And at this point the question may as well be raised, and answered, Whence comes this spirit which is claimed to be the real man, capable of an [pg 046] independent and superior existence without the body? Bodies come into existence by natural generation; but whence comes the spirit? Is it a part of the body? If so, it cannot be immortal; for “that which is born of the flesh is flesh.” John 3:6. Is it supplied to human beings at birth? If so, is there a great storehouse, somewhere, of souls and spirits, ready-made, from which the supply is drawn as fast as wanted in this world? And if so, further, is it to be concluded that all spirits have had a pre-existence? and then what was their condition in that state? And again, how does it happen, on this supposition, that this spirit in each individual exhibits so largely the mental and moral traits of the earthly parents? These hypotheses not being very satisfactory, will it be claimed that God creates these spirits as fast as children are born to need them? and if so, who brings them down just in the nick of time? and by what process are they incarnated? But if God has, by special act, created a soul or spirit for every member of the human family since Adam, is it not a contradiction of Gen. 2:2, which declares that all God's work of creation, so far as it pertains to this world, was completed by the close of the first week of time? Again, how many of the inhabitants of this earth are the offspring of abandoned criminality; and can it be supposed that God holds himself in readiness to create souls which must come from his hands pure as the dew of heaven, to be thrust into such vile tenements, and doomed to a life of wretchedness and woe at the bidding of [pg 047] defiant lust? The irreverence of the question will be pardoned as an exposure of the absurdity of that theory which necessitates it.
3. The Spirits of Just Men Made Perfect.—This expression is found in Heb. 12:23, and seems, by some, to recognize the idea that spirits can exist without the body, and are to be treated as separate entities. Thus interpreted it might appear to give some support to Spiritualism. But it will by no means bear such an interpretation. The apostle is contrasting the privileges of Christians in the present dispensation, with the situation of believers before the coming of Christ. What he sets forth are blessings to be enjoyed in the present tense. Yes, says one, that is just what I believe: We are come to spirits; they are all about us, and tip and talk and write for us at our pleasure. But hold! nothing is affirmed of spirits separately. The whole idea must be taken in. It is the “spirits of just men made perfect;” and the participle “made perfect” agrees with “just men,” or literally “the just made perfect” (δικαίων τετελειωμένων), not with “spirits.” It is the men who are made perfect to whom we are said to have come. But there are only two localities and two periods, in which men are anywhere in the Scriptures said to be made perfect. One is in this life and on this earth, and refers to religious experience (“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect”); the other is not relative, but actual and absolute, and refers to the future immortal state when all the people of God [pg 048] will enter upon eternal life together (“God having provided some better thing for us, that they [the ancient worthies] without us should not be made perfect.” Heb. 11:40). Thus, taken in either of the only two ways possible, the text furnishes no proof of Spiritualism. It doubtless refers to the present state, the expression, “spirits of just men,” being simply a periphrasis for “just men,” the same as the expression, “the God of the spirits of all flesh” (Num. 16:22), means simply “the God of all flesh,” and the words “your whole spirit, and soul, and body” (1 Thess. 5:23), means simply the whole person.
4. Spirits in Prison.—The apostle Peter uses an expression, which, though perhaps not often quoted in direct defense of Spiritualism, is relied upon extensively in behalf of the doctrine of the conscious state of the dead, which, as already shown, is the essential basis of Spiritualism. And such texts as these are here noticed to show to the general reader, that the Bible contains no testimony in behalf of that doctrine, but positively forbids it, as further quotations will soon be introduced to show. The passage now in question is 1 Peter 3:19, where, speaking of Christ, it says: “By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison.” By the use of strong assumption, and some lofty flights of the imagination, and keeping in the background the real intent of the passage, a picture of rather a lively time in the spirit world, can be constructed out of this testimony. Thus the spirits are said to be [pg 049] the disembodied spirits of those who were destroyed by the flood. See context. They were in “prison,” that is, in hell. When Christ was put to death upon the cross, he immediately went by his disembodied spirit, down into hell and preached to those conscious intelligent spirits who were there, and continued that work till the third day when he was himself raised from the dead. A thought will show that this picture is wrong, (1) in the time, (2) in the condition of the people, (3) in the acting agent, and (4) in the end to be attained. Thus, when Christ had been put to death, he was “quickened” (or made alive), says the record, “by the Spirit.” This was certainly not a personal disembodied spirit, but that divine agency so often referred to in the Scriptures. “By which,” that is, this Spirit of God, he went and preached. Then he did not go personally on this work. The “spirits” were the antediluvians; for they were those who were disobedient in the days of Noah. Now when were they preached to? Verse 20 plainly tells us it was “when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah.” In accordance with these statements now let another picture be presented: Christ, by his Spirit which was in Noah (1 Peter 1:11), and thus through Noah, preached to the spirits, or persons, in Noah's time, who were disobedient, in order to save all from the coming flood who would believe. They were said to be “in prison,” though still living, because they were shut up under condemnation, and had only one hundred and twenty years granted them in which to [pg 050] repent or perish. Thus Christ was commissioned to preach to men said to be in prison, because in darkness, error, and condemnation, though they were still living in the flesh. Isa. 61:1. Dr. Adam Clarke, the eminent Methodist commentator (in loco), places the going and preaching of Christ in the days of Noah, and by the ministry of Noah for one hundred and twenty years, and not during the time while he lay in the grave. Then he says:—
