ROBERT GOVETT ON HADEES

Whither do the souls of the saved go at death? ‘To heaven!’ is the universal reply. ‘Sudden death to such is sudden glory.’ What Scripture says so? “To depart is to be with Christ, which is far better.”

But that passage does not speak of the place where the souls of the departed are; but only of their far superior condition.

‘Nay but it does. For Christ is in heaven. If then any are with Christ, they are in heaven too.’

When then Christ says - “Lo, I am with you always.” Does it mean that He is on earth? I suppose not.

Let us then consider the subject more fully, and under the following divisions:-

I. THE PLACE OF DEPARTED SPIRITS

[OR DISEMBODIED SOULS] GENERALLY

II. THE DIFFERENT REGIONS ASSIGNED TO

THE SAVED AND THE LOST

III. OBJECTIONS ANSWERED

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I

HADEES THE PLACE OF SOULS

What is life? It is humanly speaking, a state, which is the effect of the presence of the soul (and [animating] spirit) in the body. For there are three parts into which man is divided. “I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:” 1 Thess. 5: 23. At death the union between these parts is dissolved. And the soul (to which the spirit is very closely knit) goes to a special region, to which a particular name is given in Scripture. In the Old Testament it is called SHEOL; in the New Testament it is called HADEES.

This truth is obscured to readers of the Established Version. For the translators render Sheol and Hadees sometimes ‘Grave,’ and sometimes ‘Hell.’ But they never mean either the one or the other. Quite other words are used to signify the places in which the bodies of the dead are deposited.* These are often spoken of in the plural: for there are many and diverse localities for the bodies of the departed. But there is but one Hadees which includes all the souls of the dead. “Do not all go to one place?” Eccl. 3: 20; 6: 6.

* In Hebrew ‘Sheol’. By the LXX rendered ‘Hadees.’

‘But may not that mean only, that all are carried to their graves?’

No: for the Scripture says, that ‘Hadees is never full’ while graves are soon filled up Prov. 27: 20; 30: 15. It speaks of this place of souls as being in a peculiar sense - ‘Before the Lord,’ or, ‘In His presence.’ “Sheol [covered to men’s eyes] is naked before Him:” Job 26: 6; Prov. 15: 11.

It is described as situated below in the great interior of the earth. “I will go down into Hadees* to my son mourning:” Gen. 37: 35; 42: 38; 1 Sam. 2: 6; 1 Kings 2: 6. Now Jacob did not believe, that his son Joseph had been carried to the tomb. He was, as he supposed, devoured ‘by a wild beast. The word then does not here mean the tomb, or place of the body of the departed. Jacob believed in the one place of souls, in which he was to meet the soul of his son. The prophet Amos described SHEOL as the greatest depth of earth, to be reached by digging, if men could carry the process far enough. “Though they dig into Sheol, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down:” Amos 9: 2.

The conspirators against Moses in the wilderness are punished by a new infliction from God. They go down alive, body and soul together, into the place of departed spirits: Num. 16: 30, 33. The remarkable history of the interview between Saul and the spirit of Samuel gives much confirmation to this. The king says to the woman - “Bring me him up, whom I shall name unto thee.” Then says the woman - “Whom shall I bring up unto thee?” And he said - “Bring me up Samuel: 1 Sam. 38: 8, 11. The woman is frightened at what she beholds, and says to Saul - “I beheld gods [angels] ascending out of the earth.” And he said unto her - “What form is he of?” And she said - “An old man cometh up, and he is covered with a mantle.”

Here then we advance a step. It is not merely the belief of the king, that as the spirit [or disembodied soul] descends into earth at death, so it would ascend at its return to the living: but the sorceress sees spirits (probably angels**) ascending out of earth; and then, following them, the ghost of Samuel.

*Angels convey the departing spirit [or disembodied soul] of Lazarus to Hadees: Luke 16: 22. Why then may not angels bear back the spirit [or ‘soul’] of holy Samuel?

[* See Acts 2: 27: “Because thou wilt not leave my soul in Hades.” Compare with Psalm 16: 10 and verse 31, R.V.]

But various fancies are entertained concerning this interview. Some suppose, that nothing was seen, either by the enchantress or the king. To these we reply that the woman describes the person coming up, and adds - “And Saul knew that it was Samuel,* and he stooped with his face to the ground, and bowed himself.” Then the king saw some person, as his bowing before him shows.

[* Because the ‘soul’ is the person, (as shown above), and not the animating ‘spirit’ which imparts life to the ‘body’. See Luke 23: 46, cf. James 2: 26, R.V.]

The prophet addresses the monarch - “Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up?” Here then we cannot mistake. The departed spirit ascending to the presence of Saul says, he has been brought up from below. He was happier while there, than when compelled to ascend to earth.

‘But might it not be merely a demon belonging to the witch who acted the part of Samuel, and put on his appearance?’

The Scripture answers not uncertainly, if we will trust it. It gives no hint of any evil spirit appearing. It tells us five times over, that it was Samuel himself.

“Samuel said unto Saul:” 15, 16, 20.

Saul desires Samuel as the prophet to foretell to him the future. Samuel does foretell it, and truly. “The Lord will deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines, and to-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me; the Lord also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines.” He reminds, him of his former prophecy. “The Lord hath done to thee* as He spake by me (15: 28), for the Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand, and hath given it to thy neighbour, even to David.”

One locality contains the spirits [i.e., disembodied souls] both of the saved and the lost. “Thou and thy sons shall be with me.”

II

DIFFERENT COMPARTMENTS

FOR THE SAVED AND THE LOST

When the souls of the departed are classed together, they are said to be in ‘Hadees’ generally. But when the distinction between the souls of the saved and the lost comes into view, then distinctive names are given to the places of the saved, and of the lost, respectively.

Hadees* is described as a place of detention with gates, needing a strong arm to rescue them. “I will ransom them from the hand of Sheol, I will redeem them from Death [the place]. O Death, I will be thy plagues: O Sheol, I will be thy destruction; repentance shall be hid from mine eyes:” Hos. 13: 14; Psa. 89: 48. “Have the gates of Death been opened unto thee? (says God to Job) or hast thon seen the doors of the Shadow of Death?” Job 38: 17. “Consider, (says the Psalmist) my trouble which I suffer of them that hate me, thou that liftest me up from the gates of Death:” Psa. 9: 13; 107: 18. “I said (says Hezekiah), in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of Hadees:” Isa. 37: 10. Of these places Jesus holds the keys. “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen, and have the keys of Hadees and of Death: Rev. 1: 18.

* I use ‘Sheol’ and ‘Hadees’ interchangeably, as being equivalent, just as ‘Messiah’ and ‘Christ’ are.

The souls of the saved are sometimes spoken of as being in “Paradise,” sometimes as being in “Abraham’s bosom:” Luke 16: 23; 23: 43.

Several names are given to the special place in which the souls of the wicked are confined.

“The sorrows of SHEOL compassed me about, the snares of DEATH [the place] prevented me:” Psa. 18: 5. “The sorrows of DEATH compassed me, and the pains of SHEOL got hold upon me:” Psa. 116: 3.

‘DEATH’ then is one of the names of the place in which the spirits of the lost are detained.

Another of its names is “DESTRUCTION.”

“HADEES is naked before Him, and DESTRUCTION hath no covering:” Job 26: 6. “SHEOL and DESTRUCTION [Abaddon] are before the Lord; how much more then the hearts of the children of men:” Prov. 16: 11. “SHEOL and DESTRUCTION are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied:” Prov. 27: 20.

The nearness and yet the separation of the places of the saved and lost is evidently taught by our Lord’s words concerning Dives and Lazarus. The passage of the souls into Hadees is there set forth. “The poor man (not ‘beggar’) died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom.” “The rich man also died, and was buried.” That is said of his body, but what of his soul? “In Hadees he lift up his eyes, being in torments.”

“He seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his ‘bosom.’” He entreats that Lazarus may be sent to him with a drop of water. Abraham. replies, that it was not fitting that he should be sent, for Dives had sought his portion only in the things of a life which was now past. And even if it were proper, it was impossible; because God had set a great gulf between the saved and lost in Hadees, rendering the passage from one to the other impracticable.

Thus it is shown, that departed spirits (or ghosts) resemble greatly the forms they had while on earth; that they can communicate one with another by voice, and can enjoy or suffer greatly, before the body is put on for ever in [or at the time of] resurrection. The place, it is evident, is not heaven: Luke 16: 19-31.

‘But you don’t take literally that parable!’

Where is it stated, friend, to be a parable? To me it appears a real story. “I have five brethren.” These were still on earth, and ungodly. That looks like fact. The time supposed is that before the Saviour’s first appearing. Moses and the prophets were the sufficient guides then.

Strange are the perversions of this passage by Annihilationists. Some call it a ‘parable,’ and then proceed to explain it away. ‘The rich man is Israel, temporally and spiritually rich, in having Moses and the prophets. The poor man represents the Gentiles, their sores being their sins; and the licking of them, by the dogs is such aid as moralists and philosophers could bestow. He dies of his poverty and sores; that means, he is converted and saved! After his death, angels bear him to Abraham’s bosom. That means, that Paul is sent to the Gentiles who are alive, to teach them, that believers are blessed with faithful Abraham. It appears then, that the Gospel did not come to the Gentiles till they had been previously converted! How dying of their sores means being saved by their sins, is not told us. Not to pursue this supposed explanation into all its absurdities, it appears that Israel’s feasting daily on Moses and the prophets led them into torment after death! The Gentile, who has nothing but sins, and only moralists and philosophers to help him, is saved. O then, the lesson of the ‘parable’ is plain enough. It is this - ‘The less you have to do with Moses and the prophets, the more likely you are to be saved!’

And Dives would have had another plea to present to ‘father Abraham.’ - ‘But father Abraham, it was Moses and the prophets that brought me to this place of torment! It was ignorance of both that took Lazarus to his place of refreshment! How then should Moses and the prophets save my brethren?’

Let us look at Peter’s Confession of Christ: Matt. 16.

He owns Jesus as the Son of God, possessed of life in Himself. Being in nature like His Father, He was proved to be the Son of God with power by His [out] resurrection: Rom. 1.

This confession of Christ is the distinctive faith of the church. Christ is the Rock, as the Risen [out] from the dead. On the Saviour as risen, the church is built. By ‘the church’ is not meant all the saved, but a distinct body of believers, beginning at the descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost. For the Lord Jesus speaks of it as yet future, - “I will build My church.”

But what mean those words, - “The gates of Hell shall not prevail against it”? Most seem to think they mean, that the devil, in his deceits and force shall not prevail against the true church. This arises from the sad mistranslation of ‘hell’ instead of ‘Hadees.’ Hadees means here, as in other Scriptures, the place of departed spirits [or souls]. In this passage it refers to the region where saved souls are. There they are kept in custody till the resurrection. The saved of the church of Christ are continually going down to Hadees when they die, and there they are detained. The gates close them in, and forbid their exit till the day of resurrection. But the Saviour promises his people deliverance from this place, of custody.

We may illustrate the phrase here used by the history of Samson. He went into the hostile city of Gaza, and the inhabitants were, aware of it. “They compassed him in, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying - ‘In the morning when it is day, then we will kill him.’ “And Samson lay till midnight, and arose at midnight, and took the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and went away with them, bar and all, and put them upon his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of a hill that is before Hebron:” Judges 16.

The Gazites trusted that the gates of their city would prevail to detain Samson within their streets till they slew him. But Samson prevailed against the gates to bear them away, and the gates prevailed not against him. Thus Christ our Samson has already shown His power against Hadees, and its gates. In [the ‘out-] resurrection’ [He] Himself came forth from them, after going down within them. And one day He will rescue from the place of souls, and the power of corruption those who are His. This is the force of 1 Cor. 15: 55. “O Hadees, where is thy victory?” Hadees prevails at present: but final victory will rest with the redeemed of Christ. Accordingly, the Saviour’s next words speak of the millennial kingdom of heaven, into which ‘the first resurrection’ introduces. “I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” That is, to Peter, as afterwards to the rest of the apostles, and to His churches generally,* the Saviour gives authority for certain offences to exclude from fellowship with the church of God: and afterwards to re-admit on repentance.

* John 21: 22, 23; Matt. 18: 18.

This is the binding and loosing of which our Lord speaks. And as exclusion from the church comes first, ‘binding’ is named both here and in Matthew before ‘loosing.’ Paul with the church at Corinth first excluded the incestuous believer of their number, then on his repentance they re-admitted him. The significance and solemnity of this discipline is, that those excluded from the church and its fellowship here will be excluded - not from eternal life, but from the millennial kingdom of reward. The same offences which exclude from the church (1 Cor. 5: 9-11), exclude also from the millennial kingdom (1 Cor. 6: 9-11). And Jesus, in our text from Matthew assures us, that whatever His assemblies on earth have rightly decided in this matter, He will ratify, when He comes in His kingdom and glory.

In the transfiguration of our Lord (the account of which follows instantly on these words) we have given to us the picture of the coming kingdom of glory. It occurs on the seventh day, as the millennial kingdom will occur on the seventh day of God’s redemption-work. In that scene we find two talking with our Lord in glory: Moses, type of the dead and buried saints; and Elijah, type of the living, changed without seeing death.

OUR LORD’S CASE

These views are strongly confirmed by the second of Acts. There Peter, inspired by the Holy Spirit, traces for us the course of our Lord. Jesus had been accredited to Israel by signs and wonders, yet they had put Him to death.

What became of Him? God had loosed for Him the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be holden by it. His course was already traced in the 16^th Psalm. “My flesh shall rest in hope because Thou wilt not leave My soul in SHEOL ([Gk.] ‘Hadees’), neither wilt Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption.”

But to this application of the passage many, the apostle knew, would not agree. ‘David may be speaking of himself.’ The apostle then proceeds, to prove, that it cannot be the ancient king of Israel who was intended: verses 29-31. For David had died, and been buried, and his body had lain undisturbed in the sepulchre up to that day. Therefore he could not be the Holy One spoken of in the Psalm, for David, had seen corruption; but the Lord’s [‘Christ’ (or ‘Messiah’) - the] Holy One was not to see it. Paul expresses the same argument more boldly. “David, after he had served his generation, by the will of God fell asleep, and was laid to his fathers, and saw corruption. But He whom God raised again, saw no corruption:” Acts 13: 36, 37.

This passage then gives us the ordinary case of the departed, side by side with the special and peculiar one of our Lord.

1. Our Lord died. The two parts of man, body and soul, were severed. The usual distribution of the parts ensued thereon.

2. He was buried. And while His body was laid in the tomb of Joseph, His soul entered into Hadees: verse31. He was “among the dead:” Psa. 89.

But, unlike the departed in general -

1. His soul was not left in Hadees, but came up out of it: Psa. 18: 5, 7, 16, 18: 30: 3; 40: 2.

2. The proof of this deliverance was, that His body was not left in the tomb. His body and soul were reunited so soon after death, that corruption had not assailed Him. And the 16^th Psalm still further traces Him into heaven. “Thou hast made known to me the ways of life: Thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenanc:” verse 28.

While then the body is left in the tomb to corruption, the soul is also left in Hadees [until the time of Resurrection]. The visible lot of the one part of the man is the proof of the invisible disposal of the other. Man’s final destination is to come forth from [‘hadees’ and] the tomb [or grave, both] body and soul reknit, at some instant not yet known.

But this passage has a yet further bearing upon the subject. “FOR DAVID IS NOT YET ASCENDED TO THE HEAVENS:” verse 34.

Here then is a negative set upon ordinary ideas. Are all souls of the saved up in heaven? No! For their bodies are undergoing corruption; and that is the proof, that their souls are left in Hadees, and not yet rescued from it. For it is not fitting, that one part of the man should be in glory, and the other enslaved to corruption, and the worm; the curse of the garden not being taken off. But this further asserts, that the souls of those whose bodies are corrupting are not in heaven. If David is not ascended, who is? Jesus Himself did not ascend, till after He had come forth out of the tomb: John 20: 17. As the High Priest, fulfiller of the true atonement, there is to be none with Him in the true tabernacle till He come out: Lev. 26: 17.

This disposal of our Lord in the interval between His death and His resurrection is confirmed by other [scriptural] texts.

(1) “When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. Now that He ascended what is it, but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?” Eph. 4: 8, 9. Hadees therefore is in the lower parts of earth.

(2) “Who shall descend into the bottomless pit? (apvaaov)* That is to bring up Christ again [out] from among the dead:” (ek) Rom. 10: 7. His coming up thence into the land of the living was His second birth: Psa. 2; Acts 13: 33.

* The word used in Rev. 20: 1, 2, and Luke 8: 31.

(3) “As Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Matt. 12: 40.

‘But does not that mean only, that Jesus’ body was laid in the tomb of rock?’ Nay! For Jonah did not tarry in a hollow of the whale’s skin but in his “belly.”

Next, when the question arises, which of the two parts of the Saviour is more properly called ‘the Son of man’? we must say - His soul. Then that was in Hadees, as we have seen.

(4) To the dying robber our Lord says - Luke 23: 43 - “Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.” Then the Paradise of which the Saviour speaks is in the heart of the earth. It was not some place in heaven, for He says - “Touch Me not, for I have not yet ascended to My Father:” John 20. There is another Paradise for the righteous when risen [from ‘Hadees’ the place of the dead]: it is called “the Paradise of God:” Rev. 2: 7.

III

NOW LET US FACE SOME OBJECTIONS.

[Question] 1. ‘You speak of the soul’s going downward; the Scripture asserts that it goes upward: as it is written - “Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?” Eccles. 3: 21.’

Answer. It should be, ‘Who knows whether the spirit of man goeth upward?’ And so the Greek and the Latin give it.

[Question] 2. ‘But Paul says - “I knew such a man … how that he was caught up into paradise:” 2 Cor. 12: 4.’

Answer. A mistranslation again; the word* means ‘violent carrying away;’ but it does not specify the direction of the motion.

* And so in verse 2.

[Question] 3. ‘“To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. ... For I am in a strait betwixt two, having the desire to depart and to be with Christ, for it is very far better:” Phil. 1: 21, 23. “Whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. (For we walk by faith, not by sight.) We are confident I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord:” 2 Cor. 5: 6-8. It appears from these texts, that departed saints are with Christ, in a very especial sense. How can that be, if they are not in heaven?’

Answer. It is certain, from these passages, that the departed are sensible of His presence in a way far superior to the living. And many insist on these passages, refusing the others. For with man the question is - Not, ‘What is true?’ But, ‘What is pleasant?’ Now this is the usual character of God’s truth, that it is made up of two halves; seeming opposed one to the other. Thus God tries His saints, whether they will receive all His testimony or no. Both sides then of this truth are to be accepted; both are witnessed to by God.

1. The state of the departed righteous [now in the underworld of ‘Hadees’ and awaiting their resurrection] is a great advance in peace and consolation upon their condition while here. It arises out of the Saviour’s presence [see Psa. 139: 8b, R.V.] being apprehended in a way here unknown [but known by others, who would prefer to keep silent and content to avoid any persecution that might arise from other disbelieving Christians!]

But neither of these passages speaks of the place of departed spirits. No Scripture tells us, that the souls of the righteous [dead] are [now]* in heaven.

[* See John 3: 13; Luke 20: 35; Heb. 11: 35b. cf. Acts 2: 34; 7: 5; 2 Tim. 2: 18; Rev. 6: 9-11; 20: 4ff. R.V.]

