Scriptures Which Forbid "Our Thought."
By C. P. Bollman
IN reply to a question asked by a correspondent some time since, the Sunday School Times said:— "As we read in the Scriptures, we find in them no distinct declaration that the blessed dead are fully cognizant of the doings of their dear ones on earth, or that they have any part in a watchful ministry over those dear ones; neither do we find any declaration there which forbids our thought that such a state of things exists." With the first part of this statement I am in full accord; and not only so, but I can go further and say that there is no text of scripture, which, fairly interpreted, even implies "that the blessed dead are fully" or at all "cognizant of the doings of their dear ones on earth," or indeed that they are "cognizant" of anything either in Heaven or on the earth. But the words, "Neither do we find any declaration there which forbids our thought that such a state of things exists," causes me to wonder if the editor of the Times ever read the Bible. If so he must have quite forgotten such texts as Job 14:21, where, speaking of man in death, the patriarch says: "His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them." Here is certainly one "declaration" "which forbids our thought" that the dead are "cognizant" of things which are taking place upon the earth. And that Job did not give utterance to this sentiment in the bitterness of unbelief is evident from verses 13-15, and also from chapter 19:23-27. These scriptures show plainly that he of whom the Lord said: "And that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil," had no hope but in the resurrection of the dead, when his Redeemer "shall stand at the latter day upon the earth." And, strange as it may seem to many, the apostle Paul, too, believed just as Job did; for he said that if the dead rise not "then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished." 1 Cor. 15: 16-18. But this cannot be, if by death they have simply been transferred to a higher and holier state of existence. The resurrection can add nothing to a being who is already glorified—one who has already become "as the angels which are in Heaven" (Mark 12:25); and this is one of the texts which the Sunday School Times quotes, coupling it with Heb. 1:14, to prove that dead people minister in sacred things to their living friends! What, if any difference, is there between such views and the soul-destroying doctrines of Spiritualism? But Job and Paul were not the only holy men of old whom God inspired to speak concerning the condition of man in death; the psalmist exclaims: "Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish." Ps. 146: 3, 4. David evidently did not believe in the conscious state of the dead; much less did he think that they had any part in the affairs of the living; and it would seem that he so taught his children, for his son Solomon said:— "For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know that they shall die; but the dead know not anything, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun." Eccl. 9: 4-6. This is another "distinct declaration that the blessed dead" (for it includes all the dead) are not "cognizant of the doings of their dear ones on earth;" and it ought to be allowed to set the whole question at rest; especially with the Sunday School Times, since, after offering, presumably, the best arguments which he could in support of his view, the editor candidly admits "that none of these things [the arguments which he has urged] are conclusive on the one side; but," he adds, "it is equally true that they are by no means to be construed on the other side." That is indeed a novel idea: that because arguments offered to prove one thing do not prove the opposite, therefore they do prove the proposition on whose behalf they are urged! However, "as we read the Scriptures, we find in them" other "distinct declarations that the blessed dead are" not "fully" nor at all "cognizant of the doings of their dear ones on earth;" but, in view of the confession just referred to, it is scarcely necessary to pursue the subject further. Such confessedly weak arguments can weigh nothing against "the law and the testimony;" and when "they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."