120. Chapter 7 - Jesus and the Sadducees (The Future Life)
Chapter 7 - Jesus and the Sadducees (The Future Life) Prevailing Unbelief
We are living in an age in which the belief in the life after death is being widely doubted and denied. This is to be expected in an atheistic age, for the belief in the future life is the necessary corollary of a belief in God. Atheistic groups have seized the government of nations and seek to destroy the very remnants of those who still cling to the Bible. Investigations reveal that in our own country at least forty per cent of the young people in our colleges are turning to atheism under the strong pressure of atheistic professors. Preachers, supposed to be Christian, disavow belief in the future life, although questionnaires show that the percentage of preachers who deny the existence of hell is larger than those who deny entirely the life after death! What more timely topic than to consider “The Teaching of the Bible Concerning the Future Life”? The Christian Gospel The Christian is the salt that is to save a dissolute world from utter corruption; he is the light set on the hill to shine out and save the world from despair. Now is the time for Christians everywhere to obey the command of their divine Lord and preach the gospel. The belief in the future life is the very crown of glory which adorns this gospel. To preach the gospel in an age like this requires not merely an intimate mastery of the teaching of the Bible, but also of the grounds on which it rests. The Logic of History The universality of the belief in the life after death has always been a convincing argument. Even the most degraded savages have had their conception of the future life. It seems rather strange to hear so many voices of doubt raised in an age so boastful of its intellectualism, its culture, and its own infallibility. But reflection upon this leads one to doubt the wisdom and worth of this generation rather than the truth and value of belief in eternal life. The more one studies this present generation and perceives its vaunted egotism, its shallow reasoning, its stupid prejudice, and its polluted morals, the more one is inclined to cling to the anchor of hope which has sustained the Christian through the centuries.
View of the Atheist
Those who question the teaching of the Bible in regard to the future life are divided into various groups. First, there is the outright atheist. Many sermons have been preached on “The Search for an Atheist.” The thought of the sermons has been that such a person does not exist. It is said that deep down in the heart of the so-called atheist there is still the latent faith in God, smothered, but sure to break into a flame when misfortune or death comes. The speech of Robert Ingersoll at the grave of his brother, when he could almost “hear the rustle of angels’ wings,” is often cited. Likewise the dying statement of Voltaire that if the devil had ever had a hand in anything, it had been in his attacks on the Bible. But it is perhaps more than anyone can affirm with assurance that every one who has denied the existence of God and the future life has sooner or later recanted. It is better to rest on the declaration of the Bible without qualifications: “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” (Psalms 14:1). J. J. Allen, famous editor of Kansas, tells of a young Russian guide, a college graduate, who ridiculed him, as he was touring Moscow, because he frankly admitted that he still read and believed the Bible. He finally asked her where she expected to go when she died. She replied, “Into fertilizer.” The Humanists’ and Modernists’ Positions The humanists who reduce God to a mere idea seem to be in utter confusion concerning the future life. Although they use a variety of phrases and illustrations and still talk about “eternity” as they do about “God” the impression most of them make is that they believe in annihilation. Modernists who are not so extreme center their attacks on the Old Testament to prove that the future life is not taught there. They hold the most a person can affirm is that only vague statements appear in the later books. This theory has been so widely disseminated that quite frequently preachers who think that they believe the Bible proclaim that the future life is not taught in the Old Testament but only in the New Testament. They think they are exalting Christ and the New Testament by so affirming, but the truth is they have merely consciously or unconsciously adopted a modernistic theory without examining its basis or implications. That they also attack Christ will become evident as we analyze His reply to the Sadducees. It is the purpose of this chapter to examine both the Old Testament and the New Testament to determine the general outline of teaching concerning the life after death, with especial emphasis upon the question as to whether the Old Testament actually teaches the future life. The Modernists’ Presupposition The presupposition which underlies the modernists’ denial that the Old Testament teaches the future life is their theory as to the development of the Old Testament. They deny that it is revealed of God and affirm it is merely man’s gradual discovery of what is therein affirmed. In support of this they dissect various Old Testament books, such as the Pentateuch and Isaiah, and whenever they find a statement or teaching which their theory of evolutionary development of the Old Testament supposes could not have prevailed until a late period in the thinking of the Jews, they immediately declare this passage is by some later writer, J, E, D, P, or a second Isaiah. A free use of the evolutionary shears enables them to cut up the Old Testament and rearrange its contents so as to make a gradual development throughout of the idea of a life after death. Thus they slyly attempt to prove one presupposition by another presupposition, and depend upon their solemn use of big words and scientific terms to prevent the reader from discovering the hoax.
