Book-13-Where are Our Dead?
Where are Our Dead?
Text.—“And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”—Heb 9:27. WHEN just a young man the writer "stood in the presence of deep sorrow. A young father had heard the call. His body lay in the casket in the cold embrace of death. The little daughter, clinging to the skirts of a broken-hearted mother, cried: “Let me kiss him too.” I found myself asking: “Why all of this sorrow? What is the cause of death?” The answer came: “By the transgression of the law sin entered the world, and death is the result of sin.” When the minister of a church in Virginia, one of the elders invited me to go with him to the cemetery—the city of the dead. Without thinking, I told him I had no interest in that place, and did not care to go. I noticed tears welling up in his eyes and running down his cheeks, when he replied that he did have an interest there. I saw my mistake. Poor fellow! It had been but a short time since he had taken all that remained visible of his child and his devoted companion, and in that sacred enclosure he had placed it beneath the sod!
Sooner or later all of us will have an interest in this city. At this very moment many of us have a desire to steal away from the busy scenes of life and spend hours among the marble slabs. And yet, our loved ones are not there. The grave holds only that which is mortal.
There is a stream whose narrow tide The known and unknown worlds divide, Where all must go; Its waveless waters, dark and deep, ’Mid sullen silence, downward sweep With moanless flow.
I saw where, at that dreary flood, A smiling infant prattling stood, Whose hour was come.
Untaught of ill, it neared the tide, Sank as to cradled rest, and died, Like going home.
Followed with languid eye anon, A youth diseased and pale and wan; And there alone He gazed upon the leaden stream, And feared to plunge—I heard a scream, And lie was gone. And then a form in manhood’s strength Came bustling on, till there at length He saw life’s bound.
He shrank, and raised the bitter prayer Too late—his shriek of wild despair The waters drowned.
Next stood, upon that surgeless shore, A being bowed with many a score Of toilsome years.
Earth-bound and sad, he left the bank, Back turned his dimming eye, and sank, Ah! full of fears.
How bitter must thy waters be, Death! How hard a thing, ah, me!
It is to die! mused—when to that stream again Another child of mortal man With smiles drew nigh.
’Tis the last pang,’ he calmly said;
‘To me, O Death! thou hast no dread;
Savior, I come!
Spread but thine arms on yonder shore— I see!
Ye waters, bear me o’er;
There is my home.’
Man is a triune being. He is composed of body, soul and spirit. “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1Th 5:23).
God breathed into man the breath of lives and he became a living soul. He possesses chemical life, vegetable life, animal life and spiritual life. Like the temple, he has the outer court—his body—which was made first, and of the earth, and is therefore earthy; the holy place—the soul —which is the life, the connecting link between the body and the spirit; and the most holy place—the spirit—which is the part that thinks, loves, chooses and lives on forever. The body which is made out of the earth is the house in which the spirit lives. The spirit came from God (for we are also his offspring); the soul which is physical life binds body and spirit together.
Death is separation. Physical death is the separation of the spirit from the body—the opening of the door and the going out of the occupant. “For it is soon cut off, and we fly away” (Psa 90:10). Notice that it is we that fly away.
“Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?... Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it” (Ecc 3:21; Ecc 12:7). The spiritual death was the separation of man from God when he transgressed the law in the Garden of Eden; and the second death spoken of in the Word will be man’s final separation from God. Life is union or fellowship with God. Adam brought death, and Christ, the second Adam, the Lord of glory, brought life (1 John 1; John 14:6). Disobedience separates me from God; obedience unites me with God.
Man does not possess a spirit; he is a spirit, and possesses a body. You do not read anything in the Bible about an immortal soul; neither do you read of a mortal soul. Mortality and immortality have to do with the body and not with the spirit. The body is mortal because of Adam’s sin; and it will get its immortality in the resurrection through Christ. Christ is the only one who has immortality.
