Special Edition

WHERE ARE THE DEAD?

“Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day . . . For David is not ascended into the heavens.” (Acts 2:29, 34) “And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man.” (John 3:13)

Where are our friends, our neighbors – the holy and the unholy, the civilized and the vile? The proper answer to this question re­lates to our own destiny; it colors and influences our theology and the entire trend of our lives! The correct answer gives strength, confidence, courage, and assists towards the spirit of a sound mind! To declare oneself uninterested in this subject would be to proclaim oneself idiotic and thoughtless. If the ordinary affairs of this present life – food, material possessions, finance, politics, etc. – are deemed worthy of thought and study, how much more concern should we have about our eternal future and that of mankind in general?

Since more than two-thirds of the world’s inhabitants are non-Christian or “heathen,” the weight of num­bers implies that they should be asked for their solution to the question – Where are the dead? Heathenism gives two general answers:

(1) Prominent are those who hold to the theory of Transmigra­tion. These reply, “Our view is that when a man dies he does not die but merely changes his form. His future estate will corre­spond to his present living, and give him either a higher or a lower position. We believe that we lived on earth before, perhaps as cats, dogs, mice, elephants, etc., and that if the present life has been used wisely we may reappear as men of nobler talents, as philosophers, etc. If the present life has been misspent, as is usually the case, at death we will be remanded to some lower form of being, perhaps an elephant, or a worm, etc. It is because of this belief that we are so careful with respect to our treatment of lower animals and refuse to eat meat of any kind. Were we to trample ruthlessly on the worm, our punishment might be to be given a form in which we our­selves would be treated ruthlessly after the change which we call death.”

(2) The other large class of heathen believe in a spirit world with happy hunting grounds for the good and a hell of varied tor­ments for the wicked. We are told that when people seem to die they really become more alive than ever, and that the very moment they cross the River Styx they go to the realms of either the blessed or the forever doomed, and that there are steps or degrees of pun­ishment and reward.

If we inquire as to the source of either of these views, the answer is, “They have been with us for a long, long time. We do not know where they came from. Our learned men have handed them down to us as truths, and we have accepted them.” These answers from heathenism are not satisfactory to our heads and hearts and we must look further. We must not trust to speculation. We must look for a divine revelation – a message from our Creator.

Turning from heathenism, we address our question to that intelli­gent remainder of the world’s population known as Christendom. We find that it is divided in its opinion, with about two-thirds holding the Catholic view and about one-third the general Protestant view. Age as well as numbers suggest we hear the Catholic view (Greek and Roman) first, so Catholic friends, please give us the conclusions of your ablest thinkers and theologians with regard to the revelation you claim to have from God on this subject – Where are the dead? Our Catholic friends respond:

“Our teachings are very explicit and we have canvassed the subject from every standpoint in the light of divine rev­elation. We conclude and teach that when anyone dies he goes to one of three places: first the saintly, of whom we claim there are but a few, go immediately to the presence of God, to Heaven. These are referred to by our Lord, saying, ‘And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.’ (Luke 14:27) Those who faithfully bear the cross are the Little Flock, the Elect. Respecting these Jesus says, ‘Enter ye in at the strait gate . . . Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.’ (Matt. 7:13-14) These saintly do not include our clergy, not even our bishops, cardinals and popes; for you will find that when any of these die it is a custom of the Church that masses be said for the repose of their souls. We would not say masses for any we believe to be in Heaven, because there surely is repose for every soul there. Neither would we say masses for them if we believed them to be in eternal Hell, for masses could not help them there. We might remark, however, that we do not teach that many go to the eternal Hell. It is our teaching that only the incorrigible heretics – persons who have had a full knowledge of Catholic doctrines and who have willfully and deliberately opposed them – these alone meet this awful, hopeless fate.