Professor Kirsopp Lake, the famous humanist of Harvard, was urging in his class one day this theory that the Old Testament does not teach the future life. A student spoke up and said: “But, Professor Lake, what about the time when the spirit of Samuel returned and talked to Saul before the battle where the latter was slain?” After a moment’s hesitation, Professor Lake responded: “Well, if that is in the Old Testament, I will have to admit that it teaches the future life, but have not the critics been able to cut that passage out?” A More Moderate View
Professor A. C. Knudson, of Boston University, who is not so extreme in his modernism, has published a book entitled, The ReligiousTeaching of the Old Testament. He has a chapter on “The Teaching of the Old Testament Concerning the Future Life.” He does not attempt to cut out the passages that affirm such a belief, he tries to rub them out, to insist that these passages do not really represent the belief of the Jews of the time. At times he resorts to the dissection of books to relegate certain statements to a late period. The Christian believes the Bible to be inspired of God. The miraculous proof it offers sustains its claim. That the teaching concerning the future life should be more clearly and emphatically presented in the New Testament than in the Old Testament is to be expected, for the new and final revelation is superior to the old, and it was Christ who “brought life and immortality to light” But that the Old Testament does not teach the future life is the theory of unbelievers like the Sadducees in the time of Jesus and the modernists of today. Any one who has become confused upon this topic should read repeatedly the discussion of Jesus as to whether the Old Testament teaches the future life in Matthew 22:23-33 and the great review of this problem in the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews.
Heathenism and the Old Testament
Professor Knudson quotes several authors on the question as to why the Old Testament has so much less to say on the future life than the religions of Egypt, Greece, and other nations. Professor Salmond declares the Old Testament to be below the standard of other religions of ancient times, “less tolerable than the Greek, less ethical than the Egyptian, less adequate and certain than the Persian. These had a more special mission than can be claimed for the Hebrew faith, in the preservation and transmission of the truth of a future life.” Kant, the German philosopher, held that, because of this lack of emphasis on the future life, the Old Testament lacks a genuinely religious character. His compatriot, Schopenhauer, calls the Old Testament on this basis, “The rudest of all religions.”
Reply to the Accusation A sufficient answer to all this unfavorable comparison of the Old Testament to the heathen religions of the times is the reminder that it is not how much, but what is said on a subject that counts. Read the endless, silly ideas advanced by these pagan religions. Visit the tomb of Tutankhamen, filled with the rations and decorations prepared for the dead king. Is the religion of Israel inferior to that of Egypt because the Old Testament is not filled with instructions about burying food and gold chariots with the dead for them to use hereafter? Professor Knudson claims that ancient Hebrew graves have been unearthed in Palestine that contain such primitive preparations for the future life. But if this be so, it only proves again what the Old Testament continually relates that the Jewish people at times deserted the true faith and became contaminated by the false religions about. Professor Knudson cannot find any passage in the Old Testament which instructs that such physical equipment be provided for the dead. He argues at great length that the Jews generally accepted the crude practices of their pagan neighbors concerning the future life, such as ancestor worship, citing Deuteronomy 26:14; Jeremiah 16:7; Psalms 106:28; Hosea 9:4; Ezekiel 24:17; Leviticus 19:28; Leviticus 21:5; 2 Samuel 15:30. A reading of these passages will show the absolute absence of proof; they warn against excess of mourning. Psalms 106:28 condemns Israel for having joined the heathen in the wilderness in “sacrifices of the dead,” but such a reference, together with those that warn Israel against the practice of witchcraft in regard to the dead, shows that the teaching of the Old Testament plainly recognizes the life after death, and warns the Jews against the false heathen practices concerning it. The critics who argue that the Old Testament does not teach the future life until a very