Read 1Ti 6:15-16; Rom 8:23; 1Co 15:21; 1Co 15:25; 1Co 15:42; 1Co 15:58.
“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body” (Rom 6:12). “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you” (Rom 8:11).
“For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1Co 15:53). The body, which is mortal, sleeps in the dust of the earth; but the spirit, which emanated from God, must live on in a conscious state somewhere. It must either exist in God’s presence or in the presence of the devil. But someone is ready to ask: “Can the spirit exist apart from the body?” Evidently Paul thought so when he said: “I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body I cannot tell: or whether out of the body I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell; God knoweth;) how that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for any man to utter” (2Co 12:2-4). The writer believes that this man was Paul and that he had reference to the time when he was stoned and left for dead at Lystra. He speaks of the dual man in 2Co 4:16. "For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.” Let us not forget that the real man is the spirit, and that the body is the house in which the man lives, while sojourning in this world. If the man so desires, he can give his house to destruction. (See 1Co 13:3.) Can the man live in a conscious state when out of this house? Moses and Elijah were evidently conscious when on the Mount of Transfiguration, and surely they were not in those mortal bodies they possessed when on earth. (See Matthew 17.) When Christ spake of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who had long ago departed this life, he spake of them as being alive and conscious. (See Mat 22:23-33.)
Paul evidently believed this doctrine when he said: “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven; if so that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (for we walk by faith, not by sight:) we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labor, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad” (2Co 5:1-11).
Peter tells us that Christ preached to the spirits in prison—those who were dead—during the three days he was in the unseen world (1Pe 3:17-21; 1Pe 4:6).
Now, if Christ preached, he must have been conscious, and those to whom he preached must have been conscious also, or the preaching could not have done them much good. Let us take the Word just as it reads and not try to explain it away. When the spirit leaves the body it does not cease to live. It is even more alive. Let me illustrate it in this way: In my native county in old Virginia a beautiful spring bursts out from the mountain-side; its clear, sparkling, limpid waters meander down the valley, percolating through the rocks, laughing and singing as it widens and deepens in its course to the great ocean. Abruptly this beautiful stream sinks into the earth; it disappears from our vision; but it is not lost. It is moving on underground; and, after awhile, we see it as it bursts out into New River, where it unites its music with the millions of little streams with which it is now having fellowship. This represents the life of the Christian. At first it makes its appearance in the form of the little child; it grows and deepens in experience maybe for threescore years and ten, when it abruptly disappears from our vision, and there in the unseen world it moves on and on; until the judgment, when we shall see what we thought had been lost is now visible in the great ocean of eternity, having fellowship with that innumerable company, the blood-washed throng who have made their robes white in the blood of the Lamb.
“Think of—
Stepping on shore, and finding it paradise! Of taking hold of a hand, and finding it Christ’s hand; Of breathing a new air, and finding it celestial air; Of feeling invigorated, and finding it spiritual strength; Of passing from storm and tempest to an unbroken calm; Of waking up, and finding it in the presence of Jesus.”
"Though I stoop into a dark, tremendous sea of cloud, It is but for a time. I press God’s lamp Close to my heart; its splendor, soon or late, Will pierce the gloom; I shall emerge somewhere.’’ Does the spirit go to its final place of reward at death? We think not. All go to the same place, but are in different states. All are conscious of their doom —and happy or miserable, as the case may be—and are awaiting their final reward. Let us illustrate: A and B are in prison, charged with murder. A is innocent and knows he can establish his innocence. He longs for the court to convene, when he shall get his liberty. He is guilty and knows his guilt will be proved. He is miserable and dreads for the court to convene. It means his condemnation. Both are in the same place, but are separated by a hall-way; they can see, and talk to each other; and, while they are under the same roof and within the same walls, they are separated. This is illustrated in the sixteenth chapter of Luke. The rich man and Lazarus are in the unseen world— Hades; but they are in different states; a great gulf separates them. They can talk to each other and see each other; but the gulf is fixed and they cannot cross it. One is happy and the other is in torment. Each knows what the verdict is to be. In the twenty-eighth chapter of First Samuel we have an account of the witch, and Samuel being brought up. Samuel said: “Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up?... And to-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me.”
