Where Are the Dead? by C. P. Bollman

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Nov 10, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 44.

Where Are the Dead?

By C. P. Bollman

By C. P. Bollman

To this question the Bible makes reply that the dead are in their graves. Says the Saviour, “Marvel not at this: for 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. When lamenting for his son whom he supposed to be dead, Jacob said, “I will go down into the grave unto my son.” Gen. 37:35.

To King Josiah the Lord sent this message: “I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place.” 2 Kings 22:20.

On the Day of Pentecost the apostle Peter based an argument in proof of the resurrection of Christ, upon the fact that David was still in his grave. He said, “Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day.” “For David is not ascended into the heavens.” Acts 2:29, 34.

But perhaps the clearest testimony upon this question in all the Word of God is found in the book of Job. When brought face to face with death, the patriarch considered this question, thus: “Man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?” And again he asks, “If a man die, shall he live again?” And then, filled with the spirit of inspiration, he triumphantly exclaims: “All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer Thee: Thou wilt have a desire to the work of Thine hands.” Job 14:10, 14, 15.

Just what the patriarch meant by awaiting his change is made clear by the thirteenth verse of the seventeenth chapter: “If I wait, the grave is mine house.” He would in the grave await the resurrection, when he, in common with all who are in their graves, shall hear the voice of the Son of God. John 5:25. The change of which he spoke was not the change that takes place at death, as some have imagined, but the change spoken of by the apostle in 1 Cor. 15:51-53. “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.” Glorious change! And sublime the faith that more than thirty-three centuries ago,—more than fifteen centuries before Christ met and conquered death and the grave,—made it the sheet-anchor of the soul.