IN DEFENSE OF THE FAITH
The
Truth About Seventh-day Adventists
A
REPLY TO CANRIGHT
by
William
H. Branson
13. THE NATURE OF MAN
IN THE closing chapter
of his book Mr. Canright attacks the position held by Seventh-day
Adventists on
the nature of man and
the punishment of the wicked. Among other things he says:
Occasionally; here
and there, along in the history of the church, men have arisen
advocating the sleep of
the soul and the
annihilation of the wicked. But the doctrine has not met with favor, has
been received by
but few, has had a
sickly existence, and has soon disappeared. - Seventh-day Adventism
Renounced, pp.
397, 398.
In our reply we shall,
for the sake of clarity, first give a brief resume of what Seventh-day
Adventists
believe on this point,
thus making Mr. Canright's objections and our replies more
understandable to the
reader.
MORTALITY DEFINED
Seventh-day
Adventists believe that man is mortal, subject to death and
dissolution. This
doctrine is based on
such Scriptural teaching as the following: Shall mortal man be more
just than God?
Shall a man be more
pure than his Maker? Job 4:17. Paul declares that God only bath
immortality (see 1
Timothy 6:15,16); and
if this is true, then men are not immortal by nature. The word immortal
appears only
once in Scripture (1
Timothy 1:17), and there it is clearly applied to God, and not to men.
The word
immortality occurs five
times, but in no instance is it applied to man in this natural state,
but he is urged to
seek for it as a
treasure which may be gained through the gospel: To them who by
patient continuance in
well doing seek for
glory and honor and immortality, eternal life. Romans 2:7.
Now, one does not seek
for something which is already in his possession. If immortality were
inherent in man, then
surely he would have no need to strive and search for it. But God
declares that
immortality eternal
life is brought to light through the gospel (2 Timothy 1:10); and
this being true, then,
of course, those who do
not receive the gospel will never have eternal life. To this agree the
words of John,
who says: This is
the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in
His Son. He that hath
the Son hath life; and
he that bath not the Son of God hath not life. 1 John 5:11,12.
Eternal life, or
immortality, then, is a
gift from God, through Christ, and is bestowed only upon those 'Who have
the Son
of God. Those who
receive Him receive eternal life with and through Him, but those that
reject Him do not
receive this life. They
will never become immortal, for the wages of sin is death; but the
gift of God is
eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 6:23.
Seventh-day Adventists
believe that eternal life is received by faith at the time of
conversion, but
that in actuality this
gift is not bestowed upon Gods people until e return of Jesus. Until the
resurrection day
it is hid with
Christ in God. Colossians 3:3. This is clearly taught in the Pauline
letter to the Corinthian
church, as follows:
Behold, I show you a
mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a
moment, in the
twinkling of an eye, at
the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be
raised
incorruptible, and we
shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and
this mortal must
put on immortality. So
when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal
shall have put
on immortality, then
shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed
up in victory. 1
Corinthians 15:51-54.
Note carefully the
expressions: This mortal must put on immortality, and this
corruptible must put on
incorruption. That,
then, is the time when we shall be changed from. the one state to the
other. It is at. the
sounding of the last
trumpet, when the dead are raised.
Seventh-day Adventists
believe that during the state called death, man rests in sleep, and is
entirely unconscious
until he is awakened by the call of the Life-Giver at the last day. Of
this doctrine there
is abundance of
Scriptural proof. Said Jesus to His disciples, Our friend Lazarus
sleeps. John 11:11.
Then said Jesus unto
them plainly, Lazarus is dead. Verse 14. Of Jairus' daughter He said,
Weep not;
she is not dead, but
sleeps. And they laughed Him to scorn, knowing that she was dead.
Luke 8:52, 53.
So man lies down,
and rises not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be
raised out of
their sleep. Job
14:12.
THE SLEEP OF DEATH
During this sleep of
the dead there is no consciousness of mind or spirit. This is clearly
set forth in the
following scriptures:
Put not your trust
in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath
goes forth, he
returns to his earth;
in that very day his thoughts perish. Psalms 146:3,4.
In death there is no
remembrance of Thee: in the grave who shall give Thee thanks? Psalms
6:5,
The dead praise not
the Lord, neither any that go down into silence. Psalms 115:17.
For the living know
that they shall die: but the dead know not anything, neither have they
any more a
reward; for the memory
of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy,
is now
perished; neither have
they any more a portion for ever in anything that is done under the
sun. Ecclesiastes
9:5,6.
But man dies, and
wastes away: yea, man gives up the ghost, and where is he? His
sons come to honor,
and he knows it not;
and they are brought low, but he perceives it not of them. Job 14:10,
21.
It is from this
unconscious state that man is called forth when Jesus comes the second
time to gather His
saints into His
kingdom. They heed not the lapse of time. A thousand years in the grave
will seem but as an
instant when the dead
are raised to life again. Nor will the living have any advantage over'
them at the time
of Christ's coming:
I would not have you
to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you
sorrow
not, even as others
which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again,
even so them also
which sleep in Jesus
will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you by the word of the
Lord, that we
which are alive and
remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent [precede] them
which are asleep.
