The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 551

that the righteous go to their reward or the wicked to their punishment at
death. The patriarchs and prophets have left no such assurance. Christ
and His apostles have given no hint of it. The Bible clearly teaches
that the dead do not go immediately to heaven. They are represented
as sleeping until the resurrection. 1 Thessalonians 4:14; Job 14:10-12.
In the very day when the silver cord is loosed and the golden bowl
broken (Ecclesiastes 12:6), man’s thoughts perish. They that go down
to the grave are in silence. They know no more of anything that is
done under the sun. Job 14:21. Blessed rest for the weary righteous!
Time, be it long or short, is but a moment to them. They sleep; they
are awakened by the trump of God to a glorious immortality. “For the
trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible.... So
when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall
have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is
written, Death is swallowed up in victory.” 1 Corinthians 15:52-54. As
they are called forth from their deep slumber they begin to think just
where they ceased. The last sensation was the pang of death; the last
thought, that they were falling beneath the power of the grave. When
they arise from the tomb, their first glad thought will be echoed in the
triumphal shout: “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy
victory?” Verse 55.

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