Will there be a second chance for salvation after death?

But there are scriptures which very plainly contradict such a thought as an offer of mercy to the impenitent dead. The one we have already quoted to show there will be no preaching of mercy to men after their resurrection, equally shows there will be none to men while in the disembodied state: "Behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Cor. 6:2) — now, not after death. Then, too, our Lord, in John 8:21, said, "I go My way, and ye shall seek Me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come." If they died in their sins, death would hand them over to the judgment of the great white throne, and the great white throne would send them to the lake of fire. There is here no hope of mercy held out for those who die in their sins.

Let us look now at Luke 16:19-31. We have already used this passage in a previous paper to show that the dead will not be unconscious. We will look at it now to see what light it sheds on the question of probation after death. We call special attention to verse 26: "And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence." In verse 24 we have a man in the death state. He is not a living man on the earth, but a disembodied spirit in the spirit-world — a clear case of one who has died, has passed from among the living, and is now among the dead. There he is in "torments," and desires "mercy." He says, "Have mercy on me." But no mercy is granted him. Not only is there no offer of mercy made him, but his desire for mercy is denied. But more: he is told that "there is a great gulf fixed," separating the dead into two classes. There is a great moral gulf now, in this life, between the believer and the unbeliever, but it is not a fixed gulf in the sense that it cannot be crossed. Grace, the grace of God, has provided a bridge on which the unbeliever may pass to the side of the believer. But after death no such bridge is provided. In the death state the gulf is fixed, and there is no passing from the one side to the other. This makes it plain that eternal issues are settled in this life, and not in the death state.

And I would add, in prose, What more can He do than for you He hath done? The work that saves is done. God's testimony to that work is perfect and complete. And we, like Israel's sons, testify concerning it to you. We are sent for that very purpose. We want to persuade you to come with us to heaven. Oh, will you go, will you go? Hear Jacob's final word: "I will go and see him before I die." The die is cast; his choice is made. Make yours to-night. It must be before you die, remember. "After death the judgment," Scripture says. The Bible knows no such thing as probation after death. It is a falsehood — twin lie to the teaching of another chance for Christ-rejecters after Jesus comes. "Before I die," says Jacob. "Before you die" you must be saved, if saved at all, the Scriptures testify. Our Lord tells of one who died without salvation; and He says, "In hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments." Oh, awful end! Oh, fearful doom! Escape it while you may, dear soul. Do not deceive yourself to hell by thinking you will have another offer of salvation after death. Do not act like the drunken man: In his intoxication he thought he saw two candles burning, so he blew out one and was left in darkness! And men intoxicate themselves to-day with thoughts and doctrines of probation after death. But like the drunkard, they see double. "Now is the accepted time." "The redemption of their soul is precious," Scripture says, "and it ceaseth forever." This takes place at death. "There are no pardons in the tomb."

The rich man had great riches. But his riches were not the evidences of divine favor and blessing. Lazarus, the poor man, had no earthly possessions. Was his poverty an evidence of divine displeasure? Then the Lord, the omniscient Lord, draws aside the veil and reveals what is hidden from the sight of man. Both die. Lazarus is carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. He had no means to make friends for himself by using the mammon of unrighteousness, so as to be welcomed in the everlasting habitations. And yet he is there. God had in His infinite grace carried him so high. Lazarus' name means "God is Helper."

The rich man also died and is in Hades (not in hell; the lake of fire opens after the judgment). He is in torment and sees Lazarus in Abraham's bosom. He hears that there is no relief, no hope. An impassable gulf is fixed, which separates forever the lost and the saved. Not a ray of hope is given by the Lord, that there is the slightest possibility after death for another chance. Death fixes forever the eternal condition of every human being. Whoever meddles with this solemn truth, whether a Russellite, or Restorationist or whatever name he may bear, rejects the testimony of the Son of God and charges Him with not having spoken the truth. We cannot follow the solemn story in all its details. Future punishment of the wicked, the future conscious punishment of the wicked, the future conscious and eternal punishment of the wicked is denied and sneered at today by the majority of professing Christians. But the Lord Jesus, the friend of sinners, the One who came to seek and to save what is lost, teaches beyond controversy in this solemn story, the future, conscious and eternal punishment of the wicked.

Abraham reminded him that in his lifetime he had had his good things and Lazarus evil things. He had lived only for this life. How fatal a mistake! Now Lazarus was comforted and he was tormented. The body had no part in this, for it is the intermediate state between death and resurrection that is involved here -- the time the body is in the grave. But there was conscious comfort for the spirit and soul of one, conscious torment for the other.

Abraham solemnly reminded the rich man of his past and that of Lazarus, and adds beside this that at death a great gulf has been fixed between the saved and the lost, so it is impossible for any cross over from one side to the other. All the prayers for the dead that man's "religion" can devise are useless. At death there is no doubt as to a man's final destiny: it has been decided.

