SPIRITISM
A FOE OF CHRISTIANITY.
[Edited from writings by Robert Govett,
M.A.]
At
the present crisis, when so many are turning to spirits as their instructors,
it seems to be well to point out to those willing to listen, the contrariety of
Spiritism to the Word of God, on one or two main
points; and the awfulness of the results in which land its followers.
Our subject, then, is to
show that,
‘NOT DEATH, BUT THE RESURRECTION [OUT] OF THE DEAD IS THE CHRISTIAN’S HOPE.’
To
the apostles the resurrection was the great foundation of the faith. It
was proved by the actual resurrection of Jesus. It was the great and
startling piece of news which they were sent to proclaim, with all its
consequences, to an unbelieving world.
But
soon this truth fell out of view. In the middle ages, the intermediate
state and deliverance from it, usurped the place of resurrection. At the
Reformation the doctrine of the intermediate state fell through, together with
the false doctrine of Purgatory. The idea which Justin Martyr stigmatizes
as false - that at once on death, the soul enters on heaven and
glory - took its place. If that be true, resurrection is an impertinence. Hence resurrection almost ceased to form a subject of Protestant discourses,
and the case is not very different now.
In
most instances - as is evidenced by the hymns usually sung - death is
the object set before the believer’s view. The topic of funeral sermons
is the victory achieved at death, when any one departs in faith. The
departed faithful have entered the land of promise; may we go to them!
The body is a ‘clog,’ a ‘burden,’ a ‘prison.’ Death is emancipation from
the flesh, a sudden entry on glory. This, I suppose, is not
Scripture doctrine, but contrary to it.
To
unbelievers, resurrection has always been one of the chief stumbling-blocks of
Christianity. 1. Of old it was declared, that the rising of the dead and
decomposed body was something beyond the power of God Himself. 2. The
philosophers added, that even if it were possible, it
was undesirable in the highest degree. Mater was in itself evil. To
be delivered from the appetites and importunities of the body was the great
object of the philosopher. And should he allow, that the body which had wrought
so much mischief to the soul, and was at length laid away out of sight - a
putrid mass - was anew and for ever to be associated with the purified
spirit? It was man’s glory to leave it for evermore.
Celsus said of resurrection, that it was
‘a hope to be cherished by worms.’
Let
me then set forth the Christian doctrine
upon this important subject. And in so doing I propose to treat of three
points.
1.
WHAT IS DEATH?
2.
WHO ARE THE DEAD?
3.
WHAT IS RESURRECTION?
First
then -
1. WHAT IS DEATH?
It
is the opposite to life. And life is the union
of spirit, soul, and body.
"And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God
your spirit and soul and body be
preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:" 1 Thess. 5: 23.
Man
is made up of three parts then - the visible body, and the
invisible spirit and soul. At death these three component parts are
severed; and each of them goes to a different place. The unseen spirit
returns to God: Job 34: 14, 15; Eccl 3: 21; Luke
23: 46; cf. Acts 7: 59; Jas. 2: 26; Luke 8:
55. The unseen soul [i.e., the man himself]
departing from the body, is conducted to a region called Hades. The body
left upon the earth is visibly conveyed away to the tomb by men.
Of
these two latter statements you have a proof in Acts
2. There, Peter inspired of the Holy Ghost, refers to the 16th Psalm, where it is written, "My flesh shall rest in hope, because thou wilt
not leave my soul in Hades, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy
One to see corruption:" 26, 27.
That, says the apostle, was not fulfilled in David. His
body was entombed; His flesh was corrupted, and His soul is still among
the souls in Hades. But this was true of "Jesus the Nazarite."
He was slain by the wickedness of Jew and Gentile. At death His soul
went down among the souls in the under world. His body
was conveyed to the sepulchral chamber that belonged to Joseph.
1. Death then is a
dissolution, the undoing of the bond of life which keeps in unity man’s
spirit, soul, and body. And so it is written, "If our earthly house of the tent be dissolved,"
or taken down: 2 Cor. 5:
1.
2. It is an unclothing.
"We that are in the tent, groan,
being burdened; not that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon,
that mortality might be swallowed up by life:" (Greek) 2 Cor. 5: 4. The soul
in the living is clothed with the body. At death it is
driven out from its tent. It is a naked, or
disembodied soul.
3. It is a taking down of a
tent or temporary abode. "Yea I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle,
to stir you up by putting you in remembrance, knowing that speedy is the
laying aside of my tabernacle, (or
tent,) even as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me:"
(Greek) 2 Pet. 1: 13, 14.
4. It is a departure.
"Having a desire to depart, and to
be with Christ, which is far better."
"Nevertheless
to abide in the flesh is more needful for you:" Phil. 1: 23, 24. "For I am now
ready to be offered, and the time of my departure (or dissolution) is at hand:"
2 Tim. 4: 6.
AFTER DEATH COMES BURIAL.
God
has made the disposal of the corpse after death by way of interment or burning,
a necessity to the survivors; both by its hideousness to the eye, and its noisomeness to the smell. It is also an occasion of
showing either respect or dishonour to the dead. The refusal of burial is
threatened by God as a disgrace to some of His enemies. "Their dead
bodies shall be for meat unto the fowls of the heaven, and unto the beasts of
the earth:" Jer. 34: 20. Of Jehoiakim, who cut in pieces and
burned the word of God, Jehovah says,
"His dead body shall be cast out, in the day to
the heat, and in the night to the frost:" Jer. 36: 30.
We
come now to the Second Point.
2. WHO AND WHAT ARE THE DEAD?
Death
is a momentary thing: it is the separation of the spirit and soul from the
body, which is complete at a given instant. And so we speak of ‘the point
of death:’ Gen. 25: 32; Mark 5: 23.
But this severance introduces the soul into an abiding state.
The Scriptures distinguish between the act of death and the state
of the dead, by the use of two different Greek words.
The
dead, then, are those whose component parts remain rent asunder, or
dissevered. Their bodies are either in the tomb, or completely
disorganized and turned to dust. The
corruption of their bodies, which begins at death, is the proof that their
souls are amongst the dead. Jesus was dead, and was among the souls
of the departed, as long as His body and spirit were severed.*
In that state He remained three days only. But
Abraham, David, and the prophets, with unnumbered others, are still among the
dead. For David, "by the will of God fell
asleep, and was laid to his fathers, and saw corruption; but He whom God raised
again saw no corruption:" Acts 13: 36,
37. The one great exception tells us what is the
ordinary rule.
[* See Psa. 88. "Free among the
dead." Here it is the souls
of the dead. "He went (journeyed) and preached to the spirits in prison:" 1 Pet. 3. The soul is the Person who moved: the body
was fixed by death in the tomb.]
1. The dead are described in
Scripture - specially the believing dead - as "the sleepers." Their bodies are
motionless, as in sleep. "Our friend Lazarus
sleepeth." They are
asleep, as compared with the activity which they once displayed as the
living. It is a sleep from which we cannot awaken them.
