Show FOR THE DEAD there are some passages of holy writ found both in the old and new testament upon which our modern learned pious expositors expository exposi tors do not like to touch they seem tu to feel ft el delicate about it you may peruse their copious commentaries their sermons and their theo logical magazines you may run all the year round from church to church from meeting to meeting and yet never le be able to derive any knowledge concerning certain passages in iture seemingly plain enough and yet iu the present state of theological development shrouded I 1 in dark mystery and when finally you become tired of your fruitless search at randow random you form a bold resolution you conclude to do what possibly to have done first take your bible and go to the rev so and so the celebrated scholar the great orator the conscientious shepherd of the flock and you ask him for gercys sake to te tell you what this or that particular passage really means quit so did you ever try this if not do and if your text is a very difficult one you will be e surprised to learn that the man really does not know that in fact he is as uninformed upon the subject as you are not that he would be likely to say pay so himself me he would not be honest enough I 1 fear to commit himself to that extent nor would he according to the saying of solomon try to appear wise by observing si lence on the contrary he would probably have a great deal to say ae he would talk to you about faith in christ the blessedness of heaven the atonement and such other sub ejects on which you had not questioned him at all lie he would inter his flue fine speeches with quo lations from froin augustine berh ip or from luther or calvin or knox or anybody and at last wind up by the remark that there were some things written which god did never intend us to know anything about for theologians nowa now a days actually tell us that what to is nee necessary essary for salvation is clear enough about A bout the rest we must not bother ourselves 1118 As if god did not mean th that at we should be instructed by all he has written but that he wrote certain unintelligible passages merely to show us our ignorance and his au superior wisdom the i e argument of st paul 1 cor zv xv 29 is one of the passages in which our theologians are at a loss to find any sense and for which they can find no practical application the apostle in proving the doctrine of the resurrection says else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead if the dead rise not at all why are they then baptized for the dead for the dead that is the difficulty the little word for is a veritable thorn in the flesh of the whole brotherhood of divines there has been a hard struggle to explain away this passage of holy writ the apostle evidently refers to some practice some doctrine well known among the corinthian christians for else how could he on an this baptism for the dead build an argument for the doctrine of resurrection the argument to be an argument at all must of course be founded on something thing already granted and about which there was no doubt otherwise the appeal would be void of all logical lorce but what this practice in the primitive church was that is the mystery it has been su suggested that the word translated I for or ought to be over mer and that the meaning would be tills this some of the corinthian church members had been baptized over the dead that is on the graves or in the cemeteries and that the apostle Al A ostle refers to this fact as a proof of the resurrection just think of this thial the rhe corinthians are supposed to have carried water tanks to their for purposes and abhat such a quaint practice would be a proof of the resurrection of the deada the idea is wo silly to call for any serious consideration then it has been suggested that the words for the dead 1 really mean in the hope of the resurrection of the dead the v 4 hole bole passage of this suggestion would be to read thus else what shall they do which are baptized in the hope of the resurrection of the dead if the dead rise not at all why are they then baptized zeu in the hope of the resurrection of the dead of course the words for the dead do not dot mean any such thing and cannot by any mearis means within thib the wide range of grammar or r logic or rhetoric combined be made to mean it to make the word for stand for in the hope of and the words the dead to be synonymous with the resurrection of the dead is clearly an exegesis that applied to all other passages of scripture would annihilate the word of god that theolo theologians gla i have found themselves under the necessity of resorting to this kind of tactics proves effectually the misery of their po position as blind leaders of the blind it has also been suggested that the common reading of the received text was corrupted and that the originally had written something eh else je Orl griesbach esbach in his critical cal edition proposes to read from the works of the dead instead of for the dead although his reasons for so doing seem to be very weak indeed the learned critic could evidently find no sense in the words for the dead P hyper ton lekron ne kron and an J therefore on accod account rit of some variety in the punctuation or some various readings he proposes to read from the works of the dead op ap ergon lekron ne kron although this emendation would by no means render the passage more intelligible in the least degree for the apostle has on his mind to prove the resurrection of the dead Noth nothing ingelse else now the living may be baptized from the works of the dead that is to say they may be baptized with a view to no more practice the bad works of the dead anti and yet this fact does by no means prove that the dead will be resurrected there Is no connection between the pre mise sand the conclusion and any reading any inter interpretation interprets preta ion that leaves the main question the resurrection out of sight must necessarily be rejected the words stand there plain enough hyper ton makron lekron for the dead they mean on behalf of instead of 91 or for the advantage of the dead they mean nothing else the same expression is used io in bom viii 26 where the spirit to Is said to make intercession fori for us hyper hemon johnyv john xv 13 greater love hath bath no man than this thin that a man lay jay down his life for ayrer his friends P I 1 john iii 16 hereby perceive we the love of god because lie he laid down his life for hyper us UP and we ought ough t to lay down our lives for hyper our brothers 91 gal iii 18 christ hath bath redeemed us from the curse of the law made a curse for hyper us in tile these anti and many other passages 9 fout for 1 I means clearly instead 0 of f 11 or caon on behalf of and that is its only possible poss ble rense io in the passage under consideration the baptism for or the dead to is a baptism instead of or in behalf of thedeas the dead to make anything else of it is to violate the simplest rules of interpretation how wonderful now to contemplate the fact that joseph the prophet without hesitation citation he when the right time came gave to this passage as to all others he was called upon to expound the precise and correct not to resort to any learned machinery of impossible intricacy to find this meaning of the word the spirit of god which once dictated the words to paul taught joseph the prophet to interpret them and the interpretation was at owe once coo con and clear bearing the evidence de nce of its truth on its very surface if there were no other proofs of ef his divine mission this one would be irrefutable but the work of joseph the prophet did not confine itself to interpretation pre tation his wap above all a practical work and in giving us the correct understanding of the word of god in disclosing to us the wonderful doctrine of work for the dead as practised practiced among the primitive christians he again opened to the believers the long closed doors of the sanctuaries of the most high and taught them how to perform this work and again through his instrumentality god has united reunited re the world beyond with this according to the declaration of the apostle Blessed be bo the god and father of our lord jesus christ who hath bath blessed us with all spiritual baffes ins ings in heavenly places in christ according as he hath bath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world having made known unto us the mystery of his will accordi according Dg to H his Is good pleasure which he hath bath purposed in himself that in the dispensation pensa tion of the falness of times he might gather together in one AU all things in christ both whit 1 are in heaven and which are ou earth Ephe ephesians 13 18 10 Millennia i stew |