“The dead in general, according to our teaching, pass immediately to Purgatory, which is, as the name indicates, a place of purgation from sin. It is a place of penances, sorrows, woes, and anguish indeed, but it is not hopeless. The period of confinement here may be centuries or thousands of years, according to the deserts of the individual and the alleviations granted. The noted poet Dante, a loyal Catholic and one time Abbot who died in a monastery with the full rights of the Church, graphically describes the tortures of Purgatory in his great poem, Inferno. The artist Dore, also a Prominent Catholic, por­trayed Dante’s poem with vivid illustrations showing the torments of Purgatory – how the demons chase some until they leap over precipices into boiling water and ply others with fiery darts. Some are burned in pits with heads downward and others with feet downward. Some are bitten by serpents; others are frozen, etc.

“Dante’s In­ferno gives the proper Catholic answer to the question: Where are the dead? The vast majority are in Purgatory. The billions of the heathen are there; because igno­rance does not save and does not qualify one for the Heavenly condition. All who enter Heaven must be fitted and pre­pared in a manner impossible for the heathen. All Protest­ants who have died are there as well because they could not enter Heaven except through the Catholic Church, but God would not sentence them to eternal Hell, because their rejection of Catholicism was due to the con­fession of faith under which they were born and brought up.

“Nearly all Catholics go to Purgatory also, despite the good offices of our Church, our holy water, confessions, masses, holy candles, consecrated burying ground, etc. Not having attained saint-ship of character, they are excluded from Heaven until the distressing experiences of Purgatory prepare their hearts for Heaven, but we hold that Catholics will not need to remain in Purgatory as long as Protestants and the heathen.”

Not wanting to offend our Catholic friends, we will not ask them where their Purgatory is nor how they obtained the detailed information respecting it, but neither our heads nor our hearts are yet satisfied. It cannot be wrong to look further for something more satisfactory.

We class ourselves as Protestants and we assume that the majority of our readers are Protestants also. Having found all the other answers unsatisfactory, we now come to this portion of the human race we consider to have the most advantage in every way. In fact, many of us in times past have been inclined to boast a little of Protestant breadth of mind, intelligence, education, etc. Thus, we might reasonably expect to hear from Protestants a clear, logical, satisfactory answer to our question, an answer that is the very essence of wisdom and supported by unques­tionable proof. We are ashamed to say, however, that we find the very reverse!

We find that Protestantism as a whole (barring numerically insignificant denom­inations) gives the most absurd answer conceivable – an answer which is put to shame by Catholics, the heathen and agnostics. How can this be? It is written, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend.” (Prov. 27:6) Bear with us, therefore, while we expose the weakness of our position as Protestants, not that we may be shamed, but so that our intelligent investigation of the subject may enable us to know the Truth. This investigation will lift the divine standard before the people so that all may come to a clearer view of our Heavenly Father’s character, purposes and future dealings with us.

We got the name Protestants from the fact that our intelligent and well-meaning Catholic fore­fathers thought that they discovered inconsist­encies and lack of scriptural support in the Catholic doctrines in which they had been reared. They “protested” against these – hence the name Protestants.

One of the points our forefathers protested was that they could find no evidence to support the idea of Purgatory anywhere in the Bible. With a marvelous simplicity, they concluded they would merely pick up their views of Purgatory and throw them away forever. This left them with Heaven and Hell, to which every member of the human race must go at death and there spend his eternity. Our well-meaning forefathers may not have perceived the difficulty they were walking into, or perhaps they did see some­thing of the difficulty but viewed matters differently than we do. The theory of Calvin and Knox prevailed at that time among Protestants, and led each denomination to hope that it was God’s Elect, and that it would constitute the Little Flock who would go to Heaven, while all the remainder of mankind would be consigned to an eternity of hellish torture.

Looking back to that period we often term the “Dark Ages,” both Catholics and Protestants have reason to give thanks to God for the anointing of the eyes of our understanding, which enables us to think more logically than our forefathers. Even those of us reared under the doctrine of predestination have lost the idea that the heathen were passed by because they were pre­destinated to damnation. Instead, those who accepted the Westminster Confession of Faith are today the most zealous in missionary efforts to preach the Gospel among the heathen. We are glad of this because it is a sign that our hearts are in truer and nobler condition, even though our heads have not yet gotten into proper alignment with our hearts and we still look at crooked doctrines and endeavor to imagine them altogether straight.

