Plato.Hippolytus of Rome, Against Plato, on the Cause of the Universe, §1. As to the state of the righteous, he writes, "And there the righteous from the beginning dwell, not ruled by necessity, but enjoying always the contemplation of the blessings which are in their view, and delighting themselves with the expectation of others ever new, and deeming those ever better than these. And that place brings no toils to them. There, there is neither fierce heat, nor cold, nor thorn; but the face of the fathers and the righteous is seen to be always smiling, as they wait for the rest and eternal revival in heaven which succeed this location. And we call it by the name Abraham's bosom."

Since Augustine, Christians have believed that the souls of those who die either rest peacefully, in the case of Christians, or are afflicted, in the case of the damned, after death until the resurrection. Augustine distinguishes between the purifying fire that saves and eternal consuming fire for the unrepentant, and speaks of the pain that purgatorial fire causes as more severe than anything a man can suffer in this life."gravior erit ignis quam quidquid potest homo pati in hac vita" (P. L., col. 397), quoted in Catholic Encyclopedia: Purgatory. The Venerable Bede and Saint Boniface both report visions of an afterlife with a four-way division, including pleasant and punishing abodes near heaven and hell to hold souls until judgment day.

The idea of Purgatory as a physical place was "born" in the late 11th century.Jacques Le Goff, The Birth of Purgatory (University of Chicago Press, 1984) Medieval Catholic theologians concluded that the purgatorial punishments consisted of material fire. The Catholic Church believes that the living can help those whose purification from their sins is not yet completed not only by praying for them but also by gaining indulgences for themCCC, 1479 as an act of intercession. All Souls' Day commemorates the souls in purgatory. The Late Middle Ages saw the growth of considerable abuses, such as the unrestricted sale of indulgences by professional "pardoners" to release the donors' departed loved ones from suffering in purgatory, or the donors themselves.F. Donald Logan, A History of the Church in the Middle Ages (Routledge, 2012), 275.

In the 16th century, Protestant Reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin challenged the doctrine of purgatory because they believed it was not supported in the Bible. Both Calvin and Luther continued to believe in an intermediate state, but Calvin held to a more conscious existence for the souls of the dead than Luther did. For Calvin, believers in the intermediate state enjoyed a blessedness that was incomplete, in anticipation of the resurrection. Reformed theology largely followed Calvin's teaching on the intermediate state. Those Protestants (or Restorationists) who do wholly reject an intermediate state would also tend to express a theological disbelief in ghosts.

Christian teaching Foretaste of final state

Some theological traditions, including most Protestants, Anabaptists and Eastern Orthodox, teach that the intermediate state is a disembodied foretaste of the final state. Therefore, those who die in Christ go into the presence of God (or the bosom of Abraham) where they experience joy and rest while they await their resurrection (cf. ). Those who die unrepentant will experience torment (perhaps in hell) while they await final condemnation on the day of judgment ().

Christian mortalism

The neutral historical term for this belief today is usually Mortalism or Christian Mortalism.Norman T. Burns Christian mortalism from Tyndale to Milton 1967, 1972Albert C. Labriola Milton Studies, Volume 45 2005 p17.Ann Thomson Bodies of Thought: Science, Religion, and the Soul in the Early Enlightenment 2008 p43Douglas Kries Piety and humanity: essays on religion and early modern political philosophy 1997 p101 The terms Soul sleepMillard J. Erickson Christian theology 1998 p1182 "In the case of the Adventists, however, the phrase "soul sleep" is somewhat misleading. Anthony Hoekema suggests instead "soul-extinction," since.." PsychopannychismLaurence Urdang, Anne Ryle Dictionary of uncommon words: a Wynwood lexicon 1991 p750 are somewhat loaded by their derivation from a tract (1534) by John Calvin,Wulfert De Greef The writings of John Calvin: an introductory guide 2008 p152G. C. Berkouwer Man: The Image of God 1962 p272 "against the idea of soul-sleep, in Calvin's sharp attack, Psychopannychia"Glenn S. Sunshine, Ron Hill The Reformation for Armchair Theologians 2005 Page 123 "In 1534 he resigned his benefices; that same year he also wrote his first theological work, the Psychopannychia, an attack on the doctrine of soul sleep" though use of the terms are not necessarily polemic or pejorative.George Huntston Williams The Radical Reformation 1962 p105 Both terms may be used together.Daniel Garber, Michael Ayers The Cambridge history of seventeenth-century philosophy, Volume 2 2003 p85Dr Bryan W. Ball The Soul Sleepers: Christian Mortalism from Wycliffe to Priestley 2008

A minority of Christians, including some Anglicans such as William Tyndale and E. W. Bullinger, as well as churches/groups such as Seventh-day Adventists,28 fundamental beliefs of Seventh-day Adventists, adventist.org , number 26 "Death and Resurrection". Christadelphians and others, deny the conscious existence of the soul after death, believing the intermediate state of the dead to be unconscious "sleep". Jehovah's Witnesses also believe this with the exception of the 144,000.From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained Watchtower Society 1st Ed. 1958. "After Jesus died and was resurrected men and women could be set aside to become the `little flock' of 144,000 persons who make up the heavenly, spiritual nation of God, and who are to rule with Christ in the new heavens." "Their resurrection is also a `resurrection of life' because they `did good things' on earth. However, the resurrection of the 144,000 members of the spiritual nation is a resurrection to spirit life in the heavens." "Has this spiritual resurrection taken place? Yes, back in chapter 26 we learned that it took place when Christ came to Jehovah's temple in 1918" (p. 231). "Those of this spiritual nation who died before the spiritual resurrection began in 1918 slept in death until that year. But the others who were still alive on earth have continued to live out their regular lives." "And now when the earthly life of one of such persons ends he is resurrected at once to spirit life. He is changed in a moment from being a human creature to being a spirit creature in heaven with Jesus Christ." "But only 144,000 persons will be a part of the new heavens with Jesus Christ" (Ibid, p. 232). In this case, the person is not conscious of any time or activity and would not be aware even if centuries elapsed between their death and their resurrection. They would, upon their death, cease consciousness, and gain it again at the time of the resurrection having experienced no time lapse. For them, time would thus be suspended, as if they moved immediately from death to resurrection and the General Judgment of the Judgment Day.

John Milton De doctrina christiana 1:13 Thomas Hobbes Leviathan ch.38,44,46 Richard Overton Mans Mortalitie (1644)

Hades