As Revealed and Elaborated in the Scriptures of Truth
Designed to show that "Christendom" has
forsaken the way of life,
and to
assist honest hearts in returning to the purity of the Gospel of Christ.
By Thomas
Williams
Chicago
Preface to 1973 Edition
The publication
of this edition of six thousand copies of "The Great Salvation"
completes the total printing of one hundred and five (105) thousand copies
since it’s first appearance in 1893.
It was prepared
by the author, Thomas Williams, in connection with "The World's Columbian
Exposition" held in Chicago in that year at which time thirteen thousand
copies were distributed at a booth set up at the "World's Congress of
Religions" held at the Chicago Art Institute.
Since that time
the work has continued in steady demand as the purposes for which it was
prepared: "to present the only true plan of salvation in as clear and
concise a form" as the circumstances called for, "and it’s merits as
a means of heralding the gospel to the perishing, aiding young students of the
Word, and assisting parents and teachers in teaching the Scriptures" are
still as vital and necessary as they were seventy-nine years ago.
It is
republished in the same hope as was originally expressed by the author;
"May God's blessing go with our little book in it’s continuance of the
good work it has done in the past, to the honor of His Name and to the
salvation of many sons of Adam's fallen race."
The
Christadelphian Advocate Publishing Committee
Reprinted
December 1995
INDEX
Part One: What it is and how to obtain it.
Proposition:
1.
It does
make a difference what we believe
2.
There is
only one Gospel that will save
3.
We must
believe in the true God
4.
God is
not a Trinity of persons, but One God
5.
Jesus Christ – Son of God by
begettal, Son of man by birth
6.
The Holy Spirit not a person,
but the effluence proceeding from God.
7.
The nature of man – mortal,
a creature of the dust.
8.
Man dies,
and is dead after he has died
9.
In death man is unconscious
10.
Resurrection the means of
future life for the dead
11.
Immortality the gift of God
to the righteous only
12.
Life as now possessed is not
eternal, but a vapor that soon passeth away
13.
Everlasting life not a
present possession, but a matter of hope
14.
The wicked and depraved who
are not amenable die and remain dead
15.
The wicked who are
responsible of the dead and living will be destroyed after judgment
16.
The soul not immortal, but is
the mortal, bodily being called man
17.
Many learned men deny the
immortality of the soul
18.
The spirit of man not an
immortal entity, but the word is used for life, mind and disposition
19.
Immortality is God’s holy
nature; the word “immortal” is never applied to man in his present state
20.
Eternal life is not a present
actual possession, but is promised to the righteous only
21.
The wicked will not be
preserved alive in torture, but will be destroyed
22.
Hell as employed in the Bible
does not mean a place of eternal torture, but the grave and Gehenna
24.
God has promised to bless and
fill the earth with His glory
25.
The earth is to be the everlasting
inheritance of the righteous not heaven
27.
The promises to Abraham have
never been fulfilled
28.
The seed in whom the Abrahamic
promises are to be fulfilled is Christ
29.
God covenanted with David to
establish a universal, glorious and everlasting kingdom on earth
30.
The covenant with David will
be fulfilled in Christ’s possession of David’s restored throne
32.
There will be a personal and
literal return of Christ to the earth
Part Three: What must I do to be saved?
33.
In Christ only can we obtain
redemption
34.
Baptism is one of the
conditions of salvation
35.
It is our duty after baptism
to obey the commandments of Christ
Part Four: Objections Answered
Part Five: Who will “Meet the Lord in the air?”
The Great Salvation
What It Is and How to Obtain It
Reader, we earnestly appeal to you. We have an
important subject to talk to you about – not about making money, either for you
or for me, but about a matter of much greater importance, that which every man
needs – about what people call religion. You perhaps will answer, "Away
with it; look at the confusion there is in the religions of the world. What is
the use for me to trouble myself when wise men cannot agree?" That is just
the reason I want to talk with you just now – to show you that the wisdom of
the wise is foolishness with God; and that the religion of the Bible is not
found in the "wisdom" of theological schools, but is revealed, so
that plain, homespun people may understand it and be saved by it – in fact I
want to show you – don’t get angry – that for to learn the religion of the
Bible is to discard the popular religion of Christendom. Now, "come and let
us reason together".
Perhaps you will have done like many others –
concluded that it does not make any difference what our religious belief is if
we are honest and sincere; but it is the hopelessness of reconciling the many
religious creeds with themselves, and nearly all of them with the Bible that
has driven many to say, "Well, it makes no difference." But your
common sense will tell you that it does make a difference whether you believe
the truth or believe a falsehood, whether you believe God or not’ and the
religious world, by it’s actions, shows that it makes a difference what is
believed, for they send missionaries to change the belief of the heathen, and
also to the Jews to change their belief, so that they may believe that Jesus is
the Christ.
If it makes a difference what we believe, then we
can see why the Bible has been given – to guide us into the Truth; and the
Bible itself says that our salvation depends upon our belief of the gospel as
revealed in it’s pages.
I Thes.
Jude 3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write
unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and
exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once
delivered unto the saints.
Rom.
Mark
Now, reader, do not run away with the delusion
that one man can believe one gospel and another can believe another gospel; for
-------
That is, the gospel our Saviour
commanded to be preached; the gospel – not a gospel; not any gospel you
please, but the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. And think of
this:
Gal 1:6 "I marvel that ye are so soon removed
from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel;
which is not another; but there be some that trouble you and would pervert
the gospel of Christ. But though we or an angel from heaven
preach any other gospel unto you THAN THAT WE
HAVE PREACHED UNTO YOU, LET HIM BE ACCURSED."
"Now he that cometh to God must believe
that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him" (Heb. 11:6); and it is life eternal to know Thee
the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent (John 17:3); and
therefore it will not do to believe in any other God or in any other Christ,
for that would be idolatry.
A TRIUNE GOD
Is what the religious world believes in, which is
the same as to believe in a trinity of Gods, which, further is the same as to
believe in three Gods; for they say that each is co-equal and co-eternal, and
how can there be three co-equals and co-eternals unless there are three Gods?
Reason, reader, you have a right to. God has invited you to reason, and it is
only a false way out of a difficulty to say "it is irreverent to pry into
these matters."
Proof:
Deut. 6:4; Mark 12:29 – Hear O Israel, the LORD
our God is one LORD.
I Cor.
8:6 But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things.
Eph. 4:6 One God and
Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
John 17:3 And this is
life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God…
Jesus
Christ Is Not A Third Part Of A Triune God, But The
Son Of God By Begettal Of The Holy Spirit, and Son of Man By Birth
Son of
God
Luke
Matt.
John
SON OF MAN
Acts
I Tim. 2:5 One mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
Gal 4:4 God sent forth his Son,
made of a woman.
I Cor.
Rom.
Jesus was not God, very God, as the creed of the
religious world claims; for He Himself disavows any such claim. How could God
be tempted like as we are? How could God die and be buried? Do not allow
yourself to be deceived by the sophistry that it was His humanity that was
tempted died and was buried, as if He Himself was not; for that would be
admitting that He escaped temptation and death and that the "Christ"
of popular religion did not die--could not die, being immortal; that only His
body--not He--died. The Bible says Christ died, Christ was buried, etc.;
and what is the use of perverting such language to suit a religion that is far
astray from the Bible? Instead of Christ’s being "co-equal and co-eternal
with God," "God very God," He
Was of
Man's Nature and Depended Upon God
Heb.
John
John
Heb. 5:7, 8 He was heard in that he feared; though
he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.
The Holy
Spirit Is Not a Person, But It Is The Effluence That Proceeds From God, as the
Light and Heat of the Sun Proceed from the Sun.
The Holy Spirit is not a third part of a Triune
God, but God's power, effluence and influence. It is said that "God
anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power." Now,
reader, we appeal to your common sense. If each -- God, Christ and the Holy
Spirit -- were "God very God, co-equal and co-eternal, how could the first
be said to anoint the second with the third in order to impart
"power" from the first to the second through the third? If they were
co-equal, the imparting of power from one to another would destroy the
"co-equality". If they were co-equal what "power" would one
have to impart to. another that the other was not
already in possession of? Will your common sense allow you to believe that one
of three co-equals anointed a second co-equal with a third co-equal? Can you
think for a moment that one person anointed a second person with a third
person? Note the following testimonies:
Psa. 104:30 Thou sendest forth thy
Spirit, they are created.
Job 33:4 The Spirit Of
God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.
Luke
Acts
There is, therefore, only one God and
Father of all; and Jesus Christ is the Son of God, having been begotten of God
through the Holy Spirit. God was the one who begat; the Holy Spirit was the
power or influence emanating from Him under the direction of His will in the
begettal; and Christ was the Son of God begotten, who, alter growing in
wisdom and stature, was made perfect by the things which he suffered (Heb.
2:10).
Now, dear reader, I want to appeal to you upon
another subject. You know that it is the belief of the religious world that man
is an immortal soul, and that when death takes place the real man does not die
-- he simply forsakes his body and continues to live without a body. If he has
been a good man, he goes to heaven to live in happiness; if he has been a bad
man, he goes to hell (supposed to be a place of torment) to live in misery.
Now, just think for a moment. The Bible says there is to be a day of judgment.
Eccl.
II Cor. 5:10 For we must
all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the
things in body, according to that he hath done, whether good or bad.
This judgment, you must know, is not at death, but
at the second coming of Christ:
II Tim. 4:1 I charge thee therefore before God and
the. Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his
appearing and his kingdom.
Matt. 25:31 When the Son Of man shall come in
his glory, and all his holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the
throne of his glory; and before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall
separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth
his sheep from the goats.
Here is proof that the judgment of good and bad is
to take place when Christ comes back to the earth. So it follows they have not
yet been judged. Now, then, to return to the point. If
it be true that the good go to happiness when they die (and have to die to get
there)! and the bad go to misery when they die, what
is the judgment for? I appeal, reader, to your reason. Can you believe that God
will reward and punish good and bad men for thousands of years and then call
them to judgment? You will possibly say, "O well, God knows where to put
them when they die as well as He will at the judgment day." Granted; but
if it is a question of His knowledge, why has he provided a day of judgment at
a set time? Do you not think there is something wrong with a theory that
represents God as arranging in His plan for a day of judgment in which He will
reward every man according as His work shall he (Rev. 22:12), and yet rewarding
some for hundreds of years before that day of judgment
arrives?
Now the Bible will help us out of this difficulty,
and the first step is to believe that man is mortal, a creature of the dust.
I Cor.
Gen. 2:7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust
of the ground.
Gen. 3:19 For out of it
(dust} wast thou taken; for dust thou art and
unto
dust shalt thou return.
Job 33:6 I also am formed out of clay
Gen. 3:23 Therefore the LORD God sent him (Adam)
forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground,
from whence he was taken.
Gen. 18:27 And Abraham answered and said, Behold
now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord which am
but dust and ashes.
Job
Job 10:9 Remember, I
beseech thee, that thou has made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring
me into dust again?
Psa. 103:14 For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth
that we are dust.
Now do not forget that all this is said of
man--not of the house that man is supposed to dwell in for a time, as if man
were one thing and his body another. It was the man that was formed out of the dust.
It is the man that is of the earth, earthy. It is
the man that is formed out of clay. It is the man that is dust and ashes. Now
the second step out of the difficulty presented is to believe that
Job 30:13 For I know that
thou bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.
Job 7:1 Is there not an
appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days
also like the days of an hireling?
Psa. 89:48 What man is he that liveth and shall not see death? Shall he deliver his
soul (himself) from the hand of the grave?
Eccl.
Isa. 40:6 All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof
is as the flower of the field; the grass withereth,
the flower fadeth; because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it; surely the people is grass.
Eccl 9:10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth
to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge,
nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest.
Isa. 6:5 In death there is no
remembrance of thee, in the grave who shall give thee thanks?
Eccl. 9:5 For the living
know that they shall die; but the dead know not any thing.
Psa. 146:3, 4 Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of
man, in whom there is no help; his breath goeth
forth, he returneth to his earth; IN THAT VERY
DAY HIS THOUGHTS PERISH.
Isa. 38.18, 19 The grave
cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee: they that go down into the
pit cannot hope for thy truth.
Now, you see, the Bible having taught us that,
instead of death being a continuation of life somewhere off the earth,
it is the cessation of life; and instead of men going to happiness or misery
when they die, they go to the grave, we are helped out of the absurdity of
believing that good and bad are rewarded and punished before they are judged.
It is clear now that, instead of the faithful dead having gone to heaven to
continue to live, these all died in the faith, not having
received the promises (Heb. 11:13).
Now, dear reader, do not, like many, get angry and
denounce this as "materialism", and say, "If a man in death is
no better than the beasts--is as dead as the beasts are--there can be no future
life;" for that is just what some in Corinth said; and Paul said they were
fools for doing so.
Paul argued with the Corinthians that the dead were
dead, and proved that if there was no resurrection even those who had died
in Christ had perished (I Cor. 15:18), gone for
ever--an impossibility if they had gone to a heaven of happiness.
Now if there is to be a resurrection of the dead
and a "gathering", of those who are alive at Christ’s return to judge
the quick and the dead, then our difficulty is gone, the wisdom of God shines
brightly and the Bible is a book of consistency and beautiful harmony.
Job
Job 19:25, 26 1 know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the
earth, and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall
I see God.
Psa. 49:15 But God will redeem my soul from the power of the
grave.
Isa. 26:19 Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body
shall their arise. Awake and sing) ye that
dwell in dust.
Dan. 12:2 And many of them that deep in the
dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to
shame and everlasting contempt.
Phil. 3:10, 11 That I may
know him, and the power of his resurrection, * * * if by any means I might attain
unto the resurrection of the dead.
I Cor.
While it is clear from the testimonies given that
man is mortal and absolutely destitute of immortality,
and that in death he is dead and therefore unconscious, our hope of
immortality must be through the resurrection, and immortality is therefore a
matter of hope for the righteous only, and not an inherent possession of saint
and sinner alike. Immortality is Gods nature. He is "The King eternal, immortal,
invisible" (I Tim.
II Pet. 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding
great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the
DIVINE NATURE, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
I John 3:2 Beloved now are we the sons of God, and
it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when he shall appear,
we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
Phil. 3:20, 21 For our conversation is in heaven;
from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned ONTO
HIS GLORIOUS BODY.
Luke 20:35, 36 But they which shall be accounted
worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry,
nor are given in marriage; neither can they die any more; for they are equal
unto the angels and are the children of God, being the children of the
resurrection.
I Cor. 15:51-54 Behold I
show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in
a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall
sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For
this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put
on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption,
and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then
shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up
in victory.
Now the word "immortality" is found only
six times in the Bible, and never once is used as a prefix to the word soul in
the oft-repeated form we hear from men – "immortal soul". First, it
is said that God is immortal (I Tim,
Job 14:1, 2 Man that is born of a woman is of few
days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a
flower and is cut down: he fleeth also as a
shadow, and continueth not.
Psa. 39:5 Behold thou has made my
days as a handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee:
verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity.
Psa. 103:15 As for man, his days are
as grass; as the flower of the field so he flourisheth.
Psa. 144:4 Man is like to vanity; his
days are as a shadow that passeth away.
I Pet.
Jas.
I John
II Tim. 1:1 Paul, an apostle of
Jesus Christ, by the will of God according to THE PROMISE OF LIFE which is
in Christ Jesus.
Tit. 1:2 IN HOPE OF ETERNAL LIFE, which God that
cannot lie promised before the world began.
Tit. 3:7 That being justified
by his grace, we should be made heirs according to THE HOPE OF ETERNAL
LIFE.
Rom. 2:6, 7 Who will
render to every man according to his deeds; to them who by patient continuance
in well doing seek for glory, honor and immortality, eternal life.
Col. 3:3, 4 For ye are
dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God; and when Christ, who
is our life, shall appear, THEN shall ye also appear with him in glory.
John
Gal. 6:8 He that soweth
to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life
everlasting.
Luke 20:35, 36 They which shall be
accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead,
neither marry, nor are given in marriage; neither can they die any more; for
they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the
children of the resurrection.
A false theory forces many to attach an erroneous
meaning to the phrase eternal life, making it stand for eternal happiness.
While eternal happiness is the sequence of eternal life, the one must not be
confounded with the other. Since the testimonies given prove that eternal life
is the gift of God to the righteous only, it follows that those who
obtain the precious gift will enjoy a happy state of being. If wicked men live
for ever, they live everlastingly; and surely to live everlastingly is eternal
life. The place where they live can make no difference as to the duration of
life. If we ask those who are unreasonable enough to believe in the eternal
conscious existence of all wicked and depraved men, Do you believe the wicked
will be tormented eternally,? they will answer yes.
Then do you not believe they will live eternally in torment? Yes. Then if they live
eternally, will not that be eternal life in torment? The difference,
therefore, between the righteous and the wicked is only one of place and state
in which they live eternally--both having eternal life, the one in happiness
and the other in misery. Compare this theory with the testimonies given above,
and it will be seen that it is far astray from the Word of God, which teaches
that "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Everlasting life for those who believe. No everlasting life
for those who do not believe; but they perish.
Psa. 49:12, 14, 20 Man being in honor abideth
not; he is like the beasts that perish. · * * like sheep they are laid
in the grave; death shall feed on them, and the upright shall have dominion
over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their
dwelling. * *·* Man that is in honor, and understandeth
not, is LIKE THE BEASTS THAT PERISH.
Isa. 26:13, 14 O LORD our God, other lords beside thee have
had dominion over us; but by thee only will we make mention of thy name. They are
dead, THEY SHALL NOT LIVE; they are deceased, THEY SHALL NOT RISE;
Therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them and made all their memory to
perish.
Prov.
Jer. 51:39, 57 In their heat I will
make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice and
sleep a perpetual sleep, and not awake, saith the LORD. ·* * * And I will make
drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her
mighty men; they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not awake, saith the
king, whose name is the LORD of hosts.
Obadiah 1:16 For as ye have drunk upon my holy
mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually, yea, they shall drink and
they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been.
If these testimonies are accepted a question that
has baffled the understanding of many will be solved. What will become of the
heathen? has troubled those who have received from
their forefathers and their theological "fathers" the tradition that
every human being is an immortal soul, that must either bask in bliss or writhe
in pain to all eternity. Consistency will not allow the belief that the
thousands of wretched beings in human form go to heaven; for that would make
the supposed future abode of the saints unfit for decent people. To preserve
them in torture, on the other hand, would be no more just and reasonable than
to do the same with the beasts of the field. How can you, dear reader, believe
that the savage is possessed of God's holy nature? which
he is if he has an immortal soul. To reason with the belief that every human
being once alive is always alive is to be driven to the conclusion that the
vast majority of the human family is to be preserved in misery, and thus
perpetuate a monstrous evil in God’s fair universe. It can never be harmonized
with the wisdom, goodness and power of God.
Accept the testimony, then, both of Scripture and
reason, that those who have lived the life of mere animals also die the death
of the beasts of the field and all is clear.
Acts 24:15 And have hope towards God, which they
themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of
the just and the unjust.
II Cor. 5:10 For we must
all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that everyone may receive the
things in body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
Rom.
Ezek. I8:4 Behold all souls are mine; as the soul
of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, IT SHALL DIE.
Prov.
Psa. 37:10, 20 For yet a little while
and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his
place and it shall not be. * * · But the wicked shall perish, and the
enemies of the LORD shall be as the fat of lambs; they shall consume; into
smoke shall they consume away.
MaI.
4:1, 3 For, behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven; and all the
proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble; and the day that
cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall
leaves them neither root nor branch. * * * And ye shall tread down the
wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet.
Matt.
Matt.
II Thes. 1:7-9 And to
you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from
heaven, with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that
know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall
be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord,
and from the glory of his power.
Now, a great many people will, when they are
confronted with testimonies to prove that man is mortal, that he dies and is unconscious, and that the wicked are destroyed, proceed
to theorize that such testimonies refer to the body only--not to the soul or
real man. But, reader, can you satisfy yourself in the belief that God has
taken so much pains to tell us that the body, as a mere house in which the man
resides, dies? that when the Scriptures speak of the
dead knowing "not any thing" it is simply the body that is
unconscious, while the real man continues alive and conscious? Can you be fully
persuaded that when it is said the enemies of the Lord shall be consumed like
the fats of lambs and burns up root and branch it means that it is the body
only that is consumed and destroyed, while the man, the responsible man, is
not? Such a position would place the punishment upon that which, according to
the theory held, is in no way responsible, while the responsible man would be
exempt. If the soul is the man separate from the body, and the body is not the
thinking part of man, why should it be said that the body becomes unconscious?
Is it not that which is conscious when it is alive that becomes unconscious
when dead? Is it not that which is responsible for sins committed that suffers
destruction as punishment? It is the man, which is a being of bodily form, made
and kept alive by the Spirit of God, which gives life to all living beings,
that dies, becomes unconscious in death, is raised from the dead, judged
according to his deeds, given eternal life if worthy, punished with eternal
death--the opposite of eternal life--if unworthy.
You will, however, ask, What
is the soul? Why is it that it is claimed that the soul is immortal? And so we
will briefly deal with the question of the soul.
This proposition gives the primary meaning of soul
as used in the Bible; but the word is also used for life and mind, and it is
applied to animals as well as to man.
We quote the following from the Emphatic Diaglott:
"The Hebrew word nephesh,
of the Old Testament, occurs about 700 times, and is rendered soul 471
times, life and living about 150 times; and the same word is also rendered a
man, a person, self, they, me, him, anyone, breath, heart, mind, appetite, the
body (dead or alive), lust, creature, and even a beast; for
it is 28 times applied to beasts and to every creeping thing. The
Greek word psuche of the New Testament
corresponds with nephesh of the Old. It
occurs 105 times, and is rendered soul 50 times and life 40
times. The same word is also rendered mind, us, you, heart, heartily,
and is twice applied to the beasts that perish. Psuchicas,
an adjective derived from psuche, occurs 6
times, and is translated natural and sensual; it is properly translated animal
in modem translations. Perhaps it may be worthy of notice that in all the 700
times which nephesh occurs, and the 105
times of psuche, not once is the word
immortal or immortality or deathless or never-dying found ,in connection as
qualifying the term.
Animals
Are Called Souls and the Word Soul Is Applied to the Life of the Beasts
Num. 31:28 And levy a
tribute unto the Lord of the men of war which went out to battle; one soul of
five hundred, of the persons, and of the beeves, and of the asses
and of the sheep.
Gen. 1:20 (The very first place where the word nephesh, the word rendered soul occurs) And
God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath
life (nephesh, soul, see margin), and fowl
that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
Gen. 1:30 And to every
beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing
that creepeth upon the earth wherein there is life
(margin living soul) I have given every green herb for meat.
Gen. 2:19 And Adam called (named) every living
creature (Hebrew nephesh, soul).
Gen. 9:10 And I will establish my covenant with
every living creature (Hebrew nephesh,
soul) that is with you of fowl, of cattle, and of every
beast of the earth with you. See also verses 15, 16.
Job l2:10 In whose hand
is the soul of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.
Souls
Die and Are Destroyed
Josh.
Judges 16:16 And it came to pass, when she pressed
him daily with her words and urged him, so that his soul was vexed
unto death.
Job
Psa. 33:19 To deliver their soul from
death and to keep them alive in famine.
Psa. 78:50 He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul
from death.
Isa. 53:12 Therefore will I divide
him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong
because he hath poured out his soul unto death.
Ezek. 13:10 And will ye pollute me among my people
for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to slay the souls that
should not die, and to save the souls alive that should not live.
Ezek. 18:4 Behold, all souls are mine; as
the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine; the soul
that sinneth, it shall die.
Verse 27 Again, when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he
shall save his soul alive.
Matt.
Jas.
Rev. 16:3 And the second
angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead
man; and every living soul died in the sea.
Souls
Destructible and Destroyed
Psa. 35:17 Lord how long wilt thou look on? Rescue my soul
from their destructions.
Psa. 63:0 But those that seek my soul
to destroy it shall go into the lower parts of the earth.
Acts
In the following testimonies the Hebrew word nephesh and the Greek word psuche, which are so frequently rendered soul,
are rendered life. Substitute the word soul for life in the
reading of these and it will be seen that, instead of soul being indestructible
and immortal, it is the opposite.
Exo.
Matt.
Mark 3:4 Is it lawful to
do good on the Sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life,
or to kill (life or soul)?
Rev. 8:9 And the third
part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life (soul) died.
Rev. 12:11 And they
overcome him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and
they loved not their lives (souls) unto the death.
Souls
Go to and Are Delivered From the Pit, or the Grave
Job 33:18 He keepeth
back his soul from the pit (grave) and his life from perishing by the
sword. Also verses 28, 30.
Psa.
Psa. 30:3 0 Lord, thou has brought up my soul from the grave;
thou hast kept me alive that I should not go down to the pit. The
pit and the "grave" are here synonymous; also "my soul, and
"me" and "I"
Isa. 49:15 But God will redeem my soul from the power
of the grave; for he shall receive me.
Isa. 89:4S What man is he that liveth and shall not see death? Shall he deliver his soul
(himself) from the hand of the grave?
Isa. 38:17, 18 Thou hast in love to my soul delivered
it from the pit of corruption; * * * for the grave cannot praise
thee, death cannot celebrate thee; they that go down to the pit cannot hope for
thy truth.
Act
Now, dear reader, by these testimonies you will
see that the various ways in which the soul is spoken of in the Bible leaves no
room whatever for the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. Think a moment.
Is it not strange that in all the instances in which the word soul occurs it is
never once spoken of as immortal? To find the phrase "immortal soul"
you must close your Bible and open theological books; and these will direct you
to the words of heathen philosophers as the authors from whom the phrase came.
You do not hear popular teachers in our times speaking of souls dying, being
destroyed going to the grave and coming out of ,the
grave. They say the soul is "never dying", immortal, does not go to
the grave and is not delivered from the grave. Take, for instance, the word life
in Matt. 6:25, where the Greek word is psuche
-- the word which in other places is rendered soul -- and try if you
can make it suit the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. It would read,
"Take no thought for your (immortal) "soul".
Try it again in Matt. 16:25, 26, of which Dr. Adam
Clarks says: "On what authority many have translated the word psuche in the 25th verse "life"
and in this 26th verse "soul" I know not." If, as is claimed,
that the word psuche means
"immortal soul", then these verses would read, "For whosoever
will save his immortal soul shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his immortal
soul for my sake shall find it" etc.
Ponder over the following questions and see the
folly of the doctrine of the immortality of the soul:
Since the Bible speaks of a living man (Gen. 2:7)
as a living soul, and a dead man as a dead soul, (Num. 6:6;
The phrase 'living soul" occurs fourteen
times in the original Scriptures and twice it is applied to man (Gen. 2:7:I Cor.
If the word soul signifies immortality, why is the
word immortal added to it by those who use the phrase "immortal
soul"? This is the same as if they were to say immortal immortality.
If to have a soul is to have immortality, then the
beasts have immortality; for they are said to have souls, as you will see by the
verses already quoted and the following:
Num. 31:28; Job 12:10; Prov.
12:10. (The word life is from nephesh,
soul.)
Popular teachers say the soul is immortal. They
cannot give you their description of man without using the words "immortal
soul" and yet Moses, the prophets, Christ and His apostles never used
the words in all the nearly one thousand times they use the word soul. Immortal
was never a prefix to the word soul with them.
The Bible speaks of soul being born (Exo 12:19);of souls dying Rev. 16:3); of souls being in the
grave (Psa. 89:48); of souls being raised from the
dead (Acts 2:31); of souls having blood (Jer. 2:34);
of souls breathing (Josh. 11:11); of souls being slain with the sword (Josh,
10:28, 29); of souls eating and drinking (Lev. 7:20); Isa.
32:6); of souls committing carnal abominations (Lev. 18:29); of souls expiring
(Job 31:39 margin); of souls being burnt with fire (Isa.
47:14 mar-gin); of souls fasting (Psa. 35:13); of
souls having flesh (Lev. 17:15, 16); of souls having hands (Lev. 22:6); of
souls having mouths (Psa. 103:2,5); of souls
having lips (Lev. 5:4); of beasts having souls (Deut. 12:23, Hebrew nephesho; of souls being put in fetters of
iron (Psa. 105:18, margin); and of fish having souls
(Rev. 8:9, Greek psuche, soul). In view of
such Bible descriptions of souls, how is it possible, nay, is it not
preposterous, to talk about souls being immortal and immaterial?
Dear reader, you may think that all "great
and good men" are against us upon this question, and this may-have weight
on your mind, as it has with many; and they say, "O well, if great men
believe in the immortality of the soul it is no use for us to deny it, for they
ought to know." This is by no means a proper view to take. We must allow
God to be true though all may there-by be proved liars. However, to show you
that all "great men" have not believed in the doctrine and that some
have protested against it, I will reproduce a list of quotations from the
"Declaration".
Herodotus, the oldest historian, writes as
follows:
The Egyptians say that Ceres (the goddess of
corn). and Bacchus (the god of wine), hold the chief
sway in the infernal regions; and the Egyptians also were the first who
asserted the doctrine that the soul of man is immortal.-Herodotus, page
144.
Mosheim says:
It’s first promoters argued from that known doctrine of the
Platonic school, which was also accepted by Origen.
and his disciples, that the divine nature was
diffused through all human souls. Ecclesiastical History, Volume 1, page
80.
Justin Martyr (150 A. D.) said:
For if you have conversed with some that are
indeed called Christians and do not maintain these opinions but even dare to
blaspheme the God of Abraham and the God Isaac and the God of Jacob, and say
that there is no resurrection of the dead, but that the souls, as soon as
they leave the body, are received up into heaven, TAKE CARE THAT YOU
DO NOT LOOK UPON THESE. But I, and all those Christians that are really
orthodox in every respect, do know that there will be a resurrection of the
body and a thousand years in
An extract from a canon which was passed under Leo
X. by the Council of Lateran shows that the doctrine of an "immortal
soul" that lives when the man is dead was supported in those days, as it Generally has been since, by the authority of creeds rather
than the Word of God:
Some have dared to assert, concerning the nature
of the reasonable soul, that it is mortal; we, with the approbation of
the sacred council, do condemn and reprobate all such, seeing, according to
the canon of Pope Clement the Fifth (not according to the Bible) the
soul is immortal; and we strictly inhibit all from dogmatizing
otherwise; and we decree that all who adhere to the like erroneous assertions
shall be shunned as heretics.- Caranga,
page 412, 1081.
Martin Luther, ironically responding to the decree
of the Council of the Lateran held during the pontificate of Pope Leo, says:
"I permit the pope to make articles of faith
for himself and his faithful-such as the soul is the substantial form of. the human body, the soul is immortal, with all those
monstrous opinions to be found in the Roman dunghill of decretals."
--Luther's Works, Volume 2 folio 107,
In an old work printed in 1772, entitled
Historical View of the
William Tyndall declares that--
In putting departed souls in heaven, hell and
purgatory-, you destroy the arguments wherewith Christ and Paul prove the
resurrection. * * * The true faith putteth the
resurrection, which we be warned to look for every hour. The heathen
philosophers, denying that, did put that the souls did ever live.
And the pope joineth the spiritual doctrine of
Christ and the fleshly doctrine of philosophers together – things so
contrary that they cannot agree. * * * And because the fleshly pope consenteth into HEATHEN DOCTRINE, therefore he corrupteth the Scriptures to establish it. *
* * If the souls be in heaven, tell me why they be not in as good case as the
angels be. And then what cause it there for the resurrection? This
translator of the Scriptures into English suffered martyrdom in 1536.
Gibbon declares: "The doctrine of the
immortality of the soul is omitted in the law of Moses." -Gibbon, Volume
1, page 530-1.
George Combs says: "No idea can be more
erroneous than to suppose that man is an immortal being, on account of
the substance of which he is composed." -System of Phrenology, page
595-7.
Parkhurst says: "As a noun nephesh
hath been supposed to signify the spiritual part of man, or what we
commonly call his soul, I must confess that I can find no passage where
it hath undoubtedly this meaning." - Hebrew Lexicon.
Now we have given proof that even men highly
esteemed among men deny and give good reasons for denying the theory of the souls immortality. Some, however, will turn to the word spirit,
and claim that the Scripture use of this word will sustain that which they
are forced to concede is not supported by the use of the word soul. So
we will ask you to accompany us while we examine the subject under this
heading.
Now, reader, you may be under the impression that spirit
is only applied to man in the Scriptures; and truly, if it is a word that
signifies immortal entity, it ought never to apply to the beasts in any sense.
If we show you testimonies in which spirit is spoken of as belonging to
the beasts as well as to man, then you will see at once that it cannot have the
meaning commonly attached to it.
Now there are different words in the original
Scriptures that are rendered in our translation spirit. It will
therefore be well for me to give these and a brief statement of the facts as
to their meaning and use. To do this I will quote from the alphabetical
appendix of the Emphatic Diaglott a statement whose correctness you can, with
little trouble, test yourself.
The
Definition and Use of the Word Spirit as Found in the Scriptures
"The Hebrew world ruach
occurs 400 times in the Old Testament, and is rendered spirit 240
times; breath 28 times; wind 95 times; mind 6 times; and
the balance in 18 different ways. The Greek word pneuma
has been chosen by the inspired writers of the New Testament as the
equivalent in meaning of ruach. It occurs 385
times, and is the only word rendered spirit, (with two exceptions, Matt.
Now when it is said in Gen. 6:17, "I do bring
a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath
(ruach, the Hebrew word often rendered spirit)
or life, we see that "immortal soul" or "immortal spirit' is
out of the question; for "all flesh" included the beasts of the
field.
When the wise man declares of
man and beasts in Ecc. 3:19, "For that which befalleth
the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them; as the one dieth
so dieth the other; YEA THEY HAVE ALL ONE BREATH
(ruach), you would certainly not read, yea they
have all one "immortal spirit. So, also, when it is said in Jas.
It was the breath of life that God breathed into
man to make him a living man. Before that he was a lifeless man. When
God takes away the breath of life or the spirit of life, which all creatures
possess, the man becomes as lifeless as he was before he received the breath of
life. Hence Solomon says in Ecc. 12:7, "Then
shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return
to God who gave it." The word rendered spirit here is the
same as is rendered breath in chapter 3:19, where it says of man and
beasts, yea they have all one breath (ruach).
The fact that our translators have rendered the
same word (ruach) breath and spirit does
not change the fact that the inspired writers used the same word. A good way
for you to test whether the inspired writers believed as theologians do now --
that spirit means "immortal spirit" or soul -- is to read
"immortal spirit" in the verses where the words rendered spirit,
breath and wind occur. Try in the following:
I Kings 2:9 And Elisha
said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.
Job
Job
Job 27:3 All the while my breath is in me, and the
Spirit of God is in my nostrils.
Job 33:4 The spirit
of God hath made me and the breath of the Almighty hath given me
life.
Eph.
Num.
Num. 27:16 Let the Lord,
the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation.
Josh. 5:1 Neither was
there any spirit in them any more because of the children of
I Kings 10:4, 5 When the
Queen of
Psa. 104:29, 30 Thou takest away
their breath (spirit of the beasts, see context) they die and return to
the dust.
We say, a proud spirit, a haughty spirit, a
rebellious spirit, a meek spirit, etc.; but we use the word for disposition or
state of mind, and not for immortal entity. We say a horse is in good spirits
or is a spirited creature; but we do not use the word as theologians do.
Understanding spirit to be used for life, we can
understand the words, "Lord Jesus receive my (not me) spirit and Stephen
fell asleep (Acts
When you seek the meaning of a Scripture word it
is not safe to take the theological meaning; for Scripture words have been made
to serve in giving expression to heathen doctrines. If you take the radical
meaning of spirit as given in the dictionary you will find it accords with the
Scripture use in the primary sense. The meaning given by Webster for spirit is
breath. The meaning the lexicons give of the Greek and Hebrew words pneuma and ruach--the words
which stand for spirit--is breath. The noun in each case is
derived from a verb meaning to breathe. So when God formed man of the dust of
the ground He made him alive by causing him to breathe His spirit, which all
the creatures that went into the ark possessed (Gen. 7:14, 15). When man
dies "his breath (ruach, spirit) goeth forth, he returneth
to his earth, and in that very day his thoughts perish" (Psa. 146:4). The spirit of God is everywhere – in the air
that surrounds us. That portion of it which God enables us to appropriate to
our use in respiration (by breathing) is called breath; and as it is by this
process of breathing that we live, it is called the breath or spirit of
life. It is the same with all creatures; for, as we have seen, "they
--man and beasts-- have all one breath" (Ecc.
With these facts before you, that man is mortal,
and that the soul and spirit of man are never spoken in the Scriptures as
immortal, we may now ask you to listen to the use of the word immortal, so that
you may more fully see that immortality is in no sense man's present
possession, and that therefore "immortal soul" and "immortal
spirit" are invented phrases--not scriptural.
Now immortality is spoken of in the Scriptures in
various ways. We have already shown (Proposition 11.) that it is a gift of God
to the righteous only; but let us now look at the use the Bible makes of the
word. Following are all the instances where it is found:
I Tim.
I Tim. 6:15, 16 Which in his times he shall show,
who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords;
who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light, etc.
II Tim.
Rom. 2:6, 7 Who will
render to every man according to his deeds: tothem
who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory, honor and immortality,
eternal life.
I Cor. 15:53, 54 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this
mortal must PUT ON IMMORTALITY. So when this corruptible shall have put on
incorruption, and this mortal shall have PUT ON IMMORTALITY, then shall be brought to pass the saying that
is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
Now, dear reader, look at this without prejudice,
and see, first, that the word immortal or immortality is never applied to man
in his present state. Then consider that in the first verse quoted immortality
is God's nature. Do you think God would bestow His divine and holy and
indestructible nature upon wicked and depraved beings? Do you think it is
reasonable to believe that beings possessed of God’s holy nature could be
tempted to sin and that God would torture eternally millions of beings
possessed of His own divine nature? Is not such a thought revolting to a mind
that regards God as being holy, just, wise and good, His nature being the very
essence of these attributes?
But now look at the four verses where the word is
used in relation to man. First, immortality is brought to light through the
gospel. Second, it is that which we must seek for by well doing. Third, we
shall put it on at the resurrection. Fourth, when it is put on death is
swallowed up in victory. Thus you will see that such a boon as to be made
partakers of the divine nature is only for those who prove themselves worthy of
it. (Remember that you never read in the Bible the words immortal
soul" or "immortal spirit"). The same is true of eternal
life, as we shall next proceed to show.
I John
Il Tim. 1:1 Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of
God, according to the PROMISE OF LIFE which is in Christ Jesus.
Tit. 1:2 IN HOPE OF ETERNAL LIFE, which God that
cannot lie promised before the world began.
Tit. 3:7 That being
Justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to THE HOPE'
OF ETERNAL LIFE.
Rom. 2:6, 7 Who will
render to every man according to his deeds, to them who by patient continuance
in well doing seek for glory, honor and immortality. eternal life.
Col. 3:3, 4 For ye are
dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God; and when Christ who is our
life shall appear, THEN shall ye also appear with him in glory.
John
Gal. 6:8 He that soweth
to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting
Luke 20:35, 36 They which shall be accounted
worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry,
nor are given in marriage; neither can they die any more; for they are
equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children
of the resurrection.
Your mind will possibly run to a few texts which
say, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life"
(John
You will be told by theologians that eternal life
means eternal happiness --not eternal living existence. It is true that all who
shall be accounted worthy of eternal living existence will, as a necessary
result, enjoy eternal happiness. Hence by obtaining the former we enjoy the
latter: but "eternal life" means to live without end; and
"eternal happiness" means to be always happy.
Now if the wicked live without end, it
matters not where they live; they have eternal life. If you ask
theologians, Will the life of the wicked ever end? they
will answer you, No; they will live in torment as long as the righteous live
in happiness; the difference is only in the place and state where
they live. So that you will see there is in this a denial of the gospel of eternal
life, which says, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not, perish, but have
everlasting life (John 3:10). There is a "strait gate" and a
"narrow way" that "leadeth to
life" – life is at the farther end; not at this end, in us---and there
is a "broad gate" and a "wide way" that leadeth
to destruction--not to life in misery.
This will prepare your mind for the reception of
the Scripture teaching concerning the destiny of the wicked, which we will now
consider.
Job 20:5-8 The triumphing
of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment. He shall
perish for ever like his own dung; they which have seen him shall say, Where is he? He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not
be found, yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.
Psa. 37:38 But the transgressors
shall be destroyed together; the end of the wicked shall be cut off.
Psa. 37:10 For yet a little while and
the wicked shall not be; yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it
shall not be.
Psa. 37:20 But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies
of the LORD shall be as the fat of lambs; their shall
consume; INTO SMOKE SHALL THEY CONSUME AWAY.
Psa. 145:20 The LORD preserveth all
them that love him; but all the wicked will he destroy.
Psa. 104:35 Let the sinners be consumed
out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more.
II Pet.
II Thes. 1:9, 10 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from
the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.
Those who cling to the terrible theory that God
will preserve the wicked eternally in torment try to evade these plain
statements of Scripture by saying that the meaning is not literal destruction;
but that the word destroy must be understood in the sense we speak of a man who
has become a reprobate--his character is destroyed, he is ruined. You will see
that this is not reasonable, because it is the wicked who
are to be destroyed. They are already ruined in the sense referred to, from the
fact that they are the wicked; and it is the destruction of these
that the Scriptures are speaking of.
Then, again, there is a play upon the words
"from among the people" (Acts
From force of education you will now possibly
wonder, in view of the foregoing, what is the meaning of 'hell in the Bible. For if the wicked are to be destroyed, such a place
as have been taught to believe to be will not be needed. If the wicked are not
to be preserved alive the popular hell will be of no use. So let us examine
this subject next.
The use the inspired writers make of the Hebrew
and Greek words rendered in our translation '`hell" must be allowed to
determine what they mean by these words. You must remember that in the Greek
there are two words in the original Scriptures--hades
and Gehenna that are translated by the one word hell.
