Death consists in the separation of body and soul for a time.1 Though man in his original state was not subject to death, every man, in consequence of sin, is subject to death: ‘it is appointed unto men once to die.’2 The godly and the ungodly, the one as well as the other, are subject to death;3 but the godly are delivered by Christ from the hurt of death, and to them death is turned into gain, whereas to the wicked it will be an unutterable loss, and the entrance into death everlasting.4 At death the bodies return to the earth and see corruption; but the souls are a spiritual substance, and neither die nor sleep, but are brought at once before the throne of God.5 Then will the spirits of the righteous, made perfect, be received into glory, there to wait, in the full enjoyment of God in Christ, for the redemption of their bodies.6
But the souls of the unrighteous are cast into hell, where they are reserved in torments and outer darkness for the judgment of the great day. There is no other place for souls departed from the body than these two.7
1 Gen. 3:19; Eccles. 12:7; Acts 13:36; Luke 23:43. 2 Rom. 5:12; 6:23; Psa. 90:3; Heb. 9:27. 3 Psa. 49:7-10; Eccles. 9:2. 4 Phil. 1:21; Luke 2:29; 12:20; 16:22-23; 1 Cor. 15:55; Psa. 23:4. 5 Eccles 12:7; Acts 13:36; Luke 23:43; Heb. 9:27. 6 2 Cor. 5:1-4; 5:8; Phil. 1:23; Heb. 12:22-23; 2 Tim. 4:6-8; Acts 3:21; Eph. 4:10; Rom. 8:23. 7 Luke 16:22-23; Job 18:18; 27:8; Acts 2:25; Jude 6,7; 1 Peter 3:19.
