Vou. XXXIT BROOKLYN. N. Y., APRIL 1, 1911 No. 7 DO YOU BELIEVE IN THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD? (Acts 17:18.) ‘‘And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, ‘“‘Tf there be no resurrection of the dead, then is not Christ raised, and . also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.’’—1 Cor. 15:13-18. “‘He preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection.’?’ some mocked.’’ (Acts 17:32.) your faith is also vain; When we remember that the word ‘‘resurrection’’ is used no less than thirty-seven times in the New Testament, besides various other words of similar import; and when we remember that all the prominent creeds of Christendom declare faith in a resurrection as an integral and essential part of Scriptural doctrine and of the hope of eternal life— in view of these facts, and of the strong language of the texts above quoted, whose inspiration is conceded by all Christians, it may seem strange that we should ask any Christian the question, Do you believe in the resurrection of the dead? Nevertheless, we have serious reason to doubt that a belief in the resurrection of the dead prevails amongst Christians to any considerable extent; and it is because we helieve the resurrection to be a very important doctrine in its connection with other doctrines of Seripture (throwing light upon other doctrines), that we desire to call general attention to this subject and to invite an examination of our question in the light of facts and of Scripture; our hope being that after a careful examination of the subject many more of God’s people will come to believe—consistently, logically, Seripturally—in a resurrection. RESURRECTION RARELY CHOSEN NOW AS A SUBJECT FOR SERMONS ‘Like priest, like people,’’ is an old adage, which implies that the views of the teaching or elerical class on any subject may safely be considered an index to the views of their parishioners. It is not difficult to ascertain the views of the clergy of all denominations on the subject of the resurrection of the dead; for, although that topic is rarely chosen for discourse, except upon Easter Sunday, it is, nevertheless, indissolubly attached to every funeral service; and these numerous occasions, we believe, amply justify us in the statement that both the clergy of all denominations and their people have little or no faith in a resurrection of the dead. True, it is customary on every funeral occasion to read the words of the Apostle Paul, in which he sets forth the resurrection as the Christian’s hope (1 Cor. 15), but this seems to he a mere concession on the part of the officiating minister. He fecls it to be his duty to read something on the subject, but his remarks following the reading prove most conclusively that, so far from believing that the person whose eorpse is about to be buried is dead, he believes, and instructs his hearers that they should believe, that their friend and neighbor is ‘‘more alive than he ever was.’’ Frequently, indeed, he plays directly into the hands of the ‘*Spiritualists’’? and ‘‘Christian Scientists,’’ by telling the audience that the spirit of their dead friend is with them in the room, hovering over them; and that if permitted to speak he would say to them, ‘‘Dry your tears; weep not for me; I am far better off in glory.’’ TO MANY DEATH HAS BECOME A DELUSION AND NOT A REALITY Indeed, it has come to be the general belief among Christian people that death is a delusion, and uot a reality; that people merely seem to die, and do not die; that they merely experience a change to a higher form of being; that so-called ‘‘Christian Seientists’’ are quite correct in saying, ‘There is no death.’’ Whoever holds such views does not, cannot consistently believe in ‘‘the resurrection of the dead’’; because if no one is dead, how can there be a resurrection of the dead? Wherein would be the sense in speaking of a resurrection of the dead to life, if they already have life more abundantly than they possessed it before they seemingly died? But thousands of ministers would answer us, saying, ‘‘When speaking of the resurrection, we merely mean a resurrection of the body—the bodies which we bury are all to eome forth again from the grave, and the spirits which parted from them in death are to be rehabilitated in those bodies in the resurrection. This is what we mean by resurrection. ’? “CONSISTENCY, THOU ART A JEWEL’’ Well, welll Who would have supposed sueh inecunsisteney on the part of so many learned and well-meaning men! Before taking up the Scriptural side of the question, to show that such expectations are at variance with the Scripture [4791} then is our preaching vain, and ye are yet in your sins. Then they teaching, let us examine the proposition of these ministers in the light of its own inconsistency. (1) They tell us that the deceased is ‘‘far better off,’’ in that he has gotten free from the ‘‘fetters of the flesh,’’ and that now ‘‘his free spirit wings its flight to God, no longer hampered and hindered by the mortal dust.’’ They go into eestasies in describing the grandeur and liberty and blessedness of the one who has died, and who, by reason of getting rid of the body, has attained to life more abundant, knowledge a hundredfold, and blessings indescribable. (2) In the same breath they quote the Scriptures referring to the resurrection and (wholly misconstruing those Seriptures) tell us that by and by, at the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the same bodies of flesh that were buried will be reorganized (Dr. Talmage, in his famous resurrection sermon pictured the resurrection morning, and the entire sky darkened with the fragments of human bodies coming together from various parts of the earth, where a finger, a foot, or a hand had been lost by accident, discase or amputation); they tell us that then the spirit beings which, they say, left those bodies at death, will then return to them, as their everlasting habitations. Then, inasmuch as the resurrection is Seripturally sect forth to be the grand and glorious result and consummation of our salvation, they feel compelled to go into ecstasies over their erroneous presentation of the resurrection, and to tell how glorious and grand will be the result. They scem to overlook entirely the inconsistency of these two propositions; and they expect that their hearers will be similarly inconsistent and illogical (and apparently their expectations are fully justified, for the majority of their hearers swallow the inconsisteney without difficulty); yea, many of them seem to think that the more inconsistent and unreasonable their belief may be, the more reason they have to congratulate themselves that they have a very strong faith. However, the real fact is that they have a very strong credulity. But they will have no reward for believing unreasonable things which God’s Word has not taught, but has contradicted. Who cannot see, if he will, that the man who dics fifty years old, if in dying he obtains life more abundant and knowledge a hundredfold, and a freedom to ‘‘wing his flight,’’ etc., would be sadly disappointed by a resurrection —if it should mean to him re-imprisenment in a tenement of clay, with physical restrictions and human limitations? And then, if he had thus for centuries been a ‘‘free spirit,’’ roaming at liberty throughout the universe, untrammeled by a body and bodily limitations, where would be the consistency on God’s part of re-imprisoning such an one in a human body, whose powers and uses would be entirely forgotten during those centuries of liberty? And if to he without a body is ‘‘perfect bliss,’’ as the funeral orators tell, how could there be anything added to perfect bliss by a resurrection of the body, and a re-incarceration therein? THE SCRIPTURES HOLD OUT THE ONLY HOPE, THE BLESSED HOPE, THE CONSISTENT HOPE From the foregoing considerations, we feel that we are justified in our assumption that the vast majority of Christian people do not believe in a resurrection—uneither the Seriptural kind (‘‘a resurrection of the dead’’), nor in the kind they themselves teach, namely, a resurrection of the body. With this preface to our subject, we go to the Scriptures to learn from them what is meant by ‘‘the resurrceetion of the dead,’’ and in what manner and why the Seriptures speak of the resurrection as the hope, the only hope, the blessed hope, not only of the Lord’s people, who are to have part in the ‘‘first resurrection,’’ but of the world in general, who are to have an opportunity to share in the resurrection of judgment, improperly translated, ‘‘the resurrection of damnation.’’—John 5:29. Whoever would believe the Seriptural doctrine of the resurrection, must also believe the Scriptural doctrine respecting death—that death is death, the cessation of life. Then, and not until then, will he be able to understand the Apostle’s words in our text, ‘‘If there be no resurrection of the dead, ... then they which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.’’ Nor is this statement by the Apostle an exception to or different from the teaching of the Seriptures (99-100)
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