Untitled article by Roswell F. Cottrell

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 29, 1863

Are the Dead Conscious? No. 1.

By Roswell F. Cottrell

The idea that the dead are in a state of consciousness, has obtained to a considerable extent in the world, by some means; and it is a matter of interest to ascertain its origin. If it is from Heaven, doubtless it is taught in the revelation which God has given us—the holy Scriptures. And if others, our teachers, have found it there, we can do the same, and not take it at second hand. But if the doctrine is not in the Bible, those who have confidence in its teachings, as a full and perfect revelation from God, will come to the conclusion that God is not its author; and as, at the present day, a system of the most abominable infidelity rests wholly upon this for its foundation, it becomes every person to inquire seriously and earnestly, in the light of the Scriptures, whether God or the great adversary is the author and finisher of this faith.

The Bible nowhere asserts that man has knowledge in death; but it does declare the contrary in the most positive and unequivocal manner. It is true there are passages from which inferences are drawn that the soul is immortal, and that man is conscious in death; but these inferences are not necessary. There is no passage of scripture but is susceptible of being understood in such a manner, without wresting the text, as perfectly to harmonize with the positive declaration that "the dead know not anything."

Those who advocate man's natural immortality and the consequent consciousness in death, argue in a circle. Certain passages, they think, prove their views, because the soul is immortal, and therefore cannot die. And the best reason that they have for thinking the soul immortal, and the best proofs that they can bring to support it, are these same passages—passages which are just as easily understood in harmony with the opposite view. To their mind, these passages teach man's consciousness in death, because the soul is immortal; and the soul is immortal, because these very passages teach it. It will not be denied that the doctrine of man's continued consciousness in death, that is, that the real man does not die at all, is a very ancient doctrine. Ancient pagan philosophers held it, and the heathen, as far back as the days of Moses, worshiped dead men as their gods. In Num. xxv we read, "And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods; and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods. And Israel joined himself unto Baal-peor; and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel." The Psalmist, in reference to the same thing, says, "They joined themselves also unto Baal-peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead." Ps. cvi, 28.

It is a well-known fact that pagan nations have been in the habit of deifying the dead. They have held that their dead heroes were not dead, but had gone to be with the gods, and were themselves the objects of worship. Now, since it is a fact that men do, as it appears to all our senses and natural faculties, die, the same as the brute creation, how came this idea among the heathen, that men do not die, but are ushered into a higher life at death? The idea is either true or false, and must have been derived from God, the great fountain of truth, or from the father of lies. Which

is it? The idea could not have been derived from the Bible, for, as we have seen, it was in the world before even the books of Moses were written. Still I think that its origin is revealed in the Bible.

When God inspired Moses to write his word, he took him back to the beginning, and there revealed to him two grand assertions which were made to our first parents soon after they were created, which directly contradict each other; consequently one of them was false. It was the first lie ever spoken to our race, and its author was the father of lies. God had said to them concerning the tree of knowledge, "In the day that thou eatest thereof, dying thou shalt surely die." But the serpent said unto the woman, "Ye shall not surely die;" but in case they disobeyed God, said he, "Ye shall be as gods." And although death did follow man's transgression, yet Satan was not long in persuading those who rejected the knowledge of God, that his lie was still the truth—that instead of the real man dying, he only entered upon a higher life, and thus reaped a real benefit from the change—became as gods, and the proper object of worship. And if we trace the results of this down to the present day, men are not wanting who boldly and blasphemously assert that the serpent told the truth, and that "God lied."

This is no "stale joke," as characterized by a certain Professor recently. I am not joking, my dear readers, when I utter my most solemn and decided conviction before God, that Satan's lie, uttered to our parents in Eden, is the true and only origin of the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and the consequent consciousness in death. Dr. A. Clarke, in his comment upon the language of the serpent to Eve, says, "The tempter through the nachash, insinuates the impossibility of her dying, as if he had said, God has created thee immortal, thy death is therefore impossible; and God knows this, for as thou livest by the tree of life, so shalt thou get increase of wisdom by the tree of knowledge."

Then the first doctrine which the great tempter ever preached in the world, was immortality in sin, or natural, unconditional immortality. Is it strange that the seducing spirits of these last days should teach the same? Says Paul, "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils." Macknight has it, "doctrines concerning demons," and Wakefield, "doctrines about dead men."

It is a heathen notion that demons are disembodied human spirits—spirits of dead men. The Bible view is that they are the "angels who kept not their first estate." We read of the "Devil and his angels." The true Christian would be slow to believe that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the holy prophets and saints of old, were the demons that took possession of, and tormented, men in the days of our Saviour, and that were cast out by him. Yet if the heathen notion is true, they are all demons; and if we take anything upon their authority, to be consistent we must take the whole. It is far better to accept of the revelation that God has given us.