THEM WHICH SLEEP IN JESUS SHALL GOD BRING WITH HIM.
By M. Hull
THE above expression is thought by many to teach that there is a part of man which does not die, but in a conscious state survives, and goes into the presence of Jesus Christ at the death of the body. But taking the text and context together, I cannot see that it countenances such a doctrine. The doctrine of "soul-sleeping" is thought by some to be a dreadful heresy; but I can find no promise in the Bible to an immortal soul. All the promises are to two classes: 1. "Those who sleep in Jesus shall God bring with him." 2. "Those who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air." Now where is the promise to the third party, i. e., the immortal souls, which are not asleep in Jesus, nor among those who are alive and remain, but are, as is claimed, wide awake in heaven. So the sleeping doctrine is the one that has the promises. Let me either be asleep, or alive and remain. Our opposers think that those who sleep in Jesus cannot be brought with him unless they are in his immediate presence. We will show that this is not true. But first, to give our adversaries a fair chance, let us admit it, and inquire how they get into the presence of the Lord. There can be but one of two ways: 1. They die and go to heaven one at a time, and are "so forever with the Lord," or, 2. "The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and SO shall we ever be with the Lord." 1 Thess. iv, 17. The first "so" is based on modern orthodoxy. The second is that of Paul. Without pausing to settle the dispute between Paul and learned theologians on this subject, we ask, How can the dead come with Christ if Paul's position (that the dead do not meet the Lord until the trumpet sounds) be correct? We answer, When the trumpet sounds they are caught up to meet the Lord, and are so forever with the Lord. Hence if the Lord ever comes to the earth they will come with him. Not only those who sleep in Jesus, but those who have never died will come with him. "For the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints (holy ones) with thee." Zech. xiv, 5. But while the above is true there is another sense in which those who sleep in Jesus shall be brought with him. Not from heaven, but from the dead. Read from verse 13 to the end of the chapter, and you will find that Paul is comforting those who are mourning for sleeping friends. He shows them that Jesus was raised from the dead, and that God will bring their sleeping friends with Jesus, from the dead. Nothing can be more reasonable than to suppose that God will117bring them with Jesus from the place from whence he brought Jesus. In Heb. xii, 20, we read that "the God of peace brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great Shepherd of the sheep." It is objected that the phrase, bring with him, implies that whenever they are brought with the Lord, they must be brought at the time of the bringing of the Lord. But this is a mistake; the preposition with in many instances only signifies a likeness. Hence in this instance it may only signify that they shall be brought, like as the Lord was brought, from the dead. For example, in Rom. vi, 4 Paul says, "We are buried with him by baptism into death." But this does not signify that those to whom this was addressed were buried at the same time, nor yet in the same place where the Lord was. It only means that they were buried like the Lord. The same may be said of Col. iii, 1. "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above." Many other instances might be adduced where the word with has a like signification. But if the above testimony can be evaded we may despair of proving anything.