The Sabbath-School by Ellet Joseph Waggoner

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 2, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 37.

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The Sabbath-School.

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

LESSON FOR THE PACIFIC COAST—OCT. 18.

Upon what did Paul exhort Timothy to lay hold? 1 Tim. 6:12.
By what means was he to lay hold of it? Ib.
Would it be consistent to exhort one to "lay hold" of eternal life if he has it by nature?
To whom must we come in order to have life? John 5:40.
For what purpose did Christ say he came? John 10:10.
Then if men possess immortality by nature, did not Christ come in vain?
What is proved by the fact that he came to give life?
Who does Christ say have everlasting life? John 3:36.
In what sense do we have it now? 2 Tim. 1:1.
In whose keeping is this gift? 1 John 5:11.
Can one do anything more for Christ than to give up everything for his sake?
What does Christ say that those who do so shall receive in this present time? Mark 10:29, 30.
What shall they receive in the world to come? Ib.
Then when will eternal life be enjoyed?
At what time will immortality be bestowed? 1 Cor. 15:51-54.
How is it that we receive immortality? Verses 52, 53.
Can a person "put on" that which he already has on?
Then what can you say as to man's present possession of immortality?
What is due to Christ from all men? John 5:23.
How much honor is due him? Ib.
What does Christ alone have? John 6:68.
Through whom does eternal life come? Rom. 6:23.
If men were by nature in possession of immortality, would they be dependent upon Christ for it?
Then is it not robbing Christ of the honor due him, to say that men possess immortality whether they believe in him or not?

LESSON FOR OCTOBER 25.

Concerning what did Paul wish the brethren not to be ignorant? 1 Thess. 4:13.
What is sleep often used to represent? John 11:11-14; Ps. 13:3.
What is the condition of a man in a sound sleep?
Then what must we conclude as to the Bible idea of the condition of man in death?
In what place are the dead sleeping? Dan. 12:2; Job 7:21.
What does Paul say that God will do for those who sleep in Jesus? 1 Thess. 4:14.
When will he do this? Verses 15, 16.
From what place will he bring them? John 5:28, 29.
In what sense, then, is it that God brings them "with him;" i. e. with Christ? Heb. 13:20.
Who are they who go into the grave? Ps. 89:48.
What kind of a place is the grave? Job 10:20-22.
How is it described by the psalmist? Ps. 88:11, 12.
What does Solomon say as to the activity of those who go to the grave? Eccl. 9:10.
Are we to understand, then, that the dead are entirely unconscious? Verse 5.
Do they not feel any of the emotions which sway the living? Verse 6.
Are they not affected even by the success or adversity of their best loved friends? Job 14:21.
If a tree is cut down, what may happen? Job 14:7-9.
What is said of the death of man? Verse 10.
How complete is the "wasting away" of man when he dies? Verses 11, 12.
How long will it be before the dead shall be raised out of their sleep? Verse 12.
When is it that the heavens shall pass away? 2 Pet. 3:10.
Then at what time did Job locate the resurrection?
Where did he expect to stay while waiting for this event? Job 14:13; 17:13.

Since there was no paper last week, we this week print the questions for two Sabbaths, in order that those who are following the series may not lose the connection.

In John 10:10 we have Christ's statement of the object which brought him to earth to die: "I am come that they [believers in him] might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." Compare this with his words in John 3:16. He came into the world to save sinners (1 Tim. 1:15); and since the wages of sin is death, it must follow that he gives life, as he says. And this statement cannot be turned aside from its literal meaning by saying, as Dr. Barnes does, that the word "abundantly" "denotes that which is not absolutely essential to life, but which is superadded to make life happy;" for it is not merely the "abundance" of life which he came to bestow, but life itself. "I am come that they might have life, and [something else] that they might have it more abundantly;" that is, to all eternity. But the fact that Christ came to give life, proves conclusively that we cannot have it without him, unless we are willing to admit that he came in vain—for a purpose wholly unnecessary.

The fact that life comes only through Christ is again and again repeated in the Bible. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life." John 3:36. Here we have a most positive declaration; a plainer statement of the case could not be made. There are some, however, who misapply the first portion of the verse, and claim that even now, in this present life, Christians have eternal life. But the beloved disciple, in repeating the words of Christ, says: "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." 1 John 5:11. And this is how it is that "he that hath the Son hath life." We have it in Christ. It is not ours in the sense of actual possession, but by promise. See 2 Tim. 1:1; Titus 1:2.

And when shall we receive this promise? Christ himself tells us. Said he: "There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's, but he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions." This will be the portion of the follower of Christ in this world; but this is not all. He continues: "And in the world to come eternal life." Mark 10:29, 30. So the eternal life is ours in this world only by promise; in the world to come it will be ours in fact. But so surely does Christ give life, that if we have him, we may say that we have life.

