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second epistle to this same church, we find further references, and this we shall do when
we come to chapter 5: It is however helpful to see that in chapter 1: the Apostle
realized the immediate and personal effects of "that blessed hope" in action in his own
affairs. God is spoken of as "The God of all comfort", a word closely associated with the
hope and resurrection of the dead in I Thess. 4: There is also a parallel in the wording
of both I Thess. 4: 13 and II Cor. 1: 8-10 which is suggestive:
"But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep,
that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope" (I Thess. 4: 13).
"For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in
Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired
even of life.
But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves,
but in God which raiseth the dead:
Who delivered us from so great a death,
(the past)
And doth deliver:
(the present)
In Whom we trust that He will yet deliver us" (the future).
The doctrine and hope of resurrection is no mere item of a creed. The God we trust, is:
The Father of mercies,
The God of all comfort,
The God which raiseth the dead, and that for all time,
past; present spiritually as well as future, literally.
The Apostle returns to this aspect of truth in chapter 4: "We have this treasure in
earthen vessels", which if "cast down" would, ordinarily be "destroyed", and only the
"power of resurrection" could sustain us against so many odds:
"Always bearing about in the body the DYING of the Lord Jesus. That the LIFE also
of Jesus might be made manifest . . . . . in our MORTAL flesh" (II Cor. 4: 7-11).
"But though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day"
(II Cor. 4: 16).
We pause here to consider the bearing of such a passage on the question of death and
resurrection for this reason. In the endeavour to counter the erroneous teaching of an
intermediate "unclothed" state, which is supposed to intervene between death and glory,
some have over-stressed the state of the blessed dead, and have swung to the other
extreme.
There is no knowledge or device in the grave and this we believe. Death, at least for
the believer, is described as "sleep", and resurrection as "awakening". There is however
no need to overstate such a fact, as we have heard some enthusiasts do, by saying that
when a believer is dead, he is to all intents and purposes annihilated. True, IF there be no
resurrection, THEN "perished" is the word (I Cor. 15: 18) but as there is a resurrection of
the dead, that word cannot be employed. When anyone "believes" the gospel he passes
"from death unto life" (John 5: 24). Is that nullified at death? "Your life HATH BEEN
HID (kekruptai perfect passive) with Christ in God" (Col. 3: 3). Can THAT Life cease,
or be destroyed? We do not say that the believer who falls asleep is conscious, but