“The word πνεῦμασι (spirits) is supposed to render this view of the subject improbable, because this must mean disembodied spirits; but this certainly does not follow; for the spirits of just men made perfect (Heb. 12:23), certainly means righteous men, and men still in the church militant: and the Father of spirits (Heb. 12:9) means men still in the body; and the God of the spirits of all flesh (Num. 16:22 and 27:16), means men, not in a disembodied state.”[1]
5. Cannot Kill the Soul.—“Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matt. 10:28. We know what it is to kill the body; and by association of ideas, it seems quite natural to form a like conception of the soul as something that can be treated in the same way. Then if the soul cannot be killed like the body, the conclusion seems easy of adoption that it lives right on, with all sensations preserved, as it was with the body before its death. If it were not for the pagan definition of “soul,” which here comes in to change the current of thought, such [pg 051] conclusions drawn from this text would not be so prevalent; and a little attention to the scope of Christ's teaching here will readily correct the misapprehension. This is brought out clearly in verse 39: “He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.” This is easily understood. No one will question what it is to lose his life; and Christ says that he who will do this for his sake, shall find it. Any one who has been put to death for his faith in the gospel has “lost his life” (had the body killed) for Christ's sake. But Christ says, Do not fear them, even if they do this. Why?—Because ye shall find it—the life you lost. When shall we find it?—In the resurrection. John 6:40; Rev. 20:4-6. The expression, “shall find it,” thus becomes the exact equivalent of the words, “are not able to kill the soul;” that is, are not able to destroy, or prevent us from gaining that life he has promised, if we suffer men, for his sake, to “kill the body,” or deprive us of our present life. The correctness of this view is demonstrated by the word employed in these instances. That word is ψυχή (psuche). It is properly rendered “life” in verse 39, and improperly rendered “soul” in verse 28. This lesson, that men should be willing to lose their life for Christ's sake, was considered so important that it is again mentioned in Matthew, and reiterated with emphasis by Mark, Luke, and John; and they all use this same word ψυχή, which is rendered “life.” In one instance only in all these parallel passages have the [pg 052] translators rendered it “soul;” and that is Matt. 10:28, where it is the source of all the misunderstanding on that text.
6. Souls Under the Altar.—As a part of the events of the fifth seal as described in Rev. 6:9-11, John says he saw the souls of the martyrs under the altar, and heard them crying for vengeance. If they could do that, it is asked, cannot disembodied souls now communicate with the living? Not to enter into a full exposition of this scripture, and the inconsistencies such a view would involve, it is sufficient to ask if these were like the communicating spirits of the present day. How many communications have ever been received by modern Spiritualists from souls confined under an altar? In glowing symbolism, John saw the dead martyrs, as if slain at the foot of the altar; and by the figure of personification a voice was given to them, just as Abel's blood cried to God for vengeance upon his guilty brother (Gen. 4:10), and just as the stone is said to cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber to answer it. Hab. 2:11.
7. The Medium of Endor.—Aside from the direct teaching of the Scriptures, it is still held by some that there are scenes narrated in the Bible which show that the dead must be conscious. The first of these is the case of Saul and the woman of Endor, whom he consulted in order to communicate with the prophet Samuel, as narrated in 1 Samuel 28. Here, it must be confessed, is brought to view an actual case of spirit manifestation, a specimen of [pg 053] ancient necromancy; for the conditions, method of procedure, and results, were just such as pertain to the same work in our own day. But then, as now, there was no truth nor good in it, as a brief review of the narrative will show. (1) Samuel was dead. (2) Saul was sore pressed by the Philistines. Verse 5. (3) God had departed from him. Verse 4. (4) He had cut off those who had familiar spirits and wizards, out of the land, because God had forbidden their presence in the Jewish theocracy, as an abomination. Verse 3; Lev. 19:31. (5) Yet in his extremity he had recourse to a woman with a familiar spirit, found at Endor. Verse 7. (6) She asked whom she should bring up, and Saul answered, Samuel. Verse 11. (7) Saul was disguised, but the familiar spirit told the woman it was Saul, and she cried out in alarm. Verse 12. (8) Saul reassured her, and the woman went on with the séance. Verse 10. (9) She announced a presence coming (not from heaven, nor the spheres, but) up out of the earth, and at Saul's request gave a description of him, showing that Saul did not himself see the form. Verse 13. (10) Saul “perceived” that it was Samuel (not by actual sight, but from the woman's description; for the Hebrew ירע and the Septuagint, γινωσκώ, signify to know, or perceive, by an operation of the mind.) Verse 14. (11) The woman supposed it was Samuel; Saul supposed it was Samuel; and that personation is, then, by the law of appearance, spoken of, in whatever it said or did, as Samuel; as, “Samuel said to [pg 054] Saul,” etc. Verse 15. (12) Was Samuel really there as an immortal soul, a disembodied spirit, or as one raised from the dead?—No; because (a) immortal souls do not come up out of the ground, wrapped in mantles, and complain of being disquieted and brought up; (b) Samuel was a holy prophet, and if he was conscious in the spirit world, he would not present himself at the summons of a woman who was practicing arts which God had forbidden; (c) God having departed from Saul, and having refused to communicate with him on account of his sins, would not now suffer his servant Samuel to grant him the desired communication through a channel which he had pronounced an abomination; (d) Samuel was not present by a resurrection, for the Devil could not raise him, and God certainly would not, for such a purpose; besides Samuel was buried at Ramah, and could not be raised at Endor; (e) It was only the woman's familiar spirit, personating Samuel as he used to appear when alive—an aged man clothed with a mantle. His object was to make both the woman and Saul believe it was Samuel, when it was not, just as communicating spirits to-day try to palm themselves off for what they are not. As a specimen of ancient Spiritualism, this case is no particular honor to their cause; and as a proof of the immortality of the soul, and the conscious state of the dead, it is a minus quantity.
