When God said to man in the Garden of Eden, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,” the devil said, “Ye shall not surely die.” So, tho the Lord says the result of transgression is death, the devil says, “No; they do not die at all;” and to prove to the world that this statement is true, he has invented and summoned to his aid Modern Spiritualism, through which he gives communication supposedly from our friends in the spirit world.
But if our friends are not dead, as we are often told in obituaries, funeral sermons, and false hymnology, and if they are really helping us in this life, then the devil told the truth, and Spiritualism is the place to seek for comfort in the hours of grief and sorrow.
Why Grieve if True?
Why, if “there is no death, but what seems so is only transition into a higher sphere of usefulness,” should there be hours of grief and sorrow? If we believed such a statement, we should not shed tears of sorrow at the loss of our parents or children; but rather tears of joy. And instead of sorrowing we would feel like singing praise.
The greatest objection to the idea of consciousness after death, is that it is not true, because it is out of harmony with God’s Word, “which is truth.” For it is written, “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” 1 Cor. 15:26. Here Inspiration declares death to be an enemy; and why?—Because it robs us of our fathers and mothers, our babies and friends, and leaves nothing but vacancy and sorrow in its trail.
Death is not only an enemy, but it is the work of the great enemy, the devil. In Heb. 2:14, Paul says, “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He [Christ] also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.” Therefore, it is clear that in death one passes under the dominion of the enemy. And since this is the last act of his power upon the individual, death is the last enemy.
The Dead and the Affairs of This Life
The dead are not conscious, nor do they have to do with the affairs of this world after their departure; for it is written: “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.” Eccl. 9:5, 6.
Also in Job 14:1, 2: “Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.” And in verse 21 we further read, “His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.”
No Wisdom in Death
These scriptures plainly show that there is no continued consciousness nor further affliction with those who die. Thus it is written again, “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. 9:10); and “if I wait, the grave is mine house.” Job 17:13. Jesus says, “The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth.” John 5:28, 29. Paul adds his testimony to this by saying that unless this resurrection takes place, those who have “fallen asleep in Christ are perished.” “For . . . in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming.” 1 Cor. 15:18, 22, 23. Again it is written, “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.” Then the apostle adds, “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” 1 Thess. 4:16-18.
Therefore, we conclude that the dead are sleeping in unconsciousness, waiting for a resurrection at the second coming of Christ; and it is from this truth we are to gather comfort, and not in the mistaken idea of consciousness in death and visitations and communications through spirit mediums.
Mortal and Immortal
If one should state as a great truth, that God is immortal, the majority of thinking people would say that the statement is wholly unnecessary. The very fact that He is God would indicate that He is immortal. And yet the Bible has regarded it of sufficient importance to declare that God is immortal. “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible,” we read in 1 Tim. 1:17; nay, more, but we are expressly told in the same epistle (6:16) that He “only hath immortality.” It is ever set before the children of God as something to be attained. It is to be sought after by faithful continuance in well doing. Rom. 2:7.
In 2 Tim. 1:10 it is declared that life and immortality are brought to light through the Gospel, implying that they can be found nowhere else; not in the natural man or the theories of men, or in the world religions or philosophies, but only by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There will come a time when the Christian will be made immortal, at the resurrection, when the last trump shall sound; then shall this mortal put on immortality, and this corruptible shall put on incorruption. Then and not till then will be brought to pass the saying, “Death is swallowed up in victory.” The one hope of the ages is in the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will give to His waiting children, whether dead or alive, the gift of immortality.
“Behold, I tell you a mystery: We all shall not 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. But when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting? The sting of death is sin; and the power of sin is the law: but thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Cor. 15:51-57.
“The King of Kings, and Lord of Lords; who only hath immortality.” 1 Tim. 6:15, 16.
“Unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory.” 1 Tim. 1:17.