2. They are the unclothed.
As, when retiring to rest for the night, we take off our clothes in which we
have been labouring and active; so it is with the dead. Their raiment
suited to activity is laid aside. Their
spirits and souls are unclothed. And
as such they are unfit for the
3. They are partially unclean.
They are not fit for the presence of the living God in heaven among the
angels. The severance of the body, soul and spirit is the effect of sin,
and of the original sentence of God upon the guilty. Corruption of the
body is the token of God’s displeasure; it is the proof of being a
sinner. It is the repulsive path leading to the sentence of
Hence
under the Old Testament the touch of the dead defiled. For seven whole
days was he defiled, who by accident or intentionally had touched a corpse or a
bone. He needed to be purified on the third day and on the seventh, with
a specially holy water prepared from the burnt
heifer. He must wash his clothes and bathe in water, before he could be
considered clean once more.
To
the eyes of Spiritist’s
the dead are the really living, the free, the active,
and awake. They are the cleansed - evil being
put away with the mortal body. According to them the spirit-state is the final
one. There is to be no uprising of the body. In all these points they are opposed to Scripture. I give some passages in illustration of their
views.
1. “We have constant proof that
a man never really dies. (m.i.) He builds up his body as a house for himself
in the course of his earth-life, which he decorates and lives in." Grant
- Modern Spiritualism: p. 22.
2. “The
truth that there is ‘no such thing as death,’ is the noblest
consolation that ever blest humanity." (m.i.) Dr. Sexton’s Conversation: p. 2.
3. “Thus we claim, that the
phenomenon of death rightly understood and fully interpreted, removes the
ignorance and superstition that has hitherto surrounded it, and thus takes
the sting out of the adder’s mouth, and the old enemy ceases to be regarded as
such." Morse’s Phenomena of Death: p. 15.
4. "To the enlightened
mind ‘there is no more death,’ ‘nor sorrow nor crying,’ to those
who live in conjunction with Eternal Truth."
As
the natural consequence of God’s decree concerning defilement by the dead, intercourse
with the spirits was forbidden. No Israelite was to be a "consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or one that
inquired of the dead: (Heb.) For all that do these things are an abomination to the Lord:"
Deut. 18: 11, 12.
Were the living, when in difficulty, to inquire of the dead? Nay,
but of our God! It was because of the contrary wickedness that the
nations of
There
have risen, however, in our day, those who knowingly and habitually consult the
spirits. This was an abomination even in the heathen, left to the light
of conscience: how much more in those who have the light of Scripture and
profess the name of Christ!* And, as a consequence, those who do are
being led away from Scripture and from God and Christ of whom that Scripture
speaks. The doctrine of the Spiritists is becoming more and more opposed to Christ, and
openly blasphemous.
[* Witchcraft is one of the works of the flesh, excluding
from the future (millennial)
This true view of the dead will
materially affect our comprehension of the Saviour’s reply to the Sadducees. Jesus argues from the
expression used by Jehovah, "I am the God of
Abraham, of Isaac, and Jacob," that the dead were to be
raised. In what condition, then, did Jesus assume these patriarchs to
be? Dead? Or alive? Christians ordinarily suppose that He
assumes them to be alive. So says Wesley,
"Therefore Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, are
not dead, but living. Therefore the soul does not die with the body."
So says Barnes. "God spake, then, as being their God."
"They must, therefore, be still somewhere
living." "He is the God
only of those who have an existence."
But
then there is in that passage no proof of a resurrection; but
only of the separate existence of the soul, after spirit returms
to God and the body is laid aside. Now resurrection never means ‘the immortality of the soul,’ never means ‘a future state.’ Then, too, Jesus’ reply does
not refute the Sadducees. Their alleged difficulty did not relate to the intermediate state, but to the coming forth
of the dead from their tombs, and the
restoration of their bodies. To whom the woman was as wife to belong,
was a question applying only to the day when the body was reunited to the soul. Neither Pharisee nor Sadducee believed in
marriage among spirits.
This
answer, then, makes Jesus evade the question, and prove the separate
existence of the soul, instead of the resurrection of the body.
It is, in fact, a wrong way of stating the matter. The patriarchs were
not alive, but dead. The dead, as we have shown, are those human beings
whose body, soul and spirit are severed. Then Jesus admits to the Sadducees, that
Abraham is dead, as much as the woman and her seven husbands. Abraham is
dead, for his body is still in the
It
is, indeed, quite true that this passage proves the separate existence of
the souls of the patriarchs. But that was not the point.
Jesus does not cite it to prove that, but Abraham’s return to his body.
The separate existence of Abraham’s body soul and spirit is a proof of his
being then and now among the dead. He will not be alive till his body,
soul and spirit are reunited. In the same state in which Abraham was when
God spoke to Moses at the bush, Abraham is still. Barnes and others call
him "dead" then.
He is, then, dead now. Jesus therefore is referring, not to
time present, but to a future day of
resurrection, of which the Sadducees were speaking.
Abraham
is dead. Jehovah is his God. But Jehovah is not the God of the
dead. Therefore God is not now showing Himself the God of Abraham,
for the first resurrection - i.e., a resurrection to immortality
- is not yet come. That the resurrection was to be at a
future day, the Pharisees held; and on that, allowed as a basis,
the Sadducees plead. God, then, by these words, engages to restore by His
Almighty power Abraham to become Abraham again in resurrection. Abraham
when the Lord promised him possession of
A new and better age - [i.e., the millennium.] - is coming, in which the
resurrected neither die nor marry, nor are given in marriage. As long,
then, as marriage and death last among believers, so long have we clear proof
that the better age and the resurrection out from the dead are not come. Luke 20: 35, 36.
But
if ‘death be resurrection,’ and the bodyless state be
the eternal one, Abraham had already risen ages before, and was either then
enjoying the land of promise, or God’s pledged word was broken. Then, too, the Sadducees should not have said,
"Whose wife in the the
resurrection shall she be?" For
already in the bodyless state - [or the spirit-state,
as the Spiritist’s would say.] - she was the wife of one or more of them.
If they were wrong in their supposition about this, Jesus would have corrected
their error. But while He affirms the reality of resurrection, which they
falsely denied, He confirms them in regard of the futurity of the
resurrection. "But when they shall
rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage:" Mark 12: 25. "They
which shall be accounted worthy to attain that age, and the resurrection [out] from among the dead,
neither marry nor are given in marriage:" (Greek) Luke 20: 35.
This
then leads us to consider the next point. Is the spirit-state the final
one? Nay - for God’s testimony is that the dead shall rise.
3. WHAT IS RESURRECTION?
First
let us notice what it is NOT.
Spiritists and Swedenborgians (in all
essentials the two agree) assert that ‘Death is resurrection.
Resurrection is something true of the spirit of man alone.
The spirit is the spiritual and eternal body of which
Paul speaks: 1 Cor.
