But it will by no means bear such an interpretation. The apostle is contrasting the privileges of Christians in the present dispensation, with the situation of believers before the coming of Christ. What he sets forth are blessings to be enjoyed in the present tense. Yes, says one, that is just what Ibelieve: We are come to spirits; they are all about us, and tip and talk and write for us at our pleasure. But hold! nothing is affirmed of spirits separately. The whole idea must be taken in. It is the "spirits of just men made perfect; " and the participle "made perfect" agrees with "just men," or literally "the just made perfect" [ GREEK CHARACTERS IN PRINTEDTEXT ], not with "spirits." It is the men who are made perfect to whom we are said to have come. But there are only two localities and two periods, in which men are anywhere in the Scriptures said to be made perfect. One is in this life and on this earth, and refers to religious experience ("Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect"); the other is not relative, but actual and absolute, and refers to the future immortal state when all the people of God Page 48 will enter upon eternal life together ("God having provided some better thing for us, that they [the ancient worthies] without us should not be made perfect ." Heb. 11: 40). Thus, taken in either of the only two ways possible, the text furnishes no proof of Spiritualism. It doubtless refers to the present state, the expression, "spirits of just men," being simply a periphrasis for "just men, "the same as the expression, "the God of the spirits of all flesh "Num. 16: 22), means simply "the God of all flesh," and the Words "your whole spirit, and soul, and body" (1 Thess.
5: 23), means simply the whole person.
4. Spirits in Prison. -- The apostle Peter uses an expression, which, though perhaps not often quoted in direct defense of Spiritualism, is relied upon extensively in behalf of the doctrine of the conscious state of the dead, which, as already shown, is the essential basis of Spiritualism.
And such texts as these are here noticed to show to the general reader, that the Bible contains no testimony in behalf of that doctrine, but positively forbids it, as further quotations will soon be introduced to show. The passage now in question is 1 Peter 3:19, where, speaking of Christ, it says: "By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison."By the use of strong assumption, and some lofty flights of the imagination, and keeping in the background the real intent of the passage, a picture of rather a lively time in the spirit world, can be constructed out of this testimony. Thus the spirits are said to be Page 49 the disembodied spirits of those who were destroyed by the flood. See context.
They were in "prison," that is, in hell. When Christ was put to death upon the cross, he immediately went by his disembodied spirit, down into hell and preached to those conscious intelligent spirits who were there, and continued that work till the third day when he was himself raised from the dead. A thought will show that this picture is wrong, (1) in the time, (2) in the condition of the people, (3) in the acting agent, and (4) in the end to be attained. Thus, when Christ had been put to death, he was "quickened" (or made alive), says the record, "by the Spirit." This was certainly not a personal disembodied Spirit, but that divine agency so often referred to in the Scriptures. "By which," that is, this Spirit of God, he went and preached. Then he did not go personally on this work The "spirits " were the antediluvians for they were those who were disobedient in the days of Noah. Now when were they preached to Verse 20 plainly tells us it was "when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah."In accordance with these statements now let another picture he presented:
Christ, by his Spirit which was in Noah (1 Peter 1: 11), and thus through Noah, preached to the spirits, or persons, in Noah's time, who were disobedient, in order to save all from the coming flood who would believe. They were said to be "in prison," though still living, because they were shut up under condemnation, and had only one hundred and twenty years granted them in which to Page 50 repent or perish. Thus Christ was commissioned to preach to men said to be in prison, because in darkness, error, and condemnation, though they were still living in the flesh. Isa. 61: 1. Dr. Adam Clarke, the eminent Methodist commentator ( in loco ), places the going and preaching of Christ in the days of Noah, and by the ministry of Noah for one hundred and twenty years, and not during the time while he lay in the grave. Then he says "The word [ GREEK CHARACTERS IN PRINTED TEXT ] (spirits)is supposed to render this view of the subject improbable, because this must mean disembodied spirits; but this certainly does not follow;for the spirits of just men made perfect (Heb. 12: 23), certainly means righteous men, and men still in the church militant: and the Father of spirits (Heb. 12 9) means men still in the body: and the God of the spirits of all flesh (Num. 16: 22 and 27: 16), means men, not in a disembodied state." [1] 5. Cannot Kill the Soul. -- "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul:
