2 Cor. 4:16. “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.”
Is this inward man the immortal soul? We answer, No; but the new man which we put on, Christ formed within the hope of glory. See Col. 3:9, 10; Eph. 4:22, 24; 3:16, 17; Col. 1:27.
1 Thess. 4:14. “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.”
Yes, says the objector, bring them from Heaven; so they must now be with him there in a conscious state. Not quite so fast. The text speaks of those who sleep in Jesus. Do you believe those who have gone to Heaven are asleep? We always supposed that Heaven was a place of unceasing activity, and of uninterrupted joy. And, again, are all these persons going to be brought from Heaven asleep! What a theological incongruity! But, from what place are they brought, if not from Heaven? The same place, we answer, from which God brought our Lord Jesus Christ. And what place was that? See Heb. 13:20: “Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus,” &c. We may then read the text in Thessalonians, as follows: “For if we believe that Jesus died and God brought him from the dead, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him from the dead.” Simply this the text affirms, and nothing more. It is a glorious pledge of the resurrection, and so far diametrically opposed to the conscious-state theory.
2 Tim. 4:6. “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.”
It is claimed that the departure here referred to is death, with which we agree. We take no exceptions to the remark so often made, “Departed this life,” &c. But[But] as Paul does not here intimate that his departure was to be to Heaven, or even to any conscious intermediate state, we have no right to infer this.
2 Pet. 1:14. “Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me.”
It is here claimed that the “I” that speaks, and the “my” that is in possession of a tabernacle, is Peter’s soul, the man proper, and the tabernacle, is the body which he was going to lay off. That Peter here has reference to death, we doubt not; but it was to be as the Lord Jesus Christ had showed him. How had he shown him it would be? See John 21:18, 19: “But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God.” Here we are shown that the “thou” and the “he,” claimed on 1 Pet. 1:14, to be Peter’s soul, the man proper, was going to die, and by death, glorify God. And Peter himself says in the next verse, “Moreover, I will endeavor that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.” Here, then, the same “my,” Peter’s soul, the man proper, recollect, which in the verse before is in the possessive case, and governed by tabernacle, is again in the possessive case, and governed by decease, or death! Yes, Peter himself was going to die. We find no proof of a double entity here.
This phraseology is well illustrated by Job 7:21, which shows that the man proper, the “I,” sleeps in the dust: “And why dost Thou not pardon my transgression, and take away mine iniquity? for now shall I sleep in the dust; and thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be.”
2 Pet 2:9. “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of Judgment to be punished.”