Matthew 22:23-30
The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him, saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother: likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. And last of all the woman died also. Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her.
Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): The question put by these bad men is well suited to the mouth of a libertine. Those who live without God in the world have no other god than the world; and those who have not that happiness which comes from the enjoyment of God have no other pleasure than that which comes from the gratification of sensual appetites.
JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Sensualists cast God and the things of God into a dishonourable mould.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Nothing gives greater advantage to atheism and infidelity than the carnality of those that make religion, either in its professions or in its prospects, a servant to their sensual appetites and secular interests―It is not strange that carnal minds have very false notions of spiritual and eternal things. The natural man receiveth not these things, “for they are foolishness to him,” 1 Corinthians 2:14.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): I have heard that an Englishman has professed himself a Mohammedan because he is charmed by the polygamy which the Arabian prophet allows his followers. No doubt the prospect of four wives would win converts who would not be attracted by spiritual considerations.
ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): It is not in ‘the last times’ only that men who will not endure sound teaching ‘heap to themselves teachers after their own lusts.’
PHILIP MAURO (1859-1952): This seems to point clearly to one of most conspicuous features of the Mohammedan religion, that which allowed in this life unrestrained indulgence of the animal passions of men―to the great degradation of womankind―and which promised in paradise the most unlimited delights of sensuousness. It was in order to subdue men, that the appeal was made to what is basest in nature of man. This is grossly demoniacal.
JOHN TRAPP: Mohammed, as he professed that he himself had a special licence given him by God to know what woman he would, and to put them away when he would; so he promised to all his votaries and adherents the like carnal pleasures at the resurrection.
ADAM CLARKE: The stream cannot rise higher than the spring―these men, and atheists, deists, and libertines of all sorts―can form no idea of heaven as a place of blessedness, unless they can hope to find in it the gratification of their sensual desires. On this very ground Mohammed built his paradise.
JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): Mohammedanism speaks of its Paradise—but how groveling, how sensual, how unworthy of the soul of man. The false prophet accommodates his heaven to the carnal and lowest passions of our nature, and holds out to the faithful little more or better than the lecherous harem of an Eastern despot. He carries his sensual system into the celestial state, and peoples his eternal world with a race of voluptuaries. What a contrast is here presented to the Christian Paradise, where flesh and blood are excluded, with all their grosser appetites and propensities; and not only is the soul perfect in purity—but even the body is too spiritual for the sensual passions of the flesh.
CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): How unlike the sensual religion of Mohammed! Here is no license, or encouragement to sin, no connivance at it.
H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): Mohammed promised his fanatical followers a place in Paradise if they died for the faith in conflict with the “infidels” who rejected his teachings.
C. H. SPURGEON: He who religiously obeys Mohammed may yet be doing grievous moral wrong; but it is never so with the disciple of Jesus: obedience to Jesus is holiness.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): Holiness! Here is another vital Biblical emphasis…Holiness is not negative; it is positive; it is to be like God. “Be ye holy, for I am holy,” says the Lord, 1 Peter 1:15,16. They know nothing about that, they never mention it.
J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): It is as certain as anything in the Bible that “without holiness no man shall see the Lord,” Hebrews 12:14.
C. H. SPURGEON: Did I hear someone object, “But many professors of Christianity are not holy”? I grant you it, but, then, everybody knows that they are inconsistent with the religion which they profess. If I heard of a lustful Muslim, I should not consider him inconsistent with Mohammedanism—is he not allowed his harem? But everybody knows that if a man professes to be a Christian and he is guilty of a gross fault, the world rings with the scandal, because it recognizes the inconsistency of his conduct with his profession. Though some may, at the first breath of a slander, blazon it abroad and say, “This is your religion,” the world knows it is not our religion, but the lack of it!―The world’s conscience knows that the religion of Jesus is the religion of purity—and if professed Christians fall into uncleanness the world knows that such a course of action does not arise out of the religion of Christ—they know it is diametrically the opposite to it.
JOSEPH CARYL (1602-1673): Perfect holiness is the aim of the saints on earth and it is the reward of the saints in heaven.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): The highway of holiness is the only path which leads to heaven.
THOMAS BROOKS (1608-1680): Heaven is only for the holy man―heaven is a garment of glory, that is only suited to him that is holy. God, who is truth itself, and cannot lie, hath said it, that “without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” Mark that word “no man”―O, sirs, do not deceive your own souls; holiness is of absolute necessity; without it you shall never see the Lord―Without holiness here, no heaven hereafter. “And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth,” Revelation 21:27.
THOMAS ADAMS (1583-1656): Heaven begins where sin ends.
JOHN ANGELL JAMES: What is heaven? We have again and again answered that question. It is not a Mohammedan Paradise—but a state where we shall see Christ as He is, and be like Him. It is the region of moral purity. Its inhabitants are holy—the Holy Father, the Holy Saviour, the Holy Spirit, holy angels, and holy men. Its occupations are holy—the service of God—the song of cherubim and seraphim, crying “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty;” and all other things in harmony with this sacred employment.
ROWLAND HILL (1744-1833): If an unholy man were to get into heaven, he would feel like a hog in a flower-garden.