late period, when the Jews had borrowed the idea from their heathen neighbors, are in desperate straits trying to explain the amazing difference between the teaching of the Old Testament and that of the surrounding pagan nations. Some suggest that the reason the future life is not emphasized more is the “strong sense of solidarity” which held the nation immortal. They say, “The Messianic hope rendered unnecessary the belief in personal immortality.” But this falsifies the facts as to the Old Testament teaching and as to the natural and inevitable longings of the human heart. The Messianic hope was one that the individual was to share. Professor Toy holds that the lack of teaching on the life after death is due to the lack of constructive imagination on the part of Semites; the Jews knew nothing of drama or metaphysics. In other words, if the Jews could have seen one or two Greek plays, it might have occurred to them that life after death would be desirable! Another explanation of this difficulty seems to have been overlooked: that it may be caused by a lack of eyesight on the part of the critics. If Israel had to borrow the belief in the future life from pagans, why not in Egypt? Why wait a thousand years to learn it from Persia?
If the Bible is what it claims to be, then the belief in the life after death is not the discovery or invention of man but was made possible by the revelation of God. The translation of Enoch shows that God, early in the history of the race, was revealing to man the reality of the future life (Genesis 5:24; Hebrews 11:5). Pagan nations perverted and debased this revelation into the absurd and fantastic ideas and customs they developed. The gradual, divinely-planned unfolding of God’s revelation from the Old Testament to the New is reasonable and most effective. If God had inspired the preliminary messengers, the prophets, to reveal all the truth, then there would have been nothing for His final, supreme Messenger, His own Son, to make known. It is most appropriate that the revelations concerning the future life in the Old Testament should have been subdued and veiled in order that the Son of God might be the One to bring life and immortality to light in its fulness.
Evidence from the Old Testament
What evidence does the Old Testament bear that the writers who led and molded the faith of the nation believed in the future life? What evidence that God was revealing to His chosen people in His own way and time the glories of the beyond, drawing them away from the foolish and degrading teaching of the heathen and leading up to the natural climax of the revelation in Christ? (1) Actual cases of resurrection of the dead (1 Kings 17:22; 2 Kings 4:35; 2 Kings 13:21). (2) Actual cases of translation where the individual did not die, but was translated by God (Genesis 5:22-24; 2 Kings 2:11). The modernists argue that these cases do not mean that the people would be led by them to believe in a future life. How so, unless we presume the Jews were a nation of imbeciles? (3) Actual case of reappearance of Samuel, after his death, to talk with Saul (1 Samuel 28:12-19). (4) Definite declarations of belief in future life.
After David’s extravagant mourning on the ash heap during the illness of his child, as he prayed for forgiveness and for the child’s life, his servants feared to report to him the death of his child, and were astounded at the calmness with which he heard the news and ceased his mourning. His statement is a classic for all time: “But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me” (2 Samuel 12:15-23). David’s statement does not mean annihilation, for his whole conduct was that of hope instead of despair. And his repeated declarations voice his faith in the future life.
Overlooking the Evidence
Professor Knudson overlooks the above incident. He quotes four Psalms (16, 17, 49, 73) as teaching vaguely (16, 17) or definitely (49, 73) the future life, but claims they are all of late origin. His theory compels him to hold that no clear statements of the future life were made until about the Maccabean period, when the Jews could have had time to learn this from the Persians. The apostle Peter did not feel compelled to trim the Old Testament to fit the theory of evolution, for on the day of Pentecost he made the teaching of the Old Testament on the future life one of the central points of argument in his sermon as he quoted David as saying in Psalms 16:8.: “Thou wilt not leave my soul unto Hades, Neither wilt thou give thy Holy One to see corruption” (Acts 2:27). He declared that David was predicting the resurrection of Jesus.
