ever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." Some, as the Jews, will not accept God's way of salvation, but His kingdom shall not fail, for others will fill the vacant ranks, as we read in Acts 13:46: "Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles." Those who do accept are "laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life." (1 Timothy 6:19.) They live and die in the blessed "hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began." 1:2.) (Titus The joy and bliss of eternal life is mutual, for "he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together." (John 4:36.) "For we know that, if our earthly house of this tabernacle (that is, our body in which our soul and spirit live) were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this (body) we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life." (2 Corinthians 5: 1-4.) Therefore, "keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." (Jude 21.) For "now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:22, 23.) "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16.) CHAPTER V THE writer's purpose is not to go into a critical discussion of the different terms, in the Old and New Testaments, used to designate the realm of the dead. We wish to allow Scripture to speak for itself in the passages following. Before the ascension of Christ, all the dead went to Sheol or Hades. There is, however, a "great gulf" dividing this underworld into two parts. The lower part is the place of torment and known as Hell. The upper part was Paradise or Abraham's bosom. Since the ascension of Christ the souls of the righteous dead no longer go down to Sheol or Hades, but they go up, direct to Heaven, to be with Jesus. In the careful study of the Scripture on the subject before us, three mighty outstanding facts confront us: |