He teaches that the body and soul die together, whether they belong to saint or sinner. That the saint will be raised to eternal life, confounding the terms eternal life and immortality, as is usual with conditional immortality advocates. Eternal life is a divine life, communicated to the one who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. " He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life " (John 3:3636He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. (John 3:36)). Immortality is never-ending existence without relation as to how or where in the next world the existence shall be perpetuated. But if the saint or sinner in death has ceased to exist, if body and soul, in other words, ceased altogether to have any being at all, where can resurrection come in? There is nothing to resurrect. For Mr. Roberts to talk about resurrection is a denial of his theory, which of course proves that his theory is a denial of Scripture.
As to the sinner, Mr. Roberts says, "The unjust are to be brought forth, at Christ's appearing, for judicial arraignment, and their sentence is, that after the infliction of such punishment as may be merited, they shall a second time, by violent and divinely wielded agency be destroyed in death " (page 49).
To the word destroy, or perish, Mr. Roberts attaches the meaning of annihilation, destroying the thought of resurrection, and forcing the idea of a re-creating for the purpose of deciding the hereafter of the human race. He says, "Paganism, heathenism, idiocy, and infantile incapacity are amenable to no law. Therefore, resurrection does not take place in their case " (page 68). He attempts to deduce this from the verse, " As many as have sinned without law, shall also perish without law " (Rom. 2:1212For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; (Romans 2:12)).
Mr. Roberts writes the following in the spirit of having scored a great triumph, but we shall see that he merely displays his own ignorance in the matter:—"Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul' (Matt. 10:2828And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10:28))—This is the orthodox advocate's great triumph. He feels here he has foothold, and he recites the passage with an emphasis entirely absent from his other efforts. He generally snatches his triumph to early, however. He begins comment before finishing the verse. He exultingly inquires why this passage has not been quoted, and so on. If asked to go on with the verse, and not leave it half finished, he is not at all enthusiastic in his compliance. However, he goes on if somewhat reluctantly, and stumbles over -the concluding sentence, ' but rather fear Him that is able to DESTROY BOTH SOUL AND BODY in hell.'" "Instantly perceiving the disaster which this elaboration of Christ's exhortation brings upon his theory of imperishable and immortal-soulism, he suggests that destroy ' in this instance means ' afflict.' 'torment.' But there is no ground for this. In fact, a more unwarrantable suggestion was never hazarded by a theorist in straits. In all the instances in which apollumi—the word translated 'destroy,' is used, it is impossible to discover the slightest approach to the idea of affliction or torment" (page 43).
Not quite so fast, Mr. Roberts. It is easy to put up men of straw, and then knock them down to your own satisfaction. To start with we have never known anyone suggest that apollumi means to "afflict" or "torment." But it certainly does not mean annihilation or ceasing to exist, as Mr. Roberts states. He proceeds to quote twenty-four passages of Scripture, in which the word apollumi occurs, to prove his point. But there are over ninety passages where the word is used, and Mr. Roberts has ignored the verses that contradict his meaning of the word as annihilation. It would be awkward for his theory if he did not. But as we are after the truth we shall proceed to make good his deficiency.
Mr. Roberts prints the word "DESTROY" in large capitals in his book, as if that settled the matter. Remember he teaches that the word means annihilation, or ceasing to exist. Let us begin by giving the real meaning of the word destroy.
It means to render a person or thing useless in respect of the purpose for which he or it is made.
We drop a handsome vase. It is shivered into a thousand fragments. We say, and say rightly, it is destroyed. That this is the meaning of the word apollumi is plain.
We read, " No man putteth new wine into old bottles: else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred " [Greek, apollumi] (Mark 2:2222And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles. (Mark 2:22)). Evidently destruction here means bottles burst and rendered useless, and not annihilated.
