This weekly feature is dedicated to Adventists who are looking for biblical insights into the topics discussed in the Sabbath School lesson quarterly. We post articles which address each lesson as presented in the Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, including biblical commentary on them. We hope you find this material helpful and that you will come to know Jesus and His revelation of Himself in His word in profound biblical ways.
Lesson 8: “New Testament Hope”
[COLLEEN TINKER]
Problems with this lesson:
- The premise of this lesson is a straw-man argument: why would we need a resurrection if people are already with the Lord?
- The lesson never deals with the central New Testament passages that address being with the Lord when we die: 2 Corinthians 5:1–9, and Philippians 1:22, 23.
We have been pointing out in all the lessons this quarter that the author assumes the Adventist physicalism that denies an immaterial human spirit that separates from the body at death. This lessons no exception.
Striking in the studies is the mockery of the idea that people’s identities are consciously with Jesus. In fact, the defensive arrogance of the tone of the writing betrays that the author does not have a good argument against the doctrine of “absent from the body and present with the Lord”. A person with sound explanations does not resort to mockery, insults, and covert shaming.
Because we have been addressing this physicalist heresy in almost every commentary concerning this set of lessons, in this one we will focus on passages that reveal the deceptive mocking and threat of shame that keeps the reader from questioning the Adventist conclusions. The straw-man arguments are obvious, but the author blithely uses them and then knocks them down with misapplied Scriptures.
Within Adventism, the attitude of superiority and higher knowledge guilts and shames members into silence. “Even if I cannot understand their reasoning,” many Adventists say, “brighter minds than mine have figured these things out, so I will accept what I’m told and not make waves.”
In fact, Adventist doctrines are confusing and do not conform to Scripture. There are good reasons why members feel unable to follow the reasoning supporting many of their doctrines, but in general people are squelched into compliance and blind acceptance because questioning opens one to condescension and convoluted responses.
Straw-man arguments
Following are some quotations from next week’s lesson that illustrate the illegitimate arguments that ignore the clear facts of Scripture:
And the book of Hebrews speaks of the heroes of faith as having expected a heavenly reward that they would not receive until we receive ours (Heb. 11:39, 40). This statement would be meaningless if their souls were already with the Lord in heaven.
By stressing that only those who are in Christ have eternal life (1 John 5:11, 12), John disproves the theory of the natural immortality of the soul (p. 98).
Paul is explicit: our resurrection is inseparably tied to Christ’s resurrection. And if we don’t rise, then it means that Christ has not risen, and if Christ has not risen, then—what? “Your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!” (1 Cor. 15:17, NKJV). In other words, when we die we stay dead, and forever, too, and thus, it all is meaningless. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:32, “If the dead do not rise, ’Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!’ ” (NKJV).
If our present existence as carbon-based protoplasm is all there is, and our “threescore and ten years” (if we are fortunate; more if we don’t smoke or eat too many hamburgers) are all that we get—ever—we’re in pretty tough shape. No wonder Ellen G. White adds, “Heaven is worth everything to us, and if we lose heaven we lose all.”—Sons and Daughters of God, p. 349 (p. 99).
Despite the long centuries since Jesus ascended, the promise of His coming remains relevant, even today. Why? Because all that we have is our own short life (Ps. 90:10), followed by an unconscious rest in the grave (Eccles. 9:5, 10), and then the final resurrection, without any later opportunity to change our destiny (Heb. 9:27). As far as each one of the dead is concerned (as stated in lesson 3), because all the dead are asleep and unconscious, the second coming of Christ is never more than a moment or two after they die. For you, in your personal experience (as for all of God’s people of every age), Christ’s return is no more than a moment after your death. That’s very soon, is it not? (p. 100).
There is a historical tendency to read into the expression “bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus” (1 Thess. 4:14, NKJV) more than the text is saying. Many who accept the theory of the natural immortality of the soul suggest that Christ, at His second coming, will bring with Him from heaven the souls of the righteous dead who are already in heaven with God. Those souls thus can be reunited with their respective resurrected bodies. But such an interpretation is not in harmony with the overall teachings of Paul on the subject.…If the souls of the righteous dead were already with the Lord in heaven, Paul would not need to mention the final resurrection as the Christian hope; he could have just mentioned that the righteous were already with the Lord. But, instead, he says that “those who sleep in Jesus” (1 Thess. 4:14, NKJV) would be resurrected from the dead at the end of time (p. 102).
