CONTENTS

PREFACE
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CHAPTER ONE - 

THE INTERMEDIATE STATE
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CHAPTER TWO - 

THE TERM SOUL IS APPLIED TO THE ANIMAL CREATION IN GENERAL
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CHAPTER THREE - 

THE ORIGINAL TERMS NESME, RUAH, PSYCHE, AND PNEUMA, TRANSLATED 'SOUL' AND 'SPIRIT' MEAN BREATH OF LIFE
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CHAPTER FOUR - 

THE BIBLE TEACHES THAT MAN, THE SOUL, AS WELL AS THE BODY DIES
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CHAPTER FIVE - 

THE BIBLE TEACHES THAT MAN IS DEPENDENT UPON HIS RESURRECTION FOR ALL FUTURE EXISTENCE
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CHAPTER SIX - 

THE BIBLE TEACHES THAT THE SAINTS ARE TO WAIT FOR FUTURE GLORY UNTIL JESUS COMES TO BE GLORIFIED IN HIS KINGDOM
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CHAPTER SEVEN -

​BECAUSE IT IS WRITTEN THAT THE INHERITANCE OF THE SAINTS IS 'RESERVED IN HEAVEN'  IT IS SUPPOSED THAT BELIEVERS GO THERE AT DEATH TO GAIN IT
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CHAPTER EIGHT - 

THE SAINTS WILL NOT BE PRESENTED BEFORE THE PRESENCE OF GOD OR UNTO JESUS CHRIST UNTIL THE RESURRECTION FROM THE GRAVE
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CHAPTER NINE - 

THE APOSTOLIC EXHORTATIONS ARE ENFORCED, NOT BY THE CONSIDERATION OF ANY JUDGMENT AT DEATH, BUT BY THE COMING OF OUR LORD
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CHAPTER TEN - 

THE APOSTLES JOYFULLY EXPECTED TO MEET THEIR BRETHREN, NOT IN THE INTERMEDIATE STATE, BUT AT THE COMING OF CHRIST
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CHAPTER ELEVEN - 

MANY LONG SINCE DEAD, WILL NOT KNOW THEIR DOOM UNTIL CHRIST COMES
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CHAPTER TWELVE - 

OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED
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NOTE

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CHAPTER FOUR

THE BIBLE TEACHES THAT MAN, THE SOUL, AS WELL AS THE BODY DIES​
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N the day thou eatest thereof, dying, THOU shalt die, (Heb.)  Ge 2:17; on what authority do we affirm that this is inapplicable to the entire man? On what authority do we affirm that the main part of man, the very part which is chiefly guilty of transgression, shall escape this penalty, and never die at all? “The soul that sinneth it shall die.”  Eze 18:4; Read  Ge 19:20  Ps 89:48 33:19. Why then do any speak of the never dying soul? -“The wages of sin is death.” Death is the opposite of life; the cessation or deprivation of it. 

To say that the threatening is spiritual death, is not only to reject the literal import of the term without necessity, but it is to confound the crime with the penalty. Spiritual death is sin, it is the crime, not the penalty. The Scriptures teach that the soul or spirit dies with the body, by the positive assurance that “in that very day his thoughts perish.”  Ps 146:4. “The dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward-also their love, and hatred, and their envy is now perished.”  Ec 9:5,6,10. Do not the thoughts and affections pertain to the soul or mind? If these perish, where is the soul? How striking is the contrast between the popular theory and the testimony of the Eternal Spirit! The former affirms that the dead know more than they did before. The latter, that they “know not any thing.” The former declares that they have gone to their reward. The latter, that neither have they (present tense) any more a reward. The popular opinion says that the love of the righteous and the envy of the wicked are, at death, perfected. The Bible says that both are perished. 

So David,  Ps 6:5; declares that “in death there is no remembrance of thee.” The pious poet said, “And when my voice is lost in death, praise shall employ my nobler powers.“ The pious psalmist said, “The dead praise not the Lord.”  Ps 115:17; “man giveth up the ghost and where is he!” Would Job have used such language, if he believed that the main part of man never died at all? He answers the question, not by affirming that the body only dies, but by declaring the glorious doctrine of the resurrection. This language plainly implies that all man’s future life depends on this doctrine. “All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt call (i.e., when the last trumpet shall sound) and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of my hands.”  Job 14:14,15. 

In respect to the state between death and the resurrection, he declares it is as though we never had any existence, which certainly is not true, if the principal part of man is in a conscious state.- “Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb! O! that I had given up the ghost (spirit) and no eye had seen me. I should have been as though I had not been.”  Job 10:18,19. The reference to the state anterior to birth makes no difference, for in that state he possessed a spirit to be given up, which returns to God who gave it. Here we learn that giving up the spirit, or soul, or life, and its returning to God who gave it, is consistent with the fact of its unconsciousness in the intermediate state. 

Death, so long as it reigns over man, places him on a level with brutes. “Even one thing befalleth them; as the one dieth so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath: so that a man (in the matter of death) hath no pre-eminence above the beast.”  Ec 3:19. It is the glorious doctrine of a resurrection unto eternal life, which gives us the pre-eminence. 

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Some persons appear to have too little confidence in the testimony of the Old Testament Saints. I ask, if they are not the very “holy men” whom the inspired apostle declares “spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost?” It would seem that such persons have but little confidence in the apostle himself. How did Job know that his Redeemer lived, and should stand in the latter day on the earth, and that in his flesh he (Job) should see God? How did he know that God would call to him in the grave and that he would answer him? How, I ask, did he know these things but by the teaching of the Holy Spirit? If we believe his testimony concerning the resurrection, why should we not believe his testimony concerning the intermediate state, that it is a state without knowledge, “His sons come to honor and he knoweth it not,”&c., a state of as perfect unconsciousness as though he had not been?