Where Are the Dead ? by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 21, 1911

Where Are the Dead ?

By C. M. S.

FREQUENTLY, in the religious press, where an account is given of the death of some church-member, we see the statement that the deceased one has “been promoted,” has “passed over,” or has “gone home.” These have come to be fashionable expressions, all of them, in the parlance of general Protestant and Catholic church-membership; but how subversive of truth! We noticed recently that one good woman was declared by her pastor to have “gone over peacefully home” on a certain date. Another was declared to “have gone home and entered into her rest.” She had been assured by her pastor in her last hours that she was “almost home,” meaning that she would step from her death-bed directly into her heavenly abode. And this is the belief of the vast multitude of the religious people of the world to-day.

But what say the Scriptures? “Man dieth, and is laid low: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?” Then Job, speaking as the inspired mouthpiece of God, answers the question: “Man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be roused out of their sleep.” Job 14:10, 12. But that does not mean they shall never awake; for in the “day of the Lord,” at the second coming of Christ, “the heavens shall pass away with a great noise” (2 Peter 3:10-13); “and at that same time “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.” 1 Thess. 4:16. The voice of “the Lord himself” wakes the sleeping saints, the “dead in Christ,” and brings them out of their dead graves. They have not been in heaven. Christ comes at that time to take them there. (See verse 17.)

In harmony with this speaks the prophet Isaiah: “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.” Isa. 26:19.

When does this event take place? The two verses following the quotation tell us plainly enough: “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.” During all the centuries of the past the earth has been cumbered with her dead. The slain of the Lord in the deluge were covered by the earth itself through the instrumentality of the mighty surgings of the waters of the flood. The earth covered her slain. She will not do this in the destruction of the finally impenitent when the wrath of God is poured out for the last time upon all the agencies of iniquity.

This language of Isaiah shows plainly where the dead are—the bodies of those who have slept the sleep of death in this earth since Adam and Eve laid down their lives. The dew that has been falling upon the grass and herbs has been falling at the same time upon the dead over whom has been growing the grass and the herbs. But when Christ comes, “the earth shall cast out the dead.” If they were in heaven, it would be impossible for the earth to cast them out. This text also furnishes a clew as to what class of the dead will be “cast out” at that time. It will be the righteous alone; for they are to “awake and sing.” The wicked dead will not sing when they awake. It is declared of them that they will awake “to shame and everlasting contempt.” Dan. 12:2. But the righteous who have been dwelling in the dust, will celebrate their deliverance and their Saviour’s return with the gladdest of glad hosannas.

Eternal life and the heavenly inheritance are the reward of the saints. If the righteous dead entered into that reward at death, Christ would not be declaring to us, as he does in Rev. 22:12, “Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” That reward, including eternal life, is given at the second coming of Christ. He says that he brings it with him to bestow at that time; this is shown also in 1 Cor. 15:51-55. At that time the corruptible dead and the corruptible living both put on incorruption. Both were mortal; but both at that time “put on immortality.” They have not had it before, or they would not need to put it on at that time. So the dead have not been “promoted” as they have passed into the silence; they have not “gone home,” unless we call the grave their home, and it certainly is not the home of the children of God. The dead have not “passed over” to the shining shore. If they are among “the dead in Christ,” they are peacefully sleeping the sleep of death, and so will continue to sleep until Christ comes to awaken them out of their sleep “with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God,” calling them out of death into immortal life. And that glad day is fast approaching. The hope of the eternal inheritance is nearing its fruition. That day when the tongue of the dumb shall be heard shouting the praises of our Redeemer; that day when the eyes of the blind shall be opened to see the beauties and the wonders and the glories of the purified kingdom of our God; that day when the lame shall leap as a hart, and the ears of the deaf shall be opened to hear the music of heaven and the voice of their Redeemer; that day toward which every sincere soul has looked with fondest yearnings, and the assurances of whose reality have comforted the children of God as they have gone down in death; that day which puts an end to sin and misery and sorrow and poverty and woe and sickness and death; that day which puts the hand of the righteous dead again into the hand of the translated living, and binds up broken hearts, and dries the tears of the grief-stricken; that day which rights every wrong, and makes even the dead to triumph over death and its author,—that day is near at hand, and its glorious dawning is drawing on apace. C. M. S.