CHAPTER XXI.

THE DISEMBODIED STATE AND A SIMULTANEOUS
UNIVERSAL RESURRECTION.

IT is commonly taught as a Christian doctrine, that the spirits of the departed are all in a disembodied state, which state or condition is also called "the intermediate state," as coming between the death of an individual and what is usually called "the general resurrection." For it is also taught that except in the case of Jesus, and perhaps in a few other instances, there has been no resurrection yet; that is, to an immortal embodiment;—and that at some future period, near, or distant, or very distant, the resurrection day will arrive, in which all human spirits will be reëmbodied, either at once, or at two successive periods. The above-mentioned doctrines are, in my view, errenoneous; and I propose to offer, in this chapter, two or three reasons against their correctness:

1. The Apostle Paul, in a certain passage declares as follows:

"We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of [or from] God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." 2 Cor. v. 1.

In the same connection with the above, he also, in a text which has been quoted in a previous

chapter of this work, speaks of being, for the present, "at home in the body," that is, in his earthly one, of course. (See Chap. xii.) And this language seems to me to be not such at all as the apostle would have employed had he expected at death to enter upon a disembodied state. According to the figure he here uses, if it was his destiny, on quitting his earthly body, to remain for ages without a body, then was he soon to be totally unhoused; and the condition in which he is at present, in which he has been from that time to this, and in which he must need be hereafter for we know not how long, is that of being in an unsheltered state, destitute entirely of habitation or home. Yet this agrees not well with the Christian idea in regard to the circumstances of departed saints.

Nor does this houseless and homeless condition accord any better with the spirit of the apostle's language. Viewing the dissolution of his body as a not far distant event, he looks forward to his condition thereafter with evidently pleasing anticipations. (See as below.)1 Had he represented his earthly body as a place of confinement, and spoken of being liberated therefrom at death as a prisoner released from prison, this had been in perfect keeping with the doctrine of the disembodied state. Instead, however, of employing that kind of language, he, as we have just seen,makes mention of his " earthly house," speaks of being "at home in "it, and declares in substance, "If this should fall to pieces, we know we have an other. This is but a temporary structure; that a place of permanent abode." It therefore seems. entirely certain to me, that he expected to become an inhabitant of a heavenly house on quitting the earthly one.

12 Cor. iv. 16; v. 8.

2. In the passage in hand, the apostle, in continuation of his theme, goes on thus:

"For in this [, that is, in this house,'] we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed, we shall not be found naked."

Here, if the rendering in the Common Version is certainly correct, the apostle superadds the figure of clothing, and blending it with that of shelter expresses his very earnest desire to be clad with his heavenly house, (a strange mingling of metaphors,) so that he shall not be found naked, that is without a bodily organization. He even repeats this sentiment as follows:

"For we who are in this tabernacle [or 'temporary house'] do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up by life."

In this text, he acknowledges his earthly house or clothing to be in some sort incommodious; yet he is careful to present the idea, once more, that he does not therefore wish to be in an unclothed or unsheltered state- he would rather be doubly clothed or sheltered than to be thus.* Now if it was his belief that in the economy of God all mankind are to become "undressed spirits," thus to remain until the final termination of human mortality, how came he to cherish so strong a desire against such a state?

*"He would much rather be doubly clothed," &c. In the Jewish manner of speaking, a denial followed by an affirmation, or an affirmation followed by a denial, is frequently equivalent only to a comparison, designed to set forth a strong preference for one of the things mentioned. The sentiment of the apostle in the text above quoted, is therefore most probably this, and no more than this, that he would much sooner choose to be doubly embodied than to become disembodied, though, as I view the case, he had not faith nor fears as to either. Compare Jer. vii. 22, 23, with 1 Sam. xv. 22, and Prov. xxi. 3. Also, the first and last half of the verse, in Hos.

3. The text from Paul's writings,- quoted in Chap. V., - in which text he assures the Corinthian brethren that upon the supposition of there being no resurrection of the dead, those having fallen asleep in Christ are in a perished state, seems to teach, and with entire clearness, that the resurrection is indispensably necessary to any after-death life; but this, of course, could not be the true doctrine if it were a fact that the dead are living without having experienced any resurrection. It is therefore claimed that by this text, the common doctrine of the disembodied or intermediate state, as also, by consequence, that of a simultaneous, universal resurrection, are directly and effectually negatived.

It is fully admitted that the Pharisees of our Saviour's day held the doctrine of a disembodied state. This followed unavoidably from their belief in a transmigrational terrestrial resurrection not always happening very soon after death. It is certain, too, that some of the Jews, at a later period, held to a simultaneous resurrection of at least a certain class of mankind. But the question now in hand is not what doctrine was held or taught by the rejectors of Christianity, but what by Christ, and afterward by His apostles.

CHAPTER XXII.

A GENERAL OBJECTION AGAINST MANY OF THE POPULAR VIEWS RELATING TO THE RESURRECTION.

In this chapter, it is proposed to present a couple of Scriptural arguments bearing upon a certain point, which point, when established, furnishes a general objection against all or nearly all the doctrines objected to in the preceding chapters.

"We have testified of God that HE raised up Christ: whom HE raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised.. Then those also who are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." 1 Cor. xv. 15-19.

The above passage was adverted to in our last chapter for the purpose of showing that the apostle considered the resurrection as indispensable to the after-death life. It is quoted here for a similar purpose as furnishing convincing proof that the resurrection of the dead is in progress.

We have seen in Chapters xi., xii., that the dead are in a knowing state; they are therefore in an unperished state, as a matter of course. Yet Paul says of the deceased Christians of that age, the ones having "fallen asleep in Christ," which here seems to signify having died hoping in Christ, -that they "are perished"" if the dead rise not."