XXXIV. DEATH AND THE STATE OF THE SOUL AFTER DEATH. CHAPTER 1. By what forms of expression is death described in the Bible? XXXIV. A departure out of this world, 2 Tim. iv. 6. A going the way of all the earth, Josh. xxiii. 14. A being gathered to one's fathers, Judges ii. 10; and to one's people, Deut. xxxii. 50. A dissolving the earthly house of this tabernacle, 2 Cor. v. 1. A returning to the dust, Eccles. xii. 7. A sleep, John xi. 11. A giving up the ghost, Acts v. 10. A being absent from the body and present with the Lord, 2 Cor. v. 8. Sleeping in Jesus, 1 Thess. iv. 14. 2. What is death? The suspension of the personal union between the body and the soul, followed by the resolution of the body into its chemical elements, and the introduction of the soul into that separate state of existence which may be assigned to it by its Creator and Judge, Eccles. xii. 7. 3. How does death stand related to sin ? The entire penalty of the law, including all the spiritual, physical, and eternal penal consequences of sin, is called death in Scripture. The sentence was, "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," Gen. ii. 17; Rom. v. 12. That this included natural death is proved by Rom. v. 13, 14; and from the fact that when Christ bore the penalty of the law it was necessary for him to die, Heb. ix. 22. 4. Why do the justified die? Justification changes the entire federal relation of its subject to the law, and raises him for ever above all the penal consequences of sin. Death, therefore, while remaining a part of the penalty of the unsatisfied law in relation to the unjust, is, like all other afflictions, changed, in relation to the justified, into an element of improving discipline. It is made necessary for them from the present constitution of the body, while it is to both body and soul the gateway of heaven. They are made free from its sting and fear, 1 Cor. xv. 55, 57; Heb. ii. 15. They are now "blessed" in death, because they "die in the Lord," Rev. xiv. 13; and they shall at last be completely delivered from its power, when the last enemy shall be destroyed, 1 Cor. xv. 26. 5. What evidence have we of the immateriality of the soul, and what argument may be derived from that source in proof of its continued existence after death? For the evidence establishing the immateriality of the soul, see chapter i., question 32. Now although the continued existence of any creature must depend simply upon the will of its Creator, that will may either be made known by direct revelation, or inferred in any particular instance by analogical reasoning from what is known of his doings in other cases. As far as the argument from analogy goes, it decidedly confirms the belief that a spiritual substance is, as such, immortal. The entire range of human experience fails to make us acquainted with a single instance of the annihilation of an atom of matter,-i.e., of matter as such. Material bodies, organized or chemically compounded, or mere mechanical aggregations, we observe constantly coming into existence, and in turn passing away, yet never through the annihilation of their elementary constituents or component parts, but simply from the dissolution of that relation which these parts had temporarily sustained to each other. Spirit, however, is essentially simple and single, and therefore incapable of that dissolution of parts to which material bodies are subject. We infer, therefore, that spirits are immortal, since they cannot be subject to that only form of death of which we have any knowledge. CHAPTER CHAPTER 6. What argument in favour of the immortality of the soul may be derived from its imperfect development in this world? In every department of organized life every individual creature, in its normal state, tends to grow toward a condition of complete development, which is the perfection of its kind. The acorn both prophesies and grows toward the oak. Every human being, however, is conscious that in this life he never attains that completeness which the Creator contemplated in the ideal of his type; he has faculties undeveloped, capacities unfulfilled, natural desires unsatisfied; he knows he was designed to be much more than he is, and to fill a much higher sphere. As the prophetic reason of the Creator makes provision for the butterfly through the instinct of the caterpillar, so the same Creator reveals the immortal existence of the soul in a higher sphere by means of its conscious limitations and instinctive movements in this. 7. What argument on this subject may be derived from the distributive justice of God? It is an invariable judgment of natural reason, and a fundamental doctrine of the Bible, that moral good is associated with happiness, and moral evil with misery, by the unchangeable nature and purpose of God; but the history of all individuals and communities alike establishes the fact that this life is not a state of retribution, that here wickedness is often associated with prosperity, and moral excellence with sorrow: we must hence conclude that there is a future state, in which all that appears at present inconsistent with the justice of God shall be adjusted. See Ps. lxxiii. 