p. 297 | THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, May 6, 1880

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 19

THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

BY ELD. D. M. CANRIGHT.

Does the case of the rich man and Lazarus, as recorded in Luke 16:19–31, teach that the dead are now conscious, and that the wicked are now being punished in torment? For many good reasons we answer, No. If it did, it would contradict the many texts which positively declare that the wicked are not punished till the Judgment, and also all those texts which state that the dead are asleep. Evidently this is only a parable.

The account of the rich man stands at the conclusion of a discourse made up of parables. Thus Luke 15 presents us with the parable of the lost sheep, the ten pieces of silver, and the prodigal son. The sixteenth chapter is made up of two parables,—the unjust steward and the rich man and Lazarus. It is true that the account of the rich man and Lazarus is not called a parable by the sacred penman; but the fact is the same with respect to the two cases which precede this; and the three are introduced in the same manner: “A certain man had two sons;” “There was a certain rich man, which had a steward;” “There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen.”

Even our opponents are compelled to admit that it is a parable. Was Lazarus carried into the literal bosom of Abraham? Oh, no, that is used as a symbol to represent Paradise, say they. Is the impassable gulf a literal gulf? If so, how would this hinder a spirit from passing over it? No, that too, they claim, is a figure. Then the fire and the water, were they literal? How could literal fire torment an immaterial spirit, or literal water cool the tongue of a ghost? And then, do spirits have tongues and fingers? Oh, no, these are all figurative, say our opponents. Well, that is just what it takes to make a parable.

The whole scene is laid in the grave. The word here translated “hell,” is, in Greek, hades, and in Hebrew, sheol—the grave.

Three of the dead are here introduced,—Abraham, Lazarus, and the rich man,—and all are represented as in hades. “In hell [Greek, hades] he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.” Luke 16:23. In a previous article we have already clearly proved the following points concerning sheol, or hades:—

1. Sheol is a place down in the earth. See Num. 16:33; Deut. 32:22; Prov. 15:24; Isa. 14:9, 15. In these texts and those to follow, sheol is rendered pit, hell, or the grave; but in the original it is sheol in the Old Testament and hades in the New Testament.

2. All go into sheol at death. Job 17:13, 16; Eccl. 9:10. The good, Gen. 37:35; the bad, 1 Kings 2:9.

3. The whole man goes there. Gen. 42:38; Num. 16:30–33; Eze. 32:27.

4. Beasts go there. Ps. 49:14.

5. The soul goes into sheol at death. Ps. 89:48; 30:1–3; 49:15; Isa. 38:17, 18; Acts 2:31.

6. Sheol is described as a land of darkness and silence. Job 17:13–16; Isa. 14:11.

7. The righteous dreaded it. 2 Sam. 22:6; Ps. 6:5; Cant. 8:6.

8. The wicked are silent there. Ps. 31:17.

9. There is no knowledge in sheol or hades, the very place where Abraham, Lazarus, and the rich man all were. Thus writes the wise man, the Spirit of inspiration bearing testimony through him: “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave [sheol] whither thou goest.” Eccl. 9:10.

10. Here all the dead, good and bad, lie unconscious till the resurrection, when all will be awakened and brought up. Hosea 13:14; Rev. 20:13, 14; 1 Cor. 15:54, 55.

Such are the great facts concerning sheol or hades, as revealed to us in the books of “Moses and the prophets.” Yet we have the following cases in these same writings in which the dead in sheol, in the nether parts of the earth, converse together, and are comforted or taunted by each other.

The case of the king of Babylon is a noted instance of this. When he is overthrown, and goes down to sheol, the DEAD (for sheol has no others in its dark abode), are stirred up to meet him. The kings that had been conquered and destroyed by the king of Babylon in the days of his prosperity, now rise up from their thrones in that dark abode and mock him with feigned obeisance, as in life they had rendered real homage. Now they taunt him, saying, “Art thou also become weak as we? Art thou become like unto us?” “They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms?” Isa. 14:9–20.

Pharaoh and his army, slaughtered in battle with the king of Babylon, are set forth in the same manner. The slain upon the field of battle being buried indiscriminately, and friend and foe cast down together into pits, into the “nether parts of the earth,” into sheol, “the strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of hell [sheol].” And this sheol, in the nether parts of the earth, full of the dead, is contrasted with “the land of the living.” These slaughtered soldiers went down to sheol with their weapons of war, and their swords they “laid under their heads.” Pharaoh, lying among them, and seeing the multitude of his enemies that were slain, is “comforted” at the sight. See this remarkable prophecy, Eze. 32:17–32; 31:15–18.

The scene described in this parable transpires in hades, or sheol, which, as we have seen, is in the nether parts of the earth. The place is one of darkness and silence, where there is neither wisdom nor knowledge. It is the place of the dead, and those who are therein are called “the congregation of the dead.” Prov. 21:16. In the utter darkness of hades, how can men see one another? “In the land of forgetfulness,” how can they remember the events of their past lives? In a place where there is no knowledge, how could Dives know Abraham, whom he had never seen? Where there is no work nor device, how could he devise a plan to warn his wicked brethren? And in hades, where there is no wisdom, how could Abraham give such wise answers? In hades, where the wicked are silent in death, how could Dives converse? As the righteous cannot praise God in hades, and do not even remember his name, how does it happen that they can so well understand and converse on everything else?

The answer is simple: The dead are personified and made to speak and act in reference to the facts of their respective cases as though they were alive. Why should not the Spirit of God do this, when it has seen fit to personify every kind of inanimate thing? Thus the blood of Abel cries to God. Gen. 4. And thus in Job, the depth and the sea are made to speak, and even destruction and death are represented as saying that they have heard the fame of wisdom with their ears. Job 28:14–22. The stone by the sanctuary hears all the words of Israel. Josh. 24. The trees hold an election and make speeches. Judges 9. The thistle proposes a matrimonial alliance with the cedar. 2 Kings 14; 2 Chron. 25. The trees sing out at the presence of God. 1 Chron. 16. The stone cries out of the wall, and the beam answers it. Hab. 2. The hire of the laborers, kept back by fraud, cries to God. James 5. Dead Abel yet speaketh. Heb. 11. The souls under the altar, slain for their testimony, and who do not live till the first resurrection, cry to God for vengeance. Rev. 6:9, 10. And, finally, death and hades are both personified—the one riding a pale horse, the other following, and both cutting down mankind. And this personification is still further carried out, when both, as though living enemies, are at last cast into the fire of gehenna. Rev. 6:8; 20:14; 1 Cor. 15; Hosea 13:14.

That those who conversed together were not disembodied spirits, but personified dead men, is further proved by the following facts: 1. Not one word is said of the spirit of any person named. 2. This conversation takes place in hades, which the sacred writers affirm to be in the depths of the earth. 3. The persons named are men that had lived, the one clothed in purple, the other covered with sores, and both were then dead. But these dead men have bodily organs, as eyes, fingers, tongues, etc. The truth on this point is sealed by the fact that Lazarus could only return to warn the rich man’s brethren by being raised from the dead. “Neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead”—Gr., ean tis ek nekron anaste. It was not whether the spirit of Lazarus should descend from the third Heaven, but whether Lazarus himself should be raised from among the dead ones. This shows that the conversation did not relate to the coming back of disembodied spirits; and, in fact, that they were not disembodied spirits that here conversed.

The parable of Dives and Lazarus does not therefore teach the present punishment of the wicked dead, nor the conscious state of the dead.