15; and its rising up out of the corpse
is the only resurrection.’
1. "By resurrection (says Swedenborg) is not meant the resuscitation of the rent or worn-out
carcase laid in the grave. On the
contrary, it is the deliverance of the spirit from the bondage of the
flesh, when man awakes in the other world with his whole nature
intact." - Life, p. 327, by White.
2. Jesus "arose after death on the third day with his whole body, which
never happens to any man; for man only rises as his spirit and not as to his
body:" p. 381.
3. "Man does not die,
but is only separated from the corporeal part which was of use to him in the
world; for man himself lives. It is
said, that man himself lives, because man is not man from the body, but from
the spirit.” "Death in the Word in its internal sense, signifies,
resurrection and continuation of life!" "As soon as this
motion [of the heart] ceases, the man is
resuscitated; but this is done by the Lord alone. By resurrection is meant the drawing
forth of the spirit of man from the body, and its introduction into the
spiritual world, which is commonly called resurrection!"
Heaven and Hell: 445. See also Bailey’s Discourses, No. 12, p. 32.
Dr.
Sexton says: - "In reality there is no such a
thing as death; when the material body - which is no more the man himself
than the coat he wears - (m.i.) is worn out and thrown aside, the man himself - that is -
the spiritual being, in whom all the identity resides, walks forth in the
majesty of renewed vigour in the bright summer land prepared by God:"
p. 20.
"The lump of clay that had been her earthly covering, was but the outer garment of the real person
on whom his affections had been fixed, and she could do even better without it."
22. "We approach the grave and lie down on the
couch from which there is to be no more an uprising." P. 24. God and Immortality.
A.
J. Davis says of the struggle of the dying: - "I
realized the fact, that those physical manifestations were indications not of
pain or of unhappiness, but simply that the spirit was eternally
dissolving its co-partnership with the material organism."
Philosophy of Death: p. 8.
Judge
Edmons says: - "what
happens immediately after death? The
first thing as I understand it, is the
formation of the spirit-body." What is Death? P. 9. This is
"justly called the resurrection of the body!"
p. 6. So Harris. The New Church: p. 19.
This
idea is thought to derive sanction from the inspired declaration, in 1 Cor. 15, that there is
a spiritual as well as an animal body.
But
the whole strain of the Apostle’s argument is against such a thought. The
Spiritist’s say, the resurrection occurs in
individual cases daily, and at once on death. Paul speaks
of it as something that has not yet occurred, but is to take
place at some unknown time after burial, when myriads of the Lord’s
people will rise together, at the last trump.
I
once visited a Swedenborgian minister, and observed
to him that Paul’s account of the resurrection given in 1 Thessalonians seemed to me in exact opposition to Swenenborgian doctrine. Swedenborg
says - that resurrection takes place individually and immediately after death;
Paul, that the resurrection has yet to take effect, and then at once on
multitudes both of the living and the dead. Swedenborg says, Christ’s return in the flesh is impossible. Paul, that the resurrection is to take place at His descent,
His shout and the last trump. He said - "You
are right. There is that opposition. But these epistles were Paul’s first, and any
one can see they are not inspired." So he set up Swedenborg, as not only equal to Paul, but superior to him
the inspired!
The
grand foundation of the Apostle’s argument is the actual resurrection of the
Lord Jesus. Is resurrection impossible? Then deny that of
Jesus! Did He rise? Then resurrection is not impossible. He
rose, so will His saints rise. This is asserted in many texts: 1 Cor. 15: 20.
"For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look
for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our body of
humiliation, that it may be fashioned like unto his body of glory,
according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto
himself:" (Greek) Phil. 3: 20, 21.
"And God hath both raised up the
Lord, and will also raise up us by His own power:" 1 Cor. 6: 14.
Christ
rose in His capacity of "firstfruits."
Now the firstfruits are a specimen of the whole
harvest which is to follow: 2 Cor.
4: 14. Jesus Christ is "the first-born from the dead."
His other brethren who are to be born after Him from the dead, will then be
like Him in that birth: He indeed having the pre-eminence, but their
resurrection being after the pattern of His: Col.
1: 18; Rev. 1: 5.
The
Swedenborgians and Spiritists
assert, that man is only temporarily a corporeal
being. He is essentially a spiritual being: the body is but
the scaffold to the building; taken away for ever, after the spirit is matured
at death.
Against
this I will bring proofs, that the body is in the mind of
God, an essential part of the man, destined to form a part of his eternal
condition.
1. This appeared at Creation, Gen. 2: 7: "The Lord
God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life, and
man became a living soul." The body moulded
into the human form is called "man:"
to this is added the spirit and soul - and man is seen in his created
perfection to consist of three parts.
2. So Scripture speaking of the future, predicts:"In my
flesh, (says Job,) shall I see God:" Job. 19: 26. "Thy
dead men shall live, my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell
in dust:" Isa. 26: 19. "I
pray God that your whole spirit, soul, and body,
be preserved blameless unto the coming (presence) of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that calleth
you, who also will do it:" 1
Thess. 5: 23.
We
resume then the inquiry; -
WHAT IS THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD?
The
unscriptural theory taught by Spiritists is -
that ‘death is resurrection.’ ‘At death the spirit clothes itself with a very etherial or subtle body and rises up out of the
corpse. This spirit-body is the spiritual body, of which Paul speaks.’
What is death?
We
reply - ‘NO - IT IS NOT.’ And we proceed to the proofs
against it: there being indeed no proof
in its favour; nothing save the assertions
of believers in spiritualism.
We
say, then, the whole man is to be
restored from death, both his body soul and spirit. This is proved by
THE CASE OF THE LORD JESUS. There we see what is meant by
resurrection.
Jesus
did not rise at His death. His spirit - [Not
the Holy Spirit, but His human spirit which He expired on the
cross and which returned to His Father in heaven.] - and
His soul went down out of His body at
His death - went down to Hades.
"Or, Who shall descend
into the deep? (that is to bring up Christ
" - [here the soul is proved to be the Person]
- "again from the dead:") Rom. 10: 7.
And
again: "Now that He ascended, what
is it but the He also descended first into
the lower parts of the earth:" Eph. 4:
9.
There
He preached, a disembodied soul Himself - to the spirits in prison: 1 Peter 3: 19. He did not for three days
show Himself on the earth. He was amongst the dead. His human soul was amongst the human souls of the
dead, in the place appointed them below. His body was among the bodies of the dead, in the sepulchral chamber
allotted to it. He suffered the curse on Adam, and His soul, body and
spirit were severed, on purpose that He might triumph over death; and that as
death could not hold Him, He might bring in life in
resurrection.
