The fool-killer., 1919-09-01

same time. And if you were to
never again have bodily life your
soul would never again have con-
scious existence. But back of
your present life stands the fact
that God intends for you to live
again, and men cannot destroy
that fact. The hope of the res
direction bridges over the
stream of death and makes it
proper to say that the conscious
entity which we speak of as
the soul, although for the time
being rendered unconscious. is
not finally destroyed. But if you
could set aside the hope of the
resurrection, then when a man
killed your body he would have
finally and utterly killed the
whole thing. That would be the
last of you.
The verse under consideration
says that God is able to DE-
STROY both soul and body. But
remember this-if the soul were
immortal, God Himself could not
destroy it. You can't twist the
word DESTROY into meaning
eternal torment in hell. When
thing is DESTROYED it does
not exist, and as long as a soul
exists in torment that soul has
not been DESTROYED.
The manner in which God can
and will destroy both soul and
body is this: When sinner
goes into the SECOND DEATH
(from which there is to be nc
resulTection) then his whole be-
ing is utterly gone forever. That
viii indeed be ut - extinction
of being.
The FIRST DEATH certainly
WOULD be utter extinction Of
being except fol. the hope of the
resurrection. But that hope
bridges the chasm and makes us
look upon the first death as g
SLEEP from which there is to
be an awakening. But, mark
you this, when people are
! ASLEEP they do not know any
thing.
Now as to Paul's desire tx
depart and be with Christ"
If we didn't have any more OF
Paul's words to compare with
this, there might be chance to
make it mean what you think il
means. There is no denying
] that the language in that pal'ti-
cular place lends itself very
easily to that Interpretation
But when you examine the
words carefully and without any
preconceived notions, they dc
not necessarily mean that at all
Poor old Paul had a pretty tough
; time of it in his earthly life. HI
was constantly being prosecuted
by powerful enemies, and he sui
fered for the truths sake abou
: as much as any man could suf
. fer. And of course it was hu
/ manly natural for him to some
times wish that his trouble
were at an end. He had DE
SIRE to depart and be witt
Christ, but there is not a wore
3 to indicate that he EXPECTEI
> to be with Christ as soon as h
died. He just wished that tn
/ life of trouble and the sleep 0
G death were all over and that tn
4 time had come for him to b
with Christ in the Kingdom o
l peace and happiness which is We
Q to be set up on the earth. H
was looking forward to tha
e happy time with longing ant
s cipation, just as every tru
Christian does today. But fo
S the sake of his friends whom h
d might bless and comfort by liN
e ing among them, he was willin
Il to wait and face the struggle {
life awhile longer.
Various other places in Paul
: writings show that he had n
{ expectations of going to heave
" when he died. We must NJ
y Jump at conclusions from reat
II ing just one little paragraph
We should read and study all
II Paul's writing and see whethe
: the rest of it bears out til
Z thought of going to heaven {
u death. And we will find that
: does not. Right here in tn
so,,oo ooicf1o fa thn philinniaT