The Immortality of the Soul, Is it a Scriptural Doctrine? - Alonzo T. Jones

death brings people to God; that men and women
go direct to heaven from their homes in this world,
and this so instantaneously that there is no time to
get ready the chariot of God, as was done when
Elijah went without dying at all,-we say if these
things be true, then there is literally no place left
for the coming of the Lord. It would be simply the
height of absurdity to talk about the Lord's coming
to this world after people who are not here at all,
but are, and have been, for years and hundreds of
years, in heaven,-in the very place which he leaves
to come here! This is why the doctrine of the
coming of the Lord is so neglected, so despised, in
fact. Believing this, and there is no need to believe
in the coming of the Lord; indeed, it is a palpable
inconsistency to believe in it. Believing this, and
there is no need to look, or wait, for the coming of
the Lord; all there is for such to do is to wait till
death shall come and take them; and so death-"the
last enemy," "the king of terrors"-is given the place
and the office of Him who is our life (Col. 3:4), of
Him "that loved us, and washed us from our sins in
His own blood."
19