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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873 by
MRS. G.
A
In the office of Liberation of Congress, Washington, D. C.
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DEDICATION.
TO MY LOVED WIFE
MRS. GEORGIA A.
THE MOTHER
AND
INSTRUCTOR OF MY CHILDREN IN RELIGION,
THESE PAGES ARE AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED.
MAY GOD AID YOU
IN SHIELDING OUR LITTLE ONES FROM THE DEADLY
ERRORS WHICH I HAVE ATTEMPTED TO EXPOSE
IN THIS LITTLE BOOK, IS THE PRAYER OF
YOUR DEVOTED HUSBAND.
THE AUTHOR.
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
Introduction.
The Desire to know the Conditions of the Middle Life,
Universal, Reasonable and Commendable.
They can only be learned from the Bible.
All that in Necessary for us to Know can be Learned
in it. [Page 9]
CHAPTER II
Do Disembodied Spirits become
Angels? [Page 13]
CHAPTER III
Do
Saints go to Heaven when they Die? Do Sinners go to Hell when they Die? [Page 19]
[Page 6]
CHAPTER IV
Is there to be a Resurrection of the
Dead? The meaning of
the term anastasis. What
the Greeks understood by it,
Teachings of the Druidic Rites, and Eleuslan Mysteries, etc.
[Page 31]
CHAPTER V
Is there to be a Resurrection of the
Dead? The Teachings of the Old
Testament, The Covenant of Circumcision.
The Covenant with David.
Daniels Predictions.
[Page 38]
CHAPTER VI
The Teachings of the New Testament.
[Page 44]
CHAPTER VII
The
Middle Life; Sheol, Hades refer only to the Unseen or
CHAPTER VIII
[Page
7]
CHAPTER IX
Can the Spirits of Good Men return and commune
with the living? [Page 79]
CHAPTER X
Can the Spirits of Wicked Men return
from Hades to Communicate with, or Molest the
Living? Dives, etc.
Objections considered. Samuel appeared
to and warned Saul. Moses and Elijah
appeared to the Three Apostles. The
Saints equal to the Angels. Their Angels i.e.,
Believers, do always behold the Father
in Heaven. Stephens Dying Prayer. Pauls Declaration: Absent from the Body;
Present
with the Lord. The Declaration of the Angel to John: I am thy Fellow-Servant
and of the Prophets, etc., [Page 89]
CHAPTER XI
Conclusion.
The Argument Applied to Spiritism, etc., [Page 102]
[Page
8]
APPENDIX*
[*NOTE.
Of the five appendices in the authors book, only one is given: all
others have to do with spiritism.
No. 4 is shown
below and is edited because the author seeks to prove, contrary to Scripture in
No 5 that the incident, because it was an exception to the general rule and
because the battle took place on the following day at
Gilboa, nearly two days march, or
twenty miles distant from each other, that the
prophecy was, therefore, without the shadow of doubt in this respect, false,
and, therefore, the apparition was not Samuel, but a lying spirit!!
The editor knows a man, now in his 75th
year, who regularly walks marathons (26
miles): and he has the medals as proof of his physical achievements.
This prophetic account of what Saul
heard from the risen Samuel, has been scripturally
proven to be what actually happened on the following day: and, because
it may have happened twenty miles distant, is
no excuse for believing Sauls death did not take place on the following day!
Moreover the
Lord will deliver
Furthermore, contrary to the prophecy
being false,
it was Samuel and not a lying spirit, as stated by our learned brother! In the Revised Version translation of 1 Sam. 28: 14, 15 we read:
And Saul
perceived that it was Samuel,
and he bowed with his face to the ground, and did obeisance.
15 And Samuel (not a
lying spirit) - said to Saul,
Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up?
If the
apparition was not Samuel, but a lying spirit as the author
has written, then the accurate account of events which
happened between Samuel and Saul during Samuels lifetime, could not have be
given in verses 16-18:
And Samuel said, Wherefore then dost
thou ask of me, seeing the Lord is
departed from thee - [See the actual account of the incident as it is recorded in the LXX
(Septuagint) translation of 1 Sam. 16: 13, 14: And Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him (i.e.,
DAVID) in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit
of the Lord came upon David from that day forward: and Samuel arose,
and departed to Armathaim.
14 And the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit
from the Lord tormented him.] - and is become thine adversary?
17 And the Lord
hath wrought for himself, as he spake by me:
and the Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand,
and given it to thy neighbour, even to David. 18 Because thou obeyest not
the voice of the Lord, and didst not execute his fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore hath the Lord done this thing unto thee this day.
For an accurate exposition of this
incident see Robert Govetts book: Hades.]
No. 4 - An Exegesis of 1 Peter 3: 19 -
Spirits in Prison. [Page155]
* * *
[Page 9]
MIDDLE
LIFE
OUR STATE
BETWEEN
DEATH AND RESURRECTION
By
R.
J.
[* NOTE. Words inside blue square brackets are
not part of the Authors writing. Ed.]
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
No better introduction to the discussion of these interesting
and important questions can be prepared than the remarks of Dr. Hovey when introducing a series of articles upon The State of Men after Death. He says: The best
minds are sure to feel an interest in the future, and to ask such questions as
these: Is there a period and state between the death of the body and its
resurrection? Are the souls of men
conscious in that state? Have they
bodies in it? Or will they rather
receive bodies at some future time when the dead are raised? If there is to be a resurrection, will it be
of all the dead? When will it take
place? And will the righteous and wicked be raised at the same time? Are the spirits [disembodied souls] of [Page 10] good men happy and the
spirits [disembodied souls] of bad men miserable in the middle state? Have those of either class any sort of
intercourse with their friends here on earth?
It is easy to say that men need not concern themselves about such
matters, about the undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveller returns,
but a serious mind will not be satisfied with such an answer to its
questionings. It cannot live in the
present forgetful of the past and heedless of the future. Ever moving out of the past into the future,
its life lays hold at every moment of both.
And this is the glory of man. His
conservative and prophetic powers are alike wonderful, and his presentiment of
what is to be has quite as much to do with his character as his sense of what
has been. A different answer to these
questions is therefore needed.
But if the questions given above are to be answered in this
life, the answer must come from the word of God. A close and reverent study of the Scriptures
affords the only prospect of light. If
they speak, the wise will hear; if they are dumb, the wise will hearken to
none. Conjecture is vain; the veil which
hides the unseen world from the seen can be pierced by no mortal sight. The answers which philosophy has given to
questions about personal life beyond the grave, are
faint, ambiguous and unsatisfactory. [Page 11] The speculations of genius and the
voices of affection, whether showing us the gates
ajar or the gates wide open, are
utterly futile, except so far as they rest upon a sober interpretation of the
Bible.
Is it not because the evangelical pulpit and the religious
press have been so generally silent upon
these questions, or when they have, at long intervals, spoken, done so with an
air mysterious, in vague and unsatisfactory generalities, instead of developing
with clearness what Gods word teaches respecting them, that Spiritualism has
so generally and favourably gained the ear of the [Lords redeemed]
people? It comes in to gratify the
natural and reasonable cravings of the race by professing to answer these and
all other questions respecting the future, attesting the correctness of its
teachings by many infallible signs and wonders.
While the word of God reveals much to the diligent student,
sufficient to ground an intelligent and consistent faith upon, yet nothing to
gratify our curiosity, it is accounted one of its mysteries that, while it
reveals with such clearness the fact of a future life - inconceivably blissful
to the righteous and inexpressibly miserable to the wicked - it reveals so
little respecting the particulars of the souls existence. To many thoughtful and even devout minds this
has been [Page 12] a sore trial. It has required all
their grace off submission to acquiesce in this characteristic of
revelation. They have carried a hundred
questions to the Bible, and sought in vain for an answer to one of them. How did John Foster chafe, agonize, almost rebel under this limitation of our knowledge on a
subject in which our interest is so intense and personal! That dark frontier,
how did he walk out to its very verge and stand there gazing in the darkness in
which nothing could be seen, and uttering questions to which there was no
response, till, wearied with the fruitless effort, he turned away troubled and
disappointed! Few could record their
mental processes as John Foster did his, but many thousands have gone through
the same.
In discussing the questions before us, my answers will be
drawn solely from a fair interpretation of the Bible, for it is our only sure word of
prophecy and
light in all dark places. Possibly the
many superficial readers of the Scriptures will be astonished to see how clearly, and, to the devout mind how satisfactorily these questions are answered in the
word of God; not in any one chapter,
but, like all of its great doctrinal truths, here a little and there a
little, scattered
like the precious flakes of pure gold in the mine, with an occasional pocket
to stimulate and reward
the explorer.
* *
*
[Page
13]
CHAPTER II
DO DISEMBODIED SPIRITS BECOME ANGELS?
There does not exist, in the universal heaven, a
single angel who was created such from the first, nor any devil in hell who was
created an angel of light and afterwards cast down thither; but all the
inhabitants, both of heaven and hell are derived from the human race. (Swedenborg. Heaven
and Hell,
So far
as my information extends, Swedenborg correctly represents the faith of all advanced
Spiritists. Robert Dale Owen quotes him
with the greatest satisfaction. Dr. S.
Watson, in his recent work, The Christian
Spiritualist, teaches that all saints at death become angels. They do not attempt to prove their position
by either reason or revelation, but they assume it, contrary to both.
They are guilty of a fallacy termed by logicians the irrelevant
conclusion (ignoratio elenchi) -
their conclusion has no reference to their premises!
Their argument, reduced to a
syllogism amounts to this:
1. Angels have communicated and do
minister unto the living.
2. All angels are the spirits of
departed persons.
[Page 14]
3. Therefore, the spirits of departed
persons do minister unto and
communicate with the living.
There are two formidable objections to be urged against this
reasoning. While the first premise is
admitted, the second is denied,
and is the very one which they are required to prove; but instead of doing
so, they assume it as true. But even if the second premise were granted,
the conclusion would not follow, for although angels have, in other ages, communicated with the living, it
does not follow that they still do so.
The first ministers of the Christian religion performed miracles -
healed the sick and raised the dead - but it does not follow that they can do
such things now.
They do not - they cannot perform them.
So, while it is true that in former ages God made revelations of his
will and of the future by the ministry of angels, it does not follow that he
still is doing so, for the Bible teaches us that all such revelations closed
with the last inspired apostle. As this
assumption is alike the foundation of both Spiritism and Swedenborgianism, I
examine it in the out-start. I affirm that the Scriptures clearly teach THAT DISEMBODIED SOULS DO NOT BECOME ANGELS. My proofs are.
1. All angels, good and bad, that have ever been created, so far as the Bible intimates,
were created before man, and even before the creation of our planetary system.
[Page 15]
God declares to Job that, upon the upon
the creation of our earth the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.* These morning stars and sons of God were the angels, and, therefore, all the angels of God
existed before man was created, and could not have been the spirits of dead men,
as Swedenborg and Spiritists affirm. To
deny that angels existed before man was created, is to deny the teachings of
the Bible; but according to Spiritists there could not have been an angel until
a mortal had died, if, indeed, all angels are derived from the human race! The spirit of Abel must have been the first
angel that ever existed. Then these
questions arise: Whence came and where lived and died as human beings, those
angels called morning stars and sons of God, who rejoiced with God over a virgin
world?
* Job 38: 7.
And where lived and died as a man, that malignant devil who
seduced our first parents? And where lived and died the uncounted host of his angels? Does the word of God intimate that he and
they as human beings ever lived on this or any other world in Gods
universe? Nowhere; but it does inform us
that they were once angels who kept not their first estate, and are now reserved for
punishment. Angels
originally, not men, now fallen angels, not fallen men. [Page
16] And these bright
holy beings, called Cherubim, who were sent to guard the way of the tree of
life, when our first parents sinned, were an order of angels. Where did they as human beings live and sin
and die, for the Bible tells us that no mortal ever did or ever can reach
heaven, except through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus? I think these facts are of themselves quite
sufficient to disprove the unfounded assumption that all angels, good and bad,
are derived from the human race.
2. Angels are a superior order of intelligences,
and not subject to the same laws or
conditions with mortals.
David, by inspiration, says: What is man that thou art mindful of him, or
the son of man that thou visitest him, for thou
hast made him a little lower than the angels, etc.* The angels
are, then, distinct from and superior to man.
They are vastly superior to man in strength, for they excel in
strength;** and equally superior to the
disembodied spirits [and souls] of men.
* Psa. 8: 4,
5. ** Psa. 103:
20.
They are pure spirits, existing in their normal condition,
dependent upon no future change of bodily organism to increase their efficacy
or happiness. Man, on the contrary, is
in an abnormal condition and his
perfection and [Page 17] complete happiness depend upon the resurrection and
glorification of his present body [and soul]. No
resurrection awaits, or is possible, to an angel. If all saints are transformed into holy
angels at death, then no resurrection awaits a saint; and this position, therefore,
denies the fundamental doctrine of a resurrection.
3. Angels are a distinct order from men.
The distinction between angels and the souls of departed
saints is clearly recognized throughout the entire Scriptures. But if all saints become angels at their
death, then in the future world there is, and ever will be, but one order - i.e., that of
angels only - and no saints would be known or mentioned. But when Christ comes to earth again, the
sacred Scriptures declare two orders of beings will attend him; all his [raptured]* saints will come with him, and,
besides these, ten thousand times ten thousand,
and thousands of thousands of his angels, also,
to grace his advent. Angels, then, are distinct from saints.
[* NOTE.
This rapture only embraces watchful saints, regarded
worthy to escape before the Great Tribulation begins,
(Lk. 21: 34-35; Rev. 3: 10,
R.V.) See G. H. Langs exposition of the pre-tribulation rapture in his Firstfruits And Harvest.
- Ed.]
4. Finally and
conclusively, if we credit the Bible, no mortal will ever reach heaven
except redeemed by the precious blood of
Christ.
But no angel in heaven ever was, and no angel in heaven ever
will be, the subject of redemption by Christ; and, therefore, it is impossible
for any one to believe that angels are the spirits [or disembodied souls] of dead saints. Any one of these
demonstrable [Page 18] facts, which no believer in the Bible can deny and
rightly claim to be a believer, is
sufficient to disprove the position of Swedenborg, Owen, Watson, and all
Spiritists, that all angels, good and bad, are but the spirits of dead
men. To teach that they are, is to deny
two of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, which no one can deny and not
be an infidel - i.e., the Atonement of Christ, and the Resurrection of the dead.*
Therefore, while all intelligent Christians do believe that all angels
are ministering spirits, sent forth to minister unto those who are to be heirs
of salvation, they do not believe that angels, good or bad, are the spirits of
dead men.
[* NOTE.
It is the animating spirit of man which
returns to God at the time of Death (Luke 23:
46); and, at the same time, the disembodied
soul descends into Sheol = Gk. Hades, - in the
heart of the earth (Matt. 12: 40). The soul is the person, not the body: and the
soul cannot ascend into the presence of God in heaven before the
time of Resurrection. Only then
will it be reunited to an immortal, glorified,
resurrected body from the grave.
Any other method or route into Heaven, before the time of RESURRECTION, is contrary to the
teachings of Christ and His Apostles, (Lk. 24: 39; 2 Tim. 2: 18; 1 Thess. 4: 14, 16, R.V.)! - Ed.]
The only passage known to me in the
Bible that seems to imply that saints become angels after death, is to be found
in Matt. 22:
24, where Christ declares that those who
will have part in the first resurrection, and with Christ inherit and rule the
earth are in one respect like unto the angels of God, i.e., they neither marry
nor are given in marriage.* The marriage relation is unknown to them, for the command is no
longer to them to multiply and replenish the earth.
[* Luke
20: 36.]
But in no other respect are they like
unto the angels of God. They have not
the same natures: they have not the same bodies, nor yet the same relation to
Christ, nor the same employments, nor can they, or will they ever sing the same
song.
* *
*
[Page 19]
CHAPTER III
The next
question which naturally follows
the one just considered, is: Do SAINTS GO TO HEAVEN WHEN THEY DIE?
That all saints do go to heaven immediately after death is a
sentiment almost universally preached from our pulpits in this age, and
especially upon all funeral occasions.
It is sung in the songs of all our worshipping assemblies, and in our
Sunday-schools. It is deeply bedded in
our religious thoughts, and has become an unquestioned article of our faith,
and the sentiment with which
our prayers are closed.
The one who
will presume to question it, arrays against him the prejudices of the entire
community. The fathers have preached it
for generations, and it will be taken unkindly for their soundness to be
suspected. Children have received it
from their fathers, and their prejudices are all arrayed in its favour. But it is intimately connected with this
discussion, and I hazard a candid, scriptural investigation of it, - severely as I must suffer
for it from the hands of my friends who have accepted [Page
20] the faith of others
without, I believe, a careful personal examination.