He
rose again the third day after death, before corruption - [if it
were possible] - could seize upon His sacred body. He rose,
the entire man came forth from among
the dead. His soul ascended from the lower parts of the earth, and was
reunited to His body. His spirit , which was
surrendered into His Father’s keeping, reanimated His body, which then came
forth from the place of the corpses, to appear to the living. Only then,
when He had so risen, was He said to be alive. His death
was the dissolving of the temple in
which the Son of God dwelt. But He promised to rebuild it after
three days. Only after that time is He said to be
alive: Mark 16: 11; Luke 24: 23. "Why seek ye the living One
among the dead?" That was, true, only after
He was risen out of the tomb.
This
then is God’s meaning, where Scripture uses the word "resurrection." Death is
not a rising up but a lying down of the body, in which posture it
abides. Death is not the mounting up of the soul, but its going down into the underworld of Hades. On
this example of Christ, Paul rests the whole Gospel. This alone is God’ news. The departure of the spirit
and soul from the body, was and is, the ordinary
course of things. God raised Jesus not from death alone,
but from among the dead, to whom He descended when He died; and
from whom He came up, when He returned to life. How was the Saviour known
to be dead? By His spirit,
committed into the hands of His Father. How was He known to be
buried? By His friends bearing His body to
the place of dead bodies, and His soul descending into Hades.
How was He proved to be risen? By His body no longer being found in the
tomb to which it was committed, but by its being seen and felt alive
by credible witnesses. The whole man had arisen. His spirit
and soul dwelt anew in His body.
As
the Father at His baptism, and transfiguration saluted Him as His "Son," so also does He after His birth from the
tomb. "Thou art my Son, this day have I
begotten thee:" Acts 13: 33.
Raised from the dead, He is still the Son of David, AND IS TO RETURN AS SUCH:
2 Tim. 2: 8; Rev. 22: 16. As He
rose, so AFTER THIS MANNER are we to rise.
1. On
this as their basis, the apostles took their stand, and provoked, by their
powerful testimony, the persecution of the Sadducees.
"And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the
captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them, and grieved that they
taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection [out] from the dead:"
Acts 4: 1, 2.
They
announced this rising up of Jesus, God’s Nazarite, as
the first instance of that which was to come to pass in the saved, to fit them
for their expected kingdom of glory. Jesus was raised from the dead
"by the glory of the Father:" Rom. 6. Thus the Lord God manifested His
good pleasure in the Christ Whom they had maltreated and slain. The
visible glory of God in the wilderness had delivered Caleb and
Joshua from death, when assailed by
Christ
is now a ‘man.’ Though He be exalted to
the Father’s right hand on high: Acts 7: 56; 1 Cor. 15: 21, 45, 47; 1 Tim. 2: 5; Heb. 2: 6; Rev. 1: 13;
14: 14.
Christ
rose as the Forerunner and the Firstfruits.
2. The resurrection of the dead who
came forth at
[*There
is a vast difference between the resurrection of Jesus, from that of Lazarus, Dorcas and Eutyehus; Christ was
resurrected in an immortal body without blood; the latter were
all resurrected in mortal bodies.]
3. Or take a fresh view of the matter
from 1 Cor. 15.
Where Paul announces to us the tidings is a spiritual body. The apostle
tells us that death, with its sad surroundings both to the departing one and
the friends, is the penalty of the first sin of our first parents. Life
and resurrection come with righteousness. In Christ alone, in Him first
the meaning of death put away was seen. No such resurrection as Christ’s
was going on in Paul’s day. But this false theory contends that, resurrection
came by Adam, and that it is the ordinary course of things.
It ignores the change brought in by our Lord Jesus Christ.
4. That the doctrine I oppose is unscriptural, is evident at once on comparing its theoretic
statements, with the word of God. Paul says of "the resurrection of
the dead," -
"So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption;
it 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": 1 Cor.
15: 42-44.
"It is sown, etc."
Now
this is quite true of the body of the dead. Its sowing is
its burial. It is let down into the grave in a state of decomposition. That is not true of the soul.
The soul is not decomposed; it is not committed to the grave. It is not
visibly weak or dishonoured, as the corpse is. The Holy Spirit speaks of
the state of the dead generally, as "corruption."
"Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit
the
"Flesh and blood" is the condition of the living:
"corruption," the state
of the dead. Such Paul affirms was the state of David. He "saw corruption:" Acts
13: 36. If there be no resurrection, then the dead in Christ have
perished. Wrecks of the man may exist in the separate state, just as the
cargo may be washed ashore, after the vessel has gone to pieces on the
rocks. But the ship is no more - it has perished!
Now
if the body is to moulder, and to come forth never more, Paul’s whole strain of
argument and of statement must have changed. He must have told us, that
death is our final state, into which men depart, one by one. That
dissolution is our goal of hope, our entry on joy and immortality. The
immortality of the soul, (the doctrine of human reason at its highest,) is
alone true. What he does say is the reverse of this - ‘that the body
committed to the earth in its state of weakness, dishonour, and corruption,
shall arise in a state quite contrary.’
"It is sown an animal [‘natural’]
body, it is raised a spiritual body." (Greek,). What is the meaning of the last
expression? It is taken by opponents to signify a body rare, subtle,
fine, capable of being seen, but not ordinarily capable of being touched by the
living. That is, I am persuaded, not the sense of the apostle. This
appears by a comparison of the expression with the other epithet previously
used. Our present body is an "animal body" of flesh
and blood, one suited, that is, to the wants of this natural
life, to the career on which Adam entered at his creation. The body to
come, then, is ‘a spiritual body,’ not in
reference to its fabric as peculiarly etherial and
impalpable, but as it is a body suited to man’s new life in
resurrection. The spiritual body, then, is suited to the eternal
life in the heavens - [as well as on earth]. That is the result, not of
Adam’s desert, but of Christ’s; and is effected by His
power. The natural body is that which Adam bore. The spiritual is
that which Christ is now wearing. Paul says not - as on this theory he
should have said - ‘Out of the dead arises at once the incorruptible spirit.’
But "the dead shall arise incorruptible, and we
(the living) shall be changed."
5. Paul’s figure of the seed sown and
arising, is absolutely convincing on this head to any
who will listen to God’s testimony. Not merely you have had instances of
resurrection, and they clearly show what the resurrection is to be. But
in answer to the cry - ‘How are the dead to be raised up, and with what body
are they coming?' He replies, by
telling us, that our ordinary sowing of seed is a God-given pattern of our
future destiny. We commit to the ground the seeds from which we desire
life to spring. Beneath the clods they die; out from their grave
they spring up, and after burial. It is not - ‘Their sowing is
really their rising; their casting into the earth is really their coming up out
of it.’ That were too absurd. But ‘After
their burial they arise. Out of the earth in which they were sown
they come up, even as the whole man, spirit, body and soul shall ascend out of
the tombs.’ So said Jesus: John 5: 28, 29.
Our Lord also compared death and resurrection to the same sowing and rising of
the seed: John 12: 24.
Thus
then the body rises because the spirit and soul is re-knit to it. It is not said - ‘The
dead at death possess (or acquire) this spiritual body.’ They acquire (or
possess) "corruption"
only; "incorruption" is a putting on
of something after burial, and after coming forth from the
tomb.
