The Watchtower Society and John and Morton Edgar - A2Z.org

1- .thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appcint me aset time, and remember me ! If a man die, shallhe live again? All the days of my appointed time-will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt call,'; and I will answer thee; thou wilt have a desire toi- the work of thine hands "-Job XIV., 13-15._ In Hosea XIII., 14, we are assured that She01I : (hell, the death-state) is to be destroyed. It cannot,therefore, be an eternal place or condition of anykind whatever. The verse shows that it is by theresurrection that the death-state is to be destroyed.The words of the Prophet are : " I will ransomthem from the power of the grave, (Sheol); I willredeem them from death. 0 death, I will be thyplagues; 0 grave (Sheol) I will be thy destruction."The- Paul, quoting this, exclaimed at thetnd of that wonderful chapter on the resurrectionof the dead, I. Corinthians XV., 55 : " 0 deathwhere is thy sting ? 0 grave (Hades; marginalreading : " hell ") where is thy victory ?"'l'he very best of men, Jesus Himself, went tohell,-not His body merely, but His soul. We learnthis from the verse which has already been mentioned,Act's 11.) 27, quoted from Psalm XVI., 10 :(' Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell." Seeing thatJesus' soul went to hell, it is manifest that hell doisnot signify a place or condition of eternal torment,but the death-state. This agrees with the statementof the Prophet (Isaiah LIII., 12) : " He(Jesus) has poured out his soul unto death."- The popular theory that the dead are not dead issupposed to receive support from three passages ofthe Scriptures. These, are (1) the parable of the .rich man and Lazarus, '(2) the appearance of Mosesand Elias on the Mouiit of Transfiguration, and254 ..