The hope and resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. Practical Christianity, a reason of the hope that is in you

Front matter

Class Book

GopiglttN?..

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT.

Contents

Chapter Page

1 — Details of the plan of salvation — The Creation — Angels — Demons — Cause of

prayer — Man and his make-up — Sin and its result 16

Chapter One. Details Of The Plan Of Salvation

Throughout the history of the Church, both ancient and modern, and from the beginning of human time, Satan has sought to make "splits" in the ranks. He has succeeded in his efforts and continues to keep two sides upon which men throughout the ages have laid the foundation stones of their several beliefs, theories, and religious convictions.

Before we discuss these sides let us make a general survey of the beginning of things of the earth so that our minds will more easily grasp the present-day religious ideas and compare them with the true facts as they are presented in the Bible. Let us notice first of all that Christ was in the very beginning with Jehovah. As the Scriptures say: "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with (the) God, and the Word was (a) God" (literal translation from the original Greek Mss. John 1:1).

The word God in both cases is from the Greek theos, which is equivalent to the Hebrew el, which signifies a mighty one. Therefore, in the original Greek text we have the definite article before theos to signify Jehovah, the Mighty One, and the indefinite article, rather no article at all, just the word theos, which signifies Christ, a Mighty One. There are other mighty ones besides Jehovah and Christ, but these are known to us as angels. No doubt all the mighty ones were present at the creation of man when Jehovah said, "Let us make man, etc."

Now let us divide the Creation into two periods, as a matter of convenience. First — that period in which God made the heavens and the inhabitants thereof-. Second — that period in which God made the earth and its inhabitants.

From the Bible we learn that the inhabitants of the heavens are called angels, or created spirit sons of God, they being spirits. These angels were all good in the beginning. They were under the rule of archangels of whom Lucifer, now Satan, was chief. These angels were not created immortal — deathless — neither were they created mortal — dieable. They were created free moral agents with power to will to do or not to do; and they were placed upon their own honor to obey or disobey certain laws of Jehovah, that they might attain unto deathlessness or death, immortality or mortality.

Because of selfishness and pride and diobedience to law, Lucifer fell from the favor of God with a host of angels who were corrupted by him, and they became wicked spirits, mortal, dieable, subject to death. Lucifer, who was the highest angel in heaven, and next in rank to Christ, is now the devil; while the angels who fell with him are the demons with whom we must deal in this present evil age and because of whose oppressions prayer has become a regrettable necessity to the well-being of the human race. These demons are tantalizing men all the time in order to get men to do evil and to keep them from attaining unto Everlasting Life. But the good angels who did not disobey God are always near us to protect us from the onslaughts of the demons according to the measure of reverence and faith we have in God. They are the "ministering spirits" through whom Jehovah protects us by night and by day, keeping us from injury and distress, sorrow, sickness, etc. They ascend and descend between the Father's throne and the earth, and are God's messengers of mercy who carry the prayers to the Father and deliver the answers to men. Because of the demons we must continually watch and pray lest we enter into temptation and commit sin, the wages of which is — DEATH.

The demons are the "oppressive spirits" and they not only cause sin, sickness, sorrow, trouble and distress, but they rule the darkness, tempt men to do wrong, cause destruction to go before a storm or tempest, cause epidemics and pestilences, and every form of evil in man and beast, and interfere with the progress of the good angels w T hom God sends to deliver answer to prayer. They are spoken of in the Bible as those "angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation," whose abode is Tartarus, where God has reserved them "in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day," when Christ and the saints will condemn them to death, and they will be destroyed with everlasting destruction. It was these demons and evil spirits that Christ commissioned His disciples to cast out (Matt. 10:8) (Mark 16:17). Paul says:

"We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against wicked spirits in heavenly places."

No doubt these demons were among those who witnessed the creation of man and therefore know exactly how to depress, oppress, suppress, and possess the spirit of man, to torment and kill him. No doubt they once had charge over this earth before Adam, their office having been taken from them because of their disobedience and fall; and when God gave the dominion to Adam, his (Adam's) fall had to be accomplished so that Satan could wrest the dominion from Adam and regain for himself the control of the earth. Adam was once the god of the animals and all lower forms of life and ruled them so that they all lived in absolute peace and love and harmony with each other. But when Satan took the dominion away from Adam and became himself the "god of this world," then the animals became wild and dangerous and lived in hatred and discord, and all forms of life became contaminated with evil.