In the Old Testament the Hebrew word answering to hades
is sheol. Now this word is
often rendered grave; and it’s use in such cases shows
that the prophets never understood it to mean a place of torment for
"disembodied spirits".
Sheol-Grave
or State of the Dead
Gen. 37:35 He (Jacob) refused to be comforted; and
he said, For I will go down into the grave (sheol) unto my son mourning.
Gen. 42:38 If mischief befall him in the way by
which ye go, then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave
( sheol).
I Sam. 2:6 The LORD killeth
and maketh alive; he bringeth
down to the grave (sheol)
and bringeth up,
I Kings 2:6 Do therefore according to thy wisdom,
and let not his hoary head go down to the grave (sheol) in peace.
Job
Job
Psa. 30:3 0 LORD, thou has brought up my soul from the grave
(sheol); thou has kept
me alive that I should not go down to the pit.
Psa. 49:14 Like sheep they are laid
in the grave (sheol), death shall feed on
them.
Hos.
Ecc.
Psa. 31:17 Let them be silent in
the grave (sheol).
Ezek. 32:27 And they shall not lie with the mighty
that are fallen of the uncircumcised, which are gone down to hell (sheol) with their weapons of war; and they have laid
their swords under their heads. (Hell here is shown to be the grave, by the
fact that the mighty lie there with their swords under their heads, it
being a custom to bury warriors with their swords under their heads).
Psa.
From these testimonies it is clear that the
inspired writers had no idea of a place of eternal torment being represented by
the word sheol. Just
substitute "the place of eternal torment" for the word sheol in these texts
and you will see how absurd is the theory of modern theology. It would make
Jacob say, "I refuse to be comforted; and I will go down to the place of
eternal torment to my son mourning." It would make David say, :Let not his hoary head go down to the place of eternal
torment in peace." as though it were possible to go to such a place in peace.
It would make Job say, "O that thou wouldest
hide me in the place of eternal torment until thy wrath be past, which would be
praying to be taken from bad to worse. It would make David and Peter say that
Christ went to the place of torment but was not left there. Now if you keep in
view that the final end of the wicked is to be punished with eternal
death--to be cast into the darkness of death and the grave--then you will
easily understand the use of the word sheol
when the translators have rendered it "hell"; such, for instance,
as "The wicked shall be turned into hell (sheol), ,and all
nations that forget God (Psa. 9:17).
The word that the writers of the New Testament
used as meaning the same as sheol
is hades.
Hades---Grave
or State of the Dead
The Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old
Testament) uses the word hades as the
equivalent of sheol.
Therefore the texts quoted above apply to the use of the word hades in the Greek in the same way as they do
to sheol in the Hebrew.
The word hades only occurs eleven times
in the New Testament. As to it’s meaning and whether
or not it is properly translated by the word hell we submit the
following:
"The Hebrew word sheol
is translated HELL, properly as a general thing, if intended to mean the same
as the old Saxon word hell, the covered receptacle of all the dead, where
the good and bad repose together in a state of UNCONSCIOUSNESS; but very
improperly and SHAMEFULLY IF intended to be a symbol of the ‘orthodox' and traditionary hell as a place of conscious
torment for the wicked only. But we, without the slightest reservation, condemn
the translators; for they have evidently endeavored to observe the true sense
of the word Sheol, and to uphold the
traditional meaning of hell at the expense of truth and uniformity. Had sheol been uniformly
translated pit or grave or the state of the dead, or even the mansions
of the dead, no such absurd idea as that of a place of conscious torment
could ever have been associated with it." Bible versus Tradition, page
188.
"Hades means literally that which is
darkness. A careful examination will lead to the conclusion that no sanction
to the intermediate state is afforded by these passages where hades occurs; but they denote the grave, both
of the righteous and wicked. Dr. Kitto,
Cyclopedia.
"The original word hades,
from a, not, and idien, to see-the
invisible receptacle or mansion of the dead, answering to sheol in Hebrew. The word hell, used
in the common translations conveys now an improper meaning of the
original word, because hell is only used to signify the place of the
damned. But as the word hell comes from the Anglo-Saxon helan, to cover or hide, hence the tiling or
slating of a house in some parts of England (particularly Cornwall): heIing to this day, and the covers of books
(in Lancashire), by the same name; so the literal import of the original word hades: was formerly well expressed by it.-Dr.
Adam Clarke, Commentary.
"The gates of hades
may always allusive to the form of the Jewish sepulchres,
which were large caves with a narrow mouth or entrance, many of which are found
in
Following are the passages where the word hades occurs in · the New Testament:
Matt.
Upon this Dr. Adam Clarke says:
This prediction of our Lord was literally
fulfilled; for in the wars with the Romans and the Jews these cities were totally
destroyed, so that no traces are now found of
To be brought down to hell, the grave,
was therefore to be destroyed.
Matt.
"The gates of hades,"
says Parkhurst, may always be allusive to the
form of Jewish sepulchres."
The gates of the grave will not prevail, because
the church will be delivered, and exclaim: "O grave (hades),
where is thy victory?" (I Cor. 15:55).
Luke
Luke
Acts
I Cor.
Rev. 1:18 I am he that liveth,
and was dead; and. behold, I am alive for evermore, amen; and have the keys of hell
(hades) and of death.
Rev. 6:8 And I looked and behold, a pale horse;
and his name that sat upon him was Death. and Hell
(hades) followed with him.
Rev. 20:13, 14 And the
sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell (hades) delivered up the dead which were in them; and
they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell (hades) were cast into the lake of fire. This is the
second death.
These passages will all be clear to you as
applying to the grave, except, perhaps, one -- that in which the rich man is
said to lift up his eyes in hell (hades). We
purpose devoting a chapter to this further along, but will say here, that the
parable of the rich man and Lazarus was addressed to the Pharisees (Luke
Gehenna --
What and Where Is It?
Gehenna, the other word translated hell in the New
Testament, has an entirely different meaning from hades,
and never ought to have been translated by the word hell. The following
from the Emphatic Diaglott is a good explanation:
"Gehenna, the Greek word translated hell in the common version occurs 19.
times. It is the Grecian mode of spelling the Hebrew
words which are translated "The Valley of Hinnom"
This valley was also called Tophet, a
detestation, an abomination. Into this place were cast all kinds of filth, with
the carcasses of beasts and the unburied bodies of criminals who had been executed.
Continual fires were kept to consume these. Sennacherib’s army
of 185,000 were slain here in one night. Here children were burnt to death
in sacrifice to Moloch. Gehenna, then,
as occurring in the New Testament, symbolizes death and utter destruction,
but in no place symbolizes a place of eternal torment."
The Jews having come to look upon Gehenna as a place of horror, it was
associated by our Lord with the destiny which awaited those who shall be the
victims of the wrath of God in the day of just retribution. The testimonies in
which the word is used indicate that, not only was Gehenna
a place of judicial punishment in the past, but in that same place will the
righteous judgments of God be poured upon the transgressors. The worms that
preyed upon the carcasses in the past have long since devoured them; the
unquenchable fire that burned has devoured it’s
victims. So when the worms shall again prey upon the bodies of the wicked and
the fire burn, destruction will be the inevitable result. You will see, dear
reader, that the meaning of the words "The worm dieth
not and the fire is not quenched" is not that the bodies upon which the
worms prey are preserved alive--not that they will burn and yet never burn. The
fact that worms are represented as preying is proof that their victims have
been put to death and that to be totally devoured is the certain end;
and the fact that the fire is not quenched is proof, not that it’s victims will
be preserved, but that they will be devoured.
Following are
the passages where the word hell in the common version is from Gehenna:
Matt. 5:22 But I say, That whosoever is angry with
his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the Judgment; and whosoever
shah say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of
the council; but whosoever shall say, Thou fool. shall
be in danger of hell (Gehenna) fire.
Matt. 5:29 And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck
it out and cast it from thee; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy
members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be east into hell (Gehenna).
Matt.
Matt. 18:9 And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it
out and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one
eye rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell ( Gehenna
) fire.
Matt.
Matt.
Mark 9:43, 45, 47; Luke 12:5. These are the same
as given from Matthew.
Jas. 3:6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of
iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth
the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of
nature; and it is set on fire of hell (Gehenna).
Now you will see from these testimonies that no
support is given by them to the theory of eternal preservation in hell fire as
popularly believed. The Jews knew that to be "in danger of Gehenna" was to be in danger of an
ignoble death, a devouring of worms or a consuming of fire in the detested
Dr. Parkhurst remarks on
Mark 9:43: "Our Lord seems to allude to the worms which continually preyed
on dead carcasses that were cast into the valley of Hinnom
(Gehenna), and to the perpetual fire kept up to consume
them; a place of abominable filthiness and pollution. Greek
Lexicon.
Now, dear reader, we come to the question of the
devil--a question that you may think of trivial importance, but which we must
insist is of great importance. It is very important that we believe no doctrine
that will dishonor and blaspheme God. If there is such a personal monster as is
popularly believed in-one that is immortal and possessed of power to tempt weak
humanity in all parts of the world at the same time, and that has the power of
an endless life to continue his rebellion against God--the question is, Where
did such a being come from? Did God create him? Did God give him
immortality--His own nature and the nature we are commanded to seek for by
well-doing? Did God give him power to be everywhere present performing his
wicked work? Is it God's purpose to allow such a monster of wickedness to live
eternally in open rebellion against Him? If so, why so?
Can you believe these things without dishonoring God, who is wise, just,
all-powerful and good?
If we believe that the devil is immortal and has
eternal life, how can we believe that "the wages of sin is death, but the
gift of God is eternal life" (Rom.
Daimon--Demon
Now, the word devil, like that of
"hell", is quite deceiving in the manner of it’s
use in the New Testament, for it is made to represent two different words in
the original Scriptures. These Words are, in the Greek, daimon
and diabolos. The first is a word
which the heathen applied to supposed departed spirits. With them, when a
person was afflicted with a disease of any kind, especially disease
affecting the mind, it was a disembodied spirit, or, as it would now be called
by their disciples, an "immortal soul", had entered the body of the
person to punish him. To cure the disease was to cast out the demon, spirit or
soul. Thus, if one was affected with seven different diseases and was healed it
was the casting out of seven spirits or immortal souls. Religious people who
have given heed to doctrines of devils (demons) still hold the heathen dogma of
disembodied spirits, but they have abandoned the ancient theory of
transmigration. The language of Scriptures is the language of the times in
which they were written; but it does not commit our Lord and His apostles to
the heathen theory, any more than our use of the word lunatic commits us
to the belief that an insane person has been 'moonstruck', or that our use of
erysipelas means that we believe in "St. Anthony's fire".
The following from Yate's
"History of Egypt, which we quote from Diabolism, will illustrate how the
use of words and phrases may mean one thing to a heathen and another thing to
one who has escaped the darkness of heathenism:
"It would seem that the same diseases prevailed
then in
"I have known the Rev. Mr. Wolff ridiculed
for stating that one evening when he was passing between
The work of the Saviour
and His apostles in this particular was the miraculous cure of disease, the
account being given in the idiom of the times. The heathen and those who
believed their doctrines of demons took a heathen view of the matter; just as a
religious heathen in our day would look upon a ease of erysipelas as a fire
from St. Anthony, while a rational mind would know better.
Diabolos
The word which most concerns us is diabolos; because a failure to understand the
meaning of this word will hinder one from comprehending the plan of salvation.
Christ came to destroy the diabolos and
his works; therefore a wrong view of diabolos
interferes with a correct view of the mission of Christ.
The meaning of diabolos
as given by Dr. Young is accuser, calumniator. The word is
rendered devil in the New Testament thirty times, where it’s
use sustains the meaning above given. It does not stand for one supernatural
being, as is commonly supposed; for in three instances it is used in the
plural. In these cases, however, the translators of the common version, seeing,
no doubt, that the word could not mean the supposed supernatural being, have
not used the word devil. It would not do to make Paul say. "Even
so must their wives be grave, not "supernatural devils". So
they gave us a correct translation, which furnishes a key to the true meaning
of the word. Hence it is:
I Tim.
II Tim. 3:3 Men shall be * * * without natural
affection, trucebreakers, false accusers (diaboloi).
Tit. 2:3 The aged women, likewise, that they be in
behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers ( diaboloi).
If they had been slanderers or false accusers they
would have been devils in the sense that "devil' is used in the New
Testament from diabolos.
Literally the word diabolos
means that which causes to cross over. Hence that which
tempts men to cross the line from right to wrong, or to sin. That which
causes man to sin, as well as sin itself in all it’s
various phases is personified in the Scriptures in the same way that riches are
called the god this world and mammon; and this principle of human nature is
what tempts to do wrong. Hence it is the diabolos
which causes men to cross over the line. There are
what we call riches; there are what we call sins. Take the Scripture
personification of these and call the first Mammon and the second Diabolos. Then we can say Mammon tempts us;
Mammon is our enemy, Mammon will destroy us. And we can substitute Diabolos and say the same things. No one
would be foolish enough to think mammon a supernatural, personal monster
because we use the word in this personal sense. Why should not the use of the
word diabolos be allowed in the same
way? Obedience and sin are personified: "Know ye not that to whom ye yield
yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of
sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness" (Rom. 6:16)?
Here are two masters represented by the pronoun his; but nobody supposes they
are really two persons. Sin is either a wicked thought or act of a person, obedience is a good thought or act of a person. And
it probably is because neither can exist without a person that they are
personified. It was diabolos that put
it into the heart of Judas to betray Christ (John 13:2); and thus he became a
devil (diabolos)—John 6:70)
Now Christ came to take away the sin of the
world--that is, to ultimately remove sin and all it’s
effects from the earth. When this is done the diabolos
will be no more.
Christ
to Take Away Sin
John
I John 3:5 He was manifested to take away our
sins.
Rom. 8:3 God sending his own Son in the likeness
of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.
Christ
to Destroy the Devil and His Works
Heb. 2:14 Forasmuch then as the children are
partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same;
that through death he might destroy him that hath the power of death, that
is the devil (diabolos).
I John 3:8 For this purpose the Son of God was
manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil ( diabolos ).
When the devil and his works are destroyed, all
evil will be removed from the earth, paradise will be restored and everything
will again be very good. To believe, therefore, that the devil is a
supernatural being that is to live as long as God lives, and whose works in a
supposed "hell" are to continue as long as "heaven"
continues, is to deny the truth concerning the work of redemption through
Christ.
Think not, then, that God maintains the existence
of such a monster and that our temptations come from him. "Every man is
tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed". (Jas.
1:14)
Satan
Satan is frequently used in the same sense as diabolos. Indeed, diabolos
is the word which the Septuagint employs for the Hebrew word satan. While the
word mostly means the same as diabolos, there
is this difference----that satan
does not always stand for an opposer of
right. It is frequently rendered adversary; and the angel of the Lord that
stood in the way of Balaam is called a satan.
On the whole, however, what has been said under the heading of diabolos will apply to the word satan. Any person who is an opposer of right is a satan.
Hence our Lord’s words to the Apostle Peter, "Get
thee behind me, satan"; from which no reasonable
person would infer that Peter was the being superstition supposes the devil to
be.
When the grand mission of Christ is completed
there will be no satan,
diabolos nor demon, for he must reign till he
hath put all enemies under his feet; the last enemy shall be
destroyed--death.
Sin, the transgression of law, made man a satan--an adversary of right. Lust
conceived and brought forth sin; and sin, when completed, brought forth death.
To bring forth death sin took effect in man’s nature in the form of disease or
mortality; disease multiplied into various forms, and these forms were by the
heathen called demons. When our Redeemer brings the time when there will be no
sickness or pain there will be no "demons." When our "vile body
is changed and fashioned like unto his glorious body", "mortality
will be swallowed up of life and there will be no more lust in our natures;
hence no more diabolos or satan in us. Being free from lust, we shall
not sin and therefore not become diabolos or
satan. Then
Christ will have fulfilled His mission in "destroying him that hath
the power of death, that is the devil".
There being ,no more death, no more demon, no
more diabolos, no more satan, the LAST enemy will have been
destroyed. Yes, DESTROYED; and then "God shall be all IN
ALL". In this, dear reader, you have a prospect that exalts and honors
Jehovah’s name, in that it shows us that, while He has permitted man to sin and
thus blight and curse the earth for a time, His wisdom, power and glory will
put an end to all evil. Such a God-honoring, glorious prospect is shut out from
your view by the heathenism that would perpetuate the existence of a personal,
omniscient, omnipresent, immortal, fire-proof devil, with countless millions of
hopeless and helpless victims.
To obtain the great salvation it is necessary that
we understand and believe the things concerning the
It is the general belief that this earth is to be
burnt up, and that all good men and women will finally be taken to heaven to
enjoy eternity. This theory represents God's work, so far as the earth is
concerned, as a failure; for if there is not a future for it better than the
past--if the evils of the earth's past and present are not to be made to yield
ultimate good--what else is it but a failure?
Numb.
Psa. 72:l7-19 His name shall endure for ever; his name shall
be continued as long as the sun; and men shall be blessed in him; all nations
shall call him blessed. Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only
doeth wondrous things. And blessed be his glorious name for ever; and let the
whole earth be filled with his glory.
Isa. 11:9 They shall not hurt nor
destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the
knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.
Hab.
Matt. 6:9, 10 After
this manner pray ye: * · * Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it
is in heaven.
Luke
You will see that these promises have never been
fulfilled. In these testimonies we have God's Word concerning the future
of the earth. Can His Word fail? Listen to what He says:
Isa. 55:10-13 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from
heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it
bring forth and bud, · so shall my word be that goeth
forth out of my mouth; it shall not return unto me void, but it shall
accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I
sent it. For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace; the
mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the
trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up
the fir tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle tree; and it
shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut
off.
According to these promises the earth is to be
restored to the beautiful state it enjoyed before sin cursed it; and in that
restored beauty and fertility will be an everlasting sign that shall not be cut
off --- a sign of the wisdom, goodness and power of God in removing the curse
and giving blessings without end.
The
Earth to Abide Forever
It is by failing to observe the different ways in
which the earth is spoken of that the mistake is made in believing in the
destruction of the literal earth. That it is not to be destroyed is not only
clearly implied in the above testimonies, but is declared in the following:
Ecc.
1:4 One generation passeth away, and another
generation cometh but the earth abideth for ever
Isa. 104:1-5 Blessed be the LORD. * *
* who laid the foundation of the earth, that it
should not be removed for ever.
Psa. 119:90 Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: thou
hast established the earth, and it abideth.
Now those Scriptures that speak of the earth
passing away also include heaven. If the destruction of the literal earth and
the literal heaven is meant we may well ask:
"When heaven and earth are fled and gone, Oh! where shall I appear?"
The following passages will show you that the
earth sometimes represents the inhabitants of the earth and the heaven the
rulers, a figurative use of these words drawn from the fact that the literal
heaven rules the literal earth.
Heaven
and Earth, Figurative and Symbolic
Deut. 32:1 Give ear O ye heavens, and I will
speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.
Deut. 33:28
Isa. 1:2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the LORD
hath spoken.
Isa. 49:13 Sing, O heavens, and be joyful, O earth
Jer.
Hab.
These testimonies will show that the words heaven
and earth frequently apply to the rulers and ruled upon the earth; and they
enable us to see that the Scriptures that speak of the passing away of the
heavens and the earth are not a contradiction of those which declare that the
heavens and the earth are never to be removed
You may find a difficulty, however, as some have,
in the fact that the Apostle Peter says that the earth and the works therein
shall be burned up (II Pet.
The figurative and symbolic use of terms in
relation to the heavens and earth finds a good explanation in the following
from Dr. Adam Clarke's introduction to Isaiah's prophecy:
"By images borrowed from the world natural,
the prophets frequently understand something analogous in the world politic.
Thus the sun, moon and stars and heavenly bodies denote kings,
queens, rulers, and persons in great power; their increase of splendor
denotes increase of prosperity; their darkening, setting or falling denotes a
reverse of fortune, or the entire ceasing of that power or kingdom to which
they refer. Great earthquakes and the shaking of heaven and earth denote
the commotion and overthrow of kingdoms; and the beginning or end of the
world their rise or ruin.
"The cedars of Lebanon, oaks of
Sir Isaac Newton also says:
"In attempting to understand the prophecies,
we are in the first place to acquaint ourselves with the figurative language of
the prophets. This language is taken from analogy between the world natural and
an empire or kingdom as a world politic. Accordingly the whole world
natural, consisting of heavens and earth, signifies the whole world politic,
consisting of thrones and people, or so much of it as is considered in the
prophecy. Great earthquakes and the shaking of heaven and earth are put for the
shaking of kingdoms, so as to distract or overthrow them; creating a new heaven
and earth and the passing away of the old one, or the beginning and end of the
world for the rise and wane of the body politic signified thereby. The sun and
moon are by the interpreters of dreams put for the persons of kings and queens;
but in sacred prophecy, which regards not single persons, the sun is put for-
the whole series and race of kings in the kingdoms of the world politic,
shining with regal power and glory; the moon considered as the king’s wife; the
stars for subordinate princes and great men.
Now with these explanations we shall escape the
folly of believing that God will destroy the heavens and the earth, which
declare his glory and show forth his handiwork (Psa.