6. We gather the same conclusion from
the nature of the case. Death, or the severance of spirit, soul and
body, coupled with the body’s thenceforth mouldering into dust, was the
consequence of man’s offence and of God’s displeasure: Gen.
3. Until, then, the body is restored from the dust, the proof of
God’s acceptance of the saved, and of His rolling away the curse, is not
visible or complete. And so saith Paul:
"When
this corruptible (the dead body) shall
have put on incorruption, and this mortal (the
living saint) shall have put on immortality,
then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, ‘Death is
swallowed up in victory:" 1 Cor. 15: 54. Until
the resurrection then the visible victory belongs to death. "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death."
Now the power of death is visibly broken only when the body is rescued from its
grasp.
7. Man consists, according to the
inspired writer, of three parts - one visible "the
outer man," and two invissible, "the inner man." When the spirit and soul are driven out of the
body, it is unclothed. Not nakedness,
however, but clothing is God’s mind: 2 Cor. 4: 16; 1 Pet. 3: 3; Rom. 7: 22; Eph. 3: 16.
Till the outer man is knit anew to the inner man, man is incomplete. The
work of God is up to that moment marred by sin "The
body is dead because of sin," although
"the spirit is life because of righteousness":
Rom. 8: 10. But if the body be part
and parcel of man in his perfection, his resurrection implies his rising up of
the body.
8. The same thought appears also from
the meaning of ‘resurrection’ and ‘awaking,’ as used in Scripture. It has two
faces.
(1.)
Resurrection is the restoration of life. Life as now
manifested is the union of body and soul. Life in resurrection then is
the reunion of body and soul. "Christ both died and revived, that He might be Lord of the
dead and of the living:"
(2.)
Resurrection is the undoing of death, in all its work; whether on the
visible part of man or the invisible. As then death is the
dissolution of body, soul and spirit, resurrection is the combining anew.
This is exhibited in the fullest clearness in the case of our Lord. "What sign showest thou to us, said the Jews, seeing that thou doest
these things? Jesus answered and said
unto them, Dissolve this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."
As death was the taking down of the
(3.)
The fundamental ideas of the Greek words used to describe resurrection yield
also a sufficient proof. The first signifies ‘a rising up.’ Now the
rising up has a direct reference to the previous lying dawn. That only rises up which previously lay down. What
then lies down, or is laid down? The body of man.
The sick lays himself down on his death-bed. His body is laid down in the
tomb after death: John 11: 34, 41. It
abides there unable to move. Or, if we take the case of sudden and
violent death, the matter is still more evident. It is only the living
who can maintain the erect posture of standing up. When death takes place
the body falls to earth. "Ananias hearing these words fell down and gave up
the ghost [spirit]:" Acts 5: 5. Sapphira "fell down straightway at his feet and gave up the ghost:"
10. "Abner with the hinder end of the spear smote him under the fifth
rib that the spear came out behind him; and he fell down there and died
in the same place:" 2 Sam. 2: 23; Acts
28: 6.
Now
the rising up is the visible consequence of the spirit’s
invisible entrance on it. As the body lay dead because of the
spirit’s withdrawal, so it rises up because of the spirit’s
return. Take the case of Jarius’ daughter.
Jesus "entereth in where the child was lying. And
he laid hold of the child’s hand, and said unto her - ‘Talitha
koomi,’ which being translated, ‘Damsel, I say to
thee arise!" "And her
spirit returned and she arose at once."
(Greek) Mark 5: 40, 41; Luke 8: 55.
The two prophets yet to be sent are slain at
The
same conclusion follows from the other common expression for
resurrection. It is strictly ‘the awakening and rising up’ of the
sleeper. Life is ordinarily active, and activity is generally displayed
in the erect posture. Sleep is the assumption of the attitude of lying
down, a posture suited to rest. Every night we lie down for repose, to
awake and arise in the morning. Now death visibly resembles sleep.
The two are often mistaken the one for the other. Death is a longer and
deeper sleep, incapable of being shaken off by any methods we can employ.
The word ‘awaking,’ however, applied to the
dead, hints to us the visible restoration of activity to the man by
supernatural power; to commence on another and better morning than those of
this life. So Jesus said of
Lazarus - "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth,
but I go to awake him out of sleep." How was that done? By
Lazarus coming forth out of the tomb. "The maid is not dead, but asleep."
‘Damsel, I say unto thee, awake! And at once the damsel arose:’
Mark 5. The body is the visible seat
of sleep; so also, then, is it the awaking.
In
short, resurrection respects the whole
man, such as God made him at first - the being consisting of spirit, soul,
and body. Death affects all parts of him and severs them.
Resurrection, as the undoing of death, causes the dissevered parts to come
together again.
This
then will meet an objection which may have suggested itself. You speak of "the
resurrection of the dead" - not of "the resurrection of the body" - as
it is usually expressed, and as it is found on ‘the
apostles’ ‘Creed’ (so called.)
The
expression was used designedly, FOR IT IS THE CONSTANT ONE EMPLOYED
BY SCRIPTURE. The other expression IS NOT ONCE EMPLOYED.
And the reason is clear. They who speak of ‘the resurrection of the
body’ fix the eye on a part of
the man, while God’s eye is on the whole man. The
phrase would suggest to the unbeliever the objection - ‘The body then is to rise without the soul or spirit.’
For while some err by making the soul or the spirit all in all, God’s word
maintains body, soul and spirit.
God
speaks of "the resurrection of the dead" - because that
word embraces all parts of the man. "Give me (says Abraham about Sarah) a possession of a burying place, that I may bury my
dead out of sight." "In
the choice of sepulchres bury thy dead:" Gen. 23: 3, 6. "Whited sepulchres full of dead men’s bones and of all
uncleanness:" Matt. 23: 27.
Here it needs no proof that the reference is to the body of the
dead.
"If one from the dead went unto them they will
repent:" (Greek) Luke 16: 29.
Here it is the soul of the dead coming up from Hades/ Sheol, the place of disembodied/naked souls "in the heart of the earth." Psalm 16: 10; Acts 2: 31a; Matt 12: 40.
"I saw under the altar" - [that is,
the earth where they were slain for their testimony] - "the souls of them that were slain"
"And they cried with a loud voice,
saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our
blood on them that dwell on the earth:" Rev. 6: 9, 10. This supposes the souls
of the dead to be intended.
And
the expressions "resurrection from among
the dead," and "the judgment of the
living and of the dead," include all parts of the man: 2 Tim. 4: 1 Pet. 4: 5.
The
whole man is given up to death, and is in its keeping. The spirit returns to God. The body is
moved away from the abodes of the living to a place sacred to the dead.
The soul is "in prison." Or in custody in Hades - the
place of departed souls. And its gates as yet prevail
against the dead: Matt. 16: 18.