God, who is All Wise, had a plan conceived in His mind long before the heavens and the earth were made, long before the morning stars sang together and the Sons of God shouted for joy; and the fall of the angelic hosts and the fall of man was not a mere accident, neither was it God's fault that they fell; but it was one of the outworkings of God's purpose or plan, "that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace, in His kindness towards us, through Christ Jesus."

When God made man out of the dust of the ground, he was a dead concrete object, inanimate, fashioned in the image of God, after His likeness — an exact picture of Him. He therefore was :

1. — Body flesh and bone. ^

2. — Soul animal senses. > all inanimate.

3. — Spirit . . conscience.

This inanimate body was an organized body with eyes that could not see, ears that could not hear, a nose that could not smell, a tongue that could not taste, a heart that could not pulsate, lungs that could not expand, limbs that could not move and blood that was cold and lifeless. This mass of dead matter was called a dead soul. It was not yet a living man since it was not yet energized. There was no life in it. This dead soul was exactly the same as a dead soul is today, except that it had a more perfect formation.

When we look at a dead man we notice at once that he does not breathe. So was Adam in the dead soul state. But God breathed into him the breath of the spirit of life and man became a living soul. From that time on every living man is constituted as follows :

1. — Body flesh and bone.

2. — Soul animal life- — senses.

3. — Spirit conscience, disposition.

4. — Breath air, atmosphere.

In other words a living man can be properly said to be constituted :

1. — Organism — flesh and bone to shelter the life.

2. — Natural animal life — to move the organism.

3. — Conscience or spirit of life — the power that moves and does.

4. — Wind or breath of the spirit of life — that energizes the person.

The BREATH of the spirit of life is that essence which comes from God through the air or atmosphere, by which all breathing creatures live, and by which all fire burns. It is the breath — the air. The SPIRIT OF LiFE is the dynamic power, the conscience, the disposition, or intelligence back of the animal life which causes the organism to move about, to think, to work, to act. All voluntary actions are controlled by the will through the breath of life; but all involuntary actions such as of the lungs, heart, stomach, liver, blood, etc., are controlled by God independent of the will directly through the breath. It is upon the spirit of life, the conscience, that the breath acts by way of the lungs, heart and other organs, energizing the spirit so that it can perform upon the life itself. The natural life of man— the SOUL — is contained in the blood that flows through the veins of the body to keep the wornout tissues in repair, and is that part of the man which has to do with the locomotion and the senses.

As soon as the blood is hindered from freely entering any member of the body, that member at once becomes lifeless and is without the power of motion. But as soon as the life-blood is allowed to return that member can move again. Therefore, when the breath of the spirit of life is wanting, the spirit of life ceases to operate, the life dies and the man returns to dust.

If a man can be compared with a locomotive engine in action we would make the following comparison:

The breath of the man is as the fire of the engine.

The spirit of the man is as the motive power of the engine.

The soul of the man is as the action of the engine.

The body of the man is as the frame of the engine.

The fact then is, that no one part of the man can be the man. So then we see that man made of the dust of the ground is properly constituted an organized person:

Living Soul

. A

Dead Soul

A

Body

Soul

Spirit

Breath

Framework Flesh and bone Organism

Animal life

Action

Senses

Conscience Motive powei Disposition

Air

Wind

Atmosphere

Like the angels, man in his creation was made neither mortal nor immortal, but he was given a power by which he can attain unto mortality or immortality, according as he obeys or disobeys God's will or law. After his creation, Adam was at once put on trial for everlasting Life (immortality) or death (mortality) according as he met or failed to meet certain conditions of law. Eve, his companion, was to be a partaker with Adam in all things.