For the Lord Himself
shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel,
and with the
trump of God. And the
dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up
together with them in
the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with
the Lord.
Wherefore comfort one
another with these words. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.
Marvel not at this:
for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall
hear His voice.
John 5:28.
Thy dead men shall
live, together with My dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, you
that dwell in
dust: for thy dew is as
the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. Isaiah
26:19.
THE WICKED TO BE DESTROYED
Seventh-day Adventists
believe that the wicked will be utterly destroyed in a literal lake of
fire and
brimstone; that this
fire will be here on this earth, and that it will not only burn up the
wicked, but will also
cleanse and purify the
earth, removing all the works of man and the blemishes made by sin; and
that
afterward the earth
will be made new and become the eternal home of the saved.
Behold, the day
comes, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that
do wickedly, shall be
stubble: and the day
that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, that it shall
leave them neither
root nor branch.
But unto you that
fear My name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His
wings; and you
shall go forth, and
grow up as calves of the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked; for
they shall be
ashes under the soles
of your feet in the day that I shall do this, says the Lord of hosts.
Malachi 4:1-3.
Upon the wicked He
shall rain snares [quick burning coals, margin], fire and
brimstone, and a horrible
tempest: this shall be
the portion of their cup. Psalms 11:6.
God is jealous, and
the Lord revenges; the Lord revenges, and is furious; the Lord will take
vengeance on
His adversaries, and He
reserves wrath for His enemies.
Who can stand before
His indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of His anger? His
fury is
poured out like fire,
and the rocks are thrown down by Him. The Lord is good, a stronghold in
the day of
trouble; and He knows
them that trust in Him. But with an overrunning flood He will make an
utter end of
the place thereof, and
darkness shall pursue His enemies. What do you imagine against the Lord?
He will
make an utter end:
affliction shall not rise up the second time. For while they be held
together as thorns,
and while they are
drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry. Nahum
1:2, 6-10.
The wicked shall
perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs: they
shall consume; into
smoke shall they
consume away. Psalms 37:20.
'I have seen the wicked
in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Yet he
passed away,
and, lo, he was not:
yea, I sought him, but he could not be found. Verses 35, 36.
The wages of sin is
death. Romans 6:23.
That this destruction
will take place here on the earth is clearly stated by the revelator as
he portrays the
fate of the wicked:
They went up on the
breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and
the beloved
city: and fire came
down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that
deceived them
was cast into the lake
of fire and brimstone. . . . And the sea gave up the dead which were in
it; and death
and hell delivered up
the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to
their
works. And death and
hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And
whosoever was not
found written in the
book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:9-15.
And to this agree the
words of Peter's prophecy:
The heavens and the
earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto
fire
against the day of
judgment and perdition of ungodly men. . . . But the day of the Lord
will come as a thief
in the night; in the
which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements
shall melt with
fervent heat, the earth
also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that
all these
things shall be
dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy
conversation and godliness,
looking for and basting
unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire
shall be
dissolved, and the
elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His
promise, look
for new heavens and a
new earth, wherein dwells righteousness. 2 Peter 3:7-13.
MR. CANRIGHT AFFIRMS NATURAL IMMORTALITY
Now, it was to these
scriptures that Mr. Canright took such strong exception. He opens his
attack
thus:
That man's spirit
survives the death of his body and lives in a conscious state, has been
so
generally believed by
all people in all ages that we may fairly call it universal. In this,
the most barbarous
and the most
enlightened nations have agreed. Seventh-day Adventism Renounced, p.
395.
To this we reply that
any system of error in the world could be proved in precisely the same
way.
If all that is required
to prove a thing to be true is the fact that both barbarous and
enlightened nations have
agreed upon it, then
we can, find abundant proof for almost any error, from the countless
myths of the
heathen world to the
evolutionary theory, unknown to our grandfathers, but now almost wholly
eclipsing
the Christian faith of
two generations ago.
The majority have not
usually been on the side of truth. Truth has ever been unpopular. It has
always had to plead its
cause against strong odds, and often in the face of bitter persecution
by the masses.
The broad road of error
and superstition has always been well patronized, while the narrow road
of truth
has had only a few
travelers. The fact, therefore, that both barbarous and enlightened
nations have agreed
upon any point of
theology is far more likely to constitute a proof against that point
than for it.
The church in which Mr.
Canright found a borne after renouncing Adventism was, only a few
centuries ago, much
more unpopular, and some of its doctrines were at that time more sternly
denounced
than are the Adventists
and their doctrines today. In those days many Baptists were put to
death. Some
were burned at the
stake in England, and many were executed in Germany. The most
enlightened nations
were against them.
