Universality of Death--Results of the Transgression of Law--Dissolution
of the Body not the End of Existence--What is Resurrection?--The
Spiritual Body of Jesus--All to be Raised from the Dead--The Order
of the Resurrection--Necessity of an Immortal Body--Ignorance of the
Laws of Nature--Matter Indestructible--Possibilities of Creative
Energy--Life and Immortality Brought to Light.
Death is the common heritage. It is a legacy to all the children,
left by our first progenitor. It is the result of transgression, the
penalty of violated law. The immortal pair who dwelt in Eden fell into
mortality through sin. Immortality is the power of continued existence.
But "all things are governed by law." Sin is law-breaking. To live for
ever requires perpetual obedience to the laws of everlasting life.
"That which is governed by law is preserved by law." By the same rule
reversed, the reverse obtains. Therefore, that which is immortal and
obeys not the laws of immortality, will become mortal. If obedience
insures preservation, disobedience involves destruction. Law reigns
in the highest as well as in the lower spheres of being. Eternal life
involves eternal compliance with the laws of existence.
All seeds produce their own kind. Mortal beings beget mortality. When
the parents of our race became mortal through breaking the law of their
immortal condition, they brought death to their offspring as well as
to themselves. "In Adam all die." The curse of death smites the whole
family. "It is appointed unto man once to die." No ingenuity he can
exercise or precautions he can adopt will avert the impending doom.
The decree has been proclaimed, "Thou shalt surely die," and it is
irrevocable. The taint that came from the tree of death whose fruit was
forbidden, descends to all generations, and every variety of form and
feature, and color and stature, and tendency and peculiarity, have the
one common characteristic, the certainty of death.
But is the dissolution of the body the end of existence? Not at all.
We have seen that the part of man that comes from heaven lives on when
that which comes from the earth returns to the earth. Yet this is not
sufficient. The query arises, Shall this body, made mortal through
transgression, remain for ever under the penalty of the broken law, or
are there some means of expiation for the sin, and restoration from the
doom, its consequence? Are all the associations formed in the flesh and
pertaining to this mortal state, to perish with the decayed body and be
scattered like the dust to which it is resolved? Are the fond relations
of husband and wife, and parent and child to be dissolved forever? Is
this exquisitely, "fearfully and wonderfully" formed mechanism, with
the experiences of its temporal existence, to be obliterated and lose
its identity in the material universe?
The answer comes down from the remotest ages, like sweet and sacred
music whose tones swell and increase as the chorus is joined by the
voices of the prophets and saints of each succeeding dispensation,
until the grand harmony thrills every respondent soul. The burden of
the song is in the words of the poetic Isaiah: "Thy dead men shall
live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye
that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth
shall cast out the dead." And the ringing tones of Job the ancient
are heard as a solo whose melody reaches unto heaven: "I know that my
Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the
earth; and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my
flesh shall I see God!"
The faith of all people who have communed with God or have been
inspired by the Holy Ghost, has been that they should be resurrected
from the dead. They not only had the assurance of spirit life beyond
the grave, but of the revivification of the material body. The
signification of the word "resurrect" is "to stand up again." That
which was laid down was to be raised up. The release of the immortal
spirit from the mortal body would not answer to this. It was this
mortal that was to put on immortality, this corruptible that was to put
on incorruption.
To make this matter certain, Jesus, who expiated the primal sin, after
being offered on the cross as the great sacrifice, gave up the ghost.
His lifeless body was taken down, embalmed and buried in a new tomb
hewed out of the rock. It was guarded by Roman soldiers. On the third
day from the interment that body came forth alive from the grave.
The same Jesus who was crucified appeared again among His disciples,
and proved that the same body interred was brought forth again, by
exhibiting the wounds made by the nails and the spear, by permitting
them to touch Him, by eating and conversing with them, and by repeated
visits.
This was not a mere manifestation of the immortality of the soul, but
a demonstration of the resurrection of the body. Yet that body was
transformed. The corruptible blood was purged from the veins, and
incorruptible spiritual fluid occupied its place. It was buried a
natural body, it was resurrected a spiritual body. Here then, was a
pattern of that which is to come. This was the "first fruits of them
that slept," a glorious sample of the great harvest of the summer of
redemption.
Now the sacrifice of the Savior had as one of its chief objects the
restoration of mankind to the condition lost by the fall. "As in Adam
all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." Death came to
the race through one man's sin; life comes to the race through one
man's atonement for that sin. The remedy is as broad as the disease.
The plan is perfect. This is why Christ is called "The resurrection
and the life." By virtue of His triumph over sin and His voluntary
submission to death, which had no valid claim upon Him, being sinless,
He obtained the keys of redemption for all the sleeping dust of the
Adamic family. So He made no idle boast or mystic figure of speech when
he declared, "The hour is coming, in which all that are in the graves
shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good,
unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the
resurrection of damnation."
The raising of the dead, though universal, is not simultaneous. When
Christ, who is our life, shall appear, He will first redeem those that
are in Him. Having put on Christ and received of His spirit, they will
come forth at His call to meet Him. They who have part in the first
resurrection are those who have died in the Lord and are blessed and
holy. Their bodies will be fashioned like unto His glorious body.