19:1), and shall be able to see in such texts of Scripture as speak of heaven
and earth passing away and the creating of new heavens and earth wherein
dwelleth righteousness (II Pet. 3:4-13; Isa.
65:17-19) the destruction of the kingdoms of men and the establishment in their
place of the kingdom of God, in the former of which there is
unrighteousness---hence the reason they pass away--and in the latter ,of which
"dwelleth righteousness; hence the reason they represent a kingdom that
shall never be destroyed (Dan. 2:44).
Now that we have seen that the earth is to abide
for ever, we can safely proceed, feeling we are on solid ground.
Gen. 1315 For all the
land which thou seest, to thee will I give it and
to thy seed for ever.
Rom.
Psa. 37:9 For evil doers shall be cut
off; but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth.
Verse 11 But the meek shall inherit the earth; and
shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
Verse 22 For such as be
blessed of him shall inherit the earth; and they that be cursed of him
shall be cut off.
Verse 29 The righteous shall inherit the land
and dwell therein for ever.
Verse 34 Wait on the LORD, and keep his way, and
he shall exalt thee to inherit the /and; when the wicked are cut off
thou shalt see it.
Psa. 115:10 The heaven, even the
heavens are the Lord's; but the earth hath he given to the children of men.
Prov.
Dan.
Matt. 5:5 Blessed are the
meek; for they shall inherit the earth.
Rev. 5:9, 10 And they sung a new song, saying,
Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of
every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our
God kings and priests; and we shall reign on the earth.
Now, dear reader, it is impossible for testimony
to be clearer than this. Where is there room now for the theory that finds
expression in the following fanciful words?
"Beyond the bounds of time and space, Look
forward to that heavenly place, the saints secure abode."
How can heaven be the eternal abode of the
righteous, when it is so positively said that the meek shall inherit the earth
and dwell therein for ever? If good men go to heaven at death why did
not David go there? If he did not go there why should we expect to go? He did
not; for the Apostle Peter declares: "For David is not ascended into the
heavens" (Acts
Now the everlasting inheritance in the earth, when
God shall have blessed it and all nations upon it is the one gospel, which
gospel was preached to Abraham: "And the Scripture foreseeing that God
would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto
Abraham, saying, In thee shall all
nations be blessed." Hence we may safely take another step.
In regard to the covenants of promise in the
gospel the Apostle Paul says: Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past
Gentiles in the flesh, * * * that at that time ye were without Christ, BEING
ALIENS FROM THE COMMONWEALTH OF ISRAEL AND STRANGERS FROM THE COVENANTS OF
PROMISE, HAVING NO HOPE, AND WITHOUT GOD IN THE WORLD" (Eph. 2:11, 12).
You will certainly see from this that whatever the
commonwealth of Israel is and the covenants of promise are it is of vital
importance that, instead of being aliens to them, we should become
"fellowcitizens'' (verse 19). Let the Word of God now decide what they
are.
The
Promises to Abraham
Gen. 12:1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get
thee out of thy country and from thy kindred, and from thy father’shouse,
unto a land that I will show thee.
Verse 2 And I will make of thee a great nation,
and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shall be a
blessing.
Verse 5 And Abram took Sarai
his wife and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had
gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in
Verse 7 And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and
said, Unto thy seed will I give this land.
Gen. 13:14 And the LORD said unto Abram, after
that
Verse 15: For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it and to thy seed for ever.
Verse 16 And I will make thy seed as the dust of
the earth; so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy
seed also be numbered.
Verse 17 Arise, walk
through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I
will give it unto thee.
Gen. 15:18 In the same
day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given
this land, from the
Gen. 17:1 And when Abram
was ninety years old and nine; the LORD appeared to Abram and said unto him, I
am the Almighty GOD; walk before me and be thou perfect.
Verse 2 And I will make my covenant between me and
thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.
Verse 4 As for me behold
my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.
Verse 5 Neither shall thy
name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of
many nations have I made thee.
Verse 6 And I will make thee exceeding fruitful,
and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.
Verse 7 And I will establish my covenant between
me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting
covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.
Verse 8 And I will give unto thee and to thy seed
after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the
Gen. 22:15 And the angel
of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time,
Verse 16 And said, By
myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and
hast not withheld thy son, thine only son.
Verse 17 That in blessing
I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of
heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore; and thy seed shall
possess the gate of HIS enemies.
Verse 18 And in thy seed shall
all the nations of the earth be blessed.
The same promises were made to Isaac and to Jacob,
as you will see by the following references: Gen. 26:2 - 4:28:3, 4, 13, 14.
Now you cannot fail to see that these promises
assure to the fathers an inheritance in the earth --not a word in them of a
promise of heaven. There is no use to deny these promises and you cannot
misunderstand them. God made oath that He would fulfill them. Has he fulfilled
them?
Since God has made oath that He will give Abraham
and his seed the
Micah
Rom.
Rom. 15:8 Now I, Paul, say that Jesus Christ was a
minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the
promises made unto the fathers (the fact that Christ confirmed them proves they
were not fulfilled).
Luke
Luke 1:68, 73 Blessed be
the Lord God of
Heb. 11:13 These all died in the faith, not
having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were
persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers
and pilgrims on the earth.
Heb. 11:8, 9 By faith Abraham, when he was called
to go out into a place which he should afterwards receive for an
inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith
he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country, dwelling in
tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.
Acts 7:5 And he (God) gave him (Abraham) none
inheritance in it, no not so much as to set his foot on, yet HE PROMISED
THAT HE WOULD GlVE IT TO him for a possession.
We have shown that the promises made to Abraham
are called the gospel (Gal. 3:8). The gospel cannot be preached unless
Christ is preached. In what sense was Christ preached in these promises to
Abraham? Is it not Christ that is to possess all nations of the earth"? Is
it not to Christ that the "uttermost parts of the earth are to be given (Isa. 2:8)? But let us be sure that Christ is the very
essence, as it were, of the promises made to the fathers; then, since He is the
very essence of the gospel of the great salvation, we shall see that the
covenant with Abraham and the gospel are identical.
Now read carefully Gen. 22:17, and you will see
that we can safely make the following proposition:
This is proved beyond a doubt by the words, Thy seed shall possess the gate of "his
enemies." Who else but Christ can be represented by this singular pronoun
His? No one else, for inspiration says:
Gal.
Gal.
Gal
Gal.
Gal
You will remember that Paul, in declaring that
while we are aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the
covenants of promise we are without hope (Eph. 2:12), speaks of covenants -
plural. Now the covenant with Abraham we have seen provides for an everlasting
inheritance of the earth by Christ and all who shall be worthy to share the
inheritance with Him. The nations are to be given Him for His inheritance and
the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession (Psa.
2:8) in order that He might bless all nations. How may all nations be blessed?
May we not safely say, by the establishment of a kingdom that will insure
righteousness, peace and good will universally. It is
to this end that God has made a covenant with David.
II Sam.
II Sam.
II Sam.
II Sam. 23:3 The God of Israel said, the Rock of
Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men must
be ruling in the fear of God.
II Sam. 23:4 And he shall be as the light of the
morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without
clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after
rain.
II Sam. 23:5 Although my
house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things and sure; and this is ALL MY SALVATION AND ALL MY
DESIRE although he make it not to grow.
Psa. 132:11 The LORD hath sworn in
truth unto David; he will not turn from it; of the fruit of thy body will I set
upon thy throne.
Now these promises were not fulfilled in the days
of David and Solomon. They remain yet to be fulfilled after the resurrection of
David and all the faithful. This you will see by the fact that it was when
David should "sleep with his fathers (II Sam.
Ezek.
Jer. 33:15 In those days, and at that
time will I cause the BRANCH OF RIGHTEOUSNESS to grow up unto David and
he shall execute Judgment and righteousness in the land.
Zech. 6:12, 13 Behold the man whose name is the
Branch; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple
of the LORD; Even he shall build the temple of the LORD; and he shall
sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne, and
the counselor peace shall be between them both.
Isa. 9:7 Of the increase of his
government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and
upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with
justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts
will perform this.
Luke 1:31-33 And, behold thou shall conceive in
thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be
great and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall
give unto him the THRONE OF HIS FATHER DAVID; and he shall reign over
the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
Matt.
Matt. 25:31 When the Son of man shall come in
his glory and all his holy angels with him, then
shall he sit upon the throne of his glory.
Acts
Acts 2:30, 31 Therefore (David) being a prophet,
and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of
his loins according to the flesh he would raise up Christ to sit on his
throne; he seeing this before spake of the
resurrection of Christ.
Now from these testimonies you will see that the
restoration of
Jer. 31:27, 28 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I
will sow the house of
Jer. 33:4 Behold the days come, saith the LORD,
that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto THE
HOUSE OF ISRAEL, AND TO THE HOUSE OF JUDAH. In those days and at that time will
I cause the Branch of Righteousness to grow up unto David, and he shall
execute judgment and righteousness in the land. In those days
Jer. 31:0 Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare
it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel WILL GATHER HIM,
and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.
Isa.
Ezek. 37:21, 22 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I
will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they have gone,
and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land; and
I will make them one nation in the land, upon the mountains of Israel; and they
shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms
any more at all.
Ezek. 36:22 Thus saith
the Lord GOD: I do not this for your sakes, O house of
Ezek. 36:24 For I will take you
from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will
bring you into your own land. See
also verses 31-38.
Micah 4:7 And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast off a strong nation; and the
LORD shall reign over them in Mount Zion, from henceforth even for ever.
Rom.
Now, dear reader, we are well along in our search
for the truth in relation to the things concerning the kingdom of God It will
be well for us to remember now, that in preaching the gospel to the Samaritans
Philip preached Christ (Acts 8:5). So that to preach the gospel is to preach
Christ. The result of preaching Christ was that they believed the things
concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, and were
baptized (verse 12). Now to preach these things was to make known the purpose
of God in relation, not to the moon or any of the planets we are not so
specially concerned about, but to the earth. We may therefore briefly
summarize the matter as follows:
The
Future Abode of Righteous Is Not Heaven, But the Earth
Isa. 115:16 The heavens, even the
heavens are the LORD's; but the earth hath he
given to the children of men.
Prov. 11:31 Behold the righteous shall be recompensed in THE
EARTH; much more the wicked and the sinner.
Matt. 5:5 Blessed are the
meek; for they shall inherit the earth.
Psa. 37:11 But the meek shall
inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
Rom. 4:13 For the promise
that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham or to his
seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
Rev. 5:10 And has made us
unto our God kings and priests; and we shall reign on the earth.
Dan. 7:27 And the kingdom
and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom UNDER THE WHOLE HEAVEN shall
be given to the people of the saints of the Most High
When
These Promises Are Fulfilled the Kingdom of God Will Be Established in the
Earth
II Tim. 4:1 I charge thee therefore before God,
and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at tab appearing
AND his KlNGDOM.
Matt. 6:l0 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done
in earth, as it is in heaven.
Rev. 11:15 The
kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ;
and he shall reign for ever and ever.
The
Kingdom of God Will Consist, First, of the Whole Earth as It's
Territory
Num. 14:21 But as truly as I live all the earth
shall be filed with the glory of the LORD.
Psa. 72:19 And let the whole earth be
filled with his glory.
Psa. 2:8 Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine
inheritance, and the uttermost parts of THE EARTH for thy possession.
Second,
the Jews Restored to the Holy Land as the Subjects
Micah 4:8 And thou, O
tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall
it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter
of Jerusalem.
Ezek. 37:21, 22 Behold I will take the children of
Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on
avert side, and bring them INTO THEIR OWN LAND; and I will make them one
nation in the LAND, UPON THE MOUNTAINS OF ISRAEL; and one king shall he
king to them all, and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be
divided into two kingdoms any more at all.
Third,
all Nations as the Subjects of the Dominion
Isa. 2:4, 5 ..And he shall judge among
the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords
into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks;
nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war
any more.
Psa. 72:8, 17 He shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from
the river unto the ends of the earth * * * all nations shall call him blessed.
Fourth,
Jerusalem as the Seat of Government
Matt. 5:34, 35 Swear not
by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King.
Zech. 2:12 And the LORD shall inherit Judah, his
portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again.
Micah 4:2 For the law
shall go of Zion, and the word of the FROM JERUSALEM.
Isa. 62:1 For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for
Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth
as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.
Isa. 62:4 Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken;
neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate:
but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the LORD
delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married.
Fifth,
Christ as the King
Zech. 14:9 And the LORD shall be king over all
the earth; in that day there shall be one LORD and his name one.
Rev. 11:15 The kingdoms
of this world are become the kingdoms of our LORD and of his Christ, and
he shall reign for ever and ever.
Dan. 7:13, 14 I saw in the night visions, and,
behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the
Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given
him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, THAT
ALL PEOPLES, NATIONS, AND LANGUAGES, SHOULD SERVE HIM: his dominion is an
everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which
shall not be destroyed.
Sixth,
the Redeemed Saints as the Associates of the King
Dan. 7:18, 22, 27 But the saints of the
Most High shall take the kingdom and possess the kingdom for ever, even
for ever and ever. And the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom. And
the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole
heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most
High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdoms and all dominions shall serve
and obey him.
Rev. 5:9, 10 And they sung a new song, saying,
Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of
every kindreds and tongue, and people, and nation;
and hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the
earth.
The
Kingdom of God Will Destroy All the Kingdoms of Men from the Face of the Earth
Dan. 2:44 And in the days of these kings shall
the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed; and the
kingdom shall not be Left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and
consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.
Psa. 2:8, 9 Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen
(nations) for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy
possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in
pieces like a potter's vessel.
Isa. 149:2 Let Israel rejoice in him
that made him; let the children of Zion be joyful In their king.
Isa. 149:8 Let the saints be Joyful
in glory; let them sing aloud upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be
in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hand, to execute vengeance upon
the heathen (nations) and punishments upon the people; to bind their kings with
chains and their nobles with fetters of iron.
The
Curse Will Be Removed from the Earth and It Will Yield Its Bountiful Increase
Isa. 55:12, 13 For ye shall go out
with joy, and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break
forth before yon into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their
hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the
briar shall come up the myrtle tree; and it shall be to the LORD for a name,
for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
Blessedness,
Peace and Prosperity Will Be the Grand Result
Gen. 12:3; Gal. 3:8 And
in thee (Abraham) shall all families of the earth be blessed.
Psa. 72:17 HIS name shall endure for ever; * * * and men shall
be blessed in him.
Zech. 9:10 And he shall
speak peace unto the heathen; and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea,
and from the river even to the ends of the earth.
Luke 2:14 Glory to God in the highest, and on
earth peace, good will toward men.
Psa. 85:10 Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness
and peace have kissed each other;
Psa. 85:12 yea the LORD shall give that which is good, and our
land shall yield her increase.
It will be seen from the numerous testimonies on
the various subjects treated that the return of Christ to the earth is a
necessity in the fulfillment of the promises that compose the gospel. Hence we
submit irresistible evidence of this truth.
Matt. 25:31 When the Son of man shall come in his
glory, and all his holy angels with him, then shall he
sit upon the throne of his glory.
Luke 19:l2-15 He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for
himself a kingdom and to return. And he called his ten servants, and delivered
them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come. And it came to
pass that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called
unto him.
John 13:33 Little children,
yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me; and as I said unto the
Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come.
John 14:3 And if I go and
prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you (here,
not there) unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also.
Acts 1:9 And when he had
spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received
him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly
toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, which
also said, Ye men of
I Cor. 1:7, 8 So that ye
come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
shall confirm you (at his coming; not at their going) unto the end, that ye may
be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I Cor.
Phil.
Col. 3:4 When Christ who is our life shall
appear, then shall ye also appear with him in
glory.
I Thes. 1:9, 10 Ye turned to God from
idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for his Son from heaven.
II Thes. 2:1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him.
II Thes. 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall
consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his
coming.
II Tim. 4:1 I charge thee therefore before God,
and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his
appearing and his kingdom, preach the word.
II Tim. 4:7, 8 I have fought a good fight, I have
finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for
me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me
at that (not this) day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that
love his appearing.
Tit. 2:12, 13 Teaching us that, denying
ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly
in this present world, looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious
appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus
Christ.
Heb. 9:28 Christ was once offered to bear the sins
of many; and unto whom that look for him shall he appear THE SECOND TIME
without sin unto salvation.
I Pet. 1:7 That the trial of your faith, being
much more precious than of gold that perisheth,
though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at
the appearing of Jesus Christ.
I John 3:2 Behold now are we the sons of God, and
it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when he shall
appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
Rev. 1:7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and
every eye shall see him, and every eye shall see him, and they also which
pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail
because of him
Rev. 16:15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is
he that watcheth.
Rev. 22:7 Behold, I come quickly; blessed is he
that keepeth the sayings of this book.
Rev. 22:12 And behold, I
come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as
his work shall be.
Rev. 22:20 He that testifieth
these things saith, Surely, I come quickly. Amen. Even so, Come, Lord
Jesus.
Not only do these testimonies prove clearly that
Christ is personally to return to the earth, but they show that there is no
reward for the righteous till He does come. What a blessing it will he, dear
reader, to be among those to whom the invitation will then be extended, "
to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed
from heaven, with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them
that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ"
(II Thes. 1:7, 8). Remember that it is to them that
look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation"
(Heb. 9:28).
What
Must I Do to Be Saved?
NOW, dear reader, it will be evident to you from
the Scriptures we have presented that man is mortal--a perishing creature, as
the result of sin. That, by one man sin entered into the world, and death by
sin; and so death passed upon all men (Rom.
Our need of the great salvation is now apparent,
and the question arises, To whom shall we go to obtain
it?
In the Bible we read of the first Adam and the
second Adam. In the first there is death; in the second there is eternal life.
Our birth of the flesh gives us relation to the first only; but God in His
goodness has opened up a way by which we may change our relationship from Adam
the first to Adam the second, and thereby become now heirs of eternal life, and
in the future possessors of that boon with all it’s glorious consequences.
John
Acts
Matt.
Rom. 5:6 For when we were
without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
Rom. 5:8 God commendeth
his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Rom.
Eph. l:7 In whom we have
redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches
of his grace.
Eph.
Col. 1:14 1n whom we have
redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.
Tit. 2:14 Who gave himself for us, that he might
redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous
of good works.
From these testimonies it will be seen that out of
Christ there is no reconciliation with God and consequently no salvation. The
question therefore is, How may we pass out of Adam
into Christ? This will lead us to the subject of baptism.
Mark 1O:15, 10 And he
(Jesus) said unto them, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every
creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that
believeth not shall be damned.
Acts
Acts
John 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot
enter the
All
Believers of the Gospel Were Baptized
Acts
Acts 18:8 And many of the
Corinthians hearing, believed and were baptized.
Acts
Acts
Acts
Acts
Acts 19:5 When they (twelve men at
Baptism
Is for the Remission of Sins
Acts
Acts
I Pet.
II Pet. 1:9 Purged from his old sins.
Eph.
Baptism Into Christ Requires Water
Acts
Acts 10. 47 Can any man forbid water that these should not be
baptized?
John
Baptism
in Water Is to Be Buried or Immersed Therein
John 3:5 Born of (Greek, out of)
water.
In other cases where the word baptism is used, it
is with the idea of complete covering over with the thing or element it is
related to.
Proof:
Acts 1:5; 2:2 Baptized with the Holy Spirit * * *
it filled all the house where they were sitting.
I Cor. 10:2
Luke
What
Good Will Water Do Me?
None in the sense of your
inquiry. It is a question of conforming
to the ordinances and appointments of God. He has appointed and commanded
baptism. It is part of His will, and we know what Jesus has said: He that doeth
the will of my Father, the same is my brother and sister and mother."
Much has been written on the meanings of the word baptize,
while really there is no room for dispute. If religious people were not
wedded to hoary tradition and unscriptural practices, the texts that speak of
baptism as a burial and a birth would be sufficient to decide the meaning the
inspired writers attached to the word. If it were seen that, in stead of going
to heaven or hell at death we go to the grave, and that resurrection is
necessary to a future life, and that baptism is a symbol of death, burial and
resurrection, the idea of sprinkling would be seen in it’s real absurdity and
immersion in it’s true and beautiful significance. Since, however, there has
been so much play upon the word we will produce the evidence of scholars.
The Word
Baptize Means to Immerse
Emphatic
Diaglott---"Baptize, bapto, baptizo. Bopto occurs 3 times
(Luke
Dr. Adam Clarke (Commentary) on Col. 2:12
"Buried with him by baptism, alluding to the immersion practiced in
the case of adults, wherein the person appeared to be buried under the water as
Christ was buried in the heart of the earth. His rising again the third day, and their emerging from the water was an emblem of the
resurrection of the body, and in them of a total change of life."
Now, dear reader, you will see that it is not
possible for us to enter the only name given whereby we can be saved in any way
except by baptism. Baptism only will introduce a believer into the one name of
the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Christ, having over come sin and gained the
victory over death and the grave, became the manifestation of the Father by the
Spirit, and therefore the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He is therefore the
name of the Lord which is a strong tower, into which the righteous may enter
and be saved (Prov.
