(Continued from page 350.)

Chapter VII. The Disembodied State

From what we have had before us it is evident that from earliest times it was known that man's soul continues to exist after death. Men understood that when the body disintegrates the soul lives in a disembodied condition. Death was not considered to be the end, but only a temporary condition. A resurrection-state was anticipated, and that in the resurrection the soul would be re-embodied.

We may first inquire, however, What is the testimony of the Old Testament scriptures to the disembodied condition of the soul? What idea of this condition does it give us ?

In Gen. 25:8 we read, " Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, . . . and was gathered to his people." How are we to understand this expression, "gathered to his people?" If we turn back to chap. 15:15, we read, "And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age." "His people," then, were his fathers who had died before him. They were thought of, and spoken of, as still existing. This is a clear proof that the soul was considered to exist apart from the body. Abraham's fathers were dead; they had gone out of this present state of existence into another; and he is told that he is to be gathered with them-to be where the souls of his fathers are, while the body was to return to the earth.

The force of the expression, "gathered in peace " we shall look at later; but I desire here to raise the question, Are we to take the words, "thy fathers," as including all who had died before Abraham ? Or limit them to the line of Abraham's ancestry ? Or are we to take them as referring to the line of faith ? These questions may be difficult to answer, but in the light of New Testament revelation I have no hesitation in saying they have special application to the line of faith. However, it is not necessary to deny an application to the line of Abraham's natural ancestry; nor are we forced to refuse, their application to the dead generally, 1:e., to all who had died before Abraham. It matters not, however, so far as our own present point is concerned. Gathered to "thy fathers," or, "thy people," testifies to the truth of the soul's continued existence after death; and if this is established, then the immortality of the soul is proven clearly, it is not the soul that dies when men die, but the body. It is not the soul that goes to corruption, but the body that returns to the dust while the soul lives on.

In Gen. 37:31-35 we find very clear evidence of the belief in the continued existence of the soul after death. When Jacob's sons produced what he accepts as proof that Joseph was dead, he said, "An evil beast hath devoured him :Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces. " Then he mourned many days; and when "all his sons and daughters rose up to comfort him " he refused to be comforted, saying, "I will go down to my son into Sheol mourning." (The reader will notice I have corrected the erroneous rendering in our English Version). What Jacob really says is, I will mourn for Joseph while I live, till I go down to my son in Sheol – where his soul is. He thought the body had been devoured by an evil beast, and he believed therefore that the soul was in "Sheol" – the place of the disembodied spirit. We see here one who cherishes the hope of the continued existence of the soul after death. Jacob's hope, founded on divine testimony, was that when he died he would be with Joseph.

Notice now that Jacob speaks of going down into Sheol. This gives us an idea of how in these early times the world of the departed was viewed. The condition of the disembodied spirit, as compared with the condition of those who had not died, was thought of as an inferior state. Sheol was considered to be a descent – a lower place or condition. Death was regarded as a humiliation, and the state of the dead as a degradation, compared with the state of the living.

A striking example of this conception of Sheol is found in the 14th chapter of Isaiah. It is the patriarchal view of Sheol. Isaiah here pictures Israel's celebration of Babylon's downfall. He portrays the afflicted remnant of Israel exulting because of rest and quiet on the earth resulting from the downfall of the persecuting power, and describes also the excitement of the world of departed spirits. "Sheol from beneath is moved for thee at thy coming:it stirreth up the dead for thee" (verse 9). Then in the next verse the inhabitants of Sheol are spoken of as saying, "Art thou become weak as we ? art thou become like unto us ? Thy pomp is brought down to Sheol." The view of Sheol here is that it is a place of humiliation, a degradation – a view quite inconsistent with the idea of death being the end of all. In view of such passages it is impossible to maintain the doctrine of the extinction of the soul at death.

But we turn to other scriptures to gather further light on how Sheol was regarded in Old Testament times. Job 10:21, 22 is very instructive. Old Testament saints, as well as ourselves, were dependent on revelation for any right apprehension of the character of Sheol. They did not have the light that is in our possession. In speaking of Sheol it was impossible for them to speak of it in the intelligence in which now we are able to do. They knew, however, that death did not end all, for God had revealed it. They knew both from divine testimony and experience that the body returned to dust. They knew that the soul in Sheol was disembodied. Of the character of the place of departed spirits they possessed only a few hints in what God had revealed. Their ideas of the place, so far as they based them on what was revealed, were correct, and consistent with later and fuller revelations. Their ideas of Sheol, as based on their experience, were correct from the standpoint of that experience, though often incorrect from the standpoint of New Testament revelation. It is important to keep this in mind in speaking of the ideas of Sheol commonly entertained in Old Testament times. They had no experience of the place itself, of course; still experience showed that the dead did not return to this earthly life; and they had no testimony as to the condition of the dead from any who had experienced that condition.

