THE GOD OF THE LIVING by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, January 29, 1880

FromThe Review and Herald, Vol. 55, No. 5

THE GOD OF THE LIVING.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

BY ELD. D. M. CANRIGHT.

“As touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” See Matt. 22: 23-32. From this it is claimed that these old patriarchs must be conscious, living beings, probably in Heaven at the present time. But a slight examination of the text will show this conclusion to be wholly gratuitous. The question was not concerning the immortal soul or the state of the dead, but it was touching the resurrection. “The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him,” etc. Verse 23. They bring up the case of a woman who had lost seven husbands, and ask him, “Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven?” Verse 28.

Can their question be mistaken? They did not ask which of these seven souls her immortal soul will claim. They never thought of that; but they passed over to the resurrection. “In the resurrection whose wife shall she be?” is what they ask. What did Christ answer? “For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in Heaven.” Verse 30. Then he goes on to prove it. “But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” Verses 31, 32. The whole controversy between Christ and the Sadducees was on the subject of the resurrection. The Sadducees denied the resurrection; Christ affirmed it. This was the issue. They required Christ to prove his point. He referred them to the case of Abraham, as already quoted. Why did he appeal to this case? He did it to prove that the dead will be raised. How did he prove it? In this simple manner: After the death of Abraham, God said he was still the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and he is not the God of those who do not exist,—of those who are dead in the sense that the Sadducees held these persons to be dead, utterly annihilated, so as to have no existence. Christ claimed that inasmuch as God was the God of these patriarchs, even though they were dead in the ordinary sense of the term, yet they had not utterly perished, for God would raise them from the dead. They were simply sleeping.

As the language touching the case of the damsel and of Lazarus is directly to the point in this case, we will refer to it. “The damsel is not dead, but sleepeth.” “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.” “Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.” It will be noticed that while persons are really dead in the common way of speaking, yet Christ is particular to affirm that they are only sleeping, waiting to be raised from the dead. This we think is the truth of the matter in the case of these old patriarchs.

From the evidence presented, the reader must see that this passage has no bearing whatever upon the subject of the consciousness of the dead.