Immortal soul; conscious intermediate state; bodily resurrection at final judgment
The Wesleyan Church affirms the biblical teaching that the human person consists of body and soul, with the soul being immortal and surviving the death of the body. At death, the individual enters a conscious intermediate state in which the soul awaits the final resurrection and judgment. This intermediate state is not the final state but a conscious condition in which the redeemed experience communion with God and the unredeemed experience separation from God.
The church also affirms the bodily resurrection of all people at the second coming of Christ and the final judgment in which all souls are reunited with glorified bodies and assigned to either eternal life with God or eternal separation from His presence. The resurrection is not merely spiritual but involves the transformation of the physical body, following the pattern of Christ's resurrection.
Key Distinctions
- Intermediate state:
- conscious waiting in interim between death and resurrection
- Immortality type:
- human soul is immortal; survives bodily death
- Bodily resurrection:
- bodily resurrection affirmed; transformation of physical bodies at end of ages
Scripture References
Sources
- The Wesleyan Church Discipline (2016), §§2300–2320
- Wesleyan Articles of Religion, Articles VII–VIII
- John Wesley, Sermons on the Resurrection