The following remarks were made by the Pastor in response to a live debate he was having with the Rev. Dr. E. L. Eaton, a local Methodist minister.
“The Scriptures teach that all mankind when they die are dead.
It seems a strange proposition to have to make to an intelligent audience, that when a man dies he is dead; but, nevertheless, it is necessary to show this, because the majority of people, under the dominion of tradition from the dark ages, have come to the conclusion that when a man dies he is more alive than he ever was. (Laughter) The Scriptures however teach that he is dead, and only when he gets a resurrection will he have reached a life condition.
The resurrection and the atonement for sin go hand in hand in the Scriptures-THEY ARE THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT THEMES OF THE BIBLE
And yet they are possibly the two most misunderstood doctrines by the professing church.
1) The Atonement, as the means of release from sin by the death of Christ, and
2) The Resurrection as the time when the release shall be accomplished by the power of the Redeemer.
NO WISDOM IN THE GRAVE
We wish to show that it is the divine plan and teaching of the Lord's word, that ALL go to sheol; the good and the bad; all have been redeemed from sheol, and all shall return from it.
"As by one man's disobedience sin entered into the world," so through the death of Jesus Christ life and redemption have been found. As ALL go into sheol, and as ALL have been redeemed by the sacrifice of Christ from sheol, so ALL are in due time to be called forth from sheol. Sheol is not a place of life and activity as many seem to imagine. Our dear brother quoted a text on Sunday from Ecclesiastes in which it is distinctly declared that “there is neither wisdom, nor device nor knowledge in the grave, where thou goes”.
The word "grave" is "sheol," as our brother then declared. If there is no wisdom in the grave, then the good cannot know anything there; likewise the wicked cannot know anything there either; if no knowledge is there, they cannot enjoy it, and if there is no device there, they cannot do anything. There is no pain nor trouble nor torment there.
Our proposition that death is death, and that our dear ones, when they pass from us, are really dead, that they are neither alive with the angels nor with demons in a place of despair, is the teaching of the Scripture. It will not do for us to say that we prefer this or that arrangement of this matter; we must accept the Scriptural teaching as to God's plan, and whether it is agreeable to our minds or not, it is our duty to realize that God will not alter his plan one iota for our preference.
THE PENALTY FOR SIN
“We would like to have you notice that the Scriptures teach that the penalty for sin is death of the SOUL!
"The soul that sins it shall die." And so it was because the SOUL was under condemnation that our Lord is said to have "poured out His SOUL unto death." We do not mean by soul any abstruse or obscure thing; we mean the sentient being, that which the Scriptures everywhere represent the soul to be.
The Scriptures represent that all souls are under sin, under the sentence of death. You are a soul; I am a soul; every other member of Adam's posterity is a soul, and each one shares in Father Adam's sin and each soul of us is under condemnation of death.
Who can redeem his soul from the power of the grave? Who can give to God a ransom for his brother, or even himself?
No one, so we are all helpless, except as the heavenly Father provides the great Redeemer, and the Redeemer gave the full price.
As it was your life and my life that was forfeited, your soul and my soul that was condemned, so our Lord Jesus poured out His soul unto death. "He made His SOUL an offering for sin." It was not merely our Lord's body, you see, but the Lord's soul; and so Peter, in speaking of our Lord's resurrection, does not speak merely of the resurrection of the body but, quoting the prophet David, declares "His SOUL was not left in hades; neither did God suffer His Holy One to see corruption."
We would like to have you notice that the resurrection we preach, which the Scriptures teach, is the resurrection of the soul, the being, the coming again of those beings that now go down into death. To preach the resurrection of the body would imply, we think, an absurdity. If the Scriptures taught it we would be ready to accept even an absurdity, but the Scriptures do not teach that the same body which goes down is to be resurrected. Your body, my body, will return to the dust as it was; it will have no preference, and the atoms which compose your and my bodies are not necessary to our heavenly Father in restoring our souls, in bringing us to being again. There are plenty of atoms of matter, if he wished to create us again of the earth earthy, without using the ones which originally composed the body at death.” (1H135)
We will continue with our next post.
