HOW THEY ARE TO BE WITH JESUS
By G. B. T.
Does Man Have an Immortal Soul?—If So, What Need of the Second Coming of Christ?—Why a Resurrection and Judgment 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. In these words, the Saviour tells us how the saints will finally be gathered to their Paradise home. At the same time, He demolishes, with a few words, the unscriptural and heathen dogma of the soul’s inherent immortality and consciousness in death. Modern theology teaches that the soul is immortal—that the real man does not die—that the body is simply the house, the tenement, in which the real man lives, and that there is in reality no such thing as death. It teaches that man lives right on, and that at what is called death, he enters at once upon his reward, either in the ineffable bliss of heaven, or in the confines of endless and awful despair. Death is thus made the gateway to heaven. It becomes the gatekeeper. In funeral eulogies, the bereaved friends are assured that their loved ones who have departed this life are460not really dead, but have only passed through a sort of transition, and have entered upon a life of endless happiness. Of course, not much is said about the lost. Generally the mourners are comforted with the thought that their deceased friends are now in heaven. WOULD MAKE HIS COMING UNNECESSARY
If such a doctrine were true, it would make the coming of Jesus unnecessary. For why should Jesus come for His people when they are already with Him in glory? Imagine the sublime and awful spectacle of the Son of God coming to this earth to receive His people, when millions of them have been with Him through millenniums of time, singing psalms around His throne. WHAT NEED OF A RESURRECTION?
It also destroys the need of a resurrection of the dead. Think of the farce of the Life-giver descending and calling for the dead to come forth from their dusty beds, when there are no dead, and none are in the graves, but all have passed to their reward immediately at the stroke of death. If they are receiving their reward, what need of a resurrection? Why bring up this body? Have they a body now? If so, what would they do with a resurrected body? Would the dead have two bodies? Then how could the Saviour resurrect, or bring back to life, those who have passed away, if they are not dead? A JUDGMENT DAY NOT NEEDED
Again, the doctrine of the immortality of the soul destroys the doctrine of a future Judgment. If man goes to his reward immediately at death, he must be judged. No one could think of a just God sending any to the bliss of heaven, or to the torments of hell, without a Judgment to decide which place they are fitted for. The Judgment, therefore, instead of being a future event, would be an event continuously in session since death entered the world. But the Bible teaches a future Judgment, in which all who have lived on the earth will stand in solemn review before God. Any doctrine which destroys so many of the great fundamental doctrines of the Scripture, cannot be founded on the truth. But the Saviour, in the words that are quoted at the beginning of this article, sets before us the real hope of man. It is the hope of all who are sleeping in the tomb. He tells us that if He went away, He will come again, and receive us to Himself, that where He is, we may be also. He has gone; but, bless His name, He is coming again, and He is coming for His people. He is coming to receive them to Himself. He is coming to take them from the grave to the mansions He has gone to prepare. At that time, the living righteous will be changed, and will be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air. We are all going to heaven at the same time. This is really the hope of the church. It is your hope, reader; it is my hope. If Christ did not come the second time, redemption would not be complete. There would be no hope for the dead. Listen to these glorious words: “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 Thess. 4: 16-18. All within the graves will hear His voice, and come forth. The voice of the Archangel will resound through the long galleries of the tomb, and those in silence who sleep in Christ will be awakened and will come forth. All the living righteous will be changed and caught up together to meet the Lord in the air, and ever after be with Him. This is our comfort; this is our hope. The Saviour is preparing a place for us. A man may leave his home in some city, and go perhaps into western Canada or some other place, and take up a claim. He writes home that he is preparing a place for his family. He is building a house. He has planted a crop, and is beautifying the premises. He is getting things ready. He writes that when he has the place all prepared, he will come and take them with him to the new home. How they will look for the return of father, and long for the time when he will come and take them with him to the home he has gone to prepare! This is but a feeble illustration, yet it points to the truth. Our Saviour is preparing a place. His people are the apple of His eye. He loves them. He longs for the time to come when they will be with Him, and see His glory, and dwell with Him through all the countless ages to come. He will look on this redeemed company from all nations of the world, and from all ages of time, and see of the travail of His soul, and be satisfied. How glorious is the blessed doctrine of the second coming of Christ! What a hope it places before us to know, from the teachings of the Scriptures, that this great and glorious event is soon to dawn! It should inspire us to greater zeal, to greater earnestness and consecration, than ever before, that we may prepare for this great event, and be among that company who will look up with joy and say: “Lo, this is our God, we have waited for Him, and He will save us; this is the Lord, we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.” Isa. 25: 9. G. B. T.