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favored few. Those who were in need of further purification were, according to the prevalent
view, detained in purgatory for a shorter or longer period of time, as the degree of remaining
sin might require, and were there purged from sin by a purifying fire. Another idea, that was
also developed in connection with the thought of the intermediate state, was that of the
Limbus Patrum, where the Old Testament saints were detained until the resurrection of Christ.
The Reformers, one and all, rejected the doctrine of purgatory, and also the whole idea of a real
intermediate state, which carried with it the idea of an intermediate place. They held that those
who died in the Lord at once entered the bliss of heaven, while those who died in their sins at
once descended into hell. However, some theologians of the Reformation period assumed a
difference in degree between the bliss of the former and the judgment of the latter before the
final judgment, and their final bliss and punishment after the great assize. Among the Socinians
and the Anabaptists there were some who revived the old doctrine held by some in the early
Church, that the soul of man sleeps from the time of death until the resurrection. Calvin wrote
a treatise to combat this view. The same notion is advocated by some Adventist sects and by
the Millennial Dawnists. During the nineteenth century several theologians, especially in
England, Switzerland, and Germany, embraced the idea that the intermediate state is a state of
further probation for those who have not accepted Christ in this life. This view is maintained by
some up to the present time and is a favorite tenet of the Universalists.
C. THE MODERN CONSTRUCTION OF THE DOCTRINE OF SHEOL-HADES.
1. STATEMENT OF THE DOCTRINE.
There are several representations of the Biblical conception
of sheol-hades in present day theology, and it is quite impossible to consider each one of them
separately. The idea is quite prevalent at present that the Old Testament conception of sheol,
to which that of hades in the New Testament is supposed to correspond, was borrowed from
the Gentile notion of the underworld. It is held that according to the Old Testament and the
New, both the pious and the wicked at death enter the dreary abode of the shades, the land of
forgetfulness, where they are doomed to an existence that is merely a dreamy reflection of life
on earth. The underworld is in itself neither a place of rewards nor a place of punishment. It is
not divided into different compartments for the good and the bad, but is a region without
moral distinctions. It is a place of weakened consciousness and of slumbrous inactivity, where
life has lost its interests and the joy of life is turned into sadness. Some are of the opinion that
the Old Testament represents sheol as the permanent abode of all men, while others find that
it holds out a hope of escape for the pious. Occasionally we meet with a somewhat different
representation of the Old Testament conception, in which sheol is represented as divided into
two compartments, namely, paradise and gehenna, the former containing either all the Jews or
only those who faithfully observed the law, and the latter embracing the Gentiles. The Jews will
be delivered from sheol at the coming of the Messiah, while the Gentiles will remain forever in