A 04 terms used regard resurrection dead
IV. The terms used with regard to the resurrection of the dead, are proofs of endless retribution. IN the '' Child's Catechism,” by Rev. O. A.
Skinner, I find the following:* “ Q. Will sin exist in the resurrection?
'' A. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.f
“Q. What does the Saviour say respecting our condition when raised?
“ A. Neither can they die any more; for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being children of the resurrection.”:}, Here, it will be seen, it is assumed that Christ refers to all the dead, and that all, when they are raised, will be the children of God. This, it is understood, is the prevailing belief of Universalists.
* Page 24. f 1 Corinthians 15:50. t Mark 12:25.
We read that “ no Scripture is of any private interpretation;” in other words, that the meaning must be ascertained by comparing the Scriptures one with another. The parallel passage in Luke reads: “ But they that shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; neither, can they die any more, for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.” * Our esteemed friend, Mr. Skinner, it seems to me, is led into a mistake by regarding the expression, “ children of the resurrection,” as meaning all who have part in the resurrection; and since Jesus declares '' the children of the resurrection” to be synonymous with ''children of God,” Mr. S. naturally concludes that all who rise from the dead will be the children of God.
Now, allowing, for the sake of the argument, that the wicked are raised from the dead in their sins, they are not, in the scriptural sense, '' children of the resurrection.” Rising from the dead does not make us “ children of the * Luke 20:35-36. resurrection.” Being the offspring of God does not make us the “children of God; “the wicked would not “come forth to everlasting life,” though coming forth to live forever. The term ''children of the resurrection” connects with itself the further idea of being qualified for heaven, -- “counted worthy to obtain that world.” This is confirmed, it seems to me, beyond all question, by one word of the apostle Paul, “ I count all things but loss, &c, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.”* If, on being raised from the dead, all men are to be fit for heaven, Paul need not have used such “means” to “attain” to it, nor, indeed, any “means” whatever; for he was sure to be raised, like the rest of mankind. Adopt the interpretation just given, viz, that to be accounted worthy to obtain the resurrection from the dead includes the idea of a distinguishing fitness for heaven, body and soul reunited, and we can see why Paul should say he was willing to count all things but loss to attain unto it, -- rising from the dead with his perfected nature, body and soul being, in his view,
*Php_3:8-11. the consummation of preparedness, in every respect, for heaven. If such be Paul's meaning of '' attaining unto the resurrection of the dead,” the wicked, in their sins, though raised from the dead, do not attain unto the resurrection, and they are not, therefore, in the Saviour's sense, “children of the resurrection.” The Sadducees had said, '' Whose wife shall she be in the resurrection?” I will paraphrase the reply of Christ according to my interpretation of his words: “It is, of course, no use for me to answer your question on the supposition that the woman and her seven husbands are not among the saved. They that have done evil ' shall come forth,' as I once said, ' to the resurrection of damnation.' Conjugal relationships among them, or anything relating to happiness, are not supposable. Your inquiry, therefore, relates, of course, to those who are supposed to be in a condition to admit of friendly and loving relationships. As to them, I say, that being accounted worthy to obtain that world, and afterwards such a resurrection as is worthy of the name, they stand in no need of earthly joys, and as they die no more, the necessity for reproduction ceases; they are equal unto the angels, and are the children of God, being, in distinction from the rest of the risen dead, ' children of the resurrection.' “
The meaning of the phrase is also illustrated by the expression, “ children of this world.”
Good people are, in one sense, “ children of this world,” equally with the bad; that is, they are natives of this world; and yet we read, “ the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of lights Thus, the good only are “ children of the resurrection,” though all are raised; as the wicked only are “ children of this world,” though bad and good live here together.
Paul said before Felix, and declared that the Jews “ themselves also allow “ it (for the Sadducees were small in number, though high in rank and power), ''That there shall he a resurrection of the dead both of the just and unjust * The idea advanced by Mr. Skinner and others, that all who are raised from the dead are children of God, grows, therefore, out of his mistake, as I view it, in interpreting the expression,
* Acts 24:15. children of the resurrection” to mean all the risen dead. Enough has been said in explanation of the opposite, and, as we believe, the more scriptural sense of the phrase. It seems to us unaccountable that any should adopt the idea that all who are raised from the dead will be the children of God, if they have ever read the parables of Christ in Matt. xiii. How does he there say it shall be in the end of the world?
'' So shall it be in the end of the world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather aut of his kingdom all things that offend, and them that do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire, there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” The same words are repeated at the close of the parable of the net.