Just to show that the belief in the future life underlies the whole Old Testament, and to take a Psalm which nobody denies is written by David, read the famous twenty-third Psalm: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil He does not say “into the valley,” but “through the valley.” Death was not a destination to him, but a thoroughfare. He was traveling through the valley and on to the heights of glory beyond. Hear him as he closes: “And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.” The Resurrection and Judgment
Many other passages might be quoted, such as Ezekiel 37:1-14; Isaiah 14:9; Isaiah 25:8; Isaiah 26:19; Isaiah 53:10-12; Isaiah 66:24; Daniel 12:2. The last passage is particularly interesting: “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.” Critics hold that this teaches man is “immortable” — he may achieve immortality, but he is not by nature immortal: some will be raised and some annihilated (not raised). But this would mean that man may achieve the resurrection by either pre-eminent righteousness or pre-eminent wickedness! Ewald holds the “many” means all Israelites as contrasted with the heathen; Charles and Knudson hold it means “the pre-eminently good and bad in Israel.” But the next verse makes quite clear that all the wise and noble are to be raised to a blessed existence, and it immediately follows that all the wicked shall also be raised, but to everlasting punishment. The Old Testament Answers Doubters The fact that a number of Old Testament writers argue the question of the future life and state both the position of doubt and of faith does not alter the fact of what the Old Testament teaches. For the point is not that some verse may be quoted from Job or Ecclesiastes or Psalms which expresses doubt as to the life after death, but the question is: To what conclusion did the author come in the end? It is futile to quote the earlier expressions of doubt in Ecclesiastes. What does he say is his conclusion after he has considered the whole range of human pleasures, doubt, and despair? “Man goeth to his everlasting home, and the mourners go about the streets: before the silver cord is loosed, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returneth to the earth as it was, and the spirit returneth unto God who gave it ... This is the end of the matter: all hath been heard: Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:5-14). It is true that Job ponders the side of doubt as he asks, “If a man die, shall he live again?” (Job 14:14). But hear his conclusion: “But as for me I know that my Redeemer liveth, And at last he will stand up upon the earth: And after my skin, even this body, is destroyed, Then without my flesh shall I see God” (Job 19:25, Job 19:26). The same is true of the Psalms.
What Did Jesus Teach? A question of supreme interest is: What did Jesus have to say on the teaching of the Old Testament as to the future life? The skeptics of His day rendered a negative verdict as today. But hear the Son of God as he tore apart the flimsy argument of the Sadducees: “Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God” (Matthew 22:29). No better comment could be written across the face of many modern books on this subject, written by men who claim to be scholars.
Death
Every factor which gives to death a tragic finality multiplies the emphasis upon the life after death. The surrender of life’s tasks to which we have been passionately devoted, the parting with those whom we love more than our own selves, the increase of physical ills climaxed in the end of earthly existence — all of these focus the attention of every thoughtful person upon the problem of life after death.
Avoiding the Issue
It is impossible to evade the issue. Every day brings its inescapable reminders in our own lives or in the lives of our friends. That gay and gallant maxim, “Life begins at forty,” reminds one of the frantic search of another cavalier generation for the fabled fountain of youth. It may be shouted forth in a defiant shriek or whispered with wistful pathos — what can it avail for a generation which has forgotten God? We may laugh and say that life does not really begin at birth, but at “forty,” but is not death stalking the trail as we utter our brave banter?
We may refuse to think about death. We may put off for a time the inevitable hour. We cannot ultimately avoid it. “God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” God decreed man’s death, but man caused death to befall the race: “Thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” “All have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.” “It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment.”
Facing the Issue The very darkness that enshrouds death causes the brilliant glow of heaven to shine all the brighter. The certainty of death is matched by the certainty of life after death. The universality of death prepares the race to understand and appreciate a universal gospel of redemption that opens the gates of heaven to every person. No one is prohibited from entering except those who refuse to prepare themselves to live forever with God. The sinfulness of man which brings death is overcome by the righteousness of Christ who died for our sins and was raised from the dead for our justification. In magnificent language the apostle Paul declares man’s obligation to prove his appreciation of God’s mercy by living each day “stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58). The life after death is determined as to its content by the life before death.
Position of the Sadducees
It may seem incredible that the very religious leaders of the nation who ruled in the holy temple and directed the destinies of the nation should have become so corrupt and worldly that they themselves did not believe the Old Testament by whose authority they were in power. If, however, one will study the pages of church history or glance at world conditions today, it will not seem so incredible. The Sadducees not only denied the plain teaching of the Old Testament as to the reality of life after death and the existence of angels, but they also made the propagation of their unbelief a chief objective in life. For this reason they were enraged at Jesus. Miracles of resurrection performed by Him, calm and profoundly touching sermons assuring men of the glories of heaven, earnest warnings that all men must prepare to meet God in the judgment day and answer for the deeds done in the body — all were considered a personal affront to them. Their skeptical philosophy was the measure of a man s life; facts were blindly pushed aside and warnings went unheeded as they rested on the supposedly logical processes of their own reasoning.
Collision withJesus
They made a fatal mistake, however, in attempting to meet Jesus in public debate on the proposition. They were so sure of their rational processes and conclusions that they felt Jesus would be helpless to answer their dilemma. When Jesus tore their foolish argument to shreds and showed the folly of their position, did they repent and turn in obedience to God and the Old Testament they had been supposed to obey? They did not. They merely shut their eyes and ears and went on to murder Jesus. When Jesus rose from the dead, and when the empty tomb, together with the fearless unimpeachable testimony of the apostles, proved that Jesus had been raised from the dead, did these corrupt hypocrites who ruled the temple surrender their opposition to God and His Word? They did not. They went on to try to murder and destroy those who were testifying to the fact of the resurrection. And yet some people say there is no such place as hell!
Force of Their Conduct
These disbelievers in a life after death furnished by their own infamous conduct a compelling argument for the future existence. To live in a world full of physical and spiritual realities, a world where order and design are everywhere evident — to live in such a world as ours and not to believe in a God who created, governs, and maintains all, is not rational. To believe in a God who is the Creator of all and not to believe in a life after death, a judgment day when we must answer to God for our conduct, a heaven and a hell where rewards and punishments are meted out is not rational. The most irrational of all people are the so-called “rationalists” — the Sadducees and their offspring! Fortunately, we are not left to the processes and conclusions of human reason alone for the basis of our belief in a life after death. We have a revelation from God! Through prophets and apostles, but supremely through His own Son, God has brought life and immortality to light. Only those who prefer darkness to light need stumble in doubt. Their Argument The dilemma which the Sadducees considered so unanswerable was this: Seven men in heaven fight over one woman because all had married her (each brother in turn marrying the childless widow after the death of the preceding brother in accordance with the Old Testament law), and all had died childless. None could make a claim to have her in heaven as his wife which the other six brothers could not dispute. Jealousy, bickering, hatred, and what have you! All this in heaven, supposing there could be such a thing as life after death! With what cleverness and self-assurance the Sadducees asked their question: “In the resurrection, whose wife shall she be of them? for the seven had her to wife.” The Solution The answer of Jesus was so simple and was spoken with such absolute authority that it made their position most ridiculous: “When they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage.” And how did Jesus know this? See how He calmly affirms His deity at every turn as He speaks with the authority of God. He did not say He “thought” there would be no marriage in heaven, nor that He guessed, nor that He could answer their problem by supposing, nor that He had been forced to conclude. “Never man so spake.” He declared the facts as He, God’s own Son, Anew them to be. The reply of Jesus was delivered not only with this amazing assumption of complete knowledge and absolute authority, but He paused first to administer a rebuke to these skeptical, hypocritical leaders of the nation. These were the famous men of the nation, posing as such great scholars that they not only knew the Old Testament, but they even knew better than the Old Testament. “Is it not for this cause that ye err, that ye know not the scriptures, nor the power of God?” Their Unbelief
First, Jesus made clear the proposition that the Old Testament plainly taught the life after death and that the Sadducees had been so enamored of their pagan philosophy and skeptical conclusions that they had neglected to study the revelation that God had given. Or was this a more subtle way of saying that they had rejected the Word of God: “Ye know not” suggesting “ye believe not”? Furthermore, they did not know the power of God; they supposed that God would be compelled to continue in heaven the relations of earth and did not take into account that God would be able to make heaven more blessed than earth.
