Bible Doctrine of Future Life.
By Editor
A VERY common error, into which many eminent writers and speakers have fallen, is that of taking every expression found in the Scriptures which speaks of a future life, and using it as evidence that "the soul is immortal and cannot die." Future life does not necessarily indicate continuous life. The Scripture declarations of death and a resurrection forbid the idea of continuous life. Where there is continuous life and no death, there can be no resurrection of the dead. And thus it is that wherever the belief of the immortality of the soul strongly prevails, faith in the resurrection declines in a corresponding degree. The doctrine of the immortality of the soul has become almost all-prevailing in Christendom, and, as a natural result, the doctrine of the resurrection is no longer dwelt upon and valued as it was in the early church. Thus Dr. Clarke speaks in his comment on 1 Cor. 15:— "One remark I cannot help making; the doctrine of the resurrection appears to have been thought of much more consequence among the primitive Christians than it is now! How is this? The apostles were continually insisting on it, and exciting the followers of God to diligence, obedience, and cheerfulness, through it. And their successors in the present day seldom mention it! So the apostles preached, and so primitive Christians believed; as we preach, and so our hearers believe. There is not a doctrine in the gospel on which more stress is laid; and there is not a doctrine in the present system of preaching which is treated with more neglect."
And that which was so plainly seen when Dr. Clarke wrote, is still more prominent now. The Spiritualists, who have no foundation but that of natural immortality, very consistently deny the resurrection, and reject the scriptures which teach that the dead will be raised. The Catholics, who place so much stress upon purgatory, practically deny the resurrection; for they really ignore it, and make the doctrine of continuous life, or the immortality of the soul, one of the most profitable factors in their vast financial system. As Luther said, it has made the pope's pot boil, and probably brought more money into his treasury than all other causes combined. That church could dispense with the intercession of Christ, but would become bankrupt without the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. Many popular religious teachers of this time, such as H. W. Beecher, and probably the majority with him, deny the resurrection of the dead. Upon those scriptures which speak of a resurrection, they place the same construction that the Spiritualists do, namely, that they only indicate that there will be a future life, which is really by a continuous life, or by reason of our natural immortality; and that the resurrection from the dead means that the soul leaves the body when the body dies. But scarcely a word is needed to show that this is not the Bible idea of the resurrection. "Them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake." The dead were raised by the Saviour; not by his taking their souls from their dead bodies! but by restoring to life those dead bodies, in one case after the body had lain four days in the grave. Jesus himself was raised from the dead the third day after his death. Thus the resurrection and the future life taught in the Scriptures is not a continuous life, but a renewed life. And some theologians have gone so far as to assert that the fact that we do live is proof that we shall live in the future. And this they call Christian philosophy! Such assertions are proof only of the folly of those who make them. The fact of living is equally a fact in the case of all animals. The elephant lives, and displays a large measure of intelligence. Is that proof that he is immortal—that he will continue to live, or that he will have a future life? It is no proof in any case. And no man would offer it as proof who had evidence upon which he could rely with any confidence. But the theory which we call in question affirms that it is only the soul, not the body, which continues to live. Let it be so. Is it not the soul of the elephant which displays such remarkable intelligence? Is it not the soul of the dog which manifests sagacity, faithfulness, affection, joy, fear, hatred, etc.? Or have these suddenly become "properties of matter"? The truth is that, according to the Scriptures, the term soul applies to all animals, even to the reptiles that creep upon the earth. Do they therefore live forever, or have a future life? All that can properly be affirmed of man, as far as the term neh-phesh, or soul, is concerned, can with equal propriety be affirmed of all living creatures. But it is asked, Has not man the promise of eternal life, which is not promised to the lower animals? Is not man, therefore, superior to the brutes in regard to the matter of a future life? Yes; man has the promise of eternal life, but not the promise of a continuous life, or an eternal continuance of the present life. There are a number of important considerations connected with this matter of eternal life. 2. Eternal life is conditional, to be given to those who seek for it. Rom. 2:6, 7; John 5:40. The incorrigibly wicked have no promise of it. 3. Eternal life is not an attribute or condition of our nature. It is the gift of God, and is laid up for us "in his Son." 1 John 5:11; John 3:36, etc. 4. The soul—whatever it may be—has no relation to our eternal life, and gives no assurance of eternal life. If it did, the wicked would have eternal life; for they, by nature, are exactly as the just. Faith in Christ, or grace, gives eternal life, and makes all the difference between the righteous and the wicked. 5. The soul, whatever it may be, has no relation to a future life, and gives no assurance of a future life, either limited or eternal. Otherwise all animals, down to the very lowest, would have a future life; for the term living soul is applied to every one of them in exactly the same manner and the same sense in which it is applied to man. A future life is not based on the soul, or on man's nature, but on the promise of God through Jesus and the resurrection of the dead (for all die). Herein, and not in nature, is shown the distinction between man and the lower animals in respect to the future, or to a future life. Christ died for man, "for every man." He took hold of the seed of Abraham. Heb. 2:9, 16, margin. He was "the second Adam," or man. We learn that he did not die for the fallen angels; he did not take hold of them. Heb. 2:16. We do not learn that he died to resurrect the lower animals. The grace of God in the gospel of Christ raises man above the lower animals in respect to a future life. It also raises the righteous above the wicked in respect to eternal life. The doctrine of natural immortality obliterates all distinction of nature, in respect to eternal life, between man and the lower animals. It proves all to be equally immortal. Or the denial of immortality to the lower animals, because of their natures, is also a denial of it to man, if it be rested on his nature, or on the possession of a soul. And this is true whether we look to philosophy or to the Scriptures for proof. The doctrine of conditional immortality exalts and ennobles man, magnifies the gospel, and gives to Christ all the glory of our exaltation and eternal life. From Adam we inherit a mortal nature, and consequent death. All our hope of the future rests upon Christ. He is our life. Col. 3:4. He is the only life-giver. Why will the professed followers of Christ adhere to that which really degrades man, and deny that which glorifies the Redeemer in our exaltation? Why will professed Christians cling to the superstitions of the heathen, and reject the truth of the divine word, which shows our dependence and the ground of our hope? "An enemy hath done this." Perverse human nature has always preferred human inventions to the right ways of the Lord. Man, in the pride of his heart, is pleased to find his hope and his nobility in himself, rather than to acknowledge his frailty and his dependence, and that he owes all to Christ. The prayer of David is becoming to us mortals: "Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am." Ps. 39:4.