Ii THE WATCHMAN | |
PURLISIED WEEKLY BY THE
SOUTHERN PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION
NASHVILLE, TENN.
Price, $1.00 per Year
G. I. BUTLER
L. A. SMITH
Single Copy, 5 Cents
{ Editors P. T. MAGAN f Associate
E. J. BURNHAM Editors
ENTERED AT TIIE POST OFFICE AT NASHVILLE, TENN.
AS SECOND CLASS MATTER, APRIL 12, 19%.
Nashville, Tennessee, Nov. 12, 1907.
THE RESURRECTION AND THE FUTURE LIFE
\ RESURRECTION is a re-creation.
a rising again of that which was
once alive, but now is dead. This
doctrine, once the sole future hope
of the church, is now largely discarded.
With many the doctrine of the immortality
of the soul has taken its place. What does
the Bible say? Christ says of himself, “1
am the resurrection and the life.”  Mar-
vel not at this; for the hour is coming in
the which all that are in the graves shall
hear his voice, and shall come forth; thew
that have done good unto the resurrection
of life; and they which have done evil unto
the resurrection of damnation.”
28, 29.
The Resurrection in the Book of Job
The book of Job is supposed to be one of
the most ancient books in the Bible. Many
think it was written by Moses when in the
land of Midian, but Dr. ITales places Job's
time previous to the birth of Abrahan.
What did this venerable patriarch believe
concerning the resurrection? — ¢ Man di-
eth, and wasteth away; yea, man giveth
up the ghost, and where is he?” “If a
man die, shall he live again?” “ Thou
shalt call, and I will answer thee; thou
wilt have a desire to the work of thine
hands.” “For I know that my Redeemer
liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter
day upon the earth; and though after my
skin, worms destroy this body, vet in my
flesh shall T see God, whom I shall see for
myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and
Job 14:10, 14, 15; 19:
John 5:
not another.”
25 - 27.
What the Prophets Say
Says the psalmist David, “As for me, I
will behold thy face in righteousness; 1
shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy
likeness.” Ps. 17:15.
Isaiah says, “ Thy dead men shall live,
together with my dead body shall they
arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in
dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs,
and the earth shall cast out the dead.”
Isa. 26:19.
THE WATCHMAN
The prophet Daniel says, “And many of
them that sleep in the dust of the carth
shall awake, some to everlasting life, and
some to shame and everlasting contempt.”
“ But go thy way till the end be; for thou
shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end
of the days.” Dan. 12:2, 13.
The Resurrection Paul’s Hope
Paul's faith in a literal resurrection was
to him a wonderful consolation. It was
because of his belief in this great truth
called in question by the
Jews; for this was the great question which
agitated the whole Jewish world. They
had put Christ to a cruel death; his dis-
ciples claimed that he was raised from the
dead again. The possibility, yea, the cer-
tainty of a literal resurrection, had been
demonstrated. Christ “shall change our
vile body, that it may be fashioned like
unto his glorious body.” Phil. 8:21. In
the resurrection the earthly body becomes
a spiritual body. “So also is the resur-
rection of the dead. It [the body] is sown
in corruption, it is raised in incorruption.
[the same if that is sown, is raised. It is
It is sown in dis-
that he was
a real re-erection.]
honor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in
weakness, it 1s raised in power; it is sown
a natural body, it is raised a spiritual
body.” 1 Cor. 15:42 - 45.
This was the kind of resurrection that
Paul believed in and that he risked his life
for. And when he was being tried for his
life he said, “ But this I confess unto thee,
that after the way which they call heresy,
so worship I the God of my fathers, believ-
ing all things which are written in the law
and the prophets; and have hope toward
God, which they themselves also allow, that
there shall be a resurrection of the dead,
both of the just and the unjust.” Acts
24:14, 15.
The entire fifteenth chapter of first Cor-
inthians was written to make emphatic the
resurrection of the dead. Yes, it teaches
that the whole Christian system is founded
upon this doctrine: “ Now if Christ be
preached that he rose from the dead, how
say some among you that there is no res-
urrection of the dead? But if there be no
resurrection of the dead, then is Christ
not risen; and if Christ be not risen, then
1s our preaching vain, and your faith also
is vain. For if the dead rise not, then is
Christ not raised; and if Christ be not
raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in
Then they also which are fal-
1 Cor.
your sins.
len asleep in Christ are perished.”
15:12 - 18,
Nothing is plainer than that Paul bases
the entire Christian system upon this grand
doctrine that there is to be a literal resur-
rection of the dead. The old heathen
doctrine of the immortality of the soul,
first taught generally in idolatrous Egypt,
conveyed from that country by philosophers
who had gone to Egypt for their instrue-
tion, then from Greece to Rome, from Rome
into the Catholic Church, and through
the Catholic Church to the Protestant
churches, and so quite generally received,
1s not in harmony with the doctrine that
Paul teaches. Let us see if this is not
true. If the popular immortal-soul doe-
trine is true, then Paul’s language cannot
be true. They say that all the saved go at
once to heaven when they die. Suppose a
thousand years pass, and there is no res-
urrection, have the saints perished? —O
no, they are safe in heaven. Ten thousand
years pass, and there is no resurrection;
have they “perished ”? — No, they are safe
in heaven. Suppose no resurrection ever
takes place, are the righteous perished ? —
By no means, they are all right up in
heaven. What, then, becomes of the truth-
fulness of the statement of the apostle?
But if the future life of those who die
depends upon
dead, then indeed if that never occurs,
their life is gone forever. The popular
idea, then, is squarely contradicted by the
apostle’s argument. ‘Behold, I show you
a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we
shall all be changed, in a moment, in the
twinkling of an eye, at the last trump;
for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead
shall be raised incoruptible, and we shall
be changed. For this corruptible must put
on incorruption, and this mortal put on im-
So when this corruptible shall
have put on incorruption, and this mortal
shall have put on immortality, then shall
be brought to pass the saying that is writ-
ten, Death is swallowed up in victory.”
Here is the glorious scene when the right-
eous are called forth from their graves to
go up to meet the Lord, and then they are
forever with the Lord. Amen and amen.
G. I. B.
a resurrection from the
mortality.
SSS
‘* GOPDLESS EDUCATION”
Ts EpucarIoN godless unless it is religious?
So the spokesmen of Rome and some others
continually assert; but God cannot be sepa-
rated from truth, or from right principles of
conduct, or from manliness of character;* and
any school which inculcates these cannot rightly
be called godless, though it teach no religion
at all. On the other hand, a school may teach
a great deal of religion of a certain kind
without in the least making its pupils more
A school
may be very religious, and at the same time
godly in purpose and character.
altogether godless. To say that the remedy
for a godless education is merely to teach re-
ligion in the schools, falls far short of the
truth,
it is desired the state should give would only
make the public schools more truly godless
Much of the religious teaching which