Death Is A Sleep

By the grace of God we are going to once more study the state of the dead. By that I mean, what are the dead doing? What happens when you die? Some would say that it's easy, they know what happens. Then they proceed to explain that when you die you go to God, you transform somehow and you live with God free from all pain and heartache. And, these same people will turn around and say things about their dead loved one, such as- 'They are still with me, they know I love them, they are watching over me.' And these people treat their dead ones as if that were true by talking about them to others as if it were. They wish them greetings on holidays and such. They let everyone know that their love for that person was deep and real and they tell that dead loved one over and over of that love.

Do I sound awful? Yes. Especially to those who believe all that I just said above. I sound totally awfully, uncaring, callous, heartless, evil, and I could go on. I know how I sound and I don't care how people perceive me, I only care about the TRUTH, not my truth, but God's truth.

I only want people to know the truth so they aren't duped by a lie that Satan has perpetuated sin the first lie to Eve, that she wouldn't die.

This time I'm going to start this study from another source… For now, please just read… 

'Thoughts for the Candid

By Elder J. N. Andrews

Table of Contents

Which of the Two is the Gloomy Doctrine?  2………...

An Examination of Certain Scriptures 3………...

Thoughts on Matt. 10:28 and Luke 12:4,5 5 ..............

A Remarkable Corner-Stone 8 .............

WHICH OF THE TWO IS THE GLOOMY DOCTRINE?

The sleep of the dead is often designated a gloomy doctrine. To many it is chilling, repulsive, forbidding. But the immortality of the soul, and the reward of the saints at death, -- this is declared to be a great joy, the fruition of the "blessed hope."

But stop, friends, a few moments. Be not too hasty. Wait long enough to try the justice of this objection in the balances of reason.

You say that the doctrine is full of gloom, and that the departed saints would experience a bitter disappointment in being consigned to the grave for long ages, instead of being received into glory at death. You think the idea full of gloom to the living, and dreadful to the dead. But you forget that, if the doctrine be true, there is no chill, no gloom, no darkness, no disappointment, no lapse of time, no waiting through long ages, to the dead. The interval between their decease and their resurrection will be to them no time at all. The twinkling of an eye, in which the righteous will be changed to immortality, will be as long

to them as the whole period during which righteous Abel has slept in death will be to him. And to him, so far as his own knowledge of the case is concerned, it will be precisely as if he entered heaven at the very moment he was slain.

You say that this helps the matter a little; but that, for all this, the sleep of the dead will no more compare in consolation with the soul's immortality and the reward at death than the desert of Sahara will compare in beauty with the garden of Eden. But study a little further, friends. You may discover facts that will change this opinion. You find great consolation in the thought that the soul is immortal, and that men are rewarded as soon as they die.

Answer me a few questions. How large a part of mankind lead lives of holiness, and die with good evidence of their acceptance with God?

Truth compels you to answer that a minority are all that can be said to do this. What becomes, then, of the great majority of men, who have died out of Christ, and entered

their reward? O, it is taught that they have gone into the furnace of fire, where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth! What is the condition, then, at this very moment, of the greater part of the dead, according to this cheering doctrine? You have to answer, They are in unspeakable torment. You admit that this dreadful fact somewhat abates the consolation you have hitherto found in this doctrine.

But I want you to answer one question more. If the soul is immortal, as you affirm, how long are these impenitent men thus to suffer? You answer again, and this time surely with a shudder, THEY MUST SUFFER TO ALL ETERNITY. Before we part, will you not own that yours is a gloomy doctrine? Is it not a relief to your mind to think that men are to be judged BEFORE they are rewarded or punished, and that till the day of Judgment men wait for their reward? And is not that doctrine best which teaches that immortality is the gift of God, and that it is given only to the righteous?

AN EXAMINATION OF CERTAIN SCRIPTURES.

The Prayer of the Souls Under the Altar.

"How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" Rev. 6:10.

The advocates of the kindred popular doctrines of the immortality of the soul, and that the souls of the righteous go to heaven at death, believe and teach that the souls of martyrs are alive under an altar in heaven, and that they literally pray in the above words for vengeance

on their persecutors. They do not seem to see that there is anything inconsistent in the idea that the souls of the martyrs in the presence of God, where there is fullness of joy, should be able to think only of their past tortures, and be entirely given up to anxiety for vengeance on their persecutors, who had hastened their arrival to their state of blessedness.

Nor do they seem to realize that such prayers are not only unlike the spirit of Christ, who prayed in an hour of extreme anguish, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do;" but that they are unlike the spirit of the noble martyr Stephen, who cried with his dying breath, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." Luke 23:34; Acts 7:60. Nor do they explain how such a prayer can be offered literally while the Saviour stands before the ark of God's

law as a great sacrifice, and the Spirit of God strives with sinful men to lead them to repentance. But let this case stand while we look at another.

The parable of the rich man and Lazarus teaches, to the same class of people, that the righteous at death go to heaven, and the wicked at death go into the flames of hell. See Luke 16:19-31. It also shows them that the wicked in their torment are not only in plain sight of the righteous in their blessedness, but that the two places are within speaking distance of each other, and that the two parties converse together. Now let us put these two cases together.

The souls under the altar had only to look from their state of blessedness to see their persecutors in the flames of hell, or dropping, one by one, into this fiery gulf. Could the martyrs, with this terrible sight before them, pray, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" Would they have been bidden to wait yet a little season? Would they not rather have been directed to look across the great gulf, and see many of their persecutors already in torment, and others every moment arriving? Who does not see that these two cases, when taken together, completely refute the doctrine so often drawn from each taken alone!'

To be continued…

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Truly the Lord reveals His truth to us! He speaks in parables so often, and He speaks in parables because of this--

Mat_13:13  Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

Those who want the truth more than cherished fables will find it through the Lord, through the Holy Spirit.

May we find only the truth as we continue this study.
 

Please LORD bless us with only YOUR truth! In Your love!