Let us look unto it.
1.
Heaven is, unquestionably, a place, not
a mere state.
The Scriptures recognize three heavens.
First, the region of the air through which the birds fly;
hence we read of the fowls of heaven, the dew
of heaven, the clouds of heaven, etc.
Second, the firmament above the
clouds, in which the sun, moon and stars seem to be fixed; hence the sun in
the midst of the heavens, the stars shall fall
from heaven, etc.
Third, the third heaven, the high and holy place, of which the
Jewish holy of holies was a type, the place of Gods special abode, the centre and metropolis of the universe, in which the
Omnipresent Deity affords a nearer and more immediate view of his perfections
and more sensible manifestations of his glory than in the other parts of the
divine kingdom. It is from this
place that Gods messengers come to earth on their missions of love, and to
which they return. The Lord hath
prepared his throne in the heavens, etc.; the Lord is in his holy temple, the Lords throne is in heaven.
Thus saith the Lord: The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.
That place called heaven may [Page 21] be the grand central orb around which all the countless
suns, with their systems, in the whole universe, revolve as our planetary
system revolves around its sun. This orb
might justly be called the heaven of heavens. There is no fancy in this
position.
2. We are taught,
that nothing incomplete, imperfect or un-glorified can enter or dwell in heaven
in the presence of the Holy One. All its
inhabitants must be perfect -
glorified in these respects like him, that they may see him as he is.
3. The Scriptures also teach us that
the dwellers in the presence of God are the recipients of the fulness of joy, and of pleasures forevermore, of
uninterrupted and inexpressible bliss - hope lost in a boundless fruition.
All such must be fully redeemed - perfected, glorified and satisfied. They can certainly look forward to no future change, as
respects their bodies, which will add to their perfection or happiness.
If these
positions be correct, It is evident that Christians do
not go to heaven when they die, for SAINTS, AT
THEIR DEATH, ARE NOT FULLY REDEEMED. Their bodies, as well as their souls are embraced in the
covenant of redemption. They must be
redeemed from the effects of sin, from the power of death and the dominion of the grave, purified and glorified,
made like unto [Page 22] Christs glorious body, that they may be fitted for
the presence of the great King.
This
change in the body of a saint does not take place at his death, and therefore,
no saint at his death is prepared to dwell in the presence of God [in Heaven].
Not until the second coming of Christ [with the exception of those who will be changed and rapt alive
into heaven at the pre-tribulation rapture (Lk. 21: 34-36; Rev. 3: 10, R.V.)] will the body of any [dead] saint be redeemed from corruption of
the grave and glorified: and even at that time not all will be so redeemed, but only those who sleep in Jesus with those who are
living upon the earth when he comes [to resurrect the holy dead at the end of
the Great Tribulation].
But the whole number of the saved will not be redeemed or perfected
until the close of the millennial age, during which time millions will be
converted and saved through the ministry of the sainted priests of Christ. The saints of all the ages past died in the
firm faith that at some future period, not revealed to them, their bodies would
be ransomed [Page 23] from the power of death, vindicated from the disgrace
of the grave, and made like unto Christs glorious body, when, and not until
then, they would be fully redeemed, made complete and glorified. They are represented as resting in this
hope. David says: Therefore my
heart is glad and my flesh shall also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt
not leave my soul in hades [the unseen world of the dead]; neither wilt thou suffer thy
Holy One to see corruption.* He believed that he would be ransomed
from the grave to an immortal and glorious life, of which the resurrection of
Christ - of whom he himself was a type - was a pledge. He further expresses his faith: As for me, I shall behold thy
face in righteousness; I will be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.** This certainly implies that David did
not expect to be perfected or satisfied, until he did awake in the likeness of
his Redeemer - until his resurrection from the grave [and of his soul from Sheol / Hades].
If David is not perfected or satisfied he certainly cannot be in
heaven. But heaven was not promised to David
in the covenant God made to him, nor a perfected salvation, or fulness of joy
in heaven at his death; but God did promise him a resurrection from the grave
[and Hades] to an immortal life in the presence of his Son and Lord, whom God
promised to raise up to sit upon his throne. David declared that in this promise was all his
salvation and all his desire. He has not yet entered
upon the enjoyment of a promised blessing, but, like the saints who lived
before him, his flesh rests in hope.
* Psalm 16: 9, 10. cf. Acts 2: 27-34, R.V. ** Psa. 17: 15
Peter, in his memorable sermon on the day of Pentecost,* found it
necessary to explain the two remarkable prophecies of David concerning Christ
to his Jewish hearers. The first - i.e.,
thou wilt not leave my soul in hell [sheol];
neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption.** Peter taught them.
David spoke [Page 24] concerning Christ, and not concerning himself, only as
a type of Christ. It certainly was not true
of Davids body, for he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre containing
his corrupted body is with us unto this day.
* Acts 2: 34. ** Psa. 16:
10.
And touching his second prophecy:* The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool, was also spoken of Christ, whom God
raised up and exalted at his right hand.
This could not have been spoken of Davids soul, for David hath
not yet ascended unto heaven. If Davids soul had
been exalted at the right hand of God in heaven, though his fleshy garment was
left behind, Peter could not have said in this connection David is not
ascended unto the heavens.
* Psalm
110: 1.
If David is not in heaven, we must conclude no other saint is
there. It would not be meet for some to be there and not all.
In Hebrews 11 we find this
position clearly substantiated. Paul, in
referring to the illustrious company of martyrs witnesses of the faith from
Abel down to the last one slain under the old dispensation, says: And these all
received not the promise; God having provided some better thing for us, that they
without us should not be made perfect.
If they went to heaven when they died,
as it is so generally preached now that
all saints do, [Page 25] then they must have been perfected without us, and
they must have obtained the Promise, and have for thousands of years been
enjoying the fulness of joy in the presence of God without us. But this is not the teachings of Gods word. They, having fulfilled their mission -
witnessed the faith, have entered a state of rest, where they wait a little
while for their perfect conditions, which will be consummated when the last
saint has testified and suffered as they had; and then all will be perfected,
glorified, and receive the promise together.
The marginal reference directs us to Rev. 6: 9, in corroboration of this: And when he had opened the fifth seal,
I saw, under the altar,
the souls of them that were slain for the word of God
and for the testimony which they held; and they
cried with a loud voice [indicative of great anxiety and impatience], How long, O Lord,
holy and true, dost thou
not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were
given unto every one of them, and it was said unto
them that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also, and their brethren that should he killed as they had been,
should be fulfilled.
These martyrs included all whom Paul mentioned in Hebrews 11, as well as all who had been slain when the fifth seal was opened,
which was but a short time before Christs second coming, [Page
26] for the advent is introduced at the breaking of the
next seal, and it was said unto these anxious, impatient waiters that they were
to rest for only a little season longer.
All these -
the most illustrious saints that ever lived on this earth - had not ascended
into heaven, but had for ages been impatiently waiting in a comparatively
depressed state, indicated by their being seen, not at the right hand of God,
in the most holy place, but under the altar of sacrifice, which was placed in
the court, but never in the holy of holies - the type of heaven itself.
They were in an imperfect, un-glorified, and consequently, in an unsatisfied condition. This state could not have been heaven.
Now, if not one of the most illustrious saints who ever lived
on earth - who laid down his life for Jesus - is permitted to be perfected and
glorified, or to enter heaven itself at death, can we believe, unless the
Scriptures expressly declare it, that those who have never suffered and who
deserve so much less, are there, and go directly there now, from earth daily?
There is, also, an oft used figure of speech of great
significancy, found throughout the Bible, and especially in the New Testament,
which, if I understand it, is conclusive in the settlement of this
question. The church of Christ, which,
in this sense, embraces the whole number of the saved, is spoken of as the
(betrothed) bride of [Page 27] Christ, and which he will one day bring into his
Fathers house and present her before the King complete, perfected and
glorified, and after this the marriage will be celebrated and she will become
his wife. To make clear
this beautiful figure, it may be well to refer the reader to the marriage
customs of the ancient Jews. The first act was the betrothal, which was celebrated by a
feast. Between the betrothal and the
marriage an interval elapsed, varying from a few days to a full year.* During this period the bride
elect lived with her friends, and all communication between herself and her
future husband was carried on through the medium of a friend deputed for the
purpose, termed the friend the bridegroom.** She was now
virtually regarded as the wife of her future husband. Hence, unfaithfulness on
her part was punishable with death,*** the husband having the option of putting her away.**** The essence of the marriage ceremony consisted in the removal of the bride from
her fathers house to that of the bridegroom or his fathers. The bride makes herself
ready. The bath, with perfumes, precedes
her attiring in robes of purest white linen, sometimes embroidered with gold
thread and jewels. When the fixed hour
arrives, the bridegroom sets forth [Page 28] from his or his fathers house, attended by
his companions, the children of the bride-chamber, preceded by a band of
musicians and singers, and a procession suitable to his rank. Having reached the house of the bride, who is
anxiously expecting his arrival, he conducts the whole party back to his
fathers house, with every demonstration of joy, when the presentation, and
then the marriage is celebrated with protracted
festivities.+
* Gen. 24:
53. ** John 3: 29.
*** Deut. 22:
23, 24.
**** Matt. 1: 19; Deut. 24: 1. + See Smiths
Bible Dictionary, art. Marriage.
The bride of Christ is aptly termed the Kings daughter. The following are some of the allusions to
Christs bride: The Kings daughter is all glorious within! Her clothing is of
wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the King in
raiment of needlework. The virgins - her companions
- that follow her, shall be brought unto thee. With gladness and
rejoicing shall they be brought; they shall
enter into the Kings palace.* Let us be glad and rejoice, and
give honour to him; for the marriage supper of
the lamb is come and the bride hath made herself ready, and to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine
linen, clean and bright; for the linen is the righteousness of the saints. And he saith unto me,
write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of
the [Page 29] Lamb.** Husbands, love your wives as Christ
loved the church and gave himself for it; that
he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it
should be holy and without blemish [defect of any
description].*** Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to
present you faultless before the presence of his glory, etc.+ But this presentation of the
church-bride unto Christ by his friend, and of his bride unto his father, when
he shall have brought her, in her perfected and all glorious condition into the
Kings palace, manifestly cannot take place until she is complete in all the members of her body - until
the last sinner is saved and glorified. If a portion of the
saved were presented before the Father - brought into the Kings palace, the
bride could not be said to be prepared - all glorious, without blemish, spot or
winkle, or any such thing. She would be
incomplete, a deformed and disgusting personage. Therefore I feel warranted in the conclusion
that no saint has gone, or will go to heaven;
but, as a component member of the body of that bride, will, with all the
members, be presented together with that body, which will be at the close of
the millennial age.
* Psa. 45:
13-15. ** Rev.
19: 7-10. *** Eph. 5: 25. + Jude 24.
[Page
30]
These, with many other
passages of similar import, are conclusive to my mind that no saint as yet ascended
to heaven, and it is evident that no sinner has descended into the lake of
fire; the Devil himself is not yet consigned to the final prison-house of woe;
and a very good reason why they have not - neither sinners nor Satan have had
their trial; the final judgment awaits them, and then penal fires. The reader that the demons were alarmed upon
a time, fearing that Jesus had come to torment them before the time and they besought him not to command
them to go away into the abyss, but to permit them to remain in the country.
I conclude the evidence upon this
question with the express declaration of Christ to Nicodemus.*
*John
3.
NO ONE HATH ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN BUT THE SON OF MAN WHO IS IN
HEAVEN.
This alone will sufficient to every devout
mind. If no mortal had then entered
heaven, I am satisfied that no one has since.
Enoch and Elijah were translated, but not necessarily to the third
heaven - the presence of the Most Holy, else what shall we do with the
declaration of Paul, and with the unmistakable one of Jesus - referred to - NO MAN HATH ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN?
* * *
[Page
31]
Chapter IV
IS THERE TO BE A RESURRECTION
OF THE DEAD?
The
settlement of this question here, before we consider the condition of men after death, is of
the first importance, because it is a question fundamental both to Christianity
and to Spiritism. If there is to be no
resurrection of the dead, then I renounce my belief
in Christianity and the Bible, and stand prepared to embrace any system of
religion or philosophy that is calculated to promote the highest welfare of
society and the race here, leaving the Future to the Fates.
Paul, the inspired apostle, presented this selfsame
alternative to the Greek Christians when the doctrine of the resurrection of
the dead was denied by the philosophers, scientists and infidels of that age,
as it is by these self-same classes now. He states it in the form of a
DOUBLE HYPOTHETICAL SORITES
1. If the dead rise not,
2. Then is Christ not risen,
[Page 32]
3. If Christ be not risen,
4. Then is our preaching in vain.
5. (If so) Your
faith is also vain.
6. (If so) We are found false witnesses before
God (because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ, whom he raised not
up if the dead rise not).
7. (If so) All
that have died in this hope have perished.
8.
And ye are yet in your
sins.
But by this form of argument, any one who can affirm that he
is not in his sins, unforgiven and unjustified, can affirm each preceding
proposition.
The reader can see that according to the Bible itself, if we deny the one doctrine of the
resurrection of the dead, we deny Christ and the entire system of Christianity
and the Bible as the word of God.
With the fall of this doctrine falls the entire system of
Christianity. No man living can hold the
Bible as Gods word, or Christ as Gods Son, and deny
the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead.
The truth of the Bible and of the divinity of Christ hinge upon the fact of a resurrection. A man may be a professed friend of
Christ, a preacher of Christianity, still, if Paul is to be credited he is an
infidel, to all intents and purposes, and
should be so recognized, if he denies [Page 33] the doctrine of the resurrection of
the dead - all the dead.
But if there is, indeed, to be a
resurrection of the dead, then modern Spiritism is false, for the system is
based upon the assumption, that there is no resurrection
of the dead, the very
assertion of the infidel Greeks.* I say assumption, because it is assumed without even
an attempt at proof. Swedenborg mocks
at the idea of a resurrection. Robert
Dale Owen denies the doctrine. Dr.
Samuel Watson can find no place for it in his system of Christian Spiritualism.(?) All Spiritists agree in rejecting it. They are compelled to give up their faith or
deny it.
* 1 Cor. 15: 12.
Will not the reader patiently and
without prejudice, if possible, examine with me this important question: IS THERE A RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD?
Some, who profess to believe in a
future resurrection so interpret the term itself as to make it mean something
quite different from the raising up of the bodies of the dead. The passage have quoted from Paul fortunately
explains what the Holy Spirit meant by the act indicated to the Greek by the
term, exanastasis, for he
uses the same term to express the fact of Christs resurrection, and
the fact of the resurrection [of those deemed worthy]* from the dead.
According to
the testimony of the [Page 34] evangelists, the
body which was laid in Josephs tomb was the self-same body that was reanimated
and raised up and reunited with his divinity, making Him identical with the
Christ who was put to death three days before.
He identified himself to the senses of His disciples during the period
of forty days by infallible proofs. The
Holy Spirit teaches us, by this term and the illustration of it in the case of
the raising up of Christ, that the bodies stricken down by the sword of death
will be, at the time appointed, reanimated and raised up and reunited to the selfsame souls that
once animated them. The Greek could not interpret the
term of any other action. In the whole
range of Greek literature it means nothing but to make, to stand or rise up, an awaking or
restoration to a former condition, the reanimation of a dead body. Their poets and orators invariably used it when
speaking of raising the dead to life. It
is a well established fact, that the anastasis of the dead was the
central and grandest truth taught and illustrated in the ancient Eleusinian
mysteries as well as in the Druidic rites.
Says Algar:
All the mysteries were
funereal. This is the most striking
single phenomenon connected with them.
They invariably began in darkness with groans and tears, but as
invariably ended in festive triumph with shouts and smiles. In them all were a symbolic death, a mournful
entombment, and a glad resurrection. We
know this from the abundant direct testimony of unimpeachable ancient writers,
and also from their indirect descriptions of the ceremonies and allusions to
them. For example, Apuleius
says: The delivery of the mysteries is celebrated as a thing resembling a
voluntary death; the initiate, being, after a manner, born again, is restored
to a new life. Indeed, all who describe
the course of initiation agree in declaring that the aspirant was juried for a
time within some narrow space, a typical coffin or grave. This testimony is confirmed by the evidence
of the ruins of the chief temples and sacred places of the Pagan world. These abound with spacious caverns,
labyrinthine passages and curious recesses; and in connection them is always
found some excavation evidently fitted to enclose a human form. Such hollow beds, covered with flat stones
easily removed, are still to be seen amid the Druidic remains of Britain and
Gaul, as well as in nearly every spot where tradition has located the
celebration of the Mysteries - in Greece, India, Persia, Egypt.*
[* Compare Luke
20: 35 with
Phil. 3: 11,
where the preposition ex is attached to anastasis.]
