LUKE 16 AS A WHOLE
Two parables exposing the Pharisees in their doctrine and practice
A 16:1.
A certain rich man had a steward who wasted his goods.
B 16:2-7.
The steward's actions in view of the future.
C 16:8-13.
The Lord's teaching in contrast.
D 16:14-18.
The Pharisees deride Him, and are exposed.
A 16:19-21. A certain rich man failed in his stewardship to Lazarus.
B 16:22-30. The rich man's doctrine of the future.
C 16:31 to 17:2. The Lord's appeal to Old Testament in contrast, and His own statement concerning judgment.
As touching the resurrection
Matthew 22:31,32 is often taken to prove that the Lord taught that the dead patriarchs were really living in
hades, so far as their souls are concerned, but we have only to read and believe the Lord's own
explanatory introduction - "as touching the resurrection of the dead" - to see that it does not. If God be
the God of resurrection, then all "live unto Him" even though they have fallen asleep in death.
This calls for another word. The Bibles of the traditionalist contain all the references to the sleep of death
that our own does, yet, when we implicitly believe these statements and the related truth that resurrection
is an awakening out of sleep, such senseless names as "soul-sleepers" are given us. Such a term is not
accurate: we do not believe that the soul sleeps, but that the body returns to the dust as it was, and that the
spirit returns to God Who gave it. The name "living soul" is given to that body animated by the spirit,
and it is not considered as a separate entity. However, we will give the statements of the Word itself, and
leave them with the conscience of our readers.
The Old Testament a faithful witness
Even though our orthodox friends very much object to the Old Testament witness on these things, we
follow the example of their Lord and ours. Having said this we ought perhaps to give their own objection
in their own words:
"The reader may be warned to treat with grave suspicion writers who, whilst presenting a grand array
of texts from the Old Testament, principally drawn from Job and Ecclesiastes, fail to give adequate
testimony from the New".
We shall have to risk the grave suspicion of our readers, for we shall certainly give three quotations from
Job, yet out of 44 verses from the Old Testament which teach that death and sleep are synonymous terms,
we shall quote only six, giving seven references to the self-same truth from the New Testament. If in so
doing it is shown that Christ and Paul say the same as Job, another awkward gap in the orthodox armour
will be exposed.
Death as sleep. The testimony of Old and New Testaments
"Why died I not from the womb? ... I should have slept: then had I been at rest" (Job 3:11-13).
"Now shall I sleep in the dust; and Thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be" (Job 7:21).
"Man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? ... man lieth down, and
riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep ... Thou
shalt call, and I will answer Thee" (Job 14:10-15).
"Lighten mine eyes, lest l sleep the sleep of death" (Psa. 13:3).
29