Adventism’s Death Doctrine: Gospel or Deception

BY RICHARD FOSTER

I remember when my wife and I were making our exit from Adventist theology, we were hearing talk of humans having souls or spirits that existed consciously beyond the death of the body. My wife, who was a lifelong Adventist of over 30 years, was particularly alarmed—spooked, you might say—over the thought of the human spirit continuing without the body. After all, one of Adventism’s main drum beats is that next to Sunday keeping, nothing is more dangerous than believing that our spirits live beyond our physical death. It is staple Adventist teaching that believing this doctrine will inevitably lead to being deceived into spiritualism, or communication with the dead, and that Satan originated the concept in Eden when he told Eve that she would not surely die. These are some strong claims that deserve more careful scrutiny, as they are nothing less than a scathing condemnation of the historic orthodox position of Christianity, held by practically all branches of the church in all centuries. 

So the question that must be answered is: who is right? Are Adventists right with their bold claims denouncing the orthodox position on death, held by practically all denominations? Or is the historic orthodox position the right one after all?

The Christian doctrine of the intermediate state summarized. 

In a nutshell, the historic view of the church has been that upon death, believers’ spirits will be brought into the direct presence of Christ, to be united with Him in a way that we were not previously while we were on earth. During this time we will enjoy full freedom from sin and the infirmities of the sinful world, and most of all we will enjoy intimate conscious fellowship with the Lord Jesus. As good as this will be though, this isn’t the end all, but is merely a temporary state to something better. This ultimate state will be realized when our bodies are resurrected with the return of Christ to earth. At that point our spirits will be reunited to our physical bodies, which will be raised incorruptible and immortal. For this reason, the Christian view of death has often been called the intermediate state. For it is a state which we have consciously entered into upon death, but it is merely temporary, anticipating the ultimate eternal state of our existence, where we will enjoy the Lord and all He has to offer, not only in spirit, but also in body, with all of our faculties made perfect. 

Now this is what is understood to happen to believers at death, but what about unbelievers? The Bible doesn’t offer a lot of details on the condition of the unsaved in the intermediate state. But it would appear from the limited evidence that their spirits continue in a conscious existence as well, where they are reserved under punishment until the final day of judgement (2 Peter 2:9). And John 5:28 and 29 is clear that not only the saved, but also the lost will be resurrected. But while it will be a resurrection of life to the saved, to the lost it will sadly be a resurrection of judgement. 

The Biblical evidence for the Christian’s condition in the intermediate state. 

Adventists will accuse us of believing “Satan’s lie”, and saying we have no Biblical evidence for this belief, etc. But this is, quite frankly, great ignorance on their part. So what is the Bible’s evidence for the Christian doctrine of the intermediate state? We will consider both explicit textual evidence, as well as the evidence from sound Biblical theology. 

Some Biblical theological points

1. Eternal life is already a present reality for Christians. We have passed from death into life, present tense (John 5:24)! To say that this already present reality of eternal life is suspended for a time with the death of our body is unthinkable! Not only is John 5:24 clear that we received eternal life when we came to faith, but numerous other texts testify to the same. We were dead in our sins (Ephesians 2:1), but God has given us life at the moment of our coming to faith in Christ. This life is eternal life: in other words, it does not end, and it is not interrupted.
2. That this idea of an interruption in our life upon physical death is absurd, is further strengthened from the fact that Jesus told Martha that whosoever believes in Him, though he die, yet he shall live. And that whosever lives and believes in Him will never die! Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26).

In other words hear this: Jesus is the resurrection and the life first of all. And this means that even if we die bodily and physically, we will live. We know that Scripture teaches that our bodies will be resurrected by Christ at the last day. But beyond that even, the text says that we will live even if we die! Even when our physical body dies and goes into the grave, believers live! This fact is further confirmed by the next sentence from our Lord, who says that everyone who lives and believes in Him will never die! We have passed from death into life the moment we believed, and we will never die! Even if our body dies we live! We have Christ’s word on this! This is incredibly good news! And the gospel of Jesus Christ is literally good news: good news that we are saved by Christ from sin, death, and hell. The problem with the belief that in the grave there is a cessation of conscious existence is that it is fundamentally not good news. But the fact that our life in Christ will continue even though our bodies die is great news indeed! 