“ ’Even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him’ [1 Thess. 4:14], Paul wrote. Many interpret this passage to mean that the sleeping ones will be brought with Christ from heaven; but Paul meant that as Christ was raised from the dead, so God will call the sleeping saints from their graves and take them with Him to heaven. Precious consolation! glorious hope! not only to the church of Thessalonica, but to all Christians wherever they may be.”—Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles, p. 259 (p. 104).
The New Testament passages about the resurrection from the dead, whether from Paul and the other apostles or from Jesus Himself, once again do not say anything about immortal souls or spirits already being in heaven. The New Testament hope is found in the resurrection and the Second Coming.
The passages mentioned in this lesson in conjunction with the state of the dead are as follows:
- Hebrews 11:39, 40: Heroes of faith do not receive their heavenly reward until we receive ours.
- 1 John 5:11, 12: This text teaches that only those who are in Christ have eternal life. Therefore, the implications are clear: we are not endowed with immortal “souls,” because only those who choose Christ will receive eternal life.
- 1 Corinthians 15:12–19: Our hope of eternal life and resurrection comes from the resurrection of Jesus. If we don’t rise at that time, it means that Christ did not rise. If that is true, then we all die and stay dead forever.
- John 14:1–3: Jesus promised to prepare a place for us and come back to get us. This promise would be unnecessary if we already were in heaven.
- John 6:35–54: Jesus says four times that He will raise him (humans) up in the last day. If humans will be raised up, then they need to come back to life after death, which precludes living somewhere else as souls/spirits.
- 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18: God will resurrect the deceased believers, and they will be met by those who are alive at that time. The final resurrection wouldn’t matter if souls already were in heaven.
- 1 Corinthians 15:51–55: The “mystery” is the transformation of the righteous living at the Second Coming. The resurrection of the dead and transformation of the living righteous happen at the same time (p. 106).
Truth
The lesson assumes that people are merely “carbon-based” constructions of flesh that cease to exist at death. They deny the biblical teaching that we receive immortality when we believe in the Lord Jesus and instead assume that those who do not believe the dead cease to exist believe in “natural immortality” of the soul.
Eternal life, however, begins literally the moment we believe and pass from death to life (Jn. 5:24). This lesson studiously avoids discussing what Scripture actually says.
In the list of texts above, which are compiled in the Teachers Comments section of the lesson, the contextual meanings are not discussed, and significantly the central passages are omitted. The Adventists build their apologetic on death from out-of-context passages and from the complete avoidance of the central passages that describe our being with the Lord. Here are those central passages:
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better (Philippians 1:21–23).
For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him (2 Corinthians 5:1–9).
The implications for the nature of Christ if the Adventist doctrine of death is true are terrifying. In the Adventist paradigm, Jesus did not exist during His death in the tomb. No immaterial part of Himself went to the Father; He had ceased to breathe, and His body lay lifeless in the tomb.
Ellen White says His deity did not die but was quiescent in the tomb:
The spirit of Jesus slept in the tomb with His body, and did not wing its way to heaven, there to maintain a separate existence, and to look down upon the mourning disciples embalming the body from which it had taken flight. All that comprised the life and intelligence of Jesus remained with His body in the sepulcher; and when He came forth it was as a whole being; He did not have to summon His spirit from heaven. He had power to lay down His life and to take it up again (3SP 203, 204).” (Ellen G. White, S.D.A. Bible Commentary Vol. 5, page 1150, paragraph 6.)
This does not mean that Christ’s deity was conscious while in the tomb and ultimately brought about His own resurrection of the body. Such a thing would have made Christ’s death unreal, and the whole sacrifice of the Son of God a deception by having a human body that died while His deity remained consciously alive. All that comprised the life and intelligence of Jesus remained with His body in the sepulcher.—Ellen G. White, The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 3, p. 204.
Adventism depends upon the worldview that insists physicalism is the only reality. If humans have immaterial spirits that survive the body at death, then every one of their doctrines ceases to hang together. If immaterial spirits are with the Lord, there is no need for an investigative judgment. If humans have spirits that are born dead and need to be made alive, the law loses its power and a Savior is needed. If people are more than physical bodies, the health message is no longer the most important thing for spiritual well-being.
Finally, if people have immaterial spirits, then their real need is not be become “good” and to keep the Ten Commandments, but their true need is to trust Jesus and to be born again with eternal life that makes them new and places them eternally in Christ.
The Adventist doctrine of death skews every other biblical teaching and obscures the true state of humanity. We need to be made alive, not made good—and only by trusting the shed blood of Jesus and throwing ourselves on His mercy at the foot of the cross can we find eternal security. †
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