Again we read, "Rejoice with Me; for I have found My sheep which was lost" [Greek, apollumi] (Luke 15:66And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost. (Luke 15:6)). Could the Good Shepherd have found something that was annihilated or did not exist—something that was not something? No, it was a lost or destroyed sheep He found, and He saved it from its lost estate and recovered it from destruction.
Again we read, "If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost" [Greek, apollumi] (2 Cor. 4:33But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: (2 Corinthians 4:3)). Most evidently the lost or destroyed here are sinners in this world. It would be useless talking of the gospel being hid from that which does not exist.
These instances disprove Mr. Roberts' confident assertion that the word destroy means annihilation. We ask the question, Why did Mr. Roberts not give us these instances? Why did he try to hoodwink his readers, who might not have the means to check his statements, by only quoting verses that seemed to help his theory, and ignoring the use of the word in other passages that would refute his evil teaching?
Mr. Roberts Says That There Is No Heaven For The Believer
He says:- "The belief in question is not only erroneous in supposing that the dead go to such places as the popular heaven or hell immediately after death, but, in thinking that they ever go there at any time " (page 44). "This going to heaven is a purely gratuitous speculation " (page 45). "The earth we inhabit is the destined arena in which Jehovah's great salvation will be manifested. Here, subsequently to the resurrection, will the reward be conferred and enjoyed" (page 47).
At great length Mr. Roberts pours scorn on the idea of the believer going to heaven at his death. He admits that the Lord is there. Writing of the believer's reward, he says, "Jesus, the pledge of that reward, the very germ thereof, is in heaven " (page 45). Hear the Savior's own words, " In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also" (John 14:2, 32In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:2‑3)).
Here is the promise, that where Christ is, there the believer shall be also. Mr. Roberts says that the Lord is "in heaven." If the believer is to be with the Lord, and the Lord is in heaven, then the believer will be in heaven also. That is clear.
The meaning here is plain. The Lord comes from heaven to the clouds, and calls His own, whether dead or alive on the earth "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump" (1 Cor. 15:5252In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:52)) to the clouds. At any rate the believer leaves the earth, which Mr. Roberts avers will be his eternal dwelling place. The believer is caught up to the clouds, and the Lord then takes His own to heaven, to the Father's house, to be with Himself, and even Mr. Roberts allows that He is in heaven. "So shall we ever be WITH THE LORD." If He is in heaven, and we are "with the Lord," then we must be in heaven.
We are told to "comfort one another with these words" (1 Thess. 4:88He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit. (1 Thessalonians 4:8)). We propose to accept this comfort and believe the word of God rather than Mr. Roberts' contradiction of it.
The Lord said to the dying thief by His side when He hung upon the cross, "Verily, I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be WITH ME IN PARADISE" (Luke 23:4343And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise. (Luke 23:43)). 2 Cor. 12:2-42I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. 3And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) 4How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. (2 Corinthians 12:2‑4) proves that paradise is the same as the third heaven, or "the heaven of heavens." So the dying thief went to heaven, and Mr. Roberts would deny this. We prefer to believe Scripture.
Mr. Roberts Affirms That Mankind Ceases To Exist At The Moment Of Death
We are well aware of the quibble that today, in the passage just quoted refers to the time that the Lord uttered these words, and not to the time when the dying thief would meet his Lord in paradise, in heaven. It can easily be proved that the word today refers to the time when the dying thief would enter into bliss with the Savior who died to save him. When the dying thief drew his last breath he did not cease to exist.
The Apostle Paul wrote, " We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord " (2 Cor. 5:88We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:8)). Does this look like dying, and ceasing to exist, till, what Mr. Roberts is pleased to call, the resurrection? But, if the dead have ceased to exist, there can be no resurrection.
The Lord tells us that Lazarus died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom, that the rich man died, was buried, and lifted up his eyes being in torments. Does this look like ceasing to exist at the moment of death? True the details are couched in parabolic language, but that does not alter the truth that the Lord was teaching.