In fact our physical death not only is not bad news when we are in Christ, but the Apostle Paul even calls it gain. “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

Now, how could Paul call death gain, if He expected nothing but an unconscious cessation of his existence for thousands of years, as Adventism teaches? I’ll be honest, as an Adventist I simply just ignored this inspired apostolic statement altogether, because it was quite simply, mystifying to me. 

Explicit textual evidence 

1. Since we have just referenced Philippians 1:21, let’s continue with the passage: “But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake” (Philippians 1:22-24).

This is such a clear statement from Paul it hardly needs explanation. Simply put, as he is faced with the potential prospect of death (vs. 20), he is drawing a contrast between two possibilities for himself: either he is going to live on in the flesh, doing fruitful gospel labor for the Lord, or He is going to depart (that is from living on in the flesh) and be with Christ. So, it’s live on in the flesh, or depart and be with Christ. These are the two possibilities. Now notice he considers it “very much better” to depart and be with Christ. How could death be “very much better” than “to live on in the flesh” if Adventism is correct on the state of the dead? Paul tells us why it’s better, and that is because it means nothing less than being with Christ. Sadly though, Adventism erases the Bible’s very comforting teaching on this point, by claiming death is not to depart and be with Christ, but to go unconscious into the grave for who knows how long. 

It must be pointed out that the Adventist teaching on death is essentially no different than the belief of the secular, unbelieving, materialistic world. Secular materialists teach that death brings nothing but a sad cessation of everything, while the body decays in the grave. And with this Adventism agrees. The only difference is that Adventism professes to believe that someday a re-creation of the person will take place. 

A very similar passage to Philippians 1:21-24 could be analyzed as well, and that is 2 Corinthians 5:1-9. For the sake of space in this short article we won’t analyze it here. But I would recommend to the readers to go over this passage a number of times, meditate on it, and consider the clear truth from God’s word in it. This being said, I now want to consider one more passage, one that’s often overlooked, but one that I have personally found amazing in its teaching on this subject. 

2. But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel (Hebrews 12:22-24).

As former Adventists, many of us are familiar with the beautiful passage in Hebrews 12 because of its astounding contrast between Mount Sinai and Mount Zion, the contrast between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. But the wonderful teaching of this passage goes far beyond even the very important contrast of the two covenants: it gives us a vivid picture of the whole church of Jesus Christ beyond simply those of us who are currently alive on the earth. 

Notice it is called the “city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem”—and this is the place it says we have come to. And notice who dwells in this place:

1. Myriads of angels.
2. God, the Judge of all.
3. The spirits of the righteous made perfect.
4. Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant. 

So in the heavenly Jerusalem, which we come to by faith in Christ, God is there, Christ is there, angels are there, but these are not all: the spirits of the righteous made perfect are also there! 

Several observations can be made from this text concerning the spirits of the righteous made perfect: 

1. They are clearly in heaven and clearly in the presence of God. The context is too clear here to misunderstand: by coming to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, we also come to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, in addition to coming to God, Christ, and the angels. This is so because the spirits of the righteous are in God’s presence, just as the angels are. 
2. The spirits of the righteous made perfect are clearly conscious and alive. This is evident from the fact that they have a communion with God and the church. It is also evident from the fact that they are perfected. For to say they are made perfect would be meaningless if they were unconscious. It would do them no good. Thirdly it is evident that they are conscious by the fact that the author of Hebrews tells his readers that they have come to the heavenly Jerusalem, which includes in a meaningful sense the spirits of the righteous made perfect. There would be no real meaningful sense to mention New Covenant believers coming to them, were they just unconscious. As it is though, our fellowship with them is just as real as our fellowship with the believers who have not yet departed the present life. 
3. They have been perfected. This is a great comfort for us to realize: for the fact that the spirits of the righteous departed are perfected, means also that we will be perfect in spirit as soon as we depart. As Romans 8:30 testifies, “those whom He justified He also glorified”. The righteous, or the just, are guaranteed that they will not only be just, but also glorified. That is, He brought them into the state of glory, where sin is a thing of the past, and perfection is ours at last. And this will occur for our spirit immediately upon departure from this life, and entrance into the intermediate state. For our bodies, of course, it will happen when the resurrection happens. 

Answering Some Adventist Objections.

But won’t believing this lead doctrine to being deceived by spiritualism and communication with the dead? 

