5. Is the sleep of death eternal? Job 14:13-15.
NOTE: ‘This is that for which Job looked. He says, “All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.” Job 14:14. This change is at the resurrection; for Paul says, “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.” 1 Corinthians 15:51, 52. Again says Job, “If I wait, the grave is mine house; I have made my bed in the darkness. . . . And where is now my hope?” Job 17:13-15. Here it is: “I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold and not a stranger. My reins within me are consumed with earnest desire for that day.” Job 19:25-27, margin.’ A. T. Jones: Bible Echo & Signs of the Times, December 1, 1892.
‘There is nothing so repulsive to our natural instincts as death. There are few people who do not feel a cold shudder creeping through and through them whenever they realise the thought that they must die, and have the coffin-lid screwed down upon their foreheads, and be covered up with clods in the damp, dark ground. But the hope of the resurrection of the just throws a radiance around the death-bed and the grave, and helps to reconcile us to the mysterious change. To a good man the sepulchre is but the gateway to the better world, the resting-place for the wasted and wearied body previous to going forth into the bliss and honours of a divine and eternal kingdom. Its shades are but a quiet night anterior to an everlasting day. Death is but a sleep, which presupposes a future awakening. “An eternal sleep” is a contradiction in terms, a miserable solecism, a mode of speech the very phraseology of which brands the atheistic invention with absurdity. Sleep is but the temporary suspension of animation for the purpose of refreshment and invigoration. It is always succeeded by a waking. And such is death to the Christian.’ James White: Review & Herald, April 19, 1864.
6. What assurance did Jesus give that all who sleep in death will awake again? John 5:28-29. Compare Acts 24:15, last part.
NOTE: ‘In consequence of Adam’s sin, death passed upon the whole human race. All alike go down into the grave. And through the provisions of the plan of salvation, all are to be brought forth from their graves. “There shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust;” “for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” Acts 24:15; 1 Corinthians 15:22. But a distinction is made between the two classes that are brought forth. “All that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.” John 5:28, 29. They who have been “accounted worthy” of the resurrection of life are “blessed and holy.” “On such the second death hath no power.” Revelation 20:6. But those who have not, through repentance and faith, secured pardon, must receive the penalty of transgression, “the wages of sin.” They suffer punishment varying in duration and intensity, “according to their works,” but finally ending in the second death.’ Great Controversy, page 544.