Again, Mr. Canright
brings forth his arguments to prove that the wicked as well as the
righteous
possess immortality,
and that therefore their punishment will be eternal torment, that the
wicked dead are
even now suffering this
punishment, and that they will continue to suffer thus throughout the
ceaseless ages
of eternity. Note
carefully the proof he sets forth:
The Apocrypha gives
the views of the Jews just before the time of Christ. Here are a few
verses:
The wicked shall
'endure eternal torture by fire.' 4 Maccab. 90. 'The divine vengeance is
reserving you for
eternal fire and
torments, which shall cling to you for all time.' Chap. 12:12. 'Let us
not fear him who thinks
he kills; for great is
the trial of soul and danger of eternal torment laid up for those who
transgress.' Chap.
13:14. Of the martyrs
it is said: 'Through which also they now stand beside the divine throne,
and live a
blessed life.' Chap.
17:18. 'The children of Abraham, with their victorious mother, are
assembled together
to the choir of their
fathers, having received pure and immortal souls from God.' Chap. 18:23.
'The tyrant
Antiochus was both
punished upon earth and is punished now he is dead.' Verse 5.
Seventh-day
Adventism Renounced,
pp. 395, 396.
WITNESSES IMPEACHED
Now we shall have to
admit that these are pretty strong texts that Mr. Canright has cited.
They appear to
make out a strong case
for the eternal-torture idea. The wicked shall 'endure eternal
torture by fire,'
eternal fire and
torments, which shall cling to you for all time, etc. Also, he finds
a text which speaks of
people as having
received pure and immortal souls from God. No wonder someone called
this book of
Mr. Canright's a
dumbfounder for the Adventists! We are not, however, so much
dumfounded over these
texts as we are over
the fact that a Christian, Protestant minister should resort to them for
proof of Christian
doctrine! At that we,
are dumfounded.
Will the reader kindly
take his Bible just here, and turn to these texts cited by Mr. Canright?
What? Can't find them?
Why, yes, turn to 4 Maccabees, chapter 9, verse 9. Not in your Bible?
Well! well!
Strange, isn't it? The
writer has had the same difficulty. This book of Maccabees is not in his
Bible either.
What, then, shall we
conclude from this fact? Just this, that Mr. Canright had another
Bible just the same
as the Mormons have.
(See his charge against Adventists, in Seventh-day Adventism Renounced,
page
136.)
Mr. Canright's appeal
to the Aprocrypha shows the desperate straits he was in to prove his
contention. The
Apocrypha is not recognized by Protestants as of any authority whatever
in matters of
Christian doctrine, and
4 Maccabees is not recognized even by Catholics. The International
Standard Bible
Encyclopedia says of
this book, that it is absent from the Vulgate, and therefore from the
Romanist canon
and from the Protestant
versions. Not only did Mr. Canright have another Bible, but, as we
have seen, he
made it himself,
admitting to it anything from any source that he could use to discredit
that which he
himself had so
zealously taught for twenty eight years.
But why did he turn to
the Apocrypha instead of to the Bible? We answer, Because he could get
no help from the Bible.
It is not on his side. Its teachings are exactly contrary to his theory.
Therefore it
became a pressing
necessity that he find proof elsewhere, so he turns to the Apocrypha. He
has another
Bible. It says what
he wants it to say. Almost every spurious doctrine can be found there,
and it was to
these uninspired books
that Mr. Canright turned for proof of an eternally burning hell and the
natural
immortality of the
soul.
WHAT THE SCRIPTURES TEACH
The Scriptural teaching
concerning the punishment of the wicked is that they shall die. The
wages of sin is
death. Romans 6:23.
Now, death is not life, but is the opposite of life. To die is to cease
to live. To die,
therefore, does not
mean an eternal conscious existence in hell, but eternal extinction. The
wicked are to be
cut off, 69 cut
down, consumed into smoke; pass away so that they cannot be found;
burned up root
and branch, reduced
to ashes, burned up as stubble fully dry, and to be as
though they had not been.
(See Obadiah 15, 16;
Psalms 37:9, 20, 22; Malachi 4:1-3.) How anyone could possibly read
eternal torture
into such expressions
as these, we cannot tell.
Nor can this
everlasting-torment doctrine be harmonized with the statement that
God is love.
True, God will punish
the wicked, and they will have to pay to the uttermost farthing for
their rebellion and
sins; but even the
wrath of God against sin has a limit. Only a fiend would punish a human
being in a
caldron of fire and
brimstone throughout the eternal ages, reckoning that his sins committed
during a short
lifetime merited such
severity. Only a fiend could endure the horrible sight of the damned
roasting and
writhing in hell, and
enjoy the foul miasma of such a plague spot, where the wicked were
continually
cursing and blaspheming
God because of their agonies in hell.
What do you imagine
against the Lord? He will make an utter end: affliction [or sin] shall
not rise
up the second time. For
while they be held together as thorns, and while they are drunken as
drunkards,
they shall be devoured
as stubble fully dry. Nahum 1:9, 10.
God has declared that
sin shall be destroyed forever, that the earth shall be purified with
fire, and
that it shall come
forth new and clean again from the hand of the Creator. It shall be
clothed with the beauty
of Eden once more.