When Adam was put on trial God spoke to him, saying, "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of trie tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die (Gen. 2 : 17). Disobedience entered into Adam's life. He had been put in the Garden to dress it and keep it (Gen. 2 115), to have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living creature that moved upon the earth (Gen. 1:28). He had failed to perform his duty as caretaker over the animals, and the serpent played truant and got out of his sight only to be used of Satan to seduce the pure mind of Eve in making her listen, through his subtilty, to a contradiction of what God had said (Gen. 3 :i). And as they, the woman and the serpent, conversed with each other, Eve became fascinated with the craftiness of the serpent, who succeeded in convincing her that God had indeed been mistaken in His orders to Adam. And the serpent said to her, "Yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the Garden?" And the woman said unto the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die." And the serpent said unto the woman, "YE SHALL NOT SURELY DIE" (Gen. 3 :i~5). And so deceived by a trick, having permitted the serpent to do her thinking and reasoning for her instead of going to her husband first for advice, she became a proselyte of a false theory, became submissive to it, and yielded to the subtilty of the serpent who filled her with the knowledge of evil, which she communicated unto Adam who failed to watch over her as God had commanded, with the terrible result, that the penalty of DEATH must be inflicted upon the whole race of man. -- 5 ■'£

A controversy immediately arose in the mind of both Adam and Eve. God had said that they could not have the Everlasting

Life unless they partook of the Tree of Life; and that if they partook of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they would "surely die." Satan came along in the form of a serpent and made them believe that they had Everlasting Life by nature and that they "shall not surely die." This is "the lie" of all lies upon which all false doctrine is founded.

Satan is mighty, but Jehovah is Almighty and the cog-wheels of His laws are in perfect motion. Whosoever violates His laws commits sin; the cog-wheels grind on just the same and ("the wages of sin is death") death must follow as the penalty.

M an blames the woman for his fall ; but God blames the man for it all. Dominion over the whole earth and all its inhabitants was vested in Adam (the man), (Ps. 8:4-8), (Gen. 1:26). He failed to protect Eve in her innocence, when he knew better, and he failed to exercise his dominion over the serpent who beguiled Eve; "therefore God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden. .... God drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the Garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the Tree of Life (Gen. 3 :24) lest Adam put forth his hand, and take of the Tree of Life and live forever." God would not allow the life of man to be endlessly perpetuated after he had sinned, and this was the very reason why he was debarred from the Tree of Life. So Adam had to die.

Now Satan is blinding the people to these facts and ever since that time he has continued to keep up a controversy in the Church dividing God's children so that throughout the ages they have had factional strife on the subject of death.

The root of every religion may be found growing either in the good fertile soil of God's truth, "Thou shalt surely die ;" or in the mire of Satan's lie, "Ye shall not surely die." Orthodoxy is constantly affirming that the man himself does not and can not die. Satan affirms the same, so as to keep the truth of God hidden.

It was by changing the truth of God into a lie that the great enemy of God accomplished the ruin of our first parents, and today, the glorious Gospel, which is "the power of God unto Salvation to every one that believeth, is made of none effect," through the delusions that Satan has taught men to believe and to preach concerning the future state of the living and the dead.

Thus the ancient Jews were divided upon the state of the dead, and each division had the one side or the other side upon which to base all such belief. The one side claimed Abraham's faith as a guide; the other side could not and would not believe the teachings of Abraham. The one side looked forward to a time when God would fulfill his promise to Abraham: for God had said, "1 will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession (Gen. 13:14-17), (Gen. 17:8). They took God at His word, but Abraham died not having received the promise, but having seen it afar off (Heb. 6:13, 11 :13). Stephen said the Lord "gave him none inheritance in the land, no, not so much as to set his foot on" (Acts 7:5). And so the one side is still looking for the promise to be fulfilled, and consequently they expect Abraham to be resurrected from the death state, and to see him in the Kingdom of God with Isaac and Jacob (Matt. 8:11), in the Kingdom which Jesus taught us to pray for (Matt. 6:10), to come on this earth, when God's will shall be done on earth as it is done in heaven, which Kingdom cannot come in a literal way until the Messiah comes to reign as King (2 Tim. 4:1).

The other side believed that when a man dies his spirit would leave the body for an xistence in a disembodied spirit state of conscious being, somewhere in a spirit world, and that being in such a state, the (embodied) living could, through a medium (1 Sam. 28:7), (Isa. 8:19), communicate with the dead in an intelligent way, and seek to know the destiny of their own lives, etc., in the same way that fortune tellers and wizards are doing today when they employ the impersonations of evil spirits to deceive their patrons for gain.