8. How do the operations of conscience point to a future state? Conscience is the voice of God in the soul, which witnesses to our sinfulness and ill-desert, and to his essential justice. Except in the case of those who have found refuge in the righteousness of Christ, every man feels that his moral relations to God are never settled in this life; and hence the characteristic testimony of the human conscience, in spite of great individual differences as to light, sensibility, etc., has always been coincident with the word of God, that "after death comes the JUDGMENT." 9. How is this doctrine established by the general consent of man- CHAPTER kind? This has been the universal faith of all men, of all races, and in all ages. Universal consent, like every universal effect, must be referred to an equally universal cause; and this consent, uniform among men differing in every other possible respect, can be referred to no common origin other than the constitution of man's common nature, which is the testimony of his Maker. 10. Show that the Old Testament teaches the same distinction between soul and body that is taught in the New Tes tament. 1. In the account of the creation. The body was formed of the dust of the earth, and the soul in the image of the Almighty, Gen. i. 26, ii. 7. 2. In the definition of death, Eccles. xii. 7: "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it." See also Eccles. iii. 21. 11. What does the Old Testament teach concerning sheol? and how is it shown, from the usage of that word, that the immortality of the soul was a doctrine of the ancient cove nant? Sheol is derived from the verb, to ask, expressing the sense of our English proverb, that "the grave crieth Give, give." It is used in the Old Testament to signify, in a vague and general sense, the state of the departed, both the good and bad, intermediate between death and the resurrection of the righteous, Hosea xiii. 14; generally invested with gloomy associations; and indefinitely referred to the lower parts of the earth, Deut. xxxii. 22, Amos ix. 2. Thus it is used for the grave as the receptacle of the body after death, Gen. xxxvii. 35, Job xiv. 13; but principally to designate the receptacle of departed spirits, without explicit reference to any division between the stations allotted to the righteous and the wicked. That they were active and conscious in this state appears to be indicated by what is revealed of Samuel, 1 Sam. xxviii. 7-20; Isa. xiv. 15-17. With regard to the good, however, the residence in sheol was looked upon only as intermediate be XXXIV. XXXIV. CHAPTER tween death and a happy resurrection, Ps. xlix. 15. In their treatment of this whole subject, the Old Testament Scriptures rather take the continued existence of the soul for granted than explicitly assert it.* 12. What is the purport of our Saviour's argument on this subject against the Sadducees? Luke xx. 37, 38. Long after the death of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Jehovah designated himself to Moses as their God, Ex. iii. 6. But, argues Christ against the Sadducees, who denied the resurrection of the dead, "he is the God, not of the dead, but of the living." This more immediately proves the immortality of their souls, but as God is the covenant God of persons, and as the persons of these patriarchs included alike body and soul, this argument likewise establishes the ultimate immortality of the body also,-i.e., of the entire person. 13. What passages of the Old Testament assert or imply the hope of a state of blessedness after death? Num. xxiii. 10; Job xix. 26, 27; Ps. xvi. 9-11, xvii. 15, xlix. 14, 15, lxxiii. 24-26; Isa. xxv. 8, xxvi. 19; Hosea xiii. 14; Dan. xii. 2, 3, 13. 14. What other evidence does the Old Testament afford of the continued existence of the soul? 1. The translations of Enoch and Elijah, and the temporary reappearance of Samuel, Gen. v. 24; Heb. xi. 5; 2 Kings ii. 11; 1 Sam. xxviii. 7-20. 2. The command to abstain from the arts of necromancy implies the prevalent existence of a belief that the dead still continue in being in another state, Deut. xviii. 11, 12. 3. In their symbolical system, Canaan represents the permanent inheritance of Christ's people, and the entire purpose of the whole Old Testament revelation, as apprehended by Old Testament believers, had respect to a future existence and inheritance after death. This is directly asserted in the New Testament, Acts xxvi. 6-8; Heb. xi. 10-16; Eph. i. 14. · Fairbairn's Herm. Manual; Josephus' Ant., xviii. 1. |
