back to the great basis of resurrection for the dead and change for the living as being the

true hope of the believer.

Coming to the crucial verses of II Cor. 5:, namely verses 6-8, we are now in a

position to understand the apostle's meaning.  "Therefore we are always confident,

knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, (i.e. our earthly house) we are absent

from the Lord . . . . . we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body

(i.e. our earthly house) and to be present with the Lord (i.e. with our heavenly house of

resurrection for as we have seen, Paul above all wished to avoid being naked--the

unclothed state of death)." To misquote verse eight as `absent from the body is to be

present with the Lord' apart from resurrection is to reverse the apostle's meaning and

comes perilously near to handling the Word of God deceitfully. It is nothing more than a

flagrant (fragrant) example of making the Word of God fit the creed, instead of making

the creed fit the Word.

The great truth of resurrection has been the hope of believers from the earliest times.

If we go back to the oldest book in the Bible we find Job stating that his hope was in a

living Redeemer and `though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall

I see God' (Job 19: 26). And so it always has been for the believer who fastens his faith

to the Word of God rather than to the opinions of man.

(6) Resurrection and Prize.--We must now give a consideration to Phil. 1: 21-23.

Article XX of the Church of England states `it is not lawful for the Church to ordain

anything that is contrary to God's Word written, neither may it so expound one place of

Scripture, that it be repugnant to another'. While we do not bind ourselves to the

39 articles, we do believe that the above quotation is according to the mind and will of

God as it applies to the passages already referred to in the epistle to the Philippians. We

have seen that the witness given by the Lord Jesus and the apostles constantly directs the

mind to resurrection and the Second Advent as being the only hope for the redeemed.

This being so, it would be strange, to say the least, if the apostle Paul in Philippians

contradicted all that had been written before by himself and others and proceeded to teach

that death was the hope of the believer, which immediately ushered him into the presence

of the Lord. Yet this is the `orthodox' view, and it does not seem to matter to those who

hold it that they are interpreting Scripture as being repugnant to other passages. These

must be swept aside, and the orthodox view kept at all costs. It is so `comforting' we are

told. However, we do not write for such, but for those who above all want Truth,

whether this contradicts preconceived notions or not. All who follow this way will avoid

wishful thinking and be content to base their views on the Word of God and not isolated