The wilderness and
the solitary place shall be glad for them [the saved] ; and the desert
shall
rejoice, and blossom as
the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and
singing: the
glory of Lebanon shall
be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see
the glory of the
Lord, and the
excellency of our God. Strengthen you the weak hands, and confirm the
feeble knees. Isaiah
35:1-3.
God will have a clean
universe again. He will not permit sin and sinners to mar it forever. '
He will
not rope off a section
somewhere in His kingdom to which He may turn at times for diversion,
where the
wicked are to be kept
writhing in hell. God is not a fiend, that He should take pleasure in
such things. I
have no pleasure in the
death of him that dies, says the Lord God. Ezekiel 18:32. It is God's
express
purpose that the wicked
shall be cut off, and that the meek shall inherit the earth. (See Psalms
37:2, ll.)
HOW CAN THE WICKED LIVE ETERNALLY?
Paul declares that
the gift of God is eternal life. Romans 6:23. But what about the
wicked who do not
receive this gift? How
shall they live eternally in hell if they do not have everlasting life?
Obviously it
would require a greater
manifestation of God's power to keep the wicked alive in a roaring,
burning,
seething hell than to
perpetuate the lives of the righteous in heaven, where they are given
access to the tree
of life. But the wicked
do not have God's gift of life. They must therefore die, and their death
will be
eternal.
From the second death
men will never come forth ,to live again. They are cut off; they
are
reduced to ashes; they
have ceased to be; they are as though they never had been. Then, and
only then, can
John's prophecy be
fulfilled, in which he said:
Every creature which
is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in
the sea, and all
that are in them, heard
I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that
sits upon the
throne, and unto the
Lamb for ever and ever. Revelation 5:13.
All through Mr.
Canright's chapter on this subject he advances the idea that the spirit
of man has
an existence and entity
separate from the body, and that the spirit goes immediately to its
reward at death.
In commenting on the
experience of the thief who was converted on the cross, he says:
Jesus plainly said,
'Today shall thou be with Me in Paradise.' If he went to Paradise that
day, then
all Christians go there
at death. His body did not go to Paradise, for it was buried. Hence his
spirit did live
and go there.
Seventh-day Adventism Renounced, p. 404.
The statement made by
Jesus to the thief has long been used by immortal-soul advocates to
prove
that men go to their
reward at death. Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day
shall thou be with
Me in Paradise. Luke
23:43.
Now, of course, the
thief could not be with Jesus in Paradise that day unless Jesus Himself
was
there. And the Bible
record clearly reveals that Jesus did not go to Paradise on the day of
His crucifixion,
for He said to Mary on
the morning of His resurrection, three days later: Touch Me not; for
I am not yet
ascended to My Father:
but go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father, and
your
Father; and to My God,
and your God. John 20:17. Of course, no one will dispute that
Paradise is the
place where God dwells;
and therefore here is clear testimony from Jesus to the effect that He
had not yet
visited this place when
He appeared to Mary near the empty tomb.
What, then, shall we
conclude from thief just this: that Jesus did not promise the thief that
he
would go to Paradise
that day. In fact, the thief did 'not ask that. He said to Jesus,
Lord, remember me
when Thou comest into
Thy kingdom. Luke 23:42. Not when Thou goes, but when Thou comes.
This is
quite different. Daniel
tells us that Jesus comes into, or receives, His kingdom at the time of
the judgment:
The judgment was
set, and the books were opened. . . . I saw in the night visions, and,
behold, one like the
Son of man came with
the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought
Him near
before Him. And there
was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people,
nations, and
languages, should serve
Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away,
and His
kingdom that which
shall not he destroyed. Daniel 7:10-14.
This, then, is the time
the thief asked to be remembered, and not on the crucifixion day. It was
in the day of
the resurrection that
he did not want to be forgotten. The answer Jesus gave to this dying
man's request
becomes as clear as day
if, when reading it, we just place the comma after the word today
instead of the
word thee. It then
reads thus: Verily I say unto thee today, Shall thou be with Me in
Paradise.
Joseph Bryand
Rotherham, in his Emphasized New Testament, renders this text thus:
Jesus! remember me
when so ever Thou shall come into Thy kingdom. And He said unto him,
Verily I say
unto thee this day:
With Me shall thou be in Paradise. - Printed in London, 1903.
The use of the word
today in a sentence for emphasis is common in the Bible. (See Zechariah
9:12;
Deuteronomy 8:19;
26:16-18; 30:15, 16, 18, 19; 11:26-28.)
It was the promise that
was made that day. Verily I say unto thee today. Yes, today, when
I am hanging
here with you on the
cross, when everything appears hopeless and men and devils think they
have silenced
Me forever; today I
make you the solemn promise that you shall be with Me in Paradise. But
just when the
repentant thief would
be with Jesus in Paradise the Savior did not say. This point was already
clear in the
thief's mind. It was to
be when Jesus should come into possession of His glorious kingdom and
come to
ransom His people. That
is when all the saved will go to Paradise together, and the thief will
be among
them. The Son of man
shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and then He shall
reward
every man according to
his works. Matthew 16:27.
