The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1912-04-16

llkAolOk k10oEllJJ be not risen, tneH
is our preaching
vain, and your faith also vain; yea,
and we are found false witnesses Of
God. Then they also which
are fallen asleep in Christ are perish
ed" q Corinthians XIV, IA, 10, 49, He
said
The faith once delivered to the saints
by Jesus and the Apostles in respect to
the resurrection of the dead has been
very generally lost. Christian people
profess a belief In the resurrection, be-
cause they find it stated in the Bible,
vet they are continually in difficulty
in their endeavor to make the Scrip
tural teaching on the subject square
with some of the unscriptural theories
received into the Church, and tncor-
porated into many of the creeds during
the Ozark Ages"
st. Paul warned the Church against
these human philosophers, and called
them science, falsely so called, which
makes void the Word of God. These
errors have been instrumental in divid-
ing the faith Of Gods people into six
hundred denominations, with six hun
bred different professions. If Gods
people could all come back to the sim
plicity Of the Bibles teaching in re
spect to the resurrection of the dead.
all of these differences would speedily
disappear. Gods Word would be seen
to be beautiful and harmonious, salts
factory to the consecrated intellect, as
none of our sectarlan creeds are.
Really the doctrine Of the resurrec-
ton of the dead has been repudiated
by all denominations, not willingly, not
intentionally, but perforce, as 1t were.
An opposite theory received and in
trenched in the minds gives no place
for the doctrine of the resurrection, as
the Bible presents it, Consequently
we have twisted the doctrine of the
resurrection and recite. 81 believe in
the resurrection of the body"
Yet even this perverted view of the
resurrection is not satisfactory to those
who hold it. They wish many time
that the doctrine Of the resurrection
were not in the Bible. so much diff
ference does it cause. For instance.
how inconsistent it seems that they
should say. 81 believe in the resurrec-
ton of the body" and then say, as
many do. Dying is but going home, get
ting rid of the mortal flesh, and being
freed from its limitations. If it is a
blessing to die and get free from the
It1,a{f 70 Of fhn III ho~ =
be a blessing to be reincarcerated in
the body. and be obliged to keep 1t
through all eternity? Such Is the in
consistency of the resurrection, how
ever, from the general view.
The Bible Resurrection Reasonable.
There is nothing inconsistent in the
Bible presentation of the resurrection.
Not from the Bible, but from men.
comes the suggestion of the resurrec-
ton of the body The Bible Invariably
refers to the resurrection of the soul.
1t is the soul that dies; as we read,
1.-THE soul that sinneth, it shall die
Adam was created living soul, but
his living soul came under the death
cCbOChNC bCSdhsC tAC NAOODCJ GU COus
1t was his soul that was redeemed
from death, not his body. 81 will re-
deem thy life Qook up the word life to
see If it is from the Hebrew word
meaning soul, and if so, add the word
soul after the word life, In parenthesis)
from destruction" Psalm CHI, 4.
To accomplish this redemption we
read that Christ Jesus poured out His
soul unto DEATH" HE made His soul
an offering for sim" Moreover, we are
particularly told that it was the soul
of Jesus that was raised from the
dead: Thou wilt not leave My soul In
Sheol" st. Peter quotes this statement
as prophetical of the resurrection of
Jesus, that His soul was not left in
hGdes; God raised Jesus from the dead
on the third day. With what body do
they come? is totally different ques
ton. Some of the dead souls, in the
resurrection, will come forth with spir
it bodies. and others with human bod
les, according to the Bible. But the
important point is, that it is the soul
the being. that comes forth, that is res
urrected-not the body If the sOW
dies, as the Bible declares, then mani
testify the soul should be resurrected.
The difficulty with us has been that
we "have made void the Word Of
God by our traditions" We receiv
ed from the Grecian philosophers ira
dition which Socrates and Plato both
alx fad hot MIR I'm
man being dies he does not really die
The soul, It is claimed, cannot-die, but.
whenever the soul gets out Of the body,
the body dies. How strange 1t seems
that we all, as intelligent, thoughtful
beings, have accepted this heather
philosophy, without a word of Scrip
ture for its support, and with hundreds
Of Scriptures to condemn It'll
We can see how the heather philoso-
piers might be led to conjure up such
a theory, because of their desire to be
lieve In future life, and because they
had no revelation from God respecting
future life. They therefore tried
their best to convince themselves that
man really does not die-that no man
can die. The Bible theory is the very
reverse of this, namely, that man Is
not merely a body, that he is soul,
thinking, sentient being. Neither Is he
a bodiless being, and indeed he cannot
be being at all without body. His
body may change, as science declares
it does gradually, hour by hour, until
a complete change Is effected in seven
years.
Thus a man, soul. sentient being,
may in a life Of fifty years have slough
ed off gradually sufficient matter to
have composed seven bodies. But the
moment the sloughing off of this dy
ing matter and the substitution of liv-
ing matter ceases, we have death; and
as soon as the body dies the soul dies
that is, the intelligent being ceases
There can be no thinking without a
brain, no breathing without lungs no
maintenance of life in any sense of the
word without a body.
This would have been q total de
struction Of the soul had not God spe-
cially provided, as the Prophet ce-
clares. that He would redeem mans
life (souD from destruction, through
the redemptive work accomplished By
Jesus in giving His soul an offering for
mans sin, and thus making possible
mans resurrection from the dead
/. 1t is in consequence of this Divine
provision through Christ for a resur-
rection Of humanity that the Scrip
lures speak Of death as merely fall
ing asleep for a time, to wait for the
new body in the resurrection, rather