Training · The 1689 Baptist Confession
The state of man after death, and the resurrection
What happens between death and the last day, and what happens to bodies at it.
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What happens to a person at death?
The body returns to dust and decays. The soul, which neither dies nor sleeps, returns immediately to God who gave it.
Neither dies nor sleeps rules out two alternatives the confession had in view: that the soul ceases to exist until the resurrection, and that it is unconscious in the meantime.
Then the dust returns to the earth where it came from, and the spirit goes back to God who gave it.
Ecclesiastes 12:7Confession 31.1
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Where does a person's soul go between death and the resurrection?
The righteous are made perfect in holiness and received into paradise with Christ; the wicked are in torment, reserved for judgment. Scripture acknowledges no place besides these two.
That last clause is aimed at purgatory, and it is stated as a matter of what Scripture recognises rather than as an argument. Note also what the righteous are said to be doing: waiting for the full redemption of their bodies.
Jesus answered, 'I promise you, today you'll be with me in paradise.'
Luke 23:43Confession 31.1
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What happens to those still alive at the last day?
They shall not sleep, but be changed.
The confession is following Paul closely. There is no requirement to die first; the change that the dead undergo through resurrection, the living undergo directly.
Listen, I'm telling you a mystery: Not all of us will die, but we will all be changed.
It'll happen in a flash, as fast as you can blink, when the last trumpet sounds. The dead will be raised to live forever, and we will be changed too.
1 Corinthians 15:51-52Confession 31.2
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Is the resurrection body the same body?
Yes. The dead are raised with the selfsame bodies and no others - though with different qualities, united to their souls forever.
The confession refuses both a replacement body and an unchanged one. What is raised is the same body the person lived and died in, so it is that person and not a copy; and it is raised with different qualities, so it is not simply the old life resumed. Soul and body are put back together, and the confession says it is for ever.
Confession 31.2
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Are the just and the unjust raised to the same thing?
No. The bodies of the unjust are raised to dishonour; the bodies of the just are raised by Christ's Spirit to honour, and made like his own glorious body.
Both are raised, which is the part most often missed - resurrection is not a reward reserved for the saved but the condition everyone is in at the judgement. What differs is what the raised body is raised for, and of the just the confession says they are conformed to his own, which makes the resurrection of Christ the pattern and not only the proof.
He will transform our weak, mortal bodies to be like his glorious body, using the same power that lets him bring everything under his control.
Philippians 3:21Confession 31.3