In the passage above mentioned, it is evident that Job is not speaking from revelation. He is speaking entirely from the standpoint of experience. It was a matter of common experience that the dead do not come back to this earthly life, and in the light of that experience he says, "Before I go whence I shall not return."

It must be noticed that Job is not denying the resurrection. As we have already seen, there is clear evidence that he believed in both the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body; but he knew that the resurrection, whether of the just or the unjust, would not be a return to this present earthly life. His outlook as to going at death where he would not return was correct. He was not speaking in unbelief, nor was he denying the hope of a future life in which both soul and body would share. He was but affirming a demonstrated truth that though existing after death in a disembodied condition man does not return to the earthly life from which he has gone.

And this place to which he expects to go when he dies he calls a "land of darkness." He has but little light on the character of the life beyond death. He knows he shall be waiting for the resurrection, but as to the character of the life in the intermediate state he is almost in complete darkness. He looks to be free there from the troubles the wicked are raising here, and be at rest as regards the trials and burdens of the present life. Like another he is assured that his spirit will have to do with God rather than with men or Satan (Eccl. 12:7), but as to the soul's joys or sorrows in its relations to God he has no New Testament light. He can go down to Sheol with the conviction that God will be with him there-like the psalmist (Ps. 139:8)-but as to what being thus in the presence of God will be he knows not. Both to the righteous and the wicked, Sheol is an untried world. From the standpoint of experience it is an unknown land, a "land of darkness," though the ultimate hope is not at all in question.

These statements, and similar ones elsewhere, cannot be used for the denial of the soul's immortality, or that death ends all for both body and soul. On the contrary they confirm the doctrine of the soul's continued existence after death, and are quite consistent with the teaching deduced from other scriptures that the dead-both just and unjust-shall rise and eternally exist as complete men.

There is another class of passages often pressed to deny the immortality of the soul, as Eccl. 3:19-22 as an example. But a little attention to the language used will make it clear that the standpoint there is of mere human knowledge. Man, as he observes what takes place in this world, naturally says, The same thing that happens to the beast happens to man; both die. That is a matter of common human knowledge. But what does man know of what is beyond death ? By mere human experience who can tell ? The whole point of this passage is, Who knows ? It is as true to-day as then, that, unaided by revelation, no man can tell what transpires after death. By mere human experience who knows that the spirit of men goes upward ? The statement recorded here is not what God has revealed concerning what befalls one after death, but what a man says of his personal experience. From that standpoint surely men must say, We know nothing of what is after death, their experience is limited to this present life. But denying any practical knowledge of what is after death is not proving there is no future life. It is only a confession of ignorance as to it. Such passages therefore cannot honestly be used to disprove the immortality of the soul.

Another passage which presents incontestable evidence of the soul's immortality is found in Isa. 24:22. The prophet is speaking of the complete desolation of the earth in the day when God will execute judgment upon the living nations. No class will escape it, though there is to be a remnant that will be sheltered from the storm that shall prostrate the whole earth. Every effort to hide from this terrible infliction of divine wrath will be useless. It is to be the complete end of man's power in opposition to God, and the establishment upon earth of Him who will reign in righteousness. This judgment will include the fallen angels-the host of the high ones on high, as well as the impious kings on earth; they all shall be dealt with then.

Let the reader consider that the prophet here speaks of a judgment which involves the destruction of men from the earth. In verse 22 we read, "And they shall be gathered, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited." It is not their bodies which are shut up in prison, but their souls. After the violent destruction of the body, their souls imprisoned "many days" are to be visited. His description of their disembodied condition in no wise conflicts with the belief in a resurrection. It is true he is not thinking of all men, nor contemplating the righteous dead. He is speaking of the living wicked who will be overtaken by this destructive judgment when the earth is to be prepared for the reign of righteousness. My point is that the prophet shows that death does not end all; but that the soul continues to exist after death. Many other passages point to or imply what the prophet shows here. Others also, like some we have considered, more or less plainly affirm the immortality of the soul. But we need not multiply proofs. What we have had before us establishes the fact that the Old Testament teaches the continued existence of the soul when the body returns to its native dust. C. Crain

(To be continued.)