* Copious instances are given in Olivers History
of Initiation, in Fabers Origin of Pagan
Idolatry, and in Maurices Indians Antiquities.
The ancient Mysteries
but copied in their [Page 36] principal ceremony the mysterious ordination
and followed the overawing spirit of Nature herself. The religious reserve and awe about the
entrance into the adytum of their traditions, were like
those about the entrance into the invisible scenes beyond the veils of time and
mortality. Their initiation was but a
miniature and feeble symbol of the great initiation through which, and that
upon impartial terms, every mortal, from King Solomon to the idiot pauper, must
sooner or later pass to immortality.
When a fit applicant, after the preliminary probation, kneels with
fainting sense and pallid brow before the veil of the unutterable Unknown, and
the last pulsations of his heart tap at the door of eternity, and he
reverentially asks admission to partake in the secrets and benefits forever
shrouded from the profane vision of sinful flesh, the infinite Hierophant
directs the call to be answered by Death, the speechless and solemn steward of
the celestial Mysteries. He comes,
pushes the curtain aside, leads the awe-struck initiate in, takes the blinding
bandage of the body from his soul; and straightway the trembling neophyte
receives light in the midst of this innumerable Fraternity of Immortals over
whom the Supreme Author of the Universe presides.
The most striking representations of the ancient mysteries
symbolized the doctrine of the anastasis. When Zagreus is torn in pieces, [Page
37] his heart is
preserved alive by Zerus and born again into the world within a human
form. After the body of Osiris had been strewn
piece-meal throughout the whole earth, the fragments were fondly
gathered by
Nor can we understand anything else from the Scriptures but
that the matter which composed our bodies, however disorganized and scattered,
though diffused over all the earth, will be preserved by the omniscient and
almighty God, and by that power regathered, reorganized, reanimated and
spiritualized, and so made a glorious body, suited in all respects to the
conditions of our future existence.
As I have before remarked, I am discussing this subject with
those who believe the Bible to be Gods infallible revelation to the race.
I claim that the existence of God himself is not more clearly
taught in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, than the doctrine of
the resurrection of our bodies from the grave, not the creation of new bodies
for our souls.
* * *
[Page
38]
CHAPTER V
IS THERE TO BE A RESURRECTION
OF THE DEAD?
Old Testament Proof
There is
a tradition that when Gamaliel,
a learned doctor of the law, was appealed to for the clear and unmistakable
passage in all Jewish Scriptures to prove the doctrine of the resurrection of
the dead, he said: The covenant of circumcision which God made with our Father
Abraham.
Many of my readers have given little or no attention to the
provisions of that covenant, and the proof referred to would not appear to
them. Let us examine it briefly:
Prominent among the promises made to Abraham, was that of the land of Canaan
for an everlasting*
possession - And I will give unto thee, and
thy seed after thee, the land of Canaan, wherein thou art a stranger, all
the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession.** I am the Lord that brought thee out of
[* That is, for as long as this earth will
last. ]
** Gen. 15:
7, 8.
[*** The only scriptural answer to this
question is found by comparing Peters words in Acts
10: 34, 35:
Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of
persons: but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness,
is acceptable to him, - with Matt. 5: 20: For I say unto you
(disciples vv.
1, 2) that except your righteousness shall
exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter the kingdom of the
heavens. Here is an undisclosed
standard of the disciples righteousness required for an entrance into
Christs/Messiahs coming millennial kingdom: Psalms 2: 8; 45: 6; 72. & 110: 1-3, 6, etc..] + Acts 7: 5. [# NOTE.
It
is not said, that Abraham should inherit the land in his seed;
but that he AND his seed should possess it. All the land which
thou seest, to THEE will I give it,
and to thy seed for ever: Gen. 13: 15. Besides, if so, the Scriptures could not
assert, that Abraham had never received the land. On that supposition, he has
received it in the persons of his representatives; which was
all that was promised. The covenant of Gen 15, moreover, confirms the land to CHRIST as Abrahams
individual Heir; and no subsequent engagement of God can make void: Gal. 3: 17. But
Christ has never possessed the land. (R. Govett.) Here is what Peter means by the words, to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never stumble: for
thus shall be richly supplied unto you an entrance into the eternal (Gk.
aionian) kingdom of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ: (2 Pet.
1: 10, 11, R.V.).]
Christ declares that Moses understood this, and taught it in
his writings, and it was by this interpretation of the covenant of circumcision
that Christ confounded the Sadducees who denied the doctrine of the
resurrection, but professed to believe in the covenant of circumcision. Said Christ to them: Now that the dead are raised,
even Moses showed at the bush when he calleth the Lord
the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob.
For he is not the God of the
dead but of the living, for all live unto him.* He was the covenant God of these patriarchs, and that
covenant promised and secured to them a resurrection [out] from the dead,** [into an inheritance in the land], and eternal life; for unless they were raised from the dead, the provisions of that covenant could never be fulfilled to
them. I have dwelt at some length upon
this, as it seems to throw light upon THE COVENANT WITH DAVID.
* See Luke
20: 37. [* Compare Luke
20: 35 with Phil.
3: 11, Heb. 11: 35b, and Rev. 20: 4-6.]
This I bring forward as another proof
of the [Page 42] doctrine of the resurrection. The
explanation of the covenant made with Abraham will answer for this.* The clause to which I call attention is this: And thy house [family] and thy kingdom shall be established forever
before thee; thy throne shall be established forever.
This was likewise a promise to
David of a resurrection from [sheol / Gk. hades and] the grave to an immortal, glorious and blissful life, when his Son, Christ, should sit upon Davids
throne in
* Read 2
Samuel 7: 11-16.
[** Phil. 3:
11.] ***Acts 15: 16.
+ 2 Sam. 23:
3-5. ++ Psa.
16: 11.
We find the fact of a resurrection - an awakening of the dead -
clearly announced to Daniel: And many that sleep in
the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and
some to shame and everlasting contempt.* There is no mistaking this
language. All the pious Jews believed that
a future resurrection was a clearly revealed fact in their Scriptures. Martha, the sister of Lazarus, in reply to
the declaration of Jesus, Thy brother shall rise again, answered, I know that he shall rise again on the resurrection of the
last day. The hope of
* Dan. 12: 2. [*
The word righteous is better, for many understand by the just as referring
to all
who are justified by faith alone! Not all regenerate believers will rise out from the dead (Phil.
3: 11),
at the time of the First Resurrection (Rev. 20: 4-6).]
*
* *
[Page
44]
CHAPTER VI
IS THERE TO BE A RESURRECTION
OF THE DEAD?
New Testament Proofs.
When we turn to the New Testament we find the fact clearly and
unmistakably announced by Christ himself. He declared his power to raise the soul of man from a state of death to a new
and higher life - As the Father raiseth up the dead
and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth
whom he will.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is
coming, and now is, when the dead [in trespasses and in sins] shall hear the voice of the
Son of God, and they that hear shall live.
This, undoubtedly, alludes to the quickening and regeneration of the soul - dead in trespasses
and in sins; which process Christ calls a resurrection. But he alludes to the resurrection of the
body [as well as the soul] as something different, and to them, perhaps, more marvellous. Marvel not at this; for the hour is coming [he omits the clause and now is, which places the transaction at some
future time] in
which all that are in their graves [Page 45] shall hear his voice and shall come forth; they that have done good, to
the resurrection of Life [referred to in Daniel], and they that have done evil, unto the
resurrection of damnation. Critical translators
render it, to the resurrection of judgment, which agrees
with Rev. 20:
5, 15. There is no judgment awaiting,
[after]* the resurrection of the righteous
dead; their sins have gone before them to judgment - been blotted out, and so
their judgment is past. Here the fact of
a general [select] resurrection**
is clearly taught, and that it will be of two classes of persons, differing in
character, at different times, as we shall see.
[* Heb. 9:
27:
it is
appointed unto men once to die,
and after this
cometh judgment,
R.V,.
Therefore, the judgment, which will take place after the time of death,
will determine what souls from amongst the
dead in Hades, will rise at the First Resurrection to reign with
Christ a thousand years. (Rev. 20: 4, R.V.).
** It is a resurrection of reward. See Luke 14:
14. cf. Luke
20: 35; Phil.
3: 11; Heb. 11: 35b, R.V,.]
Paul, more circumstantially than any other apostle, explains
the resurrection of the sainted dead, and the rapture and change of the living
saints at or near the coming of Christ, to the brethren at Thessalonica, who
were sorrowing for their departed friends: But I would
not have you to he 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
[precede] them which are asleep. For the Lord himself
shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the
voice [Page
46] 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.*
* 1 Thess. 4:
13, 17. [** NOTE. The apostle does not say: ALL the dead in Christ shall
rise first! Multitudes of
regenerate Christians, by reading into the Apostles statement here, have
misinterpreted other passages of Holy Scripture which speak of a select
resurrection of reward, which the Apostle Paul hoped to attain, (Phil.
3: 11). That is to gain by effort
(a dictionary definition.), - out from the dead!
Brethren, I am a Pharisee, he said, a
son of Pharisees: concerning the HOPE and a resurrection of dead ones I
am being judged: (Acts 23: 6, lit Greek.)
Since all the dead will be resurrected, sooner or later (Rev. 20:
13), Pauls HOPE was that he might be accounted worthy to rise at the First Resurrection a thousand
years before the general resurrection and the Great White Throne
Judgment, (Rev. 20:
11, 12,
R.V.,). How often we hear of the
Christians HOPE being a certainty!]
I cannot better develop the teachings of this and a cognate
passage in Corinthians than Dr. Hovey has done. He says.
Here, it will he observed by the student,
first, that Paul uses just the same word to express the fact of Christs
resurrection and the fact of the resurrection of the dead in Christ; second,
that, according to the apostles teachings elsewhere, the resurrection of Christ was the reanimation of his body and its
re-union with his soul; for he appeals, in proof of his resurrection, to
men who had identified him by their senses during the forty days before he was
taken up; third, that the resurrection of the
dead in Christ had not taken place when Paul
wrote this letter. They were then asleep, and both the descent of Christ from heaven and
their resurrection to meet him in the air were future events;
fourth, that the resurrection of the dead in Christ would take place before the
living would be caught up in clouds;*
and fifth, that the apostle professes to speak in
the word of the Lord; in other words, he
claims to have [Page 47] received the revelation which he was making
from the Lord himself. Now it must be conceded
that these particulars show that
believers in Christ did not, in the first age of the church, receive their
glorified bodies immediately after death, but were to receive them at the
second appearing of Christ.
[* 1 Thess. 4: 15.]
But it will be noticed that this
passage says nothing plainly in respect to a change in the bodies of saints who
may be yet alive at the coming of the Lord.
Possibly a change of some sort may be implied in their being caught up
in clouds to meet the Lord in the air and remain forever with him; but no
change is distinctly foretold. Yet this
omission is supplied by the apostles words in 1
Cor. 15: 22, 23, 25, words which are very
clear and emphatic: For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ [i.e., those who are
found in Christ] shall all be made alive; but every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruit;
afterward they that are Christs at his
coming [no resurrection of the wicked - those out of Christ {i.e., those not accounted worthy, (Lk. 20: 35)}* - here]. 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.
[* See on the website: An Important Text (2) by G. H. Lang. Ed.]
These words
either confirm or complement [Page 48] those given above from his first Epistle to the Thessalonians:
First, they confirm the doctrine of a
resurrection of the pious dead; a resurrection by which the spirits [i.e., the disembodied souls] of the departed will be clothed with
bodies, in some sense identical with those laid in the grave, yet so changed as
to be incorruptible and immortal; second, they also confirm the statement that
the resurrection of the pious dead will take place at the last trumpet, an event certainly
future, in the judgment of Paul; third, they add to this teaching the important
truth that all believers in Christ will be changed, whether they die or
not. And, as the whole chapter proves,
that change will be made in the body, that
the same may be a fit and perfect organ of the spirit [and soul] forever.
There are many who absolutely deny the resurrection of the dead while they profess to hold
and teach it, as Unitarians claim to believe in Jesus as the Messiah, while
they deny his divinity! These hold that
a literal resurrection and there can be no other than a literal resurrection of
these bodies - is a physical impossibility; that we must understand the term as
used phenomenally, as we do the
phrase the sun rises and the sun sets, &c.; it does in appearance, but not in fact. If this is so, then instead of a resurrection it is a
new creation, and the Holy Spirit, who verbally inspired the word, is justly [Page 49] chargeable with deception,
and in knowingly selecting a word to
convey a false impression, when another was at hand that would have conveyed a
correct one. Pauls language everywhere
employed to teach the Greek reading world, could have conveyed no other meaning
than a quickening of our mortal bodies laid in the grave, and
not the creation of new and entirely different bodies. He used the term anastasis, which
can be construed to mean nothing else.
But he did more, he explained it in language that cannot be
misunderstood, by using this language: But if the spirit of him who raised
up Christ from the dead, dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead SHALL ALSO QUICKEN YOUR MORTAL BODIES by his spirit that dwelleth
In you; i.e.,
these mortal bodies are to be quickened - not others created for us out of like
elements which they were created by the power of the Holy Spirit. This should settle the question forever.
Paul elsewhere explains it: It [the body at death] is sown in corruption, it [that body which was sown] is raised in
incorruption; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is
sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it
is raised a spiritual body.* The process of changing the elements
of the [Page 50] former body, when raised up from earthly to a spiritual body, may take place in the
act of reorganization; but this does not militate against the fact of a raising
up of the matter of the body that was sown.
The new, glorious, spiritual, powerful body,
will differ from the old one as one star differeth from another star in glory.
*1 Cor. 15: 44.
But there is another fact that weighs with a determining force
in settling this question. When Paul
preached the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead to the learned Grecians,
they mocked. I ask why did he not
explain it to them as our modern would-be-thought-scholars do to those who
advocate a resurrection instead of a New Creation? Gentlemen, you
misunderstand me, I do not mean a resurrection really, but only phenomenally - in appearance. Would they then have
mocked any more than Scientists do now, when an appearance is only
claimed? But Paul did not so explain his
meaning, which he should have done if he did not mean a resurrection, but
simply referred it to Gods Omnipotence and left it there. Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God
should raise the dead? God
can do it? and if he has promised he will do it.
By reference to the last revelation
made by Jesus Christ to his churches, through an angel to John, on the Isle of
Patmos, we learn that the [Page
51] resurrection of the righteous [i.e., not meaning those
who were justified by grace, by means of the imputed righteous
of Christ, but by the righteous acts of the saints
(Rev. 19:
8, R.V.,)] will precede that of
the wicked* by ONE THOUSAND YEARS. And I saw
thrones, and they [saints - Daniel 7: 27] sat upon them and judgment was given unto them; and I saw
the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and
which [i.e., Toitines - whosoever]
had not
worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had
received his mark upon their foreheads, or in
their hands; and they lived and reigned with
Christ one thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand
years were finished. This is the first
resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first
resurrection; on such the second death hath no
power, but they [i.e.,
such] shall
be priests of God and Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.*
[* NOTE. Those who are self-deceived, who would
prefer to believe the word wicked cannot describe disobedient and apostate
believers, close their eyes to what the word of God plainly teaches us! Num. 16: 26, 32. cf. 1 Cor. 5: 13; 10: 1-11, R.V.,!]
* Rev. 20:
4. For a description of
the resurrection of all the dead - those who
have never been quickened, have never been the subjects of the
soul-resurrection from its death in sin, alluded to by Christ in John - read
the concluding verses of this chapter, from the eleventh to the close.
Finally, upon this point, Christian
baptism, as is admitted by all standard commentators, is alluded to
repeatedly by the apostles as a striking symbol of our burial and the
resurrection of our bodies from the grave at Christs second coming [Page
52] and entrance upon
a new and glorious life, in bodies raised and changed into immortal and
glorified ones, like unto his own. The
baptism of the apostolic Christians was, we say, referred to by the apostles as
teaching the fact of the literal resurrection from the dead. Paul so uses it in his letter to the churches
at
* 1 Cor. 15:
29.
Thus, by the only suitable evidence
- evidence so plain, direct and complete as to render serious doubt impossible to
one who accepts the Bible as an inspired record, have we established the
doctrine of a future resurrection of the dead.
In establishing this doctrine, the foundation of Spiritism has been
destroyed, and the whole system, and all the teachings
depending upon it, fall with it.
* *
*
[Page 53]
CHAPTER VII
THE MIDDLE LIFE - SHEOL,
HADES.
