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What Lies Beyond the Grave?
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hope for thy truth. The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do
this day.” “In death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave
who shall give thee thanks?”
Psalm 146:4
;
Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6
;
Isaiah
38:18, 19
;
Psalm 6:5
.
Peter on the day of Pentecost declared that David “is both dead
and buried, and his sepulcher 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.
Said Paul: “If the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and
if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.”
1
Corinthians 15:16-18
. If for 4000 years the righteous had gone
directly to heaven at death, how could Paul have said that if there
is no resurrection, “they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are
perished”?
When about to leave His disciples, Jesus did not tell them that
they would soon come to Him: “I go to prepare a place for you,” He
said. “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again,
and receive you unto myself.”
John 14:2, 3
. Paul tells us further, that
“the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the
voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in
Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be
caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the
air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” And he adds: “Comfort
one another with these words.”
1 Thessalonians 4:16-18
. At the
coming of the Lord, the fetters of the tomb shall be broken and the
“dead in Christ” shall be raised to eternal life.
All are to be judged according to the things written in the books
and rewarded as their works have been. This judgment does not
take place at death. “He hath appointed a day, in the which he will
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judge the world in righteousness.” “Behold, the Lord cometh with
ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all.”
Acts
17:31
;
Jude 14, 15
.
But if the dead already enjoy heaven or writhe in the flames
of hell, what need of a future judgment? God’s Word may be un-
derstood by common minds. But what candid mind can see either
wisdom or justice in the current theory? Will the righteous receive