Objection:
You are wrong about what happens to the righteous when they die. Revelation 6:9, 10 proves that the souls of the righteous dead are in heaven.
Answer:
This passage of Scripture reads thus. “And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” (Revelation 6:9-10).
It is at least interesting to note, by way of introduction, that the believers in natural immortality here endeavor to prove their position by reference to the book of Revelation. Almost without exception, they declare that Revelation is too mystical to be understood whenever we appeal to this book in support of doctrine. Does Revelation suddenly become plain and understandable when it is thought to support the belief of those who teach immortality? Do they wish in this lone passage to give a literal meaning to the words of this symbolic, prophetic book? Evidently so, for their whole argument depends on its plausibility of a literal interpretation of the texts before us. Therefore, we ask them specific questions to discover whether they will maintain that this passage is literal.
If the souls of the righteous soar away at death to enter immediately into eternal happiness in the presence of God, how should the most worthy of these, the martyrs, be confined under an altar? Is this a particularly ideal location? Apparently not, for these souls seem to be in distress.
Why should they cry for vengeance on their persecutors, who had carried on these persecutions for centuries? The immortal soul doctrine teaches that the wicked, at death, go immediately into the flames of hell. Surely the righteous martyrs would not wish for any more terrible vengeance than this.
The believers in natural immortality contend vigorously that Christ’s story of the rich man and Lazarus should be understood literally and not as a parable. We shall answer objections based on this story later, but we raise one query in the present connection. If heaven and hell are so near together that the good man Lazarus could hear from the rich man’s own lips the details of his suffering, why should the martyrs need to cry for vengeance? Are we to understand that these souls were not satisfied with the sights and sounds of torture and agony, which, according to popular theology, greeted their eyes and ears as they looked over into hell?
But why continue the questions further? Indeed, why should we be asked to meet this passage of Scripture at all when various of the most learned theologians declare that the selection should not be viewed literally? For example, Albert Barnes, the well-known Presbyterian commentator, affirms:
“We are not to suppose that this literally occurred, and that John actually saw the souls of the martyrs beneath the altars—for the whole representation is symbolical; nor are we to suppose that the injured and the wronged in heaven actually pray for vengeance on those who wronged them, or that the redeemed in heaven will continue to pray with reference to things on the earth; but it may be fairly inferred from this that there will be as real a remembrance of the wrongs of the persecuted, the injured, and the oppressed, as if such prayer were offered there; and that the oppressor has as much to dread from the divine vengeance as if those whom he has injured should cry in heaven to the God who hears prayer, and who takes vengeance. The wrongs done to the children of God; to the orphan, the widow, the down-trodden; to the slave and the outcast, will be as certainly remembered in heaven as if they who are wronged should plead for vengeance there, for every act of injustice and oppression goes to heaven and pleads for vengeance. Every persecutor should dread the death of the persecuted as if he went to heaven to plead against him; every cruel master should dread the death of his slave that is crushed by wrongs; every seducer should dread the death and the cries of his victim; every one who does wrong in any way should remember that the sufferings of the injured cry to heaven with a martyr’s pleadings, saying, ‘How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood?'”
Comments on Revelation 6:10
Of course, in fairness to Barnes, we would make clear that he is a believer in soul immortality and consciousness in death, that indeed, he even believes that this passage in Revelation provides proof of that doctrine in some fashion. But this does not invalidate his clear-cut admission that the passage should be viewed figuratively, not literally. That is all we wish to establish from his testimony. How he can make this admission and yet believe that the passage supports soul immortality, he does not explain.
Adam Clarke, the Methodist scholar, says:
“And they cried with a loud voice—That is, their blood, like that of Abel, cried for vengeance; for we are not to suppose that there was any thing like a vindictive spirit in those happy and holy souls who had shed their blood for the testimony of Jesus. We sometimes say Blood cries for blood; that is, in the order of Divine justice, every murderer, and every murdering persecutor, shall be punished.”
Comments on Revelation 6:9, 10
The limits of space do not permit us to discuss here the symbolical value of these texts, which form part of a significant prophecy in Revelation. Nor is it necessary, for having shown that the language is not to be understood literally, we have removed the whole basis of the argument. Even literal souls are almost too airy and vaporous for the advocates of the immortal-soul doctrine to describe or picture very satisfactorily. It would be asking too much to expect them to maintain their side of a discussion with nothing more substantial to present than symbolical souls under a symbolical altar uttering symbolical cries.
