THE RESURRECTION OF THE WICKED

It seems strange, in view of the general and comprehensive statements of the Scriptures concerning the resurrection, that any should presume to discriminate between the two classes, the righteous and the wicked, and affirm that while the one class, the righteous are to be raised, the others the wicked, are never to be brought out of their graves. This position, which is fortunately held by only a limited class, it is not our intention to answer here in detail. We leave its individual arguments to be answered by those texts which assert that same “all” who die, shall also be made alive (1 Corinthians 15:22); that all who are in their graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation (John 5:28, 29); that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust (Acts 24:15); and that after the first resurrection, embracing all the righteous dead (Revelation 20:6); the “rest of the dead,” which must include all the wicked, lived not again for a thousand years (verse 5), when of course they will live again. We wish here to speak only of the philosophy of God’s dealings with the children of men, the underlying principle of which would forever settle the question of the resurrection of the wicked, even if there were no direct declarations in the Scriptures to that effect. In the light of this principle, as a few words will suffice to show, it can be clearly seen that it is no more possible that the wicked, no matter who, nor where, should not have a resurrection, and be judged for their personal acts and punished therefore, than it is possible for God to lie; and that the close of this present life, no matter under what circumstances, nor for what purpose it may occur, cannot by any possibility pay the penalty for the sins of this life, and release the individual from all further accountability to God.MND 231.1

These propositions once established, the doctrine of the non-resurrection of the wicked is remanded to the category of brainless delusions where it belongs; and these we will now prove.MND 232.1

It will be admitted by all that Adam was placed on probation, and that the penalty of death, absolute and irrevocable, was affixed to the violation of the command not to eat of the forbidden tree. There was no provision made for mitigation or removal of this penalty. While yet he had no posterity, he partook of the forbidden fruit, and the sentence passed upon him, “Unto dust shalt thou “return:” till which time he was to eat his bread by the sweat of his brow.MND 232.2

How did that affect those who were to come after, - Adam could bequeath to his posterity no higher nature than he possessed,-a nature, after his transgression, not only liable, but inevitably doomed, to death. The same plane of being was his children’s only heritage,-a heritage of wearing toil during the period of their life, and after that, death. And this remember, was because their father Adam had sinned in the matter of the forbidden tree.MND 232.3

The apostle makes an explicit statement of this fact. He says (Romans 5:12); “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” When did death pass upon all men?-When the natural father of all men subjected himself to death by sin. From that moment it became a fixed fact that every human being who should appear in this world, would be subject to death. Instead of the words “for that” in the last clause, “for that all have sinned,” the Greek has eph’ho “through,” or “on account of” whom all have sinned. The margin has, “in whom;” that is, in the “one man,” Adam, by whom sin entered into the world. Again the apostle says (1 Corinthians 15:22), “In Adam all die.”MND 232.4

Adam’s sin, trials, and sentence marked the end of probation with him, so far as it concerned that first offer of life which God had given him, which was suspended upon his obedience. And had nothing more been done, it would have been the end of probation for all. So long as God saw fit to let men propagate themselves upon the earth, their lot would have been simply a hopeless life, to be terminated by an inevitable and eternal death.MND 233.1

But immediately upon Adam’s failure under that first arrangement, supervened the plan of salvation through Jesus Christ. Before the first penalty was fully carried out, there was time for Adam to have another trial; and through the intervention of Christ, this opportunity was given him. There was promised a seed of the woman who should bruise the serpent’s head. Adam was placed upon a new probation. In the promised seed, the Redeemer; a new hope was set before him; and he was taught how to manifest faith in the Redeemer by typical services, sacrifices, and offerings.MND 233.2

