Sequachee Valley news. (Sequachee [Sequatchie], Tenn.) 1896-1952, 1910-04-28

death Hence, it means absolute free
dom from death, which is peculiar to
God, alone. One great error with the
No-hellites is that they identify life
with existence, thus making things
identical which are not even homogen-
eous; but irreconcilably heterogeneous
All the leading theologians are frank
to admit that God is the only being in
the Universe who is absolutely free
from all liability of death. He is real
ly the only life in the universe,
whether spiritual or physical Con-
sequently He is the only dispenser of,
life. The angels are all finite beings,
originally created on probation, which
some of them forfeited, dude 81 be-
came demons, and were cast out into
darkness and perdition.
We must keep before our minds con-
stantly while investigating this COM
plicated subject, on which there has
been so much false teaching. the clear
distinction between life and existence
and death and non existence. AS God
alone is life, when that life is forfeit
cd by transgression, spiritual death
supervenes until the forfeited life is
restored by the Holy Spirit.
The No-hellite idea of humiliation
and nonentity is utterly alien to the
Bible as we'll as contradictory to all
true philosophy. While God, alone, is
immortal in the sense OF utter freedom
from all liability of death. and in this
respect standing alone in the universe,
we must remember there is such a
thing as immortal death, Il. e., death
that can never die), as well as i'm
mortal life. Death never does in any
case mean annihilation nor passing in
to nonentity, but only separation from
God, the fountain of all life, spiritual
and physical. Satan once rebelled
against God, and in this he separated
himself from God. His life imme-
diately departed, and his glory vanish
ed forever, yet there was no Interrupt
tion in his perpetual spiritual exist
ence. Consequently he exists today,
just as truly as the Son Of God Him
self, but be is the deadest thing in all
the universe. he is dead beyond any
power to restore him to life, or his
first estate He is the impersonation
OF immortal spiritual death. The
same is true of all his guilty confeder-
ates, there having been no break in
their perpetual existence from the mo-
ment of their creation to the present.
The No-hellites frequently play on
the word destruction, which frequent
ly occurs in the Bible, but never in
the sense of annihilation. A house is
destroyed by fire, but it is fact thor
oughly developed by chemistry and
philosophy that all the ashes and gases
evolved by the combustion weigh pre-
cisely as much as the material before
it was burnt, not an atom having pass
ed into annihilation. Hence destruct-
ion means only change of form. The
death of human body simply means
the separation of the soul from it.
The body weighs the same with no in
terruption in its physical existence
Nor will there ever be, as the resur-
rection trump is sure to find it. The
righteous have immortal life dispensed
from God; while the wicked possess
immortal death, dispensed from the
devil.
While the body, with no interruption
of continual existence, as in case OF
death, by the chemical laws, disinteg-
rates into the elements of which 1t
was composed, and which during life
are held together by the laws of vital
affinity, the soul when passing into
death, by reason of separation from
God, superinduced by transgression,
can never undergo disintegration. from
the simple fact that 1t is in its very
nature from the beginning Of Its exist
!, ence a unit, and not constituted of
parts which can be separated either
from the other.
Consequently, the immortality Of
the soul follows as logical sequence
from its innate character, and has been
so recognized even by the heathen
philosophers of all ages. who in the
absence of revealed truth, have been
more orthodox that the No-hellites.
Science abundantly reveals the per-
petuity of the body's existence unin-
terrupted by the Intervention OF death,
as 1t undergoes utter disintegration.
The heather philosopher lost sight OF
it's individuality and when Paul
preached to them on the Areopagus at
Athens the resurrection Of the dead, 1t
was such an utter novelty that they
were all dumfounded. Thus. while
human philosophy abundantly estab-
fishes the immortality of the soul. ev-
en- independently Of the revealed
word, we must go to the Bible to
prove the immortality of the body,
where it is abundantly revealed in the
glorious and inspiring doctrine OF the
resurrection. A climacteric confirma-
tion of the utter falsity of annihilation
we have in the fact that there will be
not only resurrection of the just. but
also of the unjust. confirmatory OF the