The idea that men go to
their reward at death the righteous to heaven and the wicked to hell-is
entirely inconsistent
with many other Bible texts. For example, the Bible clearly teaches that
there will be a
final judgment, a time
in the end of the world when the cases of all men will be tried. It is
clearly stated that
the purpose of this
judgment is to determine what rewards shall be given the people who have
lived upon
the earth. Thus Paul
declares, We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that
every one may
receive the things done
in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or
bad. 2
Corinthians 5:10.
But if the rewards are
to follow the judgment, and if the judgment is to be at the time of
the end,
how, then, is it
possible for men to go to their reward at death? Will these people who
have been sent to the
respective places be
recalled and judged to determine where they should be sent? Will Abel
have to come
down out of heaven and
Cain up out of hell, and wait for the judge to determine what their
reward should
be? If so, is there
some possibility that, after the judgment, some will have to exchange
places because it is
found that a mistake
had been made in the place of their consignment? Such questions sound
foolish, and
yet this is exactly
what might happen if men went to their reward prior to the time of final
judgment.
MR.
CANRIGHT QUOTES JOSEPHUS
In a desperate effort
to find some support for this doctrine that people receive their reward
at death, Mr.
Canright departs from
the Bible and quotes Josephus, the Jewish historian, as follows:
Of another Jewish
sect, - the Essenes, he says: 'They teach the immortality of souls. -
Antiqities, book 18,
chap. 1. Further:
'Their doctrine is that bodies are corruptible and that the matter they
are made of is not
permanent; but that the
souls are immortal and continue forever; and that they come out of the
most subtle
air, and are united to
their bodies as to prisons, into which they are drawn by a certain
natural enticement.
But that when they are
set free from the 'bonds of the flesh, they then, as released from a
long bondage,
rejoice and mount
upwards.' -Seventh-day Adventism Renounced, p. 396.
Surely this reasoning
is very profound! Souls are immortal. They come out of the air, and are
enticed into
human bodies. When
they-get in they discover that they are in prison. When they are set
free from the
bonds of the flesh [at
death], they then, as released from a long bondage, rejoice and mount
upwards! But
the most tragic part of
it all is that these poor liberated souls do not seem to realize, when
they fly away so
quickly and happily,
that their release from the prison is only temporary. If they knew about
the
resurrection of the
body, which is to take place at the coming of Christ, no doubt their
rejoicing would be
somewhat modified.
What, we wonder, would happen if some of them were enjoying their
liberty so well at
the time of the
resurrection that they refused to go back to the prison of the body?
Would there then be
some spirits without
bodies and some bodies without spirits?
Surely it is clear to
everyone that this doctrine of a separate, intelligent, conscious
existence of the
soul apart from the
body is contrary both to the gospel and to common sense. If there is to
be a resurrection
of the body, then the
soul, or spirit, of man does not enter upon the enjoyment of its reward
at death.
THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS
For further proof of
his contention Mr. Canright cites the parable of the rich man and
Lazarus, which he
quotes and comments
upon in the following manner:
See the same
doctrine so definitely taught in the case of the rich man and Lazarus.
Luke 16:19-31. 'And it
came to pass, that the
beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the
rich man also
died, and was buried;
and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and sees Abraham
afar off, and
Lazarus in his bosom.
And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send
Lazarus, that
he may dip the tip of
his finger 'in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this
flame. But
Abraham said, Son,
remember that thou in thy lifetime received thy good things, and
likewise Lazarus evil
things: but now he is
comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and
you there is a
great gulf fixed: so
that ,they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they
pass to us, that
would come from thence.
Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou would send him to
my
father's house: for I
have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come
into this place of
torment. Abraham says
unto him, They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. And he
said,
Nay, father Abraham:
but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.' . . .
These events
occurred between death and the resurrection, while the brethren of the
rich man were yet
alive on earth. Hence
immediately after death and before the resurrection the rich man is in
hell and
Lazarus is rewarded.
They are both conscious. Abraham is alive over there. Both think and
talk. Hence the
dead certainly know
something. Had we no other text, this alone would disprove the sleep of
the dead.' -
Ibid., pp. 406, 407.
In arguing against
Spiritualism on page 398 of Seventh-day Adventism Renounced, Mr.
Canright states:
'Further, the Bible
forbids seeking to the dead, and states plainly that they know nothing
of things on the
earth. See Deut.
18:9-12; Job 14:21; Ecc. 9:5, 6; Luke 16:19-31.
Note carefully the
contradiction here. In one place Mr. Canright says that the Bible states
plainly that the
dead know nothing of
things on the earth, and he cites four Scriptural references to prove
it. In another
place he takes a
parable as though it were a literal happening, says the things in it
occurred between death
and the
resurrection, has the dead in heaven and in hell talking together
about five brothers of the rich man
who are still on earth,
and closes by observing, Hence the dead certainly know something.