While the soul is there detained, the body is captive; overwhelmed with the
slavery of corruption, from which it cannot deliver itself. Christ then
is the Redeemer who shall - [at the time of His return and word] - bring
together the severed parts from their widely sundered places: Rom. 8: 21. "For
the hour is coming in which all that are in the graves (tombs) shall hear His
voice and shall come forth, they that have done good, unto the resurrection
of life, and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation:"
John 5: 28, 29.
The
saved under the law, were the slaves of fear. Christ has redeemed us from
that: 1 Cor. 15: 56, 57;
Rom. 8: 15; 7: 4, 6. "God sent forth His
Son, made of a wamon, made under the law, to redeem
them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons:"
Gal. 4: 4, 5. But
God does not own the saved to be sons, until their bodies as well as their
souls are rescued. Hence believers are "waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body:" Rom. 8: 23.
And this result is determined on already, as the same chapter tells us.
"But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus
from the dead dwell in you; He that raised up the
Christ from the dead shall also give life to your mortal bodies,
because of (marg.) His Spirit that dwelleth in you:"
11. Now as God salutes Jesus by the
title of Son in a special manner after His second birth from the tomb - as He
says - "Thou art; my Son this
day have I begotten thee." (Ps. 2.) so shall
it also be with the other brethren who are to follow on the same road with
"the Firstborn from the dead."
Thus,
then, Christians, let not our eye be
fixed on death, but on resurrection! Death severs the parts of
Christ’s mystic body. Death
rends asunder our present fellowship with the departed in Christ. And if
we fix our eye on death, we draw off each into his separate individuality, for
death attacks each singly. Blessed be God, that,
even that, is far better than life. Our departure is the
being - in a spiritual and mysterious sense - with Christ. It is the
falling asleep in Christ; and the sleep is sweet. But Scripture would turn our gaze in the
direction of Christ’s promised return. The Holy Spirit would lead us
to look for the Redeemer’s second advent, who shall
knit together the severed members of His mystic body. Even unbelievers
can look for death. But they have
not our hope - of the coming of the Son of God, of His awaking of the
sleepers, and bringing together the living and the dead into His presence of
glory. If the falling asleep be good,
how much better shall the awaking be!
If
the disembodied soul’s distant vision of the Lord be glad, how much greater
shall be the joy of the presence of the risen beside the risen Son of
Man! It is not the death of the believer that gives him the
victory. It is when the mortal has been clothed upon with immortality,
and the corruptible with incorruption, that then shall the saying be
brought to pass, "Death is swallowed up in
victory! O Death, where is thy sting? O Hades, where is thy victory?"
This is the cry of the rescued, as for ever they leave the soul’s place of
custody in Hades, and the cerements of the tomb.
The
Lord speed that day!
THE BODY’S SAMENESS.
1. It is
also the same body that is to rise, else
the man is not the same. Abraham is not Abraham, save as
Abraham’s spirit and soul are brought again to join Abraham’s body. This
was proved in all previous instances of resurrection. The body that was
laid down in the sepulchre was the body which was raised up and came forth from
it. This was manifestly the case with our Lord. His mode of death
was peculiar, and left behind it visible traces on hands, and feet, and
side. His resurrection, then, was of especial importance,
as He rose before the flesh was corrupted, so as [not] to lose the marks by
which the body could be identified. The risen Jesus bore the body which
the disciples knew of old. He presented to them those marks of death as
the proof of the sameness of the body crucified. "Behold my hands and my feet, that
it is I myself! Handle me
and see:" Luke 24: 39. On
these marks of crucifixion Thomas’ unbelief fastened: he would not believe
unless these were apparent.
2. Yet
the body was changed too. Here is an example of the two-foldness of Divine truth. In one sense it was the
same, in another it was different. So the Spirit of God speaks of the
seed. I bring you the seed of an olive. You plant it in a special
pot. By and by a young tree arises: yes, it is an olive! That comes
from the seed you sowed; does it not? That olive tree is the olive seed
developed. And yet how different in
appearance is the tree to the naked stone you buried! That was bare; this
is clothed with leaves.
These
points too, Paul notices. He supposes the body raised to be the body
buried: 1 Cor. 15: 36.
"That which thou sowest is not quickened except it
die." “It is sown in
corruption; it is raised in incorruption." Here is its unity. And yet he says, "Thou sowest not the body that
shall be:" 37.
So,
while Jesus’ body bore still the marks of death, it was now no longer confined
by walls, but could enter in or pass out, could make itself visible, or vanish,
at pleasure. His sacred blood had all been drained away, by the nails and
by the spear, to be the ransom of our lost souls. His body,
thenceforward, was one of ‘flesh and bones,’ not
of ‘flesh and blood.’
THE TIME.
The
time of resurrection, as stated by the apostle, is quite different from that
contemplated by the Spiritist theory. The righteous are to rise before the wicked
in a future day. The dead saints have to rise, in order to set them
on a level with the living saints, who are expecting Christ’s return. The
resurrection is to take place on vast numbers at once, not on men one by
one. Their mouldering relics are to be restored to life in an instant -
at the last day, at the last trump - the worthy signal of the Great
Congregation’s assembly. Death and its
changes are the penalty of sin. This is the
forth-bursting of Almighty power of Him who has for believers put away the
penalty. Such a change is absolutely necessary; for, as Paul says,
believers, whether they be alive of dead, are in
neither condition fitted for the kingdom of glory: v. 50. The bodies of the living are moving
down to death. Much less is the corruption of the dead suited to the city
into which death cannot enter, and where God dwells for ever.
Thus the testimony of Corinthians and of Thessalonians agrees.
So
with the butterfly, it is the same
individual creature that appears at the egg, the grub, the chrysalis, and the
butterfly. But how vast the
difference in appearance and action between the chrysalis and the perfect
insect!
TYPE OF RESURRECTION.
God
has given us, in the ordinances of His assembly, a pledge of the restoration of
our bodies in resurrection. Under the patriarchal dispensation and the
law, the bodies of God’s ancient people were marked as His: and the mark was
designed to recall God’s covenant and promise, that they should one day enjoy
the
Under
the gospel Paul tells of the scars in his body received for Christ’s
sake. Thereby the Lord had consecrated to Himself Paul, his body as well
as his soul: Gal. 6: 17.
But
that was something special, and by no means common to all believers. We
pass on, then, to one which is commanded to all. God testifies that
Jesus, His Son, has died for sin, been buried, and risen
again. Do you believe it? Then you are called to undergo a visible
death, burial, and resurrection. Be you buried, and risen again [in
baptism], like your Master! Accordingly, the believer is plunged under
water, and rises out of it again. The
immersion presents the burial into the drowning element of water. The
emersion represents a new life, like that of Christ.
This
rite, then, has two great meanings.
1.
First, it is an emblem of a new present life of the soul, after the pattern of
Christ’s. I bury my old life in Adam. I take up a new one in the
Son of God. I die to the sins and responsibilities of my unconverted
life. They are taken up by the second Adam and buried. I arise to walk with Christ in newness of
life, after His command, and in His spirit.
