I have read with pleasure your answers to correspondence on the soul's condition after death; but as there are so many passages which seem to favor the commonly-received idea that the soul enters either a state of happiness or misery, I should esteem it a favor to have further explanation of such statements of Scripture.
Jesus said to the thief, "Today shall you be with me in Paradise." The parable of the rich man and Lazarus seems to imply that the soul enters at once into a state of happiness or misery.
You give Paul's statement in Thessalonians (and also the case of Stephen), but Paul says also, to the Philippians, that he was in a strait betwixt two, "having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better." "To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Now it seems to me that if Paul believed that his soul would go to sleep he would have preferred to live for the Master.
If Elijah was not taken to heaven, as the Scripture affirms, where did he go to? Evidently he was somewhere in a state of consciousness, as well as Moses; for they both appeared with Jesus on the mount of transfiguration.
These, with other passages, prevent me from fully adopting your views, though I try to come to the truth with an open mind. I think you will see where I am, and will help to a right understanding of God's Word.
You have asked a comprehensive question, or rather, a series of questions, any one of which really demands an entire article by itself; for a question cannot be answered satisfactorily in a short space as it can be asked. You have been pleased with the answers hitherto given, simply because they were Scripture statements, and not speculations or expressions of personal opinion.
To say "Yes," or "No," or even to summarize the Scripture evidence in a short paragraph, is not a real answer to a question concerning anything mentioned in Scripture. A true answer to such questions puts the questioner in possession of the same data that the one questioned has, so that he can see the truth directly, and not through some other person's eyes; and this requires both time and space. Nevertheless we shall not risk dissipating the interest of your question by dividing it, but shall cover the entire ground as fully as the limits of one issue will allow.
You kindly say that you have read with pleasure the answers that have been given to questions on the soul's condition after death. As already stated, your pleasure in the answers is due solely to the fact that they were not the expressions of personal opinion, but were the very language of Scripture.
Now that which is positively and plainly stated in the Scripture cannot be overthrown by anything else, no matter how much opposed it seems. That which is obscure is to be understood by that which is plain; the incidental allusion is to be compared with the direct positive statement; for the entire Scripture is one Word, and cannot contradict itself.
With Christ in Paradise
When Jesus hung on the cross, "He was despised and rejected of men." (Isaiah 53:3) "They that passed by reviled Him, wagging their heads, And saying, You that destroy the temple, and build it in three days, save yourself. If you be the Son of God, come down from the cross. Likewise also the chief priests mocking Him, with the scribes and elders, said, He saved others; himself He cannot save. If He be the King of Israel, led Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now, if He will have Him: for He said, I am the Son of God. The thieves also, which were crucified with Him, cast the same in His teeth.
It was the darkest hour in the life of Jesus. He had made some very strong, positive statements as to who He was and what He would do; but now it seemed as though they had been but the irresponsible utterances of a dreamer, a fanatic, or a hypocrite. His own loved disciples had turned their backs on Him, and fled. One who had been foremost in confessing that He was the Christ, the Son of God, had denied Him with fierce oaths. No wonder the thoughtless multitude "did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted," (Isaiah 53:4) when even He himself was so overwhelmed as to cry out in bitter anguish, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34)
Surely that was not a time when one would expect to hear a message of comfort and salvation from His lips. But into the thick darkness a ray of light shines and pierces the mind of one of the thieves, so that he ceased reviling; and when "One of the malefactors which were hanged railed on Him, saying, If You be Christ, save yourself and us," (Luke 23:39) he rebuked him, saying, "Do you not fear God, seeing you are in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this Man has done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when You come into your kingdom." (Luke 23:40-42)
What marvelous faith! A new disciple is gained by that which made all the old disciples doubt! "Being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:" (Romans 5:1) and Jesus, who "made peace through the blood of His cross," (Colossians 1:20) because His death was His victory, spoke the message of peace to this poor believer, saying, "Verily I say unto you, Today shall you be with me in Paradise." (Luke 23:43)
Leaving this verse for a moment, let us note a few details which will help us to an understanding of it. The first item is as to Christ's entry into Paradise. On the morning of the third day, when He showed himself to Mary at the tomb in the garden, and she would have embraced at least His feet for joy, Jesus said to her, "Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God." (John 20:17)
Later on He allowed them all to touch Him, and even asked Thomas to thrust his hand into the wound in His side; therefore we know that after He saw Mary, and before He met with the rest of the disciples, He ascended to the Father to receive from His own lips the assurance that His sacrifice was accepted. But the point is, that He did not ascend to the Father on the day of the crucifixion; for "in the midst of the Paradise of God." (Revelation 2:7) is the tree of Life; and the tree of life is by the side of the river of life, which flows from the throne of God. (Revelation 22:1) God's throne is in Paradise; and as Jesus had not ascended to the Father on the morning of the third day after the crucifixion, it is evident that He did not go to Paradise that day, and therefore could not have met the thief there that day. The reason why He did not go, was that He died, and went to the grave.