In one place
the dead know
nothing of things on the earth; in the other place a dead man in hell
carries on a perfectly
rational conversation
about five brothers of his who are still on the earth! Perhaps Mr.
Canright's admirers
who circulate his book
so freely will also want to smooth this glaring contradiction up a bit
before the next
edition is published.
It really needs it. It looks bad as it is.
Try to picture in your
mind what heaven would be like, and how much enjoyment you could get
out of being there, if
this parable of our Lord's were to be taken as an indication of actual
conditions
existing there between
death and the resurrection. Lazarus is in heaven, the rich man in hell;
and Abraham.
is seen holding Lazarus
in his bosom. The rich man and Lazarus decide to have a visit together.
Really,
these two places must
be in pretty close proximity to each other. The inmates can converse
freely. A saintly
mother in heaven can
visit now and then with her wayward son who is in hell. She can hear his
cries and
entreaties for mercy.
She puts him off, saying that he had a good time on earth and now he
must be
tormented. This goes on
for a year, two years, ten years, a hundred years, and the mother
realizes that it
must continue to all
eternity! Can anyone possibly imagine such a state of things existing in
heaven, where
the redeemed are
promised pleasures for evermore?
The parable of the rich
man and Lazarus was not given to teach the conscious state of man during
death. This parable was
to serve as a rebuke to covetousness and self righteousness. just before
Luke
records it he reports
the words of Christ:
No servant can serve
two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or
else he
will hold to the one,
and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. . . . And He
said unto them
[the Pharisees], You
are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knows your hearts:
for that
which is highly
esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. Luke 16:13-15.
Those haughty Pharisees
thought the fact that they had succeeded in accumulating riches was
evidence of God's
favor. No matter if they got it by grinding down the poor and suffering,
refusing them
even the crumbs that
fell from their tables. Let the poor suffer; it only showed that the
curse of God was
upon them. None of
these things mattered to the Pharisees. If they were rich-as the most of
them evidently
were-then they felt
sure of heaven.
It was this spirit that
Jesus sought to rebuke by the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. He
was
teaching that riches
make no difference with God-are no evidence whatever of His love. The
rich man is no
surer of heaven than is
the beggar who lies at his gate. God is no respecter of persons. The
poorest widow
in the slums is as dear
to His heart as is the king in his palace. It is character alone which
counts with God,
and not worldly
possessions.
This parable shows
clearly that in the future the cases of many will be entirely reversed
from what
they have been in this
life. Then the first shall be last and the last first. Many of those who
have filled their
coffers here and have
had all that heart could wish, but who have forgotten God and been
disobedient to
His law, will be
consigned to the fate of the enemies of God. Also many of those who have
been poor in
this world's goods, who
have felt the pinch of want and the pangs of hunger, who have suffered
from cold
and nakedness, but who
have been faithful in their obligations to God, will in that day be made
kings and
priests unto God, and
will reign with Him forever. Many a person who spent his last days in
the almshouse
will then be exalted
above those who lived in kings' palaces.
In God's estimation no
man is valued by what he possesses. All that men have is lent them of
the
Lord, and a misuse of
these gifts places the richest of the rich below the poorest sufferer
who reveres God
and loves his fellow
men.
Also Christ taught by
this parable that after death there is no further probation for the
sinner. The
rich man is represented
as seeking for mercy after death, but he is told that a great impassable
gulf has now
been fixed. If during
this life no provision is made for eternity by acceptance of the gospel,
at death it
becomes forever too
late. The gospel commission is limited to this life. All preparation for
eternity must be
made this side of the
grave. After death the gulf is fixed, and no one can pass over.
Christ was also
teaching in this parable that those who were lost would be altogether
without
excuse. God has made
full and abundant provision for the salvation of every man who desires
to be saved.
The rich man is
represented as saying:
I pray thee
therefore, father, that thou would send him to my father's house: for I
have five brethren; that
he may testify unto
them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Luke 16:27, 28.
But:
Abraham says unto
him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said,
Nay, father
Abraham: but if one
went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If
they hear not
Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. Verses
29-31.
Thus the rich man is
represented as suggesting that if men only had additional light, they
would be
more likely to do right
and avail themselves of the plan of salvation. But the answer is given
concerning
those who refuse the
light of God's word found in Moses and the prophets, that any additional
evidence
would be of no avail.
Even though one rose from the dead to carry to them a message of
warning, they
would still not
believe. God has done all that infinite love could do to save lost men
from sin. He asks:
What could have been
done more to My vineyard, that I have not done in it? Isaiah 5:4.
No one therefore will
be able to rise up in the judgment and justly claim that he was lost
because
of any failure on God's
part. Every lost man will be entirely without excuse. If he has rejected
the light
shining from the Word
of God, there is no clearer light that can be given, and he proves
himself unworthy
of eternal life.