This arrangement also looked forward into the future, and included all Adam’s posterity; else we had had no hope. A pertinent inquiry now arises; namely, How could the sentence of death already rendered, be inflicted upon the whole human family so that there should be no sacrifice of authority, principle, or prestige on the part of God, and yet the new blessing of hope of life through Christ be placed within their reach?-It could be done in this way: Let men live, and, without any reference to their own personal actions, let them die in Adam, as the apostle assures us that they do. This fulfills the Adamic penalty for the Adamic sin, under the Adamic covenant. Then let all men, irrespective of character, be brought by Christ out from this condition of Adamic death, into which they fell through no fault of their own, once more to the plane of life; and being then alive beyond the extreme limits of the effects of the Adamic covenant,and fall, and death penalty, nothing remains but that they answer for their own course of conduct, and receive such destiny as shall be determined thereby,-if guilty, through their own sins to suffer the same penalty for their sin that Adam suffered for his, which is death, and which to them is the second death, and will be eternal, because no further plan of redemption relieves them from it, as Adam’s would have been had it not been for the intervention of Christ; and if righteous, through faith in Christ, to enter then upon a life which will be eternal.MND 233.3

This is the result to be reached, and the way here indicated being the only possible way to reach it, we may set it down as the actual arrangement in the case. And so Paul, when he declares that all men die in Adam, immediately adds, “Even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” 1 Corinthians 15:22.MND 234.1

We are now prepared to draw conclusions. When Adam, some 930 years after his experience in Eden, died, he died because he ate of the forbidden tree, not because of anything he did after that event. But if, after the Judgement, Adam shall be found worthy of the second death, and be consigned to that fate, it will not be because he ate of the forbidden tree, but because of what he did, and did not repent of, after that event. When Methuselah and Noah and Abraham died, it was not because of any sins they had personally committed, but because their father Adam had transmitted to them a mortal nature. And when Caligula, and Nero and Caesar Borgia, and Catharine de Medici, and Jeffreys, and Claverhouse died, it was not because they were themselves monsters of iniquity, but because they belonged to a death-doomed race. And when the antediluvians, and Sodomites, and Egyptians, and incorrigible Jews, died, it was not because of their personal sins, but because, in the beginning, death had passed upon all men.MND 235.1

Such is the inevitable conclusion from the established fact that we die the first death only in Adam, not on our own account. The second death is the only death in which is involved the result of our own personal actions; and this death is reached only after a person has passed through the first, and is the termination of a second state of being.MND 235.2

Does not God, then, ever visit judgments upon men in this life for their sins?-He certainly does; but to what extent?-Only so far as to anticipate by a brief period the death to which they are already doomed. And this is all that he could do; for the penalty of the second death can no more be reached till we have passed the first death, than the high-priest could enter the second apartment of the sanctuary without passing through the first. Let us illustrate: Suppose that in some State where the death penalty is still in force a man is convicted of murder, and sentenced to be hanged therefor in six weeks. Suppose, further, that, being remanded to prison under the sentence, his conduct becomes so intolerable that it cannot be endured, and therefore a change is made in the arrangement, which brings him to the gallows at the end of two weeks. Now what is done?-His sentence is, on account of his misdemeanors, anticipated by four weeks; but when he hangs, what is it for? Is it for his course of conduct in prison?-No; but for the murder on account of which he had been tried and sentenced to death; and it could not be otherwise without ignoring and setting aside the first crime, guilt, trial and sentence; to suppose which would be to insult the common sense of the officers of justice.MND 235.3

Just so with the antediluvians, whose cases will illustrate all others. Their conduct became so intolerable that God could not suffer them to live out their days. Therefore he anticipated by a time the death which, on entirely other ground, was their inevitable portion. Had he not brought the flood upon them as a manifestation of his displeasure against their sins, they would have died after a few years more of life; and had they been paragons of piety, they would have died just the some. But the death, whenever it came, would have been the death in Adam, which must first be inflicted, because it had passed on all men; and in this death our own personal righteousness or guilt is in nowise involved.MND 236.1

Therefore the personal account of the antediluvians, and of all others who have gone down under special judgments, still remains unsettled; and they must have a resurrection to answer therefore, and then receive the penalty for the same, which will be the second death. And this is no wanton act of cruelty on the part of God-making men alive on purpose to put them to death again. But it is only carrying out the conditions on which alone a second probation could have been offered to man, and which, once offered, God could not ignore and remain true to himself.MND 236.2