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 9: Contrary Passages?
[COLLEEN TINKER]
Problems with this lesson:
- The author fails to read the “contrary passages” contextually but rather redefines them from the perspective of the Adventist physicalist worldview.
- The lesson uses straw-man arguments to disprove the biblical texts.
- Although this lesson includes Philippians 1:21–24, the author still has not dealt with 2 Corinthians 5:1–9.
Rich Man and Lazarus
Sunday’s lesson uses the traditional Adventist arguments to say that Jesus’ parable of the rich man in hell and Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom isn’t saying anything about death, that Jesus was merely emphasizing that peoples make up their minds about their eternal destinies during their earthly time of “probation” (as per Friday’s lesson) and that decision is irreversible. The author uses straw-man arguments, such as, “If this passage were a description of the human state in death, then heaven would certainly not be a place of joy and happiness…”
Speculative arguments prove nothing. They assume that the writer’s worldview is the TRUTH, and they create straw-man arguments which they then beat down with their predetermined worldview. Thus the writer never actually grapples with the words of the passage. Instead, he comes to the passage already believing what the passage CAN or CAN’T mean, and he constructs his own fallacy to twist the Scriptures.
No matter what the underlying message of the parable was—and it certainly included Jesus’ teaching that those who live for riches and position gain nothing in death, while the poor may be laying up treasures in heaven because of their hearts that are open to truth—there is one overarching principle that defines this particular parable. As our pastor Gary Inrig once said, “The Lord Jesus would NEVER use and UNTRUTH to teach a TRUTH.”
That principle is the foundation for understanding this parable. It flies in the face of Adventist tradition, however; we believed that God could and would trick or mislead us if His cagey-ness produced a desired result. After all, EGW said that God held His hand over William Miller’s mistake in calculating his first date for Jesus’ return. Miller first predicted that Jesus would come in 1843; then, when He didn’t show up, Miller revised his calculations and established the date October 22, 1844.
Ellen said that God held His hand over Miller’s original mistake so that people would get ready for Jesus’ return.
God would do no such thing. God will never trick us or deceive us or hide truth from us for the purpose of an ulterior motive.
Jesus would not teach truth using a false, misleading scenario of death as His paradigm for reality.
“Today…With Me in Paradise”
The Adventist argument that the word “today” necessarily goes with Jesus’ declaration, “Truly I say to you…” ignores the pattern in Scripture. In the book of Luke alone, Jesus uses the phrase, “Truly I say to you,” as a preface to an important fact He was about to say. And that only includes the book of Luke. The book of Matthew includes 28 instances of Jesus’ saying this phrase. Mark and John also include more.
The point is that the pattern of Scripture tells us much about the way we are to understand certain passages. Never did Jesus say, “Truly I say to you today,” and then expound a truth. His phrase “Truly I say to you” was always the same, and it always prefaced an important fact that He wanted to be sure His listeners heard and understood.
In Luke 23:43, therefore, it is illegitimate to say Jesus was really saying, “Truly I say to you today, you will be with me in Paradise.” That was not His message.
His message was that He was assuring the repentant, believing thief beside Him that they would be in Paradise that very day, together.
“To Depart and Be With Christ”
Tuesday’s lesson finally addresses Philippians 1:21–24. Significantly, however, it never quotes verse 23 in which Paul say, “But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better.”
Instead, the author refers to other texts and mentions ideas in them and then constructs a speculative argument, “But why would Paul prefer to die than to live? Because then he could finally rest from all his troubles, without needing any longer suffer pain in his body” (1 Cor. 9:27).
In short, they simply do not quote the passage and take the words at face value. Instead, they mention words or phrases from the passage, combine them with ideas from other passages, apply their physicalist worldview to the remix, and conclude something completely OTHER than what the central passage states.
Preaching to the Spirits in Prison
In Wednesday’s lesson the author addresses 1 Peter 3:13–20. This passage is enigmatic enough that it cannot be used to prove or disprove the nature of death. It is a secondary passage that gives us insight and confirms the idea that an immaterial spirit exists beyond the death of the body.
Instead, the author mocks the idea of Jesus preaching “to the spirits in prison” and redefines the words.
While this passage is difficult to understand, one thing we can know for sure: Peter is not saying that Jesus went to preach to the lost in order to get them to repent and believe. Rather, given the context and the references to Genesis 6, this passage does not seem to be saying Jesus preached to the lost humans in prison but to the “spirits”—the evil angels—who left their natural estate and transgressed against humanity before the flood. In fact, these spirits, Peter tells us, were imprisoned, and this passage about Jesus preaching to them may well have been a declaration of victory.
We know that, according to Colossians 2:14,15, Jesus disarmed and humiliated Satan at the cross. His “preaching to the spirits in prison” may have been His going to those spirits whom He had imprisoned after the events in the pre-flood world and declaring His victory over human sin and over the demonic powers that had claimed authority over humanity.
Whatever the case may be, we are not specifically told, but we have to believe the words. The lesson deliberately tries to say the words do not mean what they actually say.
The Souls Under the Altar
Thursday’s lesson again discredits the context and the words of the passage in Revelation that states the spirits of the martyrs under the altar cry out, “How long, oh Lord?”
Once again they construct arguments of illogic to discredit the words and to call the martyrs’ souls mere metaphors. In the context of the passage, however, they cannot legitimately dismiss the souls as metaphors. The author mocks the plain meaning of the words and argues that their stated desire for justice implies that “the desire for vengeance can make your life miserable. But your death, as well?”
This conclusion is illegitimate and negates the plain words and the context of the passage.
Again, we have to read the words and believe they mean what they say.
Recapitulation
Friday’s lesson takes us back to the story of Lazarus and the rich man with a quote from EGW’s Christ’s Object Lessons. In this quote EGW says, “During probationary time the grace of God is offered to every soul. But if men waste their opportunities in self-pleasing, they cut themselves off from everlasting life. No afterprobabtion will be granted them. By their own choice they have fixed an impassable gulf between them and their God.”
Interestingly, the author s of this lesson seem to consider this particular parable especially important to discredit. Yet the bottom-line fact remains: the Lord Jesus would never use an untruth to teach a truth.
Also, it is significant that once again, the author does not mention 2 Corinthians 5:1–10:
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. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil (2 Corinthians 5:1–10).
The Bible is clear that when we die, if we are believers, we are absent from the body and present with the Lord. Unbelievers are kept under punishment for judgment. In both cases, however, the intermediate state is conscious, and Paul emphasizes that for us to be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord—and whether absent or at home, we make it our aim to please Him. No non-existent person can please the Lord while absent from the body! We have to exist in order for this verse to make sense.
We can trust the words of the Bible, and the Lord has not given us misinformation. The words mean what the words say, and not even death can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. †
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