Now, we do not believe that Samuel, the prophet, the man after God’s own heart, went to hell—the place of the wicked. Neither do we believe that Saul, the wicked king, the man who was so vile that God would have nothing to do with him, and his wicked sons, who were in league with the devil, went to heaven. But we learn from Scripture that they are to be together. Where? In Hades— the unseen world, there to remain till the day of judgment. Jesus says: “Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of condemnation ’’ (John 5:28-29).
Daniel says: “And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time; and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book:. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever” (Dan 12:1-3). Where are our children—infants’?
Let us read Revelation, chapter 14: “And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: and they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the first- fruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God” (14:2-5). Who are these who have the Father’s name written upon their foreheads; who are without fault, without guile; and who are the first fruits of redemption; and who sing a song that no man can sing; and who follow the Lamb whithersoever lie goeth? They cannot be men and women, for they are with fault, and guile is in, or has been in, their mouths. They sing a song that no man can sing. Who are they? We believe that they are those who die in infancy—before they have committed sin. They are redeemed without any volition of their own and are the first fruits of redemption: man is redeemed by his own volition when he accepts the gospel plan of salvation. These, of the one hundred and forty and four thousand—a definite number for an indefinite number—follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. When shall we go to our final place of reward? When Christ gets the place ready for us. When he gets this place ready he will come for us. Hear his sweet promise: “Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:1-3). He is now preparing this place for his own. He will build the mansion, but we must furnish the material. It is said that a wealthy society woman dreamed that she had died and had gone to heaven. She saw one of the most magnificent mansions her eyes had ever gazed upon. She asked the apostle Peter to tell her who occupied that house. Peter told her that Sister A would live in it. She exclaimed: “This is the name of my servant-girl."Peter said: “She sent up the material which represented her daily life, and the Master constructed the building out of this material.” “Where shall I live!” she asked. Peter pointed to a cabin. The woman said: “No; I shall not live in such a place. I lived in a beautiful mansion down in yonder world. I shall not live in a place of this sort.” Peter replied: “We did the best we could for you with the material you furnished.” She awoke with the prayer: “Lord, send me back and give me another chance to furnish better material for my home.”
Paul tells us in 1Co 15:20-21 : “Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept.” Now, if Christ is the first fruits, no one ever came from the dead to die no more before his resurrection. We learn that some were raised by miraculous power, but they died again. But we are told that when Christ came from among the dead he abolished the intermediate state and took all of the redeemed to heaven with him. If that be true, it seems that David would have been among that number; but we hear Peter say, after the resurrection and the ascension: “Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day... For David is not ascended into heaven” (Acts 2:29; Acts 2:34). The New Testament speaks of a certain day when we shall be judged and come into the possession of our reward. “And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:40). See the logical statement made by Paul: “But every man in his own order: Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign till lie hath put all enemies under his feet” (1Co 15:22-28).
“For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith [past]: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness [present], which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day [future]; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing” (2Ti 4:6-8).
“Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1Co 15:51-54).
Those who are dead shall be raised, and those who are here at Christ’s coming-shall not die, but be changed. Jesus said at the grave of Lazarus: “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die” (John 11:25-26). Those who remain at his coming must be changed, and in the change become immortal. “But I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent [go before] them which are asleep.* For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first [that is, before the living shall be caught up]. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1Th 4:13-17). [*Remember that sleep refers to the body.] At this time we shall get our reward. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad” (2Co 5:10). “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works” (Rev 20:12-15). (See Matthew 25 and Rev 22:10-12.)