The rich man also dies, and is buried. Again a marvellous, but now dreadful change! In hades — it is not hell, gehenna — he lifts up his eyes being in torment, and sees Abraham from afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. "And he called and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue: for I am tormented in this flame."

The language is, of course, as figurative here as on the other side is Abraham's bosom. All representations of what is beyond the present life seem to partake of the same figurative character, which is, however, all the more adapted to appeal strongly to the imagination. The final judgment is not yet come; the once rich man has, as we presently see, brothers upon earth who may be warned to escape that place of torment. Resurrection; therefore, has not come any more than judgment, but the wrath of God is already realized in suffering which can be most suitably conveyed to us in terms like this. The hope of relief, — of such slight relief as is requested here, is presently declared to be in vain; an impassable gulf (or chasm) unalterably fixed between the lost and saved, no crossing or mingling to be, even for a moment; no hope of condition changing after death, such as many entertain today, for a moment to be thought.

It is not the day of Messiah's public Kingdom. Luke lets us see what is deeper even than it, both in good and ill, the unseen portion of the righteous, as well as that of the unjust.420 "And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm is fixed, so that those who desire to pass hence to you cannot, nor do they [who desire to cross] from there pass over unto us." The severance between the good and evil in the intermediate state is incalculably great and fixed. There is no passing from one to the other. The notion of possible mercy in the separate condition is absolutely excluded by Scripture. It is the mere dream of men who wish to cling to evil as long as they can, or at least to enjoy themselves in this world, who therefore despise the warnings of God, being bent on holding fast or acquiring good things here, and utterly careless of the solemn lesson furnished by the rich man and Lazarus. "Between us and you a great chasm is fixed," says Abraham — between the departed righteous and those who die in their sins the separation is complete — "so that they who desire to pass hence to you cannot." Still less can any pass to Abraham that would come from beyond the gulf. In every way such change is impossible.421 Dean Alford here as elsewhere renders ὅπως as if it were exactly like "in order that." I believe this to be a mistake in fact; and philologically it is a false principle that two words radically distinct in the same tongue ever mean precisely the same thing. (B.T.)

To die is to be but once done, and after death there is nothing to be done. If thou diest in thine impenitency there is no repenting in the grave. If thou leavest thy work at death half done, there is no finishing it in the grave (Eccles. 9:10): "There is no work, nor device, nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest."

If a man dies unrepentant, will there be any chance of his repentance after death?

It is the goodness of God that leads to repentance (Rom. 2:4). When a man dies in his sins he passes for ever out of the sphere where God's goodness is active. There may be remorse in the regions of the lost, but no repentance. On the contrary, the weeping and the wailing is accompanied by "gnashing of teeth," which is a very different thing from repentance. There is nothing in hell to change a man's heart. Scripture is clear that "now is the day of salvation." It is in this life that our eternal destinies must be fixed.

In Luke 16 the rich man in hell is represented as desiring that his brethren should be warned. He says, "If one went unto them from the dead, they will repent." But he never says such a thing as "I will repent." The lost in hell realise that the day for their repentance is gone for ever.

Nothing is made more clear in the whole Word of God than this, that the eternal destiny of every man is settled upon earth, and while he is alive in flesh. The Lord says, “If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins” (John 8:24); and in Hebrews 9:27, we read, “After this the judgment.” Some think it is after this another chance in the separate state. It is a false hope; it is a lie of the devil. Again, “He that believes on the Son has everlasting life: and he that believes not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36). In 1 Thessalonians 4:13, those who believe are placed in contrast with the rest of the world, who have NO HOPE.

The question asked, probably arises from an error, only too commonly held, that our Lord went into the prison to preach to spirits held there. The tense used is important to the understanding of the passage. Note, therefore, that these imprisoned spirits were not such when they heard the preaching. They were in their bodies. The Spirit of Christ, in the preaching of Noah, warned them of the coming flood — the judgment of God upon the world that then was because of the appalling wickedness then prevalent (Gen. 6:5-12). So then, Christ preached to them by His Spirit, in Noah, during the period of God's long suffering. At the time Peter's first Epistle was written, they were — as to their spirits — in prison having been carried away — in their bodies — by the waters of the flood, because of their wanton disobedience. Hence the warning to the mockers of Peter's day (and ours) who scoffingly asked, "Where is the promise of His coming? for from the time the fathers fell asleep all things remain thus from the beginning of the creation. For this is hidden from them through their own wilfulness … the then world, deluged with water, perished" (2 Peter 3:4-6; and Luke 17:26-27).

The foregoing leaves a solemn question with our readers; Is it really to be thought that if our Lord had actually gone and preached to the spirits in prison, His preaching would have been confined to those who were disobedient in Noah's day? A second opportunity of repentance is not any time given to such as refuse the testimony of God. Read, 2 Thess. 1:7-10 and Chapter 2:8-12.