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Man a Mere Mortal, June 17
Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more
pure than his maker?
Job 4:17
.
Man is only mortal, and while he feels himself too wise to accept
Jesus, he will remain only mortal.
Physical life is ... not eternal or immortal; for God, the Life-giver,
takes it again. Man has no control over his life.
The Word of God nowhere teaches that the soul of man is immortal.
Immortality is an attribute of God only.
Upon the fundamental error of natural immortality rests the doctrine
of consciousness in death—a doctrine, like eternal torment, opposed
to the teachings of the Scriptures, to the dictates of reason, and to our
feelings of humanity.... What say the Scriptures concerning these things?
David declares that man is not conscious in death. “His breath goeth
forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.”
Psalm 146:4
....
When, in answer to his prayer, Hezekiah’s life was prolonged fifteen
years, the grateful king rendered to God a tribute of praise for His great
mercy. In this song he tells the reason why he thus rejoices: “The grave
cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into
the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the living, he shall praise
thee, as I do this day.”
Isaiah 38:18, 19
. Popular theology represents the
righteous dead as in heaven, entered into bliss, and praising God with
an immortal tongue; but Hezekiah could see no such glorious prospect
in death....
Peter, on the day of Pentecost, declared that the patriarch David
“is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.”
“For David is not ascended into the heavens.”
Acts 2:29, 34
. The fact
that David remains in the grave until the resurrection, proves that the
righteous do not go to heaven at death. It is only through the resurrection,
and by virtue of the fact that Christ has risen, that David can at last sit
at the right hand of God.
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