Bible Answers to Bible Questions Concerning Man
By J.
Bible Answers to Bible Questions Concerning Man.—No. 5.
OUR last question under this heading was, “If a man die, shall he live again?” Job 14:14. And we presented the direct Bible answer by Isaiah: “Thy dead men shall live.” (Isa. 26:19); and by the Lord Jesus, “The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live.” John 5:25. We presented abundant Scripture proof that it is at the second coming of the Lord that the dead hear his voice, that the trumpet of God sounds, and that the dead are raised. We presented proofs of Holy Writ that the hope of the gospel is the resurrection of the dead; that this is the hope of the promise made of God unto the fathers; that in this hope they all lived; that in this hope they died; and that in this hope they still sleep in the dust, awaiting the glorious sound of the voice of the Son of God to call them from the dead to life and immortality. We proved by Paul’s repeated argument in 1 Cor. 15 and other places that in assurance of the resurrection of the dead, alone, lies the assurance of a future life; and that if there be no resurrection of the dead there is no future life for either righteous or wicked. In connection with this, there now comes in a question that has perplexed men for ages, and does yet perplex many; and although the Bible both asks and answers the question, there is yet much perplexity about it even among those who profess to believe the Bible. That question is, “How are the dead raised up?” 1 Cor. 15:35. The answer is, in substance, The dead are raised up by “the power of God.” Matt. 22:29. This is shown by the Saviour’s words to the Sadducees. The Sadducees, who “say that there is no resurrection,” once came to Jesus and in favor of their unbelief presented what they deemed an irreparable objection to the idea of there being such a thing as a resurrection of the dead. They said: “Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Now there were with us seven brethren; and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother; likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. And last of all the woman died also. Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her. Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.” All the difficulty that has ever arisen in men’s minds upon this question, “How are the dead raised up?” has been from these causes. At the foundation of all the difficulty lies the lack of knowledge of the Scriptures, and the accompanying, if not the consequent, lack of knowledge of the power of God. Without the Scriptures we can know nothing about the resurrection of the dead; and without the power of God there can be no resurrection of the dead; and so to leave out either consideration, is only to be at sea on the question before us—not only at sea, but at sea with neither rudder nor compass nor pole-star. It was only giving expression to this same thought of the Saviour’s when Paul, speaking of this hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers, appealed to Agrippa in these earnest and thrilling words: “Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?” Acts 26:8. Sure enough! Why should it be thought a thing incredible with any one that God should raise the dead? God made a man once from the dust of the ground; he states in his word that many have arisen from the dead, and he has given us the most abundant testimony that he raised up the Lord Jesus from the dead, and that he was seen of witnesses chosen before—witnesses, too, to the number of above five hundred at once. Most, if not all of these witnesses were acquainted with him both before his death and after his resurrection. Some of them ate with him, talked with him, and handled him, after they had seen him dead and buried and risen again. And yet if men leave out the Scriptures and the power of God, to them it still remains incredible that God should raise the dead. Even in this our day, and amongst those who profess to firmly believe the Scriptures and the power of God, there are those to whom it is incredible that God should raise the dead. Nor is this confined to what are sometimes called the “ignorant multitudes.” It is found, and in fact is prevalent, amongst the “divines,” the “great scholars,” and the “leaders of thought.” But yet in all this the difficulty lies in the fact shown by the Saviour that they “do err, not knowing the Scriptures.” For the one thing which logically and reasonably leads these eminent scholars, as well as others, to doubt the resurrection of the dead, is their fixed belief in the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. Than the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, there is nothing more destructive of belief in the resurrection of the dead, and nothing more subversive of the Bible doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. In fact the two doctrines cannot possibly be consistently held in the same mind. Now for the proof. The Scripture says: “That which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die.” 1 Cor. 15:36. This is spoken in answer to the question that is the subject of this article, and is therefore spoken with direct reference to the subject of how the dead are raised up. To quicken is “to make alive.” What Paul says therefore is, “That which thou sowest is not made alive except it die.” That this is spoken directly of man and his resurrection, is plain by verses 42-44. “It is sown a natural body,” etc. Now the doctrine of the immortality of the soul is, that the body properly has no life, that it is not the real man; but that the soul is the real, living, sentient man; that it is that about man which alone possesses real life. In other words, the body is only the house in which the real man lives; i. e., the real “I” dwells within the “me;” and death is simply the separation of the soul from the body. Death breaks down the house, and lets the real occupant free. According to this doctrine, there is no such thing as real death; because the body properly has no life, consequently it does not die; and the soul—the real man—is immortal and it cannot die; therefore there is in reality no such thing as death. If this be true, there is not only no such thing as death but there is, likewise, no such thing as a resurrection of the dead. For, upon the apostle’s premise that “That which thou sowest is not quickened [made alive] except it die,” it follows that, as the body, having no life, does not die, it cannot be quickened (raised from the dead); and as the soul does not die, it cannot be raised from the dead; consequently there is no such thing as a resurrection of the dead.9 Therefore it stands proved to a demonstration that the doctrine of the immortality of the soul is utterly subversive of the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. But the resurrection of the dead is a Bible doctrine: it is the very truth of God. And it is because of the widespread belief of the doctrine of the immortality of the soul that there is so much doubt and misunderstanding of the Scripture on the subject of the resurrection of the dead. As we have already shown in these articles that the doctrine of the immortality of the soul is contrary to the Scriptures throughout; and as it is now shown that the doctrine of the immortality of the soul leads to disbelief in the resurrection of the dead, the Saviour's words are distinctly applicable to all who now doubt the resurrection. "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God." To all with whom there is any difficulty in understanding the question, "How are the dead raised up?" we say, Get an understanding of the Scriptures as to the nature of man, and his condition in death, and all connected subjects, then allow the power of God a place, and all your doubts will be removed, and the subject will be all plain and easily understood. For a view of the actual process of bringing the dead from the graves to real living existence again, Ezekiel 37:1-14 may be read with profit. It is too long to copy here; we ask the reader to turn to that scripture at once and read it carefully, and as you read do so in view of the "power of God." J.