The strongest texts and incidents which are appealed to in defense of the conscious-state theory, have now been examined. If these do not sustain it, nothing can be found in the Bible which will sustain it. All are easily harmonized with these. Thus in Paul's desire to "depart and be with Christ"(Phil. 1: 23, he does not there tell us when he will be with Christ;but he does tell us in many other places; and it is at the resurrection and the coming of Christ. Phil. 3: 11; 1 Thess. 4: 17. When he speaks of our being clothed upon with our house from heaven (2 Cor. 5: 2), he tells us that it is when "immortality" is "swallowed up of life." But that is only at the last trump. 1 Cor. 15: 51-54. If we are told about the woman who had had seven husbands (Matt. 22: 23-28), no hint us given of any reunion till after the resurrection. If God calls himself not the God of the dead, but of the living" (Matt. 22: 32), it is because he speaks of "those things that be not as though they were" (Rom. 4: 17), and the worthies of whom this is spoken, are sure to live again (Heb. 11: 15, 16), and hence are now spoken of as alive in his sight, because they are so in his purpose.
Texts which speak of the departure and return of the soul (Gen. 35: 18;1 Kings 17: 21, 22, are referable to the Page 62 "breath of life," which is the meaning of the word in these instances rendered "soul."Three passages only have been referred to, which declare positively that the dead know not anything. It was thought preferable to answer certain objections, before introducing further direct testimony. But there are many such passages, a few more of which will now be presented, as a fitting conclusion to this branch of the subject. The reader's careful attention is invited to a few of the various texts, and the conclusions that follow therefrom.
1. Death and Sleep. -- Death, in numerous passages is compared to sleep, in contrast with the wakeful condition. See Ps. 13: 3; Job 7:
21; John 11:11; Acts 7:60; l Cor. 11:30; 15:51; 1 Thess. 4:14; etc. But there is only one feature in sleep by virtue of which it can be taken as a figure of death; and that is, the condition of unconsciousness which shuts up the avenues of one's senses to all one's environment. If one is not thus unconscious in death, the figure is false, and the comparison illogical and misleading.
2. Thoughts Perish. -- So David testifies: "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."Ps. 146: 3, 4. The word "thoughts" does not here mean simply the projects and purposes one has in view, which do often fail, when the author of them dies, but it is from a root which means the act of thinking, the operation of the mind; Page 63 and in death, that entirely ceases. It cannot therefore be the dead who come out of the unseen with such intelligence as is shown in Spiritualism.
3. Job's Statement. -- Speaking of a dead man, Job (14: 21) says:
"His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them." If the dead cannot take cognizance of matters of so much interest as these, how can they communicate with the living as the spirits do?
4. No Remembrance of God. -- David, in Ps. 6: 5 and 115: 17, again testifies: "For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?" "The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence" Is it possible that any righteous man, if he is living and conscious after going into the grave, would not praise and give thanks to the Lord?
5. Hezekiah's Testimony. -- Hezekiah was sick unto death. Isa.
38: 1. But he prayed, and the Lord added to his days fifteen years. Verse 5. For this he praised the Lord, and gave his reasons for so doing in the following words (verses 18, 19): "For the grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day."This is a clear affirmation that in death he would not be able to do what he was able to do while living.
6. New Testament Evidence. -- The New Testament bears a corresponding testimony on this sub- Page 64 ject. None will be saved except such as Christ raises up at the last day.
John 6: 39, 40. No one is to receive any reward before the resurrection.
Luke 14: 14; 2 Tim. 4: 8. No one can enter God's kingdom before being judged;but there is no execution of judgment before the coming of Christ. 2 Tim.
4:1; Acts 17:31; Luke 19:35; etc. If there is no avenue to a future life by a resurrection, then all who have gone down in death are perished. 1Cor. 15: 18. Such texts utterly forbid the idea of consciousness and activity, on the part of any of the human family, in death.
This part of the subject need not be carried further. It has been dwelt upon so fully simply because of its determinate bearing on the question under discussion. Spiritualism rests its whole title to credence on the claim that the intelligences which manifest themselves are the spirits of the dead. The Bible says that they are not the spirits of the dead. Then if the Bible is true, the whole system rests upon deception and falsehood. No one who believes this will tamper with Spiritualism.
One cannot have Spiritualism and the Bible, too. One or the other must be given up. But he who still holds on to the theory that the dead are conscious, contrary to the testimony of the Scriptures has no shield against the Spiritualistic delusion, and the danger is that he will sooner or later throw the Bible away. Notes [1] Original edition.
[2] Original edition.
Not found in the mutilated edition, revised by Dr. Curry.
Modern Spiritualism: A Subject of Prophecy and a Sign of the Times.
