ELDER G. B. BIRD RESURRECTION

[Bird, Elder G. B., was born in Lincoln County, WV, February 7, 1882. United with the Old School Baptist Church called Providence of the Paeatalico Association, June, 1900, and was baptized the same day by Elder J. H. Terry, was licensed to preach in June, 1901, at the age of nineteen years, and was ordained to the work of the gospel ministry May, 1907. Elder Bird is now (1908), clerk of Providence Church, has the care of one church, and is also clerk of Pacatalico Association.]

There is no subject that I hesitate to write upon more than the subject of the resurrection; first, because there has been so much written and spoken about the subject in an argumental manner, and in an ambitious way, and hence so much agitation over the subject, and second, I feel to know so little about it. Much of what I have heard and read on this subject, during the nigh fifty years I hope I have been interested in these things, has been purely imagination and comprised of the things which the carnal mind can and does endorse; indeed the views of many of the Baptists are substantially the same as those entertained by the unregenerated, and carnally minded. Most certainly, if the truths of God are hid from the wise and prudent of this world, then these wise fellows cannot have the right conception of these things, and if our views are in strict harmony with them, then we must know of a certainty that we are wrong. I have never felt anything of the great beyond, and if I should undertake to paint a word picture of how we shall look in the eternal world, I would know, and so would you, dear reader, know that all the basis for such a picture was my imagination. One great test as to whether a man is right in his heart or not, is whether he becomes ambitious over the subject or wants to quarrel or fight over it. If he does, you can be assured that he is in the flesh, and is carnal minded, and to be carnally minded is death, (now) death to the knowledge of the hidden spiritual truths of God. No person can believe in the resurrection more than I. It is all my hope, the capstone of the salvation of the family of God, and no subject gives me more joy to muse upon than the resurrection of the dead for I am the man that dies daily, and am so often in need of that spiritual raising from the dead, I cannot even have a good thought until I am raised from this lifeless state or condition. I think I have learned by oft-repeated experiences that I cannot preach until and unless I am raised from the dead; and this power to deliver is wholly in Christ. I truly believe in and love a living resurrection, one that is all sufficient now and always; all we can know about this deep and sublime subject is what we have experienced. Christ has affirmed, “I am the resurrection and the life,” and these two principles are inseparably united. One cannot exist without the other; to have Christ is to have life, and to have life is to be raised from the dead.

When the gospel is preached, life is preached, for the gospel is life, and we are not, neither indeed can be, a witness of life, or any of the fruitions of life, until we are raised unto life, and none can know so well as the poor preacher, that “If Christ be not risen, (now) then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.” We know of a truth that we cannot “Prophesy upon these bones” until the command comes from God saying: “Son of man, prophesy,” and in that prophecy there was life. Listen, “I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live.” “So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceeding great army.” This is no strange thing to the children of God now. How well do we remember in our own experience, when we have come to the stand in a state of death, we saw the bones so very dry, no evidence of life, truly a valley of dry bones, and behold, this is the whole house of Israel. “O my people, I will open up your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.” This grave was not a hole in the ground, or a literal grave, for they were not literally dead, but only dead in feelings, just in the same manner as is so often the case with us now. And this bringing them into the land of Israel is that gracious entering into the unspeakable joys of the land that flows with milk and honey, a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness; this is that walking about Zion, the coming or rather ye are come (now) “to the spirits of just men made perfect,” the sitting together in heavenly places in Christ. Some will say, then, is the resurrection past? No, by no means, no more than Christ is past. Ours is an eternal, living, and everlasting resurrection, the same yesterday, today, and forever. The scripture found in Matthew 27:52 was having reference to the same things, and was not speaking of something that would occur at the end of this material world, but rather of the things of which we are living witnesses. The grave here is the same grave spoken of in Ezekiel 37:12. This grave is the carnal mind, the earthy, the flesh, and we are witnesses also of the power of this grave to imprison us, to shut us up in the earth (not the soil literally) so that we· cannot come forth. It is the spiritual children of God here in this life that are looking for him, and it is unto them that he (Christ) shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation. I long to see that happy season in my pilgrimage here on earth, as I go burdened down with sin and guilt to the places appointed for the gatherings of the people of God. Oh, to see the Son of Man appear in the clouds of glory, (his called servants) and the gospel of peace is preached. Then there is deliverance, not just a promise of deliverance in the future; then there is the resurrection of the dead, and Almighty God is worshipped in spirit and truth by his living children who are raised from the dead. All of these blessed foretastes of Heaven, which we are made partakers of here in time by the sure mercies of God, and the all sufficient grace in Christ Jesus the Lord, makes me to believe that there is a blessed home after death for the redeemed of the Lord, and they will all be there in a right form, and at the right time. G.B. Bird Canada, Ky.