“BLESSED THE DEAD WHO DIE.”

Furthermore, we note a beautiful analogy here; for, thus considered, our Lord’s resurrection a few days after his taking of office as King in typical Israel, corresponds to, or parallels the resurrection of the Church, “the body of Christ” a few days after his taking to himself honor and glory and power as the King of nations, in the Spring of 1878. Not only so, but the Book of Revelation, in a scene which belongs to that particular time, and in a description of the opening of the “harvest” of this Gospel age, shows “one like unto the Son of Man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle,” beginning the work of reaping the harvest of this age: and there we find the significant statement, “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth; yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, for their works follow them.” – Rev 14:13,14,16.

This text has been so frequently misapplied by theologians that its true significance will be apt to elude all who have not their senses exercised by reason of use, and who do not closely discriminate. It signifies that from the time of the beginning of the reaping of the “harvest” of this age by the crowned reaper (the Spring of 1878), there will be a wonderful blessing not previously possible, upon the certain class described. From this particular date onward those of this particular class who die will be favored or blessed in a manner in which none of the preceding members of this same class were blessed; namely, in that their death will not interrupt their works, which will continue right along, the labor and weariness alone ceasing, the work itself continuing under more glorious and more favorable conditions.

This means that since 1878 the fully consecrated of the Lord’s people, those who are completely “dead with him,” will not sleep in death, as has been necessary with all the preceding members of the body of Christ throughout the Gospel age; it means that from 1878, onward, the dead, who die in the Lord, will in the moment of dying experience their “change,” or share in the first resurrection – in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, pass from mortality to immortality; from weakness to power; from dishonor to glory; from natural to spiritual condition.

It is to this that the Apostle referred when he said, “Behold, I show 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.” To our understanding, the last trump, the seventh of the series of symbolical trumpets, began in 1874, just before our Lord took to himself his great power and began its exercise – began his reign: its sound is to continue until the close of the Millennial age, a thousand years.

This “change” “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,” that is to occur to the living members of the body of Christ, will indeed be a momentary change as respects each individual after he shall have rendered his accounts before the great King, and been accepted of him as a joint-heir in the Kingdom; but it does not imply that all of these will be changed in the same moment. Quite to the contrary, the judging of the living members of the Church, the going in of the wise virgins in the end of this age, will be a gradual work; it has already been in progress for nearly a hundred and fifty years, and is not yet finished. It will include the rejection of the “foolish virgins,” and the utter casting out of any who may take off the “wedding garment” of Christ’s righteousness, as shown in one of the parables.

Thus, we see that immediately after this taking of the crown in the Spring of 1878, our Lord gathered to himself those of his saints, “his jewels,” who had already been polished and fitted and prepared, and who slept, awaiting the time for the establishment of the Kingdom; and that since then, one by one, his faithful saints of the same class of “jewels” are being gathered to himself, as they finish their course.

But as it was necessary that our Redeemer should not only consecrate his life to death, but that he should actually die, so it is necessary that every member of the body of Christ shall not only consecrate himself to be dead with him, but that each also shall actually die. They are already reckoned dead, but this is not sufficient; our Lord’s words are,

“Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life;” and again,

“Blessed are the dead in the Lord [reckoned dead, consecrated unto death], dying from henceforth.”

So also, it had been foretold in other Scriptures, that all who would be of the body of Christ must, like the Head, pass through the portals of death; thus, it is written,

“I have said, Ye are gods [mighty ones], all of you sons of the Most High; ye shall ALL DIE like men, and fall like one of the princes.”

The two princes of our race were Adam and Christ Jesus.

Adam went into death because of disobedience; Christ as a sacrifice for the sins of others, entered death in obedience; and the Church, the body of Christ, his “brethren,” being justified out of the Adamic death by faith in his sacrifice, are reckoned as joint-sacrificers with him in his death of obedience, that they may be accounted also sharers in “his resurrection” – the first resurrection, to the divine nature and glory and joint-heirship. – Psa 82:6,7; Rom 5:12,17; 2 Pet 1:4.

As seen here the Word of the Lord completely contradicts the false idea espoused by the church nominal and commonly held by many professed believers that when the Lord comes, he will “rapture” away all the faithful believers in the world. That is to say they will disappear instantly in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye leaving all the rest of mankind, non-believers to pass through the great time of trouble coming upon the world. These rapture individuals they believe will not see death, not die, but will immediately be raptured while still alive to meet the Lord in the air, and to receive their new spirit bodies. All this of course is nothing more than the vein babblings of men and is based upon a misinterpretation of scriptures.

We have given here only the briefest possible summary of the Scriptural evidences that we are living in the parousia, the presence, “the days of the Son of Man,” in the “harvest” time of this age, and that the work which he, directly and through his apostles, instructed us to expect, is now in progress; namely, the “sealing” of the saints of the Most High God in their foreheads (Eph 1:13,14), and giving them a mental appreciation of the divine plan and its times and seasons, together with a judgment, or testing of all who have covenanted themselves to be the Lord’s and to lay down their lives in his service.

And all who refuse to live up to their covenant (even unto death), even though sealed and blessed, and enlightened with present truth, will, we understand, be rejected from it, and cast again “into outer darkness” with the world, to share in the great time of trouble coming upon it. We understand also, that the elect number will soon be completed, and the last one of the class who shall be blessed by the glorious “change” from mortality to immortality, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, shall soon obtain that blessing, and that then the great time of trouble will fully burst upon the world, and speedily bring down the high, the lofty, and the proud, and prepare the world for the reign of the Prince of Peace.

Here we have consistency, at least, and harmony of Scriptures which have never been harmonized in the past, and which cannot now be harmonized from any other standpoint or with any other interpretation. Here we have the spiritual Kingdom of Messiah, with all power, displacing the spiritual kingdom of Satan, and establishing order and righteousness through earthly agents of its own, and overthrowing the earthly agents of the prince of darkness, many of whom are his servants merely because “the god of this world [age] has blinded the minds of them that believe not (the truth).”

Continued with next post.