If we
have seen, the righteous
do not enter heaven - the state of perfection and supreme felicity - at death,
because imperfect, and because it is not possible for a part of the saved to be
perfected, and so enter the presence of God without the whole number; and if
the wicked do not enter hell [i.e., the lake of fire] - the place of [eternal] punishment - at death, nor will until after their resurrection and judgment,
these questions naturally arise. Where do they go?
If they exist, under what conditions?
and, Can they return to earth to communicate with or
minister well or evil to the living?
Any appeal to philosophy, science, reason
or creedal traditions will be in vain, and how much
more than vain to the contradicting revelations gained from ultramontane
intelligences!
We have but
one sure light, and that is the word of God.
If we cast that from us, we plunge into the gloom of a rayless
midnight. If its light is not like the
sun in its brightness, yet, like that changeless star that guides the mariner
over the trackless ocean, it will direct us to the proper solution of all these
questions.
[Page 54]
SHEOL - In the Old Testament Scriptures,
wherever reference is made to the world of departed spirits* [and disembodied souls], sheol is used, signifying the unknown; hence,
the WORLD UNKNOWN - the spirit-land;
sometimes [wrongly] translated grave.
I will go down into the grave unto my son
mourning, is the
language of Jacob, in the common version.
But Jacob did not believe that Joseph was in the grave - torn in pieces by
wild
beasts, and he
could not expect to join him there, but he did believe that he would join him in
the spirit-land [of sheol], and, of course, to recognize him as his son.
[* NOTE: The spirits
in prison (1 Pet. 3: 19, R.V.), in which also he [Christ] went
and preached in the Underworld of the dead, may have reference to the Nephilim (Gen. 6: 4,
R.V.)! See Govetts commentary: The Spirits In Prison.
Ed.]
HADES, derived from adein - not to see;
meaning simply the unseen; hence
the unseen state - unseen world. This, in the common version, is improperly
translated in every instance hell, the ultimate [and believed to be the eternal] abode of the wicked - penal fires - which it never signifies.
(The Bible Union, New York, has translated it under-world.*)
in every instance but one, in the New Testament; there, death.** Let us notice a
few instances referring to the final judgment, which is of the wicked [regenerate and unregenerate] only. *** We read, And death and
hades delivered up the dead that were in them+ to be judged. That is,
the grave surrendered the bodies and the
spirit-world the souls. And death and hell [hades] were cast into the lake
of fire. This
[Page 55] is the second death. Not that the literal place called hell - the
lake of fire - was cast into hell; hell into itself! But all those found in the spirit-land at this time, were called forth, judged and cast
into gehenna, the term always
used to denote penal fires - the second death.
* This term is a very
unfortunate one. ** 1 Cor. 15: 55. [*** See Num. 14: 20-23; 16: 26-30. cf.
1 Cor. 5: 12, 13; 10: 1- 11, R.V.]
+ Rev. 20:
18.
The plain teaching of the passage is, that not
all those found in the spirit-land at this* time were called forth, judged and
cast into the lake of fire - the second death.
[* See Rev.
20: 15,
R.V.]
In Rev. 1: 18, Christ
declares that he holds the keys of death and of hades - hell. By this declaration he teaches that none can be subject to either;
none can enter through the gate of death into the spirit-world without his
permission, nor any one return from the unseen world without
his permission.* In this passage hades
means only the spirit-world.
[* See
1 Sam. 28:
8-21. cf.
Matt. 27:
52, 53.]
In 1 Cor. 15: 55, we find this expression, O grave,
where is thy victory? While the souls of the righteous are retained in the custody of hades,
they are subject to its laws and conditions, as their bodies
are to the grave that retains them [up to
the time of Resurrection]; they are, in a sense, captives,
though prisoners of hope. When Christ delivers them at his coming from [Page
56] the depressed,
captivated condition, into the glorious liberty of the sons of God, then, says
Paul, shall be brought about that saying, O Hades, where is thy victory? I cannot mean
the eternal penal abode - the lake of fire for that will maintain an
everlasting victory over all those cast into it; they are never to come out.
Dr. Geo. Campbell, a profound scholar
and commentator, refers to this passage as a clear
proof that hades denotes the intermediate
state of souls between death and the resurrection. He says: We learn
that death and hades, by our translators
rendered hell, as usual, shall immediately, after the general judgment, be cast
into the lake of fire. This is the
second death. In other words, the death which consists in
the separation of the soul from the body, and the state of souls intervening,
between death and the judgment, shall be no more. To the wicked these shall be succeeded by a
more terrible death - the damnation of hell, properly
so-called. Indeed, in this sacred book,
the commencement as well as the destruction, of this
immediate state are so clearly marked as to render it almost impossible
to mistake them. In a preceding chapter
we learn that hades follows close
at the heels of death; and from the other passage quoted, that both are
involved in one common ruin at the universal judgment. Whereas, it we interpret [Page
57] hades hell, in the Christian sense of the
word the whole passage is rendered nonsense.
Hell is represented as cast into hell!
In Acts 2: 27, 31, the term hades occurs twice in the explanation which Peter makes to the Jews, touching
Davids prophecy of Christ: Thou wilt not leave my soul in [Heb., sheol; Gr., hades, translated in our
version in both places] hell; neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption.
Peter declares that, by this, David meant that the soul of Christ would not be left in the abode - the
prison-house-of departed spirits [and souls], nor would his body be allowed to see corruption in
the grave. This, he says, was fulfilled
concerning Christ; his soul
was not left in hades.
It entered
there as truly as his body entered the grave [i.e., Josephs
tomb].
He went with the converted thief there.
As Peter, in one of his epistles, declares that, being put to death as
to the flesh, but preserved alive as to the spirit - that did not die - in
which he went, while that body was in the grave, and visited the spirits
in prison, even
those that were once disobedient
in the days of Noah; implying that they were not impenitent at the time Christ
visited them; but did obey the voice of Noah, and were saved before the flood
destroyed the wicked. Christ, Peter
says, did visit and proclaim good [Page 58] news to these waiting spirits.* He did not
descend into hell; the lake of fire -
the penal [and eternal] abode
of the wicked [after their resurrection].
* 1 Pet. 3:
19.
In Matt. 16: 18, Christ declares that the gates of hell - hades - should not prevail against his church - an organized
body of professed Christians [which
the Holy Spirit has called out of the body of the redeemed]. The gate of hades is but a figurative expression for
death; for, by death do we - can any one - enter hades - the world of disembodied spirits. By death alone can
the human spirit [and soul] become disembodied (Luke
23: 46). That process we call dying; its completion - death.
To say, then, that the gates of hades shall not prevail against the
church, is, in other words, to say, it shall never die; it shall never be
extinct.* Hades here cannot mean the penal fires that are to destroy
the finally impenitent. Both Matthew and
Luke use it when foretelling the doom of Capernaum: And
thou, Capernaum, which
art exalted to heaven [i.e., remarkably
prosperous], shalt be brought down to hades; the very opposite of prosperity -
very low; as hades, by the ancients, was, supposed to be
under the earth as far as the
sky is above it. The term does not refer to the lake of
fire in these
passages.
* Dr.
Geo. Campbells Dissertation, vi, p. 194.
Utter
ruin and desolation did overtake
that [Page 59] wicked city, and in its ruins this prophecy is fulfilled.
The only passage which I have not noticed is the parable of
the rich man and Lazarus,* which demands a more extended notice. It reads, And in hell [hades], he [the wicked rich man] lifted up his eyes, being in
torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
This, says Dr. Campbell,
is the only passage in holy writ which seems to give
countenance to the opinion that hades sometimes means the same as
gehenna. Here it is represented as a place of
punishment. The rich man is said to be tormented
there in a flame.
* Luke 16: 23.
At the advent of Christ, there was a striking coincidence
between the views of a future state, as held by the Jews, and those held by the
Greeks and Romans, as the parable of the rich man and Lazarus clearly shows. They equally believed that the souls of the
departed were susceptible both of suffering and enjoyment, and they believed
that they did suffer or enjoy in hades,
according to their demerit or merit.
They believed that hades comprehended two separate abodes, the one appointed and
prepared for the good - which the Greeks called the Elysian-fields,
and the Jews Paradise; and the abode of
the wicked was called by the Greeks Tartarus - the prison of hades; where, under [Page 60] chains of condemnation, tormented by the bitter recollections
of just mercies abused by the society of all the vile and wicked - the Devil
and his angels included - and the knowledge of the coming judgment,* and the more
fearful punishment in gehenna forever, the impenitent dead await as
did the rich man, and as do the Devil and his angels, their final doom. Peter says of the evil angels that God
delivered them over to tartarus in chains of
darkness, reserved unto judgment.
Here the term
employed is not gehenna, which always refers to the place of
final punishment and comes after the judgment, but a tartarus, a division or place in hades - the spirit world; which is, says Campbell, * as it were the
prison of hades, wherein
criminals are kept till the judgment.** There is, then, no inconsistency in
maintaining that the rich man, though in torments, was not in gehenna, but in that
part of hades called tartarus;
where, we have seen already, spirits [and disembodied, wicked souls are], reserved for judgment, are detained
in darkness. That there is, in a
lower degree, a reward of the righteous and a
punishment of the wicked, in
the state intervening between death and the resurrection, is no more repugnant
to the divine perfections than that there should be (as in the course of
providence, there often are) manifest recompenses of eminent virtues and of
enormous crimes in the present world.***
* 2
Pet. 2: 4.
[** Heb. 9: 27, 28, R.V.]
***
* *
*
[Page 61]
CHAPTER VIII
PARADISE, NOT HEAVEN -
The abode prepared for the righteous dead, between death and the resurrection,
which period I call The Middle Life, is
called by Christ paradise, and by Peter a custody; a place of safe keeping - phulake (Gr.). Though not heaven itself, it is still a
heavenly place, in all respects adapted to the condition of bodiless souls, and
prepared, in all respects, for the highest enjoyment possible for its unperfected
and un-glorified inhabitants, as will be seen as we discuss its
conditions. All who are accounted
worthy to attain to this abode, will inherit, *
with Christ, the [millennial] kingdom given unto him by the Father.
[* Psa. 2: 8. cf. Psa. 37:
9, 11, 22, 29, 34; Matt. 5: 5; 1 Thess. 1: 4, 5, R.V.]
All Christians, at their death, enter paradise. The dying thief prayed, Lord, remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom!
The answer of the Saviour, To-day shalt
thou be with me in paradise was equivalent to, I say unto thee, when I come into my
kingdom [I shall remember you and, contrary to
the disbelief and behaviour of others,] thou shalt [Page 62] inherit it with me. It was to paradise that the divine part of
Christ - [His disembodied soul] - went with the forgiven spirits [and disembodied soul] of the thief, - and it is in paradise that the souls of all the saints, in ages past, repose;
and it is to paradise that the souls of all the saved go now at death, where
they will await the consummation of their complete salvation.
I am aware that it is held by many that paradise is but
another name for heaven, and these believe that there is no middle life. The term paradise is used but three times in
the sacred Scriptures, and two of the passages which contain it are relied on
to prove that heaven and paradise are synonymous terms - refer to one and the
same place - and, therefore, that Jesus promised the thief that he should that
day go to heaven with himself; and, therefore, that heaven is Christs peculiar
kingdom. The first passage quoted is 2 Cor. 12:
1, 4: It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions
and revelations
of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, whether in the body, I cannot tell,
or whether out of the body, I cannot tell; God knoweth;
such a one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man,
whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell; God knoweth;
how that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man
to utter.
[Page 63]
The misapprehension of the class referred to, arises from
supposing that Paul, in these four verses, refers to the self-same event, and that he had
but one vision, and but one revelation; but he expressly declares,
in the first verse, that he had visions (plural)
and revelations,
which he would proceed to relate to them.
If, after his relation, he only described one vision, could they not
have said, You have related to us one vision, now
what was the other or others?
That Paul did have a plurality, at least, he also declares, in the seventh verse, where he again alluded to these
events as revelations,
and not as one vision only.
In his Dissertation VI., on hades and gehenna, Dr. Geo.
Campbell, whose critical scholarship is recognized on both continents, gives us
the following exposition of this narrative: The Jews
make mention of three heavens. The first
is properly the atmosphere where the birds fly, and the clouds are suspended;
the second is above the first, and is what we call the visible firmament,
wherein the sun and moon and stars appear; the third, to us invisible, is
conceived to be above the second, and, therefore, sometimes styled the heaven
of heavens. This, they considered as the
place of the throne of God and the habitation of the holy angels. Now, it is evident that, if in the second or
fourth verses he speaks of one
vision [Page 64] or revelation only, paradise and heaven are
the same; not so if in these he
speaks of two different revelations. My
opinion is, that there are two, and I shall assign my reasons: First, he speaks
of them as more than one, and that not only in introducing them - I will come to visions and
revelations -
for sometimes it must be owned the plural is used in expressing a subject
indefinitely; but afterwards, in referring to what he had related, he says, Lest I should be exalted
above measure
through the abundance of the revelations; secondly,
they are related precisely as two distinct events and coupled together by the
connective particle; thirdly, there is a repetition of his doubts (verses 2 and 3) in regard to the reality
of this transaction, which, if the whole relates to a single event, was not
only superfluous, but improper. This
repetition, however, was necessary, if what is related in the third and fourth verses to be a different fact
from what is told in the second, and if he was equally uncertain whether it passed in vision
or in reality; fourthly, if all the three verses regard only one revelation,
there is, in the manner of relating it, a tautology, unexampled in the
apostles writings. I might urge, as a
fifth reason, the opinion of all Christian antiquity, Origen
alone excepted, and this, in a question of philosophy,
is not without its weight.
[Page
65]
Dr. Campbells
reasoning must, we think, convince every impartial inquirer, while the
concurrent opinion of all Christian antiquity is certainly sufficient to
outweigh the opinions of a few modern commentators, who, fearing they might
possibly give countenance to the purgatory of the Papists, have denied the
doctrine of the orthodox church.
The paraphrase of Dr. Dodderidge is
so natural and so clear, though lengthy, I cannot forbear
to give it here:
I will now come to say something of those visions and revelations of the Lord
with which his unworthy servant has, by his astonishing grace and
condescension, been favoured. I hardly,
indeed, know now to mention a name so undeserving as my own in this connection;
but I will venture in the general to say that I well knew a certain man in
Christ, one who esteems it his highest honour to belong to such a Master; who,
though he hath hitherto thought proper to conceal it, was remarkably indulged
in this respect above fourteen years ago. Whether he was then in the body during that
extraordinary ecstasy, I know not; or for a time, taken out of the body, so
that the principle of animal life remained in it, I know not; God only knows
how that was; nor is it of any importance to curiously search into such a
circumstance. He had [Page
66] at
least no consciousness of anything that passed about him at that time, etc.* Such a one, I say, I did most intimately know, who was
snatched up, even into the third heaven, the seat of the divine glory and the
place where Christ dwelleth at the Fathers right hand, having all the
celestial principalities and powers in humble subjection to him. Yea, I say I even knew such a man, whether in
the body or out of the body, I now say not, because I know not; God knoweth.
And I know that, having been thus entertained with these visions of the third
heavens, on which good men are to enter after the resurrection, lest he should
be impatient under the delay of his part of the glory there, was also caught up
into paradise, that garden of God, which is the seat of happy spirits in the
intermediate state, and during their separation from the body, where he had the
pleasure of an interview with many of the pious dead, and heard among them
unutterable words, expressive of their sublime ideas, which he was taught to
understand, but the language was such as it is not lawful or possible for man
to utter.
And lest I should be too much elevated with the abundance of those
extraordinary revelations, of which I have been speaking, there was given me, etc.*
* Dodderidges
Family Expositor.
While Adam Clark
does not express his own [Page 67] views strongly, yet he admits that Christian writers, generally,
hold that paradise is the abode of the saints in the intermediate state. Among Christian
writers, it generally means, the place of the blessed, or the state of separate spirits. Whether the third heaven and paradise be the
same place, we cannot absolutely say; they probably are not; and it is likely
* Vide Commentary on this passage.
** The other passage, claimed by those who dissent from the
opinion held by the Ancient Church and Christian writers generally, is found in Rev. 2: 27: To him that
overcometh will I give to eat of the Tree of Life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. This is a highly figurative passage, and its
figures are founded upon mans condition in the first age. He was placed in an earthly paradise,
specially prepared for him, in which was a tree of life, of which he was permitted
to eat and live. But all this he
forfeited and lost, and from this earthly paradise he was driven forth and
forbidden to eat of the tree of life, and left to die. Now this promise of Christs looks forward to
the time when this entire earth, defaced and wicked by sin, shall be restored
and made one glorious paradise - indeed, the paradise of God, for he will dwell
in it with his people, and it will be the true Tree of Life - Christ, the
Redeemer, of which its glorious and glorified inhabitants may eat - by being
made [Page 68] partakers of his life - and live forever.