2. The other passages testify, that the souls both of the righteous and the wicked are in Hadees. And Hadees is below in the earth’s interior, as has been proved.

[Question] 4. ‘But how can the spirits of the righteous be in Christ’s presence, if they are in the interior of the earth?’

Answer. The solution of that difficulty turns on the powers of the disembodied spirit, of which we know nothing. On this point Paul is remarkably silent. He was caught away to Paradise, to the place of the souls of the holy dead; but he could only say on his return - “He heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful (or, ‘possible’) for a man to uttter.”

[Question] 5. ‘But all is altered, since Christ rose and ascended.’

Answer This needs to be proved. The gates of Hadees, I read, are still prevailing, against the church, and will prevail till the resurrection-morn, and the kingdom of heaven are come. Jesus holds the keys of Hadees (where the souls of the righteous are), and of Death (the place of the wicked dead). The victory over Hadees is not to be won, till this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality: 1 Cor. 15: 54, 55.

Until the body is put on anew by the departed righteous, the man is naked: 2 Cor. 5: 2-4. A part of him is under the slavery of corruption. As unclothed, he is not presentable before God. Not till all the effects of the curse are taken off, will God’s people be set before Him as His sons. “We ourselves grow within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body:” Rom. 8: 23.

The Most High refused of old and resented, even to the threat of death, the want of [proper divinely appointed] clothing in His priests who drew nigh Him in the outer chamber of His royal tent on earth: Ex. 20: 26; 28: 42.

How much more must the unclothing of the dead render them unfit for the glorious presence of God in heaven? Joseph in his prison weeds was not fit for the court of Pharaoh.

So then Cowper’s verse is quite unscriptural:-

“Then in a nobler, sweeter strain,

I’ll sing Thy power to save,

When this poor lisping stammering tongue

Lies silent in the grave.”

Shall the outer part of man be under the disgrace of death and corruption, and the inner man be enjoying, as a ‘glorified spirit’ the splendours of the heavenly scene? Moreover Scripture never speaks of ‘glorified spirits.’ Glory, or intense brightness, belongs to the bodies of the risen: 1 Cor. 15: 43.

[Question] 6. ‘But you forget the great multitude before the throne in heaven: Rev. 7.’

Answer. When is that great assembly found there? Only in [or after] resurrection. Only after the [rapture of the watchful and faithful (Lk. 21: 36; Rev. 6: 9ff. R.V.)] church has been set aside from its place of witness, and the new throne of justice has been set up in heaven.

The idea that the departed spirit at once enters on heaven and glory makes void God’s counsel of resurrection, and shuts up many passages of Scripture; specially those relating to the Lord’s return, as the period of the Christian’s hope for both the living and the dead in Christ.

‘If at death I am at once in glory, why need I wait for resurrection? why return to a body and to the earth?’ Hence many quite leave resurrection out of their theology, though it was the staple doctrine of Christianity in the time of the apostles. And many are falling into the idea of the Spiritists, that the only resurrection takes place at death - when the spirit rises and, leaves the body to eternal corruption. The spirit-state is with many the final state of man.

But this sets aside our Lord’s return, His raising the dead, and His millennial kingdom.

Put this idea beside the inspired testimony of Paul, and see how contrary Scripture is to present ordinary views. Thessalonian Christians had turned to the true God from idols, and to wait for God’s Son from heaven. But while thus waiting, they found, that some of their beloved ones died. Over such they mourned with especial grief, as those who would have no part in the coming reign of Christ on the earth. For how could He give a place in His kingdom to those who were shut up in the tomb?

The inspired correction of this error is very different in principle from that which most believers and ministers of the gospel would have given. We should have heard in reply some such strain as this: -

‘Why, the departed saints are better off by far than you - the living! For they are in heaven where Christ is, and will come out of it with Him, when He leaves the heaven.’*

* Ordinary views do not teach the waiting for God’s Son to come out of heaven. Paul commends the Thessalonians for that waiting: 1 Thess. 1: 8-10.

This view then must assume - That the departed spirits in heaven will come down with Christ ‘into the air.’ There the Saviour tarries, and they go downward to the earth to take up their bodies, then ascend and appear before Him to be judged, after having been already accepted by Him, and enjoying the glories of heaven for ages! Is that reasonable or Scriptural?

Now what does the Spirit say touching the matter?

“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep thro’ Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall first rise: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

1. He treats the dead in Christ, not as peculiarly alive before Jesus in heaven, rejoicing in full chorus of song before the throne; but as “sleepers,” possessed not of glory, but of hope, - the hope being Christ’s return and their [select]* resurrection. The Saviour will raise them [out] from among the dead [in ‘Hadees’], and [united with their bodies] out of the tombs. They are to be caught up; not to rush down.

[* This is a resurrection ‘out of dead ones’ (Lit. Gk.): they will have been previously judged by the Lord (after the time of death, Heb. 9: 27) and, b y Him, deemed “accounted worthy to obtain that world [‘age,’ R.V.] …” (Luke 20: 35, A.V.).]

2. The Thessalonian Christians were mistaken in supposing, that the physical barrier of death was any obstacle to partaking the [millennial and messianic] kingdom of the Son of man. If it proved no hindrance in Christ’s case, who is to be the Head and Lord of the coming kingdom, neither would it prove any obstacle in the case of the righteous* dead.

[* That is, for deceased ‘disciples’ whose personal standard of righteousness exceeded that of the Scribes and Pharisees, (Matt. 5: 20. cf. 7: 21-23; 1 Cor. 6: 9-10ff; Gal. 5: 21ff; Eph. 5: 5ff ; 2 Thess. 1: 4, 5, R.V. etc.).]

3. Far from the righteous dead being excluded by death from the kingdom, the living would not even get the start of the sleepers in Christ. Our Lord shall descend out of heaven (not- ‘and the saints with Him’) - At that moment the dead in Christ shall first rise, then we the living who are [‘left’ and] found on earth up to the day of the Lord’s appearing, shall be caught away in clouds into air, “to meet the Lord;” and, after being thus assembled, we shall be always with the Lord.

This supposes then the souls of the departed to come forth out of Hadees, and in their ascent out of it to take up their bodies, then to appear before Christ in resurrection; both the living and the departed being joined in one common hope. After the Saviour has assigned to each of His saints their place in His day, He will “bring” them “with Him” to partake of His kingdom and glory, to which God is now inviting us: 1 Thess. 2: 12.

Thus Paul’s epistles in correction of Thessalonian errors bring in all the great features of prophecy. The apostacy, the false Christ, and his supernatural powers, the Saviour’s secret return for His people, and His manifestation in the glory with them on high; the Jews’ present place, ‘the great and terrible day of the Lord,’ so near at hand; and so on.

The hope which the Holy Spirit presents them is a joint one, affecting at once both the living and the dead in Christ. For its turning-point is the return of Christ, and His divine power put forth to bring in the first resurrection, and the kingdom of the thousand years. The usual views [about resurrection] regard only the departure of believers one by one from earth; they trace the separate spirit to heaven and there leave the matter. But Scripture, while saying little about the intermediate state, speaks much of the day when mortality shall, for Christs people of this dispensation, come to an end in the millennial kingdom of glory.

The contrast between Scripture views and ordinary ideas will be seen by presenting a verse from a favourite hymn, and comparing it with Scripture

“One army of the living God

To His commands we bow;

Part of the Host have crossed the flood,

And part are crossing now.”

1. Whence it is clear, that believers whose souls have passed into Hadees, and whose bodies lie corrupting in the tomb, are supposed to have crossed over the river into the heavenly Canaan, our land of promise and hope, just as Joshua with his army crossed the Jordan to enter on their land of promise.

2. Living believers are by units, at the time of death, to cross into the same region; bound by the inactivity or the sleep which death introduces. Sleep then is our abiding state, and our hope.

3. The crossing over is supposed to be effected with no discrimination in favour of the believer because of the work of Christ accomplished. Death, the effect of the sentence on our parents considered as guilty and unrighteous, taking effect as it does on the saved and the lost alike ever since the days of Adam, is supposed to introduce us into our heritage.

4. Hence the duration of the crossing is measured by thousands of years. Now this is in marked contrast to the counsel of God.

(1.) The crossing into our heavenly land is to be effected, not by death, or falling asleep, but by awaking. Jesus came, not to send His saints to sleep, but to awake them after their sleep out of the tomb, even as He Himself also arose : John 11: 11; Matt. 27: 52; Rom. 8: 11; 1 Cor. 6: 14; 2 Cor. 4: 4. If we use the figure of the hymn, departed Christians have gone down into Jordan; but they have not crossed to the other side.

(2.) The state of the departed, whose souls are in detention in Hadees, and whose bodies lie fast held in the fetters of corruption, is not the condition for which we are taught to hope. The region entered at death is not heaven or “the better country, that is, the heavenly;” but the intermediate state. The dead in Christ are “prisoners of hope.” But the fulfilment of our hope and of the creature’s is resurrection, as it is written: “For the creature was made subject to vanity, [restlessness, and death] not willingly [by its own fault and choice], but by reason of Him who hath subjected the same in hope. Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the sons of God.” “We, ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, (that is) the redemption of our body:” Rom. 8: 20, 21, 23.

(3.) The entry on our hope is effected by the power of the second Adam, undoing the curse of death and corruption brought by the first Adam. The critical point is not the severing of the bond between body and soul; but the reuniting of those former companions, by the Almighty power of God.

(4.) The time of it is not our ascending to heaven at death; but the hour of Christ’s descending out of the heaven of heavens into the air, and the consequent ascent of believers, both living and dead to Christ, into the air.

(5.) The duration of the crossing is not ages of God’s ordinary arrangements; but “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump,” both the living and the dead saints are to be clothed with incorruptible bodies. Or, if the raptures in order to the appearing before Christ be considered as a series of acts, then the time of the entry is during the presence of Christ on high: 1 Cor. 15: 23. The true crossing is quicker far than Joshua’s across Jordan.

(6.) Scripture discriminates between the dead in Adam and the dead in Christ. Believers and unbelievers are judged at different times in different places, and in different manners.

(7.) The plan of God affects at once both the dead and the living saints. His scheme is to bring back the souls of the departed in Christ into their bodies raised out of the tombs, to take together again part in the scene and state of the living. Both the dead saints and the living are set embodied, and with changed bodies before the Lord; resurrection being our final condition.

(8.) Our victory as believers is not the joyful passing away of the soul into Hadees, and the body into corruption; but our exit out of the intermediate state (Paradise) soul and body reunited, again to appear among the living. Then, and not till then, death is “swallowed up in victory.” The burial of the seed is not its awaking. It is its coming forth out of earth and its darkness, as the new plant, into the sun and air of [earth and] heaven. Not unclothing, but clothing upon with incorruptibility, is our hope and our final condition: 2 Cor. 5.

(9.) The ‘army of the living God’ is not marshalled by Death, nor in the state of the dead. The dead are partially unclean, and not till they are clothed with their new incorruptible bodies, are they fit to be set before the God of life as His sons.

(10.) Departed believers do not enter on the ranks of the host by units, but they shall awake from their sleeping in the field by masses, at the shout of the great Captain of salvation: John 5: 28.

(11.) God’s host are not ‘crossing now,’ but awaiting the moment when the flood of death shall be swallowed up in victory, and in resurrection. The greater part of the host is asleep, and only the great Captain of salvation can waken it. For which coming and its kingdom of [manifested]* glory the Lord prepare His people!

[* See Isaiah 6: 3; Habakkuk 2: 14; Ezekiel 34: 26-29; Psalm 67: 2-7. cf. Romans 8: 18-21; 1 Peter 1: 11ff. R.V.]

THE END