The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1892-02-18
RESURRECTION AND FINAL
JUDGMENT.
By the Reverend Edmond B.
Fairfield, DID,, LID.
IBibliotheca Sacra, Oberlin, OIL

[Bibliotheca Sacra, Oberlin, OIL
l used to believe that the resurrec-
ton and the final judgment came at
the end of this worlds history, mean
ing that by "this world" the terres-
trial globe on which we live, and its
mortal inhabitants. | confess that the
views / held were vauge, and certainly
they were not so much the results Of
my own Investigations as of kind OF
passive acceptance Of the dictums
taught me in one way and another
from my youth up. But | am sure
| held to the notion that there was
some time to be an end of mortal man
on this planet, and at that time the
resurrection aUas to take place. |
hold now an entirely different view
as to what the Bible teaches on this
subject, and l give you my reasons
for the surrender of former beliefs,
and leave you to Judge Of them.
1t is unfortunate that the English
word "world" should be employed
in our English Bible to translate two
entirely different Greek words-aion
and kosmos- words which, to the care
full student of the original, convey
distinct ideas. Aton is a word Of
time, kosmos of place. The Bible
never speaks of the end Of the kosmos,
no does it, in my judgment, employ
any form of words to express that idea.
So again; | had understood the
resurrection to be that of the mortal
body; and that it was still thing Of
the future with Noah and Abraham
and Isaac and Jacob and Moses and
Daniel and Paul and all the rest of
the faithful. But when l came to the
study of the word, and especially of
what Christ had said, some new
thoughts came to me. 81 am the
God of Abraham, and the God OF
Isaac and the God of Jacob. God is
not the God of the dead, but of the
living" was Christ's teaching, when
questioned by the Sadducees. What
ever the word resurrection" means,
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob had
passed through it when Moses stood at
the burning bush.
Now that the resurrection of their
mortal bodies had then taken place,
nobody pretends to claim. The term,
then, can mean only one oftwo things,
either the future life in disembodied
state, or the future life in spiritual
body. But the point to which your
attention is here called, is that in
conversation with the Sadducees, our
divine Lord makes no reference to
any future resurrection which Abraham
| and Isaac and Jacob were to pass
through; but he does make a direct
and unquestionable reference to an
event which had taken place already
when Moses stood at the bush fifteen
hundred years before Christ, and He
makes reference to it as showing 7ohai
the resurrection ofthe deaameanf,
The discovery of this fact led to The
study of other passages referring to the
subject-especially that in PauIs
Epistle to the Corinthians, in which
he distinctly asserts that flesh and
blood cannot inherit the Kingdom OF
God 4; and that other, "lt is sown
a natural body, i, is raised spiritual
5ody." If there is natural body
there is also spiritual body. So little
by little l found myself coming to the
conclusion that this natural body was
made simply for this world, and thai
| should not have the least need Of il,
or of any part of it hereafter tha
the spiritual body was probably alread,
in existence. awaiting my needs wher
this earthly house of my tabernacle
shall be taken down. We shall no
for one moment be unclothed, but i!
an instant, in the twinkling Of an eye
we shall be clothed upon by our hous'
from heaven.
! The laying down of,he natusAl bod,
and the " standing up "(anasf.Isis
in the spiritual body is the resurrection
and it takes ylace at the moment q
death. To be absent from the na,ntu
body, is to be present with the Lord
and never for one moment does III
apostle hint at being present with tn
Lord, except in the house not mad'
with hands, and that house is ia
spiritual body. 1t seems to me there
can be no mistake about this being tn
teaching Of Paul.
Then as to the time OF the "hna
Judgment" | had believed and taugh
that this also was at the end oi tn
cosmos. But the question X, wha
says the Word? A very impor'an
passage reads thus: "It is appointe'
znto men once to die and after tn
the Judgment" How long after this
Are all the righteous dead from Adar
onward still in suspense! Or ha
Chris, already said to them, Com
We blessed Of My Father, inherit III
Kingdom prepared for you from tn