See Revelation, chapters 20 and 21,
where
the promise is to be literally fulfilled upon this earth after it shall have
been renewed, and become the
beautiful abode of Christ and his bride
- his redeemed people. This passage,
therefore, sustains, instead of militates, my position.
I present here another argument, though I have never seen it
used before, still, to my mind, it is conclusive, and of itself alone sufficient
to settle the meaning of the term paradise in this passage. This letter was addressed to the Greeks.
This park was
surrounded by a high wall, securely enclosed against all possible injury or
danger from without, with strong gates and locks, so that no one could enter or
depart without the kings permission.*
The natural beauties of the place were made still more attractive by the
assistance of art. The king was lavish
of his treasures in beautifying and adorning his paradise with everything
calculated to ravish the senses. Here
was his summer-house, for his own family, and suitable ones for his friends and
[Page 70] invited guests. To this garden of
pleasure the king would resort at particular seasons of the year with his
family and especially invited guests, whose company he would most enjoy, and
give himself up to perfect relaxation from all the cares of state, in the midst
of these beauties of nature and the multiplied attractions of art, and the
companionship of friends and every pleasant association.
* The king might well be
said to have the keys of his own paradise, and a place so securely guarded,
might well be called a prison - a custodia; but it is to preserve its occupants
from the intrusion or disturbance of those without.
Throughout all parts of this paradise, through every winding
walk, amid bewildering beauties and constantly opening scenes of enchanting
loveliness, could the happy occupants stray, without one fear of harm from
beasts of prey, or noxious serpent, or the intrusion of unwelcome visitants, or
the alarm of enemies. They were safely
enclosed against all possible harm or disturbance from without, for in addition
to the walls, there were the kings powerful and watchful guards.
The term paradise, then, conveyed to the minds of the Greeks
two distinct ideas:
1. A place of rest, from labours, cares and solicitudes, and the positive
enjoyment arising from physical and mental relaxation, and from pleasant
personal associations and the beauties of the place.
2. That it was
only a place of a temporary, not a permanent abode. It was a place of rest and [Page
71] pleasure, and not
the palace and court of the king.
I claim
that all the term, as used by Paul, conveyed to the Greek Christians at
Corinth, was, that paradise was a
blissful place of temporary rest, appointed to the friends of Christ to enjoy
between death and the resurrection; and the impression made upon their
minds by this statement of Paul was that he had not only been honoured by a
visit to the kings court and palace, but to his pleasure grounds - his
paradise - also, and thus had made to him abundant revelations of the things to come; though it was
not lawful or meet for him to explain them to the living, who are to walk by
faith.*
* If it is still claimed that the term
paradise, in Rev. 6.,
means heaven itself, these Greeks could not have known it, for the Revelation was not made until forty years after
this epistle was written.
Another, and to my mind, a conclusive argument,
is this:
Paradise, according to the
teachings of Scripture, is in hades, and not in heaven.
When Christ died, and while his body was in the grave, his
soul went into sheol - hades - the abode
of disembodied spirits,* and did not ascend to heaven, to fulfil
what was written by the prophets concerning Peter, in his first sermon declared
that His [i.e., Christs] soul was not left in hades which [Page 72] clearly implies that He did enter that abode [as a disembodied soul]. In his first general letter, he mentions
the circumstance especially:
being put to death as to the flesh,
but being made quick or alive, with respect to the spirit, in
which he went and preached to the spirits in phulake, under safe keeping, under guard, in custody;
unfortunately here translated, by the odious signification of custody, prison;
as though guarded from doing others an injury, or, as condemned felons for
punishment. One thing is certain from this language, i.e., that Christ, and not some one else, did this preaching, and
that He did it while He, as respects His body, was dead, and that He went, in
His spirit, and preached to the spirits who were in custody. They were in this state of being, guarded when he preached to them. He preached to spirits who were once disobedient,
while the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was
preparing. This implies that they were
not impenitent when Christ visited them in connection with all the spirits of
the just then in paradise, which we have seen is a place of custody -
safe-keeping, and at the same time, of delight, happiness and rest - freedom
from all annoyances, which it would not be unless guarded against intrusion
from without. Had they been disobedient
at this time, Christ would not have preached unto them, for we have no account [Page
73] of his ever
preaching to any one in tartarus or gehenna,
unless this is indeed one of those places.
He announced the good news, for this is the meaning of the Greek
term translated to preach; that he had died and made a full and complete
satisfaction for all their sins, and it only now re-remained for him to arise
from the dead for their justification, and ascend to the right hand of the
Father as their High Priest and Intercessor, which he would do. This would have been good news - the very
gospel - to them, and would greatly have
tended to encourage and reward their long and patient waiting for the
fulfilment of the promises which they had believed unto the saving of their
souls.** Christ, then, did not preach repentance and
faith to impenitent sinners in hell [i.e., in the lake of fire, the eternal place of the
unregenerate after their resurrection], but announced good news to the resting waiting saints in
paradise, and the spirits of those once disobedient in the days of Noah, are specifically
mentioned to teach us that Noahs preaching and Gods long suffering and
expectant waiting were not altogether in vain.
Some did hear and believe, and were taken away before the flood overwhelmed
the ungodly.
[* Presumably, the disembodied spirits are angelic creatures; or, possibly
those mentioned in Gen. 6: 1-4 - the Nephilim,
- a name given in the R.V. to those born when the sons
of God (fallen angels) came in unto the
daughters of men, and they bare children to them,
R.V. Compare this unnatural behaviour
with the account of what happened in
** For the future salvation of souls, see Peter
1: 9 and context, R.V.]
I have commented at some length to rescue the true meaning of
this passage from the double perversion under which it has so long rested, a perverted translation and a perverted
interpretation. But to
return to the argument.
[Page 74]
The divine part or soul of Christ was with his brethren in hades during the three
days his body lay in the grave, and there is a fitness in this - if it became him to be, in all things, like
unto his brethren while in the flesh, why should he not have
been with them during the period that lapsed between his death and
resurrection?
Christ himself
declared to the penitent thief that he should be with him - not in heaven, but
in paradise, that day. Three days [and nights] after this declaration and when he
had just risen from the dead, when Mary would have embraced him, he said, Touch me not,
for I have not yet ascended to my Father, etc.
Christ, therefore, was three days [and three nights] in paradise with the spirits of his
brethren, and paradise is a blissful, yet guarded, abode of the righteous in hades - the middle
life, or spirit-land, as tartarus is the miserable, yet equally guarded, abode of the wicked
in the middle life.*
[* Always
keep in mind the truth the word wicked does
not always refer to unregenerate people. I wrote unto you in
my epistle to have no company with fornicators; not altogether with the
fornicators of this world, or with the covetous
and extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world: but now I write unto you not to keep company, with any man that is named a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater,
or a reviler, or a
drunkard, or an extortioner; with such a one no, not to eat. For what have I to do
with judging them that are without? Do not ye judge them
that are within, whereas them that are without God judgeth? Put away the wicked
man from among yourselves: (1 Cor. 5: 9-13, R.V.). cf.
Num. 16: 25, 26 with 1 Cor. 10: 5 -11, R.V.]
We can learn from a comparison of the various passages, in
which this state is referred to, the general conditions that govern it:
1. Let it be granted that it is all, and even more, to the
spirits of the blest, than a royal paradise was, to a Persian, a place of
indescribable bliss and beauty; a place of perfect rest from all labours, care
and anxiety. Blessed are
the dead who die in the Lord: Yea, saith the Spirit,
that they rest from their labours, and their works [Page 75] do follow
them.* With death the very prayers of the saints cease.
David, as he closed his life, could say, The prayers of thy servant
David are ended. How false the creed of those who teach that
the prayers of dead saints should be implored by the living.
* Rev. 14: 13.
[Page 76]
We learn that the souls of the righteous are gathered together
in holy companionship, and separated far from the wicked, and that both the
good and the bad have not only a conscious existence, but that they recognize
each other whom they have known here, and even others they have never before
seen in the flesh.
It is said of Abraham, when he died, that he was gathered to
his people.* He died far from the land of his birth, and was buried
far from the graves of his people, and if the soul perishes with the body, or
loses all consciousness until the resurrection, in no sense whatever could
Abraham, or Isaac, or Jacob, who died in Egypt, or Aaron, whose solitary grave
was upon Mount Hor, and Moses, the place of whose burial never was known to
mortal man; I say, in no sense could these have been said, at death, to have
been gathered to their own people, or fathers, except in conscious recognition
in paradise.
* Gen. 25:
8.
King David, strong in this faith, could console himself at the
loss of his child: I shall one day go to it. He did not mean to the grave, in unconscious oblivion of
children and friends alike, but I shall one day meet it, see it, know it, love it,
be comforted by its presence, and associate with it. It means this, or nothing.
It is worthy of notice, that once in
the Old [Page 77] Testament, and once in the New Testament,
the vail that shuts out the spirit-world is sufficiently drawn to reveal to us
the fact, that disembodied spirits [and souls] in that world are classified together, according to
the character they developed here in the flesh; the righteous into an abode or
world by themselves, and the wicked into an abode or world by themselves, and
that they do recognize and converse with each other there.
The following is the instance in the Old Testament - is found
in the triumphant song which the Lord puts into the mouth of
Sheol - hades the spirit-world -
from beneath, is moved
for thee, to meet thee at thy coming; it stirreth up the dead for thee; even all the chief ones of the earth [i.e., those who had been earths chief
and mighty men - fitting associates in that world of the fallen king]; it hath raised up from their thrones all the
[disembodied spirits of the] kings of the nations. All they shall speak
and say unto thee, Art thou, also, become as weak -
powerless - as we? Art thou become like
unto us? How
art thou fallen from heaven, O! day-star, son of the morning!
Art thou cut down to the ground, who
didst weaken the nations? For thou hast said in thy heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my
throne [Page 78] above the stars of God.
I will sit, also,
upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north. I will ascend above
the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High; yet thou hast been brought down to sheol - to the
sides of the pit! They that see
thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider
[scrutinize] thee, saying,
Is this the man that made the earth to tremble - that did shake kingdoms? That made the world
as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities
thereof? That
opened not the house of his prisoners?
From this we learn that the intermediate state is one of
consciousness. The spirits of the mighty
dead recognized the spirit of the king of
They reproached him for his wickedness in oppressing and
destroying the nations, and cruelty to his prisoners, and taunt him with his
proud vauntings when in the flesh. We
may safely conclude, then, that spirits, in the bodiless state, can converse
together.
* *
*
CHAPTER IX
[Page 79]
Can the spirits of good men return to instruct or minister to
the living? Do they recognize each other? Can the living send messages to their
departed friends in
There was a certain rich man, who was
clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared
sumptuously every day; and there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, who was laid at his gate, full
of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs
which fell from the rich mans table; moreover
the dogs came and licked his sores.
And it came [did come] to pass that
the beggar died, and was carried by the angels
into Abrahams bosom; the rich man also died,
and was buried; and in hades [not Gehenna-hell] he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in
his bosom. And he cried and said, Father
Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus,
that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue,
for I am tormented in this flame. [Page
80] But
Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy
lifetime receivedst thy good things, and
likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is
comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this,
between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot;
neither can they pass to us that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father,
that thou wouldst send him to my fathers house,
for I have five brethren, that he may testify unto them, lest they come to this place of torment. Abraham saith unto
him, They have Moses and the prophets, let
them hear them. And he said, Nay, Father Abraham; but if one
went to them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him,
If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.*
* Luke 16: 19-31.
I accept this as a plain statement of facts, which had
transpired before this was spoken. It
will not change the force of it in the least, to say that it was only a parable,
for it would then teach what
might be.
The Saviour
never built a parable upon a falsehood.
What, then, are the principal facts we learn touching the
Middle Life from the vision Christ gives us here of Hades?
1. The souls of saints, in
their dying hour, are [Page 81] attended by angels,
and borne by them to the rest and bliss of paradise.
And it would not be unreasonable to conclude that the dying hours
of wicked men are made dreadful by the presence of wicked spirits, and their
spirits dragged by them into the darkness and torments of the lost in hades - the spirit
world.
If it is true, and we do not doubt it, that dying saints enjoy
the ministry of bright angels, who strengthen them to endure, without pain, the
separation of the soul from the body,
then the death hour is, in fact, delightful - even heavenly - rather than
painful, dark and fearful. Death is to
them stingless; where, then, the pain or fear? And
if bright angels are around them, and seen by them - they are not left comfortless - the dying must be the happiest hour
of life. And are there not thousands of
instances recorded where dying Christians have testified that all this was realized
by them? and, just before the [animating] spirit left the body, when the eye
was blind to earthly objects, have they not declared that they had visions of
angels, and that their souls were ravished by sweetest music; and have we not
seen the light unearthly glow in their faces?
Can we doubt the testimony of such a cloud of witnesses?
No sinner ever testified to such sights and sounds cheering his dying hour; but how many [Page
82] have testified to
horrors of darkness and sights of malignant devils, affrighting their souls,
and impatient to drag them away with them to torment!
Lazarus [disembodied
soul] was carried by holy angels to hades, and to paradise in hades.
Gods angels
were his servants, as they are of all Gods saints.
2. Lazarus became acquainted with the angels, and, without doubt,
communicated with them.
So will all saints in the Middle Life, as Adam did, before he
fell, with the angels in primeval paradise.
What delightful association and intercourse will this be!
3.
Christ was with the thief in paradise, and we must believe that he still often
visits his waiting saints there;
so that we may say, with Paul, if absent from the body we shall be
present with the Lord.
4. Lazarus was assigned to a place of honour,
of highest honour among the inhabitants
of paradise.
It was esteemed a mark of chiefest
honour to recline on the bosom of a most distinguished personage. Among the Jews, no person was so distinguished as Abraham.
The rich man, who in life, had accounted Lazarus as too mean to be
allowed to cross his threshold, or to eat the crumbs with the dogs under his
table, when in hades he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, to his surprise, he saw the
beggar reclining [Page 84] upon his bosom,
honoured with the nearest place to his person, as John, the beloved disciple,
at the Passover, leaned upon the bosom of his Saviour.
5. Here we have the
doctrine of the recognition
of spirits in the Middle Life.
Abraham knew Lazarus, and Lazarus certainly knew that it was
Abrahams bosom he reclined upon. Dives
recognized Abraham, though he saw him afar off - not afar up - and Abraham knew
Dives. Nothing is more clearly revealed
in the sacred Scriptures than the recognition of earth-friends in the Middle
Life. Moses taught it when he, in so
many places, speaks of the patriarchs being gathered to their fathers when
their bodies were buried in far distant lands.
David taught it when he comforted his soul with the reflection that he
should one day go to his child, though it could never return to him. In what sense could a reunion be regarded as
consolatory unless he should know his child when with it? If David knew his child, shall I not know,
will not all Christian parents know their lost
children in the future state, and not their children only, but those loved ones
who have gone before him? There is no
doubt of it. Isaiah teaches the same
when he informs us that the kings of the earth and the great ones rose up to
meet the King of Babylon when he entered the spirit land (hades); knew him and accosted him, and even
taunted him with his former haughtiness, cruelties and present weakness. But if there was not another passage in the
Bible, this narration is sufficient to establish the delightful fact of the
recognition of not only friends, but of all the saved in the spirit state. If Dives recognised Abraham, whom he had
never seen, as well as Lazarus, whom he had, who will say that I may not know
Paul, or Paul not recognize the patriarchs?
On the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter, James and John recognized Moses
and Elijah, and how unreasonable for any one to deny the recognition of friends
in the Middle Life!
6. They not only know, but communicate with each other,
as with the angels in the spirit state.
Dives and Abraham held this conversation, though not in the
same divisions of hades, but far separated,
as the wicked are from the just. How
much more the happy spirits in blessed companionship with each other!
7. We learn that Abraham had learned, and doubtless
from Lazarus, how the rich man had lived,
and how he himself had been treated by Dives in the earth life.
Abraham, knew all, and if he did not learn it
from Lazarus, he had from some other good spirit who had come from earth
cognizant of the fact, and so far as concerns our argument, it makes no
difference. Abraham knew all - how Dives
had received his good things and Lazarus his evil [Page 85] things; and he could not have learned
them by his own observation, for the dead know not any thing of their own
observation.
Then we are authorized to conclude that spirits going from
earth can communicate to spirits in paradise all they know of earth? and of persons living on the earth. Let this be borne in mind, for
8. Spirits going from earth carry with them not only their
personal consciousness,
but their memories and earthly affinities.