2.
But it also looks towards the believer’s hope and future heritage.
I have been buried in water, after the likeness of Christ’s burial. Myself entire - body, soul, and spirit - was plunged beneath
the waters of death. I was presented as one with Christ my substitute, in
the likeness of His death. The Son of God with whom I am one, one of
whose members I was made, came forth in resurrection. The name of God who
raises the dead was called over me. O then, in the figure which by God’s command
was enacted on me, I read a pledge of my rising again - the whole man - body,
soul, and spirit! In the emblematic burial and resurrection which then
took place I read God’s purpose soon to give me the reality, of which this is
the shadow. My Redeemer has reconciled my soul to God, and gives me
present peace. But He has consecrated my whole self to God, and means to
redeem from Satan and death my whole self, body, spirit and soul, in
resurrection. He has consecrated me priest by a better bathing, a better
blood and oil than those wherewith the sons of Aaron were set apart: Ex. 29: 4. I look then to stand and minister
as a priest in the sanctuary above; not naked, not unclothed of my [present]
body, a thing which God abhors, but clad in flesh rescued from the tomb, or changed
in a moment without death: Rev. 7: 14, 15.
I
have been planted in the waters of baptism together with Christ, a living seed
buried into the waters of death with Christ. O then! As with Him
buried, I look, as God has promised, with Him to rise
from the earth. He has arisen, a tree in the
Lord’s planting, loftiest in the
The
Spirit of God by His indwelling without measure in Jesus Christ made His body the
Jesus
when dead was buried. In resurrection He became the Firstborn of the
dead, and God saluted Him as His Son come forth in the power of an endless
life. So, then, the Spirit of God has renewed me in soul. I am
possessor of a really eternal but invisible life. With a new life
comes a new birth. The typical birth I have experienced,
the real one I expect. I look, therefore, that my heavenly Father should
cause my body also (if I depart,) to be born again from the tomb. The
redeemed soul awaits its union to a redeemed body. The spirit rescued
from spiritual death expects a rescue of the body from material death. The soul rescued from Hades/Sheol expects to be reunited to the rescued body. Till
that time the traces of the fall are not removed. The three
parts of me are now at variance. My soul belongs to the new creation; my
body to the old. My body is dead in law because of sin; but my spirit is
life, because of its renewal; the Spirit of God within it, the righteousness of
Christ upon it: Rom. 8: 10. O, then,
Christian, this discord is not meant to continue for ever. He who is the Saviour of the soul, is the
Saviour also of the body: Eph. 5: 23.
AN ILLUSTRATION.
Shall
I refer to that illustration of the future existence which has always struck
men? when they made the butterfly an emblem of resurrection? Observe, then, it
is not a resurrection at death which is therein set forth: (cf. Davis p.
13.)
The
grub comes forth from the egg of the caterpillar, to feed on leaves. When
it has attained its full size, and finished its earthly life, it prepares its
coffin, and rolls its self up in its winter cerements. But when the
spring opens up into summer, it comes forth from its buried existence to live
its new and ethereal life. All the winter it remains in suspended
animation; its new life is entered on by bursting forth of its coffin to enjoy
its airy heritage and pasture. So with man.
Death is his entry on the state of the chrysalis. It is not till he has
burst the tomb that he comes forth to his heavenly heritage and life.
DIFFERENCES GATHERED UP.
The
doctrine, then, of the Old Testament and the New, is that at death the soul
goes to the place of departed souls, which is called (in Greek) ‘Hades’ or ‘Sheol’ (in Hebrew). The soul is the person;
not the spirit as the Spiritists (and
multitudes of regenerate believers) believe. The New Testament
calls the dead ‘the sleepers.’ Spiritists describe them as those specially alive, and
awake.
The
two doctrines differ as to the nature of our final state. The Spiritists and Swenenborg find it
in the spirit’s (or ghost’s) coming forth from the corpse. Christ and
His apostles speak of the final state as being the restoration and recovery of
the whole man from the grasp of death. They describe resurrection, not
as being the same thing with death, but as death’s undoing. Not
as the spirit’s coming forth from the corpse, but as the whole
man - body soul and spirit - coming forth from the tomb.
"Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall
hear his voice, and shall come forth: they that have done good, unto the
resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation:"
John 5: 28, 29.
That is no mere word of theory, devoid of reality and power. God has given us proof in the
coming forth of Lazarus from the cave of death; and in the opened graves, out
of which the companions of Jesus’ resurrection came, and exhibited themselves
as alive in spirit soul and body. Still more satisfactorily, Jesus has
come forth in body, soul, and spirit, as the risen man, the pattern and the
proof of ours. At this point Swedenborg is
reduced to affirm, that the Saviour’s resurrection is altogether unlike
ours. Indeed Jesus did not really die. For on the cross His body and soul (says Swedenborg) were more firmly knit than ever; all that made
Him passive being then and there put off. And His body, when laid in the
tomb, was wholly spiritual; all that was human in it, and derived from His
mother, had passed away.
God
speaks of "the bondage (or slavery) of corruption:"
Rom. 8: 21. Swedenborg, of "the bondage of the flesh."
The one tells us of the putting off of the results of death from the body, and
clothing it with incorruption. The other, of the body laid aside for
ever, given up as worthless to the worm. Death and Satan get the victory
visibly. Swedenborg’s ‘deliverance’
is Paul’s ‘perishing!’ 1 Cor. 15: 18. If
the soul does not die, and the body,
which does die, is not to be raised, the resurrection of
the dead is impossible. It is merely casting dust in our eyes to
talk of ‘resurrection.’ Life and death are seen and known to us the
living, only in their effects on the body. If, then,
you deny the rising up of the body in a new life, you cannot believe in the
resurrection of the dead. For you deny that reunion of body, soul,
and spirit which constitutes life.
As
to the mode of resurrection again, the three parts are at variance. The Spiritist’s make
their resurrection to take place naturally, as part of the usual course of
things. It takes effect, according to them, on men one by one. It effects alike the wicked and the righteous. Both are daily arising together. But God’s resurrection is to effect the righteous,
first: a thousand years before the others:
Rev. 20. The Spiritist’s resurrection [translation] cannot take place in
the living. God’s resurrection and translation will take effect on both
together: in masses caught up to meet the Lord, who breaks in upon the present
scene with supernatural power. Not ‘all saints will be dead;’ but all
["accounted worthy"], both dead and
living believers, must be changed, in order to be fitted for the millennium,
and for the eternal kingdom: Luke 20: 35; Phil. 3:
11; Heb. 11: 35.
To
the Spiritist’s - [and multitudes of deceived
Christians] - the resurrection is "past already"
as it regards the dead, who are far the largest portion of the human
family. But the Holy Spirit tells us, that such a statement is
an overthrow of the faith: 2 Tim. 2: 18.
