Are the Dead Conscious?
By Editor
GEN. xxv, 8. “Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people.” It is claimed that the deaths of the patriarchs are recorded in such a manner as to give us to understand that their existence did not cease with death. Abraham’s, for instance: “Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and he was gathered home to his people.” God had promised Abraham [see Gen. xv, 15] that he should go to his fathers in peace, and be buried in a good old age. If this expression means that he should go to dwell in conscious intercourse with them, let us inquire concerning the place where they were. Where, then, were the ancestors of Abraham at the time this declaration was uttered? What evidence have we that they were righteous persons? It is a very significant fact that Abraham had to be separated from his kindred and his father’s house, in order that God might make him a special subject of his providence [Gen. xii, 1]; and in Josh. xxiv, 2, we are told plainly that they were gross idolators—the servants of other gods. They must have been, therefore, at the time of Abraham’s death, according to popular opinion, burning in hell. And if Abraham’s being gathered to them means that his soul should go to be with theirs, it follows that God gave him the not very consoling promise that he should “go to hell in peace,” in a good old age. But none of “Abraham’s seed” will be willing to admit for a moment that such can be the condition of their “righteous father.” We answer, then, that his being gathered to his people simply means his being gathered to them in the grave, the common receptacle of all the dead. Jacob said when mourning for Joseph, whom he supposed dead, “I will go down into the grave, unto my son mourning.” Gen. xxxvii, 35. And the apostle, speaking of David, says that he “was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption.” Acts xiii, 36.—ED.