“For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better.” (Philippians 1:23)
With the sense in which the word “depart” is used by those who view death as a release of the person from the body, this verse, as it appears in the Authorized Version, seems to support the theory of heaven-going at death... However the idea of “departure” that Paul had in mind might be best expressed by the words of Job, when he says, “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither.” The original “womb” of the race of Adam is the dust, and this is the womb to which we return in death, which fact is expressed in the words, “Out of it (the dust) wast thou taken and unto dust shalt thou return.” Before we came out of the dust we had no personal existence in the dust, and when we have returned to the dust we shall have no personal existence; the one is our coming, the other is our going. Thus we come and thus we depart.
Literally speaking, the coming of Adam into the world was his formation and animation, causing him to become a being; and his going out was the dissolution of his being. He thus came and departed, and many of his descendants came and have departed for ever. “They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased and they shall not rise, therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them and made all their memory to perish,” (Isaiah 26:14). On the other hand, some of Adam’s descendants who have departed will return; for the same prophet exclaims: “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise;...the earth shall cast out the dead,” (Isaiah 26:19). When Abraham was gathered to his fathers” (Genesis 25:8), he departed out of life into death; but he will return to life again when resurrection takes place. So we may say to depart from life is to go into death, and to depart from death is to return to life.
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Author: Thomas Williams
Keywords: depart, depart and be with Christ, going to heaven, Dieing and going to heaven, Departure, Departing this life, Departing soul, Departing spirit, Departed, Death, Choosing death, Choosing life death, Desire to depart, Be with Christ, Be with Jesus, life after death, afterlife, after life
Bible reference(s): Luke 12:36, Philippians 1:21-23, 2 Timothy 4:6
Source: The Great Salvation (Englewood: Advocate and Gleaner Pub. House, 1893?).
Page indexed by: inWORD Bible Software.