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

A29' -God is not-tze God of the Dead bur of th;Living-Matthew XXII., 32This text is frequently quoted as a proof that thedead, are not dead. A study of the context willj., show that Christ has here the resurrection in viem,and that the passage teaches exactly the opposite'. of the commonly received meaning. His words inthe preceding verse are : " As touching theresurrection of the dead.'" He did not say : " theresurrection of the living," for that would .havebeen nonsense. It was in view of the resurrectionthat Jesus could truly say that the God ofAbraham, Isaac, and Jacob is not the God of thedead out of the living. This agrees with 'what theApostle says in Romans IV., 17 : " God quickeneththe dead and calleth those things which be not as -thongh they were."'.*Two other texts frequently brortght forward tosupport the theory that believers at death " doimmediately pass into glory," are 2 Corinthians V.,8, where the Apostle Paul says he is " willingrather to be absent from the body, and to bepresent with the Lord," and Philippians I., 23,where he expresses a " desire to depart' and to bewith Christ." It is evident, however, from otherScriptures (See 2 Timothy IV., 8), that the Apostledid not expect to be inmzediately ushered into thepresence of the Lord the moment he laid aside his ." earthly tabernacle." He knew he must remainasleep in death until the return of Christ at :he lasttrump, when he would be awakened in the firstresnrrection, and so be ever with the Lord.The word " depart " in the latter text is not acorrect translation of the Greek word analusai. In .Luke SII., 36, the same Greek word is reudered' -. .- L,5 - '. .- -.*. - --