OUR READERS’ OPINIONS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLVIII, Issue 4580, 8 June 1917, Page 6

OUR READERS’ OPINIONS.

the scriptural contro-

VERSY

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —It is amazing how cleverly your correspondents avoid the real question in dispute between them. Amazing also is it how shy they are about quoting Scripture, which they profess to believe, in support of their j tedious arguments. Have they ever } carefully studied the Bible, or would * it be found upon investigation that ! their copies bear no thumb-marks j worth speaking about. All true believersjin the lloly Word can but honestly profess only one interpretation of the point no matter what outward belief they may be compelled to adopt. The question as to the whereabouts of the dead is by no means a new one. It troubled the ancients just as much as it is- troubling your correspondents to-day. Who can i forget Job’s pitiful lamentation : j “Yea man giveth up the ghost: Where is he?” His reply was terse: | “So man lieth down and Tiseth not, j till the heavens be no more they j shall not awake nor be raised out of i their sleep.” In Eccles 9-5 will he found a similar belief: “For the livj ing know that they shall die, but the ( dead know not anything;” and at verse 10: “For there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest.” Isaiah again follows in the same strain at chapter 38, verse-IS: “For the grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee, they that go down into the pit. cannot hope for tho truth.” If there be no death then of course tho Bible would he falsified throughout. God’s promise to our first parents was continued existence if they obeyed him: his punishment when they disobeyed was eventual deprivation of life. Here is the sentence passed on our first parents (see Genesis) 3-19: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the ground for out o 7 it was’t thou taken: for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return.” It was for the purpose that the godly should receive a reward—resurrection and eternal life—that Christ suffered Let “Veritas et Justitia” read these verses of Scripture very carefully 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, verses 17-18: “And if Christ be not raised your faith is vain: ye are yet in.your. sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.” The fate of the ignorant wicked according to Scripture, is annihilation at death. As for the wilfully wicked Scripture makes it very clear that they will he resurrected in order to he punished a second time : but in this instance also they arc to be utterly destroyed. I am. etc.. A BELIEVER IN THE BIBLE.