THE LOGICAL OUTCOME

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 23, 1888

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 14, No. 12.

THE LOGICAL OUTCOME.

The Christian Union of March 1 contains the following communication:—

“I have in my congregation a number of young people who read your editorial in a recent number of the Christian Union on the subject of a possible probation after death, one of whom has asked me if I would write to you and ask you for the scriptural proof of your position; and I take the liberty of doing so. It will relieve me of a great deal of responsibility which I feel in connection with this subject, as your views are so utterly at variance with my own that I am not able to help her any, and the subject is troubling a good many.”

To this perfectly reasonable request, the editor of the Christian Union undertakes to give “a categorical reply,” and does so as follows:—

“If our correspondent, or any number of his flock, desires to know what are the intimations of Scripture upon this subject, so far as it makes any intimations, we recommend him to take his Bible and collate all the passages which refer to the final Judgment, beyond which there is no hope of redemption; then let him examine every one of these passages which gives any hint as to the time of such final Judgment. We think he will find that they all connect it with the end of the world; that not one of them connects it with death. He, therefore, who asserts that death is practically the final Judgment, or is coterminous with the final judgment of any soul, in so far makes a statement which, if not anti-scriptural, is at least unwarranted by Scripture. As we believe that all our knowledge respecting the world beyond death is derived from Scripture, we neither propose ourselves to make any statement which Scripture does not explicitly warrant, nor to allow, in so far as our effort can prevent it, any such statement unwarranted by Scripture to be imposed on the faith of the Christian church.”

From the popular standpoint, the Christian Union’s position is impregnable. Whoever holds to the commonly-accepted theory of conscious existence in death, must, if consistent, accept the above conclusion. It is a fact that the Scriptures do not place the final Judgment at death. “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the Judgment.” Heb. 9:27. How long after the death of any man the Judgment will take place is not stated; but the fact that all are to be judged at one time is evident from the statement that God has “appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world.” Acts 17:31. Paul tells us, also, that the Lord will “judge the quick [living] and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom.” 2 Tim. 4:1. And the coming of Christ is at “the end of the world.” Matt. 24:3. These Scriptures, which are but samples, show that the dead will not be judged before the living are judged, and that the judgment of all takes place at the end of the world.

Now this being the case, we do not see how anybody who holds to the theory that the dead are as conscious and as active as the living, and even more so, can deny the possibility of a probation after death. The Christian Union is perfectly consistent with itself. It does not say that all men will have a probation after death, for it does not claim that probation continues until death in the case of every man; but it is consistent in advocating that, aside from the cases of those who have willfully rejected the gospel, probation must continue for all living persons until the Judgment, no matter in what state or condition those persons may be living.

We say that the Christian Union is consistent with itself; but it is most positively out of harmony with the Scriptures, for they assure us that “the dead know not anything,” and that in the very day that a man’s breath goes forth, his thoughts perish. They teach us that we must make the most of present opportunities, because “there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave,” which awaits all men. Therefore there cannot by any possibility be a probation after death. A person’s probation begins with his consciousness of right and wrong, and cannot possibly extend beyond the close of his consciousness, which is at death.

With one who believes what the Bible says as to the condition of man in death, there cannot be any question as to a probation after death. But, as before stated, everybody who holds the pagan theory that the dead are conscious, must of necessity, if consistent, hold to the theory of probation after death.

Therefore the Roman Catholic purgatory is the logical outcome of the popular theory of the state of the dead. If, however, one believes that each individual is amenable to himself alone, then he must hold that after death each one is working out his own destiny, and so he lands in Spiritualism by a short cut. When one throws aside any Bible doctrine, the bars are down, and there is nothing to hinder him from accepting the most absurd and even wicked theories.