THE RESURRECTION by C. W. Stone

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 17, 1879

THE RESURRECTION.

By C. W. Stone

BY C. W. STONE.

(Continued.)

THE NEW TESTAMENT ON THE RESURRECTION.

I do not say that the reader of these lines must die; he may not. The Saviour soon is coming, and many who read these lines will doubtless witness that grand scene. “Whosoever liveth and believeth in me,” says Christ, pointing forward to that time, “shall never die.” John 11:26. The faithful Christian living when the Lord shall come, will never die. But, reader, you may die, and be buried in the grave. You have friends who lie there now. You saw that dear face ere the coffin lid hid it from your view; you followed the bier in the solemn procession to that open grave in the cemetery; you saw the coffin lowered; you heard the dull sound as it touched the walls of earth or rested on its lowly bed, and you knew your dear one was there. Whatever may be your theology, your heart yearns for one who is lying dead in that grave. However much you may profess to think of your dear one as having gone to Heaven, your mind really rests on the form on whose coffin you now hear the “clods of the valley” falling as the sexton does his work, and you turn away, leaving your dead buried in the dust of the earth. Shall that dead one live again? That is the question that comes naturally from the aching heart. Shall I be permitted to clasp my darling one in my arms again? The dear Saviour has not left us without an abundant answer to this question that comes like a wail of anguish from millions of hearts bereft and bleeding. To him we will go, resolved to accept the kind of comfort which he who was touched with our sorrows gives us.

We have examined the testimony of Moses and the prophets, and we have found them unanimous in teaching that the dead shall live again, that they shall come from the grave at the resurrection. The first thing in the Saviour’s teachings to which we will refer is the fact that he indorses what Moses and the prophets have said in relation to the state of the dead, putting these words into the mouth of Abraham in the parable: “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.” Luke 16:29. We shall expect to find no discord between their teachings and his.

At another time the Saviour appealed to the writings of Moses, to prove the resurrection. The occasion of this reference was this: “Certain of the Sadducees, which deny that there is any resurrection,” came to Jesus with a question, hoping to entrap him in his answer. He answered their question, and then, to prove the resurrection, he quoted Moses, whom they had introduced in their question. Said he, “Now that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living.” Luke 20:37, 38. But does not that prove that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are not dead, but living? No; for the fact that God is the God of those good men proves that the dead shall rise,—so the Saviour says,—proves that they shall live again. Those men are dead; but with God, “who inhabiteth eternity,” with whom “a thousand years is as one day,” the time that they lie dead is as a little moment. He regards it as but a brief suspension of life; and as they are to live again, they may be said to live in the purpose of God even now; “for all live unto him.” Verse 38.

If, as some shallow reasoners at first suppose, these words of the Saviour prove that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were at that time really alive, then there is nothing in his answer to the Sadducees that would refute their position, or that would at all prove the resurrection of the dead, and the object of his answer would not be reached. But, on the contrary, his answer was so clear a proof of the resurrection that it put the Sadducees to silence. Matt. 22:34. God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because they are to live again. If they were never to live again, he would not be called their God, “for he is not the God of the dead”; but because they are to live again, God calls himself their God, even as though they were living now. A parallel to this is found in Rom. 4:16, 17: “To the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all (as it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations), before Him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things that be not as though they were.”

These words are addressed to Abraham in Gen. 17:5: “A father of many nations have I made thee.” But Abraham at that time had not had the child of promise. It is true his son Ishmael was then thirteen years old, but he was not counted in that promise, which was to be fulfilled through Isaac. But how could the Lord say, I have made thee a father of many nations, when as yet not a soul of them had been born? Answer: “God who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things that be not as though they were,” called Abraham a father of many nations “when as yet he had no child.” In the same way, “God who quickeneth the dead,” and who “is not the God of the dead, but of the living,” and who “calleth those things that are not as though they were,” when he has decreed that they shall be, calls himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because they shall live again.

With this masterly argument Jesus silenced the Sadducees, proving from Moses, whom they heard read every Sabbath day, and whose disciples they claimed to be, that the dead are to be raised. So conclusive was this argument in favor of the resurrection that it drew an expression of approval from one of the scribes who stood by. Said he, “Master, thou hast well said.” Luke 20:39.

All the writings of the Old Testament are fully indorsed by Paul and by Peter. Says Paul, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine.” 2 Tim. 3:16. He was speaking of the Holy Scriptures, which Timothy had known from a child. Verse 15. These were certainly the Old Testament Scriptures, for the New Testament was not in existence when Timothy was a child. And Peter says, “The prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” 2 Pet. 1:21. Then that which Job, David, Isaiah, and all the prophets have testified of the resurrection is not simply their own language; but it was dictated by the Holy Ghost, and written for our instruction. Therefore we might safely rest the question of the resurrection on the evidence presented from the Old Testament, for that evidence is indorsed by both Christ and the apostles. Nevertheless, we will follow the subject through the New Testament, for throughout the sacred volume the resurrection is kept prominently before the mind.