In theory, Protestant doctrines stand with the Bible and with Catholics in declaring that Heaven is a place of perfection, that there can be no change to any who enter there. Hence all trial and all refinement, chiseling and polishing of character must be accomplished in advance of entering into the abode of the saints. We agree that only the saints can ever enter there – the “pure in heart,” the “overcomers” the “little flock,” who now walk in the footsteps of Jesus. But what about the remainder of mankind? There is the difficulty! Our larger hearts will not consent that all except the saints must suffer an eternity of torture, though this is the logical conclusion of our creeds. Our hearts protest when we realize that probably three-fourths of humanity today have never heard of God and the terms of salvation.

AN UNREASONABLE DOCTRINE

Our hearts will not permit us to think of these poor individuals going to an eternity of misery, but neither will our heads permit us to say they are fit for Heaven. Indeed, it would not only contradict the Scriptures, but also reason itself, to suppose Heaven with three-fourths of its inhabi­tants unregenerate in every sense of the word. Our forefathers merely spoiled things for us when they threw away Purgatory while keeping the remainder of their doctrines intact. If we object to Purgatory as being unscriptural, we must equally object to the eternal torment of all the families of the earth as being unscriptural, especially when the Bible declares that through Christ all the families of the earth will be blessed. (Gen. 28:14) They will be blessed with a knowl­edge of the Truth and the opportunity to come into heart-harmony with God and attain everlasting life. We strongly believe it necessary to press the point that the eternal torment doctrine is totally unreasonable. Nevertheless, we will remind you of what our prominent Protestant theories are on the subject:

(1)The Calvinist thought is that divine wisdom and power planned for mankind in advance. God knew of the fall of man in ad­vance, and prepared for it by creating a great place called Hell and the manning it with fire-proof devils for the torment of the human race – all except the Little Flock, the Elect. God’s love and justice were left out of this calculation.

(2) The other prominent Protestant theory is Arminianism. This theory, which is probably held by the majority today, insists that both divine love and justice created the world and arranged the torment, and that divine wisdom and power were not consulted. Hence God got into difficulty while endeavoring to do justly and lovingly by His creatures, be­cause He is lacking the power to render the needed aid. The entire problem is that in our reasoning on the subject we have merely asked the opinions of men and have not sought the Word of God.

We feel sure we will surprise you when we bring to your at­tention now the clear, plain, reasonable, just, loving and wise program of our Heavenly Father. It has been so long overlooked, so long buried under the rubbish of the human traditions of the Dark Ages, that today “truth is stranger than fiction.” Our Lord declared through the Prophet: “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isa. 55:9)

And what could we expect other than this – that God would be better than us? Our Lord said, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” (Matt. 5:44) The Apostle taught, “Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink.” (Rom. 12:20) In view of this, how strange to think that God would torture His ene­mies, even torture them eternally. It is even stranger to think that He would not only torture His enemies, but also those who are not especially His enemies – the ignorant, the heathen, all who do not become saints under present adverse conditions! From only one standpoint can we get order out of confusion and re­gain the proper respect for our Creator and His dealings with our race. That standpoint is the Truth as revealed to us in the Bible.

A FALSE ASSUMPTION

Notice that all of the foregoing theories are based upon the assumption that death does not mean death – that to die is to be­come more alive than before death. In Eden it was God who de­clared to our first parents, “Thou shalt surely die.” It was Satan who declared, “Ye shall not surely die.” (Gen. 2:17; Gen. 3:4) Notice that Christians and non-Christians alike have accepted Satan’s lie and rejected God’s Truth. Do they not all agree with the serpent’s statement, “Ye shall not surely die”? Do they not all claim that the dead are alive – much more alive than before they died? This, dear friends, has been our common point of mistake. We have followed the wrong teacher, the one who our Lord said “abode not in the truth” and is the father of lies. (John 8:44)

These false doctrines have prevailed among the heathen for many centuries, but they gained ascendancy in the Church of Christ during the Dark Ages and had much to do with produc­ing the darkness of that period. If our forefathers had believed God’s testimony, “Thou shalt surely die,” there would have been no room for the introduction of prayers and masses for the dead, no room for frightful thoughts about their torture.