Thus the Hebrew assemblies of ancient times were divided into two great sects; the Pharisees who believed in a literal resurrection of the dead, and the Sadducees who did not believe in a resurrection (Acts 23:8). These great divisions, of course, had many minor offshoots and factions.

These two views of the state of the dead were the subject of all the controversy of Jesus and the Jews (Matt. 22nd chap.), and of the Apostles (Acts 4:2-3), and of all the early Disciples (Acts 17:18). Jesus was arrested, tried and crucified because He preached of the hope and resurrection of the dead. Paul suffered his martyrdom because of preaching the hope and resurrection of the dead both of the just and the unjust (Acts 17:18), (Acts 17:32), (Acts 24:14-16), (Acts 23:6-9). And wherever the hope and resurrection of the dead is preached in this present age there will men see intense opposition and persecution and the servants of God will be hated, as was Paul (Acts 26 :6-8).

The Christian denominations are divided in opinion on these two questions : the future state of the dead, and the resurrection. The one side contends that there is in every human person, by nature, an immortal intelligent entity which goes to heaven or to hell at the death of man. The other side contends that when a man dies he is as dead as a stone, spirit, soul and body. The one side contends that there is a real consciousness in death after this present life. The other side contends that there is not a consciousness in death; that the dead are DEAD, but that life will be restored to the dead by God at the time appointed in His plan, which time according to the Scriptures begins at the time of the first resurrection of the dead, when the Messiah comes (1 Thes. 4:15-17); the intervening time between the time of death after this present life and the resurrection being spent in the grave in a state of absolute oblivion and lifelessness, both of thought and action. Disobedience and prejudice have blinded some to the truth in a large degree, but we must know the truth and be set free.

We have all noticed that some assemblies almost wholly neglect the spiritual worship, while they magnify the worship of the truth. Other assemblies pay no attention or very little attention to the truth and magnify the worship in the spirit. But our Lord said that the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship Him (John 4:23). To worship God in spirit only, without the Word of truth, promotes fanaticism. To worship God without spirit promotes formalism.

We are told by orthodoxy that, long before the creation, God had figured out a plan for man by which only an occasional one is to be saved and sent to heaven, while the great masses of the people are to be damned and sent to hell. In short, the plan is more a plan of damnation than it is a plan of salvation. If we ourselves would do for a cat, a dog, or a rat, what, we say, God does in torturing throughout eternity our neighbors and friends and loved ones, then the law of the land would deal severely with us because the law of justice is against such a practice. But let us be reminded that Jehovah is a God of justice, righteousness, mercy and love, and not a cruel monster as some would teach.

The questions to be discussed in this volume are : first, what is the future state of the dead; and, second, an examination of the teaching being handed out to all people in general, by Bible teachers, as an inducement for the wicked to turn to the Christ-life;

viz: that to live for Christ is to gain a home of Everlasting Life and bliss, associated with angels, in mansions in heaven above; and to reject Christ is to gain a life of everlasting torment in a literal burning fire in hell beneath (a supposed repository of burning material composed of literal brimstone and fire) — a life of eternal misery, remorse of conscience or anguish of soul, in a supposed prison, or purgatory, or reform-school, or chamber of horrors, in a spirit-world beneath the surface of the earth, amid wicked, tantalizing spirit-beings, or fire-proof demons, whose business it is to aggravate and tantalize their victims by keeping them in constant remembrance of the evil deeds committed in this present natural life.

We are told that "all Scripture (not merely the New Testament, but the Old Testament as well), given by inspiration of God, is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness : that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works," and that if any "speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them." In the light of these Scriptures, "which are able to make men wise unto salvation," "come now and let us reason together." But let us remember that unless we look upon the Scriptures as absolute truth, the searching into it will not profit us (Heb. 4:2).

"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all argument and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance ; this principle is contempt prior to examination." — Herbert Spencer.

Note — It is hoped that the reader will pause long enough after each of the following thoughts to reason out for himself the truth of every statement, before he will pour contempt upon it or throw it aside.

Chapter Two

Notwithstanding that men are in the habit of teaching it for sound Bible doctrine, the Scriptures nowhere declare either directly or by implication, that any part or spark of God has been or is communicated to every or any human person either at conception or at birth.