You will remember that we found that the Apostle
Paul called the promises made to Abraham the gospel. The promises all
centered in Christ; They were confined to Abraham’s
seed, which Paul says is Christ and all who form part of His body. We are
not the seed by nature. How may we become such? Note the answer: "For ye
are all the children of God y faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as
have been baptized into Christ have put on, Christ." * * * And if ye
be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the
promise (Gal.
Luke
John
John
John 15:13-19 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are
my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not
servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord
doeth; but I have called you friends; for all things that I haw heard of the
Father 1 have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen
you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit; and that
your fruit should remain; that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my
name, he may give it you. These things I command you, that ye love one another.
* * *· Ye are not of this world, but I have chosen you out of this world,
therefore the world hateth you.
Rom. 2:7 To them who by
patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory, honor and immortality
(God will render) eternal life.
I Cor. 11:23-27
For I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you, That the
Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread; and when he had
given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take eat; this is my body, which is broken
for you; this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the
cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new
testament in my blood; this do ye as often as ye drink it in remembrance of me.
For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s
death till he come. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this
bread, and drink this cup unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of
the Lord.
Heb. 10:23-25 Let us hold fast the profession of
our faith without wavering (for he is faithful that promised); and let us
consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works; not forsaking
the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is; but exhorting
one another; and so much the more as ye see the day approaching.
II Pet. 1:3-11 …. (God) hath called us to glory
and virtue; whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises:
that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the
corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all
diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and
to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly
kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that
ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind,
and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old
sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and
election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: For so an
entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
We have now before us the way of the great
salvation. You will conclude that if this is the only salvation and the only
way of salvation set forth in the Bible, then Christendom has gone far astray;
and you will possibly stagger before the question, How can so many be wrong?
Remember that the same question might have been asked by Noah and by the
faithful in the days of Jesus. But the many were wrong and only few were right.
Truth is truth regardless of whether few or many believe it. It is your
privilege to believe and obey the Truth and then to walk worthy of it’s glorious end. You have been shown "what is
good", and now what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to
love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?".
Should you, dear reader, feel that the flesh is
weak, do not despair if the mind is willing; for the God of Israel loves mercy.
In His great mercy He has provided for us a high priest who has been touched with
the feeling of our infirmities, and was in all points tempted like as we are,
yet without sin (Heb. 4:15). In that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he
is able to succour them that are tempted (Heb.
And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness".
Thus we find that God is the God of truth, righteousness, love and mercy. Let
us therefore respond to His gracious appeal, "Ho, everyone that
thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and
eat; yea buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye
spend money for that which is not bread? and your
labor for that which satisfieth not? hearken
diligently unto me. * * * Incline your ear and come unto me; hear and your soul
shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you;,
even the sure mercies of David (Isa. 55:1-3).
Objections
Answered
Now, dear reader, it is very probable that you,
like the writer, have been trained up from infancy in the popular belief; and,
after reading what we have written and the many Scripture proofs given, you
will probably say to yourself, "Well, this appears clear enough and it seems
to be well sustained by testimony from the Scriptures, but there are some
passages that occur to me that seem to teach the opposite view. What is to be
done with these?" Now come let us reason together a little further.
You cannot help but see from the numerous texts we
have given that the general tenor of-the Scriptures is
set forth in what we have placed before you. This being the case, if there are
a few texts that seem to you to contradict the evident teaching of the many
texts given, what would be a wise course for you to pursue? Of course you are
not prepared to believe that the Bible contradicts itself. If it has the
appearance of doing so, you may depend upon It the
reason is to be found in taking a wrong view of the few passages that seem to
oppose the many. In solving the difficulty it would be very unwise to ignore
the general tenor of Scripture teaching and risk your eternal destiny upon a
superficial view of a few texts. I have heard some foolishly say, "Well: I
cannot decide this question; but the old belief was good enough for my
forefathers, and what was good enough for them is good enough for me." The
folly of this you will easily see; for if we go back farther in the line of our
"forefathers" we shall not go very far till we find them all in a
wild, barbarous state; and surely no sane person will seriously say, What was
good enough for them is good enough for me." Beside, the prophet,
in speaking, of the latter days, says that "in the days of affliction the
Gentiles shall come from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and
things wherein there is no profit" --Jer.
Now just pause and think and ask yourself the
question, How many passages are there that seem to
oppose the multitude of testimonies quoted in this little book? to which, remember, many more might be added. You will find
that they can all be counted on your fingers. Here they are: Elijah restoring
the soul of the child, "Her soul was in departing", the "spirit
shall return to God who gave it", "cannot kill the soul",
"souls under the altar", the rich man and Lazarus, the thief on the
cross, Paul's desire to depart, Stephen's prayer.
Now when you come to read these just as they are
you will be surprised to find how far they are from teaching the popular
notions of "immortal soul" and "heaven going at death". But
even if they were as strongly in favor of these notions as some think them to
be it would not do to risk our eternal destiny upon these nine cases in an
utter disregard of the general tenor of the Bible.
Let us therefore examine the few texts that are
supposed to teach opposite vlbws from those we have
set forth.
Elijah
Restores the Soul of the Child
I Kings 17:21-And he stretched himself upon the
child three times, and cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, I pray
thee, let this child’s soul come into him again.
You will see from what we have said on pages 10
and 15 that the Word nephesh, which is
in this text rendered soul, is frequently used for life. The word is translated
life in the following places: Gen. 9:4; Lev. 17:11; Deut. 19:93, where you will
see it cannot have any other meaning. The Greek word psuche,
which means the same as nephesh in
the Hebrew, occurs in Matt. 9:20, where it is said, "They are dead which
sought the young child's life to destroy lt." The word life Is from psuche also
in Matt. 6:25—"Take no thought for your life." In these cases,
as in all others, the context shows how absurd it is to attach the meaning of
"immortal soul" to the words. Just imagine the Saviour
saying, "Take no thought for your immortal soul", and you will at
once see that believers in the popular notions have not thought out the
subject. Soul in these texts clearly means life.
Now let us return to Elijah and the child with
this Scripture information on the use of the word soul, and by comparing
Scripture with Scripture a proper conclusion -- the only possible conclusion
the premises admit of -- will be easily reached. What was the trouble with this
child? It was dead. What had caused it to be-come dead? The loss of it’s life. How might it be made alive again? By
restoring it’s life to it. Was this what Elijah did? Yes; for he prayed that
the child’s soul (life) might "come into him again", and
"the soul of the child came unto him again, and he" -- the child –
"revived". Now remember that it was not the child that had departed;
neither was it the child that returned. The child was there all the time, but it’s life had gone out, and in answer to the prophet's
prayer the child’s life was restored. So here we have a child that was once
alive, then dead, then alive again.
Now another thought. Did the prophet do a good
thing or a bad thing in restoring, life to this child? Popular tradition
strangely claims that when a child dies it does not die, but leaves it’s body and is sure to go directly to a place of bliss.
According to this it is a fortunate thing for a child to die and a very
unfortunate thing to compel it to come back to life again. If this child had,
by death, escaped the mortal coil at a time when It was sure of eternal bliss,
how can we regard the prophet as doing a good thing in calling back the child
from it’s blissful home and compelling it to re-inhabit it’s "mortal
coil", in which it might, grow up to years of accountability and thus
place in jeopardy the possibility of ever getting back to those realms of joy
it had only had a taste of? You must see, dear reader, there is no soundness in
this theory. The case simply stands thus, as expressed in the Septuagint
rendering of the verse: "And when he had breathed on the child three times
* * * he said, Let this child's life be restored to him."
"Her
Soul Was in Departing"
Gen. 35:18 is sometimes quoted for the same purpose
as the text we have just considered; but what we have said applies also to this
text. You have only to remember that it is said, "for
she died".
Some, however, will ask the question, Where does
the life when it departs? as if it must be a conscious
entity after it has gone. To see that because it speaks of the life departing
it does not follow that it is an entity, you have only to ask, Where did our life come from when it entered our being? Was
it an entity before it entered? If not, then why should it be an entity after
it has gone out into life's great ocean whence it came? Life is a condition of
being; when that condition is destroyed we say the life is gone. The light of a
candle is a condition. Blow out the light and you destroy the condition; and when
you say the light is gone out you do not suppose that it exists as a light
separate and independent of the candle. So in the use of such terms as "my
sight is gone", "my hearing is gone".
Illustration
of How Soul Is Used
It may be well for me to illustrate here how the
meaning of the word soul in the Bible can be determined by the context. We find
it says: "And levy a tribute unto the Lord of the men of war which went
out to battle, one soul of five hundred, of the persons and of the
beeves, and of the asses, and of the sheep" (Num. 31:28). Here the reader
is bound to see that the word means creature or being, both man and beast. In Job.
In Matt
The context in this case enables us to easily see
this: for the fact that in verse 25 the same word as is rendered soul in
verse 26 is rendered life. The way those who contend for the popular
theory would like to read the 26th verse is this: For what shall a
man profit if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own immortal soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his immortal soul?
To suit this contention they have to add the word "immortal". Now
since the Saviour used the very same word in verse 26
that He did in verse 26, and since the theorist is determined to have
"immortal soul" in verse 26 we have only to read it the same way in
both verses to see the fallacy of the popular view. This is how it would read:
"For whosoever shall save his immortal soul shall lose it; and whosoever
shall lose his immortal soul for my sake shall find it."
This at once condemns the popular meaning of soul
and shows that the Saviour uses it here for life.
It happens that the famous commentator, Dr. Adam
Clarke, bears testimony to the truth upon this portion of Scripture. He says: "On
what authority many have translated the word psuche
in the 25th verse life, and in this verse (26th) soul I know
not; but I am certain it means life in both cases."
In the Revised Version, too, life is used
in both verses.
"Cannot
Kill the Soul"
Of all the texts in which the word soul occurs,
Matt. 10:28 is the one most confidently relied upon in support of the
immortality of the soul. It is thought that this text fully refutes the idea of
the soul being destructible and sustains the theory of it’s
never dying and indestructible nature. The phrase "cannot kill the
soul" is seized and loaded down, as it were, with the claim that it is not
only out of the power of man to kill the soul, but that it is, by reason of
it’s nature, absolutely indestructible and must live for ever. Now, dear
reader, you have only to take heed to one word in this verse to see that since
the soul here is not the supposed immortal, indestructible soul of popular
belief. That word is destroy. "Fear
him that is able to destroy both body and soul in hell" (Gehenna). Please notice that the one word destroy is used to describe what God will do
with the body in Gehenna and what He will do
with the soul in the same place. Gehenna
was known by the Jews to be a place of destruction--destruction of life and
destruction of carcasses or bodies after, they had
been deprived of life. When the great day of God’s judgments and wrath comes Gehenna will again be a valley of slaughter, where
God will destroy His enemies and those who are unworthy. The life that will be
given to those who are raised from the dead to appear before Christ as the
Judge of the quick and the dead will not be in the power of men to take. The
life of the condemned will be in the hands of the judicial power of God who
will administer "few or many stripes" according to deserts, and at
the last destroy totally and eternally every vestige of the life of the
unworthy and every particle of the body in Gehenna,
when the words of the Psalmist will be fulfilled, "The wicked shall not
be; yea thou shalt diligently consider his place and it shall not be" - Psa. 37:10.
Different views are taken of the sense in which
soul is used in this verse; but even if the real sense in which our Saviour used it is never known, we can be sure that a soul
that is as destructible as the body, as this is, is not the "immortal
soul" of the Platonic theory.
We think a careful observance of the context in
this case, with an understanding of the meaning of the two words in the verse
in question---"kill" and "destroy"--will disclose the true
meaning of our Saviour's encouragement to His
disciples. He had been foretelling them of the persecutions His true followers
would suffer at the hands of enemies. They would be as "sheep" in the
midst of wolves; they would be delivered up to the councils and be
scourged." "The brother," he says, "shall deliver up the
brother to death, and the father the child; and the children shall rise up
against their parents and cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated
of all men for my name’s sake; but he that endureth
to the end shall be saved" (verses 18-22). Read also verses 23-27. From
this it will be seen that our Lord was preparing His disciples for the ordeal
they were to pass through, so that in the persecution and to torment they
would, endure they might keep their minds stedfastly
fixed upon God and the hope set before them. In other words, that though they
would be subjected to great bodily pain and suffering they must maintain that
composure of mind that can be sustained only by a strong and unswerving faith.
Now with these thoughts let us examine the two
words "kill" and "destroy". The word "kill" is
from the Greek word apokteino, which Donnegan's Lexicon defines to kill, torture, torment,
render miserable or wretched, to destroy, condemn to death. The word
"destroy" in the verse is from apollumi,
and this word is defined by the same author to mean to destroy totally, to be
lost, to perish; and by some authors the word
annihilated Is added as a meaning. The word destroy is therefore from a word
which is much stronger than that from which the word kill comes.
Again let me remind you that the word psuche, rendered soul in this verse, is
sometimes rendered mind. For example: Acts 14:2; Phil. 1:27; Heb. 12:3.
And now, with these facts in mind, we hear the Saviour
saying: Fear not them which torture, torment, render miserable the body (as the
persecutors did by thumbscrews, etc.), but are not able to torture, torment,
render miserable, the psuche, mind. For
the mind would be fixed upon the hope of the gospel even when the body was
being tortured by the many wicked devices the tormentors of the Christians
invented. The case of Polycarp is an illustration of
this, when he assured his persecutors they need not tie him to the
stake, for he could stand there to be burned and yet maintain that composure of
mind that a faith such as his only could exemplify. It was a mind such
as this, burning with confidence, hope and joy in the promises of God, whose
fiery zeal could not be quenched by all the bodily torture they might inflict.
Therefore fear not them who will torture the body but cannot torture or harass
the mind. Fear not men in the sufferings you will be called upon to receive at
their hands. Be faithful, be calm and steadfast. Then He tells them whom they
should fear. "Fear him who is able to destroy"---here is the stronger
word, meaning to destroy totally, to be lost, to perish, to be annihilated. Fear
Him who is able to thus destroy both body and mind--the entire being --in
Gehenna.
This view of the matter brings out in full the
encouragement and the warning of our Saviour's words
to those whom He knew stood in need of much fortitude to withstand the terrible
sufferings they were to pass through.
The
Souls Under the Altar
Rev. 6:9, l0 are the only texts that remain to be
examined as a stronghold of the popular theory of the immortality of the
soul--that is, of those texts in which the word soul is found; others we shall
examine under their proper headings. Superficial, indeed, must be the mind that
cannot see that, instead of this portion of Scripture favoring the immortality
and immateriality of the soul, it is directly opposed to such a theory. One
would think that the fact of these souls being under an altar,
and of them having blood would be sufficient to show that they are not immortal
or immaterial. Suppose the words are taken in the most literal sense, we
should, standing beside the Apostle John, see a heathen priest place a person
on an altar, slay the person or soul, who In the struggles with death falls
from the altar and under it cries out, "How long, O Lord, holy and true,
dost thou not judge and avenge, our blood (which we see running from the
wounded soul) on them that dwell on the earth?" What? Slay a soull cries out the astonished immaterialist. How can you
slay that which is immaterial? If it has no size, weight or dimension; if it
cannot be seen or felt, how can it be put on an altar and slain and how can it
be said to have blood? We grant the force of the questions; but they are all based
upon "if the soul is immortal or immaterial;" and if that were true
the texts would be inexplicable. But that is just where the evil is--in reading
the verse with the preconceived dogma in the mind, and therefore allowing a
distorted imagination to take the place of reason and Scripture. The apostle
was not speaking of immortal bloodless souls. Such souls were only found in the
myths of those who slew upon the altar souls that were real and substantial.
Why be astonished at the idea of souls being slain, when it is said that
"Joshua took Makkedah, and smote it with the
edge of the sword, and the king thereof he utterly destroyed, them and all
the souls that were therein" (Josh.
Now as to the real meaning of the verses in
question, we have to take our stand along with the Apostle John before we can
discern it. We must remember that that the John is seeing are "signified'
to him--that is, they are shown by signs. In this way he is shown things
before they actually come to pass. "I will show thee things which
must be hereafter", says the Spirit to John (chapter 4:1). In this way he
saw the resurrection of the dead, and heard the redeemed sing the song of Moses
and the Lamb after they had been raised; and he saw them live and reign on the
earth with Christ for one thousand years (chapters 5:7-12; 20:4). So in the
verses in question he is relating the signs of what was to take place under the
fifth seal, when the Roman persecution and martyrdom of the saints filled to
overflowing the pit, as it were, under the altar with the blood of the
innocents and faithful. John himself knew from experience that the cruel hand
of persecution and death would be imbrued in the blood of his brethren, and his
anxiety was to know the outcome. He first sees the scroll sealed with seven
seals; and when he hears that no man is worthy to open the book, he says:
"I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the
book" (chapter 5:1-4). Now the actual breaking of the seals and unrolling
of the scroll are to be seen in the actual events that have transpired and will
yet transpire in the world from John's time down to the fulfillment of the
promise, "Behold; I come quickly and my reward is with me, to give every
man according as his work shall be" (chapter 22:12). John, hoping to be
one of those to be rewarded, and knowing that the reward could not be received
till the coming of the Lord, it is no wonder he was so anxious to know the
course of events during the interval. His anxiety is soon ended by the
information that the "Lion of the tribe of
The only shadow at which the believer in the
immortality of the soul can snatch in this case is,
that the souls are represented as crying out. "Can dead souls speak?", they triumphantly ask. To which it would be
excusable to retort, "Can blood speak" (Gen. 4:10; Heb.
There are some however, who are possessed of
common sense in common things, but who seem to be destitute of it when their
cherished myths are in question. So long as men allow themselves to be
intoxicated with the spirits of pagan and Roman beverages they can see nothing
in this Scripture except disembodied souls in a conscious state -- alive and
conscious because they are represented as speaking. But when the attention is
called to the fact that John saw the "dead, small and great, stand before
God" at the judgment day; and that he heard them sing the song of Moses
and the Lamb (Rev. 20:12; 5:9), they are able to see that men can be
represented as having real bodily existence and as singing while they are
dead--some of them, too, before they are born; for in the view that John had of
the resurrection there must have been a representation of all that would die up
to the time when the resurrection takes place.
Those who so stubbornly resist Truth and so
tenaciously cling to hoary superstition may be asked, Where
Is this altar under which these souls are seen? If you say heaven, then we ask,
Is there an altar in heaven upon which souls are slain
and under which they cry for vengeance? Perhaps, if reason and Scripture will
not persuade you of the folly of such a foolish thing, the prestige of a famous
"orthodox" commentator might have some weight. Dr. Adam Clarke, in
commenting upon this text, says: "A symbolical vision was exhibited in
which he saw an altar, and under it the souls of those who had been slain for
the Word of God, martyred, for their attachment to Christianity, are
represented as being newly slain as victims to idolatry and superstition. The
altar is upon earth, not in heaven."
The
Spirit Shall Return to God Who Gave It
The words of Ecc. 12:7 are relied upon to sustain the belief in the flight
of the spirit to heaven at death, where it is supposed to enter upon it’s
eternal inheritance; although it seems always to be forgotten that "we
must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that everyone may receive
the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether good or
bad" (II Cor. 5:10). What such a judgment could
be for if men go to their rewards and punishments at death is inconceivable to
a rational mind.
Now the first thing we would call the reader’s
attention to in the verse in question is the fact that Solomon makes no
difference between good and bad men, but speaks without qualification of the
spirit returning at death to God who gave it. Whatever the spirit here spoken
of is, all will agree that all men good and bad, are in possession of it, and
that at death the same spirit forsakes, the good and the bad alike; and since
it is said it returns to God who gave it, it follows that it came from
God.
The fact that the spirit here spoken of is given
to all men alike and that at death it returns to God whence it came, clearly
shows that it is not the man himself, good or bad; for no believer in the
popular theory will admit that the supposed spirit entity of bad men goes to
God at death. For this text to be made to suit the theory of disembodied
conscious existence and heaven-going at death it must be changed considerably.
Solomon must be reminded that he made quite a mistake in not guarding his words
so as to say that at death the spirit of the good man only goes to God, while
that of the bad man goes in an opposite direction --not to God, but to the
devil.
You, dear reader, will not be willing to allow
that Solomon made a mistake. You will rather be disposed to conclude that the
popular theory is so much out of harmony with inspiration that Scripture words,
must undergo much changing in order to make them appear to suit the dogmas of
theological schools.
Please take notice, that the spirit here spoken of
returns to God who gave it. God gave it. It is an "it" that
God gave to something or some being. It Is that which
was given to the being, and it is not the being to whom it was therefore not
the man but something that was given to the man, which at death leaves the man
to whom it was given and returns to Him who gave it. Now let me ask you, dear
reader, to read again what we have said and the texts we have given on the
question of the spirit on pages 15, 16, 17. You will then see that the word
spirit is frequently used for life--both with reference to man and beasts. The
word spirit in the verse in question is from the Hebrew word ruach. Solomon used this same word in this
same book in chapter 3:19; but our translators gave us "breath" there
and "spirit" here. There it is said of man and beasts, "Yea,
they have all one breath" (ruach). Now
what did God give to man when He made him alive? The answer is given in Gen.
