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“pain of sense,” but are simply excluded from the blessings of heaven. They know and love God
by the use of their natural powers, and have full natural happiness.
E. THE STATE OF THE SOUL AFTER DEATH ONE OF CONSCIOUS EXISTENCE.
1. THE TEACHING OF SCRIPTURE ON THIS POINT.
The question has been raised, whether the
soul after death remains actively conscious and is capable of rational and religious action. This
has sometimes been denied on the general ground that the soul in its conscious activity is
dependent on the brain, and therefore cannot continue to function when the brain is
destroyed. But, as already pointed out in the preceding (pp. 677 f.), the cogency of this
argument may well be doubted. “It is,” to use the words of Dahle, “based on the error of
confusing the worker with his machine.” From the fact that the human consciousness in the
present life transmits its effects through the brain, it does not necessarily follow that it can
work in no other way. In arguing for the conscious existence of the soul after death, we place
no reliance on the phenomena of present day spiritualism, and do not even depend on
philosophical arguments, though these are not without force. We seek our evidence in the
Word of God, and particularly in the New Testament. The rich man and Lazarus converse
together, Luke 16:19-31. Paul speaks of the disembodied state as a “being at home with the
Lord,” and as something to be desired above the present life, II Cor. 5:6-9; Phil. 1:23. Surely, he
would hardly speak after that fashion about an unconscious existence, which is a virtual non-
existence. In Heb. 12:23 believers are said to have come to... “the spirits of just men made
perfect,” which certainly implies their conscious existence. Moreover, the spirits under the altar
are crying out for vengeance on the persecutors of the Church, Rev. 6:9, and the souls of the
martyrs are said to reign with Christ, Rev. 20:4. This truth of the conscious existence of the soul
after death has been denied in more than one form.
2. THE DOCTRINE OF THE SLEEP OF THE SOUL (PSYCHOPANNYCHY).
a. Statement of the doctrine.
This is one of the forms in which the conscious existence of the
soul after death is denied. It maintains that, after death, the soul continues to exist as an
individual spiritual being, but in a state of unconscious repose. Eusebius makes mention of a
small sect in Arabia that held this view. During the Middle Ages there were quite a few so-called
Psychopannychians, and at the time of the Reformation this error was advocated by some of
the Anabaptists. Calvin even wrote a treatise against them under the title Psychopannychia. In
the nineteenth century this doctrine was held by some of the Irvingites in England, and in our
day it is one of the favorite doctrines of the Russellites or Millennial Dawnists of our own
country. According to the latter body and soul descend into the grave, the soul in a state of
sleep, which really amounts to a state of non-existence. What is called the resurrection is in
reality a new creation. During the millennium the wicked will have a second chance, but if they