What Does a Dead Man Know?
By A. S. Booth
Can He Think or Love or Hate? — Does He Go to His Reward at Death? — Why the Resurrection and the Judgment if He Does? MAN'S condition in death depends wholly on how death affects the thoughts, the memory, and the attributes of the human mind. God tells us clearly just what happens when the individual dies. We read: “His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts [not simply the body] perish.” Ps. 146: 4. “They are dead, they shall not live; . . . therefore hast Thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory [which is more than the body] to perish.” Isa. 26: 14. “The living know that they shall die: but the dead know [it is the mind that comprehends, not the body] 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 [attributes of the mind], is now perished.” Eccl. 9: 5, 6. WHAT DO THE DEAD KNOW ABOUT US?
Job tells us just how much the dead know of those who dwell on the earth. He says, “His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.” Job 14: 21. These are a few of the positive statements in the Bible which show that the dead do not know anything, and are unconscious until the resurrection. There is no positive statement in the Scriptures, made by God, that the dead are conscious. If there were, we would be called upon to explain how it happens that the Bible contradicts itself. The general plan of the Lord is that the dead remain in their graves until the resurrection. RAISED UP AT THE LAST DAY
Jesus says, “And this is the will of Him that sent Me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.” John 6: 40. Not at his last day or a last day. “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” John 14: 3. The time of reception is when the Lord comes the second time. He will then “send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” Matt. 24: 31. In the gospel of the resurrection, as taught by Paul, the unconscious condition of the dead, until the second coming of the Lord, is made very clear. We remember also that Paul is very careful that his gospel remain as he taught it. He said, “Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” Gal. 1: 8. Paul says of the gospel of the resurrection: “Every man in his own order: Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at His coming.” “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 Cor. 15: 23, 51-56. “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 Thess. 4: 16-18. These words are so clear in reference to the time when the righteous come forth from the grave, and are received by the heavenly family to live and reign with the Lord, that they need no comment. WHO SAYS THE DEAD ARE CONSCIOUS?
There is but one positive statement in the Scriptures that the dead are conscious, and that is made by the adversary. God emphatically commanded that Adam and Eve should not eat of the tree of death; but said the serpent, “Ye shall not surely die: . . . ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” Gen. 3: 4, 5. God said they would die, and not know anything; but the devil said the reverse. Satan is a fallen angel, and was cursed for teaching the doctrine of the conscious state of the dead. The words of Paul in Gal. 1: 8 were fulfilled. While the general plan of God is that the dead remain unconscious until the resurrection, yet there are a few exceptions to this plan. Enoch and Elijah were translated. Moses was resurrected. When Christ died on the cross, a company were resurrected, and they ascended with Him to heaven. THE EXCEPTIONS PROVE THE RULE
An exception to a rule only proves the rule to be in force, else there would be no need to speak of the exception. If it were true that all receive their reward at death, there would be no need of speaking of these who were translated and resurrected before the coming of Christ the second time. The inconsistency of the doctrine of reward at death is apparent. If the righteous go to heaven at death, what then is the use of the resurrection and the second coming of Christ? The Bible also plainly teaches that the Judgment is in connection with the resurrection and the second coming of Christ. Will the Lord send the righteous to heaven, and the wicked to a place of torment, and then many years after, judge them to see if they were worthy of their reward? — No, not so. The dead wait in their graves till the coming of the Lord. The Lord will bring His rewards with Him. Rev. 22: 12. Dear reader, may we be prepared to meet Him in peace!