Pacific Christian messenger., September 21, 1878, Page 2, Image 2

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resurrection of the hotly, Yet if I , ha<l long been subject. Nineveh was-
all a parable. Suppose it was, did That is enough of this.
Jesus ever misrepresent facts in any I 4. The Sadueees came to Jesus, had as much glory as John describes the queen city of the East, possessing
—j j L TZ. --. t
I. N. Hodgen on Disembodied of his parables ! Were they not all1 supposing they could confute him on that he saw in that “ great company untold wealth and a vast population..
Spirit, Soul-Sleeping, Pan­ true to nature? What are pictures the subject of the resurrection and that no man could number, redeemed j But it was overwhelmed by the rising
I but representation of realities; and if spirits, Ac. But Jesus assures them out of every nation,” Ac., in their power of Babylon ; it was sacked and
theism, &c.
they do not this they are false, and that they “ err, not knowing the Scrip­ royal robes before the throne of God, burned to ashes; the Tigris over­
LETTKB ^11. ’
Jesus cannot be charged with false- tures.” Matt. xxii. 23. What a re­ I would think it glory enough for me. flowed its neglected embankments and
G. John xi. 24-2G. With this cita­ buried the ruins of the city in mud ;;
: hood or misrepresentation. This his- buke to all Sadueees or Maierialists,
Aiy'dear'and venerable Bro. S.:
tion
I will complete my argument on | the'terrible prophecy of Nahum was
suppose,
limy and
anu candidly
ouiuiuq to
iv . . tor^ being
o a parable, as you
j -------
rr-y-* I they err. All Materialists, then, are <
* . 1 want us calmly.
examine
examine the
the inayer, of Stephen' the 1 will not help you ; and if it be a pic- in error, the Savior being judge. I this line; and I fear I have made fulfilled,“ 1 will make thy grave, for
first
Christianmartyr.
j turfe, how terrible the reality pictured. ( What do the Sadueees believe ? No I this letter too Jong already, but I will thou art vile;” and not until 2,400*
first Christiarfi martyr.
years pass away do the buried ruins
x
----
1
1. Acts. vii. 59: And they stoned i “ Lazarus wafc carried by the angels to angels, no spirits, no resurrection be brief.
You,
my
brother,
teach
one
of
these
Jesus
says
to
Martha,
"
I
am
the
have a resurrection through the ex-
Abraham
’
s
bosom.
”
Where
was
that,
Stephen, calling upon God, and say­
i
it
ems,
and
also
say
there
is
no
spirits
resurrection,
’
lie
that
believes
in
me,
plorations
of Botta and Layard. ’
sir,
the
grave,
as
some
teach
?
But
ing, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit
(hough
he
were
dead,
yet
shall
he
but
God
;
therefore
you
err.
Jesus
the
angels
do
not
bury
the
dead
and
Next the conquerors turn their at­
(pneumo); and he kneeled down,
and cried with a loud voice, ’Lord, lay. carry’ the dead bodifiiuof men. But says: “ Touching the resurrection of live, and ■ Whosoever liveth .and be­ tention to Palestine, whose hills and
not this sin to their charge; and the record says he (Lazarus) was car­ the dead, have you not reai^ that lieves in ’me shall never die.” Be- valleys and mountain sides were the
when he bad said this, he fell asleep. ried, and Lazarus was composed of ' which was spoken unto you by God, lievest thou this, my Bro. S. ? How I seats of agricultural industry and
Some of your teachers say that it was body, soul ‘and spirit ; hence the angels saying I am the God of Abraham, the can you with your theory: when a great wealth. Upon all this rich and
not Stephen that was calling on God, must have carried him to the grave, God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. man dies all about him is dead. This splendid material prosperity destruc-
or the Lord Jesus while they- were as that, is the receptacle of qll that God is not the God of the dead, but of is absolutely irreconcilable with your ! tion swiftly descends, and. the beg-
atoning him, but those stoning him die. You surely will not deny that the living.” And Luke adds; “ for all theory. Jesus and the people talked ' gated and humble people are carried
made the pray for Stephen in derision, the soul, or spirit, or body, each of live to him.” The argument is, that then as wedo now. A man is dead I away into captivity. It is easy to
long after these patriarchs are ’dead, and yet he is alive. Is alive and yet record thus in a single sentence the
It must be a very bad cause that has them are called the person in the
God says to Moses, I am the God of is dead. “ She that liveth in pleasure, conquest of a great people» but the
I'
Scriptures.