Such a conclusion is absurd! In the first place, Christians are strictly prohibited from such activities by God’s word in both Testaments. So to engage in communication with the dead, or even to attempt to engage in it, is a great sin which is to be avoided just as strongly as any other sin. Just as believing in Biblical marriage won’t cause the sin of adultery, so believing the Biblical doctrine of the intermediate state won’t cause spiritualism or communication with the dead. Secondly, just because the spirits of the departed are conscious in death, doesn’t mean it’s even possible to communicate with them, or to bring them to us, for they are not in some limbo state. In the case of the righteous they will remain in the presence of God in heaven until the resurrection. In case of the lost they will remain under punishment in hades until their resurrection. So the Adventist claim that we are going to be deceived by spiritualism for not believing death is unconsciousness is very fallacious reasoning where the conclusion doesn’t follow from the premise. 

Now what about the fact that the Bible uses the word sleep in reference to death? Adventists are quick to point out that this occurs some 53 times in Scripture. But the answer to this is very simple: in some instances the word sleep is referencing the perspective of those who are still alive on earth. From our perspective the departed are asleep. After all, gravestones have long stated, rest in peace. But also it is a fact that the body remains asleep for as long as it’s in the grave, until the resurrection. In 1 Thessalonians 4:14 the text says that when Christ returns He will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep, and at that point they will be resurrected. Notice they aren’t described as unconsciously sleeping in the grave, but being brought with Christ upon His return. As an Adventist this didn’t make much sense. Believing in the intermediate state, though, that departed believers are currently with the Lord, it makes perfect sense that He will bring them with Him when He comes back. 

Lastly, let’s address the favorite Adventist proof text on this subject, Ecclesiastes 9:5. It says the living know that they shall die, but the dead know nothing. In the first place, I’d like to point out the hermeneutical inconsistency Adventists have in Ecclesiastes. Just two verses after this one, the text says to drink wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do. We can wonder why Adventists don’t use this as a proof text concerning their doctrine on alcohol. And in Ecclesiastes 7:20 we read that there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins, yet the literalist interpretation of Ecclesiastes 9:5 apparently doesn’t apply in 7:20, for scores of Adventists still argue that we can stop sinning while on earth. Second, there is danger in building doctrine from a poetic passage, when we have other genres in Scripture that are intended to be taken in the literal sense, and which disagree with the Adventist interpretation of this poetic passage. 

So what is the text really getting at? As usual, context is key. In the very next verse it is qualified that the dead have no more share of anything done under the sun. Everything they knew while on this earth (under the sun), they know nothing of any longer. 

Conclusion

What I have presented here concerning the state and condition of believers in death has barely just been a scratch of the surface concerning the Biblical evidence. That we have spirits is Biblically undeniable. That our spirits have consciousness is also Biblically undeniable, as the same word used to refer to God as spirit, the Holy Spirit, and angels as spirits (all of which are conscious), also is used in reference to our spirit. That our spirits are conscious after death, in the intermediate state with Christ, is also Biblically undeniable, based on the passages I have presented, as well as many more that could be examined. 

So we must emphatically conclude that the Christian conception of the intermediate state, in which believers are consciously with the Lord awaiting the resurrection of their bodies, is clearly not a deception of Satan but an easily provable Scriptural doctrine, with lots of supporting evidence. Furthermore, it is of great comfort and benefit to us to know that in death our eternal life will not be interrupted, our fellowship with Christ will not be interrupted, but in fact strengthened, and we will be perfected and live in the state of glory with our Lord. 

I end with this text:

“For I am convinced that neither DEATH, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, WILL BE ABLE TO SEPARATE US from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).†

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Richard Foster

Richard Foster is blessed to reside in beautiful San Juan Island, Washington, with wife Virlinda, and children Enoch and Taylianna. As an excavation contractor and septic system installer, he helps island homes to properly make wastewater go away, as well as digging holes and filling them in whenever needed. Formerly an Adventist for 13 years, the Lord providentially led him on a journey of deeper Bible study, and a realization of the true biblical gospel through learning what the real issues were in the Protestant Reformation. He continues to enjoy studying biblical theology in his spare time. He and his family happily attend and help with ministry in a local community church, where the preaching is expository, and the central focus is the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ alone.

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