Wondrous, gracious, far reaching and full of measureless comfort is
the promise, but nine out of ten who repeat it seem never to have
comprehended the full import of it.
For this is what He meant.
Listen to it as I quote it in its fullness of intent:
"I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet--when I come again--shall he live:
And whosoever liveth and believeth in me--when I come again--shall
never die."
Nor is this a fictional fancy of mine, but the direct declaration of
the Holy Spirit to the Church speaking through the Apostle Paul; for
he says:
"Behold, I shew you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall
all be changed,
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the
trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and
we shall be changed.
For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must
put on immortality.
So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this
mortal shall have put on immortality, then (and not till then--not
when we die and go to heaven, but when the dead are raised and the
living are changed--then--and not till then) shall be brought to
pass the saying that is written (written by the Prophet Isaiah in
the twenty-fifth chapter of his prophecy), death is swallowed up in
victory.