It evidently was to
make these truths plain that this amazing parable was spoken, and not to
teach
that people go to
heaven or hell as soon as they die, and that they are such close
neighbors that they can
converse with each
other. (Compare this parable with judges 9:7-15. Here the trees are
represented as
talking, but surely no
one would say because of this that all trees actually have the gift of
speech.)
It has already been
shown that this parable could not possibly apply literally to conditions
existing
between death and the
resurrection. During that time the dead are asleep; their thoughts have
perished, and
they know not anything.
They have no portion in anything that is done under the sun.
During this time,
therefore, the
righteous and the wicked dead cannot see one another or talk together.
They do not enter into
their reward until
after the resurrection from the dead.
THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD
At the second coming of
Jesus the first resurrection will take place, and at this time all
the
righteous dead will be
brought to life again. It is only the blessed and holy, those that
sleep in Jesus,
who will have a part in
this resurrection. (See Revelation 20:6; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-16.) These
resurrected saints,
together with the righteous who are still living on the earth, will then
be caught up to
meet the Lord in the
air, and will be escorted by Jesus and the holy angels to the mansions
of glory. (See 1
Thessalonians 4:17;
John 14:13.)
But at this time all
the rest of the dead, the wicked of earth, who have died in ages past,
remain in
their graves; and they
are joined there by the wicked who were alive upon the earth at the
appearing of
Jesus and who are
destroyed by the bright glory of His presence. (See 2 Thessalonians
2:8.) They have no
part in the first
resurrection, but will have to wait for the second.
These two resurrections
will be a thousand years apart, according to Revelation 20:13; and
during
this interval, which
constitutes the millennium, Satan is bound here upon the earth by a
great chain of
circumstances. The
righteous are all gone where they are forever beyond his power, and the
wicked are all
still in death. Of them
it is written:
The slain of the
Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other
end of earth: they
shall not be lamented,
neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground.
Jeremiah 25:33.
Satan will have this
time in which to meditate upon the results of his rebellion against the
law and
government of God. He
is shut up in this awful death house, this bottomless pit, from
which he cannot
escape. During this
thousand years the righteous will join Christ and the angels in the work
of judging the
wicked dead and the
fallen angels. So far, only those who had at some time in life accepted
*the plan of
salvation, have been
judged. Now the life records of the others must be investigated and
punishments
determined upon. In
this work the righteous will all have a part.
Do you not know that
the saints shall judge the world? And if the world shall be judged by
you,
are you unworthy to
judge the smallest matters? Know you not that we shall judge angels? How
much more
things that pertain to
this life? 1 Corinthians 6:2, 3.
When this work of
judgment is completed, at the end of the thousand years, Jesus will
return once
more to the earth. This
time He will be accompanied by the saints, and will bring with Him the
city of God,
the New Jerusalem, in
which are the mansions: which Jesus has gone to prepare. (See John
14:2,3) The
Lord my God shall come,
and all the saints with Thee. Zechariah 14:5. John beheld this scene
in holy
vision, and exclaimed.
I John saw the holy
city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a
bride
adorned for her
husband. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high
mountain, and showed
me that great city, the
holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of
God: and
her light was like unto
a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; and
had a wall great
and high, and had
twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon,
which are the
names of the twelve
tribes of the children of Israel. And the building of the wall of
it was of jasper: and
the city was pure gold,
like unto clear glass. And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord
God Almighty and
the Lamb are the temple
-of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to
shine in it: for
the glory of God did
lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them
which are saved
shall walk in the light
of it. Revelation 21:2, 10-12, 18, 22-24.
It is at this time that
the wicked dead will be raised to life again. Thus far they have
suffered only
the natural death which
has been the common lot of both saints and sinners because of inherited
mortality,
and now the wicked must
be brought to life that they may suffer the second death, which is
the wages of
their sin. John
declares, The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand
years were finished.
Revelation 20:3. But
now Jesus calls them to life. The revelator describes them as being
as the sand of the
sea for multitude.
(Verse 8.) They have traveled the broad way, the popular route; and they
awake to find
themselves still with
the crowd. Among them are the rich and the poor, the kings and the
paupers, the bond
and the free of earth
who, during their lifetime, rejected God's plan for saving the lost
race. They are all
there.
As this mighty
multitude of lost ones look up and behold the holy city, New Jerusalem,
descending from heaven
to earth, they are seized with consternation, and flee to the valley
of the
mountains in an
effort to hide from the face of Jesus and the redeemed host who
accompany the city. (See
Zechariah 14:4, 5,
ll.). Self condemned, they feel that they cannot look upon the face of
their Lord, whose
mercy they have
rejected.
Satan, however, who is
now loosed out of his prison (by the fact that the wicked are now living
again and he can
continue to practice his work of deception), rallies these forces, and
begins to organize
them for battle.
Revelation 20:8 indicates that the great adversary deceives them into
believing that what
they have apparently
lost by rejecting the gospel they can, under his leadership, now gain by
force. Surely
they have the advantage
of superior numbers. Why should they not capture this city, and make it
the capital
of a great empire?
