Answer to a Paper Sent for Criticism
In Philippians 1:21 Paul writes: “To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Where is the gain? Verse 23 answers, “To depart and to be with Christ is far better.” This is not resurrection. Peter also writes about death as putting off his tabernacle (2 Peter 1:13, 14). Paul in 2 Corinthians 12 was caught up into paradise. He did not know whether he was in the body or out of the body. See how the man is distinct from his body, and the Lord said: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up, but He spoke of the temple of His Body.” These foolish reasoners tell us that He was dead, all gone into the grave, yet He said, “I will raise it up,” showing that He was still living. A beast has a living soul, but not an immortal soul; God has given that to man. His soul never dies. The unsaved have eternal existence; the saved have that, and eternal life besides; that is, a life of blessedness in the knowledge of God (John 17:3). A person living in pleasure is dead while she lives (1 Tim. 5:6)—this is her spiritual condition in fleshly ways.
Genesis 3:22-24 is not a question of the immortality of the soul, but of the condition of sin that God would not allow to be perpetuated, and none can now eat of the tree of life, till we do so in the paradise of God in heaven, where everything is pure and holy (Rev. 2:7).
James 2:26 is quoted as if it said the spirit is dead without the body, but that is a lying invention of man. “The body is dead without the spirit” is the truth.
Ecclesiastes 9:5. Everything in that book is wisdom “under the sun,” so these deniers of the truth of the soul’s immortality, love to quote this verse. We have already seen that those who die in the Lord, have departed to be with Christ. They know nothing “under the sun,” but they are with the Lord, and are blessed there—no unconsciousness there.
In Hebrews 12:23, we have the spirits of just men made perfect. We find Moses and Elias on the Mount of transfiguration. Christ and the thief together in paradise, while their bodies were on the cross. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus after the rich man’s funeral—all these picture to us their souls; one in bliss, the other in torment. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob still living, though their bodies are gone to dust. (Luke 20:37, 38). The Lord draws these pictures for our understanding.
Acts 2:29, 34, “David is not yet ascended,” for ascension takes in the whole man. Christ’s spirit went to the Father, while His body was on the cross (Luke 23:46). He did not ascend till 40 days after. So David and all the rest of the old Testament saints’ spirits are seen in Hebrews 12:23. We might say that Enoch and Elijah are ascended, for they did not die.
This paper says Christ had a mortal body. He had nothing of the kind, death had no claim on Him.
Sin was not in Him, nor mortality in His veins. He was the sinless Son of God. His miraculous birth brought a clean thing out of an unclean, “That holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). Mary’s son was Mary’s Savior. She was a sinner, He was not. He was the Lamb foreordained before the world’s foundation, without blemish and without spot. He became a man that He might die for others. He gave His life. No man could take it from Him, but in obedience to the Father’s will, and for us, He laid it down that He might take it again (John 10:17, 18). His flesh never saw corruption (Psa. 16.10; Acts 2:24, 27). “Who only hath immortality” (1 Tim. 6:16). It belongs to Him, and He has communicated it to angels and to men, yet as the Captain of our salvation, He was perfected through sufferings. He was always perfect and sinless in His person but suffered in this world to glorify God, and to bring us there to Himself.
1 Corinthians 15 is not the resurrection of the human race, but of the saints. Sheol in the Old Testament and Hades in the New Testament, mean “the unseen,” and represent the state of those who have died. It does not mean the place of punishment. Gehenna is also translated “hell,” and means the place of punishment, the lake of fire.
The thief on the cross (Luke 23:40 to 42) owned his sin and crimes; he also owned Jesus as Lord and King, this was the work of grace in his soul. What he had before him was a place in the Kingdom. The Lord gives him present blessing with, Himself at once, without waiting for the Kingdom. This paper asserts that paradise is when the Kingdom comes. Paul was caught up to it then. The thief said, “Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy Kingdom.” He looked forward to the resurrection, for at the present moment the King was crucified, but Jesus answers, “Verily, I say unto thee, ‘Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise.’” What a surprise! What a joy to the saved sinner! And specially those sweet words, “With Me.” What grace of the Lord this is, to exchange a cross for a place in paradise; and the company of transgressors, for the company of Christ; not to be a subject of the King on earth, but to be a companion of the Lord in heavenly glory. It is absurd and misses the point entirely to punctuate this the way it is done by those who teach the non-immortality of the soul. Paradise in 2 Corinthians 12:2-4 is in heaven, and so in Revelation 2:7.
Luke 16:19 to 31 is a parable, certainly—a picture painted by the Lord to show us the future of the pharisee and the sinner, as in chapter 15. It is not national, it is individual. The Jews thought riches a mark of God’s favor, as in Deuteronomy, but a change had come, Israel was divorced from Jehovah. So Lazarus, the one whose name means “my help is in God,” is poor and sick, he has nothing but God. The rich man living for himself, has everything but God. He dies, is buried; no doubt a grand funeral, but in the “unseen” his soul is tormented in that flame; but Lazarus exchanges misery for bliss. Abraham’s bosom is the Jewish idea of bliss. The rich man on earth could command servants with his money, but he needs to beg now that he is gone. He is afraid his five brethren may come there too, to add to his torment. He did not teach them to obey Moses and the prophets, nor did he himself believe the word, and now he is lost, and his brethren would not believe his message if it came to them through one rising from the dead. He claimed to be a child of Abraham, but he was proved to be a wicked man living without God. It is certainly a parable, and if but a picture, what must the reality be. There is no more offer of salvation after death. It is too late then, the great gulf is fixed, no transfer can be made then.
It is wrong to say that we are put on equality with Christ. He is ever the pre-eminent One. In all things He must have the pre-eminence (Col. 1:18). “First-born” expresses that place. He is chief among ten thousand, the Head of His body, the assembly. He the Redeemer, we the redeemed, but we are to be like Him, and to see Him as He is. He has given us glory, and we shall behold His glory that He had with the Father before the world was. That is the glory given to Him now as the Mighty Victor. It is His alone (John 17:24).
To say that such doctrines as we have referred to in this paper are honoring to God, or His Word, when they contradict that Word so much, is truly a marvel of blindness of the worst kind. This paper calls it common sense, when it is but the outcome of a perverted mind that refuses God’s Word. God has magnified His Word above His name (Psa. 138:2).
2 Corinthians 10:5 exhorts us thus, “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”
The Holy Spirit is a person, as well as the Father, or the Son. Satan and his host are persons, and so are all angelic beings. We must not deny what Scripture affirms.
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