ARE THE DEAD ALIVE?

Shannon News, 1 April 1926, Page 4

ARE THE DEAD ALIVE?

The following is the synopsis of a lecture delivered in the De Luxe Theatre on Sunday night, March 28th, by Pastor C. A. Paap. Last Day Deceptions. Almost every truth taught in the Bible and believed by God’s people of old has either been corrupted or counterfeited in ree'ent years. There are so many isms, and creeds, and doctrines, and voices, in the world that the public mind is confused and confounded, and knows not what to believe. By ‘‘Science falsely so-called” the faith of many in the Bible, as the infallible Word of God, has been undermined and destroyed, and they are left like Mariners upon an unknown sea, whom “howling blasts beat devious, tempest-tost, with sails ripped, seams opening wide, and compass lost.” On this question, are the dead alive there are, even in the religious world, a multitude . of conflicting opinions. But reduced tb their last analysis only one of two positions can be true; either the dead are alive or they are not. The seed thoughts of these contrary positions were planted in the Garden of Eden before Man’s fall. The Lord said to Adam: ‘<But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou catost thereof, thou shalt surely die.” —Genesis 2-17. “And the Serpent that was the Devil said unto the woman,' Ye shall not surely die. —Genesis, 3-4.

This doctrine then that the dead do not “surely die” was the lhst-lie the father of lies told our fust parents in Eden, and because they listened to his lie they lost Eden, and if we listen, to it we are liable to lose the future Eden. The following is a list of the 12 manner of fruits which have come from this tree of death: (1) The soul of man is immortal; (2) The dead are alive; (3) Eternal torment in misery; (4) Rewards at death; (5) 1 Praj'-crs fof the dead; (6) Purgatory; (7) Saint worship and invocation; (8) No future, resurrection; (9) Mariolatry; (10) Baptism for the dead; (11) Universalism; (12) Spiritism. * These isms arc what the Apostle Paul calls “doctrines of devils,” to be taught in the “latter times,” causing some to “depart from the faith.” The Place of the Dead. Now a few plain scriptures which tell us where the dead are. “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing ye that dwell in dust . ... and the earth shall cast out the dead.”—lsaiah 26-19. , Then according to Isaiah the dead are asleep in the dust, and not alive. “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; some to everlasting life, and some t'o shame and everlasting Contempt.”—Daniel 12-2. Then according to Dani'el, the dead are in the dust asleep, and are not alive. “Marvel not at this, for the hour is coining in which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice and come forth,” etc., John 5:28 and 29. Then according to Jesus, the dead are in the graves asleep, and are not alive. “All are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.” —Ecc. 3:19. Then according to Solomon, the dust is the dwelling place of the dead. And w*c would rather believe Isaiah and Danicpand Solomon and Jesus collectively, or any one of them individually on this question than believe all W. T. Stead, Sir Oliver Lodge, or William Crooks, or Paladino, or Lombfosso, or Conan Doyle] or any other investigators of, or believers in Spiritism, or Telepathy, or Clairvoyance, or Telckinosses, or Materialisation, or Prevision, or Automatic Writing or Speaking, eve!r saw, or attempted to prove or demonstrate to the contrary. A Description of the Grave.

“Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise Thee? Shall Thy loving kindness be declared in the grave? Or Thy faithfulness in destruction? Shalt Thy wonders be known in the dark? and Thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?’’—Psalm, 88:10-12. Surely' these verses do not describe a place of intelligence, or light, or knowledge! ' The only answer to each of those six questions is an emphatic no! The Symbol of Sleep Employed. Bible writers under the inspiration of God’s spirit generally speak of the dead as “asleep!” Jesus said: “Our friend Lazarus ,sleepeth.” Then said Jesus unto them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. - ’ John 11:11-14. Luke says in Acts 7:60 that when they stoned Stephen, “he fell asleep” and they buried him. Paul, in speaking of death, says in 1 Corinthians 15:51: “We shall not all sleep. ’ ’ “So David slept with his and was buried in the city of DaVid.” —1 Kings, 2:10. And Peter over one thousand years later said: “For David is not ascended into the heavens.”— Acts 2:34.

