(d) The passages held to prove the annihilation of the wicked at death cannot have this meaning, since the Scriptures foretell a resurrection of the unjust as well as of the just; and a second death, or a misery of the reunited soul and body, in the case of the wicked.

Acts 24: 15-"there shall be a resurrection both of the just and unjust "; Rev. 2: 11-"He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death"; 20: 14, 15" And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, even the lake of fire. And if any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire"; 218" their part shall be in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death." The "second death" is the first death intensified. Having one's "part in the lake of fire" is not annihilation.

(e) The words used in Scripture to denote the place of departed spirits, as well as the allusions to their condition, show that death, to the writers of the Old and the New Testaments, although it was the termination of man's earthly existence, was not an extinction of his being or his consciousness. 'the shut-up or constrained place';

,שָׁעַל is either from שְׁאוֹל )

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to press, and or from, to be at rest or quiet, and 'hell,' but the 'unseen world,' conceived not as an unconscious, state of being).

'the resting place.' "Acông = not by the Greeks as a shadowy, but

Gen. 25: 8, 9-Abraham "was gathered to his people. And Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him in the cave of Machpelah"; so of Isaac in Gen. 35: 29, and of Jacob in 49: 29, 33—all of whom were gathered to their fathers before they were buried. Num. 20: 24" Aaron shall be gathered unto his people ”— since Aaron was not buried at all, being “gathered to their fathers" was something different from burial. Job 3: 13, 18-"For now should I have lien down and been quiet; I should have slept: then had I been at rest. . . . There the prisoners are at ease together; They hear not the voice of the taskmaster"; 7: 9-"As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away, So he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more"; 14: 22-"But his flesh upon him hath pain, And his soul within him mourneth."

Ez. 32: 21" The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of hell"; Luke 16: 23" And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom "; 23: 43"To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise"; cf. 1 Sam. 28: 19-Samuel said to Saul in the cave of Endor: "To-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me "-evidently not in an unconscious state. Many of these passages intimate a continuity of consciousness after death. Though Sheol is unknown to man, it is naked and open to God (Job 26:6); he can find men there and redeem them from thence (Ps. 49: 15)-proof that death is not annihilation. See Girdlestone, O. T. Synonyms, 447.

(f) The terms and phrases which have been held to declare absolute cessation of existence at death are frequently metaphorical, and an examination of them in connection with the context and with other Scriptures is sufficient to show the untenableness of the literal interpretation put upon them by the annihilationists, and to prove that the language is merely the language of appearance.

Death is often designated as a "sleeping" or a "falling asleep"; see John 11: 11, 14-"Our friend Lazarus is fallen asleep; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. . . . Then Jesus therefore said unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead." Here the language of appearance is used; yet this language could not have been used, if the soul had not been conceived of as alive, though sundered from the body; see Meyer on 1 Cor. 1:18. So the language of appearance is used in Eccl. 9: 10 there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave whither thou goest"—and in Ps. 146: 4-"His breath goeth forth; in that very day his thoughts perish."

See Mozley, Essays, 2: 171-"These passages often describe the phenomena of death as it presents itself to our eyes, and so do not enter into the reality which takes place beneath it." Bartlett, Life and Death Eternal, 189-358-"Because the same Hebrew word is used is used for 'spirit' and 'breath,' shall we say that the spirit is only breath? 'Heart' in English might in like manner be made to mean only the material organ; and David's heart, panting, thirsting, melting within him, would have to be interpreted literally. So a man may be eaten up with avarice,' while yet his being is not only not extinct, but is in a state of frightful activity."

(g) The Jewish belief in a conscious existence after death is proof that the theory of annihilation rests upon a misinterpretation of Scripture. That such a belief in the immortality of the soul existed among the Jews is abundantly evident from the knowledge of a future state possessed by the Egyptians (Acts 7:22); from the accounts of the translation of Enoch and of Elijah (Gen. 5: 24; cf. Heb. 11: 5. 2 K. 2:11); from the invocation of the dead which was practised, although forbidden by the law (1 Sam. 28: 7-14; cf. Lev. 20: 27; Deut. 18: 10, 11); from allusions in the O. T. to resurrection, future retribution, and life beyond the grave (Job 19:25, 27; Ps. 16:9-11; Is. 26: 19; Ez. 37:1-14; Dan. 12 : 2, 3, 13); and from distinct declarations of such faith by Philo and Josephus, as well as by the writers of the N. T. (Mat. 22:31, 32; Acts 23:6; 26:6-8; Heb. 11: 13-16).

The Egyptian coffin was called "the chest of the living." See the Book of the Dead, translated by Birch, in Bunsen's Egypt's Place, 123-333: The principal ideas of the first part of the Book of the Dead are "living again after death, and being born again as the sun," which typified the Egyptian resurrection (138). "The deceased lived again after death" (134). "The Osiris lives after he dies, like the sun daily; for as the sun died and was born yesterday, so the Osiris is born" (164). Yet the immortal part, in its continued existence, was dependent for its blessedness upon the preservation of the body; and for this reason the body was embalmed. Immortality of the body is as important as the passage of the soul. Growth or natural reparation of the body is invoked as earnestly as the passage of the soul to the upper regions." "There is not a limb of him without a god; Thoth is vivifying his limbs" (197). See Uarda, by Ebers; Dr. Howard Osgood on Resurrection among the Egyptians, in Hebrew Student, Feb., 1885. The Egyptians, however, recognized no transmigration of souls; see Renouf, Hibbert Lectures, 181-184.

It is morally impossible that Moses should not have known the Egyptian doctrine of immortality: Acts 7: 22" And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians." That Moses did not make the doctrine more prominent in his teachings, may be for the reason that it was so connected with Egyptian superstitions with regard to Osiris. Yet the Jews believed in immortality: Gen. 5: 24" And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him"; cf. Heb. 11: 5-"By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death "; 2 Kings 2: 11-"Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven"; 1 Sam. 28: 1-14- the invocation of Samuel by the woman of Endor; cf. Lev. 20: 27 —"A man also, or woman, that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death; ' Deut. 20: 10, 11-"There shall not be found among you . . . . . a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer."

Job 19:25-27-"For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand up at the last upon the earth: and after my skin hath been thus destroyed, yet from my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another. My reins are consumed within me"; Ps. 16: 9-11-"Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: My flesh also shall dwell in safety. For thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol; Neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of life: In thy presence is fulness of joy; In thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore"; Is. 26: 19" Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the dead"; Ez. 37:1-14- the valley of dry bones-"I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, O my people "a prophecy of restoration based upon the idea of immortality and resurrection; Dan. 12: 2, 3, 13-"And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever..... But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and shalt stand in thy lot, at the end of the days."

Josephus, on the doctrine of the Pharisees, in Antiquities, XVIII: 1: 3, and Wars of the Jews, II: 8: 10-14-"Souls have an immortal vigor. Under the earth are rewards and punishments. The wicked are detained in an everlasting prison. The righteous shall have power to revive and live again. Bodies are indeed corruptible, but souls remain exempt from death forever. But the doctrine of the Sadducees is that souls die with their bodies." Mat. 22: 31, 32-But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living."

Christ's argument, in the passage last quoted, rests upon the two implied assumptions;

first, that love will never suffer the object of its affection to die; beings who have ever been the objects of God's love will be so forever - for "Life is ever Lord of death, And love can never lose its own (Tennyson, In Memoriam); secondly, that body and soul belong normally together; if body and soul are temporarily separated, they shall be united; Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are living, and therefore they shall rise again. It was only an application of the same principle, when Robert Hall gave up his early materialism as he looked down into his father's grave: he felt that this could not be the end; cf. Ps. 22: 26" Your heart shall live forever." Acts 23: 6-"I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees: touching the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question"; 26: 7, 8-"And concerning this hope I am accused by the Jews, 0 king! Why is it judged incredible with you, if God doth raise the dead?" Heb. 11: 13-16-the present life was reckoned as a pilgrimage; the patriarchs sought "a better country, that is, a heavenly "; cf. Gen. 47: 9.

Mozley, Lectures, 26-59, and Essays, 2: 169-"True religion among the Jews had an evidence of immortality in its possession of God. Paganism was hopeless in its loss of friends, because affection never advanced beyond its earthly object, and therefore, in losing it, lost all. But religious love, which loves the creature in the Creator, has that on which to fall back, when its earthly object is removed."

(h) The most impressive and conclusive of all proofs of immortality, however, is afforded in the resurrection of Jesus Christ,- a work accomplished by his own power, and demonstrating that the spirit lived after its separation from the body (John 2: 19, 21; 10: 17, 18). By coming back from the tomb, he proves that death is not annihilation (2 Tim. 1: 10).

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John 2:19, 21-"Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up But he spake of the temple of his body"; 10: 17, 18" Therefore doth the Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again. . . . . I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again"; 2 Tim. 1:10'our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel "— that is, immortality had been a truth dimly recognized, suspected, longed for, before Christ came but it was he who first brought it out from obscurity and uncertainty into clear daylight and convincing power.

Christ taught immortality: (1) By exhibiting himself the perfect conception of a human life. Who could believe that Christ could become forever extinct? (2) By actually coming back from beyond the grave. There were many speculations about a trans-Atlantic continent before 1492, but these were of little worth compared with the actual word which Columbus brought of a new world beyond the sea. (3) By providing a way through which his own spiritual life and victory may be ours; so that, though we pass through the valley of the shadow of death, we may fear no evil. (4) By thus gaining authority to teach us of the resurrection of the righteous and of the wicked, as he actually does. Christ's resurrection is not only the best proof of iminortality, but we have no certain evidence of immortality without it.

For the annihilation theory, see Hudson, Debt and Grace, and Christ, Our Life; also Dobney, Future Punishment. Per contra, see Hovey, State of the Impenitent Dead, 1-27, and Manual of Theology and Ethics, 153-168; Luthardt, Compendium, 289–292; Delitzsch, Bib. Psych., 397-407; Herzog, Encyclop., art.: Tod; Splittgerber, Schlaf und Tod; Estes, Christian Doctrine of the Soul; Baptist Review, 1879: 411-439; Presb. Rev., Jan., 1882: 203.

II. THE INTERMEDIATE STATE.

The Scriptures affirm the conscious existence of both the righteous and the wicked, after death, and prior to the resurrection. In the intermediate state the soul is without a body, yet this state is for the righteous a state of conscious joy, and for the wicked a state of conscious suffering.

That the righteous do not receive the spiritual body at death, is plain from 1 Thess. 4: 16, 17 and 1 Cor. 15: 52, where an interval is intimated between Paul's time and the rising of those who slept. This rising was to occur in the future, "at the last trump." So the resurrection of the wicked had not yet occurred in any single case, but was yet future (John 5: 28–30—

έρχεται ὥρα, not καὶ νῦν ἐστίν, as in verse 25; Acts 24 : 15 — ἀνάστασιν μέλλειν σova). Christ was the firstfruits (1 Cor. 15: 20, 23). If the saints had received the spiritual body at death, the patriarchs would have been raised before Christ.

1. Of the righteous, it is declared:

(a) That the soul of the believer, at its separation from the body, enters the presence of Christ.

2 Cor. 5:1-8-"If the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens. For verily in this we groan, longing to be clothed upon with our habitation which is from heaven: if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For indeed we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened; not for that we would be unclothed, but that we would be clothed upon, that what is mortal may be swallowed up of life.... willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord "-Paul hopes to escape the violent separation of soul and body - the being "unclothed "— by living till the coming of the Lord, and then putting on the heavenly body, as it were, over the present one (énevdúoaodai); yet whether he lived till Christ's coming or not, he knew that the soul, when it left the body, would be at home with the Lord.

Luke 23: 43-To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise"; John 14: 3-"And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and will receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also"; 2 Tim. 4: 18" The Lord will deliver me from every evil work, and will save me unto [or, 'into '] his heavenly kingdom" will save me and put me into his heavenly kingdom (Ellicott), the characteristic of which is the visible presence of the King with his subjects.

(b) That the spirits of departed believers are with God.

Heb. 12: 23-Ye are come "to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the Judge of all"; cf. Eccl. 12: 7-"the dust return to the earth as it was; and the spirit return unto God who gave it." John 20: 17" Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended unto the Father "-probably means:

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my body has not yet ascended." The soul had gone to God during the interval between death and the resurrection, as is evident from Luke 23: 43, 46" with me in Paradise.... Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit."

(c) That believers at death enter paradise.

Luke 23: 42, 43-"And he said, Jesus, remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom. And he said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise"; cf. 2 Cor. 12: 4-" caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter"; Rev. 2: 7-"To him that overcometh, to him will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God"; Gen. 2: 8-"And the Lord planted a garden eastward, in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed." Paradise is none other than the abode of God and the blessed, of which the primeval Eden was the type.

(d) That their state, immediately after death, is greatly to be preferred to that of faithful and successful laborers for Christ here.

Phil. 1: 22, 23-"I am in a strait betwixt the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ; for it is very far better"- here Hackett says: “ ἀναλῦσαι π departing, cutting loose, as if to put to sea, followed by our Xplory eivai, as if Paul regarded one event as immediately subsequent to the other." Paul, with his burning desire to preach Christ, would certainly have preferred to live and labor, even amid great suffering, rather than to die, if death to him had been a state of unconsciousness and inaction. See Edwards the younger, Works, 2:530, 531; Hovey, Impenitent Dead, 61.

(e) That departed saints are truly alive and conscious.

Mat. 22: 32"God is not the God of the dead, but of the living"; Luke 16: 22" carried away by the angels into Abraham's bosom "; 23: 43-"To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise"-"with me" = in the same state unless Christ slept in unconsciousness, we cannot think that the penitent thief did; John 11: 26-" whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall never die"; 1 Thess. 5: 10-"who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him"; Rom. 8: 10-"And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness." Life and consciousness clearly belong to the "souls under the altar" mentioned under the next head.

(ƒ) That they are at rest and blessed.

Rev. 69-11-"I saw under the altar the souls of them that had been slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held and they cried with a great voice, saying, How long, 0 Master, the holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth. And there was given them to each one a white robe; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet a little time, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, which should be killed even as they were, should be fulfilled in number"; 14: 13-"Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; for their works follow with them"; 20: 14 — "And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire"- see Evans, in Presb. Rev., 1883: 303-"The shadow of death lying upon Hades is the penumbra of Hell. Hence Hades is associated with death in the final doom."

2. Of the wicked, it is declared:

(a) That they are in prison,- that is, under constraint and guard (1 Pet. 3 : 19 - φυλακή ).

1 Pet. 3: 19-"In which [spirit] also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison" - there is no need of putting unconscious spirits under guard. Hovey: Restraint implies power of action, and suffering implies consciousness."

(b) That they are in torment, or conscious suffering (Luke 16: 23ἐν βασάνοις ).

Luke 16: 23" And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame."

Here many unanswerable questions may be asked: Had the rich man a body before the resurrection, or is this representation of a body only figurative? Did the soul still feel the body from which it was temporarily separated, or have souls in the intermediate state temporary bodies? However we may answer these questions, it is certain that the rich man suffers, while probation still lasts for his brethren on earth. Fire is here the source of suffering, but not of annihilation. Even though this be a parable, it proves conscious existence after death to have been the common view of the Jews, and to have been a view sanctioned by Christ.

(c) That they are under punishment (2 Pet. 2: 9 — koĥažoμévove).

2 Pet. 29" The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment unto the day of judgment "-here "the unrighteous" not only evil angels, but ungodly men; cf. verse 4-"For if God spared not angels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell, and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment."

The passages cited enable us properly to estimate two opposite errors.

A. They refute, on the one hand, the view that the souls of both righteous and wicked sleep between death and the resurrection.

This view is based upon the assumption the possession of a physical organism is indispensable to activity and consciousness-an assumption which the existence of a God who is pure spirit (John 4: 24), and the existence of angels who are probably pure spirits (Heb. 1: 14), show to be erroneous. Although the departed are characterized as 'spirits (Eccl. 12: 7; Acts 7:59; Heb. 12:23; 1 Pet. 3: 19), there is nothing in this 'absence from the body' (2 Cor. 5: 8) inconsistent with the activity and consciousness ascribed to them in the Scriptures above referred to. When the dead are spoken of as 'sleeping' (Dan. 12: 2; Mat. 9: 24; John 11: 11; 1 Cor. 11: 30; 15: 51; 1 Thess. 4: 14; 5: 10), we are to regard this as simply the language of appearance, and as literally applicable only to the body.

John 4: 24-"God is a Spirit [or rather, as margin, 'God is spirit']"; Heb. 1: 14-"Are they [angels]