'So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this

mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the

saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.  O death,

where is thy sting?  O grave, where is thy victory?  The sting of death

is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God,

which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ'.

Death, the last enemy, is abolished by being swallowed up in victory.

That victory is given to the believer through the Lord Jesus Christ.  It can

be nothing else than the resurrection of the redeemed.  The lake of fire

cannot be intended here.  The second death is not the result of Adam's sin.

(See articles on the Millennium9).  It is foreign to the subject of 1

Corinthians 15.

The end is attained 'when He shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even

the Father', and this is not done until all enemies are abolished, and all

the redeemed are placed in their proper rank under Christ.  The abolishing of

death is timed for us in 1 Corinthians 15:54 by the words, 'When ... then'.

Isaiah 25:8 contains the verse quoted in 1 Corinthians 15:54.  It is in a

context of Millennial administration:

'Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord

of Hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before His

ancients gloriously' (Isa. 24:23).

'And in this mountain shall the Lord of Hosts make unto all people a

feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full

of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.  And He will destroy in

this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the

veil that is spread over all nations.  He will swallow up death in

victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from of all faces; and

the rebuke of His people shall He take away from off all the earth: for

the Lord hath spoken it' (Isa. 25:6-8; see also Isa. 26:1 and 27:1).

A further note of time is given in 1 Corinthians 15:52, 'at the last

trump': In Revelation 11, at the sounding of the seventh trumpet 'the

kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ'.

Immediately there follows reference to the 'great power' and the 'reign' and

the 'time of the dead', and the 'destruction of them that destroy the earth'.

These Scriptures, therefore, place the period in view as being before the

second death.

Perhaps a word will be expected upon that difficult verse 1 Corinthians

'Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead

rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?'.

We do not for one moment believe that the passage teaches baptism for

the dead, by proxy, although this strange rite is practised by 'The Church of

the Latter Day Saints', commonly known as the 'Mormons'.  We quote from a

report in the Arizona Republican Phoenix, Nov. 23rd, 1921:

'Up to and including the year 1920 there have been 3,220,196 baptisms

performed by proxy in the temples ... and since the world has so