We Got Mail

Colleen Tinker, Feature, Letters to the Editor

What Happens To the Wicked Dead?

I’ve been intending to write, but life seems to go on fast even though I live in the slow lane of my garden.

I will ask a question that can be answered with one word.

My question refers to the first sentence in the Proclamation! Online Magazine entitled “Truth Led Him Out. Truth Led Him Home” printed January 11, 2024, by Kaspars Ozolins:

“On Friday, January 5, 2024, Dale Ratzlaff took his last breath, closed his eyes, and opened them to behold his Savior for the first time.”

My question concerns a different person who closed his eyes and opened them an instant later. Let us suppose that the person was a neighbor of Dale Ratzlaff’s who had lived a life of child abuse and killing and stealing. When that person closed his eyes and opened them an instant later, what would he (or she) behold?

—VIA EMAIL

Response: Ibelieve that when believers die, they go immediately into the presence of the Lord. They are in what theologians call “the intermediate state”, and no one knows any details about that state because Scripture does not describe it physically. But we know, as per 2 Corinthians 5:1–10, that the immaterial identity of ourselves never dies when we believe because, as Jesus said, we pass from death to life when we believe (Jn. 5:24). Thus, as Paul explains, when we leave our mortal tent, we become absent from the body but present with the Lord. The spirit of each of us—the immaterial essence of our identity—is forever with the Lord.

Unbelievers likewise have an immaterial identity, but that identity is spiritually dead, just as every person born (except Jesus) is spiritually dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1–3). Until a person believes, he or she is dead in sin and the wrath of God remains on him (John 3:36) He is already condemned by nature, but when he believes, he passes out of condemnation into life (John 3:16–18). 

We know that the immaterial essence of a person’s identity does not disappear at death any more than does the spirit of the believer, but the unbelieving, dead-in-sin spirit that does not have the life of God is held under punishment instead of being with the Lord:

…and [if] He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing [them] to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly [lives] thereafter; and [if] He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard [that] righteous man, while living among them, felt [his] righteous soul tormented day after day by [their] lawless deeds), [then] the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,—2 Peter 2:6–9 LSB

The unbelieving spirits are held under punishment waiting for the day of judgment. We do not know any more details than that, but we know it is not eternal joy, and it is a state separated from the life of God. The spirits of unbelievers are held under punishment, forever separated from fellowship with and participation in the life of God. Being eternally spiritually dead does not equal ceasing to exist. It means, literally, that eternal death is existing without any access to God, to His mercy, grace, or forgiveness, and it is a dreadful end. It truly is “punishment”. Ceasing to exist would be merciful. Eternal death is far more dire. Because of this reality, the atonement of the Lord Jesus who became flesh in order to fully propitiated for human sin and to open a new and living way to the Father is nearly unimaginable. 

The Lord Jesus literally rescued us, by identifying with us and by becoming sin for us and by taking God’s wrath for our sin as He hung on that cross—and He saved an otherwise doomed race that never would be able to come back into relationship with Him if He hadn’t taken a human body and died for us. God required a perfect blood sacrifice in order to justly forgive sin (Romans 3:26), and Jesus offered that. His atonement grants us LIFE when we believe and trust Him completely. Our naturally dead in sin identities pass from death to life, and nothing, from that point on if we have truly believed and trusted Him, can take us out of His hand (John 10:29).

Sunday-Keeper! (Response to “Adventist Fear”)

Are you a Sunday keeper?

“And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”—Revelation 12:17 

—VIA YOUTUBE

Response: I don’t keep Sunday. There are no holy days—no holy time—in the new covenant. Our Sabbath rest is in Christ alone. I worship on Sunday with other believers because that is when the church meets together in honor or our Lord Jesus. But the day is NOT holy. Jesus fulfilled the Sabbath and gave us Himself. Sunday is NOT the “new Sabbath”

 

Colleen Tinker
Latest posts by Colleen Tinker (see all)

Leave a Reply