One word of explanation on John 3:36. "He that hath not the Son shall not see life." Of course this can have no reference to this present life; it must refer to eternal life. That is the object for which man was created. This brief existence is but a preparation for eternal life. The Lord gives us a little period of time to see how we will use it. If we are faithful, he will at his coming give us that for which he has designed us. But if we do not appreciate this life, if we are not faithful in that which is least, what object could there be for him to give us that which is greatest, eternal life? None at all. If we do not gain that, our lives will have been spent in vain. The wicked will "be as though they had not been" (Obadiah 18), and so it can be said of them that they do not see life.

The great reason that we urge why men should accept the doctrine of conditional immortality is that it honors Christ. If we say that we possess immortality by nature, we deprive Christ of his highest honor. We virtually make ourselves independent of him. "The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. 6:23. Now if we claim immortality as ours by birthright, we may not deny the first part of this text, but we do the second. We may admit that immortality is the gift of God; but we must honor the Son even as we honor the Father. We must also admit that it comes only through Christ.

Few people realize it, but it is a fact that the doctrine that men are by nature immortal is really a denial of Christ. If Christ came to give life, and we claim to have it without him, do we not thus cast him off? Spiritualists have carried the doctrine of inherent, unconditional immortality to its legitimate conclusion, and openly repudiate Christ as a Saviour. If we hold the same doctrine, what warrant have we that we will not go to the same lengths as they? The doctrine of conditional immortality is the only safeguard against Spiritualism. Can any one say that it is not a practical doctrine?

Having learned that man is mortal, and possesses no principle of immortality until the coming of the Lord and the resurrection, when he puts on immortality, we would naturally conclude that the dead are unconscious, extinct. And so the Bible represents them. Sleep is a common symbol of death. David says that when Michael stands up, "many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake." Dan. 12:2. Christ said when Lazarus was dead, "our friend Lazarus sleepeth." John 11:11-14. David prays the Lord to remember him lest he "sleep the sleep of death." Ps. 13:3. And Paul says of David after he had served his own generation, he "fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption." Acts 13:36. Sleep is thus defined by Webster: "A natural and healthy, but temporary and periodical, suspension of the functions of the organs of sense." Of the verb he says: "To take rest by a suspension of the voluntary exercise of the powers of the body and mind, and an apathy of the organs of sense; to become unconscious." Sleep is a synonym for unconsciousness. When a man is in a perilous position and knows nothing of it, we say that he is asleep to his danger. So death, in order to be fitly represented by sleep, must be a total suspension of the functions of the organs of sense, and of all the powers of body and mind. And such we shall find the Bible declares it to be.

The dead go to the grave. They are said to "sleep in the dust." It is a place to which both good and bad go. This of itself would prove that men do not go to Heaven at death. The following description of the place of the dead also shows that it is not Heaven: "A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness." Job 10:22. It is the "land of forgetfulness." Ps. 88:12. It is from this place that the Lord will bring his faithful ones when he comes. Paul says concerning them that sleep: "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus shall God bring with him." 1 Thess. 4:14. This does not mean that he will bring them from Heaven, but from the grave. See John 5:28, 29. The apostle in verse 14 has not yet introduced the coming of the Lord from Heaven. He has simply spoken of the death and resurrection of Christ. It was God who "brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ" (Heb. 13:20), and if we believe in Jesus, he will bring us from the dead also, even as he did him.

But until the coming of the Lord, the dead remain in their graves, unconscious of passing events. Read Solomon's statements concerning them in Eccl. 9:5, 6, 10. They "know not

anything." "There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge nor wisdom, in the grave." Even the prosperity or adversity of their best loved relatives, produces no emotion either of joy or sorrow. "His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them." Job 14:21. The utter extinction of man in the grave is brought out in this fourteenth chapter of Job. If we cut a tree down, there will be enough life left in the stump to cause it to sprout again; "but man dieth, and wasteth away; yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?" Verse 10. This is equivalent to saying that he has no existence. But this extinction is not final; it lasts until a fixed time. "As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up; so man lieth down, and riseth not; till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep." Verses 11, 12. We can here only refer to the texts which locate this time. Peter says (chap. 3:10) that in the day of the Lord the heavens shall pass away with a great noise. It is the voice of God, which at Sinai shook the earth, which is yet once more to sound, and shake the heavens. Heb. 12:26. And this voice it is (the trump of God) that is to arouse the sleeping dead. So Job's words are equivalent to the statement that at death man becomes utterly extinct, and remains so until the coming of the Lord. E. J. W.