THE WAY OF LIFE by James White

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jan 4, 1877

THE WAY OF LIFE

By James White

FROM PARADISE LOST TO PARADISE RESTORED.

Second Paper—Resurrection.

Our first parents lost their hold on immortal life for which they were put on probation. In obedience they would soon have developed righteous characters, been placed beyond the reach of sin, and would have secured endless life in favor with God. In disobedience they and their offspring passed under the sentence and dominion of death. “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” Gen. 3:19. “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. Death, and to return to dust, are the rule with the fallen race, while translation to Heaven, without passing under the dominion of death and the grave, as in the cases of Enoch, Elijah, and those who shall stand complete in the will of God, and be alive at the second coming of the Son of man, are exceptions.

The death, resurrection, and the ascension of the Son of God were events of great importance in the plan of human redemption; but at neither of these was the plan finished. The Redeemer was to make two distinct advents to this world. At the first, he lived our example, preached his own gospel, wrought miracles to confirm his divine mission, died our sacrifice, rose from the dead for our justification, and ascended to the Father's right hand to plead the cause of the repenting sinner. But he will appear in this world the second time to execute other parts of the grand scheme. The plan of redemption in its second stage provides for the resurrection of the just from the dominion of death and the grave to life immortal and eternal.

The moral fitness for the next life must be obtained in this. The change to immortality is not a moral change. It is simply an exchange of the corruptible body for one that will be incorruptible. This second stage in the stupendous work of man's redemption is expressed by the apostle thus: “Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.” And the Redeemer will not complete his work of redemption in a manner to leave man invisible and immaterial. When redeemed, the just will stand in all the tangible perfection of Adam's unfallen manhood, with the exceeding glory that their bodies will be fashioned like unto Christ's glorious resurrected body.

And the doctrine is made prominent in the gospel that the resurrection of Christ is a pledge to the church that all the righteous will be raised at Christ's second appearing. In 1 Cor. 15, which chapter does not allude to the second resurrection, Paul bases the doctrine of the resurrection of the righteous dead and the future life of the just, upon the fact that Christ did rise from the dead. The apostle affirms at the opening of the chapter that Christ died, was buried, and “rose again the third day according to the scriptures.” Verse 4. He then argues: “Now if Christ be preached, that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen, and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ; whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised, and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.” Verses 12–19.

Evidently there were those in Paul's day who denied the resurrection of the dead as there are many who reject the doctrine in our day. But the great events designed to immortalize the sacred fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead were rehearsed in the ears of the people, and kept fresh in the memory of the church. This great truth, that Christ did rise from the dead, and did walk forth from the sepulcher a triumphant victor over death, is the great central fact of the gospel, and constitutes the staple to which all gospel truth is fastened. Paul rests all upon the resurrection of Christ, and states that if he be not risen, their preaching was vain, the faith of the church was vain, they were in their sins, the apostles were false witnesses, and, as the climax, “they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.” Remove the grand staple of the resurrection of Christ, and all gospel truth and the hope of the church fall to the ground.

Demons held hellish jubilee over the tomb where Christ lay in death. Wicked men exulted, but with a degree of trembling caused by the darkening of the sun, and the rending of the rocks. So the sepulcher was made sure. The great stone which Joseph rolled to the door was sealed, and a watch was set to guard the place. But one of the holy angels that excel in strength came down and rolled away the stone, and the brightness of the attending glory prostrated these strong sentinels to the ground like dead men. Jesus arose, and “was seen of Cephas and of the twelve. After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that, he was seen of James, then of all the apostles.” 1 Cor. 15:6, 7.

Jesus arose with the marks of the cruelty of his crucifixion in his divine form that he might be identified as the very person who had the nails driven through his hands and feet, and had the spear thrust into his side while hanging on the cross. Absent Thomas, who had settled into stubborn unbelief at the death of his Master, said, “Except I shall see in his hands, the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.” John 20:25. But when he had seen and felt the marks of the crucifixion he answered, “My Lord and my God.”

The evidences of Christ's messiahship and his divinity were such as to carry conviction to all minds, excepting those blinded by error and hardened by sin. And these evidences grew more overwhelming until he left the world from Olivet to appear in the presence of God for sinners. Matthew records a series of these evidences connected with his death and resurrection, which closes the sacred history of his first advent: “And behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent, and the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly, this was the Son of God.” Matt. 27:51–54.

And not only was Christ in the world forty days after his resurrection, teaching, comforting and confirming the disciples at certain seasons, but during this same period the resurrected worthies of past ages, who came out of their graves after Christ's resurrection, were mingling with mortal men, and bearing testimony to his resurrection. And when Christ ascended he took these resurrected ones with him, as affirmed by Paul in these words: “When he ascended up on high he led captivity captive.” Eph. 4:8.

With these evidences of the resurrection of the Son of God before the reader, he will please return with us to Paul's argument. The apostle illustrates the relation of the resurrection of Christ to that of all his people at his second coming by the beautiful figure of the firstfruits and the harvest as set forth in the typical law: “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order; Christ the firstfruits, afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.” Verses 20–23.

The Hebrews were to present to the priest a sheaf of the first ripe grain for him to wave before the Lord to be accepted for them. This sheaf was taken from the first ripe grain, and was called the firstfruits. That sheaf typified the resurrection of Christ, while the remaining grain in the wide harvest field represented the resurrection of all his people at his second coming. And as the handful of ripe grain that was waved before the Lord was like all the grain that remained in the field until the general harvest, so Christ's resurrected form was a model of the resurrected bodies of all his people.

The order of the resurrection mentioned by the apostle includes only Christ, the firstfruits, and all the saints at his second coming. Forcible indeed is the figure, that as the first ripe grain waved before the Lord was a sample of all the grain that remained in the field until the great harvest, so the resurrected body of Christ was a model of the bodies of his people who should remain in the grave until the resurrection of the just at his second coming. “Christ the firstfruits,” says the apostle, “afterwards they that are Christ's at his coming.”

The testimony of Paul respecting the change to immortality at the second coming of Christ is to the point: “For our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.” Phil. 3:20, 21. Notice two points in the text: first, in the future life, the fashion of the bodies of the redeemed is like the body of the Redeemer; and, secondly, that the fashioning is done when he comes to raise the dead. “When he shall appear,” writes another apostle, “we shall be like him.” 1 John 3:2.

In all the range of Christian theology no doctrine is more clearly stated, or more forcibly illustrated in the Scriptures than the resurrection of the dead.

And yet ministers and people of the several denominations whose creeds maintain the doctrine, are retreating from this stronghold of the Christian faith before the cavils of infidelity respecting the identity of the resurrected body. “It is not possible,” says the skeptic, “for the same particles of matter which composed the human body in this mortal life to compose the immortal body in the future state.” He affirms that particles of matter which compose the body here at any given time and are gradually thrown off to give place to new matter, may, through the vegetable and animal productions, enter into other human bodies, to pass, by the same process, into still others. He urges that at death, under certain circumstances, the transfer of matter to other human bodies to almost unlimited numbers is highly probable. Hence, he concludes, that in the resurrection, on the identical-particles-of-matter hypothesis, many might claim the same particles on the ground that at some period in their mortal existence these very particles had constituted a part of each of them. And as it is not possible for the same particles to hold places in numerous immortal forms at the same time, the skeptic fancies that he has overthrown the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead.

The question of the transfer of the same particles from one human body to another we leave for others to argue. However groundless may be the propositions, and flimsy the arguments of those who labor to build up the transfer supposition in order to pull down the Bible doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, it will not be denied that it has tremendous power to remove one of the plainest landmarks of the Christian church in the minds of the thousands who are adopting the spiritual second advent, the spiritual resurrection, and the spiritual reign of Christ.

We sympathize with Paul who had similar, if not the same, theological follies to meet in his day that curse the church and the world in our day. In continuation of his argument upon the resurrection, as he touches the identity question, he rebukes the stupid cavillings of his shallow opponents. He says: “But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die. And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain. But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.” 1 Cor. 15:35–38. With what body do the dead come forth is the question under consideration. And the apostle more than intimates that more or less foolishness had been exhibited over the subject.

The question is clearly before us. Will the resurrected body contain the identical particles of matter which composed the mortal body? Or, is it necessary in order to the resurrection of the being that the same particles should be gathered to make up the immortal body? Does the identity of the immortal being with the corruptible consist in both being composed of the same matter? Or does not their identity rather exist in that organization by which the saints in glory connect the then immortal present with the mortal past, so that they will know themselves, and each other? Finally, is it necessary that a single particle of the old body pass into the new in order that there be a resurrection of the dead?

God formed man of the dust of the ground. And after the transgression he passed this sentence upon Adam: “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” Adam was an organized being. After dissolution he passed back to dust again and was no more. This is as true of Paul or of Luther. They passed to dust and do not exist in any other form of matter than that from which man was first created. Open the graves of holy men of God who have slept for centuries and there cannot be found the least trace of those who were buried there. Their names and their records are in Heaven, and their works follow them on earth, and this is all that remains of them, unless the doctrine of consciousness between death and the resurrection can be maintained.

The resurrection of the righteous dead is the act by which man is re-organized and brought back from the dust of the earth, with an immortal nature. This is to all intents and purposes a re-creation. And we have not the most distant thought that the Redeemer will search through creation for the identical particles of matter which had composed the mortal body from which to constitute the immortal being. And we affirm that there is no necessity, from the nature of the case, nor from any passage in all the Bible, that a single particle of matter should enter into the immortal body which had at any time helped to compose the mortal form. Man was formed from the dust of the earth. After death he returns to dust. At the resurrection he will be brought again from the dust of the ground without respect to that matter of which he had once been composed.

The obvious application of the figure of the

grain employed by the apostle to illustrate the resurrection of the dead, fully sustains the foregoing position. The farmer does not harvest the identical wheat which he sows. Long before the new kernel forms, the parent grain has entirely passed into the straw, and the roots of the plant gather from the ground that which produces the new grain. These evident facts in the production of the grain are expressed by Paul in these words: “Thou sowest not that body that shall be.” Although it is not necessary that a single particle of the parent kernel should enter into the new grain, the identity of the old is preserved in the new. If the farmer sows wheat, the harvest is wheat, and this is true of all other grain. So in the resurrection, Paul will be Paul, and Martin Luther will be Martin Luther. And they will be re-organized so as to connect the mortal past with the immortal present. And there with open face beholding the glories of redemption complete, they will recount their toils and perils, and sing of the victories of divine grace which sustained them in their ministry until they had finished their course with joy.

J. W.