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“The Scriptures teach that all mankind when they die are dead.
It seems a strange proposition to have to make to an intelligent audience, that when a man dies he is dead; but, nevertheless, it is necessary to show this, because the majority of people, under the dominion of tradition from the dark ages, have come to the conclusion that when a man dies he is more alive than he ever was. (Laughter) The Scriptures however teach that he is dead, and only when he gets a resurrection will he have reached a life condition.
The resurrection and the atonement for sin go hand in hand in the Scriptures-THEY ARE THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT THEMES OF THE BIBLE
And yet they are possibly the two most misunderstood doctrines by the professing church.
1) The Atonement, as the means of release from sin by the death of Christ, and
2) The Resurrection as the time when the release shall be accomplished by the power of the Redeemer.
NO WISDOM IN THE GRAVE
We wish to show that it is the divine plan and teaching of the Lord's word, that ALL go to sheol; the good and the bad; all have been redeemed from sheol, and all shall return from it.
"As by one man's disobedience sin entered into the world," so through the death of Jesus Christ life and redemption have been found. As ALL go into sheol, and as ALL have been redeemed by the sacrifice of Christ from sheol, so ALL are in due time to be called forth from sheol. Sheol is not a place of life and activity as many seem to imagine. Our dear brother quoted a text on Sunday from Ecclesiastes in which it is distinctly declared that “there is neither wisdom, nor device nor knowledge in the grave, where thou goes”.
The word "grave" is "sheol," as our brother then declared. If there is no wisdom in the grave, then the good cannot know anything there; likewise the wicked cannot know anything there either; if no knowledge is there, they cannot enjoy it, and if there is no device there, they cannot do anything. There is no pain nor trouble nor torment there.
Our proposition that death is death, and that our dear ones, when they pass from us, are really dead, that they are neither alive with the angels nor with demons in a place of despair, is the teaching of the Scripture. It will not do for us to say that we prefer this or that arrangement of this matter; we must accept the Scriptural teaching as to God's plan, and whether it is agreeable to our minds or not, it is our duty to realize that God will not alter his plan one iota for our preference.
THE PENALTY FOR SIN
“We would like to have you notice that the Scriptures teach that the penalty for sin is death of the SOUL!
"The soul that sins it shall die." And so it was because the SOUL was under condemnation that our Lord is said to have "poured out His SOUL unto death." We do not mean by soul any abstruse or obscure thing; we mean the sentient being, that which the Scriptures everywhere represent the soul to be.
The Scriptures represent that all souls are under sin, under the sentence of death. You are a soul; I am a soul; every other member of Adam's posterity is a soul, and each one shares in Father Adam's sin and each soul of us is under condemnation of death.
Who can redeem his soul from the power of the grave? Who can give to God a ransom for his brother, or even himself?
No one, so we are all helpless, except as the heavenly Father provides the great Redeemer, and the Redeemer gave the full price.
As it was your life and my life that was forfeited, your soul and my soul that was condemned, so our Lord Jesus poured out His soul unto death. "He made His SOUL an offering for sin." It was not merely our Lord's body, you see, but the Lord's soul; and so Peter, in speaking of our Lord's resurrection, does not speak merely of the resurrection of the body but, quoting the prophet David, declares "His SOUL was not left in hades; neither did God suffer His Holy One to see corruption."
We would like to have you notice that the resurrection we preach, which the Scriptures teach, is the resurrection of the soul, the being, the coming again of those beings that now go down into death. To preach the resurrection of the body would imply, we think, an absurdity. If the Scriptures taught it we would be ready to accept even an absurdity, but the Scriptures do not teach that the same body which goes down is to be resurrected. Your body, my body, will return to the dust as it was; it will have no preference, and the atoms which compose your and my bodies are not necessary to our heavenly Father in restoring our souls, in bringing us to being again. There are plenty of atoms of matter, if he wished to create us again of the earth earthy, without using the ones which originally composed the body at death.” (1H135)
We will continue with our next post.
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