The Scriptures agree from first to last that “the dead know not anything.” (Eccl. 9:5) Their sons come to honor and they do not know it; they come to dishonor and they do not see it. (Job 14:21) The Scriptures tell us where the dead are and their condi­tion – that they are experiencing neither joy nor sorrow, pleasure nor suffering; that they will have no knowledge of anything done under the sun until their awakening in the Resurrection. (Eccl. 9:6) We re­mind you of the wise man’s words, “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave [Sheol], whither thou goest.” (Eccl. 9:10)

We remind you also that in both the Old Testament and the New Testa­ment it is written of both the good and the bad that they “fell asleep” in death. We remind you that the Apostle Paul speaks of those who “sleep in Jesus,” and of those who have “fallen asleep in Christ” who he declares “are perished” if there be no resurrection of the dead. (1 Thess. 4:14; 1 Cor. 15:18) Could they perish in Heaven or in Purgatory, or in a Hell of torment? Assuredly no one so teaches. They are already in a perished condition in the tomb; and the perishing will be absolute and complete unless a resurrection is provided for their de­liverance from the power of death. Hence we read, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever be­lieveth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

In a word, the Bible teaches that man was made supe­rior to all the brute creation – in the image and likeness of his Creator – and that he possessed life in a perfect degree in Eden and might have retained it by full obedience. However, he failed his trial and came under the death sentence: “But of the 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) There the death process began which, after nine hundred and thirty years, brought Father Adam to the tomb and involved all of his children in his weakness and death sentence. He died in the very day, which the Apostle Peter explains was not a twenty-four-hour day, but a thousand-year day: “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” (2 Pet. 3:8)

During six of these great days, the death sentence has in some respects brought man down to the level of the brute, and left him without hope of future life except as God might take compassion upon him and bring him relief. This was hinted at in the state­ment that the seed of the woman would bruise the serpent’s head. (Gen. 3:15) It was yet further elaborated to Abraham when God said, “In thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” (Gen. 28:14; Gen. 12:3)

It was not until four of the great thousand-year days had passed that God sent forth His Son to redeem the race by satisfying Father Adam’s penalty by His death: “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.” (1 Pet. 3:18) As a result of that re­demptive work accomplished at Calvary, there will be a resurrec­tion of both the just and the unjust – a recovery from the death sentence, from the prison-house, the tomb. (Acts 24:15)

TORMENT NOT THE PENALTY

Note the mistake made in assuming eternal torment to be the wages of original sin. The Scriptures declare explicitly: “For the wages of sin is death.” (Rom. 6:23) It is not eternal torment! We search the Genesis account of man’s fall and the sentence imposed but find no suggestion of a future eternal torture – only of a death penalty. The Lord said, “For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” (Gen. 3:19) He did not say a word about devils, fire and torment. How then did the Adversary deceive our fathers during the Dark Ages with his errors, which the Apostle calls “doctrines of devils”? (1 Tim. 4:1)

None of the Old Testament prophecies mention any penalty for sin other than death, nor does the New Testament. St. Paul, who wrote more than one-half of the New Testament, does not say a word about torment, despite assuring us that he did not shun to declare the whole counsel of God. (Acts 20:27) On the contrary, in discussing this very matter of sin and its penalty, he says, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” (Rom. 5:12) It was not eternal torment that passed upon one man nor upon all men. Death passed upon all men.

