BODY AND SPIRIT by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, February 19, 1880.

FromThe Review and Herald, Vol. 55, No. 8

BODY AND SPIRIT.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

BY ELD. D. M. CANRIGHT.

In Acts 7:59, we read: “And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Stephen simply committed his life, his spirit, to the Lord. He was dying, giving up his life for Christ; and hence with his last breath he committed that life to his Saviour. The next verse adds, “And when he had said this, he fell asleep.” Who fell asleep? Stephen. It was not the house that Stephen lived in, but Stephen himself, that fell asleep; and “devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.” Acts 8:2. When Stephen fell asleep, he was buried. Was there another Stephen that went off? Stephen was here, but our opponents affirm that Stephen had gone to Heaven. But the text says nothing about Stephen’s going to Heaven or being conscious. It is a little remarkable that every one of these passages, when examined, fails at the very point where help is expected from them. None of them says a word about going to Heaven or being conscious between death and the resurrection. On the other hand, they affirm that these saints fell asleep, are asleep, and are to be raised at the resurrection.

It is claimed that 2 Cor. 5:1–8 shows that upon the dissolution of the body by death, the real man lives on, and goes to be with the Lord in Heaven. But let us see. “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from Heaven; if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened; not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord (for we walk by faith, not by sight). We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”

Evidently the earthly house which is dissolved is the mortal body, and its dissolution is death. So far all are agreed. But there is another house spoken of with which we are to be clothed after leaving the first house. This is evidently another body. Here, again, all are agreed. This new body is to be obtained when mortality is “swallowed up of life.” Verse 4. We claim that this new body is the immortal body which the saints receive at the resurrection. It is to be “eternal.” Verse 1. If it is not the resurrection body, then each saint, after the resurrection, will have two immortal bodies! But this is absurd. Notice carefully that it is not death that the apostle desires, but it is to put on the new body. He says: “For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened; not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.” Verse 4. The Syriac gives this beautiful rendering: “Ye desire not to throw it off, but to be clothed over it, so that its mortality may be absorbed in life.” Sawyer translates it, “We do not wish to put it off, but to put on [the other].”

But when will the new, immortal body be put on? At the resurrection. 1 Cor. 15:51–54. Paul says what he longs for is, “that mortality might be swallowed up of life.” But when is mortality swallowed up of life? Certainly not at death; for at that time mortality, all that is mortal of a man, is swallowed up of death instead of by life. All must admit this. Our opponents claim that the immortal soul goes to Heaven at death, while only the mortal part of man goes down under the power of the destroyer. But this is not what Paul was desiring; for he was looking to the time when mortality should put on immortality.

Turning to his previous letter to these same Corinthians, we find that he plainly told them that this exchange of the mortal for the immortal body is to take place at the resurrection, when the Lord comes, “Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in 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. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.” 1 Cor. 15:51–54.

Here we have the same subject and nearly the same words as in the passage we are examining. This explains the other. In this mortal body Paul was groaning, anxiously longing for the time when he should exchange it for the immortal one at the resurrection. While he was in this mortal, corruptible body he could not go to be with the Lord; for “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” 1 Cor. 15:50. Hence he truly says that while we are at home in this body, we are absent from the Lord. But when we shall have put off this mortal body, and shall have been “clothed upon with our house which is from Heaven,” viz., the immortal or eternal body, then we shall “be present with the Lord;” for this is the very way men go to be with the Lord, as Paul himself

testifies: “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.” 1 Thess. 4:16, 17.