The rich man was not only conscious of his own existence, but
he remembered his five brethren, living on in sin as he himself had lived, and
following his example; and he loved his own brethren, and felt a deeper
interest in and concern for them than for any other sinners living on the
earth. For these alone he most earnestly
prayed and supplicated, if, perchance, some note of warning from the dead might
be sent to them; and Abraham bid him remember, too, how that in this life he had had his good things,
and to remember, also, how Lazarus had suffered. Here we have conscience, and memories, and
affinities - the noblest attributes of our being - carried with us into the
spirit life, and the fact clearly established that we shall love best in that
world those we loved best in this; that the death change - the mere dropping
off our bodies - will no more affect our spirits [Page 86] than the putting off our garments when we retire to bed affects our bodies - i.e.,
changes their natures or impulses. Our
consciousness and our memories, our affections and aversions go with us to
paradise; and all we have known of persons or things on earth we can
communicate to the residents of that blest land of rest.
Why, then, should it be deemed a thing impossible or
improbable for departing saints to bear messages from us to our loved ones, who
still love us and await our coming? Not
that they can communicate with us, but can they not receive information from
saints coming from earth of their friends here, as Abraham learned the
character and acts of Dives from Lazarus?
There can be no reasonable doubt of it; the contrary would be both
improbable and unreasonable.
Said a dying wife - even after the sad farewell had been
spoken, and the last kiss impressed, and the eye seemed closed in death, and
the last breath exhaled - turning her face to ours, and her face glowing as
with the light flashing from an angels wing, I shall
see our dear mother in a few moments; what
message shall I bear her from you?*
We gave the message. I will certainly tell her; all
is bright; angels wait for me - and she
was gone.
The Bible unmistakably teaches us, that the [Page
87] spirits of good
persons cannot return to earth to minister in any way to the living.
David specifically declared concerning his departed child, can I bring him back
again? - he shall not return to me.*
* 2 Sam. 1: 12, 23.
This declaration is left upon record for the instruction of
every bereaved parent who should ever live.
If David could not bring his child back; if it could never return to
him, then it is certain that the child, relation, or friend of no living being
will ever or can ever return.
The
holy dead are where the wicked cease from troubling.
Paul knew that he could not return to teach, or in any way
minister to or benefit his living brethren and for this reason only, was loth
to depart this life, and so cease to be useful to them. When contemplating his departure as a gain to
himself, yet he said, to
abide in the flesh is more needful to you.
Could he have returned in spirit and communicated as it is claimed that
the spirits of good men can and do, he would have been a thousand times more
useful to them than when living. He
could have visited daily every church he ever planted, and addressed epistles
to them from the [Page 88] heavenly world [of Sheol/Hades], and have saved them the expense of a
living fallible ministry! But if Paul
could not return to sιance with surviving friends, then the spirit of no other good man ever yet
returned to minister to, or converse with and instruct the living, and to believe
that they have returned or do return, is to believe what is false and delusive.
To my mind, the plain construction of Abrahams final answer
to Dives, teaches us that no one from the spirit world can communicate with the
living, unless he rose from the
dead.
Now we know that Modern Spiritists do not
claim or believe that the spirits that communicate with them rise from the
dead, and therefore, they certainly are not the spirits of those who once lived
in the flesh.
* *
*
[Page 89]
CHAPTER X
Can the spirits of the wicked men return from Hades,
to communicate with or molest the
living?
Now the
question, so important to
this discussion, comes up naturally here, Can the spirits of wicked men leave their abode and return to
influence, instruct or torment the living? Are they permitted to mingle with the living - learn, from
their own observation, what is taking place here, and the situation of their
families and friends, and so warn and minister to them; or, molest and disturb
those obnoxious to them?
The position I feel justified, by reason and revelation in
laying down, is this:
That when men, good or bad, are removed from this to the
Middle Life, all their works, all their labours, and all their ministry, for
good or evil, cease from the earth; only the influence of their works,
performed, follow them and influence the living. And further, when we leave this world, all our
knowledge of its affairs, even of our own [Page 90] families and friends, derived from
personal observation, ceases.*
* The possible knowledge of what transpires on earth,
attainable, in the spirit life, will be elsewhere considered.
That this was the faith of the saints of all ages, is evidenced from the sacred Scriptures. Job who lived contemporaneous
with the sons of Jacob, says of the man who passed into sheol - the spirit land. His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; they
are brought low and he perceiveth it not.*
* Job 14: 21.
He is not present with them in spirit form to perceive it of
them - to have a personal conscious knowledge of it, as he would have if he were a
ministering spirit, ever present with then. Solomon, by inspiration, declared this fact: The dead knew
not anything.*
* Eccl. 9:
5.
He evidently does not mean that the dead have no consciousness
in the Middle Life; that they do not know what is lawful and proper, and
necessary to be known in that state, for this would be in palpable
contradiction of other Scriptures, but that their personal knowledge and observation of mundane affairs
ceased at their death. His subsequent
exhortation, based upon this fact, amply sustains this interpretation: Whatsoever
thy hand findeth to do, do with thy might;
for there [Page 91] is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave [Heb. sheol], whither thou goest.*
* Eccl. 9:
10.
This teaches us that if we have a desire to do good on earth,
to work, or devise for or minister unto the living, to do it with our might while
here in the flesh with them, for we can do nothing for them when we have passed
into sheol - the
unknown. If this is equally true of all,
it is certainly true of the spirits of wicked men. But Christ leaves us in no doubt touching the
ability of the spirits of wicked men to
return and warn the living. In teaching
his disciples with respect to the conditions of the good and bad in the future
life, he gave a relation of facts in the case of the rich man and Lazarus. Suffice it to say again here, that so far as its bearing upon the state of the departed is concerned, it
matters not whether it be interpreted as a narrative or a parable, for in
either case its picture of their condition must be regarded as one which
accords with substantial truth.
In this Scripture we have clearly stated the doctrine that a
conscious misery after death awaits all who die
impenitent; that the wicked carry into the Middle Life all the memories of
their past life, with their affection for family and kindred. We learn that, only second to the relief from
personal sufferings, was the desire of Dives [Page 92] to warn his five brethren, still in
the flesh of the danger to which they were exposed. It is evident that had it been possible for
him to have communicated with them in any way - by raps, sounds or sights - he
would have done so, and he would have told them the fearful truth that if they
died as he died, they would, in the spirit state, as he was then doing, lift up
their eyes in torments. But it was
denied the rich man to leave his wretched abode and revisit his palatial
mansion, and cool his tongue with the water he might find there.*
* It is reported that spirits call for
water and drink copiously; the water, at least, disappears mysteriously, and
the spirits say they drink it!
He could not communicate in any way with his brethren, either
to them directly or through a living medium, by raps or writing, and,
therefore, his touching supplication to Abraham to permit Lazarus to go and
communicate with his brethren, and warn them not to follow his example and come
to that place of torment. The rich man
was in hades, subject to the
conditions and laws that govern the spirit life, and he could no more pass out
and return to earth and warn the living, than the living can, at will, pass
into the spirit-world and converse with them and return. Christ himself has the keys of hades,* and this implies
that it [Page 93] is a place enclosed and barred
against all egress or ingress, except by His own permission.**
[* Rev. 1: 18, R.V. **
Compare 1 Sam. 28:
11-21
with Matthew 27: 52,
53, R.V.: and note that the scripture is silent
as to the place where these risen saints went afterwards! If Samuel went into the presence of God in
heaven, after being raised from the dead to speak to Saul; then why not
David, whom Peter, hundreds of years later states: For
David
ascended
not into the heavens (Acts 2:
34, R.V.)!]
If such a clear enunciation of such a terrible fact needs
corroboration, the declaration of Peter is sufficient: The Lord
knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to reserve the unjust under punishment
to the day of judgment.*
*2 Pet. 2
- Bible Union translation.
This teaches us that the spirits of wicked men are not only
reserved - kept under guard, under lock and key
- but in this guarded state are suffering punishment. They may not leave the place at their will
and pleasure, even though they carried their punishment in their own bosoms
with them.
From this parable we also learn the conditions that govern the
spirits of wicked men in the middle life.
1. That they are far
separated from the righteous
in the middle life.
Not only are the saints guarded from intrusion on the part of evil
spirits (the devil and his angels) from without - so that they cannot enter to
tempt and trouble, as they do the righteous here - but the spirits of bad men
are not allowed to enter the peaceful rest of paradise, or to come near. Were they permitted to do so, the wicked
there could disturb the repose and enjoyment of [Page 94] the friends of Jesus, as they do
here.
Blessed rest, indeed, where emphatically the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest.
We learn also,
2. That good spirits are neither required nor permitted to minister to the spirits
of the wicked, to ameliorate, in
any respect, their condition in the
middle life.
The Scriptures teach that at death the blessed dead cease from
their labours, both in respect to those living on this earth and the spirits of
the lost in hades;
and not only is their work, their labours, cares and anxieties, but even
their prayers are ended. David could
exclaim, with the last prayer he offered on earth, The prayers
of thy servant David are ended; and the prayers of all Christians for others with their earth
life cease. How vain to hold the faith
of the Catholics and Spiritists, that our sainted dead can pray for us, or that
we should pray to them to intercede, or in any way assist us! It is
setting aside the sole advocacy and intercession of Jesus Christ to practice
it; it is to reject him altogether, for unless he is the only mediator between
God and men, he is not a mediator at all.
How the thought drew tears from my eyes, as I closed the lips of my
sainted mother, that they had breathed the last prayer her spirit ever could
breathe for me. Her service [Page
95] of prayer, as well as of labour, for me was ended!* Nor would the prayers or ministry of saints or angels
benefit those who died in impenitency, for the word of God distinctly teaches
us, that as the tree falleth, so it
will lie; that no
change can be wrought in the moral nature of the lost in the spirit life. The dread fiat of a just God is: LET HIM THAT IS FILTHY BE FILTHY STILL.
Forever filthy, polluted and vile, and, consequently, miserable! We learn, also, -
* Sinner, if you would have a prayer breathed for you by parent
or Christian friends, seek them while they and you both are here, and not after they have passed from
earth.
3. That Dives could not, in
any form, return to earth to communicate with his five brethren,
for whom he felt a concern only second to
his own wretched condition.
If he could have returned, would he not have done so?
Who can doubt it for one moment? This is the question for the reader to
decide, and I entreat the reader to decide it right here. If Dives could have returned to earth, and,
through any conceivable medium, person or thing, or in spirit form and with
spirit voice, or by the voice or pen of earthly medium, have communicated with
his brethren, would he not have done so?
You are bound to answer this in the affirmative. But he had not returned, [Page
96] he did not, and,
therefore, it is conclusive that he could not do so. We learn -
4. If Dives could not
return to earth to communicate with the living,
no other disembodied spirit [or soul] could do so.
They are
in prison, under guard. The gates of hades
are locked upon them, as well as upon the righteous; neither can depart thence
until He, who has the keys of hades opens and brings them forth to glory or to shame. But then there is this difference between the
righteous and the wicked: the former desire not to go forth to be again
troubled and worn, tempted or distressed by the wicked without; and, though the
wicked would escape out, they cannot.
While the Custody of paradise is grateful to the righteous, since it
guards and protects them from the evils and perils from without, its guarded
walls and bolted doors reserve the wicked, in its far-separated abode, in the
torments of bitter recollections and hopeless despair unto the day of judgment to be punished. Though impossible for Dives, and if possible
for any or all other impenitent spirits, why could he not induce some one of
their uncounted number to return to earth and bear a message to his living
friends - some one from the wicked dead?
There is but one answer: no one of them could return to earth, and no
one on earth had power to bring them back from the [Page 97] spirit land and force from them a
revelation - no one in the universe but He who bears the keys of hades. We learn from this, -
5. That if Dives could have
returned and communicated with his [unsaved] brethren, he would have
told them that there was an endless
hell [in the lake
of fire]; a state of indescribable misery
and anguish, like being tormented in
flames; and have warned them if
they lived on as he had lived, they would
come
to the same awful punishment.
And we are justifiable in concluding, that if Dives would have
delivered such a message to the living impenitent, every other lost soul, that had lived in the flesh and left wicked relatives or
friends, would deliver the same warning, if permitted to return to earth
and communicate with them, by mediums.
Why was this narration given to us, unless to teach us that lost souls
of men are unwilling for those they love on earth to be associated with them in
the world of woe; and, perhaps, the thought that they have encouraged them in a
course of sin, if they did not lead them into it, intensifies the flames that
consumes them by adding stings to memory that has been transformed into a fiery
scorpion to torment them? We learn from
Abrahams reply, -
6. That the teachings of
Moses and the prophets, under the old Dispensation, were sufficient to lead all
sinners to Christ, without additional [Page 98] revelations from other sources, and
who will deny that these,
with the teachings of Christ and
his apostles under the present dispensation, are sufficient,
and that the revelations from the dead are needless?
We learn also, from Abrahams reply, -
7. That revelations from the dead would be useless and unavailing and
therefore,
are not, and have never been, granted to
the living.
All communications that have been claimed as coming from the
dead -
the spirits of dead men are spurious.
Finally, we learn from Abrahams reply, -
8. That the only way the
dead could communicate with the living,
would be to rise from the dead.
The body of that dead person would
have to be raised up and reanimated by the spirit, before it could hold
converse or have communication with the living.
Who will claim that this can be done, by the will of living man or
spirit? It is worthy of special
consideration in this connection, that in no instance [except
the one before mentioned, at the time of Christs / Messiahs death, (1 Sam. 28: 8-19)] - where, by the special power of God,
the dead have been raised up, whether by prophets or by Christ and his apostles
- was the raised person permitted to reveal anything he or she may have
learned, saw or heard, in the spirit land; nor was Paul permitted to speak of
the things he saw and heard in paradise.
Now, if the [Page 99] raised dead, nor the inspired apostle, who we know
were for a season in the spirit land, were not permitted to give the least
information to the living, are we at liberty to conclude that the spirits of
good or bad, dwelling there, are permitted to do so in any conceivable, way?
I feel justified in concluding from these Scriptures -
1. That death
puts an end to all our relations with the present world.
2. That the spirits of wicked men are
forbidden any communication with the living, even though they may desire to
impart to them the most important information, even that which would save their souls.*
[* 1 Pet.
1: 5, 9; Jas. 1: 21, R.V.]
3.
That if the spirit of a wicked man could return to earth, above all
things, it would warn its living kindred of the torments of [Sheol/Hades and]
hell, and exhort them to turn from sin and seek salvation.
And with respect to the manifestations of
Modern Spiritism:
ITS MANIFESTATIONS ARE NOT PRODUCED BY THE PRESENCE AND POWER OF THE
DISEMBODIED SRIRITS OP WICKED MEN, for -
1. They are not
permitted to return and communicate with, or minister to the living; of our
affairs in this world, they know - are unable, personally, to perceive -
nothing, and, therefore, are nor ministering spirits to the living.
[Page 100]
2. They are not the spirits of wicked men that are allowed
to leave their abode of torments, or they would incessantly plead with the
living to forsake sin, and not live wickedly and die impenitent, and sink to
endless unhappiness. But the spirits of
Modern Spiritism use the opportunities they have of communicating with the
living in the most useless manner conceivable, imparting no really valuable
instruction - never warning their living ungodly friends, children, brethren,
of the torments of [Hades
and] hell, but,
contrariwise, teach them that hell is a fable, and that the ultimate state of
all who die will be one of bliss; and that all, after death, enter upon a state
of progression upward. The messages of
these modern spirits, then, are not such as the messages of the spirits of the
wicked dead would be, it allowed to return and communicate with the living.
3. The souls of men do not receive
increased power or strength to move ponderable bodies
by the death-change; and, therefore, the spirits of neither good nor bad men
are able to perform the feats of power performed by modern spirits (I refer to
the raising of a heavy extension table with one or more men upon it.)
I believe that the soul of man, in its bodiless form, is
utterly powerless to act upon a ponderable body. The spirits of kings, priests and mighty men
in hades are represented by Isaiah as weak. In their address to the king of
I think we are bound to conclude from the above
considerations, that the spirit of no wicked man ever yet did, or will ever be
permitted to return to earth - [before the time of Resurrection at Christs return, (1 Thess. 4: 16)] - to instruct or molest the living.
Christ reserves, keeps in close confinement, the spirits of the wicked,
under punishment unto the day of judgment, and certain
it is that Satan has no power to release them from this condition, though it
was to send them back to deceive the living.
Grant that there are communications from the spirits of
another world; they are not the spirits of departed men.
We have reached at least three conclusions by admitting the
testimony of Gods word. 1. That the
spirits of wicked men cannot return in any form to communicate with or disturb
the living; and 2. That it is impossible for the spirits of saints to do so; and 3. IF EITHER WERE PERMITTED TO RETURN, THEY
WOULD NEITHER DO NOR TEACH WHAT IS
DONE AND TAUGHT BY MODERN SPIRITISM.
