Page:The Annihilation Theory Compared with Holy Scripture.pdf/5

Rh It will have been observed that we have, as far as possible, avoided the use of controversial terms in our remarks,—it is not worth our while to argue for mere words. The real question is not as to places of any particular name, “Hades,” “hell,” or any other, but whether the good and evil ever live again.

Having adduced testimony on this head, we now proceed to show that Scripture teaches us that man never ceases to exist, but that the event we call death is simply an emigration from the Old World to the New. This brings us to our second division—

II. That the life of man is a continuous state of existence.

(a) The Lord, speaking to the unbelieving Pharisees, said, Luke xx. 37, 38, “Now, that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he called the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For He is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto Him.”

The plain meaning of this passage is, that though the Sadducees thought that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were then non-existent, they were in reality still living at the time that the Lord spake to Moses at the bush.

(b) When David’s child was taken from him he found comfort in the thought, “I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.” If this passage is the expression of a truth, it is quite sufficient to annihilate the idea that children cease to exist when their places on earth become vacant. There could be no comfort