WHY MEN DIE

It is a principle of God’s law that every perfect, righteous creature is entitled to life. It follows that every unrighteous creature has no legal right to life. God enforced his judgment against Adam in a gradual manner, viz. — by forcing Adam out of Eden, where the food was perfect, and forcing him to obtain his food or sustenance from the unfinished earth, which brought forth or produced poisonous foods. As he partook of these poisonous foods, disease was taken into his blood and the death process began and was gradual until he was completely dead. Adam was legally dead when driven from Eden, although not actually and completely dead until 930 years later.

Adam was given power, before he sinned, to transmit (the breath of life), the spark of life, or life principle, to his children. The judgment of God deprived him of his legal right to life and that judgment pursued the power of reproduction; in other words, his offspring were begotten under the disability that their father was laboring under, viz.: without legal right to life, and the Father Adam transmitted to his offspring the same poison or disease that was in his system. The perfect man Adam begot no children. His children he begot after he was under the sentence of death, and therefore he transmitted to all of his offspring the disease in his own body. Consequently, by operation of God’s law, all of Adam’s children inherited death and were born legally dead, or without a legal right to life. In proof of this we read, in Psa 51:5, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me”; and again (Rom 5:12) “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.”

It follows that every man that has died, died because of the judgment that was justly placed against Adam and which by inheritance came upon his offspring. Every man thus justly dying would, of necessity, remain dead forever unless God had made some provision for his redemption and resurrection.

REDEMPTION

“In John 3:16 we read; ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’

We submit that these words of the Master conclusively prove that the dead are unconscious until the awakening of the resurrection. A creature that perishes could not have consciousness, and in this Scripture the statement is made that all would perish forever without the provision God made for redemption through Jesus Christ.

All must concede, if they believe the Bible to be true, that none would be saved without believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. This Scripture is positive that all of us would perish.

Thus we see we are not limited only to the Old Testament to prove that the dead are unconscious until the awakening of the resurrection.

MORE PROOF

The Apostle Paul, in 1 Cor 15:16-18, says, “For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.”

Mark well, he says that even Christians are perished, utterly destroyed, if there be no resurrection. They are already perished, because dead and their future lives are absolutely dependent upon the resurrection.

Now we ask:

If the dead are perished, unless there is a resurrection, how would it be possible for them to be conscious prior to the time of being awakened to the resurrection?

Resurrection really means re-creation — bringing again to perfect condition of life.

WHY IS RESURRECTION POSSIBLE?

While we leave the philosophy of the ransom sacrifice (to another blog post, entitled “The Ransom”, which please see), it is necessary here to call attention to some of the cardinal points thereof.

“The perfect man Adam sinned, and thereby forfeited all his right to life. Nevertheless prior to his sin the entire human race yet unborn, was still in his loins; that is to say, he had the power to produce the race and in this sense the whole race had a life-standing in Adam. When he sinned all his rights were lost, hence all of his offspring were born legally dead. The apostle emphasizes this fact when he says; ‘In Adam all die.’

God’s law provided that his judgment might be satisfied by the voluntary death of another equal to Adam, ‘a life for a life.’ (Exod 21:23) Jesus partook of flesh and blood for this very purpose of redeeming man. (Heb 2:9.)

It was a perfect man (comprised of flesh and blood) who sinned and it would take another perfect man (likewise of flesh and blood) to redeem him.

He stated (Mark 10:45) that he came to give his life a ransom (a corresponding price). By his death and resurrection from the dead the Lord provided the ransom price for Adam and his offspring. This was an absolute guarantee THAT THE ENTIRE HUMAN RACE, in God’s due time, would be released from the condemnation of death and awakened to a resurrection. Because the penalty of sin is death and death means cessation of life, it was necessary for the man, Christ Jesus, to die in order to redeem mankind from that death sentence; and the fact of his death and resurrection, the apostle argues, is conclusive proof that all the dead shall come forth.

Continued with next post.