Not in Heaven, but Asleep
By R. C. Porter
IN Eccl. 3: 18-21, we read: "I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts. For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preëminence above a beast: for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?" So far as man's ceasing to live after death is concerned, we have here the unqualified statement that there is nothing more in man that lives after death than there is in a beast. Were there no resurrection, man would remain eternally dead. "As the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preëminence above a beast," that is, in respect to death. One dies just the same as the other. One is as much dead as the other, when death has passed upon them. This inspired writer knew nothing of such a thing as the living, conscious man going upward to God, and the spirit of the beast going down to the dust. He emphatically declares that so far as death is concerned, man has no preëminence above a beast. And further: "All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again." Verse 20. In chapter 9, verses 4-6, the condition from death to the resurrection is stated: "For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know that they shall die: but 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." There is no misunderstanding the teaching of Moses, Christ, the apostles, and the prophets, regarding man's condition between death and the resurrection. "And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?" Job 17: 15. "Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! that they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever! for I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me." Job 19: 23-27. He has informed us that all the days of his appointed time he would wait until his change came, and he says that it comes at the resurrection. The psalmist David, speaking of the condition of man in death, says: "While I live will I praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being. Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish." Ps. 146: 2-4. What was the hope of this sweet singer in Israel, that caused him to write such beautiful songs of praise to God? How could he write in so hopeful a strain, if his life was made cheerless by the gloomy prospects of the silence with which the grave claims every member of his race? Let him answer: "As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness." Ps. 17: 15.13 Not in Heaven, but Asleep
Isaiah speaks of his hope thus: "He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of His people shall He take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it. And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation." Isa. 25: 8, 9. "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead." Isa. 26: 19. The hope of Moses and of all the prophets lay not in life during death, but in unconscious rest in death, and life beyond the resurrection at the second coming of Christ. Hear the hope of the righteous as expressed by Jeremiah: "Thus saith the Lord; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not. Thus saith the Lord; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border." Jer. 31: 15-17. Mourners are not comforted with the assurance that their dead are now in heaven, but with the hope that they shall come again from the land of the enemy. Stirring a Wilderness of Bones
The prophet Ezekiel says the Lord set him down in the midst of a valley full of dry bones. He was showing him the charnal house of Israel. "And He said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, Thou knowest. . . . Then said He unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. Then He said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel; behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off from our parts." Where does their hope center? "Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O My people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put My spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord." Ezek. 37: 3-14. Man lived in the beginning by the breath of life which was given to him by his Creator. The dead shall live again, by that same breath restored to them when they come from their graves. The hope of the resurrection was the hope of Israel. If they had been alive already, and would live eternally without a resurrection, where would be the force of the Lord's promise in these scriptures? The following beautiful words of the Lord express the hope of the prophet Hosea: "I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from Mine eyes." Hosea 13: 14. This hope set before the disciples of the early church by Christ is expressed by Martha, the sister of Lazarus, in whose home the Master was a frequent guest. "Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. Martha said unto Him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day." John 11: 23, 24. Had the Master taught the disciples that a man was alive while dead? The only sense in which the Master taught that man should not die, was that by the resurrection, he would live again. "Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." Verse 25. The Master did not instruct Martha that the dead are alive, but that the dead shall live again. Lazarus was then raised from the dead in proof of this statement, and of Christ's power to give life to the dead. John 11. David is described as a man after God's own heart. If any went to heaven at death, except Enoch and Elijah, who were translated without seeing death, David was certainly among that number. But what do the Scriptures say of his place during death? "Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day." Acts 2: 29. "For David is not ascended into the heavens." Verse 34, first clause. In various scriptures, Paul calls death a sleep; and sound sleep is a condition of unconsciousness. W. H. Riley, M. D., member of the committee of one hundred leading American physicians, says: "We are not conscious of sleep. We only know we have been asleep by the sensation of awakening, and this may be very slight." The dead in this condition of sleep, the Scriptures declare, "know not anything." They are conscious of no lapse of time. They shut their eyes in death. In what is to them a moment, they open the eyes at the resurrection, just as one closes his eyes at night in sleep, and opens them the next morning. It is all instantaneous to the sleeper. He has no knowledge whatever of the lapse of time during sound sleep.