THE STATE OF THE DEAD by Editor

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 28, 1857

THE STATE OF THE DEAD.

By Editor

The Advent Herald in reviewing a writer on "The Doctrine of the Millennium," quotes his words as follows:

"Our astute reasoner proceeds:

'And I saw thrones, etcetera, 4th, 5th, and 6th verses. It is first to be observed here, that these words are not spoken of the bodies of the saints, but of their souls. I saw the souls of them who had been beheaded for the witness of Jesus. This must be carefully borne in mind, because the error of the Millenarians is mainly due to a neglect of this distinction. They imagine a bodily resurrection, whereas St. John speaks of a spiritual one. It is not said that these souls lived again, but they lived and reigned with Christ, so that what is here said is spoken, not of a corporeal, but of a spiritual resurrection.'"

To this the Herald replies:

'It is also "to be observed," that the souls spoken of are "the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus." Being beheaded, they must have been dead. "Them that were beheaded," is the antecedent of the relative "they," in the affirmation, "they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." Their living is therefore antithetical to their having been beheaded; and living, those whose souls they were, were no longer in their previous headless condition. If only the souls lived, in what sense had they previously not lived? Living is a condition nowhere affirmed of souls disconnected from their bodies. For souls to live, is for them to be re-united to their bodies. As, when disconnected from the body, the soul is under the dominion of death and hades, it follows that for it to live, is to free it from that dominion. A resurrection cannot therefore be predicated of the soul independent of its connection with the body; and hence it is not a spiritual, but a bodily resurrection that is here symbolized.'

We are happy to find the above testimony in the Herald, since, if we rightly apprehend, it has hereby witnessed a good confession to the truth. It is quite a good commentary on the passage referred to; [Rev. xx, 4, 5;] and its object is very laudable, namely, to prove a literal against a spiritual resurrection, or the resurrection of the body and not of the soul; but that it should, while defending this truth, bear such unequivocal testimony to the state of man in death, is what has arrested our attention.

"Living," says the Herald, "is a condition nowhere affirmed of souls disconnected from their bodies." Therefore when man is in death, there is no living of the soul.

Again: "As, when disconnected from the body the soul is under the dominion of death and Hades, it follows that for it to live is to free it from that dominion." It will not of course be freed from that dominion till the resurrection; therefore until the resurrection the soul does not live. Or, in other words, even if man has a distinct entity, called the soul, there is no consciousness between death and the resurrection. This is the conclusion we draw from the above extract. On this we are happy to find ourselves in agreement, believing as we do that it has the sanction of all the scriptures.