The next point to be noticed is the thief's request: "Lord, remember me when You come into your kingdom." (Luke 23:42)
Did Jesus receive His kingdom that day? He himself had, but a few days before, spoken a parable to the disciples, "because He was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thoughtthat the kingdom of God should immediately appear," (Luke 19:11) in which He showed them that the case with Him and His kingdom was likened to "A certain nobleman [who] went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return." (Luke 19:12)
Christ has not gone to that far country; when He comes again He will have received the kingdom, and will set upon the throne of His glory, and all nations will be gathered before Him. (Matthew 25:31-32) It is when the nations are angry, and His wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, the Christ takes to himself His great power, and reigns. (Revelation 11:17-18) So the time for the fulfillment of the repentant thief's request has not yet come.
What then? was the thief disappointed? Not by any means, for he died, and has lain in the grave for hundreds of years, unconscious of the lapse of time. When he opens his eyes at the call of the Lord, and sees Him in His kingdom, it will be as though there had been but the blink of an eye since he saw Him on the cross, and he will be satisfied.
But did Jesus tell an untruth? Nay, verily, that is an impossibility. What is the inevitable conclusion, then? Just this, that Jesus did not tell the thief that they would meet in Paradise that day, and the thief had no such thought in his mind.
But does not the text say that Jesus promised the thief that he should be with Him in Paradise that day? No; what He declared was that He said to him that day, even then, as He hung on the cross, seemingly at the end of all His hopes, that he should have his desire, and should yet be with Him in Paradise.
You ask, "Does not the punctuation and the construction of the sentence contradict this view?"
Certainly not. In the first place, you must remember that punctuation is a comparatively modern thing. When the Bible was written, all the characters were run together without break or mark of the division in the sentences. Moreover, in the Greek, as in many other languages, the personal pronoun as the subject of a sentence is often unexpressed, being indicated by the verb; and so it is here; therefore the verb may be translated "you shall," as well as, "shall you." So we read the text, in harmony with all the testimony of Scripture, "Verily I say unto you today, you shall be with me in Paradise."
When will he be with Him? When He descends "from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall arise, ... and so shall we ever be with the Lord." (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)
For a parallel to this style of expression, read: "As for you also, by the blood of your covenant I have sent forth your prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water. Turn to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope; even today do I declare that I will render double unto you." (Zechariah 9:11-12)
It is only when we read Luke 23:43 as we have given it, remembering the circumstances under which the words were uttered, that we can see the force and beauty of it. Then the sublime faith of both the thief and Christ shines forth, and we know that nothing is too hard for the Lord, and that no matter how everything may seem to be against us and Him, He is abundantly able to save. Thus we derive the comfort from the scripture that it was designed to give.
Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus
Inasmuch as you recognize that this is a parable, we need not spend much time over it. The main thing with respect to a parable is to know what it was designed to teach. Some parables, like those in the 13th chapter of Matthew, concerning the kingdom of heaven, are so completely explained in every detail, that there is no chance for any misunderstanding. And there need be none in this instance, for it is plainly made known why it was given.
