Vol. 2 Timely
Greetings No. 32
THE ONLY
PEACE OF MIND
Volume 2
Numbers 32
Copyright, 1948 Reprint
All rights reserved
V.T. HOUTEFF
IF A MAN
DIES HOW SHALL HE LIVE AGAIN?
AND WHAT
SHALL HE BE LIKE?
TEXT OF ADDRESS BY V.T. HOUTEFF,
MINISTER OF D. SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS
SABBATH,
MT.
"For if we believe that Jesus died and
rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will
God bring with Him. For this we say unto
you by the Word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming
of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from
heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of
God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the
air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Wherefore comfort one another with these words." 1 Thess. 4:14-18.
Here we see that those who come up in the
first resurrection shall not only live again, but shall die no more.
Now to find our answer to the question, What shall man be like if he lives again? We shall first turn to the book of Genesis:
Gen. 2:7 --
"And 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."
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No. 32 12
In this scripture we are told that God
formed man out of the dust of the ground.
Then the breath of life was breathed into his nostrils, and thus he
became a living soul, that the breath and the body together are what make the
soul. The process of development is the
same as is the process of ice making -- low temperature and water make ice just
as the body and the breath make the soul.
Hence when the breath leaves the body, man no longer is a living soul --
no, no more than the ice is ice after it goes back to water. Man obviously has no existing soul after the
breath leaves his body, for the body and the breath together make the soul.
"I know" says the wise man,
"that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to
it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before
him." Eccl. 3:14.
Eccl. 9:5, 6 -- "For 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. Also their love, and their
hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion
for ever in any thing that is done under the sun."
Eccl.
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the spirit of man that goeth
upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth
downward to the earth?"
Inspiration you see, first tells us how man
was created and what he is like, then It asks
point-blank: "Who knoweth the spirit of man that
goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?" -- The only answer that
can be given is that no one knows but God.
And since He has told us that the body and soul together, not apart,
make the soul, then it is plain that a dead man has no soul, that the body
returns to dust, and the breath returns to breath, to wind. Moreover, whatever befalls the beast the same
befalls the man. They both have one
breath, declares Inspiration, and the one has no preeminence above the other.
This is what God says about the soul, and we
should believe Him rather than fool ourselves with uninspired theories of men
who presumptuously say that the soul never dies, although God says, "The
soul that sinneth, it shall die." Ezek.
18:4. Hence, when man dies, his soul
vanishes as does ice when the temperature rises above freezing.
Next to find what man will look like when he
is made to live again a sinless life, we should see what man looked like before
he sinned:
Gen. 3:6-8 -- "And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that
it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she
took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with
her; and he did eat. And the eyes of
them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they
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sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves
aprons. And they heard the voice of the
Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife
hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the
garden."
Immediately after Adam and Eve had eaten of
the forbidden fruit, a surprising change took place. They at once perceived that the light of life
and beauty with which they had been clothed vanished away, and they saw
themselves naked, ugly, and shameful to the eye. Consequently they tried to cover themselves
with leaves and to hide away among the trees.
The leaf-covering, though, was not adequate, and therefore the Lord made
them "coats of skins."
What shall man be like if he lives again? --
Certainly not less than he was in the beginning for all that was lost is to be
restored. Neither is he to be improved
upon, for everything the Lord made, He Himself pronounced "very
good." Gen. 1:31. And so if a man
lives again, he shall be exactly what Adam was before he sinned.
Now for the answer to the question,
"How shall he live again?" we shall turn to Ezekiel--
Ezekiel 37:1-10 -- "The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the
Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full
of bones, and caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were
very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. And He said unto me, Son of man, can these
bones live? And I answered, O Lord God,
Thou knowest.
Again He said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones,
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and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the Word of the
Lord. Thus saith
the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you,
and ye shall live: and I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon
you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye
shall know that I am the Lord.
"So I prophesied as I was commanded:
and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones
came together, bone to his bone. And
when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered
them above: but there was no breath in them.
Then said He unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and
say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from
the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may
live. So I prophesied as He commanded
me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their
feet, an exceeding great army."
Here we learn that the process of
resurrection is the same as the process of creation: first the frame of the man,
then the organism, the flesh, the skin, and last the breath, and again he
becomes a living soul. Man's soul or
spirit, you see, is not called down from heaven, or up from hell. In fact, not a soul at all, but wind from the
four corners of the earth fills his lungs at the command of God, and thus he
again becomes a living soul. Then, too,
the material of which man was composed originally, of
the same shall he be made again, for bone to bone come together. When he is thus re-created or resurrected,
though, he must retain the knowledge and memory which he
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had at his death, otherwise the man that is raised would
not be the man that died, and if such be not his case, then the experience
gained in this life would be lost.
The next point of interest would be to note
why there are two resurrections, a thousand years apart
(Rev. 20:5, 6). Let us turn to Romans:
Rom.
Those who die with the Spirit of Christ in them, are the ones who come up in the resurrection of the
just. But those in whom the Spirit of
Christ does not dwell are to come up in the resurrection of the unjust, a
thousand years after the resurrection of the just.
Rev. 20:6 --
"Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such
the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ,
and shall reign with Him a thousand years."
If these verses mean what they say
concerning the righteous, then concerning the wicked they actually say:
"Cursed and unholy is he that hath no
part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath power; they shall
not be priests of God and of Christ, and shall not reign with Him during
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No. 32 17
the thousand years."
If we accept God's Word as
Inspiration gives It to us, and if we are doers of His
Word, we shall live again, and be the perfect image of God as were Adam and
Eve. We shall indeed return to the
Garden of Eden. The garden, too, shall
again flourish as before, and the tree of life shall bear its fruit every
month. And so, you see, man shall thus
live again, and thus live forever.
"And God shall wipe away all tears from
their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying,
neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed
away. And He that sat upon the throne
said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said unto me, Write: for these
words are true and faithful. And He said
unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the
beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of
the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God,
and he shall be My son." Rev.
21:4-7.
"But when that which is perfect is
come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake
as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a
man, I put away childish things. For now
we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but
then shall I know even as also I am known.
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these
three; but the greatest of these is charity." 1 Cor.
13:10-13.
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