The Hope of the Gospel

THE RESURRECTION

The manner in which the resurrection is treated in the Bible, is such as to show that the dead are not rewarded, or receiving the accomplishment of their hope, between death and the resurrection. We, of course, take the position of a literal resurrection of the body. We will examine still further upon this subject. We shall see that this resurrection is not being brought up from their reward, but brought up in order to receive their reward. HPGO 36.2

There are some who talk about the resurrection as the rising of the soul from the body, at death, to Heaven; or of the resurrection as a resurrection of the person from a state of sin to a life of holiness. But the resurrection of which we speak, and what we understand the Bible to present, is a resurrection of those who are asleep in death. In claiming that the resurrection is literal, we wish to be understood. We claim that the resurrection brings up the man, possessing the same identity as the man that goes down into the grave. HPGO 36.3

We shall not follow at length the finely-spun philosophical argument in regard to the passage of the matter of one body into the formation of other bodies, after decomposition. We consider it no objection to the Bible doctrine of the resurrection, 1. For the reason that not a thousandth part of such a decomposed body ever becomes an actual component part of another human body, even on their own hypothesis. 2. Because a substance lost to our sight, may, under the action of God’s chemistry, be made again to appear, as well as for man, by his chemistry, to bring to light material that has disappeared from human sight. Notice the case of silver dissolved in aqua fortis. Nothing is visible to human sight except what appears like milky colored water. A little common salt separates the silver from the solution, and causes it to fall on the bottom of the dish, from whence it can be gathered again, and melted, with but a very slight loss of its former weight. So God may have materials in his laboratory that may be brought to bear to cause the dead to live again. 3. We do not consider it absolutely necessary to have every identical particle of matter to produce the identical individual in the resurrection. HPGO 36.4

If the particles of matter of which Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were composed, have entered into the formation of other bodies, God has promised that they shall live again. If in the resurrection three men are brought up preserving the identity of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they will be Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and no one else in the universe; for they will think the same thoughts which they thought, remember that they had performed the same acts which they had performed in their lives, and realize that they are the same beings that (as it seems to them), a short time before, were struggling in the agonies of death. HPGO 37.1

The same class of reasoners who claim that the matter of our bodies enters into the formation of other bodies when decomposed, contend that there is a constant change going on while we are still living. Some claim that our bodies are all renewed about once in the space of seven years. According to their reasoning, my body has been changed about five times since the period of my remembrance. But still I am conscious that I am the same being that I was before. What produces this consciousness? I answer, The memory of those events connected with my past life. HPGO 37.2

The objector may claim that the identity is preserved by the soul, and that although the body changes, the mind does not lose its identity, and that it never ceases to think. This is not the fact. There are scores of cases on record, where persons have lost their identity, and in fact all consciousness, for days, weeks, and even months, through disease of the body or injury of the brain, and when the healthy action of the brain was restored, their identity was also restored. I have room to insert but one case here, which was related to me by William Humphrey, of East Townsend, Huron Co., Ohio, in August, 1858. He said to me, one evening, at the close of a lecture on this subject, “Elder, you have explained to-night eighteen days of my life that I never knew what to do with before.” Why, said I, how is that? He said, “When I was about eighteen years of age, I was working in a turning shop in the town of Goshen, Litchfield Co., Conn. I was engaged one day in turning a large wooden drum wheel for a shingle machine. I had nearly finished the job, when a young lady came in who worked in the house of my employer, and asked, ‘What are you doing, Bill?’ I answered, Wait a minute, and I will show you. I was going to start the lathe and sand-paper off the drum, which completed the job. I carelessly hoisted the gate and let the water on to the water wheel; but perceived I had too much motion on the lathe. I thought, I will go and shut the gate; but at that instant, the drum burst into four pieces, and a piece weighing about sixty pounds struck me on the breast, shoulder, and head, dislocating my shoulder, breaking the collar bone twice, and crushing my right temple so that the skull bones were badly depressed upon the brain. I was taken into the house for dead. Physicians said it was useless to undertake to trepan me, as I could not live. My skull was so badly fractured they could not raise it from the brain. I lay unconscious of all around me, yet taking some nourishment in the shape of gruel, which I swallowed when placed into my mouth. By the eighteenth day, the edges of the skull had knit together, the inflammation had subsided, and consciousness returned, of which I had been deprived during this whole period. I called out, Shut that gate; for the last I remembered was starting to shut the gate. Since that time when I have heard it preached that the mind of man exists independent of the body, and never loses its consciousness, I would think of these eighteen days, and I could not harmonize the two. But,” said he, “It’s all straight now.” HPGO 38.1

The body preserves its identity. Although changes are taking place in the body, it is a gradual process. A minute cell-structure is broken down and destroyed, but immediately a new one takes its place, and so gradual is the process, that scars and marks on the body still remain. I have scars on my hands that were wounds thirty years ago. I do not urge this to prove that my body contains the identical particles of matter it did then, but it does prove that although the particles of which my body is composed may have been changed several times, there is an identity in the arrangement of the particles of the body. We meet a friend whom we have not seen in years, and yet we instantly recognize each other’s countenances, though unexpectedly meeting. How is this, if in the change of particles the body does not preserve its identity? HPGO 39.1

So in the resurrection, an identity of arrangement in man’s organism, with what it was at his death, will constitute the identical man. He will look as he looked, think as he thought, remember having performed the same acts which he performed before his death. In God’s book, all our members are written. Psalm 139:16. HPGO 40.1

But, as we have said before, with God’s chemistry brought to bear, for aught we know, the essential particles may be produced. If it was left to us to raise the dead, of course we might say, “It can’t be done.” God has not left that for us to do, but proposes to raise them himself; and we do not conceive it to be any greater act of his power to raise man again than to create him at first. HPGO 40.2

Cavilers on this subject are well represented by Paul, who says, “Some man will say, How are the dead raised up?” To such, we reply, They are raised by the power of God. Says Christ, “God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.” And to the Sadducees, who are objecting to the resurrection, he said, “Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.” It is a lamentable fact, that even a great portion of the professed church of Christ, at the present day, deny the doctrine of the literal resurrection of the body, a doctrine so plainly taught by the Bible. HPGO 40.3

But we will notice a few more scriptures on the subject of the resurrection-scriptures of such character as to show us that there is no reward at death, and that without the resurrection there would be a failure of receiving the reward. HPGO 41.1

John gives an account of the sickness, death, and resurrection, of Lazarus. “After that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth: but I go that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well.” John 11:11. They supposed there was a favorable turn of the disease if he could rest. “Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe.” Verses 14, 15. He was going to raise Lazarus, which would strengthen their faith, that they might believe. As they came near Bethany, Martha, the sister of Lazarus, met Jesus, and said, “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee. Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” Verses 21-26. HPGO 41.2

The idea we get from the above, by comparing it with the statements of other scriptures, is this: Martha had carried the attention of Christ over to the last day. Jesus gives her to understand that he is the power of the resurrection, and that, at the last day, those who were dead, believers in him, should rise, and those who were alive, and believed in him, should not die. As Paul states, They will be “changed in a moment,” from mortal to immortal. HPGO 41.3

Jesus, with the two sisters of Lazarus, came weeping to the grave. After praying to his Father, he turns his attention to the grave, and cries, “Lazarus, come forth”! To suit theories of the present time, he should have cried, O immortal spirit of Lazarus, come down from Heaven, and animate this lifeless clay! But we get no intimation from his language that Lazarus came from any place but the grave. HPGO 42.1