You have destroyed the very sense of resurrection. Resurrection is
an act of God the Son, (1 Cor.
15: 22,) not experienced now, but to be put forth at the last day, at a
time unknown; but, then, signalled by the trump of God. Jesus is "Resurrection and Life," on the living
He will work the change which will make them immortal. On the
dead saints He will put forth His power in resurrection.
The
error here combated sets aside both sin and redemption. According to Scripture, death,
and the decomposition of the body which follows it, were the
effects of Adam’s trespass. Life and recomposition
of the body is the consequence of Jesus’ work of obedience and atoning.
But the Spiritist’s make death to be resurrection,
and the penalty of sin to be our deliverance!
What
makes the subject of resurrection so solemn? Because it is the portal to the eternal
state. Because it is designed to prepare for judgment. It is setting the culprit personally before
the Judge, to receive his reward according to his works. And Christ
was raised first of the dead, that He might be Judge of all: Acts 17: 31. Men, both believers and
unbelievers, are raised to be judged; the one before the Great White Throne,
believers before the bar of Christ: Rev. 20; Rom.
14: 10-12.
It
is because death is the consequence of sin, taking effect according to law, by
sentence of God the Almighty, the ever-living Judge, that it is so justly to be
feared by the sinner. "The sting of death is sin,
and the strength of sin is the law."
Who, then, can deliver the guilty?
Death,
threatened by God in the Garden, was disbelieved by our first parents.
They trusted the Father of Lies in his promise, ‘Ye
shall not surely die.’ They sinned, and found the threat of God
to be true. Death came. It is here. All around are the
trophies. Who can deliver from death?
But
resurrection has been foretold by God in His grace. Death, the penalty of
sin, is not to be the end of man. Resurrection is possible,
for He who promises has Almighty power. It will be no harder to
Him to reunite the scattered parts of man, than it was to mould him at first.
Resurrection is certain, for He has determined on it, and His
truth binds Him to perform it. Nay, He has already effected this His counsel, in the case of His Son Christ
Jesus. This God testifies in
His Word - attests by His witnessing churches everywhere, which began at that
very era of the crucifixion, and through that testimony to the risen Man.
Will you, reader, believe God? And come into the light? And dwell
in the love of God through His Son and Spirit? Or will you
disbelieve? Will you make God a liar, dwell in eternity now, and in
disobedience, and abide in damnation forever, when this time for mercy is to
you past.
I warn all, trust not the spirits!
They are lying spirits! They are lost themselves,
and seek to drag others into ‘the lake of fire’
too. What if they teach that God exists, and that the soul will live
forever? That will not save you, reader. That will not "blot out" your "sins." Moreover, if from being a perfect unbeliever
and atheist, they lead any to become instead a necromancer, or inquirer of the
dead, he is sinning on. That is a new offence, which God threatens to
visit with fire everlasting. Here then - There is but one Deliverer,
but one who can by His blood blot out your sins, and give present pardon, and
future eternal glory. To Him, reader, draw nigh, ere this
brief time of offered mercy close!
A
word to believers in Christ! Some may think that there is
some truth in Spiritism, which they will try to find
out and will adopt, while still retaining their hold on Christ. No,
friends! It can’t be done! First, it is an awful offence against
God to seek these lying spirits and their prophets. They are liars.
That among them are "seducing spirits"
is confessed by every Spiritist. How are you
then to know which are the spirits to be trusted? You can make no true
discrimination. Vainly you would seek, save with God’s clue and by His
Spirit, to disentangle "the wiles of
the devil." God has indeed given tests in His
word, and there are occasions on which a Christian may be called to put them to
the test. ‘Is Jesus Christ come in the
flesh?’ is the touchstone which the Holy Spirit by John teaches
us to use in the case of the inspired. This has been tried, and the spirits have denied this foundation truth:
thus proving themselves the spirits of Antichrist: 1
John 4; 1-3. . . .
Not
a few have apostatized from the faith; as the Lord said they would: 1 Tim. 4: 1-6. Their doctrines are
frightful. They affirm, sometimes that there is no personal God - He is
the soul of nature. All things, specially man,
are a part of Him! Sometimes they speak of Him as the Heavenly Father of
all men. They teach that there is no sin, and no responsibility,
because everything is under necessity. They
denounce Christianity. ‘Down with the creeds, but our
no-creed!’
They
put forth a Gospel by Judas Iscariot and Paul - a romance - which affirms Jesus
to be the son of Herod! They are liars, who blaspheme God and His
Christ! They are unclean spirits, who give full license to sin.
They are leading back to images and the old heathenism. They teach men to
adore the spirits, and worship the God within each man.
The
results in practice are terrible. They lead to breaking the marriage bond, and to libertinism on principle. They have led
many to suicide, insanity, or murder. The old possessions have returned. Then stand aloof. God gives you warning
in love. The spirits, my readers, are the enemies of God and His
Christ. And the time of their being tormented according to their deserts
hastens on.
Let
us, then, believers, like the Thessalonian saints of
old, turn to our God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and look not for
death and corruption, but for the coming of the Son of God from heaven.
He shall assemble to Himself the saints, living or dead, and so shall we be
ever with the Lord!
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FOOTNOTE.
Bishop Beveridge, -
"If His [Christ’s] soul had
ascended to heaven as His body descended to the grave, then one part of his
human nature had been exalted, whilst the other had been debased. For His
soul, that would have been shining in the highest heavens, whilst His body was
lying under a piece of earth; and so this would have been in a state of
humiliation, whilst the other was in a state of exaltation. By which
means, at the time He would have been wholly in either state, but partly in
both. And so most of the systems of divinity that ever were made,
teaching only a double state of Christ, the one of His humiliation, the other
of His exaltation, must be changed, and a third added, partly of exaltation,
partly of humiliation. But that needs not, for certainly Christ was
never in more than one state at one time: when He was in a state of
humiliation, not of exaltation; when in a state of exaltation, not humiliation ... We cannot but maintain that the soul was in a state
of humiliation, as well and as long as the body, and so not in heaven, while
this was upon the earth, but under earth in hell [Hades], whilst the body was under the earth in the grave [tomb]. And when He
rose, they both rose; the soul being fetched from hell [Hades] to be united again to its body. But in few words, to put this question out of
question, that the soul of Christ was not in heaven (but therefore in hell [Hades]), in the third place, our Saviour Himself, who best knows
when He first descended into hell [Hades],
tells us plainly the third day after His death, being the day of RESURRECTION,
that He was not then ascended up to heaven, saying to Mary, ‘Touch me not, for I have not yet ascended to by
Father,’ John 20: 17."
Barrow on the Creed, vol. 1 Serm. 27,- P.
172-175.
Midrash Coheleth on Eccl.
1: 7, -
"All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is
not full:’ That is, all the
dead go into Sheol only,
that is Hades: yet Hades is never full; as it is written, Prov. 27: 20, ‘Hades and
Destruction (Abaddon) are never full.’"
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