It is through Christ that the dead are raised. Were it not that he died for the sinner, there could be no life beyond this. It is by his power that the dead shall live again at the resurrection; it is his voice that shall call them from the grave. He has given several examples of his power to do this. At one time he met a funeral procession as he was entering the city of Nain. His tender heart of love and pity was touched as he saw that widowed mother following the bier of her dead son. “He had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not. And he came and touched the bier; and they that bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother.” Luke 7:13–15. He raised from the dead the daughter of Jairus. He took the dead damsel by the hand, and said unto her, “Maid, arise.” Luke 8:54. And immediately she did arise, and all were greatly astonished.

But the most interesting case is the resurrection of Lazarus, recorded in the eleventh chapter of John. Mary and Martha had sent for Jesus to come, for Lazarus was sick. But he did not immediately go. After two days he said to his disciples, “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.” Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death; but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. Then Jesus said unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. The Saviour indicates the resemblance of death to sleep: “Lazarus sleepeth”; but it was the sleep of death. In sound sleep there is no thought, no knowledge of anything that may transpire. In that respect sleep is the representation of death. After sleep comes the awakening; after death comes the resurrection. Here again is a similarity, and the resemblance is so great in many points that death is often spoken of in the Bible as sleep, and the resurrection of the dead as awakening from sleep. The metaphor is very beautiful and strikingly appropriate.

When the Saviour arrived, Lazarus had been dead four days, and had begun to see corruption. Mary said to Jesus, “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.” “Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.” Martha, not taking the idea that Jesus meant that he should rise then, said, “I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” “I know.” How did she know? She had learned it either from the Old Testament or from the teachings of Jesus himself. When Martha had said this, Jesus next reminded her that it was he himself that should raise the dead at the last day. Said he, “I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” And having assured her that it is through him that the resurrection shall take place, he next pointed out another truth; namely, that those who are found righteous, believing in Christ, who are living at the time of the resurrection,—those shall never die. “And whosoever liveth [at the time of the resurrection] and believeth in me shall never die.”

Then they went to the sepulcher. The same great heart that was moved with compassion when he met the widow of Nain following the coffin of her dead boy, was melted to tears of love and sympathy as he stood with those weeping sisters by the tomb in which their brother, the Lord’s friend, had lain but four days. “Jesus wept.” Truly it is an assuring thought, a comforting thought to the child of God when death approaches, that the same loving Jesus that wept at the tomb of Lazarus, holds the keys of the grave. Rev. 1:18.

Jesus ordered the stone removed, and then lifted up his eyes, and gave thanks to the Father. “And when he had thus spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.” He did not look up into the heavens and say, Immortal soul of Lazarus, come back; but he opened the tomb and cried, “Lazarus, come forth.” What was the result? “He that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave-clothes; and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.” Now where was Lazarus? In the tomb; for, “he that was dead came forth.” He came from the tomb. He that was dead came forth alive.

On another occasion the Saviour healed a man of an infirmity of thirty-eight years. He said that he did it through power which the Father had given him. And he proceeded to show that he would yet do greater works. Said he, “For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth; and he will show him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. . . . Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear, shall live.” John 5:20–25. “And now is.” This statement he verified when, as we have seen, his voice called to life the widow’s son, Jairus’ daughter, and Lazarus of Bethany. But this was but a small exhibition of his power, a brief example of what is to come; and so the Saviour continued, “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; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.” Verses 28, 29.

Now, reader, pause. Consider this question candidly: When do “they that have done good” enter upon that life that is to be their reward, that is purchased for them by the Son of God? Is it at death? This text plainly says it is not, but that it is at the resurrection; and that at that time the real, intellectual, thinking, responsible man that did good, the man that hears, is to be made to hear, and to come forth out of the grave. How could the doctrine of the resurrection be more plainly expressed? If you wished to state in unequivocal terms the fact that men go into the grave, and lie there dead and utterly dependent upon the resurrection for the future life, pray tell me what words in the English vocabulary you would select, that would convey the idea with more force

and certainty than do the words of Jesus in John 5:28, 29.

“They that have done good [shall come forth] unto the resurrection of life.” And this life is eternal life; for Jesus speaks of these two classes in Matt. 25:32, and says that at his coming “he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats; and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left”; and of the former he says they shall enter “into life eternal.” Verse 46. What is this life eternal? “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Rom. 6:23. When is this reward,—this “gift of God,”—to be given? “For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then shall he reward every man according to his works.” Matt. 16:27. To whom is it given? “To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, [God will render] eternal life.” Rom. 2:5–7. These texts do most clearly show that the time when the righteous are to receive the gift of eternal life, which was purchased for them by the blood of Christ, and which God will bestow upon them who have done good, is at the resurrection, and not before. Men do not, therefore, receive their reward and enter upon eternal life at death.

These same texts do just as clearly show that the wicked are raised from the dead, to receive the wages of their sinful lives; for the wages of sin is death. Rom. 6:23. Jesus says, “They that have done evil [shall come forth] unto the resurrection of damnation.” They are raised from the dead, to be punished; and the Saviour speaks their doom in these words: “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” Matt. 25:41. The prophet Daniel says the same thing. “Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” The wicked shall awake from their sleep in the dust of the earth to shame and contempt. Job says of the wicked, “They shall be brought forth to the day of wrath.”

(To be continued.)