Jesus had spoken a parable concerning the use and abuse of money, and had told the people that they could thus serve God and Mammon; "And the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things: and they scoffed at Him." (Luke 16:14,RV)
Then He said to them, "that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God," (Luke 16:15) and then He spoke the parable, showing that a man's worldly prosperity or adversity did not indicate his standing with the Lord.
This parable is not meant to teach anything whatever as to the state of the dead, as a little examination will show. True, the Saviour represented dead people as talking, but that did not confuse His hearers, for they all knew the Scripture teaching on the state of the dead. The fact that Christ spoke of them in His parable as active and talking was no more misleading than when Jotham told about the conversation among the trees when they went forth to seek a king, (Judges 9:7-15) or when God said to Cain, "The voice of the your brother's blood cries out unto me from the ground." (Genesis 4:10)
When we have it stated in the plainest possible language, that: "The dead know not anything," (Ecclesiastes 9:5) and that: "There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave," (Ecclesiastes 9:10) we know full well that when in a parable the dead are represented as talking, they are simply personified, as are the trees in Jotham's parable.
Now read a few words of the parable. "The beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom." (Luke 16:22)
What! are the dead carried bodily and placed in Abraham's bosom? "Oh," I hear it said, "that is figurative; of course. 'Abraham's bosom' is but a figurative term for the place of happiness, and Lazarus was not carried there bodily, but only his soul."
Ah, then, the thing is figurative, is it? Very good; then we can at once let the parable drop, so far as our present subject is concerned. I think all will agree that this parable may be left out of the consideration of this question. If we learn from it not to trust to money, and not to be cast down by poverty, we shall do well.
In a Strait Betwixt Two
Speaking of life and death, the Apostle Paul said, "What I choose I wot not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better." (Philippians 1:22-23)
Read this thoughtfully, and you will see that it plainly teaches that it is not by death that we depart to be with Christ. It is impossible to charge upon the apostle the absurdities of saying that he was in a strait between two, namely, life and death, not knowing which to choose, but he chose to die! No; there were three things open before him:
a) To die;
b) "To abide in the flesh," that is to live;
c) "To depart and to be with Christ."
Which of the first two he would choose, if the choice were left to him, he did not know; but he had an intense longing for the third, namely, to depart and be with Christ.
Is it not clearly manifest that to depart and be with Christ is something far different from dying? Just what it is we learn from 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, where we are told how people go to be with the Lord, and also 1 Corinthians 15:51-54. Not all sleep in the grave, but some live and are changed. Now Paul's only desire was to magnify Christ in his body, and the reason why he did not know which to choose, whether life or death, was that he did not know which would be the greater gain to the cause of Christ: but he could long for translation; for if the Lord should come and take him from this earth, that would show that his work was finished on earth.
So we see that this scripture, instead of teaching that the Apostle Paul expected to be with Christ by dying, teaches just the opposite. His epistle to the Philippians does not contradict the one written to the Thessalonians.
To Die is Gain
"For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." (Philippians 1:21)
I cannot think that one who cites this as proving that Paul longed for death, can have read the chapter in which it is found. As we have just noted, the verse that immediately follows states that he did not know which was better, life or death. How can people be so thoughtless, even reckless, in their reading, as to make the apostle contradict his own words in one breath?
Now read the connection closely, and you will see that the apostle had not a single thought of self-interest. From his prison he wrote a courageous letter to cheer the Philippian brethren. He tells them not to be troubled over his afflictions, because all that has happened to him has been for the furtherance of the Gospel. Verse 12. His bonds were the occasion of Christ being made known throughout Caesar's palace. His only desire was, as he says, that: "Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death." (Philippians 1:20)
Then he adds, "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." (Philippians 1:21)
How is it possible for anybody, in the face of the preceding verses, to think that Paul was speaking of personal gain? He had just said that he desired that Christ should be honored through him, whether by his life or his death, it mattered not to him which. If he lived, his life was devoted to the service of Christ, and if he died, the cause of Christ would gain by that. Do you not see how incongruous it is to think that after all that the apostle has said, he should suddenly intimate that it would be a grand thing for him to die, and be out of trouble? Whoever thinks that has mistaken the character of the apostle, and does violence to his statements.
