POST MORTEM CONSCIOUS EXISTENCE IN THE WORDS OF PETER
Once again
apostle Peter’s writings reflect convictions that the apostolic Church had,
which are quickly mentioned as part of a bigger topic as accepted truths. In
this occasion, on the second chapter of his second general epistle, Apostle
Peter makes clear what the apostle’s believed regarding the middle state of the
death, Christians and non-Christians, that deny the doctrine of the unconscious
status of the death that some people hold this day.
In 2Peter 2:4-9,
the Apostle says:
“4FOR IF GOD DID
NOT SPARE ANGELS WHEN THEY SINNED, BUT CAST THEM INTO TARTARUS AND COMMITTED
THEM TO CHAINS OF GLOOMY DARKNESS TO BE KEPT UNTIL THE JUDGMENT; 5if he did not
spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with
seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6if by
turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to
extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly;
7and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of
the wicked 8(for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was
tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9THEN
THE LORD KNOWS HOW TO RESCUE THE GODLY FROM TRIALS, AND TO KEEP THE UNRIGHTEOUS
UNDER PUNISHMENT UNTIL THE DAY OF JUDGMENT,”
2Peter 2:4-9
ANALYZING
In his warning
about false prophets and heretics, Peter illustrates his teaching with examples
of the past written in the Torah and also revealed to them by the Holy Spirit,
which presumes an acceptance of the apostolic revelations in the Christian
communities of the time.
1 - In these
verses, he mentions two examples from the Torah, the story of Noah and the
story of Lot and Sodom and Gomorrah.
In these two
stories, Peter illustrates how God saved the faithful from general punishment.
Noah through the Ark, and Lot through exiting the city before the destruction.
The attention is placed only in what it is written. Peter does not extend more
of what the Scripture says, and therefore uses these verses as to prove that
GOD is powerful to save those who are faithful to Him. The aspect of punishment
is limited to what Genesis says, and does not elaborate in the after life of
the punished. This has motivated the annihilationist to say that in that punishment,
the condemned were wiped out and that was it.
2 -He also
mentions one story that it is not contained in the Jewish canonical Scriptures.
The casting out of Satan and his angels from Heaven into ‘Tartarus’ to be kept
there in punishment until the Day of Judgement. This is a product of apostolic
Christian revelation, since the Jews, even though they had different ideas
about the after-life, they did not have a scriptural basis for this doctrine.
The idea of Satan
and the demons been cast out from Heaven is a purely Christian idea (See
Revelation 12:4), which is mentioned on the same level as Scripture in this epistle.
Even though it is mentioned first than the Torah’s examples, it illustrates the
second point of his speech, the condition of the damned before the Day of
Judgement.
It is difficult
to establish a set doctrine about the intermediate state only from the Torah. That
is a doctrine that was hidden to the prophets, but reveled to the people of the
new covenant (1Peter 1:12). However, our knowledge of the spirit world
increased through the mercy of the Holy Spirit, through the Apostles. In this
story, born from apostolic revelation, apostle Peter teaches how God is also
powerful, even to subject angels into prisons of darkness, in a conscious state,
until the Day of the Great Judgement.
THE
IMPORTANT POINT
Since the Torah
does not provide a written example of the condition of the punished in the
interim state, Peter uses this story of the fallen angels, and applies this as
an example of the capability of God to hold the spirits of the damned into a
place of a spiritual punishment until the resurrection day (2Peter 2:9).
Even though the
example refers to Angels, the point the apostle is trying to make is purely
regarding humans, not angels. How GOD can preserve saved humans, while also can
hold the damned in a conscious spiritual state of punishment (See Jesus parable
of Lazarus and the Rich Man, Luke 16:14-31).
CONCLUSION
Through a direct
comparison between the story of the angels in Tartarus, Peter clearly states
that God’s Justice subjects all reprobate humans in a conscious state of
punishment until the general resurrection and Last Judgement.
The fact that
this is mentioned quickly and not in detail, like when Paul teaches about the
resurrection of the death in Corinthians, proves that this was an already
accepted doctrine in the first century Church, and that Peter was not teaching
it, but reinforcing it in the minds of the congregation.
Omar Flores
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