If you will analyze almost any objection a skeptic raises, you will see this answer of Jesus fits it. They discount the power of God, which is another way of saying that they deny the existence of God — they only talk of a superman and confer on him the title “god.” The Existence of Angels
While Jesus was rebuking the Sadducees for their unbelief in the life after death, He deliberately introduced the angels and thus delivered a second rebuke to these unbelievers. They were notorious for their denial of the existence of angels. Take up the Old Testament and see how often there is a specific declaration of the appearance of angels to men. Reflect on how often the Sadducees had to cut out of the Old Testament that which it categorically affirmed. Verily, the modernists are not very modern!
Jesus’ reference to the angels was very appropriate, not merely as a rebuke to His hearers, but also as illustrating the nature of the future life of men and women. Jesus did not affirm that personality will be destroyed, nor that future recognition will be lacking. We will still be the same persons, conscious of our identity, cognizant of our past experience on this earth (Luke 16:25), able to recognize one another and communicate with each other. We shall be like the angels in that death will never end our blessed life in heaven; marrying and giving in marriage and establishment of separate homes, which is God’s plan for the preservation of the human race in this world where death reigns, will no longer be necessary or fitting. Instead of many families and many homes, there is to be in heaven just one family, the family of God, just one home, our eternal abode. To be the children of God and to enjoy His fellowship will so far surpass anything we have known in this world that all human relationships will be completely subordinated. The Narrow Gate In fact, Jesus plainly warns that no one will ever enter heaven except those who have loved God so much more than they have loved their dearest relatives in this world that in comparison they would seem to hate father, mother, child, or their own lives (Luke 14:26). Most of our difficulties in contemplating the nature of heaven and the life after death arise from the failure to realize the power of God and the kind of love and devotion we are expected to have for Him.
Other Objections
It might well be asked if any other objection to the reality of the life after death has presented itself to the mind of man during the centuries — an objection which has more force than that which the Sadducees offered. It is most interesting to notice how close to the heart of all the difficulties which have tantalized the reasoning and imagination of man through the years was this objection which the Sadducees brought to Jesus. Our relationships with one another in this world lead us into many difficulties, chief of which seems to be the contemplation of how it will be possible to be happy in heaven when we realize that some of those who have been most precious to us in this life are not in heaven, that they, because of their defiance and rebellion against God, have been condemned into hell. The answer to this problem is exactly the answer that Jesus gave to the Sadducees. If this troubles us, we do not realize the power of God, nor do we possess that overshadowing love of God which we should have in our hearts. In the one great family of God there will be no temptation, sin, sorrow, or death. In heaven, God shall wipe away every tear from our eyes. We may not understand how from our present low point of vision, but from the heights of heaven we shall know as we are known and shall understand. The Old Testament
Jesus affirmed from His own infinite knowledge the conditions that heaven will offer; but He also patiently turned back to the Old Testament to prove from its pages that God had made known of old that there is to be a future life. Thus every shadow of excuse is to be taken away from the Sadducees if they continue in their unbelief, and the multitudes listening in awed silence to the debate will be strengthened in their faith.
