ARE THE DEAD ALIVE?

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 194, 12 May 1921, Page 5

ARE THE DEAD ALIVE?

Sir,—l am writing at the request of a man who is ill, has been much distressed by the letter of "John Plowman” on the question "Are the Dead Alive?” One wonders what is the know, ledge of such a writer on Biblical study. He states that in the passage Exodus HI, 6, "I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham" the translators harp inserted tho word "am.** Such Ji statement is incorrect and misleading, for the translators have done nothing of the kind. Whqn Christ was being questioned by the Sadduces who said there was no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit, on the question of the futmA life. ’ Our Lord replied: "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God,” and He goes on to cite this very passage: "I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living" Matt, xxii, 80Christ then shows that in the Books of Moses the doctrine of a future life is plainly implied. In Exodus iii, 6, 15, 16, and iv., 5, God calls Himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, after all three had died. Therefore fhoee who have died in this world are Mill alive in the other, for God is still their God. What is dead can have a creator or a. controller; but only living beings can have a God. To quote other passages of tho Old Testament from writers who had not yet realised the fullness of God’s revelation in the face of the full light of tho New Testament, whore immortality is plainly revealed, show* an erring knowledge of the scriptures,-. I am, ete„ CLERGYMAN.