Page:The House of the Lord.djvu/84

ance will be possible, and indeed required of the yet unrepentant, even after death; and they affirm that this doctrine is supported by scripture both ancient and modern. We read that while the body of our Lord lay in the tomb, between the evening of the day of crucifixion and the glorious resurrection morn. He was engaged in ministerial labor in the world of disembodied spirits. Peter specifically declares that our Lord "went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah."^[1] The context with which appear these words of the inspired apostle, shows that the event referred to occurred prior to the Savior's resurrection. Furthermore, it will be remembered that one of the condemned malefactors, whose cross of death stood alongside that of Jesus, manifested faith and even some degree of repentance, and received from the suffering Christ the benediction and assurance "Today shalt thou be with me in Paradise."^[2] It cannot be maintained that this promise implied the passing of the repentant sinner directly from the cross into Heaven—the abode of the redeemed in the presence of God; for surely there had been no opportunity for the suffering penitent to put his repentance into effect by complying with the established laws and ordinances of the Gospel, and without such compliance, even as to the single requirement of water-baptism alone, the man could neither enter nor see the Kingdom of God, or the word of Christ would have been proven false.^[3] Moreover, as conclusive proof of the fact that between the time of Christ's death and resurrection, neither He nor the con-
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1. Peter 3:19-20; compare 4:6.
2. See Luke 23:39-43.
3. Consider our Lord's declaration to Nicodemus, John 3:1-5.