*
* *
[Page
102]
CHAPTER XI
Conclusion - Brief summary of views and
application to Swedenborgianism and Spiritism
A chain of ten thousand links, however massive and strong
apparently, possesses only the strength of its weakest link. To render the chain useless, it is not
necessary to crush each link in detail, but simply to break one, though that
one may be its weakest.
So a religious system, like a chain, is no
stronger than any one
of its fundamental facts or doctrines, and to disprove and overthrow the
system, we need only to disprove any one of these.
Let the Infidel disprove the divinity of Christ, and the whole system of Christianity would
inevitably fall. Let any one fact
revealed by the Holy Spirit, found within the lids of the Bible, be disproved,
and every intelligent man and woman would at once surrender the entire book as
unauthentic and unreliable.
If it can be proved that Mahomet uttered one untruth, that he
was an impostor, is as completely established as though every utterance of his
was shown to be a falsehood. So in disproving Swedenborgianism or
Spiritism, I do not deem it necessary to assail every claim put forth, every
position upon which they are based in detail, but only to show my readers that
some of the doctrines fundamental to them are false.
Now Emanuel Swedenborg, the author of Swedenborgianism, as
Mahomet was of Mahometanism, or Christ of Christianity, lays it down as a
fundamental doctrine, that all angels, good or bad, were once mortals, and
dwelt in the flesh as we now do.*
He teaches
this doctrine as the prophet of the New Jerusalem Church; and if it
is false, then his system, built upon this cardinal doctrine, is false, and an
imposture upon the ignorance and credulity of the people. But I have proved by the word of God, that
this doctrine is false. (See chapterII.) No angel, good or bad, was ever a mortal man or woman, and, therefore,
that no mortal man, woman or child will ever or can ever become an angel, good
or bad; that we ought not to wish or pray to be angels, or teach our children
to sing,
I want to be
an angel,
And with the angels stand;
A crown (?) upon my
forehead, &c.
* See extract at the head of chapter II
[Page 103]
No angel ever did or ever will wear a crown. It is not promised to them to be kings or priest unto
God; but it is to the redeemed by the blood of Christ, and to redeemed sinners only,
and such will be exalted far above the angels, who are only Gods servants and our servants, when we become the [regenerate] children of God. No intelligent Christian would exchange his titles,
to-day, for that of any angel, or the archangel himself, sooner than the Prince
of Wales would exchange his title for the position of the highest servant of
his mothers household, or court, or cabinet - the Premier himself.
There were angels before man was created. It was an apostate angel that tempted our
first parents to sin, and, therefore, there were angels, good and bad, before a
man or woman ever died. Swedenborg was a
false teacher, and an impostor, and his system is false.
And so is Spiritism, also, since this identical doctrine is
fundamental to it. Its most
authoritative mediums declare that its most reliable Spirits so teach, and, therefore, we know that the
whole system built up upon false premises, is false. Thus is the staple drawn, to which the whole chain is attached, and staple
and chain alike fall together.
2. But Swedenborgianism, equally
teaches, that at death the spirits [Page 105] of the just go at once to heaven, and that there is no resurrection of the dead.
I have demonstrated by the word of God that both these
positions are false, and subversive of the whole system of Christianity. Therefore, no one, however pious he or she
may profess to be, can hold to both systems - Christianity and Spiritism. He must either love the one and hate the
other, or hold to the one and despise the other; they are contradictory and
antagonistic. A Christian cannot be a Spiritist or
Swedenborgian, any more than he can be a Mahometan; he cannot be a
disciple of Christ and deny the Bible.
3. It is claimed by both
Swedenborgianism and Spiritism, that the spirits of departed mortals do return
to minister to the living, as ministering angels,
and that they can and do communicate in various ways to us, by raps, by writing
personally, by proxy, and, indeed, of late audibly, and even appearing in visible form in the dimly lighted and properly prepared
rooms.
I have shown conclusively that this contradicts the plain and
simple teachings of the Bible, and must be regarded as false by all who receive
the Bible, and for such alone, I write these chapters. If the reader still doubts, I urge him to
re-read [Page 106] chapters viii., ix. and
x. carefully and without prejudice.
The rap may be ultra mundane, and yet that
single fact is insufficient to prove that the deceased friends can communicate
with us. - Robert Dale Owen, Spirualist.
This is the frank admission of the most intelligent, advanced
and popular advocate of Spiritisin of the age.
It is a fact, that raps are produced by a table, when in contact with one or more
persons, and that furniture is moved under similar
circumstances; but it has been demonstrated, and is daily demonstrated, that these raps, and, indeed, every physical manifestation performed
by Spiritists,
and claimed to be effected through the agency of disembodied Spirits, CAN BE PERFORMED WITUOUT THE ASSISTANCE OF
SPIRITS OF ANY KIND. No Spiritist
has yet proved that the raps are produced by spirits, much less disembodied spirits.
It is in
proof, that in every instance where the test has been made, that the number of
raps, and the movements of furniture, &c., are controlled by the strongest mind or minds of the circle or parties in rapport. It is in proof, that the same Spirit speaking through the same medium, teaches the leading sentiments of the different circles
communicating with it. And furthermore,
in [Page 107] proof that if the leading mind or minds of any given circle, determine for
a living person to answer as though a spirit, or even an insect under the name of a person, it is readily accomplished,
which is proof demonstrative that spirits do not produce the raps or communications.
But granting that Mr. Owen can prove that raps or physical
manifestations have been produced by ultra-mundane causes, spirits of some
sort, it has not yet been proved, nor do I believe it can be, that the spirits
of our departed friends have any agency in causing them. I am not prepared to deny what evil spirits now do, and may
yet do to deceive the living, but I am prepared to deny that disembodied souls,
good or bad, have or can ever produce a rap or physical manifestation, or
reveal themselves to the eyes of mortals.
I have shown that good angels are the servants of God, and
never communicated with mortals, unless commanded by God to do so, and then
their communications were always instructive, important and reliable, and never
contradictory, which is not the case with the communications received in the sιances of Spiritists.
The Book of Revelation of Jesus Christ, is the last revelation
of God by angel or man to the race, and no good angel or spirit would presume
to add to that, or teach anything contradictory to what is in that revealed, or
what God, through [Page 108] angels and prophets and his Son, has elsewhere
revealed to us. Only things revealed
belong to us, and it is sinful to pry into those unrevealed, and neither good
angels nor good spirits would wish or dare to communicate them if they could.
I have shown in these pages that the spirits of just men cannot minister to or communicate with the living, and if they could,
they would not follow the living for years to disturb, annoy and distress them by rappings and
poundings in our chambers, nor would they teach such doctrines or make such
foolish and useless communications as these spirits generally do, and then they
would certainly know quite as much as they did in the flesh, which is not the
case with these spirits who profess to be our deceased friends.*
* See Spiritism
Explained and Exposed, by the author.
I have shown from the history of the rich man and Lazarus,
that if the wicked dead could return, instead of teaching those they loved in
life, that there is no future endless punishment, as these modern spirits do,
they would invariably (?) as the rich man desired to do, and warn and intreat
them not to live in the flesh as they had done, so that they might escape the
endless torments that await all those who die impenitent. Therefore, I am forced to conclude that
neither good angels, nor yet the disembodied spirits [or souls] of good or bad men, rap or write, or
mutter, or whisper in the sιances of Spiritists, but if they are, indeed, produced by
spirits at all, they are the spirits of demons, doing wonders, to deceive, if it were possible, the
very elect - the last attempt of Satan, the father of lies, and of all hypocrisies,
to destroy the faith of the race in Gods revealed word.*
* See Rev. 16: 13, 14.
The [well informed] Christian,
will not he caught in this snare; the language of his heart will ever be:-
Should all the forms that men devise,
Assault my faith with
treacherous art,
Id call them vanity
and lies,
And bind Thy Gospel to my
heart.
* * *
[Pages 109- 155 contain Appendix No. 1,
No. 2 and No 3: all have to do with spiritism and are not included.]
[Page 155]
APPENDIX
No. 4.
THE SPIRITS
IN PRISON
1 PETER 3:
18-20.
I know of no worse translated or interpreted passage in the New
Testament. It has suffered in both these
respects, in order to take it out of the hands of the Papists, who press it
into the service of purgatory. We
present the following as the literal translation:
[Page 156]
For Christ also hath once suffered for
sins, the
just for the unjust, that he might bring us
to God, being put to death in the flesh, but alive in the Spirit; in
which he went and preached to the souls of men in safe keeping [or
Paradise], who sometime were disobedient, when once the long suffering of God waited in the days of
Noah, while the ark was building, etc.
Touching the translation, we quote, with approbation, the
remarks of Bishop Horsely:-
The Spirit, in these English words, seems
to be put, not for the soul of Christ, but for the Divine Spirit; and the sense
seems to be that Christ, after he was put to death, was raised to life again by
the Holy Spirit. But this, though it be the sense of the English translation, and a true proposition,
is certainly not in the sense of the Apostles words. It is of great importance to remark, though
it may seem a grammatical nicety, that the prepositions, in either branch of
this clause, have been supplied by the translators, and are not in the
original. The words flesh and spirit in the original,
stand without any preposition, in that case which, in the Greek language,
without any preposition, is the case either of the cause or instrument by
which, of the time when, of the place where, of the part in which, of the
manner how, or of the respect in which, according to the exigence of the
context; and, to any one who will consider the original with critical accuracy,
it will be obvious, from the perfect antithesis of these two clauses concerning
flesh and spirit, that if the word spirit denote the active cause by which Christ was restored to
life, which must be supposed by them
who understand the word of the Holy Ghost, the word flesh must equally denote the
active cause by which he was put to death, which therefore must have been the
flesh of his own body - an interpretation too manifestly absurd to be
admitted. But if the word flesh denote, as it most
evidently does, the part in which death took effect upon him, spirit must denote the part
in which life was preserved in him - that is, his own soul; and the word quickened is often applied
to signify, not the resuscitation of life extinguished, but the preservation
and continuance of life subsisting. The
exact rendering, therefore, of the Apostles words would be, being put to death in the flesh, but quick in the spirit - that is, surviving in his soul the stroke of death which
his body had sustained - by which, or rather in which - that is, in which surviving soul - he went and preached to the souls of men in prison, or in safe keeping.
The spirits preached to are
expressly affirmed to be those which sometime were
disobedient in the days of Noah, when the long
suffering of God waited for them.
[Page
158]
This word, sometime, is the same word that Paul uses when he said to the Ephesians (2:
13), ye who
sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ; and again to Titus
(3: 3): We ourselves were sometime foolish, disobedient, etc., but now are made heirs according to the hope* of eternal [aionian age-lasting]
life. [verse 7]
[* NOTE.
Regenerate believers dont hope
for something they presently have! Eternal life
is the free gift of God (Rom. 6: 23, R.V.), and is a present possession to all
who have
been justified by faith alone: For the gifts
and calling of God are without repentance, Rom. 11: 29. That
is, God will never change His mind after giving His redeemed people aionian life,
which has been purchased in full by our Lord and Saviour,
Jesus Christ.
But this same Greek adjective aionian
can be interpreted to
mean age lasting, if the context so indicates!
Therefore, in Titus 3: 3 above, we have aionian life described as a
hope: and therefore something which is not certain! Regenerate Christians cannot lose
eternal life,
but through their disobedience and foolishness, they can lose age-lasting life
by not being judged worthy to attain
(i.e., gain by effort) to that age (the millennium), and the resurrection out from dead ones (Luke 20: 35,
Greek).]
It being thus declared that they were
sometime disobedient, would imply, then, that they were disobedient only for a time - that being during the period when once the
long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah.
The long suffering which then waited, is the same Greek word that Peter
uses when he accounts* that the long suffering of our Lord is salvation; and which Paul used when he wrote** Despisest thou the riches of
his goodness, and forbearance, and long
suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth them to
repentance. Peter also says*** that the Lord is long suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
The long suffering of God, therefore, in the days of Noah, was to give
opportunity for repentance to the
disobedient.
* 2 Eph. 3: 15. ** Rom. 2:
4. *** 2 Pet. 3: 9.
The word rendered waited, occurs in the New Testament only in
seven other places, as follows:
[Page 159]
John 5: 2: Waiting for the moving of the waters. Acts
17: 16: While
Paul waited for them. 1 Cor. 11: 33: Tarry one for another; 16:
11: I look
for him. Heb. 10: 18: Expecting till his
enemies; 11: 10: He looked for a city. James 5:
7: The husbandmen waiteth, etc.
The Greek word is defined by Robinson as meaning to receive from any quarter; or, in the New Testament, inchoatively, to be about to receive from any quarter
- i.e., to wait for, to look for, to
expect.
The import of the passage, then, would be that those in prison
that Christ preached to were those for whom the long suffering of God, in the
time of Noah, waited in expectation that they would become heirs of salvation,
which God would not have done unless they were to become such; and that they
did so become is intimated by the remark that they were sometime
disobedient - i.e., that they did not thus continue, but were recovered from their disobedient
condition.
Is there not reason then, to hope that a portion of those who
sat under Noahs preaching, repented and became subjects of grace? For one hundred and twenty years did the long
suffering of God thus wait; and would it have thus expected, if there were to
be no results conformable to the [Page 160] expectation? It is not necessary to suppose that all who
heard Noah died in hardened impenitence.
What, then, became of those subjects of Gods waiting
salvation? Gods purpose to remove the
race and to re-people the earth, did not demand that more than Noah and his
family should survive the flood, any more than it did that more than a pair of
each kind of bird and animal should survive.
The one hundred and twenty years, then? gave
time for the removal of all who believed before the waters came upon them. Even Methuselah died only a year before the
flood; and so many have died, all who were only disobedient during that waiting of
Gods long suffering. Thus, merciful men are taken away,
none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. He shall enter into peace; they shall rest in
their beds, each one walking in his uprightness.*
* Isa. 57:
1, 2.
As the
The word rendered prison in the text, is the same that is
rendered watch in Matt. 24:
43: in what watch
the thief would come; and it is defined by Robertson as a watch on
guard. [Page 161] A person thus under watch or guard may be said to be
guarded, or in prison. The word is also
used to denote a watch-post, station; and is thus used by the Seventy in Hab. 2:
1: I will stand
upon my watch,
etc. By the spirits being in prison,
therefore, it is not necessary to understand that they were culprits, but that
they were in safe keeping [
* The English word
prison, as Lord Coke observes, was only a place of safe custody; but now, by a change of
use, we use it only in its bad sense as a place of degrading confinement - which
has obscured the sense of the passage.
The term
Here the king, with his family and invited friends would
resort at stated times, throwing off [Page 162] all cares of state, and give
themselves up to rest and pleasure. The
[* See Rom.
8: 23,
R.V.]
While the spirits to which Christ preached are thus designated
as those who were sometime disobedient, when Gods long suffering waited for
their conversion during the building of the Ark, and which, because they did
not continue disobedient, are now in safe keeping, as they were at the time
when Peter wrote, it remains to be considered: when did Christ in spirit go and
preach to them? and what was the purpose of his
preaching?
In answer to this, it will be noticed that Peter does not say
that Christ preached to them when, but that he preached to those who were thus sometime
disobedient; but when he went and preached to them they were spirits in
prison. [Page 163] The place of the departed is sometimes
referred to as a prison, from which the righteous are to be delivered. While it is gain for them to die - far better
than to continue here - yet their condition in hades (
* Isa. 38:
10. ** Psalms 8: 16. *** Isa.
49: 9, 10.
The only prison in which those sometime disobedient
but repentant spirits are, must be sheol or hades, which Christ
will destroy, and from which he will ransom them; and to have gone and preached
to the spirits in prison, he must have entered the place of the departed, and
preached to them there - when he went with the thief to Paradise on the day of
their crucifixion. And this is not only
in harmony with Peters words, but is the precise sense expressed by them; for
he makes the preaching to have been while he was in the condition resulting
from his being put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the spirit, by
which, or rather as Bishop Horsely
remarks, in which he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, who were formerly circumstanced as is
afterward described - that is while dead in the flesh, but alive in spirit, he
went [Page 165] in spirit and preached to the spirits, who were prisoners
of hope, and were looking for a future enlargement and deliverance.
By a perversion of this passage the Papists make this text
subserve their views of purgatory; and hence others, to avoid that error, have gone to the opposite extreme and
denied that the departed were thus favoured, as Peter affirms. This involves a consideration of the kind of preaching
appropriate to those to whom the Saviour preached.
