CONSCIOUS OR UNCONSCIOUS
By G. B. T.
What Do the Dead Know?—Author of Immortal Soul Theory The unscriptural doctrine taught regarding the inherent immortality of the soul, if followed to its natural and logical conclusion, makes the entire mission of Christ unnecessary. It endows man, all men, whether incorrigible or penitent, with life, eternal life, which even God Himself can not destroy even in the flames of hell through countless ages. It gives to the lost in the torments of hell everlasting life, and makes logically necessary either the expurgatory fires of the Catholic purgatory, or the endless tortures of the damned in the orthodox hell,—one of the most terrible and God-dishonoring dogmas taught in the world under the name of religion. Had man never sinned he would have lived forever. His home was in Eden; he had access to the tree of life, and could “eat, and live forever.” Gen. 3:22. But there was a penalty for transgression. “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Gen. 2:17. This doubtless referred primarily to the “second death,” but must of course include the first death, which all die as a consequence of sin’s being in the world. “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. Webster defines death as “cessation of life,” and this is absolutely correct. So long as there is life, be the spark ever so feeble and flickering, the flame is not extinguished, and death has not taken place. So long as a man is conscious, and his mental operations continue, he is not dead. Thinking is an evidence of life. “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.” Ps. 146:3, 4. Is the Dead Man Conscious?
This is a description of man in death. He is not conscious. “The wages of sin is death.746Because of sin, man must yield up his life, cease to live, and pass into the fixed embrace of death. Nothing could possibly be plainer on this point than the following texts: “For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast; for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.” Eccl. 3:19, 20. “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 forever in anything that is done under the sun. . . . Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.” Eccl. 9:5, 6, 10. It is clear that there is no foundation in the Scriptures for the belief that man is conscious between death and the resurrection at the last day. Would Nullify the Resurrection
If man is not dead, but in a state of consciousness, and enters upon his reward at the time of death, there is no need of a resurrection. The resurrection is the bringing back to life those who are dead. “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. But if, as those teach who believe in the immortality of the soul, there is no such thing as death, there can be no such thing as a resurrection, when the dead live again. The doctrine of inherent immortality makes the resurrection unnecessary, and thus destroys the great truth of a future life through the resurrection from the dead. The hope of the dead is in the resurrection. “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.” 1 Cor. 15:16-18. Origin of Immortal Soul Doctrine
The question may arise as to the origin of the belief in the immortality of the soul and the consequent consciousness between death and the resurrection. In all the hundreds of instances where soul and spirit are mentioned in the Scriptures, they are nowhere said to be immortal, or deathless, or to live beyond the stroke of death. The Bible clearly reveals the origin of the doctrine. It rests entirely on the statement of the serpent in Eden. The Lord plainly declared to Adam that if he should eat of the forbidden tree, he should “surely die.” Gen. 2:17. But Satan, in his effort to draw our first parents away from allegiance to God, denied this statement of the Creator. “Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” Gen. 3:1-5. God’s statement, “Thou shalt surely die.” Satan’s statement, “Ye shall not surely die.” This latter statement is a plain, unequivocal contradiction of the words of God, and is the foundation of the doctrine of man’s natural immortality. It finds its echo in the doctrine of the consciousness of the dead. “Ye shall not surely die,” said Satan. “They are not dead. The real man is the soul; the body is simply the house in which the real man lives. The house decays, but the real man, being immortal, can not die, and continues to live,” says modern orthodoxy. A clear echo this! It could not be clearer that the dogma of inherent immortality rests upon the words of Satan, instead of the word of God, and strikes a vital blow at the plan of human redemption, whose Author came to give life to those who are “alienated from the life of God.” G. B. T.