Again the Apostle Paul wrote, "For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better" (Phil. 1:2323For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: (Philippians 1:23)). The Apostle certainly did not desire to cease to exist, indeed if death meant ceasing to exist he would have been in no strait, for evidently to live in the conscious sense of the love of God on earth were far better than ceasing to exist.
How Scriptures hang together! There is ample proof on every page of the truth of God.
We feel that we have said enough to prove from Scripture the ANTICHRISTIAN TEACHING of Christadelphianism. We could take up other points, viz.: the denial of the existence of a personal devil, of a personal Holy Spirit, etc., but time and space forbid.
As to the gospel Mr. Roberts preaches, it is a strange jumble of truth and error. Listen to the concluding words of the fourteenth lecture in his book, "'Salvation is of the Jews,' nationally and individually. It is important then to understand this element of the truth of God, that by our enlightenment, we may be enabled to put off Gentilism and become related to a higher polity—even the commonwealth of Israel—in which, being 'Abraham's seed,' we shall be heirs according to the promise'"
What a mixing up of Jewish and Christian hopes! The believer is exhorted to put off Gentilism and put on Judaism. Has Mr. Roberts not read the threefold division of Scripture, " the Jews-the Gentiles-the Church of God "? (1 Corinthians 10:3232Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God: (1 Corinthians 10:32)). The believer is neither connected religiously with Gentilism nor Judaism, but the believer of the Gospel of the grace of God becomes part of the Church of God.
Indeed the whole book is one tissue of mistakes of a deadly nature. In plain language the Christadelphian gospel is a latter-day delusion of the devil. It robs the gospel of its essential truths. We warn the reader to have nothing to do with such a soul-destroying system.
The late Mr. F. W. Grant, in his monumental book, "Facts and Theories as to a Future State," reviews the teaching of Mr. Roberts. He writes, "Thus for his own views, out of over fifty passages produced, nine belong to the New Testament, and forty-seven to the Old. Whilst out of passages which he thinks might be adduced as against his views (though scanty in number nine out of ten are from the New Testament ... Really does it not seem a question between the Old Testament and the New? "It is not that; but still there is a tale these quotations tell, the moral of which will be found in 2 Tim. 1:10,10But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel: (2 Timothy 1:10) where the Apostle tells us that 'Christ hath abolished death and brought life and incorruption [not immortality] to light by the GOSPEL." "That means that these writers are groping for light amid the shadows of a dispensation where was yet upon this subject comparative darkness. They look at death as it existed before Christ had for the believer abolished it." "They look at life there where as yet it had not been ' brought to light.' No wonder if they stumble in the darkness they have chosen " (pages 124, 125).
Apply this test to Mr. Roberts' book and it will be seen that verses, that describe the relation of the dead to the world that they have left, are used by him to attempt to prove the non-immortality of the soul, and the ceasing to exist at death. Take one verse only, which Mr. Roberts quotes, " The dead know not anything " (Eccl. 9:55For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. (Ecclesiastes 9:5)). How true that is as to this world. It is no affirmation as to the next. Look up the passage, and the meaning is plain.
What a sad death-bed a Christadelphian must have as compared to the Christian. Christadelphian, not Christian, parading in the name of Christ, yet denying His deity and the true nature of His atoning death, unable to rejoice in the plain assurance of Scripture as to eternal salvation, with no hope of being with Christ in heaven, which is " far better," looking forward in a few moments to extinction of being, at some time being resurrected—though how a being that has ceased to exist can be resurrected we must leave the Christadelphian to explain—and then examined as to whether his character has merited a place on earth forever, no certain hope of blessing, no hope of heaven at all—the death-bed of a Christadelphian must be gloomy indeed.
How blessed is the prospect of the Christian, who believes the gospel of the grace of God, who can rejoice in the sure hope of being with Christ in heavenly glory. May God grant that you, my reader may be among that happy multitude, that no man can number.