Surely there will be some of the risen dead who will not be '' children of the resurrection,” because they will not be the “ children of God.”
I proceed now to the argument to be derived from the declarations of Christ in connection with the resurrection. Christ said, “ The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.” This he said to illustrate his commission to bestow spiritual life on those who are dead in sin. Then he proceeds at once to assert a power in confirmation of this, in the way of miracle. “ Marvel not at this,” -- (at my power to regenerate the soul,) “for the hour is coming” (notice that he does not here add -- “and now is”) “when all that are in their graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth, they that have done good to the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation.”
“ All that are in their graves “ includes all who die, from Abel to the last victim of death and the grave. “ They that have done evil,” of course, then, are there. Now, it appears that they who have done evil will not have atoned, in the intermediate state, for the deeds done in the body, because the Saviour says they will come forth “ to the resurrection of damnation.” But some of them will have been for a very long time in the separate state. Wherever the rich man went at death, he was “ in torment; “ there were men before his day, and there have been men since his time, who were as wicked as he. But can sin be punished “in torment” so long?
Peter tells us that there were “spirits” in his day ''in prison,” to whom Christ preached by the Spirit in the days of Noah, -- that is at least three thousand years before. That is a long time for sin to be punished, or even for a sinner to be detained, under the government of a good God. Now, these are yet to “ come forth unto the resurrection of damnation.” If sin can be so punished by the Infinite Father, and if bodies are to be added to these souls, notwithstanding this already protracted experience of misery, and if they, body and soul, are at the last day to be doomed to “ fire, prepared for the devil and his angels,” on what principles can all this be explained? Does sin merit such punishment, as the Bible declares has already been inflicted?
“Would an earthly parent punish 'thus? “ Is there not enough, in this ascertained infliction of punishment for sin, to destroy all confidence in the government of God, unless sin deserves it all? And if it deserves all this, we know not how much more it may deserve.
It will be observed, in addition, that Christ does not tell us, they that have done evil but by the power of discipline shall have repented shall come forth to the resurrection of life, and the incorrigible to the resurrection of a further discipline. How is this? Has not the long interval between death and the resurrection resulted in the salvation of any? Strange that some of the more hopeful of the wicked should not have availed themselves of the opportunity between death and the judgment, to confess and repent.
It is contrary to all analogy that it should be necessary to punish men so long before they repent. On the deck, or in the rigging, of a burning vessel at sea, when death is absolutely certain, it is to be presumed that it does not take a wicked man very long to decide with what feelings he will meet his God. When the soul, after death, finds itself on the way to hell, can we suppose that an opportunity to escape, by repentance, if it were offered, would be rejected? If the only object of God is to reclaim the sinner, he will release him the first moment that he repents. It is so in this world. “And when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.” If the soul, at the sight of its punishment, relents and agrees to the terms of pardon, does a Universalist believe that God will say, “ No; you must suffer in hell for your sins, even though you have now repented”? Would an earthly father inflict punishment in such a case? But the Bible represents the wicked to have been in hell from the time of their death till the resurrection, and at the resurrection they must yet come forth “to the resurrection of damnation.” It is incredible that so much time and so much suffering should be necessary to make sinners repent. Either they repent, and God still continues to punish them “ ages on ages; '' or they do not repent between death and the resurrection, nor at the judgment-seat of Christ, nor in the immediate prospect of going away to the society and the punishment of the devil and his angels. If a soul which is finally to be reclaimed, can pass through such experience and not repent, it requires larger hope and faith than is common to men to expect that future punishment can be a means of salvation. That the guilt of a finite creature, man or angel, should merit thousands of years in hell, or that thousands of years should be requisite to bring him to his right mind, no more accords with our natural feelings, nor with what we call “reason,” than does the idea of endless punishment. But if the Bible conveys anything intelligibly to our understanding, it teaches that angels and men have been subjected to punishment for a longer period than is “reasonable “for mere discipline.
Surely, the end of future punishment cannot be merely the recovery of the sinner. Were it so, moreover, it would follow that sin injures no one but the sinner himself. It violates no duties towards God, no interests of fellow-creatures. But the law of God refutes this; the threatenings against those who cause others to fall, and the frequent punishment of men who made others to sin, prove that the punishment of the sinner will have some other end than his reformation.
It being frequently argued that the sins of a finite creature cannot be punished forever, because a finite creature cannot merit infinite punishment, it will be enough to meet this, in passing, with a single remark, viz.: That, if this be so, then, even if the whole universe should sin forever, the whole universe cannot be punished forever, because the whole universe, after all, is but finite.