“And I saw a new heaven* and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and shall be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful” (Rev 21:1-5). [*Heaven here is the paradise or the state of the saved in the unseen world. The new Jerusalem is the church of Christ—the redeemed.] In this world of sorrow we shall shed tears of grief. Do you not remember when you were a little tot, how you would go to your mother with your troubles, with tears streaming down your cheeks, and she would tenderly put her arms around you, take you upon her lap and kiss away the tears? Soon you would forget all about your troubles and your heart would be full of joy. Some day, blessed be his name, our Lord will kiss away the tears, and we will forget all of our trials and cares and shall rejoice in his presence.
Death Becomes a Blessing. — This world is not our home. Man will become weary and tired of this earthly home. He has in him something that will after awhile long for eternity. I remember meeting an aged woman who sat and patiently waited to be removed. She complained of being lonesome. Her friends and associates had all gone, things had changed and she had outgrown her environments. The twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes gives a graphic description of old age. Read it.
THERE ISN’T ANY ONE FOR ME TO PLAY WITH ANY MORE. The glow is fading from the western sky, And, one by one, my comrades, as of yore, Have given up their play and said good-by;
There isn’t any one for me to play with any more.
Don’t cry, dear heart! for I am worn and old; No longer have I largeness in my store;
E’en love’s best gifts to me I could not hold;
There isn’t any one for me to play with any more.
I miss the tender handclasp of old friends, The kisses of loved ones gone before;
’Tis lonely, when the heart first comprehends There isn’t any one for me to play with any more.
I need these loving hearts, so fond and real;
I want them in my arms, as heretofore; When they are reached, I shall no longer feel There isn’t any one for me to play with any more.
—James Terry White.
Someone may desire to know what we mean by the “unseen world.” It is all about us. If we could only pull aside the thin veil, we should be able to see the unnumbered host. We believe that they are with us, and near us, and are looking down upon us in our walks of life. Read Hebrews, eleventh chapter, and you will have mentioned some of the number that compose the “great cloud of witnesses” as mentioned in the twelfth chapter. The Lord help us to be true and faithful, as we think of the beautiful land of the dead. By the hut of the peasant, where poverty weeps, And nigh to the towers of the king, Close, close by the cradle where infancy sleeps And joy loves to linger and sing;
Lies a garden of light filled with +heaven’s perfume, Where never a teardrop is Shed, And the rose and the lily are ever in bloom— This the beautiful land of the dead.
Each moment of life a messenger comes And beckons man over the way;
Through the heart-sobs of women and the rattle of drums The army of mortals obey.
Few lips that have kissed not a motionless brow; A face from each fireside has fled, And we know that our loved ones are watching us new In the beautiful land of the dead. Not a charm that we knew ere the boundary was crossed, As we stood in the valley alone; Not a trait that we prize in our darlings is lost—
They are fairer and lovelier grown. As the lily bursts forth, when the shadows of night Into bondage of daybreak are led, So they bask in the glow by the pillar of light. In the beautiful land of the dead.
Oh! the dead, our dead! Our beautiful dead!
They are close to the heart of eternity wed. When the last deed is done and the last word is said, We shall meet in the beautiful land of the dead.
—Unknown. May God comfort you in this dark hour; at a time when the heartstrings are breaking; when the clouds are dark and heavy, and he is anxious to help you to see the light, which after awhile shall come through the rift in the clouds: therefore he sends this token of love: “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee” (Psa 55:22). Hear him say to you:
"Child of my love, lean hard, And let me feel the pressure of thy care.
I know thy burden, child, I shaped it;
Poised it in mine own hand; made no proportion In its weight to thine unaided strength: For even as I laid it on, I said, I shall be near, and while he leans on me This burden shall be mine, not his; So shall I keep my child within the circling arms Of my own love. Here lay it down, nor fear To impose it on a shoulder which upholds The government of worlds. Yet closer come;
Thou art not near enough; I would embrace thy care So I might feel my Child reposing on my breast.
Thou lovest me? I knew it. Doubt not, then: