1935 Bible Studies - page 3

EDITORIAL.

Resurrection, which is the subject for our consideration in the -coming year, is one which presupposes death, and death presupposes life, and life the Author of life -- God Himself. �God, the Author of life--" He Himself giveth to all life " (Acts 17. 25)-- is also the God of resurrection (John 5. 21), and what is true of God the Father, is

true of God the Son, and God the Spirit.

If, as the Sadducees thought, there was no spirit and no con-tinuance of life after death (and many think so today), then there can be no resurrection ; but as the Lord showed, in the place concerning the Bush, death does not mean extinction of being, nor yet suspension of consciousness ; for, being the God of the living and not of the dead, He said " I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the

God of Jacob ; " He said, " I am " not " I was." �Though these patriarchs were dead to men on earth, they were alive to Him who is

the God of eternity. �The dead are either in being or they are not, and if the dead are, then they will be raised, and the thought of any

suspension of being between death and resurrection, as some hold, is most ridiculous.

Man’s being and existence are not dependent on the functioning of the vital organs of his body, for man, as man, has his being in God, not in his living, bodily, organism ; " For in Him we live and move, and have our being " ; or " For in Him we live, and move, and are "

(Acts 17. 28). Man who was created in the image of God, is the off-spring of God, but his being the offspring of God must not be confused with that new relationship to God which is entered into, whereby a

man who believes in Christ the Redeemer becomes a child of God (John 1. 12, 13).

Man was created in the image of God, but this is not true of t h e beasts of the field ; these have no personality, no existence after

death ; death in their case means for them extinction of life. �They have no knowledge of God, no law from Him ; they commit no sin, and are not accountable ; for them there will be no resurrection, no future life, for them there is no life after death. �But Abraham, Isaac and Jacob still live (Mark 12. 26, 27), and all men are in being after death.

Paul spoke of knowing a man in Christ who was caught up to t h e third heaven, but whether in the body or out of the body he knew not (2 Corinthians 12. 2), which shows that he believed that a man could live, be conscious, hear, and reflect on what he heard (and remem-ber afterwards when in the body what he heard when perchance he was not in the body), which shows that the functions of the human mind are not dependent absolutely on that fleshy part of man’s anatomy -- the brain.

Then Paul also spoke of departing this life and of being with Christ (Philippians 1. 23), and of being absent from the body and at home with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5.8). The word " home " here in the original is not the word for house, but is a word which signifies being amongst one’s own people, which is just what is said of the patriarchs in the book of Genesis : " Abraham gave up the ghost (or spirit) . . . . and was gathered to his people. �And Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him " (Genesis 25. 8, 9). Here we have clearly indicated what Paul speaks of when he writes in 1 Thessalonians 5. 23 of " your spirit and soul and body." �First we read of Abraham’s ghost or spirit, (2) then of himself being gathered to his people --his