2:7: He "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life." What
takes place when a man dies? "His breath goeth
forth; he returneth to his earth; and in that very
day his thoughts perish"-- Psa. 146:4. When we
breathe we inhale the air that surrounds us, which God has, in his mysterious
ways, impregnated with the principle of life. When by disease or accident, we
are prevented from breathing, our breath goes out, life goes out and we are
left as lifeless as Adam was before God breathed the breath of life into his
nostrils. God is the only source of life--the life of all living creatures.
Life came from Him. When death takes place it returns to Him. The life that God
gave to Adam was not an immortal entity. Surely it was not a conscious entity
that God breathed into
Moreover, the spirit or life of all men and all
animals comes from God; but man came out of the dust. "The LORD God formed
man of the dust of the ground" Gen. 2:7). "The first man is
(out) of the earth, earthy" (I Cor.
This is what our text says of death: "The
dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit (life) returns to
God who gave it." And what is true in this respect of man is true of the
beasts; for Solomon says of both: "As the one dieth
so dieth the other; * * * all are of the dust and all
turn to dust again" (chapter
Stephen's
Dying Prayer
What we have said in the foregoing will fully
prepare the reader's mind to understand the words of Stephen as regarded in
Acts 7:59. Under this heading therefore little need be said.
Suppose we read this verse as theorists would have
it, it would be: "Lord Jesus, receive my immortal entity." This would
not suit the theory, for it would not prove that Stephen continued to live
after he was dead, since the next verse says: "He (Stephen) fell asleep.
Reading the verse just as it is, with the mind freed from false tradition, it
is very easy to understand. When Stephen's spirit had left him he was a dead
man; but he is in the resurrection to be made a living man again. To make him a
living man his spirit will be returned to him. Left without the spirit he is a
dead man; because the body without the spirit (breath, see margin) is dead'
(Jas.
Now, to state the same facts in other words, when
Stephen's life returned to God who gave it he died. When the time
arrives to raise him from the dead to live again his life will be
returned to him. Stephen, therefore, in the hour of death, with the hope
of living again, commended his life into the hands of Him who is the
resurrection and the life, and who said, "He that believeth in me,
though he were dead, yet shall he live.
From God the spirits of all flesh come (Num.
"Into
Thy Hands I Commend My Spirit"
The same is true also of our Saviour's
dying words, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" (Luke
With the understanding that the word spirit in the
Bible represents, influence, disposition, mind, state of feeling, air, breath
and life, it’s meaning in any particular text can readily be seen by keeping in
view the context; and in those we have been considering it is clear that life
is meant.
Paul's
Desire to Depart
Phil. 1:21-23-"For me to live is Christ, and
to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor; yet
what I shall choose I wot not. For
I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ,
which is far better."
With the sense in which the word
"depart" is used by those who view death as a release of the person
from the body, this verse, as it appears in the Authorized Version, seems to
support the theory of heaven-going at death. Since there is so much dependence
put upon the word "depart", let us, dear reader, consider it’s use in
connection with other words related to it. I need not tell you that no language
has a separate word for each thought. Thoughts are so numerous and of such
various shades and degrees that it is impossible to have a separate word for
each thought, shade or degree of thought. One illustration will suffice to
impress this fact upon our minds. Take the word raise. You sometimes
say, Raise that chair, raise that stove, raise the
carpet. The act represented by the word raise in these cases would be capable
of instant literal performance and would not be misunderstood. Now suppose you
were to say to a person, You shall go on my farm and raise
a crop this year, would not the word convey quite a different thought? So with the phrases, "raise a garden", "raise a
family", "raise stock", etc.
In the first use of the word you have the chair
right before your eyes before it is raised the same as it is after it is
raised; but not so with a crop, a family, etc. In these cases the raising
involves bringing them into existence.
Now suppose you say, That
comfortable chair I used to have is gone--some one stole it. In this
case the word "gone" represents the fact that the chair has been
taken from one place to another and it may still exist as a chair. But suppose
when your crop is ripe a cyclone or a fire destroys it,
and you say, O dear, my fine crop is all gone! would
not the thought here be quite different? If you were asked of the chair, Gone where? you might be able to
say gone to such a place; but if asked the same question in relation to the
crop you could only answer, Gone to destruction, or ceased to be.
Now we speak of ourselves as having come into
this world! but we do not thereby mean that we
existed in some other world and literally and bodily came into this. If we were
asked the question, Where were you before you came
into this world, we could only answer, Nowhere. The meaning of the phrase
"came into this world" is that we were begotten, formed and born--a
process that took place in this world; but we as conscious beings are
the result, and of this we say, We came into this
world. Now suppose we reverse this and contemplate death, in which we lose our
life, dissolve or waste away and thus cease to be, is
there not a return to non-being? and in such a case, since we say we came into
this life, may we not say that in death or dissolution we go out of this world
or out of life and still not mean that we exist after we have gone, any
more than we mean that we existed before we came.
Now instead of the word gone we may use the
word departed; to go out of life might be expressed by the words depart out of
life. This thought is expressed in the words of Job, when he says, "Naked
came I out of my mothers womb, and naked shall I return thither."
The original "womb" of the race of Adam is the dust, and this is the
womb to which we return in death, which fact is expressed in the words,
"Out of it (the dust) wast thou taken and unto
dust shalt thou return." Before we came out of the dust we had no personal
existence in the dust, and when we have returned to the dust we shall have no
personal existence; the one is our coming, the other is our going. Thus
we come and thus we depart. Literally speaking
the coming, of Adam. into the world was
his formation and animation, causing him to become a being; and his going out
was the dissolution of his being. He thus came and departed, and many of his
descendants came and have departed for ever. ''They are dead, they shall not
live; they are deceased and they shall not rise, therefore hast thou visited
and destroyed them and made all their memory to perish" --Isa. 26:14. On the other hand, some of Adam's descendants
who have departed will return; for the same prophet exclaims: " Thy
dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise; * * *
the earth shall cast out the dead"- verse 19. When Abraham was gathered to
his fathers" he departed out of life into death; but he will return to
life again when resurrection takes place. So we may say to depart from life is
to go into death, and to depart from death is to return to life.
With this in view we can understand the words of
Paul when he says, "For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure
is at hand"--II Tim. 4:6. When the apostle would be a subject of this
"departure" dissolution would take place, and, indeed, dissolution is
the word used in the Diaglott instead of departure. That Paul did not use the
word here in the sense it is used by those who believe in departing from earth
to heaven at death is clear, from the fact that he says in the same connection,
"Henceforth there is laid up for me. a
crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at
that day" (not this day, the day of my death); "and not to
me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing"--II Tim.
4:8. You will see, dear reader, that Paul expected no reward before the
appearing of Christ as the righteous Judge, of which he had made mention in the
first verse in the words, "I charge thee therefore before God, and the
Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and
his kingdom." At this appearing the Lord would find some dead – not
"quick" or alive and others he would find "quick" or alive.
When Paul would take his departure (verse 6) he would pass from the
"quick" to the "dead", knowing which he said his desire was
to be "found in him (Christ), * * * that I might know him, and the power
of his resurrection, * * * if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection
from among the dead"'--Phil. 3:10, 11.
Now let us return to Phil. 1:23. Supposing that
the word "depart" here is a proper rendering; if Paul means
the same here that he does by the word "departure" in II Tim. 4:6, it
would only express his desire to depart, from life (with it’s extreme suffering
he was then experiencing) and. go into death, to await his desired
resurrection from among the dead in which he expresses his hope in this
same (chapter 3:10,11). That Paul's hope was not in
death, but in the coming of Christ, you will clearly see from these
testimonies; the first of which is in this very letter
Phil. 3:20, 21 "'For our conversation is in
heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change our vile body that it may be, fashioned
like unto his glorious body etc.
Col. 3:3, 4 "Ye are dead, and your life is
hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life SHALL APPEAR, THEN
shall ye also appear with him in glory."
To these testimonies many more might be added; but
as we have shown from II Tim. 4, that when Paul was about to die the coming of
the righteous judge to give him his crown of righteousness was his only. hope through resurrection, this is sufficient.
But perhaps the reader will ask, Why did Paul say he desired to depart and be with Christ?
It would seem that the being with Christ would immediately follow his
departure, it will be urged. In what we have said so far we are admitting that
"depart" is the proper word in this text; but this admission is only
for the sake of showing that even making such allowance the words do not
sustain the theory that Paul expected to go to heaven when he died. When Paul
said he desired to depart, that was one thing; and that he desired to be with
Christ, that was another thing; for, as we have seen, many have departed never,
to return, being dead, never to live, and deceased, and gone into the depths of
eternal oblivion never to rise. Though the two things are spoken of together,
it does not follow that the one immediately follows the other. This same apostle
says: "It is appointed unto men once to die, and
after this the judgment''; but he shows elsewhere that the judgment in some
cases is hundreds of years after the death. When we depart from life and pass
into death our "thoughts perish" (Psa.
146:4), ,and "the dead know not anything" (Ecc. 9:5). Knowing not anything thousands of years is to
them but the flash of a moment. So far as their experience goes they close
their eyes in death and the same moment open them in life, though as an actual
fact thousands of years pass between the death and the life. Had Paul meant,
then, a desire to die and to be with Christ, the two events would be to his
consciousness facts of a moment, while in reality they are facts separated by
hundreds of years.
From Paul's general teaching we may therefore
paraphrase his words in the text in question thus: I have a desire to depart
out of this life into death; for such would be gain to me, since I am a
prisoner in bonds and continually suffering almost beyond endurance. My desire
is, too, to be with Christ when He shall appear as "the resurrection and
the life" and cause me with others who shall then have departed out
of life into death to return out of death into life.
While what we have here said explains the meaning
of depart as applied to death, and leaves no room for the popular theory
of heaven-going in the verses in question, we do not believe that depart is
the proper word here, and we will give our reasons; for without a good reason
our opinion would be worthless.
Now, dear reader, let us
go to the verse and see whether this word "depart" is the
proper word here. The Greek word of which this purports to be a translation is
only found in one other place in the New Testament, and by comparing the two
places we shall be able to decide it’s meaning. The
word is analusia, and the other place
where it is found is in Luke
Let it not be forgotten that the translators of
the Authorized Version were believers in the popular theory, and in many
instances they have shown a strong bias in their translations, so much so that
even men of their own school have been compelled to condemn their work in many
cases. Now in Luke 12:36 it was impossible for them to use the word depart, for
the context would in no way allow of it. The word return is the most
important word in the text. Substitute the word depart and you make the Saviour's command ridiculous. Look, dear reader, at the
situation. The lord of the servants has gone from home to marry and return with
the bride of his choice. What could possibly escape the eye of his lordship
when approaching and entering his home in company for the first time with her
whom he delighted to honor and please? This return of the lord Is the most extraordinary return, and what servant would be
lax in preparing for such an event as this? Now what is the point of the Saviour's words? Was it not that, since He was to
"call his servants together" and as "the nobleman" take
leave of them and go "into the far country to receive for himself a
kingdom and to return", He wished them to obey His command,
"Occupy till I come (Luke 19)? Was it not that, since He, their lord,
would return and call His servants to account, He wished them. to prepare for His return as faithfully and as anxiously as
servants would prepare for the return of their lord from the wedding in company
with his bride? Are not the two most important thoughts of the command
expressed in the words "return" and "be ye like"?
which mean, "Be ye ready; for in such an hour
as ye think not the Son of man cometh." "Return" (analusia), then, can mean nothing else here but
return--the return of Christ, which, as we have seen, was Paul's inspiring
hope.
Now It would be strange, indeed, if the word analusia had two opposite meanings one depart
and the other return; and is it not much more in harmony with Paul’s
general teaching to view him in the text in question as desiring the return
of Christ rather than death?
Let us examine the apostle's words carefully and
see if this is not his meaning. Mark you, dear reader, there are two things between
which he is "in a strait", and of which he says, "what I shall choose I wot
not". Whatever these two things are they cannot be the thing he says
he desired; for he is in no strait about the desired thing which he
says "is far better". There are therefore three things in
contemplation. First, to live and continue to preach Christ, second, to
die and thus be freed from his sufferings; and third, the thing, whatever it
was, that he desired. So far as a comparison between the first and
second was concerned it would be gain to him to die and be relieved of his
bonds and affliction; "nevertheless to abide in the flesh was more needful
for them". But about the third thing he was in no strait; it was "far
better' than anything else and it was his "desire. What was it? It
was the re turn of Christ, when Paul hoped to be with him; yes, with Him
in the highest sense of the term. To admit of this meaning, however, we must
give analusia the same rendering here
it has in Luke, and this is what is done in the Emphatic Diaglott, which
translation is as follows:
Phil. 1:19-24 "And I know that this will
result in my deliverance, through your entreaty, and the supply of the Spirit
of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope, that in nothing
I shall be ashamed; but with all confidence, as at all times, also now Christ
will be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death. Therefore
for me to live is Christ and to die is
gain. But if I live in the flesh, this is to me a fruit of my labor and
what I shall choose I do not know. I am, indeed, hard-pressed by the two things
(I have a desire for the returning, and being with Christ, since it is
very much to be preferred); but to remain in the flesh is more needful
for you."
This makes the matter clear and saves us from
making Paul contradict himself and the general teachings of the Scriptures. How
strange, you will. say, that the translators should
give us the word depart instead of it’s opposite, return! In answer to which we
may remark that the literal meaning of analusia
is said to be "loose again"; and it was a word employed in
reference to ships loosing anchor and in this somewhat of an apology is offered
for the apparent anomaly of rendering the same word depart and return. If the
ship is in the harbor of the speaker's standpoint analusia
would mean to "loose anchor" that it might depart and go; if
it is in a harbor of a foreign land away from the stand-point of the speaker,
the word would mean "loose anchor" in order that it might return
home; to do which it must depart from the harbor in which it is
anchored. Now Paul's hope was in Christ--"anchored within the veil".
He was hoping for Him to be "loosed again" from heaven, which would
be His departure from heaven and His return to the earth, of
which the same apostle says: "To them that look for him shall he appear
the second time without sin unto salvation.''
In or
Out of the Body
The Scriptures clearly teach that man had no
existence before he was "formed of the dust of the ground". That when
formed that which was formed was the man. That when the breath of life was
breathed into the nostrils of the dust-formed man that man, that form
became a living soul, a living man, a living form. This is the man and not the
house in which the man lives, and which he may vacate and live somewhere else
without. It is not the body of man as something separate from the man that the
apostle Paul says was "out of the earth, earthy"; but he is very
emphatic in saying. "The first man is of the earth, earthy" (I Cor.
But what shall we do with II Cor.
12:1-4, where Paul speaks of not knowing whether he was "in the body or
out of the body"? the reader will ask. Well, what
would you do with it? You certainly would not make a matter about which
even Paul himself says, "I cannot tell" (verse 3) of so much
importance as to establish you in the belief of a theory that is found in
direct opposition to the general teachings of Scripture. Even
if you were. compelled to say of the meaning of
this small portion of the Word "I cannot tell" you would not
repudiate the many clear statements concerning, man, his nature, his condition
in life and in death. You may examine the writings of this apostle, in which he
speaks in unmistakable terms, and see what he sets forth on the subject of
man's nature and the state of the dead. That should settle the chief question,
even if you have to conclude that there are a few obscure statements which, as
the apostle Peter says, "are hard to be
understood. Now we have seen that the apostle Paul teaches that man is out of the
earth, earthy. In the same chapter he tells us that, instead of there being. inside this corruptible body an incorruptible soul, as
popularly taught, corruption does not inherit incorruption" (I Cor.
Now the words "in the body or out of the
body" to believers in disembodied existence must mean that Paul did not
know whether he left his body and went away from his body or not. From their
point of view what would it have been if Paul had literally gone out of his
body and left it in one place while he was in another place? In other words, by
what means could he have left his body? What happens when one leaves his body?
The only answer is, Death. Death, according to. popular tradition, is the only thing that can take a man out
of his body; and when he is out of his body that is death, they say.
Here is how they express their theory of death in
poetry:
|
"Burdened
with this weight of. clay |
Now is it seriously to be supposed
for a moment that Paul when he said, "I knew a man in Christ above
fourteen years ago (whether in the body I cannot tell; God knoweth)"
meant that he could not tell whether he died "above fourteen years
ago"? Was it death he had in view when he used the words ''in the
body" and "out of the body"? Absurd, you will say. Yes indeed,
absurd I say too. But if he meant by "out of the body" what this text
is quoted to prove by theologians, then the absurdity is charged to Paul.
Whatever the apostle meant by these phrases it is clear from his expressed view
of death and from all reason in the case that he did not mean that he did not
know whether or not he died "above fourteen years ago" and therefore
might have been literally out of his body.
Now this is not the only place where Paul used
phraseology of this kind. For instance, in Col. 2:5 he says, "For though I
be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in
spirit, joying and beholding your order." Who
would suppose that the apostle meant by these words that his "flesh"
was absent from them; but he--the spirit, as is claimed--was actually present?
For this to have been the case literally Paul would have had to forsake his
body and go to Colesse bodiless; and since "the
body without the spirit is dead" (James 2:26.), Paul would have been dead
in the sense of popular tradition. What Paul meant by these words is clear to
common sense, namely, that although he was not actually present, in mind or
thought he was with them, which literally means that he was thinking about
them. He was picturing their conduct, as it were, in his mind. Similar
phraseology is in common use among us in these days. When we write friends at a
distance, "I am far away from you in body, but I am with you in
mind," we are never supposed by reasonable, people to mean that we are
literally out of our bodies.
Now that the apostle is not speaking literally in
the verses in question is evident from his prefacing his remarks by "I
will come to visions and revelations of God." On account of some
having spoken evil of him and tried to belittle him it was necessary for him to
defend himself and claim what honor was justly due him. He did not like to
boast of himself in a direct way, and to maintain his rights with as much
modesty as possible he spoke, of him-self as another man--a man he knew above
fourteen years ago". "Of such an one will I
glory", he says (verse 5). In a sense he left himself, and talked about a
man he knew; and yet he was the man. That enemies of Paul were at work in the
body at
Now it is very often said of a foolish person that
"he is beside himself". If this were literally construed it
would be that he is outside of himself, an impossible thing in the
literal sense. Of the prodigal son coming to his senses it is said, "And
when he came to himself he said, I will arise and go to my father."
Not that he had literally been away from himself; that no one is absurd enough
to believe now, although these phrases may have had their origin in the old
Egyptian and Grecian theory of transmigration of souls. The words "came to
himself" imply that, as we sometimes say,
"he was not himself". "He was out of his head." Now it
so happens that Paul uses the words "beside ourselves" in this very
letter; and that too in reference to the attempt that had been made to make him
appear a "fool". He says, in chap. 5:13, "For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God; or whether we be sober,
it is for your cause." Now put these words altogether:
"fools", "beside ourselves", "out of the body",. "in the body",
and the one will explain the other. What the apostle says in chap. 12:-6 is in
substance this: Some have belittled me and said I am a "fool",
"beside myself",. "out of my body", etc. Well, it is not expedient for me
to glory. "I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord." I
will show you a man who can glory, because, he has been favored with visions
and revelations of the Lord". I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years
ago, whether beside himself, as you say, whether a fool, as you say--whether
beside himself or not beside himself, whether in the body or out of the body, I
cannot tell,- God knoweth. I
won t argue that question with you. You have said I was beside myself, out of
the body; that I will leave to God. This, how ever, I will glory in, that such
an one was so favored of God as to be caught up to the third heaven – to
paradise, and was favored with a revelation of God's grand purpose to restore
paradise, and with a view, in vision, of what that paradise will be in all it’s
glory. Of such an one as that I will glory, leaving
you to judge from these favors bestowed upon him whether the recipient was a
fool, beside himself, or out of the body. Here was a home thrust, a powerful
argument in Paul's own behalf that was calculated most effectually to put to
silence his enemies and bring those to their senses who were wavering and
inclining toward the troublers in their midst.
Marvelous tact is manifested in the method Paul adopted in throwing himself, as
it were, in the third person and then proceeding to show how that person was
favored of God. A destructive blow was masterfully dealt his enemies when he
left them to determine whether such a favored person was a "fool",
"beside himself", or "out of his body". "God knoweth", he says. As much as to say, It is not likely
that God, who knoweth, would so favor one that was a
"fool", "beside himself", or "out of his body".
In all this we have the work of a master in polemics, one who could justly
boast and yet be modest; who could maintain his honor and due justice and yet
use cutting irony on those who deserved it; who, in short, could slay his
enemies with the very sword they had sharpened for him.
Now, dear reader, you will see that by comparing
scripture with scripture a difficult passage becomes clear and wonderfully
forcible. And you will now see that the words that tradition uses, or
rather misuses, to prove disembodied existence have no reference whatever to
such a theory. The words, indeed, "out of the body" and "beside
himself" may be fitly applied to the delusive state of popular
theologians, evidence of which is not wanting in the fact that they seriously
apply such words to a fabulous disembodied state.
