in misery. Now, just think for a moment. The Bible says there is to be a day of judgment.
Eccl. 3:17 I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked; for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.
II Cor. 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things in body, according to that he hath done, whether good or bad.
This judgment, you must know, is not at death, but at the second coming of Christ:
II Tim. 4:1 I charge thee therefore before God and the. Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom.
Matt. 25:31 When the Son Of man shall come in his glory, and all his holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory; and before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.
Here is proof that the judgment of good and bad is to take place when Christ comes back to the earth. So it follows they have not yet been judged. Now, then, to return to the point. If it be true that the good go to happiness when they die (and have to die to get there)! and the bad go to misery when they die, what is the judgment for? I appeal, reader, to your reason. Can you believe that God will reward and punish good and bad men for thousands of years and then call them to judgment? You will possibly say, "O well, God knows where to put them when they die as well as He will at the judgment day." Granted; but if it is a question of His knowledge, why has he provided a day of judgment at a set time? Do you not think there is something wrong with a theory that represents God as arranging in His plan for a day of judgment in which He will reward every man according as His work shall he (Rev. 22:12), and yet rewarding some for hundreds of years before that day of judgment arrives?
Now the Bible will help us out of this difficulty, and the first step is to believe that man is mortal, a creature of the dust.
I Cor. 15:47 The first man is of the earth, earthy.
Gen. 2:7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground.
Gen. 3:19 For out of it (dust) wast thou taken; for dust thou art and unto
dust shalt thou return.
Job 33:6 I also am formed out of clay
Gen. 3:23 Therefore the LORD God sent him (Adam) forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground, from whence he was taken.
Gen. 18:27 And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord which am but dust and ashes.
Job 4:17 Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his maker?
Job 10:9 Remember, I beseech thee, that thou has made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust again?
Psa. 103:14 For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.
Now do not forget that all this is said of man--not of the house that man is supposed to dwell in for a time, as if man were one thing and his body another. It was the man that was formed out of the dust.
It is the man that is of the earth, earthy. It is the man that is formed out of clay. It is the man that is dust and ashes. Now the second step out of the difficulty presented is to believe that
8. Man dies, and is dead after he has died
PROPOSITION 8.
Man, Who Is Mortal, Dies, and Is Dead After He Has Died
Job 30:13 For I know that thou bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.
Job 7:1 Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?
Psa. 89:48 What man is he that liveth and shall not see death? Shall he deliver his soul (himself) from the hand of the grave?
Eccl. 3:19, 20 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them. as the one dieth so dieth the other; * * *· all go to one place; all are of the dust and all turn to dust again.
Isa. 40:6 All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field; the grass withereth, the flower fadeth; because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it; surely the people is grass.
9. In death man is unconscious
PROPOSITION 9.
In Death Man Is Unconscious
Eccl 9:10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest.
Isa. 6:5 In death there is no remembrance of thee, in the grave who shall give thee thanks?
Eccl. 9:5 For the living know that they shall die; but the dead know not any thing.
Psa. 146:3, 4 Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help; his breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; IN THAT VERY DAY HIS THOUGHTS PERISH.
Isa. 38.18, 19 The grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.
Now, you see, the Bible having taught us that, instead of death being a continuation of life somewhere off the earth, it is the cessation of life; and instead of men going to happiness or misery when they die, they go to the grave, we are helped out of the absurdity of believing that good and bad are rewarded and punished before they are judged. It is clear now that, instead of the faithful dead having gone to heaven to continue to live, these all died in the faith, not having received the promises (Heb. 11:13).
Now, dear reader, do not, like many, get angry and denounce this as "materialism", and say, "If a man in death is no better than the beasts--is as dead as the beasts are--there can be no future life;" for that is just what some in Corinth said; and Paul said they were fools for doing so.
Paul argued with the Corinthians that the dead were dead, and proved that if there was no resurrection even those who had died in Christ had perished (I Cor. 15:18), gone for ever--an impossibility if they had gone to a heaven of happiness.
Now if there is to be a resurrection of the dead and a "gathering", of those who are alive at Christ’s return to judge the quick and the dead, then our difficulty is gone, the wisdom of God shines brightly and the Bible is a book of consistency and beautiful harmony.
10. Resurrection the means of future life for the dead
