conscious ?
Have you been deceived? It is an important question, as what you believe can shape your eternal future.
The idea that the dead are in a state of consciousness, has obtained to a considerable extent a foothold in the world, by some means; and it is a matter of interest to ascertain its origin. If it is from in Heaven, doubtless it is taught the revelation which God has given us - the Holy Scriptures, the Bible. And if others, our teachers, have found it there, we can do the same, and take a knowledge of it second hand. ourselves. We must read it for But if the doctrine is not in the Bible, those who have confidence in its teachings, as a full and perfect revelation from God, will come to the conclusion that God is not its author. That would mean that at the present day, a system of the most abominable infidelity rest wholly upon an assumption for its foundation. It becomes every person to inquire seriously and earnestly, in the light of the Scriptures, whether God or the great adversary is the author and finisher of its teaching. The Bible nowhere knowledge in death; asserts that man has but it does declare the contrary in the most positive and unequivocal manner. It is true there are passages from which inferences are drawn that the soul is immortal, and 1 of 11
that man is conscious in death; inferences are not necessary. but these Every passage of scripture can be understood in a way that agrees with the clear statement that "the dead know not anything," without twisting the meaning of the text. Ecclesiastes 9:5 Those who advocate man’s natural immortality and his consequent consciousness in death, argue in a circle. Certain passages, they think, prove their views, because the soul is immortal, and therefore cannot die. And the best reason that they have for thinking the soul immortal, and the best proofs that they can bring to support it, are these same passages - passages which are just as easily understood in harmony with the opposite view. To their mind, consciousness these in passages death, because teach the man’s soul is immortal; the soul is immortal, because these very passages teach it. It will not be denied that the doctrine of man’s continued consciousness in death, that is the real man does not die at all, is a very ancient doctrine. Ancient pagan philosophers held it, and the heathen, as far back as the days of Moses, worshiped dead men as their gods. In Numbers 25 we read, “And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began 2 of 11
to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods; and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods. And Israel joined himself unto Baalpeor; and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel.” The Psalmist, in reference to the same thing, says, “They joined themselves also unto Baalpeor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead.” Psalm 106:28. It is a well-known fact that pagan nations have been in the habit of deifying the dead. They have held that their dead heroes were not dead, but had gone to be with the gods, and were themselves the objects of worship. Now, since it is a fact that men do, as it appears to all their senses and natural faculties, die, the same as animals, how came this idea among the heathen, that men do not die, but are ushered into a higher life at death? The idea is either true or false, and must have been derived from God, the great fountain of truth, or from the father of lies. Which is it? The idea could not have been derived from the Bible, for, as we have seen, it was in the world before even the books of Moses were written. Still I think that its origin is revealed in the Bible. When God inspired Moses to write his word, he 3 of 11
took him back to the beginning, and there revealed to him two grand assertions which were made to our first parents soon after they were created, which directly contradict each other; consequently one of them is false. It was the first lie ever spoken to our race, and its author was the father of lies. God had said to them concerning the tree of knowledge, “In the day that thou eatest thereof, dying thou shalt surely die.” Genesis 2:17. But the serpent said unto the woman, “Ye shall not surely die;” Genesis 3:4, but in case they disobeyed God, said he, “Ye shall be like God.” death did not Genesis 3:5. follow And although man’s transgression immediately, yet Satan was not long in persuading those who rejected the knowledge of God, that his lie was still the truth - that instead of the real man dying, he only entered into a higher life, and thus reaped a real benefit from the change - became as gods, and the proper object of worship. And if we trace the results of this down to the present day, there is no shortage of men who boldly and blasphemously assert that the serpent told the truth, and that “God lied.” The insertion of this lie into the Christian faith, is diabolical. It is no “stale joke” as characterized by a certain Professor recently. I am not joking, dear readers, 4 of 11
when I utter my most solemn and decided conviction before God, that Satan’s lie, uttered to our parents in Eden, is the true and only origin of the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and the consequent consciousness in death. Dr. A. Clarke, in his comment upon the language of the serpent to Eve, says, “The tempter through the nachash, insinuates the impossibility of her dying, as if he had said, God has created thee immortal, then death is therefore impossible; and God knows this for as thou livest by the tree of life, so shalt thou get increase in wisdom by the tree of knowledge.” Then the first doctrine which the great tempter ever preached in the world, was immortality in sin, or natural, unconditional immortality. Is it strange that the seducing spirits of these last days should teach the same? Says Paul, “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.” 1 Timothy 4:1 Macknight has it, “doctrines concerning demons,” and Wakefield, “doctrines about dead men.” It is a heathen notion that demons are disembodied human spirits - spirits of dead men. The Bible view is that they are the “angels who kept not their first estate.” Jude 1:6. We read of the “Devil and his 5 of 11
angels.” The true Christian would be slow to believe that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the holy prophets and saints of old, were the demons that took possession of, and tormented, men in the days of our Saviour, and that were cast out by him. Yet if the heathen notion is true, they are all demons; and if we take anything upon their authority, to be consistent we must take the whole. It is far better to accept what God has given us in his word. The evidences on this subject must be found in the revelation which God has graciously given us. Men talk of a philosophical argument in favor of natural immortality and consciousness in death. If the fact that Plato and other heathens that were called philosophers, hold the doctrine, furnishes such an argument, they certainly have one. But if it is claimed that natural science furnished any proof of it, all we have to do is to deny it and ask for the proof. Nothing short of what is called theological science, a science not derived from the oracles of Jehovah, nor from any facts discoverable in nature, but from the oracles of heathen deities and the superstitions of those who did not choose “to retain God in their knowledge,” Romans 1:28 and were consequently given “over to a reprobate mind,” and led captive by Satan at his will, can furnish 6 of 11
anything in its favor. It is truly lamentable that so much of what is honored with the title of theology, is derived from such a source; but still it is the truth. Witness the heathen festival of the sun, the rival of the Sabbath of the Lord, usurping its place, and sustained by modern theology, Bible in hand! This and that have one parentage; the Bible says nothing in support of either, but much against both. The utmost stretch of human capacity is not able to discover any difference whatever between the death of a man and that of an animal. As far as our sagacity can penetrate, “as the one dieth, so dieth the other.” Ecclesiastes 3:19. And no man has come back from the dead, with the information of what he knew while he was dead. A person in a trance is not dead but living; and, like one in a partial sleep, he may dream. But, on the other hand, there are instances innumerable of living persons being utterly unconscious for a considerable length time. of Where were their immortal souls, which cannot cease to think during that time? And what principle of philosophy is that which teaches, that should you take a person in an unconscious state, and dash his brain to fragments, instantly his consciousness will return, and he will know, not 7 of 11
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