Paul
says
:
“
For
what
to resort to such trickery, and gross
Abraham,
Ac.; I am not the God of is dead while she liveth.” This is a extent of thp conquest can be realized)
!
man
knoweth
the
things
of
a
man
save
perversion of the word as this. And
the
dead
,
but
of the living, therefore, figurative use of those terms and was i only by a careful study of the history,
the
spirit
of~man
which
is
in
him.
how- ridiculous the idea, while many
Abraham,
Isaac
and Jacob are living ; not the way Jesus used them here. and then only inadequately.
1
€'or
t
ii.
11.
Here
a
man
is
repre
­
men are stoning another, they all cry
living
in
one
sense
and dead in another He was speaking about a reality,
(the word they applies to all of them) sented as having a spirit and the
I’hcenicia, with her many and popu­
sense.
How
much
like this is the re­ death, then before him, and the resur­
out and put a prayer in the dying spirit as a something belonging to a
lous cities, next becomes the prey of’
man’s mouth so appropriate and just I man, as if there could be a man with­ mark of Jesus to Mary, “ He that rection that is to be real. The be­ the spoiler. This little strip of coun­
like-that of Jesus himself while dying ' out a spirit. Again, John xi. 2G: liveth and believeth in me shall never liever shall never die ; the unbeliever try, along the Mediterranean, was
on the cross. But the translation [ j “ Whosoever liveth and believeth in j die.” And mark you he does not say shall not only die the Adamic death, densely peopled by a very remarkable
suits them, there is some room for I . me shall never die.” Now we know’ these patriarchs live in me, but all but he shall die the “ second death.” and powerful race. Great as manu­
such a dodge, - this saves them the i I that Jesus did not mean what, is gen- i “ live to him,” God. If, therefore, Lazarus believed in Jesus and there­ facturers, great as merchants, great as
trouble of translating. Bui—if-you I erally meant by death. For all his i ' their spiiits live shall not their bodies fore “ never ” died, yet jjis body died. ship-builders, and great as colonizers,
This is precisely the way the apostles
will observe, the word God is in believers. do die, in one sense; the be made to live also.
they were the Englishmenof antiquity,
! body dies, and there is a sense in
5.
“
Jesus
takes
Peter,
James
and
talked about it: “ Whether in the
italics in the common translation, and
and they had bnilt up an exceedingly
consequently not in the original ; and which they do not die, the spirit does John, with him into a high mountain body or out of the body I know not.” rich and splendid civilization. Tyre
hence to leave that Out makes the not die, and cannot die. _This is a and was transfigured before them.” You may say that Jesus meant the and Sidon were their London and
sentence some clearer, “ And. they very common figure of speech, when Matt. xvii. 1-14; Mark ix. 2. Both believer shall not die in the sense of Liverpool. They had three hundred
atoned Stephen, calling upon, and a part is used for the whole. You say that Jesus was transfigured, not the second death, He could not have thriving colonies planted along the
be. “ And behold there meant that, for he spftiks - hi an abso­
aaying, Lord Jesus receive my spirit; cannot, therefore, say that the angels setmed
African coast, powerful Carthage being
talked
with
him two men." Luke lute sense, shall ndver die here nor
and be kneeled down and cried with carried Lazarus to the grave, body,
at their head. Relatively to that age
a loud voice,” Ac. Who kneeled soul and spirit, as I once heard a ix. 30. Luk^ says positively that hereafter. Again you may say, as Phoenicia, with her many cities and
down ? was it not the one that said Materialist say, and even if you say’ two men talked with him. These two some de, that the believer cannot die colonics, must have been as great in
Lord Jesus receive ip/ spirit ?. I be­ they' did in figure, you make the men were Moses and Elijah who ap­ because his life is hid with Christ in wealth, in .population, and in power,
lieve you too good a schelar and t<x> Savior blunder. Suppose now that peared in glory, made their appear­ God. But this is life in a figurative as England is relatively to this age.
honest to deny that. And besides tdie the angels represent those that buried, ance in glory. You suppose that be­ sense. Paul says to living believers But all that mighty fabric of civiliza­
late translators have it this way •' him, and Abraham’s bosom the grave,. cause Jesus charged the apostles to your lives are hid with Christ in God. tion was utterly destroyed, and has
" And they stoned Stephen while he what were the’good things that tell no man of the vision, that Moses This could not have been their souls never been restored again to this day.
wae calling on the Lord, and saying: Lazarus had in the grave. What are and Elijah were not there in reality. or spirits, you being judge, for these I Tyre, the queen city of the Mediter-
fjord Jesus, receive my spirit. ’ This the good things of the grave, where But what is the meaning of vision, is are material and cannot hqve the i ranean, became what* prophecy hail
js as plain as any language need be. there is unconsciousness ? Why then •it not to see I Mark says, as they body. You say this explanation then ; long before declared it should become,
came down the mountain, “that they wont do.
