The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1912-04-12
Che soul, It Is claimed. cannot die. but.

dne soul, 1t ~ Canned. cannot Gle. OUT,
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 word of Scrip
ture for its support, and with hundreds
of Scriptures to condemn it!
We can see how the heather philoso-
pliers might be led to conjure up such
o theory. because of their desire to be-
lieve in future life, and because they
had no revelation from God respecting
a 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, a
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 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 body.
This would have been a total de-
struction Of the soul had not God spe-
cially provided, as the Prophet de-
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 resur
rection of humanity that the Scrip
lures speak of death as merely fall
ing asleep for time, to wait for the
new body in the resurrection, rather
than to speak Of us as dying as the
brute beasts. The word sleep implies
that in the Divine purpose future life
is intended. and will eventually be
given.
"But Now Is Christ Rrsen."
St. Paul does not leave the matter
of Christ's resurrection undecided. He
positively affirms that. Christ is risen
from the dead" and that. thus risen,
"He is the First fruits Of those that
slept" which implies that when He was
raised the others still slept. Jesus slept
a part of those three days, from the
time He died until the Father raised
Him from the dead. from hades. from
shcol. from the tomb. on the third day,
He, as the First-fruits of the sleeping
ones. is an example and guarantee
of the fulfillment of the Divine prom
Use. that "there shall he a resurrection
of the dead. both Of the just and Of the
unjust"
1t bchooves us to take decided
stand. either with the Grecian philoso-
piers and their theories. or with the
Bible. The two are In conflict and
whoever attempts to hold both is in
confusion. If the dead are not dead,
then no human being is dead. And il
no one is dead. how could there be a
resurrection of the dead?
The inconsistency Of the theory held
respecting the resurrection of the body
has invited very reasonable and just
criticism. The skeptic asks. "How
could the body be resurrected. after
it has gone to dust and after the dust
has been scattered to the four winds?"
They tell us Of grave that was OPEN
ed near an apple tree. and it was found
that root from the tree had entered
the coffin and practically absorbed the
corpse. from which it had produced
thousands of apples. which in turn
had been shipped to various parts of
the world. some Of the poorer grades
being fed to hogs. whose hams were
cured and sent abroad and thus passed
into other human beings. to become
parts of still other human bodies The
question is a proper one. but>it is an
unanswerable one from the standpoint
Of our former misbelief and our poor
attempt to combine human philoso-
ply and Divine Revelation.
But such question brings no con.
sternation to the Bible student who
follows the Scriptures alone. The
Scriptures never speak of the resurrec-
ton Of our bodies. They do tell of the
resurrection of the soul. and that in
the resurrection God giveth it 1.-THE
souD body as it pleaseth Him.
How reasonable it will be for the
world to be awakened in practically
the condition in which they went down
into death! And these will experience.
if willing and obedient. gradual res
direction or raising up to the image
and likeness of Father Adam in his
perfection. But some in the resurrec-
ton will receive spirit bodies like unto
the angels. and some like unto the
body Of Christ in His resurrection,
which Saul Of Tarsus beheld-" shining
above the brightness OF the sun at
MONDAY"
The class that is promised resur-
rection in spirit bodies is the Church
the sanity few who walk in the foot
steps Of Jesus. The begetting Of the
Holy Spirit which comes to these