No; Paul's whole being was lost in Christ. It was not he that lived, but Christ that lived in him (Galatians 2:20); only one desire animated him, and that was to preach the Gospel of Christ, and to see it advanced; and he could laugh at the vain attempts of his persecutors to stop the good work, because even if they put him to death it would only be helping the cause of Christ along. What an unselfish, devoted, heroic soul he was! A grand old man indeed!
The Translation of Elijah
You ask, "If Elijah was not taken to heaven, where did he go?"
Why, he was taken to heaven. The Scripture says so. He was taken away bodily in a chariot of fire, without dying, and thus became a representative of those who shall be alive at the coming of Christ, and be changed to immortality, and taken to heaven without ever dying.
Do you not see that Elijah's case is something entirely different from what takes place with the mass of people? Of course he went to heaven, for he never died; here his case does not come into a consideration of the condition and state of the dead.
Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration
But Moses died and was buried in the land of Moab, yet he was also on that mount with Elijah and Christ. Yes, he was; and thus he was a representative of the class who have died, and who will be raised to life at the coming of Christ in His kingdom with power and glory. (See Matthew 16:18; 17:1-8; Mark 9:1-8; 2 Peter 1:14-18)
Moses died, it is true; but we read that Michael the Archangel- the same one whose voice will at the last day call the dead to life (1 Thessalonians 4:16): "When contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses." (Jude 9)
The devil is the one that had the power of death, (Hebrews 2:14) and Christ came to overcome and destroy him, and deliver those whom he has shut up in his prison house, the grave. Moses is one whom He has chosen as an example of what at the last He will do for all the faithful who have died, just as Elijah is the representative of the living who have never died.
Conclusion
Let no one suppose that I have devoted all this space to the discussion of a merely technical, theological question. The Bible was written to show people the way of salvation, and not to afford them something on which to exercise their argumentative powers. It is not a book of puzzles, or of theoretical problems, the solution of which is a purely academic matter, with no influence whatever upon human life and conduct.
Whatever motive our friends may have in asking questions, the Present Truth has no other object in answering but to help the people in the way of life and salvation. We have no time or space to spare for controversy or the mere satisfying of curiosity.
Now what bearing does this question of the state of the dead have on our salvation? What difference does it make to us in our Christian life? It has just this bearing, that it makes us know the power of the Lord to save us now from sin. "For our citizenship is in heaven; from whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory, according to the working whereby He is able to subject all things unto himself." (Philippians 3:20-21,RV)
The power by which Christ will raise the dead and change our bodies at His coming, is the power by which He is now able to: "Cast down every high thing [in us] that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ." (2 Corinthians 10:5)
We are simply studying Christ's power to save. Salvation means life from the dead. The power of Christ's coming is His power to raise the dead; and this is the power by which we are now saved from the bondage of corruption.
Moreover, we are putting the readers of Present Truth on their guard against the deceptions of Satan. He is able to transform himself into an angel of light, (2 Corinthians 11:14) and it is no marvel if his angels can personate human beings, and from their knowledge of their past, tell many secrets that would seem to identify them as dead friends of some with whom they communicate. Now if people think that the dead are alive, it is but an easy matter for them to be led into Spiritualism when they receive strong messages from what purport to be their dead friends. And the history of the past demonstrates that when a Christian has been led into Spiritualism his faith in Christ and the atonement ceases.
It is not surprising that a Spiritualist should disbelieve what the Bible says about Christ's sacrifice, and our dependence on it, when he has to disbelieve what the Bible says about the state of the dead, in order to be a Spiritualist at all. It is utterly impossible for one who firmly believes the Scripture truth that we have life only in Christ, and that the dead are unconsciously sleeping, ever to become a Spiritualist; and the event will show that it is impossible for those who do not believe this, not to become Spiritualists. So we have ample reason for devoting so much space to this subject.
We have in hand a question concerning the structure of man, asking for a statement of the distinction between body, and soul, and spirit, and the meaning of these terms, and if God will, we shall take this up next week.--Present Truth, May 1, 1902.