But you will perhaps say Stephen will the shput of trumph go up in the
i “ a place for the spreading of nets. ’
should tell no man what things they
So then, my brother, eternal life
resurrection,
“
Where
O
grave
thy
only meant I commit my life to Thee,
Egypt is the next to tall before the
had seen." The facts, then, w’ere that begins here. “ God so loved the world
to keep until the resurrection, for victory.” No such thing then could
mighty
conqueror. This 'monarchy
“ our lives are hid with Christ in have been meant. Again, the grave (1) Jesus was transfigured, (2) Moses that he gave his only begotten Son embraced a territory which extended
and Elias were there, and (3) talked that whosoever believeth in him
God ;” but can you say that when was the common receptacle of both,
wif/t Aim about his decease. 4. They might perish, but have eternal life." along either bank of the fertile Nile
Stephen uses the word pneuma and both were alike unconscious (as
for six hundred miles. It contained
heard the voice of God. Nine hun­ ‘ This is eternal life to know Thee,”
(spirit), that cannot be rendered life, you teach). Now, could then one be
dred and thirty years before this Ac. Not eternal existance, this they thousands of populous and thrifty
animal life ? And does Christ keep happy and the other in torment ?
towns and villages. Its great cities,
3. Matt. x. 28 : “Fear not them that Moses died, aiid God buried him. Will have any way. But that eternal life,
our animal life, is it hid with him in
Thebes
or No-Ammon in the south,
God ? God have animal life in him '.' kill the body, but are not able to kill you ask how could Moses be both 1 ‘tTiat is to lie the reward of thoie that and Memphis or Noph in the north,
Some times you all say. that breath is the soul; but rather fear him which dead and alive ? just as was Abraham, “ seek for glory, honor and immoitali- swarmed with a vast population, and
the life, and the thought is more ( is able to destroy’ both soul and body Isaac and Tacolv as we have seen. ty.” That will be the sum of these. their ruins are still the wonder of the
ridiculous still that our breath, at­ : in hell.” Here Jesus clearly defines One of your writers says if Moses was A life full of glory, full of honor, full world. Out of the hundred gates of
personally there, " he must have been of immortality.
mospheric air, is hid with Christ in what can be killed, the body. If the
the former city came great armies
raised from the dead.” “ Bible vs tra­
God'! Does Jesus receive the last soul or spirit be material or breath, as
splendidly
equipped for war, and
A
Historical
Comparison.
dition.” This then is a denial that
breath of every one of his saints, and you say, and dies with the body’, no
which
were
victorious upon many a
Moses was there. The witnesses say
While Russia is rejoicing over con­
hide them all away in God until the such distinction could have been
bloody
field.
For
three thousand years
he was. Now, whom shall we believe, quests won by arms and secured by
last day ? This is too ridiculous to made. In the case of Lazarus you
[
Egypt
had
held
the foremost place
the inspired witnesses, giving the treaty, and while England is rejoicing
consider with gravity. Verily, “ the will have all to die, body, soul and
;
among
the
nations
of the ancient
facts as they sa w them, or a partizan over conquests achieved by skillful,
way of the transgressor is hard.” But spirit, because it is said Lazarus died.
world
in
extent
of
territory,
in the
trying to sustain a theory ? Your not to say tricky diplomacy, it may
how easy is the truth. Stephen had I But Jesus hire teaches that the body
vastness
of
its
population,
and
in the
writer also supposes that they could be interesting to compare the mighty
just declared that he sawJieaven open, can be killed, and he who does that
not have appeared as disembodied revolutions of the last eighty’ years variety and magnitude of its resources.
and Jesus at the right hand of God; work can do nothing more, cannot kill
spirits, becaus’e they could not have with the mightier revolutions of a But it was utterly broken in pieces
and l»-ing a Pharisee, for all who be- the soul. Now if the soul or spirit
seen them.. Could not God have so shorter period of sixty years which by “ the hammer of all the earth,”
lievv l tn the resurrection, and spirits, were a part of the body and could be
opened their eyes that they could see occurred before the Christian era. just as Nineveh had been, And Pales
wer- .such, and all the disciples be­ killed with it, the language of Jesus is
them, or had Moses to appear in such The earlier period will be seen to be a tince and Phrenicia, with her great
lies t I thus, how natural and how be- incomprehensible. Again, look at the
■ form.that he could be seen? Again, period of destruction, the later to be cities which were themselves nations.