Thus the matter is
settled. They agree upon a course of action, and prepare for battle.
They begin
the march against the
city. But let us permit John the revelator to describe the scene as it
was shown to him
in vision:
When the thousand
years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go
out to deceive
the nations which are
in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them
together to battle:
the number of whom is
as the sand of the sea. And they went up oh the breadth of the earth,
and compassed
the camp of the saints
about, and the beloved city. Revelation 20:7-9.
Foretelling this scene,
Jesus Himself declared: There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth,
when you
shall see Abraham, and
Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you
yourselves
thrust out. Luke
13:28. This is when the wicked will plead for mercy, but will find that
it is now too late.
The day of grace ends
with the Second Advent of Jesus. The door of mercy is then no longer
ajar.
The loving invitation
of the Spirit, calling, Whosoever will, let him come, is then no
longer heard. To
their entreaties Jesus
replies:
Because I have
called, and you refused; I have stretched out My hand, and no man
regarded; but you have
set at nought all My
counsel, and would none of My reproof: I also will laugh at your
calamity; I will mock
when your fear when
your fear comes as desolation, and your destruction comes as a
whirlwind; when
distress and anguish
comes upon you. Then shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer;
they shall seek
Me early, but they
shall not find Me: for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the
fear of the
Lord: they would none
of My counsel: they despised all My reproof. Therefore shall they eat of
the fruit of
their own way, and be
filled with their own devices. Proverbs 1:24-31.
It is at this time that
every knee shall bow to Christ, and every tongue shall confess to God.
(See Romans
14:11.) But for the
wicked, this confession is to no avail. It serves only as an
acknowledgment of the justice
of their punishment. It
proves that in rejecting them as citizens of His kingdom, the judge of
all the earth
has done right. They
are condemned upon the strength of their own testimony.
It was this time of
which Paul wrote when he declared. We must all appear before the
judgment
seat of Christ; that
every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he
hath done,
whether it be good or
bad. 2 Corinthians 5:10. They do not gather here to be judged, but to
hear the
sentence that has
already been prepared, and to suffer its execution. This will be the
final meeting of the
families of earth.
Never again will the righteous and the wicked look upon one another's
faces. God will
make an utter end of
sin and sinners, so that His universe may be clean.
HELL-FIRE
And when the time for
that destruction has come, God by His power converts the water in the
streams into
pitch and the dust of
the earth into brimstone, and then fire begins to rain from heaven. The
earth also is
melted, thus forming a
bottomless lake of fire which will compass the entire earth. And in this
the devil, his
angels, and all the
wicked perish, and the earth is cleansed from sin's defilement. Note how
clearly the
following scriptures
set forth these truths:
They went up on the
breadth of the earth, and cornpassed the camp of the saints about, and
the beloved
city: and fire came
down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that
deceived them
was cast into the lake
of fire and brimstone. And the sea gave up the dead which were in
it; and death and
hell delivered up the
dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to
their works.
And death and hell were
cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was
not found
written in the book of
life was cast into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:9, 10, 13-15.
Behold, the day
comes, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that
do wickedly, shall be
stubble: and the day
that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, that it shall
leave them neither
root nor branch. But,
unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with
healing in His
wings; and you shall go
forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. And you shall tread down the
wicked; for
they shall be ashes
under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, says the
Lord of hosts.
Malachi 4:1-3.
This, then, is the end
of the wicked, and of Satan. They are reduced to ashes. They are utterly
annihilated.
They are cut off. They
are punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the
Lord (2
Thessalonians 1:9), but
that punishment is everlasting death. It is everlasting in its effects.
From the second
death there is no
resurrection. The punishment therefore is eternal. It is eternal death.
Not that they will be
eternally dying and yet
never die, but they are to be eternally dead. They will never see life
again. They are
to be as though they
had not been. Obadiah 16.
This, then, is hell.
Peter speaks of this terrible fire which shall melt and purify the earth
as being the
perdition of ungodly
men. (2 Peter 3:7) It is a hell 25,000 miles in circumference. It is
hot enough to melt
the earth and utterly
consume the wicked. God has decreed that those on this earth who follow
Satan in his
rebellious course
against God and His law must also share the fate that awaits him in this
caldron of fire. If
men refuse salvation
God has no alternative but to destroy them, for sin must be eradicated
and the
kingdom of God be made
safe for His people.
After the fire has done
its work and the curse of sin has thus been entirely removed, the fire
will
go out. The earth will
be left a total waste, but it will be clean. Then the great Creator will
once more reveal
His power by making an
entirely new earth out of the ruins of the old one. Says the apostle:
The day of the Lord
will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass
away with a great
noise, and the elements
shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are
therein shall be
burned up.
Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens, and
a new earth, wherein
dwells
righteousness. 2 Peter 3:10-13.
He that sat upon the
throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And I saw a new heaven
and a new
earth: for the first
heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more
sea. Revelation
21:5, 1.
Then the meek shall
inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of
peace. Psalms
37:11.
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