"Ye Shall Not Surely Die"
By C. P. Bollman
WHEN God created man and placed him in the Garden of Eden, He forbade him to eat "of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil," saying, "Thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Gen. 2: 17. The marginal reading of this text is, "Dying thou shalt die." While Adam and Eve "lived" for many years after eating of the forbidden fruit, their so-called life was rather a living death than life in the Bible sense. Says the Saviour, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." John 3: 36. Adam and Eve actually died spiritually in the very act of disobedience. And in that very act they also became mortal, or subject to death. By that act they cut themselves off from access to the source of life, and began to die. From that day to this, every human being has had within himself the seeds of death. In fact our bodies are constantly dying, and the dead matter is thrown off in various ways. In early life the process of growth goes on more rapidly than the waste. In middle life the two processes are about equally balanced. In old age decay, or death, is more rapid than growth; and dying, eventually the individual does really die in the sense of ceasing to have any of the life inherited from our first parents. Of course this result may be reached much sooner through acute disease. But Satan in the very beginning denied what God had said: "Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Gen. 3: 1-5.
Notwithstanding Satan's denial, man did die. He began to die at once, and dying he continued to die until he sank into the grave, and returned to the dust whence he was taken. But the tempter would not admit even the plainest evidence of death, and said, "That which seems to be death is only transition, or change." "Man is immortal, and can not die." "Man has in him a part of the divine essence, which it is impossible for even God Himself to destroy," etc. These and similar statements are to be heard and read everywhere, and have been made so long and so confidently that with many, belief in conditional immortality for man as taught in the Bible is regarded as rank heresy or even infidelity. But "let God be true," and if need be, "every man a liar." Rom. 3: 4. The Bible makes life absolutely dependent upon God. It teaches in effect that what we call life is only slow death. But the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and its companion philosophy, evolution, teach that the tendency of sin, instead of being downward toward the grave, is upward and ever upward; that "there is no death, but only change." But the only hope of eternal life held out to anybody in the Bible is through the Lord Jesus Christ and His resurrection. Says the apostle: "If Christ be preached that He rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ: whom He raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised; and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished." 1 Cor. 15: 12-18.
But the doctrine of immortality without Christ has made the resurrection seem unnecessary, and to-day very many even of professed Christians deny not only a general resurrection, but the physical resurrection of Christ. This they do because they know not "the Scriptures, nor the power of God." Matt. 22: 29.