8. The Transfiguration.—Jesus took three of his disciples, Peter, James, and John, apart into a [pg 055] high mountain, and was transfigured before them; his face became as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light, just as it will be in the future kingdom of glory, which this scene was designed to represent. And there then appeared Moses and Elias talking with Christ. But Moses had died in the land of Moab nearly fifteen hundred years before, and it is at once concluded that the only way to account for his appearance on this occasion, is to suppose that he was still alive in the spirit world, and could appear in a disembodied state, and talk with Jesus as here represented. But such a conclusion is by no means necessary. Jesus was there in person, Elias was there in person; for he had not died, but had been translated bodily from this earth. Now it would be altogether incongruous to suppose that the third member of this glorious trio, apparently just as real as the others, was only a disembodied spirit; an immaterial phantom. Unless the whole scene was merely a vision brought before the minds of the disciples, Moses was as really there, in his own proper person, as Jesus and Elias. But there is no way in which he could thus be present, except by means of a resurrection from the dead; and that he had been raised, and was there as a representative of the resurrection, is proved, first by his actual presence on this occasion, and secondly, by the fact that Michael (Christ, who is “the resurrection and the life,” John 11:25) disputed with the Devil (who has the power of death, Heb. 2:14) about the body of Moses. Jude 9. There could be [pg 056] no other possible ground of controversy about the body of Moses except whether or not Christ should give it life before the general resurrection. But Christ rebuked the Devil. Christ was not thwarted in this contest, but gave his servant life; and thus Moses could appear personally upon the mount. This makes the scene complete as a representation of the kingdom of God, as Peter says it was (2 Peter 1:16-18); namely, Christ the glorified King, Elias representing those who will be translated without seeing death, and Moses representing those who will be raised from the dead. These two classes embrace all the happy subjects of that kingdom. This view of the matter is not peculiar to this book. Dr. Adam Clarke, on Matt. 17:3, says: “The body of Moses was probably raised again, as a pledge of the resurrection.”[2] And Olshausen says: “For if we assume the reality of the resurrection of the body, and its glorification,—truths which assuredly belong to the system of Christian doctrine,—the whole occurrence presents no essential difficulties. The appearance of Moses and Elias, which is usually held to be the most unintelligible point in it, is as easily conceived of as possible, if we admit their bodily glorification.”
Those passages which speak of Christ as the “first-fruits,” the “first-born from the dead,” the “first-born among many brethren,” “of every creature,” etc., refer only to the chief and pivotal importance [pg 057] of his own resurrection, as related to all others; and Acts 26:23 does not declare that Christ should be the first one to be raised from the dead, but that he first, by a resurrection from the dead, should show light to the Gentiles. (See the Greek of this passage.) These scriptures therefore prove no objection to the idea that Moses had been raised from the dead, and as a victor over the grave, appeared with Christ upon the mount. Thus another supposed stronghold affords no refuge for the conscious-state theory, or for Spiritualism.
9. The Rich Man and Lazarus.—With the features of this parable, as found in Luke 16, which is supposed to prove the dead conscious, and Spiritualism possible, the reader is doubtless familiar. It should ever be borne in mind that this is a parable; and in a parable, neither the parties nor the scenes are to be taken literally, and hence no doctrines can be built upon such symbolic representations. But not only is it a parable, but it is a parable based upon traditions largely entertained by the Jews themselves in the time of Christ. Thus T. J. Hudson (“Law of Psychic Phenomena,” p. 385) says:—