Hodge's "Systematic Theology," Life after Death, TBN & Others

Also posted on our Facebook Wall entitled “Exposing the False Prophets—Reformation Christians Against TBN” found at: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=308173344359

1. “Hodge’s Systematic Theology” and a few miscellaneous afterthoughts on “The State of the Soul After Death” with help from Charles Hodge, “Systematic Theology, Volume Three” (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1992), 713-723.

2. Our reference point for wider inquiry is certainly ourselves, but also TBN, Pentecostalists, Emergents, Liberals, Arminians, Church Growthers, and Contemporary Evangelicals.

3. The Protestant doctrine of the state of the soul after death is one of continued existence after death, burial and dissolution the body. The dying skeptic, David Hume, said as he neared death, “I am about to take a leap in the dark.”

4. The future life in the Old Testament. While other pagan religions believed in the after-life, so did ancient Israel. In the OT, saints are represented as pilgrims and strangers in the world. “Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.” (Ps.73.23,24) The drift and tendency of the entire OT is to lift the saints eyes above, to the future, and to things eternal and invisible.

5. The dead are represented as “going to their fathers,” to “Sheol” (called “Hades” by the Greeks), a place of continued conscious existence, some in a state of “misery, others in the state of happiness.” Necromancy was common amongst non-Israelites, although necromancy, divination, soothsaying and communicating with the dead was forbidden in the OT. (This outlaws Roman Catholic and Anglo-Catholic "invocation of saints.") Samuel, however, is summoned by Saul and appears as recorded in 1 Samuel 28. The representation in Is.14 of the descent of the King of Babylon takes for granted the belief in the continued consciousness of departed spirits.

6. Additional texts. Psalm 16, especially in relation to Christ’s resurrection, was that Christ would not be left in Sheol nor would His body see corruption. The Psalmist while describing the cruelties of the prosperous says, “I will behold Thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake with Thy righteousness.” (Ps. 17.15) See Is.26.19, Dan.12.2. Schultz, a liberal, asserts “That all the books of the Old Testament assume that men are in some way or other to live after death. Even in the Pentateuch this is taken for granted. It is not taught, but assumed as self-evident truth, immanent in the consciousness of the people.” Herman Shultz, Die Voraussetzungen der Christ lichen Lehre von der Unsterblichkeity dargestellt (Gottingen, 1861), 207.

7. The NT forms an inspired, infallible and amplifying commentary on the OT. Our Lord refuted the Sadducees who denied the resurrection and life after death. God is not the God of the dead, but the "God of the living." The serious and direct rebuttal of the Sadducees by Jesus affirmed that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were not dead during Jesus’ time but were “alive” and “living too in fellowship and enjoyment with God.” More might be said. More shall be said, Lord willing.

8. More to follow.

9. Re: the larger inquiry, is this clearly and thoughtfully developed? TBN, Pentecostalists, Emergents, Liberals, Arminians, Church Growthers, and Contemporary Evangelicals? Todd Bentley's communications with the dead? Benn Hinn and Kathryn Kuhlman? We’ll have more to say later.

In closing, we pray:

“Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning; Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.”

Book of Common Prayer, Second Sunday in Advent.