You may ask, What about
being caught up to the third heaven -- to paradise? Heaven and earth are used
in the Scriptures to represent political and social conditions. "Hear, O heavens and give ear O earth" are words
addressed to rulers and ruled. "How art thou fallen from heaven?" are
words addressed to the King of Babylon upon the occasion of his fall from power
and dominion. Now the Apostle Peter divides the history of man on the earth
into three parts -- first the antediluvian; second the Jewish and Gentile down
to the millennium; third the glorious reign of Christ on the earth, when
righteousness will be the stability of the times. The first he calls "the
world" (Greek, kosmos, or order of
things) that then was," consisting of "the heavens that were of old,
and the earth", that by the waters of the flood perished (II Pet. 3:4-6).
The second he calls "the heavens and the earth which are now" (verse
7). This world, or order of things political, religious and social, is to pass
away with a great noise. The system, with all the works that are therein -- all
the details of evils that go to make up the combustible aggregation are to pass
away, melt with a fervent heat--the heat of God's just vengeance upon a wicked
world; and then will come the third, which Peter says "we, according
to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness".
The first was an unrighteous world and was swept away with the flood of
God's anger; the second is unrighteous and will be burned up with the fervent
heat of God’swrath; but the third will be a righteous ,world wherein everything will be "very
good as in paradise before sin cursed and blighted it; and that third heaven
will be paradise restored.
In "vision" and "by revelation of
the Lord" (II Cor. 12:1) Paul was caught up, or,
as the Diaglott better renders it, "conveyed away" and was permitted
to see a drama, as it were, of what this glorious future will be. It’s glory and splendor were so great that it was, in it’s
intensity, "unspeakable" and "not possible for a man to
utter" (see margin verse 4). That glorious state is so overwhelmingly
grand, that, as another apostle writes, "It doth not yet appear what we
shall be; but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him; for we
shall see him as he is" (I John 3:2).
This third heaven or paradise is what will obtain
in the "Lord’s day" into which John, when on the isle that is called
Patmos, was also caught away in spirit, and which he was allowed to give a
revelation of so far as it was possible to reveal to mortal man the effulgent
glory of. such transcendant
beauty as will bless the day in which the earth will be full of the glory of
the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
Absent
from the Body and Present with the Lord
The words of the Apostle Paul in II Cor. 5:1-9 are supposed to teach that the apostle expected
that when he died he would go into the presence of the Lord in a disembodied
state. To those who have the idea rooted in their minds from infancy that every
man exists as a conscious entity bodiless after death a superficial view of
this scripture would seem to be a support. In determining what the apostle
meant in this chapter we must be governed by his general teachings; it will not
do to array one part of his writings against all others. If Paul here expected
to go to Christ when he died his other teachings ought to show the same
expectation. What are the facts in the case? Instead of hoping and striving to
go to Christ at death he strove to be worthy of a resurrection from among the
dead. He gives expression to his hope as follows: "I count all things but
loss, * * * that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and
the fellowship of his sufferings being be made conformable unto his death, if
by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of (or from among) the
dead"---Phil. 3:8-11. It is evident from this that Paul had no idea of
disembodied bliss in the presence of Christ as soon as he died. Indeed,
disembodied existence with Paul was out of the question; for he says that if
there is no resurrection of the dead his faith is vain(I Cor.
15:3, 14, showing that he predicated all upon me resurrection and therefore
ignored the Platonic theory of a happy state for disembodied ghosts independent
of resurrection. Of those who had died he said: "If the dead rise not,
then is Christ not raised; and if Christ be not raised
your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen
asleep in Christ are perished"--I Cor.
In this present state of things, "which is
temporal" or temporary (chapter 4:18) and in this mortal body we groan;
and the desire is for that state to be ushered in that shall be eternal, when
we shall be delivered from this "wretched body of death" (Rom. 7:24)
by a change into likeness to Christ's "glorious body" (Phil, 3:21).
So long as we are "at home in the body"--in our present mortal
state--we are absent from the Lord"; and the desire of all who have Paul's
hope is to be "absent from the body" --this mortality in which
"we groan"---"and to be present with the Lord", when we
shall "be like him"; for we know that when he shall appear we
shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is" (I John 3:2).
To be "absent from the body" and to be
present with the Lord is therefore not be absent from bodily existence, it is,
to be absent from the vile body and present with the Lord in the glorious
body" like His (Phil.
The words "not that I would be
unclothed" and "we shall not be found naked" are made to serve
the purpose of those who teach disembodied existence. They never stop to think
that if the apostle used the word in the sense they do, he said "Not that
I would go to Christ's presence in heaven." To be unclothed with them is
to "shuffle off this mortal coil" and go to heaven, a thing to be
desired, surely. Whatever Paul meant by "unclothed" and
"naked" it was a condition he did not desire. If he used these terms
in the physical sense they represent death; if in the moral sense they
represent a sinful state --nakedness being used frequently as a figure of
sinfulness (Rev. 16:15; 3:4, 18). In either case it was a thing Paul desired
not. The words may apply in the physical sense and yet not imply a disembodied
state. Our Saviour speaks of God "clothing the
grass of the field (Matt.
It is not impossible that the apostle used the
word in both a physical and moral sense; for physical nakedness, in the sense
explained is the direct result of sin. Hence the following paraphrase from the
pen of Dr. Thomas seems to embrace what the apostle means:
"For we know that if our mortal body be
dissolved in the dust we are to receive a new body and a new habitation, a
building from God, a home not made with hands, enduring in the new heavens. For
in the midst of the things which are seen we groan, earnestly desiring that our
habitation which is from heaven may be clothed upon us; if so be that being
raised and appearing before the tribunal of Christ we shall not be found naked
or destitute of the wedding-garment. For we that are surrounded by the things
seen and temporal do groan, being burdened; not that we desire to enter the
death state by being unclothed or divested even of mortal life, but clothed
upon by putting on immortality, that mortality may be swallowed up of life. Now
he that has begotten in us this earnest hope is God, who has given us the
spirit as the earnest of what we shall receive at the coming of the Lord. We
are therefore always confident, having full assurance of faith, knowing that
whilst we who believe are mortal we are absent from the Lord (for whilst absent
we walk by faith, not by sight); we are full of hope, I say, and rejoice rather
to be delivered from mortality and to be present, with the Lord.
Wherefore we labor that whether present at His
tribunal or absent from it, we may be accepted of Him. For we must all appear
before the judgment-seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things in
body, according to that he hath done, whether good or bad."
The
Spirits in Prison
I Peter
3:18-20
This is a portion of Scripture used, or rather
misused, for two purposes: First, to prove the existence of disembodied
conscious spirits; and, second, the personal preexistence of Christ. The
mistake in regard to the first case grows out of the preconceived idea that the
word "spirits" means bodiless entities commonly called "immortal
souls". In I John 4:1 the word
"spirits" is used as the equivalent, of "prophets": "Beloved,
believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are
of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world."
Now it must be clear to an unprejudiced mind that the word here means persons
assuming to be prophets. It is a warning against evil persons; and the
same thought is conveyed if we substitute person for spirit in
the verse. If Christ had preached to these "spirits" He would have
preached to persons of bodily forms, not to disembodied ghosts. Now this
understanding of the use of the word "spirits" will enable us to see
that "the spirits in prison" who were preached to were real persons.
How absurd it must seem to thinking people that Christ would go to the
fictitious hell of popular theory to preach to immortal soul! How could poor
creatures maddened by indescribable torture and writhing in the pangs and pains
of such a place be expected to listen to preaching that would require sober
thought and calm obedience? Then again, if this passage is made to apply to
such a view, why was the preaching confined to the disobedient of the
"days of Noah"? Why not allow all the supposed unfortunate
inhabitants of the so-called "infernal regions" to be preached to? If
some must be followed even into a horrid hell after this life and be given an
opportunity of hearing the gospel, why not follow all? It is only a mind
bewildered by pagan delusions of departed ghosts that reads such folly into
this passage of Scripture.
The "spirits" or persons who were
preached to were the antediluvians, and the time they
were preached to was "when once the long-suffering of God waited IN
THE DAYS OF NOAH" (verse 20). It does not say that Christ personally
visited them, but that He by the Spirit -- "quickened by the Spirit, by which
also he went and preached. The Spirit here is the Spirit of God; and since
Christ is the offspring of that Spirit by direct begettal, and was filled with
it, raised from the dead and "quickened by it" into immortality it is
called the "Spirit of Christ, which was in the prophets (chapter 1:11).
This Spirit was in Noah when he preached to the disobedient of his time.
Some find a difficulty in understanding the phrase
"in prison" but the prison in which the antediluvians were when Peter
wrote was the grave. Chapter 4:6 explains the matter: "For this cause
preached also to them that were dead." Not that they were dead when the
gospel, was preached to them; for "dead know not anything"— Ecc. 9.5. The gospel was preached to them that are now dead
and in the "prison" of death--the grave. But should this view be
objected to and it be claimed that they were dead and in prison when they were
preached to, it would only follow that they were dead in trespasses and sins
(Eph. 2:1); and in this sense all men are prisoners till the "law of the
spirit of life in Christ Jesus makes them free from the law of sin and
death" (Rom. 8:2). First, we know that the gospel was preached to the
antediluvians when they were alive, in the days of Noah, and we know they were
dead, and not alive, when Peter wrote. With this knowledge we can read chapter
4:6 thus: "For this cause was the gospel preached to them that are (now)
dead." And we can ,also read chapter
In showing how the text speaks of Christ's
preaching to the antediluvians--that is, that the Spirit of God is the Spirit
of Christ, etc., we have shown that, since He did not visit them and preach to
them in person, the theory of His pre-existence as a person is in no way
supported by the passage. On account of Christ being the Alpha and Omega of
God’s plan in relation to the human race on the earth, all things are said to
be done by Him or on account of Him. The Spirit that caused Noah and all the
prophets to preach the Truth was the Spirit of God which was to overshadow the
virgin, beget the Son of God and dwell in Him, manifesting God in and through
Him mentally and morally and by wonderful works performed. Everything that was
done in the world before He was begotten had direct relation to Him and
centered in Him. He, as the purpose of God was, as it. were,
the power that operated in and through all things. His personal existence is no
more proven by this than the personal existence of Levi is proven, by his being
represented as having paid tithes in Abraham before he was born. In this case
what was done by Abraham is shown to have been done, in a sense, by Levi. Yet
no one supposes from this that Levi personally pre-existed.
The
Thief on the Cross
When the fact that the Scriptures teach the
unconsciousness of man in death is shown to those who believe in the
immortality of the soul, they generally ask, "What about the thief on the
cross?" On account of their preconceived idea of heaven going at death
they conclude, without investigation, that the words, "Verily I say unto
thee to-day, thou shalt thou be with me in paradise,'' mean that that very day
the thief would be with Christ in heaven.
It is very necessary for us to guard against the
power of prejudice; it is very apt to influence us to infer that certain texts
mean so and so, when upon close investigation they are found to have no such
meaning. Remove from the mind the prejudice in favor of the popular theory of
man's disembodied conscious existence in death, and then, before a conclusion
would be reached as to the meaning of the words of our Lord to the thief, a
thoughtful mind would ask, What was the request of the
thief? Did the thief die inside that very day? Did our Saviour
go to heaven that very day, or did He really die? If his soul is considered
apart from Himself, did His soul go to heaven, and if so, how shall I
understand the scripture that says "He poured out His soul unto
death." (Isa. 53:12)? How could His soul be
in heaven, or, supposing paradise to be some other place than heaven, how
could. His soul be in paradise, when it is declared
that His soul was not left in hell (hades or
the grave)? -- Acts
The Scriptures teach that Christ died, that He was
buried, and that He rose from the dead (I Cor. 15:3,
4); that His soul was "poured out unto death"; that His soul was in
hell (hades; the same word is rendered grave
in I Cor
It will be seen therefore that the theory that
would send Christ to heaven, or to any other place of conscious existence with
the thief the very day He uttered the promise necessitates a denial of His
death. So that the matter resolves itself into the question.
Which is wrong; the theory that says Christ that very day was alive with
the thief in paradise, or the Scriptures that declare that He died? The
Scripture cannot be broken; therefore the theory must be wrong. Nothing that
nullifies the plain statements of God's Word, that Christ really died, and that
the same Christ that died was buried, and that if He had not been raised there
would have been no living Christ (see I Cor. 15) --
nothing, I say, that nullifies these positive facts can be entertained by a
thoughtful, God-fearing person.
That Christ did not go to heaven the day He
uttered the promise to the thief is a subject of positive proof. Three days
afterwards, upon His resurrection from the tomb, He met Mary, and said:
"Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father" (John
To understand the Saviour's
answer to the thief we must keep in view the letter's request. He did not say,
Lord remember me when thou goest to
heaven; but "Lord remember me when thou comest
into thy kingdom." Was this request in accord with what our Lord had
taught His disciples to hope for? It certainly was; for in the parable of the
nobleman (Luke 19) He had shown that He would go. to
heaven and return; that during His absence the duty of His disciples
would be, not to expect to follow Him, but to "Occupy till I
come"; and that it would be when He would return; "having
received the kingdom, he would call His servants before Him for judgment,
reward and punishment according to their works. In unmistakable language he
declared, "When the son of man shall come in his glory and all the
holy. angels with him, then shall he sit upon
the throne of his glory" (Matt. 25:31); and to those on His right hand at
that time he will say, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom
prepared", etc. Referring to this time, and in full accord with this
teaching, the thief asked, "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom" -- the very
time when, as the Apostle Paul, says, "Christ
shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom (II
Tim. 4:1).
Now is it not reasonable to believe that our Saviour’s answer to this dying penitent man was in accord
with the request and with His teachings as shown above? What is the kingdom but
paradise restored? When "the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdom
of our Lord and of his Christ" (Rev. 11:15) the earth will be paradise
restored. The prophet has said, "The LORD shall comfort Zion; he will
comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden and
her desert like the garden of the LORD"--(Isa.
51:3) The fulfillment of this will be when the kingdom of God is fully
established in the earth and "the LORD shall be King over all the
earth"--(Zech. 14:9). Christ will then have come into his
kingdom and His promise to the thief will be fulfilled.
Now as to the form of the words in the promise as
it appears in our translation, It must not be forgotten that the translators
were biased in favor of the popular theory, and may therefore sincerely but
mistakenly have placed the words in the form in which we find them in the A. V.
Punctuation is of comparatively recent date, and translators often differ in
their use of it, as well as in the positions of the various words composing a
sentence. In the word-for-word translation in the Diaglott the promise to the
thief reads as follows: "Indeed I say to thee, today with me thou shalt be
in the paradise." In the text of the same translation it reads, "Indeed
I say to thee, This day thou shalt be with me in
paradise." That is, this day referred to by the thief's request,
namely, the day when Christ would come into His kingdom. We would particularly
call attention to the fact that here it is "thou shalt" instead of
"shalt thou", as in the King James translation. The text therefore is
in perfect harmony with the facts and truths of Scripture we have called
attention to when read thus: "Verily I say unto thee today, Thou shalt be
with me in paradise." It was a hearty and emphatic reply to the request of
penitence in a most trying and solemn moment. Hence the "verily" and
"to-day", as if one in our times would say ""Mark you – I
tell you this moment, that measure will prove disastrous to the
nation." The "mark you" and the "this
moment" give emphasis to the statement. So with
the "verily" and the "to-day". The time when the
promise is to be fulfilled is defined by the words in the request, "when
thou comest into thy kingdom".
A case very similar to this are the words of Zech. 9:12--"Turn you to the stronghold,
ye prisoners of hope; even to-day do I declare I wall render double unto
you." The "even" and the "to-day" give emphasis; and
instead of "today defining the time when the promise would be fulfilled,
it defines the day the promise was made. The "rendering double" would
be long afterwards.
Some excuse their disregard of baptism upon the
assumption that the case of the thief was one of salvation without baptism; but
the inference is all the other way. There is no statement to the effect that he
was or was not baptized; but his understanding of the gospel is shown by his
request: for in that is implied a knowledge of the resurrection, ascension and
return of Christ into His kingdom who will be bold enough to affirm that such a
degree of intelligence in the gospel had not yielded obedience in baptism? The
blessing of being in the kingdom with Christ is predicated upon baptism based
upon belief of the Truth; and since our Lord promised the thief he should be
with him in paradise, or the kingdom, it follows that baptism had been
submitted to. "But he was a thief!" Some exclaim. Yes; that is
against him, his crime being a very grievous one. But, God’s "merciful
kindness is great towards us". If it were not so, hopeless would be our
case. In this matter it is not in evidence that the man was habitually a thief.
As to the degree of his crime the Saviour was a
better judge than the Roman government that was and than we can be. In any event
there was penitence in the case, and what could be a more beautiful finish to
the natural life of the "man of sorrows" than an extraordinary
manifestation and exercise of Divine mercy of which He was and is the very
embodiment?
The Rich
Man and Lazarus
In the parable of the rich man
and Lazarus, recorded in Luke 16:19-31, the believer in disembodied existence
after death in torture or happiness – "heaven or hell"—thinks he
finds positive proof of his theory. It
is with this passage of Scripture the same as with the few others that seem,
superficially viewed, to sustain the popular dogmas. There are preconceived
notions that cause readers to read into the Scriptures what is in their minds
but what is not in the texts themselves. Instead of reading the words of the
text there is a reading "between the lines". To avoid this mistake –
a mistake that many make unconsciously – it is necessary to have in mind the
general teachings of the Scriptures upon the subjects involved. One with the
popular theory of the nature of man and the state of the dead in his mind will
read into this parable "immortal soul" and "never-dying
spirit", without perceiving that no such words are there. "The rich
man died", they will read in their minds, "The body of the rich man
died." "In hell he lifted up his eyes" to them is, "In hell
his immortal soul lifted up it’s eyes,"
forgetting that their theory says the soul is immaterial without parts, and
therefore has no eyes to "lift up". Throughout the entire parable
there is this same reading in of terms and phrases that are only in the mind of
the reader, and thus a false conclusion is reached by a false method of
reading. If it were remembered that "immortal soul" is a phrase of
pagan invention and not found in the Bible the folly of supplying it in the
text would be seen. With the Scripture definition of death in the mind and
Platonic fiction out of the mind the words, "The rich man died" and
"The beggar died", would be accepted in harmony with the fact that
when a man dies "his breath goes forth, he returneth
to his earth and in that very day his thoughts perish" (Psa. 146:4) and "the dead know not anything" (Ecc. 9:5)
Feeling very confident that this parable supports
their theory, some are very bold to demand that it "be read just as it is,
literally", as a statement of facts and not as a parable. To satisfy such
that they are mistaken we frequently have to respond, "Come along then and
let us read it literally in the light of positive Scripture definitions of the
words employed." We will begin with the statement, "The beggar
died." Do you believe this? O, it means that his body died, is the answer
we receive. It says "the beggar died." Do you believe it? Here we
have a beggar who died. Is he dead now or is he alive? Stick to the
words literally. Before this beggar died he was alive and not dead; now he is
dead and not alive. If he is alive now, what is the difference between his condition now, after he has died, and his condition then,
before he died? O, the difference is that before he died he was alive in his
body; now he is alive out of his body. Indeed, then he was alive and is still
alive, and therefore you deny the first statement we read, "The beggar
died." Come, come, stick to your proposition to
read this literally, "The beggar died." If you want to define what it
is to die you must do it scripturally, not theologically. Here is a Scripture
definition of death for you: "His breath goeth
forth; he returneth to his earth; and in that very
day his thoughts perish" (Psa. 146:4). Now
then with this definition let us again read, "The beggar died" – that
is, "his breath went forth; he returneth to his
earth; and in that very day (the day he died) his thoughts perish." Do you
believe this?
Now of man after he is dead the Scriptures say, "The
dead know not anything" (Ecc. 9:5). The
first statement we have read "literally" is, "The beggar
died"; and inspiration says "the dead know not anything". So we
have before us a dead man that knows not anything. But you are trying to go
beyond the testimony to make out your theory that the man is not dead, only his
body; that instead of not knowing anything, he knows more when he is dead than
he did when he was alive. Stick to the text, "The beggar died."
Now in the same scriptural manner we may also
read, "The rich man also died." Keeping inside of the boundary lines
of what is literally said in these two statements, we have before us two dead
men, who "know not anything"; and we must not assume the right to
break over these lines for the sake of sustaining a theory we may have in our
minds and not in the texts.
Now what is the next statement concerning this
dead man? It is, "and was buried". Do not add again that
"only his body was buried", and deny the statement that the man died
and was buried. Stick to the text, and we then have a dead man buried, not a
living man in torture. Yes, you will say, but it says he was in torment. While he was dead and buried? It is literally true that
death closes our eyes, destroys the power of sight. When the rich man died he closed
his eyes in death. And does it not say that after he was dead and buried he
"lifted up his eyes"? And what would that be for a dead and buried
man but resurrection, an opening of his eyes in life after having closed
them in death? Now keep this fact before your mind, and you will see that if
you take this scripture literally you have death, burial and resurrection; and
it is in the resurrection that "there shall be weeping and gnashing of
teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in
the kingdom of God, and you (those addressed) thrust out." Abraham will be
there then. And they shall come from the east and from the
west and from the north and from the south, and shall sit down in the
"But the rich man lifted up his eyes in
hell," some exclaim. Well, what of that? Was not Christ in hell --
even His soul (Acts 9.:31)? Will not all those
redeemed from death and hades -- the grave --
"lift up their eyes in hell (hades) before
they will exclaim, "O grave! where is thy
victory" (I Cor.