Having been planted in the likeness of His death they will be also in
the likeness of His resurrection. That is, they will be quickened by
the celestial glory and be placed in a condition to receive a fullness
thereof, and inherit all things as joint heirs with Christ.
The wicked dead remain unquickened for a thousand years. They reap the
fruits of their evil seeds sown in lives of transgression. They drink
the dregs of a bitter cup. Some are beaten with many stripes, others
with but a few. Justice metes out to them their dues. And when they
come forth to stand up in their bodies, they will not be quickened by
the celestial glory, but by that for which they are fitted by their
respective conditions consequent upon their earthly acts, and they will
occupy positions accordingly. But all will be redeemed in due season
from the grave and stand the scrutiny of the All-Seeing Eye and the
judgment of unswerving Justice, which will determine their eternal
future.
In this age of general doubt, when human reason is exalted above
divine testimony, and the voice of faith is drowned by the clamors of
pretended science, the possibility and use of a resuscitation of the
body are scouted and denied. But "all things are possible to them that
believe," and the divinely illuminated mind can perceive not only the
use, but the necessity of the resurrection.
The being that was placed in Eden and endowed with power to wield
dominion over all created things, was a living soul, a sentient spirit
in an immortal body, a man fashioned in the image of God. He fell from
that condition and paid the penalty of death. Christ's atonement, as we
have seen restores him to his original condition. But this he cannot
have without his body again made immortal. By the workings of the grand
scheme of human exaltation, he and his posterity, with the benefits
of the lessons of experience, will be restored to the immortality and
pleasures of the primeval paradise, and placed on the path of eternal
progress.
And, mark this, a body framed out of the grosser elements is essential
to the perfect happiness and power of the refined spiritual organism
which possesses it as a tabernacle. The principle of affinities and of
the attraction and communion of similars proclaim this truth. Spirit
ministers to spirit. Things of a like nature cohere. The higher or
spiritual element reaches upward to the loftiest things; the lower or
fleshy element reaches downward, and the twain, inseparably combined
and governed by the laws of right and truth, draw pleasure and
delight from the heights and depth of the boundless universe and the
ever-extending spheres of eternal intelligence. A disembodied spirit is
imperfect, and requires clothing with its denser parts. Without them,
its affinities would lie in but one direction, and its joy and progress
would be limited.
The family condition too is formed in the embodied state. Death
separates the husband and wife, the parents and children. The
resurrection, in its highest conditions, reunites them and restores
all that was lost in the grave. Who can picture the bliss, the glory,
the power, the might, the dominion and majesty that shall grow out of
the redemption from the dead of the righteous man and his household,
dwelling in perfect harmony and peace with all the powers of their
being, spiritual and physical, purified, quickened, intensified and
enlarged to a fullness, with all eternity before them for the exercise
thereof in accordance with the designs of the Great Greater? It is
beyond the skill of man to depict it, and no mortal mind can comprehend
it without special divine illumination.
And who shall define the impossible, or draw the bounds of the powers
of the Creator? The secret of ordinary life is hidden from the scrutiny
of the most profound scientist. He knows not the mystery of the vital
principle that quickens even the lowest form of animated nature. His
own powers of mind and motion are incomprehensible to him. Their
origin and cause are beyond his ken, and he cannot solve the problem
any better than the ignorant Hottentot or the untutored Indian. The
reproduction of plants from their seeds, the evolving of life out of
the midst of their death, is a wonder unexplained. And shall we say
that it is impossible for the Power that regulates the universe to
reanimate a defunct body?
It must be remembered that nothing in nature is annihilated. No
particle of matter is destroyed by any process. What is called death
is but a change of form. All matter is not visible to the human eye.
A body may exist, but so transformed as to be imperceptible to the
natural vision. The forces that regulate the universe are occult, and
though some of the laws that govern them are known, there are others
that have not been discovered, and it is the height of presumption
for those who have obtained a smattering of information concerning
these things--and who has obtained more?--to declare that impossible
which they know nothing of, or to limit the power of that creative or
quickening energy, whose nature, capabilities and qualities they cannot
comprehend in the smallest degree.
If one dead body has been raised to life, unnumbered millions may
also be revived. That one we have in the person of Jesus of Nazareth,
and He is the forerunner of all the race. Let the sons and daughters
of men rejoice and give thanks to Him who has wrought out this great
redemption. Death is conquered. The grave has no terrors. Life and
immortality are brought to light. Eternity with all its prospects
and capabilities is open to the view. And through the power of the
resurrection vested in Christ Jesus, the whole globe shall deliver up
its dead, and the great progenitor of our race, Adam, the "Ancient of
Days," shall stand forth at the head of his posterity all quickened
and animated by the spirit of life; and while Jesus the Son is hailed
as the mighty Redeemer, God the Eternal Father shall be honored and
worshiped for ever as the Author of our being, from whom springs all
life, light, power and glory throughout the vast domains of universal
space!