Untitled article | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Apr 5, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 14.

FROM DEATH TO THE RESURRECTION.

1. If a man die, shall he live again? "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." 1 Cor. 15:22. "The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth." John 5:28, 29.

2. In what attitude are the dead? They are resting: "Go thou thy way till the end be; for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days." Dan. 12:13; also Rev. 14:13. They are waiting: "All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer Thee." Job 14:14, 15. "If I wait, the grave is mine house. . . . I have said to corruption, Thou art my father; to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister. . . . Our rest together is in the dust." Chapter 17:13-16.

3. How do men usually take their principal rest? The most effectual physical rest is derived from sleep. "The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much." Eccl. 5:12. Prov. 3:21-24; Matt. 26:45.

4. To what is rest in death likened? "Consider and hear me, O Lord my God; lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death." Ps. 13:3. "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said His disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death; but they thought that He had spoken of taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus said unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead." John 11:11-14. See, also, Dan. 12:1, 2.

5. Are men unconscious in sleep? "The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way." Matt. 13:24, 25. See, also, Matt. 28:11-15.

6. Are men unconscious in death? "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. 9:5, 6.

7. Can not a dead man have thought for his living children? "Man that is born of woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down; he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not." "His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them." Job 14:1, 2, 21.

8. Are not the righteous dead praising God in heaven? "The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence." Ps. 115:17.

9. Can not the dead saints assist in any work on earth? "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest." Eccl. 9:10.

10. How then can the dead saints ever praise the Lord? "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead." Isa. 26:19.