The Hope of the Gospel

THE STATE OF THE DEAD

It is said by some that death is the separation of soul and body, and that the resurrection is the reuniting of soul and body; but we see no such language here. Lazarus was asleep. Christ went to awake him out of sleep, and said, “Lazarus, come forth.” Certainly it would look cruel to call his immortal spirit from its reward, to come down and raise the body, and be subjected again to all the evils of this world. HPGO 42.2

John Milton, author of “Paradise Lost,” in his “Treatise of Christian Doctrine,” says of this text: “If the soul of Lazarus, that is, if Lazarus himself, was not within the grave, why did Christ call on the lifeless body, which could not hear? If it were the soul which he addressed, why did he call it from a place where it was not? Had he intended to intimate that the soul was separate from the body, he would have directed his eyes to the quarter from whence the soul of Lazarus might be expected to return, namely, from Heaven; for to call from the grave what is not there, is like seeking the living among the dead, which the angel reprehended as ignorance in the disciples. Luke 24:5. The same is apparent in raising the widow’s son. Luke 7:14.” HPGO 42.3

Again, in showing that the resurrection is a resurrection from a bodily death, he says, “The death of the body is the loss or extinction of life. The common definition, which supposes it to consist in the separation of soul and body, is inadmissible. For what part of man is it that dies when this separation takes place? Is it the soul? This will not be admitted by the supporters of the above definition. Is it then the body? But how can that be said to die, which never had any life of itself? Therefore, the separation of soul and body cannot be called the death of man.” HPGO 43.1

He himself quotes from his “Paradise Lost” the same sentiment: HPGO 43.2

.... “It was but breath
Of life that sinned; what dies but what had life
And sin? the body properly had neither.
All of me then shall die: let this appease
The doubt, since human reach no further knows.” HPGO 43.3

—Paradise Lost, book x.p.788.

Ezekiel’s account of the resurrection shows that after the bones had come together, bone to its bone, and the sinews, flesh, and skin, covered them above, they still lacked life. He does not prophesy to immortal souls to come and animate those bodies, but the breath comes “from the four winds,” and the Spirit of God enters them, and they live. Ezekiel 37. HPGO 43.4

Paul’s reasoning in Corinthians shows most conclusively that the dead are not rewarded, as, also, that there must be a literal resurrection of the dead or there will be no future life, and we will be left without a hope beyond this life. He says, “And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.” Verses 17, 18. On this text, Dr. Bloomfield, who has been termed England’s brightest scholar, says: “They perish. As if he had said, There is an end of them and all their hopes.” Olshausen, in his comments upon it, takes occasion to say: “The doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and the name, are alike unknown to the entire Bible.” HPGO 43.5

Paul continues: “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” Verse 19. This language shows most conclusively that, if there is no resurrection, the Christian’s hope is all confined to this life. So he says, in verse 32, “If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die.” He could see no advantage in obeying God unless there is to be a resurrection. The Epicureans of that time, who believed in no future state, who sought their pleasure here, had this motto, “Eat and drink; for to-morrow we die.” Leaving the doctrine of the resurrection, Paul would join the Epicureans, in their saying, “Eat and drink; for to-morrow we die.” Who could ask a plainer testimony to show that Paul viewed the consummation of his hope as beyond the resurrection of the dead? HPGO 44.1