Ans. "His breath goeth forth; he returneth to his
earth; and in that very day his thoughts perish." -- Psa.
146:4.
Ans. "The dead know
not anything." – Ecc. 9:5.
Ans. "And they shall
see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
And he shall send his an gels with a great
sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather his elect"--Matt. 24:30, 31.
Ans. "There shall be
weeping of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob
, and all the prophets in the
From this it will be seen that if we take the
scripture in question literally we shall have death and burial, and after that,
at the time appointed, there will be resurrection, and then the rich man will
be punished and Lazarus will be with Abraham In a happy state. As to how long
the torment'' of the rich man will last that must be determined by other
scripture, since in the account of the rich man's case no time is given. That
it will not be endless we may be sure, from the fact that many proofs are given
of the utter destruction of the wicked.
Now if we take this scripture literally and try to
make it fit the popular theory, we shall find it will not do. It would
represent the "damned in hell" as penitent and prayerful; whereas it
is claimed that they continue to curse God every moment of eternity. And this
supposed continuous rebellion is what is relied on as an excuse for the
eternity of the torture. It would bring "heaven" and "hell"
into such close proximity that conversation could be had between the "damned"
and the "blessed". It would put tender mothers in eternal bliss and
yet in sight of the wretchedness of their children, and within hearing of their
groans and moans and hopeless prayers for release. It would therefore represent
them in "heaven" as possessed of natures that could take sweet and
eternal enjoyment, with their children before their eyes writhing in the most
terrible torture, a spectacle no sane person could in this life look upon for a
moment without being pained and horrified. How long, my friend, would you enjoy
the sight of a spectacle not one thousandth part as bad in this life? Could you
enjoy it at all? No, is your answer. Then is your nature in the future to be
such as will be capable of enjoying what now is the most horrifying
? Away with such a savage fiction. Hurl it back
to the dark recesses of the savage heart of heathenism, whence it came, and
"come and let us reason together" on this parable; for a parable it
is, as we shall now prove.
We have dealt with the subject upon the
supposition of it’s laterality simply to show that
even when so viewed it in no sense sustains the popular theory. But that it is
a parable cannot be questioned. In chapter 15:3 we have the parable of the lost
sheep; verse 8 of the lost piece of silver; verse 11 of the prodigal son.
Chapter 16:1 of the steward; then follows the one in question. Some offer as an
objection the fact that the first words are: "There was a certain rich
man", claiming that the form of words shows the sense to be a literal
narrative; but the objection vanishes when it is remembered that the parable of
the steward begins in precisely the same words, and that of the prodigal in
nearly the same.
The audience addressed is shown in chapter 15:1, 2
to be publicans, sinners, Pharisees and scribes. That which directly called
forth the words in question is shown in chapter
The Pharisees had departed from the Truth and
accepted the Platonic and Egyptian theory of the immortality of the soul and of
the existence of disembodied souls in hades, which
they believed to be a place of torment, and in Abraham’s bosom, a place they
supposed to be one of happiness. When denouncing them for their departure from
the Truth our Saviour said: "Ye are of your
father the devil;" * * * he abode not in the Truth, because there is no
truth in him. When he speaketh a lie he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar and the father of it"---
( John
In contrast with this a poor beggar is painted as
being outside the rich man’s gate ("outer court of the Gentiles")
full of sores (not "whole needing not a physician"), associated with
dogs. This is a striking symbol of how the Jews regarded the Gentiles. Dogs
they were to them, a fact that is shown in the conversation our Saviour had with the Syrophenecian
woman when He said, in answer to her entreaty that her daughter be healed,
"It is not meet to take the children's bread and to cast it to dogs."
The woman knowing that His words expressed the Jews' estimation of Gentiles,
replied, beseechingly, "Yes, Lord; yet the dogs under the table "eat
of the children's crumbs". Then He granted her request. In the parable,
then, the beggar associated with dogs Is a symbol of
the Gentiles.
Now to show these Pharisees that their days of
feasting were soon to end and the favor that belonged to Abraham's children was
to be bestowed upon the Gentiles, the two men are, as it were, transported into
the fictitious future state of the Pharisees, where the rich man is represented
as in torment, while the beggar is in "Abraham's bosom". As the rich
man of the parable died, so the nation represented by him died as a nation. It
is to this national death the Apostle Paul alludes
when he says: "For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the
world, what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead'--(Rom.
Since the revolt of the ten tribes under Jeroboam
It was not long after this parable was spoken till
the rich man nation realized it’s dreadful truth in the most horrible
experience that history records: and ever since then they have been tormented
and kept continually calling out for water to cool the parched tongue; for what
has Israel not suffered since the "measure of their fathers was
filled" in killing the Prince of Life? After the measure had been filled
up the angels or messengers of the gospel, were sent
to the Gentile "dogs; and the Apostle Paul, who was specially an apostle
to the Gentiles, exclaimed: "Seeing ye put it from you and judge
yourselves unworthy of everlasting, life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles" --
(Acts
Taking this view of the parable of the rich man
and Lazarus, instead of limiting it’s scope to a supposed individual destiny of
two men, and of forcing the Saviour into a oneness of
belief with men who, because of their acceptance of the Platonic fiction of the
"immortality of the soul" and the serpent’s falsehood that
"there is no death", were "of their father the devil", we
have a volume of truth condensed into a few words -- a characteristic of the
Bible that to the diligent student is seen to be an indelible stamp of
divinity.
The question which forms the heading of our
address this morning is based upon the words, "caught up in the clouds to
meet the Lord in the air", found in the chapter read — I Thes. 4. Let me read from verses 13-18 in order to get the
question clearly before us:
"But I would not have you to be ignorant,
brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others
which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so
them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with
him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive
and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of
the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise
first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them
in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the
Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words."
Whatever the meaning is of this scripture there is
comfort in it, for those to whom it was addressed were told this in the last
words given. To derive comfort in the true sense, it is necessary that the
words be fully understood, for how can one comfort
himself with words he does not understand? The apostle says,
we would not have you to be ignorant, brethren." He wished them to fully
realize the import of what he was about to say, so that the deepest comfort
might be derived therefrom.
The apostle's words are "concerning them
which are asleep", about whom, it seems, some were sorrowing. It is
evident that the popular theory of heaven-going at death was not in any sense considered
here, either by the writer or those to whom he wrote. They all believed that
those for whom some sorrowed were asleep in the sleep of death, none of them
entertaining the idea for a moment that they were alive and better off in
realms of bliss beyond the stars. Members of a modem orthodox'' church would
have been viewing the sleep as pertaining to the body only, a trivial matter to
them in view of their belief that their dead friends are better off disembodied
than they were embodied; and a modern "orthodox'' preacher would be
considered a very poor comforter if he did not, in similar circumstance,
eloquently dilate upon the rapturous bliss their departed friends were enjoying
in or beyond the sky. Death-bed and funeral comfort now, as prepared and
administered in the religions of Christendom, is a very different article from
that of the apostles. The doctors of divinity have a very different theory as
to the nature of the case and they have consequently changed their pills of
comfort to suit their changed diagnosis of the case. It is often the case in
the domain of physics that disease is an abnormal condition of the mind, and
doctors deal with it accordingly, allowing the patient to be deluded. In the
religious world it is worse than in the medical; for in the latter there is an
effort to restore the mentally affected to a normal state, while in the former
the delusion is pampered and comforted in a manner to increase the religious
insanity of the afflicted.
What would be thought of a popular preacher
appealing to his people on behalf of their deceased friends, in a way to imply
that their friends were really asleep in death--really dead and not alive? The
people would wonder what had happened to the preacher, and they would inquire
of each other, "Do you think our pastor really meant that our departed
ones are dead? He tried to console us that they will have a resurrection, but
would he have us believe that they lie dormant in death till the resurrection?
That's what those people known as Christadelphians believe, and does our pastor
propose to impose such a doctrine as that upon us? We must see about this, and
if he really does believe that our friends are dead and not 'gone before', and
if he has no comfort to give us but a resurrection way in the future, we had
better ask for his resignation." This is how matters would run in such a
case, and so "like people like priest". The people have been taught
and trained to "love to have it so" and the preachers are hired to
proclaim it so. Hence the words of the apostle in the verses read would fare in
the mouth of a popular preacher something like this: "But I would not have
you ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are 'gone before', that ye sorrow
not, even as others who have no hope. For those you sorrow for are not dead,
not asleep. They have read their title clear to mansions in the sky, and bid
farewell to every fear and wiped their weeping eyes. They are now basking in
the bliss of heaven and when you die you shall join the happy band above, mount
triumphant there, while those who have no hope devils drag their souls away in
infinite despair." Wherefore comfort one another with these words?"
In this we have "another gospel which is not another", but a
perversion of the gospel of Christ, the preacher of which, even if he be an
angel from heaven, we are commanded "let him be accursed" (Gal. 1:6,
8).
Now let us see What real
comfort is afforded by the words of the apostle in the case we are considering.
Verse 13 -- Your friends are asleep in death. I would not have you ignorant and
sorrowful as others without hope. Verse 14 -- Jesus died and rose again, and
became "the resurrection and the life". God "raised Jesus of
Nazareth from the grave", and in this you have assurance that, since those
for whom you sorrow sleep in Jesus, God will bring them forth also.
Verse 15 --- Do not suppose that those who are alive remain unto the coming of
the Lord shall prevent them that are not alive when the Lord comes, that are
dead--asleep in the dust of the earth. They shall not remain dead like those
who died without hope. Verse 16 -- For the Lord himself, not by messenger, nor
in a "spiritual" unreal manner, but the Lord himself shall descend
from heaven, the trump shall sound and the dead in Christ shall rise first -- before
those who are alive when the Lord comes shall be caught away. Verse 17 -- Then
those who are alive shall be caught up, or away, with those who are previously
raised, in clouds, or companies, to meet the Lord in the air; and so, in the
state to which you shall ascend when you meet the Lord in the air, or
firmament of his new heaven, "wherein dwelleth righteousness", so in
that state shall we ever be with the Lord. Here is your salvation and that of
those for whom you sorrow. Now do not sorrow any more, as those may well do who
have no hope, but (verse 18) comfort one another with these words.
Some have erroneously concluded from this passage
that there will be no resurrection of the unjust, because all who are the
subjects of the apostle's discourse here are to "be ever with the
Lord". This error arises from a short-sighted view, a failure to
realize, the fitness of things. There is a time for everything, a time to warn
and a time to comfort. At the death-bed side and at the open mouth of the grave
are not the places to address sorrow-stricken people upon judgement
and punishment. When one calls to comfort the distressed it is not the time to
bestow a look of wrath nor to utter words of
vengeance. It is a time to speak words of consolation and to give expression to
a heart-felt sympathy -- so far as truth and facts will allow, of course. The
man who has nothing but vengeance and wrath in his words and looks has no
business in the house of mourning. When one is addressing his friends in the
language of hope he does not stop to mar it’s beauty
by interjections of words of judgment and punishment. The apostle Paul
"spurned not to declare the whole counsel of God," but no one knew
better than he how to speak according to the "eternal fitness of
things"--the right words in the right place. This was a time for words of
hope and comfort, and because for the time being he drew the curtain and kept
out of sight the possibility of some he was writing to and of some of their
mourned friends failing of the glorious triumph he held aloft, we must not
conclude that he denied what he taught at other times – appropriate -- that
"there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and of the
unjust."
Now the question is how shall we derive comfort
from the words "meet the Lord in the air", "caught up", and
"clouds". Our Lord gives us comfort in the words, "Blessed are
the meek, for they shall inherit the earth" (Matt. 5:5) The Psalmist
declares that such as be blessed of the Lord shall inherit the earth".
"The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever (Psa. 37:22-30). The wise man also declares that the
righteous shall be recompensed in the earth. All of the redeemed unite in the
song of salvation, in which they sing, "Thou hast made us unto our God kings
and priests; and we shall reign on the earth" (Rev. 5:10). Then again,
Christ himself is to return to the earth in like manner as he ascended (Acts
1:11) and "his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives,
which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the Lord shall be king over all the
earth" (Zech. 14:4-9). How then are we to understand that we are to
"meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall ever be with the Lord"?
And in view of the promises that we are to be blessed in the earth and that
Lord is to reign on the earth, how can we derive comfort from these words?
It is in sundry times and divers
manners that God speaks through prophets, Christ. and
apostles. To receive instruction and comfort from His words we must learn to
discriminate between the "divers manners" in which he speaks. Literal
language must not be confounded with symbolical, figurative and spiritual. With
the ordinary care exercised in reading good secular books we shall not find it
difficult to determine when we are reading figurative or symbolic language. The
context along with a knowledge of the first principles
of the oracles of God will guide us in the only channel that will lead to a
proper conclusion.
Every book has a right to claim that the reader
shall be governed by It’s own meaning of the technical
terms it employs, and surely the Bible has the same right. It is but reasonable
that we should compare scripture with scripture to arrive at the sense in which
certain words and phraseology are employed therein. The literal is, of course,
the foundation of all figurative language. There is a literal earth, but the
word earth is used for the people of the earth --- "Hear, O
earth." There are literal heavens, but the word heavens
is also used for exalted position or political power. There are literal
clouds, but the word cloud is used for a company of people, threatening
trouble, and so on. If we read in ours newspapers that there is a cloud in the
political heavens we do not look up to the sky expecting to see it there. If we
read "there is war in the air", we do not understand that the writer
is referring to the literal atmosphere. In the world natural there are sun,
moon, stars, cloud, air, etc. When we use a figure of speech drawn from the
world natural we must be consistent. Hence, if we employ the word heavens to
represent a kingdom we must, to be consistent, allow for sun, moon, stars,
clouds, air or firmament in the heaven of which we are speaking. The sun, moon
and eleven stars of Joseph's dream were in the heaven or rulership of the
little family kingdom of Jacob; and Jacob had no trouble in seeing the meaning
of the words and their application to himself--the father was the sun, the
mother as the moon, and the eleven brethren of Joseph as the stars, with all
their servants and belongings as the earth ruled.
Now the apostle Peter speaks of the coming
Now it would be difficult for one taught in the
Scriptures to receive comfort from the contemplation of going up into the
literal air. May we not venture, therefore, to look through the mere literal
and try to find that the apostle in the passage in question is applying the
words clouds and air to something that has to do with the
resurrection of the dead and their change with the living at the Lord's coming,
when they shall become elements of the "new heaven" or rulership of
the glorious kingdom of God for which they now seek? If anything of this sort
can be found in the words by holding the paper, as it were, up to the light and
reading the Divine watermarks, then shall we taste the sweetness of the closing
sentence -- "Therefore comfort one another with these words."
This same apostle says, "We wrestle not
against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the
rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high
places" or, as in the margin, heavenly places, or heavenlies.
Reference here Is to the civil and religious
wickedness in the Roman and Jewish heavens, the powers which antagonized the
truth and martyred many of it’s proclaimers. Now the
Roman heaven would have the elements of the natural heaven, and therefore the
word air would be applicable to it. In the political aerial of that
heaven were the sun, moon and stars, which ruled the Roman kosmos
or world. Hence the apostle says that when the saints at
It is true that when the Saracenic
hosts arose out of the Arabian pit, or abyss, the smoke of their warfare
literally ascended in clouds and darkened the air, but the object the Spirit
had in stating this to John (Rev. 9:2) cannot be limited to this comparatively
trivial fact. The object was to show, in symbolic language, the effect the war
of the Saracens would have upon the Roman apostasy. Therefore, when it is said,
"And the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of
the pit;" the Roman sun and air, politically and ecclesiastically, are
undoubtedly meant. Then, again, when 'the seventh angel shall pour out his vial
into the air (Rev. 16:7), "and there shall come out of the temple
of heaven from the throne a voice saying, "it is done", the
consequent thunders and lightnings will clear the
political air of the heavens that are now, in which dwelleth unrighteousness to
give place to "new heavens wherein dwelleth righteousness."
From these testimonies we see that the word air
is used for the expanse of political heavens, and now we can better
understand the apostle's meaning in the verse in question, and see how the
saints in Thessalonica could derive comfort from his words. To be "caught
up to meet the Lord in the air is to be exalted as kings and priests to reign
with Christ on the earth. It is worthy of note that the apostle does not say "there
shall we ever be with the Lord", as if he were referring to a place;
but so, in the condition implied by being "caught up to meet the
Lord in the air" -- "so shall we ever be with the Lord".
Many will meet the Lord to be condemned, cast out, and to be commanded to
"depart"; but these do not meet him in the air of the new heaven; for
when the door is opened in that heaven only the worthy will be invited to
"come up hither' (Rev; 4:1); and such only will be permitted or fitted to
"shine in the kingdom of their Father" (Matt. 13:43) as "stars
for ever and ever (Dan. 12:3).
These are to meet the Lord in a higher
sense than will those who meet him and be commanded to "depart". When
it was said to Moses, "And in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I
shall give thee, and there I will meet with thee" (Exo.
25:21, 22), the meaning of the word "meet" is very different from
that of the words "a lion met him by the way and slew him" (I Kings
13:24): There is a deeper meaning. It signifies a oneness,
a communion. So to meet the Lord in the air is to become one with him in
nature, to be "like him, for we shall see him as he is" (I
John 3:2). Those, therefore, who shall meet the Lord in the air
are the faithful children of God of whom the apostle John says, "Behold
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called
the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not,
because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not
yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear we shall be
like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in
him purifieth himself, even as he is pure I John 3:1-3)
As there are clouds in the
natural heaven, so are there in the political; and so there will be in the new
heaven of righteousness. A company of
people is called by the apostle Paul a cloud – "Wherefore seeing we also
are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every
weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us (Heb. 12:1). The word cloud
is used figuratively in various ways, the thoughts
conveyed being derived from the natural heavens, in which there are thunder
clouds, clouds without rain and clouds with rain. In time of drought clouds
that contain no rain inspire hope and then tantalize with bitter
disappointment. When the earth is dried up, vegetation scorched and burned and
man and beast are parched for water, how anxiously men will wait and watch for
a cloud, and if they can catch a glimpse of one, even though it be but "like a man's hand", what hope and joy it
brings. Now we speak of "clouds of sorrow", clouds of darkness",
"clouds of war", etc.; and the book of Jude (verse 12) speaks
of deceptive men as clouds without water, carried about of winds". The
groaning millions of our time are looking into the political heavens and
watching the clouds, hoping for a rain that will bring relief to a thirsty
world; but alas! the clouds have no water to quench
their burning thirst, no rain to give life to the withered and blighted fields
that are ready for the sickle of the swiftly coming harvest of wrath. But after
this clouds will appear in the new heavens, from which
there shall come down "rain upon the mown grass and showers to water the
earth" (Psa. 72:6).
The goodness of natural
This passage in the epistle to the Thessalonians
has special reference to the morning of the resurrection, and it is in
connection with this these figures of speech are used, used to adorn and
beautify a glorious subject -- one, the one, with whose words we can truly
"comfort one another". The prophet Isaiah treats of this subject in
the grand words, "Thy dead men shall live, together
with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust; for
thy dew is as of the dew of the dawn, and the earth shall cast out the
dead" (Isa. 26:19). The dew of the morning comes
from the womb of the night, and under the rays of the rising sun is drawn into
the air to be formed into clouds to give rain upon the earth. So are the true
saints to be the dew of the dawn of millennial glory, upon whom the Sun of righteousness
shall shine and draw up into the new heavens as clouds to give the latter rain
of blessing, and as showers to water the earth.
When thus this cloud is in the air or new heaven,
and the glory of the Lord appears therein to the joy of "all families of
the earth" whom the Abrahamic covenant promised to bless, it ii then that
there will be the glorious fulfillment of the words, "I will set my bow in
the cloud" (Gen. 9:13), and the everlasting covenant shall find it’s full,
glorious and sublime exemplification – it is then that it will appear
and be a reality in the sense that "eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard". It is then that these things that are now matters of hope and
promise will "materialize" and be a gladsome and gladdening, glorious
reality. O, the beauty and transcendency of
our hope! what gladness it brings even now in this
cloudy and dark day; but "what will it be there" to experience the
rapturous joy of realization.
Conditions are necessary for the appearance of the
rainbow with all it’s prismatic beauty. There must be
the shining sun, the cloud and descending rain. For the appearance of the
rainbow of the everlasting covenant the Sun of Righteousness is ready, but as
yet the dew of the coming dawn is enveloped in the womb of the darkness of death
and the grave. The morning is about to dawn, the dew appear, the sun to arise;
and then, when "we are caught up in clouds to meet the Lord in the
air", the shining sun, the cloud from the morning dew and the descending
rain of heaven’s blessing will show that God has filled full His
promise, "I will set my bow in the cloud", and to the joy of the
whole earth the everlasting covenant will shine forth as the sun, pour down
blessings as the rain and the appearance of the bow in the new heaven will
command the astonishment and admiration of "all families of the
earth" blessed in Abraham’s seed. If we are worthy, brethren, if you,
friends, prepare yourselves for this great and high calling, we shall all be
able to say "so shall we ever be with the Lord" and in reality
"comfort one another with these words".
May this be our comfort now in measure and then in
it’s full fruition. Amen.