fiting to call on Jesus to receive his remark, "kill the body." "As the
We complete the record of this
I because God says, " Moses, my ser­ equally a perjpd oi construction.
apirit. as it left his “ tabernacle ” of body without the spirit is dead.” Jas.
mighty overturning by including in it -
vant,
is
dead,
”
he
could
not
have
been
The
first
period
extends
from
G2G
But you say there cannot be a body
flesh. Truth is easier than error.
there, unless God had raised him from B. C. to 56G B. C.. It embraces the the strongholds of Philistia, lying be­
2. I will now invite you, my without the spirit, dead or alive, for
the
dead. Could Moses not have reigns of two men who were father tween Palestine and Egypt. The chief
broth
to consider the biography of both are material, and when the body
been
dead- as Abraham was? and and son, the Babylonian kings Nabo- of these were Gaza, Ascalon.Gath and
Liizsrus and Dives. Luke xvi. 22: dies the spirit is dead also. I wonder
lived as he also ’ If it had been ne­ polassar and Nebuchadnezzar. The Ashdod. These stronghold the Israel
“ An<i it came to pass that the beggar the Sadueees in those days had not
cessary he could have been raised writings of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, ites were never able to'subdae. They
died ” We will pause here a moment. taught James better. But you may
from the dead to be present, and then Daniel, Amos, Nahum, Habakuk and were described by Moses as "great
Yotnpsk » hat was the beggar. I an- say a.s some do, that Jesus was speak­
God could have him go back 4» death Zephaniah supply us with many of and mighty nations,” and were defend­
awtr Scripturally, ‘body, soul and ing to his disciples, and as the apostle
again, as he could not be first in the the historical details of that wonderful ed by fortifications which were " fenc­
iipirit; yrtu say then he died, body, tells - the ancient Christians, that I
resuirection. But why hot he come series of revolutions, beyond all ques­ ed up to heaven.”
soul snd spirit. I object to this, as I " they are dead and their lives are hid
from the unseen in a form that could tion the greatest in human history.
The world has never since seen, in>
have proven that spirits cannot die, with Christ in God;” this explains
be
seen
as
well
as
Samuel
the
old
Babylon
was
the
most
ancient
city
any
equally short period of time, such
and the word death does not neces- the reason why their souls could not
pro;
het
?
And
let
me
remind
you
in
the
world.
Populous
and
enor
­
a demolition of great earthly king­
Si.ri.y mean that he died in all his be killed. This looks a little plausible;
that only the bodies of the saints are mously rich in all kinds of merchan­ doms. And the mast of them were
but
you
teach
that
the
soul
is
the
life
parts Paul defines it a leaving of
to be resurrected. Paul defines this dise, it was often a subject poVer. utterly demolished; there was noth­
this “ tabernacle.” Peter also defines and if the life is hid with Christ in
dearly, as I have shown.
About the year G2G B. C. the warrior ing left of them or to spring out of
it leaving a tent. So than, it is a God, how did they live without life ?
tribe of the Chaldees,led by their chief, them.. Twenty years later, the same
Azain,
you
will
say
as
they
ap
­
separation, as the learned tell us. But Again, you say that God breathed
Nabopolassar,
rushed down from the uttex destruction overtook the mighty .'
peared
in
glory
it
could
not
have
if you will say that it is unconscious­ unto Adam’s nostrils the breath of life,
Caucasus
and
Armenian Mountains destroyer, Babylon itself Corrupt
been
their
spirits,
for
spirits
cannot
ness. then I ask you how could Lazarus and he became a living soul. Breath
and
captured
the
apcient city. The old paganisms as they were, there was
be
glorified
without
their
bodies.
I
b happy, or have " his good things,” is life. Then our breath is hid with
conquerors
at
once
turned their power nothing in them that was worth sav­
have
no
doubt
it
is
true
tliat
there
is
a • the rich man think speak, feel, Christ in God is the reason why the
against
Nineveh,
to
which Babylon ing.
1«
at, Ac But you reply this was Christian’s poul cannot be killed. not that perfection in glory until the
Communications.
.-Z’
i
I
PACIFIC CHRISTIAN MESSENGER/ SATURDAY, SEPT. 21, 1878.