SOME QUESTIONS ANSWERED by Milton C. Wilcox

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 28, 1889

SOME QUESTIONS ANSWERED.

By Milton C. Wilcox

WE have received a number of letters taking exception to articles published in the SIGNS from time to time which touch upon the question of immortality or the resurrection. One objector thinks we have ignored texts, and did not reply to his questions, notably so in the article entitled, "Present with the Lord," in the SIGNS of December 28.

But let us say: First, we have not time to refer to every text in the Scriptures or notice every cavil which is made against the truth. Secondly, the article named had not the slightest reference to our correspondent or his questions. As to what the Bible teaches concerning the resurrection, we will briefly state:—

1. The resurrection from the dead is all based on the resurrection of Christ. 1 Cor. 15:20, 23. He is called the first-fruits, not because of priority of resurrection, but because of pre-eminence; for all who were or who will be raised from the dead are raised through Christ, and by virtue of his death and resurrection. He was "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world;" he was the Redeemer from the same time. In God's purpose he was to die and rise again for the redemption of all, this purpose being confirmed with promise and oath (Heb. 6:16-20), and God's purpose cannot fail. God calls those things that are not as though they were, because they exist in his purpose. Rom. 4:17.

2. There will be a resurrection both of the just and the unjust. Acts 24:15; John 5:28, 29.

3. The dead in Christ, of whom alone the apostle is speaking in 1 Cor. 15, rise at his coming. 1 Thess. 4:16; 1 Cor. 15:23, 51-55. This will be the general resurrection of the righteous, the resurrection, literally, "out from among the dead." Phil. 3:11; Luke 20:35. This will take place one thousand years before the raising of the wicked. Rev. 20:4-6.

4. The resurrection of the wicked will take place at the end of the one thousand years. Rev. 20:5, 13. "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." If a man dies in Adam, or dies the Adamic death, to which all are subject, with his sins washed away in the blood of Christ, he will be raised immortal and incorruptible. But if he dies in sin, he will come up in sin.

5. There have been exceptions to the general rule in some cases both before and since the first advent of Christ; to wit, The widow's son raised by Elijah, the Shunammite's son, by Elisha, the raising of Moses, the man raised by the bones of Elisha, the son of the widow of Nain, Jairus' daughter, Lazarus, Eutychus, Tabitha, and those raised from the dead at the resurrection of our Lord (Matt. 27:52, 53), and afterward ascending with him, the antitype of the wave-sheaf. Eph. 4:8, margin.

Some who live at Christ's coming will be made immortal; but all others will live only by a resurrection from the dead through the power of Christ. For if there be no resurrection from the dead, then even they that have fallen asleep in Christ have utterly perished. 1 Cor. 15:16-18.

The dead are not alive. They are silent in the grave; they praise not the Lord; their thoughts and emotions perish; they know not anything. See Ps.

115:17; Eccl. 9:5, 6; Ps. 31:17; 6:5; 146:4, et al. Left to themselves, they would never live more. But in the purpose of God, which cannot fail, they live; consequently he is their God. "He calleth things that are not as though they were." For this reason he styles himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; "for all live unto him." Luke 20:38. For the same reason the great God does not give his name as I shall be or I was, but as I AM. He could say at the exodus from Egypt, I am the God of Abel, and I am the God of Paul, though the first had been dead over 2,000 years, and the latter would not exist for 1,500 years. He speaks in this way of Cyrus nearly 200 years before his birth, "He is my shepherd." Isa. 44:28; 45:1. All this would as surely be as though then present. The Lord speaks of both classes of the dead as though they were undergoing judgment, or now present; for they will as truly exist as though they did already. Even now they exist in God's purpose.

Human, mortal flesh will not exist in the kingdom of God; but when our vile bodies will be changed like unto Christ's most glorious body, there will be no corruptibility. Thus Job will see Christ out of his immortal flesh. Compare Eccl. 12:3. As the faithful have borne the image of the earthy, they shall also bear the image of the heavenly. 1 Cor. 15:45-49. But it will not be in mortal flesh, but in immortal, glorified bodies. M. C. W.