What is the immediate state of the dead?
Please tell me what you believe will happen to saved person at death and
to a lost person at the time of death. I have looked at many seventh day Baptist
web pages and cannot find what you believe. I go to a Sunday keeping Church
and would like to know.
Thanks for your time
T.P.
Answer
Let me begin by explaining why you haven't been successful in your search
for an answer on what we believe on this specific issue.
Seventh Day Baptists are, like other Baptists, non-creedal people. That is to
say that they don't use a defined set of beliefs as their organizational basis.
In other words all Baptists have a freedom to read the Bible for themselves
and be taught by God's Holy Spirit as He sees fit. Thus the preamble of our
statement of belief states:
“Seventh Day Baptists consider liberty of thought, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to be essential to Christian belief and practice. We therefore encourage the unhindered study and open discussion of Scripture, and uphold the individual's freedom of conscience in seeking to understand and obey the will of God. It is for this reason that we have no binding creed.
We hold, however, that certain beliefs and practices, having the support of Scripture, and adhered to by the followers of Christ through the centuries, are binding upon all.
With this conviction in mind, we present the following brief statement, derived from our understanding of the Bible, as an expression of our common belief.
Cor. 3:17,18; 2Tim 2:15; 3:16,17; Rom 12:2; 10:17; Eph 4:3-6,15.”
As the intermediate state of the dead is not a salvation issue it is not among
the primary common beliefs of Seventh Day Baptists.
Hence some Seventh Day Baptist would believe the traditional Catholic teaching
that the “saved” go to heaven and the “lost” go to hell.
The strongest evidence for this point of view is “The Parable of the Rich
Man and Lazarus”.
Others in their study of the Bible have noted that there is scant scriptural
evidence for the doctrine of an “immortal soul” and are convinced
by scripture that all humans will wait in their graves until Christ the giver
and sustainer of life resurrects them. “And as it is appointed unto men
once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb 9:27 KJV)
These would see the resurrection as not merely the provision of a body but as
the gift of life as outlined in the Revelation:
(Rev 20:4-6 KJV) And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was
given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness
of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither
his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands;
and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. {5} But the
rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.
This is the first resurrection. {6} Blessed and holy is he that hath part in
the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall
be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
(Rev 20:12-13 KJV) And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and
the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life:
and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books,
according to their works. {13} And the sea gave up the dead which were in it;
and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged
every man according to their works.
If you have understood my opening comments you will see that I cannot tell you
what Seventh Day Baptists believe on this issue as it is not a point in our
Statement of Belief and to my knowledge no poll has been taken. I can however
share my personal study on the issue if you would like to download and read
my paper entitled, “The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus”.
Also see the book "the Immortality of the Soul" by the respected Wesleyan
theologian Joseph Agar Beet