As they were only sometime disobedient, they must have been
brought to repentance and faith in a coming deliverer before they died. Therefore the Saviour could not, when he went
into hades, have preached faith and repentance to them - the preaching of
which, also, would have been of no avail to the
impenitent, the eternal condition of all being determined by the present
life. And this overturns the Papal dogma
of purgatory. These spirits had repented
during life, or they would not have been in that part of the unseen where the
Saviour was; and the end of his preaching could not have been to any immediate
deliverance from hades; for they without us will not be made perfect.* The preaching of Christ to them, then, was the proclamation,
announcement or publication to them (for such is the meaning of the word preach) of the great fact that he had died for their
sins, and [Page 166] should rise again for their justification. As the souls of the martyrs are represented,
under the fifth seal,** as anxiously inquiring, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell
on the earth, so
may we know that the pious departed are not uninterested expectants of future
deliverance [or salvation of souls (1
Pet. 1: 9,
R.V.]; and nothing could have given greater joy to the spirits in
Paradise than the entrance of Christ, when his flesh was consigned to the tomb,
and the announcement to them of the glad tidings that he had actually offered the
sacrifice of their redemption, and was about to appear in the Fathers presence
for repentant disobedients. This was an
announcement fit to be made to the spirits of the just; and it could not fail
to give new joy and animation to them to learn that what, not improbably, Moses
and Elias [Elijah] had already proclaimed to them as
about to be done, was already accomplished, and the consummation of their
future happiness fully provided for.
[* Heb. 11:
40, R.V.] ** Rev. 6: 10.
There is a single difficulty which
should be noticed in this connection, viz.: why are the souls, of the repentant
antediluvians singled out as the subjects of the Saviours preaching? Were not those of later ages equally
interested in the message? These
considerations are pertinent, and yet by no means do they affect the time or [Page 167] subjects of Christs
preaching. That he preached to them is
affirmed, but that he thus preached to all the departed just is also
probable. Peter intimates as much in verse six of the next chapter, when he says: For this
cause was the gospel [i.e., presumably, the good news of
the kingdom
(Matt. 13:
19)] preached also to them that
are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh,
but live according to God in the spirit.
The same is thus rendered in Dr. Murdocks version of the Syriac: For on this
account the announcement is made also to the dead, that they may be judged as persons in the flesh, and may live according to God in the spirit. And when was this announcement made to them,
except as the Syriac has it, when he died in body, but lived in spirit; and he
preached to those souls, which were guarded in
That this is no new interpretation,
may be seen by the following. Thus Dr. Horsely says:
[Page 168]
The expression sometime were or one while, had been disobedient,
implies that they were recovered from that disobedience, and, before their
death, had been brought to repentance and faith in the Redeemer to come, to
such souls he went and preached. But
what did he preach to departed souls, and what could be the end of his
preaching? Certainly he preached neither
repentance nor faith; for the preaching of either comes too late to the
departed soul. These souls had believed
and repented, or they had not been in that part of the nether regions which the
soul of the Redeemer visited. But if he
went to proclaim to them (and to proclaim or publish is the true sense of the
words to preach)
the glad tidings that he had actually offered the sacrifice of redemption, and
was about to appear before the Father as an intercessor in the merit of his own
blood, this was a preaching fit to be addressed to departed souls. (Sermons,
page 262.)
And Bishop Hobart adds:
Christ went, says the apostle, and
preached to the spirits in prison, to spirits
in safe-keeping, to the sometime disobedient, but finally penitent antediluvians, in the days of Noah, who,
though they were swept off in the deluge of waters, found through the merits of
the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world, a refuge. While his body was reposing in the grave, he [Page 169] went in his spirit and preached - or, as the word signifies, proclaimed - the
glad tidings to the souls of the departed saints of that victory over death
which the Messiah, in whom they trusted, was to achieve; and of that final
redemption of the body and resurrection to glory, the hope of which constituted
their enjoyment in the place of the departed. (State of the Dead, pages 7, 8)
If we would successfully meet the Papists, we must take this
position; to deny the plain teaching of the original is to play into their
hands.
No 5
WAS IT SAMUEL?
[Yes: so says
the Holy Scriptures!]
-------
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS BASED ON THE ABOVE
WRITINGS
-------
A SERMON BY A LOST SOUL*
[* Edited from writings by D. M. Panton.]
It is one thing to ponder the horrors of the coming
Great Tribulation, which may yet be
decades distant, or the judgment of the Great White Throne, occurring at
least ten centuries from now: it is
altogether another to contemplate what
may be the fate of any or all of us in a few
minutes from the
moment that this is read. The boundary between this world and the next
in the underworld of Sheol / Hades, (Luke 16: 23, 30, 31. cf. 1 Sam. 28: 11-20.) is so slight, and the arrival of disembodied souls in
the beyond can be so sudden, that it may actually be experienced by any one of us in a
moment. It is among the amazing things of revelation,
which we so little realise, that, reported by the Lips in which dwelt all wisdom and
knowledge, a man is overheard speaking for the only time in the history
of the world. Two men suddenly arrive in
Hades - that waiting-room of the souls whose tickets have already been taken for eternity;
each is shifted, with hardly a perceptible break by death, into the Underworld
of the dead; and our Lord reports an
actual conversation - the only authentic report of a conversation of the dead
ever recorded - not to satisfy curiosity, or to reveal secrets, but to show us, who
at any moment may be there, that the decision of eternity is now.
The
first awful fact that bursts upon us is that punishment
is already an actual experience,
and is deliberately so stated by the tenderest Lips in all history. In Hades - [not in heaven] - he lifted up his eyes - up, for the inner circle of earths centre is the lower circle - being in torments (Luke 16: 23). The Lake of fire is not Hades, but punishment begins there:
* It
would appear from this that the fire of the
[** Aionion fire should be translated age-lasting fire in this context.]
The whole emphasis throughout Christ
lays on a physical contrast, - here, upon this restored world, and hereafter the First
Resurrection (Rev. 20: 4-6), beneath
which lies a far profounder spiritual contrast, in two men who exchange
positions in the age to come, (Luke 20: 35. cf. Phil.
3: 11
& Heb. 11:
35b). Abrahams answer sums it up:- Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things - reached your own ideal of wealth, prosperity, power
- and Lazarus - a name which, pathetically, means God is my help - likewise evil things; but now here - in the Underworld of reversal - he is comforted, and thou art
in anguish. If the world could, by economics, make
everybody a Dives, it would feel that it had reached an ideal higher than its
highest dreams. The extraordinary thing
is that not a single sin is laid to the charge of the Rich Man by Abraham:
nowhere does Christ Himself say that he was a vicious man, or a criminal, or
irreligious, or possessed of ill-gotten wealth:*
he
perished merely of worldliness. Thy good things
ease, comfort, pleasure, with sin: Lazarus evil things - scorn, poverty, disease, with God: therefore
Dives has pall-bearers, Lazarus has angels.
The reversal is appalling. Here,
Lazarus is the beggar, and Dives the refuser - there, Dives is the beggar, and
Lazarus the refuser: here, Dives refuses a crumb on the tongue - there, Lazarus
refuses a drop of water on the tongue: Dives saw the suffering beggar, and did not relieve
him; Lazarus sees the tormented Dives, and cannot relieve
him. And the moral gulf, in the age to
come, becomes as impassable a
physical gulf - a
gulf fixed that (see Gk.) for the very purpose that
none may pass.** Gods myriad warnings crystallize at last
into an impassable gulf. Lazarus lost
everything in the world, but he lost worldliness with it: Dives dies in
worldliness, and wakes up in fire.
*
That wealth does not necessarily ruin is
proved by the fact that of the two men, Dives and Abraham, it is almost certain
that Abraham was by far the richer man.
[** NOTE. The Judgment of a Christians works, which will
take place after the time of Death (Heb. 9: 27, R.V.),
will determine who, from amongst the dead in Hades, will be resurrected and accounted worthy to attain to that age, and the resurrection from the dead: (Luke 20: 35,
R.V.).]
Now
what does a man, who finds himself there, say in Hades, from the time of his Death
to that of his Resurrection?* What he
does not say
is overwhelming: unutterable volumes lie in the sudden silence of the soul who,
on the other side, knows. (1) It never crosses the rich mans lips,
for apparently it never crosses his mind, to cry - Let
me out! The clanging of the Gates behind him, the awful locking of the Keys of Death and of Hades, require no further argument and admit of no further
doubt. Dives has to be told that no
disembodied soul can cross the Gulf that divides the good from the evil and wicked* unrepentant dead; and he has to be told that a good soul sent out
on to the earth would not convince; but he needs no one to tell him that there
is no escape out of the place of the lost for one who has died unrepentant. (2) There is one word which we can
hardly imagine a soul, thus plunged into catastrophe, and involved in fearful
ruin, not uttering; one word that embraces and controls the
universe; one word in which hope alone can survive: yet in all the dialogue in
those fateful shades the word God never
escapes his lips. The man who lives
without God, dies without God; and lips that never pray on earth are mute in
the lower Hades (3) His only other cry, beside that of pain, is a cry that involves
complete self-despair:- Send to my fathers house. The dead say
that there is hope for the living, but
none for the dead. Dives knows,
without question put or complaint made or appeal lodged, that he is either eternally
or millennially
doomed.
[*For e.g., see
Rev. 6: 9-11.]
** It may well be
the case that the rich man (Dives), before the
time of his death was a regenerate soul and therefore not eternally doomed:
but presumably he is prejudged by Christ as being not accounted worthy to rise out from amongst the dead at
the time of the First Resurrection (Rev. 20: 5): which is a resurrection of REWARD.
See also Luke 14: 14; 20: 35; Phil 3: 11; Heb. 11: 35b,
etc. If this was the case - and it
probably was - he has lost the crown
and forfeited the millennial inheritance belonging to Gods first-born sons
and overcomers,
(Rev. 3:
11; Heb. 12: 14-17. cf. Gal.
5: 19-21; Eph. 5: 3-6.)]
Now
the sermon of a lost soul issues from the Rich Mans lips. Send Lazarus -
how remarkably he does not say, Send me: he knows the Gates are locked - to my fathers house, lest they also come into this
place of torment: if one go to them from the dead, they will repent. Dives is
anxious his brothers should repent; not
once does he speak of his own repentance: he is keenly aware that repentance will keep his brothers from going to where he is, but
he never dreams that repentance will pluck a man out from where he is. It is impossible, to carry our sins into
Heaven, and the moment we are in the Underworld of the dead we shall know
it. Dives suffers from remorse, not from
repentance. Not one word of admission of
sin; not one word of regret for sin; not one thought for the cleansing from
sin; not one cry for the pardon of sin:
The lower Hades holds no
sense of sin, and therefore no absolution from sin. Dives
manifestly had himself never believed that there is a punishment there: he infers that all who conceal or deny the fact
are doing men a fearful wrong; and
his one appeal for his brothers is that they should be told that it is a fact. And that they may escape it he concentrates all on one
word - REPENT! That is what the disembodied soul of a dead
man thinks every living man ought to do.
It is wilful sin and disobedience that fills his place in
Hades, and it is only repentance now that can
escape it. Dives was sure that if only his brothers knew the facts
of the Underworld of the dead, they would move heaven and earth to avoid the
torment. O what weird hands, which lay in the same
cradle with ours, are waving us off from the very same fire at this moment,
crying with parched throats - Repent! The Saviour
Himself has warned us in words that could not be more clear or sure, and no
lost soul who ever entered the gloomy portals but knows that they are
true. Jesus said: Except ye repent, YE SHALL ALL
LIKEWISE PERISH (Luke 13: 5).
Now the startling fact in
Abrahams answer is that the five brothers had in their hands something more
convincing, more saving, than would be an evangelist walking straight into
their house from out of a ruptured tomb.
If they
hear not Moses and the prophets, he says, neither will they be persuaded, if one rise from the
dead. Abrahams reply reveals what alone save any
man, in any epoch of the world, anywhere.
God Himself can give no more than He has given. Christ Himself never once appeared to an
unbeliever after His resurrection. I do
not want news from Hades, but pardon from Heaven: could a messenger from Hades
cleanse my foul soul? But obeying Gods Word in the Scriptures can. No messenger
from the Underworld of the souls of the dead could make goodness more lovable,
or ones experience in the lower Hades more terrible, or Calvary more
cleansing, or Christ more Divine, or duty more clear, or decision more urgent,
or eternity more solemn, than the Scriptures do which we hold in our hands. The dead
might lie: the Book cannot. We have all
the proof that Almighty Wisdom sees to be the right proof, and we have enough proof:
more would only deepen condemnation; and no
more will ever be given. All the Bible that we have is all the Bible that we
need.
The disclosure of our Lord - perfectly unique in the
history of the world - focuses everything on immediate decision.* How few words our Lord devotes to
these two mens lives: how He concentrates all on their hereafter! Two men,
travelling the same earthly way, pass at once into opposite abodes, as surely
as vapour rises and water falls; between them is fixed a gulf which no
reasoning can hide, no time can heal, no angel can bridge, no eternity can
destroy; traffic across is impossible, for the good will not cross when
the day of mercy is closed, and the bad may not, when the day of opportunity is gone; and all
around are walls unscalable, unpierceable, immovable. Now is the accepted time, NOW is the
day of salvation. At any moment
we may be there. I knew a man, says John Wesley, who
had greatly signalled himself as an enemy to all serious inward religion. He was going on pleasure as usual. His foot slipped, and as he was falling a
thought came, What if instead of falling to
the earth thou hadst now died, and fallen into hell? That thought
brought him to a sense of sin, to repentance and to God.
* Bishop Samuel
Wilberforce says:- The experience of many
death-beds has convinced me that, so far from the death-bed being the place
where you will see the greatest sincerity, there are few places where you will
oftener see men hypocrites, very few times and very few places where men are
more desperately striving to deceive themselves, because they feel that now it
is almost hopeless to turn.
-------
BEYOND
This remarkable poem, the authorship of which is unknown,
and which we take from the Jewish Missionary Magazine is taken
in its true intent if we read it of resurrection rather than
of death. - D. M. PANTON.
[Not Death but Resurrection] is to
rise in power from the husk of the earth-sown wheat;
Resurrection [not Death] is to rise in
glory from the dust of the incomplete;
Resurrection fills the hand with fresh cunning and fits it with
perfect tool,
And grants to the mind full power for the tasks of its
greatest school;
Resurrection gives new birth
to the runner and wings to the
imprisoned soul,*
To mount with a song of the morning toward the
limitless reach of its goal;
Resurrection is to throb
with its urges of life that eternal abides,
And to flow with the inflowing currents of infinite
loves great tides;
Resurrection is to see with
clear vision all mysteries revealed,
Resurrection is the end of all sorrow and crying and anxious care;
Resurrection gives fulness for longing, and the answer to every
prayer;
Resurrection is to greet all the martyrs and prophets and sages of
old,
And to walk again by still waters with the flock of
our own little fold;
Resurrection is to join in
hosannas to a risen and reigning Lord,**
And to feast
with Him at His table on the bread and wine of His board;***
Resurrection is to enter a city and be hailed as a child of the
King,-
O grave, where soundeth thy triumph? O death, where hideth thy sting?
-------
[* Psa. 16: 10. cf.
Acts 2:
34; 2 Tim. 2: 17, 18; waiting
still! Rev. 6:
9-11.
** Col. 3: 4; Rev. 3: 21: only for those, from amongst the Church,
deemed to be overcoming Gk.
*** Lk. 22: 28-30: only for those who have continued with Christ in His trials Gk.]
-------
If
we renounce our own thoughts and imaginations, we shall have no difficulty in
finding the meaning of God. The way of
simplicity is the way of Truth. And if
we do not forget that Jesus Christ is not only the confession of our faith and
love, but also of our hope, so shall He be to us the Key of all prophecy. The testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of
prophecy. - LUTHARDT.
Keep
in mind: when our Lords BODY, remained
motionlwss (and without corruption) in Josephs tomb for no longer than the
time He prophesied (Matt. 12: 40); His
disembodied SOUL remained in SHEOL / HADES - the Underworld
of the dead.
All
who continue to be obstinate and dogmatic in teaching Christians that they can
ascend into HEAVEN
without
having
a glorified and immortal body, - (for the body is unredeemed; and We ourselves groan within
ourselves, waiting for our adoption,
to wit, the redemption of our body Rom. 8: 23b, R.V.) -
are teaching contrary to the Word of
God: and, whether this is being done intentionally or unintentionally,
these teachings are identical to what all Spiritists believe!
Our
Lord Jesus Christ said: Every idle word that men shall speak,
they shall give
an account thereof in the day of judgment. For by
thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned:
(Matt. 12:
36, 37,
R.V.)!
I come quickly: hold
fast that which thou hast, that no one take thy crown. He that overcometh, I will make him a
pillar in the temple of my God
(Rev. 3: 11, 12a, R.V.).
THE END