If someone suggests that death is not a sufficient penalty for sin, all we need to do is point out the facts to prove the suggestion illogical. For the sin of disobedience Adam lost his paradise home, eternal life and divine fellowship, getting instead sickness, pain, sorrow, and death. In addition, the billions of his posterity have been completely disinherited from the original blessings, inheriting instead mental, moral and physical weaknesses. They are what the Apostle terms a groaning creation. (Rom. 8:22)

Look at the situation! Billions have been born in sin and “shapen in iniquity”! (Psa. 51:5) A few short years or hours or days of trouble and disobedience brought them to their death bed; the weeping friends stood around with breaking hearts. They were carried to the tomb – “ashes to ashes; dust to dust.” When we review the whole situation and remember that all the sickness, sorrow, pain, death, and mental and moral infirmity result from Father Adam’s transgression, what sane person would say that the penalty has been insufficient? What sane person would say that justice demands that these billions be hurried at death to a Hell of endless woe, tormented to all eternity? Dear friends, the person who thus reasons shows us that he either never had the power to reason, or that he has lost it.

On the other hand, no one should think the death penalty is unjust and too severe. God could have blotted out the sinner Adam, fulfilling the sentence and thus blotting out the entire race instantly. But would we have preferred that? Assuredly not. Life is sweet, even amidst pain and suffering. Besides, the present trials and experiences are for the divine purpose of disciplining us and preparing us to take a wiser course than Father Adam took when we are given the privi­lege of an individual trial. Our race would have been without hope of future existence, just as agnosticism claims, had it not been for divine compassion and the work of redemption.

When we notice that our Lord died for our redemption, we see another evidence of the penalty. If the penalty against us had been eternal torment, our redemption from it would have cost our Lord that price. He would have been obliged to suffer eternal torment, the just for the unjust. But eternal torment was not the penalty; consequently Jesus did not suffer that penalty for us. Death was the penalty and accordingly, “Christ died for our sins.” (1 Cor. 15:3) Whoever could pay Adam’s penalty would settle with divine justice for the sins of the whole world, because Adam alone had been tried – Adam alone had been condemned. We, his children, were involved through him. “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.” (Heb. 2:9)

Behold the wisdom and the economy of our Creator! The Scrip­tures assure us that He condemned the whole world for one man’s disobedience, in order that He might have mercy upon all through the obedience of another – Christ. We were condemned to death without our consent or knowledge. We were redeemed from death without our consent or knowledge.

THE DEAD WILL COME FORTH

Are we therefore without responsibility? Will there be no individual penalty upon us for individual wrong doings? We are told that all will receive “a just recompense of reward.” (Heb. 2:2; Matt. 16:27; Gal. 6:7) The Scriptures clearly inform us that every sin, in propor­tion to its willfulness, brings a measure of degradation which will result in “stripes” – chastise­ments, corrections – to regain the lost stand­ing. (Luke 12:47-48) Thus the more mean and more wicked a man or woman is, the greater will be his or her disadvantage in the resurrection time, and the more he or she will have to overcome to get back to all that was lost in Adam and redeemed by Christ.

Our Lord’s miracles during His First Advent foreshadowed the great work which He, with His glorified Church, will accomplish for the world during the Millennium. Then all the sick, lame, blind and dead will be revived and they will ultimately be brought to full perfection if they are obedient. Thus our eternal destiny can be settled only by our­selves, by our individual acceptance or rejection of the grace of God. The disobedient will be destroyed in the Second Death.

The most notable miracle our Lord performed was the awakening of His friend Lazarus. Jesus had been gone sev­eral days when Lazarus took sick, and of course He knew about the matter. Nevertheless, Martha and Mary sent Him a special mes­sage, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.” (John 11:3) They knew of Jesus’ power to heal, even by the word of His mouth. They had faith that if He could help strangers, He would surely be glad to assist their brother, His friend. Jesus remained where He was, however, and allowed Lazarus to die, giving the dear sisters a rude shock.