After answering the puzzle about the seven husbands and one wife and pausing to press it home that there are angels in heaven even as there is a resurrection, even though the Sadducees denied both, Jesus offered just one passage from the Old Testament to prove that it teaches the future life. And what an extraordinary passage it is! Ye blind leaders of the blind, hear His words! “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.” Not invented by man, not learned in Egypt, Greece or Persia, but “spoken unto you by God.” And as if to meet the critics of the twentieth century, He does not quote Daniel, Isaiah, or the Psalms; He quotes from the words of God to Moses, recorded in Exodus 3:6. No room for late development of ideas! His argument is this: Abraham has been dead many years, also Isaac and Jacob; but God does not say to Moses, “I was the God of Abraham” (while he was living, but not now), but, “I am the God of Abraham” ; he is alive now, for a dead person who is no longer in existence can have had a Creator, but he can not have a God. It is as if Jesus said: “Approach the Old Testament where you will, and scratch the surface; you will find the life after death implied, if not stated.”
Testimony in the Epistle to Hebrews
Like most problems which concern the Old Testament, the question as to its attitude toward the life after death finds a sublime discussion in the Epistle to the Hebrews. One might well write across the magnificent eleventh chapter the title, “The Teaching of the Old Testament Concerning the Future Life.” It reviews the first glimmer of hope in Abel’s obedient sacrifice, the translation of Enoch, the faith and hope of Abraham. “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13). By its emphatic study of the word “pilgrim” which Abraham used, Hebrews analyzes his faith. It pictures Abraham standing by the grave of Sarah and solemnly affirming that he was a pilgrim (Genesis 23:4). A pilgrim is a traveler with a destination. So with Abraham in his sojourn in Palestine: he dwelt in tents and kept looking for a permanent city. It was not Ur of the Chaldees, for the way was open to return there. “But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God; for he hath prepared for them a city” (Hebrews 11:16).
Hebrews pictures Abraham with uplifted knife, about to kill Isaac, in obedience to God’s command. How was this possible? Because Abraham believed that death did not end all, but that God would be able to raise Isaac from the dead. What strong faith was this in the future life! The faith of Isaac and Jacob as they died and the specific command of Joseph “concerning his bones” all are cited. The critics who cite this longing of Joseph to be buried with his fathers as proof that the Old Testament leaders counted the geographical location of burial more important than righteous living ought to be given the first prize for intellectual confusion. It proves this much, however, that Joseph was looking forward to a blessed life hereafter, or why any command “concerning his bones,” that his body should be taken with the Israelites to Palestine? Moses’ hope in “the recompense of rewards,” which was to offset all his sacrifice and suffering for the Lord here on earth, receives great emphasis. Special mention is made of the fact that “women received their dead by a resurrection: and others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection (Hebrews 11:35). The Old Testament thus was God’s message to Israel to clear their minds of the confused and false teaching of pagan nations concerning the after life and to prepare the way for His final and complete revelation in the New Testament. The second coming of Jesus, the end of the world, the judgment of men according to the deeds done in the body, the separation of the righteous from the wicked, the blessed life of the redeemed with God forever, the eternal punishment of the wicked — all this has tremendous emphasis in the teaching of Jesus and the whole New Testament. The resurrection of Jesus is the keystone on which all this is builded. It is the very type of our resurrection. It contains a double miracle: not merely the rejoining of the soul and body of Jesus, but the final translation of this earthly body into the heavenly at the time of the ascension.
Paul’s Teaching Concerning the Resurrection Of this mystery Paul speaks in 1 Corinthians, when he seeks to explain the fact that, although the Christian is to expect a resurrection, he is not to expect to have in heaven exactly the same body as on earth. People were disturbed at Corinth with the question as to “how are the dead raised? and with what manner of body do they come?” Paul illustrates by the grain of wheat planted in the ground. It is the same grain of wheat and it is not the same grain of wheat which comes forth. We see different kinds of flesh here: beasts, birds, fish. This should illustrate God’s power to give us a heavenly body according to His own will. “This corruptible shall put on incorruption.” We shall preserve our identity. We shall be like Him when we see Him as He is. “These that are arrayed in the white robes, who are they, and whence came they?...These are they that come out of the great tribulation, and they washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:13, Revelation 7:14). In this blessed hope let us live and die, for death is but the beginning of life, unending and blessed, for those who follow the Son of God.