The Sound of the Trumpet:  To preserve, publish, proclaim, plant, protect, and propagate the Abrahamic
Faith.  A publication of the Carolina and Georgia Conferences of the Churches of God of the Abrahamic Faith.
"SHALL NEVER DIE"

F.E. Siple

It was a broken-hearted Martha that went forth with tear-stained cheeks to meet her Master and said, "Lord, if thou hadst
been here, my brother had not died." But though torn with grief and sorrow at the death of her brother Lazarus, yet extreme
faith in Jesus was hers as she added, "But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee." (John
11:22).

It is plainly evident that Jesus had emphasized the teaching of resurrection in His visits in their home and that Martha had not
always been busy with household duties; for when the Master said to her, "Thy brother shall rise again," she immediately
replied, "I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day." There was no question in her mind as to what
death meant. Her brother had fallen asleep in death, and she did not consider him alive in any sense, but she did confidently
look forward to the resurrection day realizing that he would awaken to new life then.

This knowledge of the facts of death and resurrection which Martha had received from the lips of the Savior is the knowledge
that the Bible would impart to all of us if we would quietly listen to its teachings, banishing all preconceived ideas.

The Old Testament writers have plainly stated man's nature and the fact of death as the opposite of life over and over again.
In Psalm 146:4 David, in speaking of man at death, says, "His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his
thoughts perish." According to Psalm 6:5, in death there is not even any remembrance of God or ability to give Him thanks. In
fact, as far as the condition of death is concerned, man and beast die alike and go unto one place (Eccl. 3:19, 20).
Furthermore, he that has died has no knowledge of anything that takes place with friends or loved ones left behind. This latter
point is especially referred to Job 14:21, where, in speaking of man in death, the patriarch says, "His sons come to honour,
and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he preceiveth it not of them." This is in accordance with the thirteenth
verse of the same chapter, in which he has prayed for death, for the end of his sufferings and trials, that he might be laid
away in the grave till a set time and then be remembered.

It is that set time, the resurrection day, that the New Testament talks so much about, showing us that the only hope of life for
man beyond death is in being awakened out of death's sleep in the morning when the new day dawns. Immortality is not
possessed by man today, but is a thing to be sought by patient continuance in welldoing. To those who thus seek, it will be
given (Rom. 2:7). This gift will be put on at the resurrection (I Cor. 15:52-54). Furthermore, immortality will be conferred upon
the body, not upon an invisible nonentity (Phil. 3:20, 21).

All of this Martha understood and believed. There was no question in her mind but that her brother would rise on the
resurrection day, but it was the time then present that was worrying Martha. She and her sister were left alone, and they
needed their brother. The Master, observing her great faith, said to her, "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?"
There ought to be no difficulty in understanding this language if one carefully considers the whole conversation. "Though he
were dead, yet shall he live"— when? The time under consideration has been named in verse 24, "The resurrection at the last
day." In similar manner consider the next statement, "Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die"—when? The
same period of time is still the basis of the Master's language. What He has actually said, then, is that if a person believes in
Him, though he die, yet he will live again in the resurrection at the last day, then he will never die.

This is in accordance with I Corinthians 15:51: "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all he changed, in a moment, in the
twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be
changed." Also, I Thessalonians 4:16: "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with ashout, with the voice of the
archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be
caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air."

The fact that men do not at death pass, one by one, into reward, but that the faithful of all ages will be ushered into life
together, is one of the most beautiful teachings of the Bible. When Solomon built his temple, stone cutters worked in the
quarries for many years, shaping, polishing, and finishing one stone at a time, then laying it to one side as they worked on the
next. When all were done, Solomon proclaimed an assembling day; and the stones were all brought and placed in position at
once, regardless of the order in which they had been prepared. In like manner, the different characters have all met their
experiences and trials by which they have been shaped and polished, each in the period in which he lived, and then have
been laid to one side to await the assembling day. "God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should
not be made perfect." It is to this day Paul referred in the language quoted in I Thessalonians 4, and it was to this same event
Jesus referred in His words to Martha in John 11:25, 26.

There was no suggestion in the Savior's language that to believe in Him then or now would keep a person from dying. It is a
recognized fact that physical, Adamic death comes just as quickly to a Christian as to a person who does not believe in Christ.

Belief in the Savior is not intended to keep a person from dying the natural death of mortality, but rather to make one worthy
of the better resurrection. And so the Lord explained further that those living and believing at the time of the resurrection
would not pass into death, but would be changed from mortality to immortality, translated into the likeness of the Son of God
Himself.

It is for us, then, to recognize Christ as the Resurrection, and the Life; to consecrate ourselves to His service; and to order our
lives so that though we die yet shall we be raised, or, if still living at His coming, we shall never die.*