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth.” (John 11:11) Knowing they did not comprehend, He then added, “Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there.” (John 11:14-15) He was glad to let His friend fall asleep in death because it provided a special opportunity for a special miracle. He then began the three day journey to Bethany with His disciples. Upon meeting the Lord, Martha’s gentle reproof was, “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.” We cannot blame the sorrowing sisters; they felt hurt that the Messiah would apparently neglect their interests. They knew that He had the power to relieve them. Jesus replied to her, “Thy brother shall rise again.” Martha said, “I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” (John 11:21-24)

Notice that our Lord did not say to her that her brother was not dead; He did not say that he was more alive than ever. He did not say he is in Heaven or he is in Purgatory. Purgatory had not yet been invented and as for Heaven, our Lord’s testimony was plain: “And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven.” (John 3:13) Martha’s words show that she was well informed on the subject. Because the errors of the Dark Ages had not yet supplanted the Truth, her hope for her brother was the Scriptural one – that he would rise in the resurrection in the last day, the Millennial Day, the seventh of the great thousand­-year days from creation.

Our Lord explained that the power of resurrection was vested in Him, that He was there with her, and could give relief to them without waiting. Martha told our Lord that it was too late; that putrefaction had set in by this time. But Jesus insisted on seeing the tomb, and when He arrived at it, He cried, “Lazarus, come forth.” Then we read: “And he that was dead came forth.” (John 11:43-44) Note that it was not the living that came forth – Lazarus was really dead. Note also that he was not called from Heaven nor from Purgatory.

Jesus intimated that He would ultimately do for Adam and his entire race what He did for Lazarus. Note His words: “Marvel not at this: for the hour cometh, in which all that are in the 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 judgment.” (John 5:28-29, ASV) If this statement astonishes us it is because we have gotten far away from the teachings of the Bible. It is because we have become fully im­mersed in the “doctrines of devils” and we have come to fully be­lieve in the serpent’s lie, “Ye shall not surely die.” It is because we have become blinded to the Lord’s declarations, “Ye shall surely die” and “The wages of sin is death.”

Jesus explained that two general groups of the dead will come forth. Those who come forth “unto the resur­rection of life” are the elect who have had their trial and passed it successfully. They will be resurrected perfect to the spirit plane or the human plane, according to their class. The remainder of mankind, who have thus far failed to obtain divine ap­proval, will come forth on the human plane “unto the resurrection of judgment” (incorrectly translated “damnation” in the King James Version). As the Apostle ex­plains, they will come forth “every man in his own order.” (1 Cor. 15:23)

For those awakened to the resurrection of judgment, coming forth from the tomb will be one thing and resurrection will be another. Upon being awakened, they will have the privilege of rising up out of their present mental, moral, and physical degradation to the glorious perfection which Father Adam enjoyed in the image and likeness of his Creator. This uplifting or resurrec­tion work is what St. Peter refers to as “the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.” (Acts 3:21)

NOT UNIVERSALISM

This does not mean universal everlasting life, for the Scriptures declare that those who refuse the glorious opportunities of the Millennium – those who refuse to be uplifted to perfection – will be destroyed from among the people in the Second Death. (Acts 3:23) “They shall be as though they had not been.” (Obad. 16)

We remind you of our Lord’s teaching on this subject. He entered the synagogue at Nazareth, and being asked to read the lesson, He chose to read the Prophet Isaiah’s words about Himself and His work: “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.” (Isa. 61:1; Luke 4:16-21) We know that our Lord did not open any of the literal prisons, such as the one in which John the Baptist was confined, and He made no effort to succor him. The prison-house referred to is the great prison-house of death, the tomb, which now holds billions of our race. During His Second Advent our Lord will open this great prison-house and cause all the prisoners to come forth, just as He did in the case of Lazarus. He will not call them from Heaven, Pur­gatory or Hell, but they will hear His voice and come forth just as when He declared, “Lazarus, come forth.”

You have seen our question “Where are the dead?” answered by earthly authorities from the highest to the lowest. None of the answers were satisfactory. You have now heard the testimony of God’s Word – the divine declaration that the dead are really dead, and that all their hopes for the future are centered first in the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus, accom­plished at Calvary, and secondly, upon the work of resurrection to be accomplished by Him at His Second Advent.

If you feel a bit disappointed about a loved one you hoped was already in Heaven, look at the other side of the question for consolation. Consider how many of your loved ones, friends and foes and neighbors who would, according to your theory and all the prevalent theories, have been suffering unspeakable woe since their deaths, and would be suffering similarly for long centuries to come. Consider the relief of mind and heart you get from the knowledge of the Truth that they are not alive anywhere, but simply dead. More poetically, they are “asleep in Jesus,” in the sense that He is their Redeemer, and all their hopes of a future awakening reside in Him.

Although we have dis­carded theories long held, nevertheless they were never beautiful; they were never reasonable; they were never Scriptural. We can be glad that in divine providence we now see the teachings of the Scrip­tures on this most important subject. With the fading of the error from our minds, there should come instead a greater appreciation of the true character of our God and a desire to worship and serve Him even more reverently and earnestly. There should also come to us a greater reverence than ever for God’s Book, the Bible. The fact that it has stood before the world for these many centuries, misrepresented by friends and foes, yet ultimately vindicated as the only truth-teller on this impor­tant subject, is sufficient ground for our determination to adhere closely to its teachings in the future.

LIVING SACRIFICES

This subject would not be properly finished without a Scriptural explanation for why God has delayed the resurrection and the blessing of the world for two thousand years since the death of Jesus. The reason is a glorious one and it should gladden the heart of every true Christian. It is this:

God’s purpose was to select the Church before extending the blessing of resurrection to the world. The Church is sometimes called “the body of Christ,” of which Jesus is the Head. (1 Cor. 12:27) It is also called “the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” (Rev. 21:9) Since Pentecost the Heavenly Father has drawn believers to Jesus’ side. After being justified through faith in the precious blood, they have been invited to become Jesus’ disci­ples, His footstep followers, laying down their lives in the Father’s service as did Jesus. In doing so they have developed in their hearts the fruits and graces of the Holy Spirit to such a degree that they may be called copies of God’s dear Son.

The Church was not promised the resurrection of restitution that is prom­ised to the world during the Millennium. On the contrary, their calling has been a Heavenly one. (Heb. 3:1) Be­gotten of the Holy Spirit after their consecration, they were then instructed in the school of Christ and subjected to various trials and disciplines for the purpose of chiseling and polishing their characters as New Creatures. These are a Little Flock, gathered, one here and one there, “saints” from all denominations, and from outside of all denominations. “The Lord knoweth them that are his.” (2 Tim. 2:19)

The elect Bride constitutes the First Resurrection class, changed from earthly to heavenly nature. The Apostle declared, “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” (1 Cor. 15:50) With the predestinated number of the Church complete, the door to this High Calling is closed and our Lord will be present in Second Advent glory and power. Then will come the holy, invisible Millennial Kingdom, the binding of Satan and the destruction of his unholy, invisible kingdom, and the setting loose of agencies for the enlightening and uplifting of the whole race.

To those of our readers who are the Lord’s consecrated people, we point out that many of the Ancients of Old Testament times desired to and did serve God faithfully before the opportunity to enter the High Calling was opened. Likewise, after the closing of the High Calling, many still desire to serve God faithfully. Since God is unchangeable, He is always pleased for any to devote their lives wholly and unreservedly to doing His will. Like the faithful “Ancient Worthies,” these “Youthful Worthies” will not attain the First Resurrection as the Little Flock do, but they will be privileged to share in a “better resurrection” than that of the world. (Heb. 11:35)

Our advice to all who love the Lord and who desire to be in complete fellowship with Him is the same message that has gone forth throughout the Gospel Age: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice.” (Rom. 12:1) Permit the love of God and of Christ to constrain you, be disciples indeed of Jesus, laying aside every weight and every besetting sin, running the race and pressing with vigor to its glorious end!

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