If any spark of God were communicated to every human person either at conception or at birth, that spark, being a part of God, must be as infinite and as eternal as God. It then follows that if it is eternal it must be incapable of death. If it cannot die or be put to death, it must have Eternal Life. If it has Eternal Life then it never was created. If it never was created, then it has neither beginning nor end. If it has neither beginning nor end, then it must be immortal. If it is immortal then it is a part of God.

It then follows that in the communication of this spark (commonly called soul) to the human body, God must depend upon the giving in birth of bodies. If God depends upon bodies being, born into the world he then indirectly depends upon the willingness of man to become a party to procreation. Then it follows that God cannot communicate this infinite spark to the human body unless the adult man is disposed to permit Him to do so, by the exercise of his willingness to beget children. If the communication of this spark depends upon procreation, then it follows that the soul being dependent upon the body must rise and fall with the body, and can be purified or corrupted at the dictation of the will of that body. Then it follows that God must have a supply of souls or spirits on hand in storage, ready to place in the body as soon as conceived or given in birth; then it follows that souls or spirits are ever the same in number, neither being diminished by deaths nor increased by births; that the soul or spirit being immortal (like God) cannot be made to die, or cannot die of itself or be destroyed by God, since in destroying this soul or spirit, God would be destroying a part of Himself; then it would follow that if the soul or spirit is really immortal, deathless like God, that soul or spirit really has Everlasting Life, whether that soul is at the end of the life of the body, a wicked or a just soul.

If these conclusions are correct, then it follows that God, being dependent upon man's willingness to be fruitful, cannot be Almighty. Then it follows that whether or not one believes in Christ, one's spirit will have Everlasting Life anyway, being by nature immortal, deathless, indestructible, which is contrary to the Scripture and to human reason, and is nothing more than human speculation or pagan superstition.

If any spark of God — who is perfect and immortal — were given to man either at conception or birth, that spark, being a part of God, would of necessity be both perfect and immortal. There are no degrees of comparison in perfection, and therefore we must conclude that the spark must be a mature spark, full-grown, responsible at the outset, and that a new-born infant would be equally responsible for his moral exercises and acts with an adult. No imperfection can proceed from a Perfect Being ; therefore we cannot truthfully say that the spirit of man is an immortal, deathless spark of God because it is not perfect, but is made stronger as the age of maturity is reached (Luke 1 :80) being subject to the laws of nature in growth or development. It is also made weaker by old age and sickness.

Chapter Three

The Scriptures nowhere declare either directly or by implication, that man ever had or now has natural immortality, either cf the spirit, of the soul, or of the body.

Immortality is a condition of life that is not liable to death, and in which death, or that which leads to death, is an impossibility. It is non-dieable. It is not mortal. It is impossible for an immortal person to die. Immortality is inherent life.

Mortality is .a condition of life that is liable to death, and in which death is a possibility. Adam had life — perfect life — but he was mortal. There was no part of Adam that was immortal. Therefore none of Adam's children can claim immortality by nature. Adam was given a life that was to be continuous so long as obedient to God's commands, or to be discontinued in death if disobedient. Adam's trial was not to attain unto immortality, but that he might attain unto Everlasting Life which would merit immortality. Hence, natural man, being the natural offspring of Adam, must come under the mortal Adamic law of sin and death with him, condemned to die because of disobedience, unless we "through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body," and are led by the Spirit of God, walking after the Spirit and not after the flesh. We understand that mortal man does not attain unto immortality at any time during this present life. He can only receive the seed of immortality, which is Christ.

If man has by nature immortality of the soul, or spirit, then it was nonsense for Paul to teach his people to SEEK AFTER IMMORTALITY by patient continuance in well doing (Rom. 2 :7). Then it was a mistake for Paul to say that Christ brought life (Greek-Zoe) and immortality to light through the Gospel (2 Tim. 1 :10) ; then it is not a fact that CHRIST ONLY HATH IMMORTALITY (1 Tim. 6:16) ; then it is not a fact that not until the resurrection takes place do the dead in Christ put on immortality (1 Cor. 15:51-54).

The Bible teaches that immortality is the gift of God only through Christ, and is the portion of believers and overcomers only. To suppose that the Bible teaches both the affirmative and the negative of the same subject, when rightly understood, is to impeach its Author, and prove Him unworthy of confidence or respect. The Bible is either all in favor of the natural immortality of man or of his soul or spirit; or it is all opposed.