Tli'o Lord undoubtedly uses this symbol of sleep to teach us that as. in normal sleep man knows nothing of passing events or time,' so in death he is equally 'unconscious of anything and everything that takes place under the sun. - And one plain text from God's Word on such a matter as this is of more worth to the child of God than a, thousand volumes written by the best brains of earth to prove a contrary doctrine. The State of Man’s Faculties in Death. “His breath goeth forth, he returucth to his earth, in that very day liis thoughts perish.” —Psalm 146:4. Then his thinking stops. “The dead praise not the Lord,, neither any that go down into silence.” Psalm 115:17. . Then their affections cease. And whether good or bad, lie neither goes up to glory, nor down to torment but into silence. Thank God for that! None of our departed are now T in a lake of torment. That, is a doctrine of the Devil to prejudice thinking men's minds against \

the justice of God, and alas, it. lias worked only too well. “For the living know that they shall die, but the dead know not anything.” —Ecclesiastes 9:5. Then their knowledge ceases. “Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy is now perished,” “for there is no wprk, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave whither thou goest.”—Ecc. 9,6, and 10. Then all man’s faculties at death cease to operate in all directions; he is asleep, and time to him. is as nothing. “His sons come to honour and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.” —Job, 14:21. Man Naturally Mortal. “This mortal must put on immortality.”— 1 Cor. 15:53. “Shall mortal man be more just than God?” etc.—Job. 4:17. “0 Lord, Thou are our God; let not mortal man prevail against thee.”—2 Chr. 14:11.—Margin. God has not immortalised sinners, and no one else can do* so. Immortality Conditional. The Apostle Paul is the only writer in the whole Bible who makes use of the word immortal or immortality. He never applies it to sinners. He never applies it to either righteous or wicked in this world. He never applies it to >men’s souls at all, either before or after death. He speaks of it as an attribute of the King Eternal 1 Tim. 1:17. He declares that God is the only possessor of it.—l Tim. 6:16. He presents it as an object which men are to seek after. —Romans 2:17. He speaks of it as brought to light in the gospel. —2 Tim 1:10. He defines the period when it shall be “put, on" by the Saints of God, and fixes it at the resurrection. — 1 Cor. 15:52-54. Therefore he never taught the immortality of the soul as it is now taught, and when he declared that sinners should be destroyed, or perish, or die, or be burned, or devoured by fire, he said what he meant, and meant what he said. When Shall the Dead Live? “For the Xiord Himself shall descend from Heaven -with a- shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ' shall ris'e first.”—l Thess. 4:16. “Behold, I shew you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.- In a moment, in the twiplding of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”—l Corinthians, 15:51 and 52. Till then he sleeps, and his awakening depends on the return of the Lord in the clouds pf glory. And Jesus said: “I will come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am theTe ye may be also.”—John 14:1-4. There is no life for the dead until Jesus returns. Resurrection Man's Only Hope. It is in vain for us to seek any escape from the prison house of death except through the way opened for us by the resurrection of Christ. Search through all history, fathom the depths of the deepest philosophy, exhaust the resources of the most advanced science, compass tire whole range of human thought, and you will find that the power of the resurrection rests on Christ alone; he alone can show the way into the eternal life. Christ is most willing to do for all the children of mortality what can bo done by him alone. . He has thrown open the gates of life so wide that all may enter. The angel voice which came from the empty grave in the garden of Joseph still cri'es to all that seek Jesus —sorrowing because they , find .him not—“ Fear not ye.” The , light of the resurrection morning, which ( shone in upon the place where the Lord lay, still shines for all eyes that are blinded with weepijsg, for all hearts that are heavy with sorrow, and for all homes that are darkened with mourning. Wo have only to look up and behold that light, and it Avill shine for us until if. grows to,the fulness of heaven’s eternal day. |