Opinions Are Not Interpretations
By Editor
IN an article in the Independent of July 18, on "The Change of Habitation," by Rev. Samuel T. Spear, D. D., the writer argues that "the death of the body is not an absolute extinction of our conscious and spiritual nature, but simply a change in the place of our habitation, and in the circumstances under which we exist." As proof of this Dr. Spear cites Luke 23:43, the words of Jesus to the dying penitent thief, and says:— "By the pronoun 'thou' he meant the soul-nature of the thief, and by the pronoun 'me' he meant himself in his soul-nature; and in respect to this nature, and this only, he said: 'To-day thou shalt be with me in Paradise.'" We would be glad to have Dr. Spear give us some more evidence that this is true than his mere opinion on this and other texts. Opinions are not interpretations. One could as dogmatically assert, as has Dr. Spear in the above, that "thou" in Gen. 3:19, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return," had reference to Adam's soul, not his body. Such arguments show the desperate straits in which the theory survives and the desperate shifts to which its defendants are driven. The truth is that "thou" in both texts refers to the whole man.