Micah 6:7; 3 John 2; Mat. 10:28; Gen. 35:18; Luke 12:20; 16:19-31; Rev. 6:9, 10; 2 Cor. 5:1-9; Phil. 1:21-25. In order for materialists to uphold their doctrine, they must simply brush aside the clear testimony of all these texts, with many more, or try to sneer them out of the Bible. But God's Word abideth forever.

4. Materialist. The soul must be mortal; for it can feed on material substances. Proof: "I will eat flesh, because thy soul longeth to eat flesh; thou mayest eat flesh, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after." Deut. 12:20. "As cold waters to a thirsty soul," etc. Prov. 25:25.

Reply. These texts refer only to the individual. We use similar expressions to-day: "Poor soul! he must be hungry, or thirsty; let us give him bread to eat, or water to drink.” Surely men who will resort to such logic as this are pressed hard for argument to support a doctrine. Shame on such ignorance! What an argument to overthrow the immortality of the soul! While our outer man does feed on material substances, our "inner man" feeds on spiritual substances. See Isa. 55: 1,2; 1 Pet. 2:2; John 4:14; 6: 48, 50.

5. Materialist. The spirit of man simply means his breath. Proof: "All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils." Job 27:3.

Reply. This text comes far from proving that the spirit of man is the breath he breathes. In fact it

does not say so at all. But let us examine this argument. The materialist says, "Spirit means breath.” The Bible teaches that "God is a spirit." John 4: 24. So according to Adventism, the only God we have is a mere breath. Let us substitute breath for spirit in a few texts. "Father, into thy hands I commend my breath." Luke 23:46. "Then was Jesus led up of the breath into the wilderness." Mat. 4:1. "But there is a breath in man." Job 32:8. "The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in breath. 1 Cor. 7:34. "The breath itself beareth witness with our breath, that we are the children of God." Rom. 8:16. Oh, how dark and godless the leaven of Adventism! How ridiculous their position! But when driven from this position they generally shift to another position and make a stand behind another "refuge of lies"; viz., "Spirit means life." Let us examine their argument. We will substitute "life" for "spirit" in a few texts. "And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a life." Mat. 14: 26. life hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have." Luke 24:39. So with all the twisting that men can do, the Scripture still teaches that "there is a spirit in man." Job 32:8. The same goes to God at the death of the body. See Eccl. 12: 7.

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6. Materialist. The Bible teaches that "the dead know not anything." Proof: Eccl. 9:5, 6. If this be true, they are in an unconscious slumber.

Reply. This can apply only to the outer, physical man, that which sleeps in the dust of the earth. The text applies only to that part of man's being which is declared to be "dead," i. e., our mortal body. But while at death the outer man returns to the earth as it was, and sleeps in unconscious slumber, knows not anything (Eccl. 12:7; Mat. 27: 52; Eccl. 9:5, 6), the soul or spirit, the real inner man, goes to God, and remains conscious. Eccl. 12: 7; Acts 7:59; 2 Cor. 5:1-9; Phil. 1:21-25; Luke 16: 19-31.

7. Materialist. In the very day a man dies, "his thoughts perish." Psa. 146:4. Does this not prove that memory is destroyed in death?

Reply. Not by any means. The mind is one thing, and its thoughts another. "Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity." Isa. 59:7. The wicked have thousands of thoughts, schemes, and lusts, which they expect to carry out, but they are all cut off by death. Their thoughts of iniquity are all defeated and perish. But the overthrow of their thoughts and plans in death does not destroy their memory. Abraham said to the rich man, "Son, remember," and he did remember that he had five brothers whom he did not desire to come to that place of torment.

8. Materialist. The Bible teaches that the soul will be redeemed "from the grave." Proof: Psa. 30:3; 49:15; 89:48. If this is true, it sleeps in the grave with the body.

Reply. The regular Hebrew word for grave is geber. In none of the texts just cited is the original

word geber, but in every text it is Sheol, "the unseen state." Sheol and its counterpart Hades, as we have seen in the previous chapter, represent the dwelling-place of all departed spirits between this probation and the final judgment, while geber represents the dwelling-place of the body. We will give the rendering of the Septuagint version of the texts: "Thou hast brought up my soul from Hades." Psa. 30:3. "But God shall deliver my soul from the power of Hades." Psa. 49: 15. "Deliver my soul from the power of Hades." Psa. 89:48. So when these texts are understood in their true light, they perfectly harmonize with the host of Scripture texts which so clearly teach that the soul does not go down into decomposition with the body.

9. Materialist. "Man hath no preeminence above a beast for all is vanity." Proof: Eccl. 3: 18-21.

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Reply. Only in the few things spoken of. "They all have one breath"-both breathe the same air. Man's physical life is the same as that of the animals, and his death just as inevitable. Both die, and so far as man is taken from the dust, he, in common with the beasts, returns to dust again. But to say that man morally and spiritually hath no preeminence above a beast is to deny the Bible; and, in fact, the above text does not teach any such thing. Thus one by one the props which hold up the Advent structure fall under the hammer of eternal truth.

We will next briefly examine a few of their replies to the truths presented in the previous chapters.

1. Materialist. It is argued that "our earthly house of this tabernacle" in 2 Cor. 5:1 does not refer to the body, but to this literal earth. Its dissolving refers to the day of judgment, as Peter states in 2 Pet. 3:10-12.

This reasoning is unsound from the bottom up. Our earthly house, the tabernacle in which we now dwell, and in which we groan, Paul plainly tells us is our body. See 2 Cor. 5: 6, 8. When it dissolves, our body dies, we move into another sphere, where we are "absent from the body, and present with the Lord." Ver. 8. Amen.

2. The materialist argues that the narration our Savior gave of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31 was simply repeating a pagan belief which the Jews received from the Romans. They say Christ used this language, although it was fiction, to reprove the Pharisees for trusting in riches. He used it because it was their belief, and thus with their own false doctrine reproved them.

Oh, shame on such an imputation! They are forced to acknowledge that either their creed is false, or Christ told a falsehood, and openly endorsed one. So rather than give up their creed and abandon their fallen sect, these teachers actually impugn the Son of God. If this belief of the Jews was fiction, then Christ, instead of exposing it, endorsed and openly taught it to his hearers. Surely Jude describes the condition of these presumptuous preachers who claim "no preeminence above a beast," when he says: