RESURRECTION! Perhaps some who read “Messages of Love,” do not know what this big word means. I will try to tell you. It means a raising up of the dead body to life again, out of the grave. Do you know what death is? The soul leaves the body, and then we say, “The body is dead.” The soul does not die, but when the soul leaves the body, the body is dead. No doubt you have seen the dead body of some man or woman, some boy or girl, lying in the coffin, ready to be taken away and buried. There is no life in the dead body, and so we cannot keep it, and have to take it away, and put it in a grave, where it becomes dust again. When God made man, He formed his body out of the dust of the ground, and then breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. When a man dies and his body is laid in the ground, the body turns into dust again, as the Lord God said to Adam, after he had sinned, “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” See Gen. 2:77And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (Genesis 2:7), and 3:19.
Now God takes care of the dust of all these dead bodies, and there is a day coming when God will raise up all these dead bodies out of their graves, putting life into them again. The souls that left them at death will enter them again, and they will live. That is resurrection.
The Bible tells us that there is to be “a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust.” (Acts 24:1515And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust. (Acts 24:15).) This is very wonderful, but it is true, for God Himself says it. God who was able to create man at the beginning, is also able to raise up his dead body again, after death has cut him down, and He will do it.
In some future number of “Messages of Love,” we hope to give you some of the teachings of God’s word about resurrection; but what we wish you to think about this time, is just the fact that if you die, and are buried, God will raise your body up again. Both good people and bad people are going to be resurrected, and then they will have to give an account to God of the deeds done in the body.
This is a very solemn truth, and we would like to have you think about it. And remember, if you die in your sins, that is, with your sins unforgiven, you will be raised up again in your sins, and will have to stand before God in your sins to be judged for them. Oh! how terrible the thought of dying with all your sins upon you, and then being resurrected in order to be judged for them, and then cast out forever into outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Dear children, lay this to heart, and get your sins forgiven now, by coming to Jesus the Saviour, before it is too late.
ML 09/13/1903