Lesson 10: “Spiritualism Exposed”
COLLEEN TINKER | Editor, Life Assurance Ministries
Problems with this lesson:
- By teaching that man does not have an immaterial spirit, Adventism makes people vulnerable to spirits and demons, equates the Bible’s teaching with paganism, and eclipses our spiritual death and the new birth.
- The author denies the biblical teaching about death and misses that the resurrection is important because it broke the curse of death by Jesus’ blood and opens spiritual life to us now.
- The Teachers Comments accuse Satan of doing what Adventism did, changing the biblical teaching of the nature of man, and insists that belief in a human spirit includes communicating with the dead.
This week’s lesson is consummate deception as it mocks the biblical teaching about the nature of man and death and manipulates the reader into believing that Satan has infiltrated Christianity with paganism. Adventism deceives its members into believing that their cognitive philosophy of physicalism protects them from the temptation of believing in spirits. This teaching, however, is false.
When a person believes a falsehood about the basic nature of reality, however, that person is vulnerable to deception. Adventists are in danger of being seduced and harassed by spirits because they do not know the truth of what the Bible teaches.
The biblical nature of man
Sunday’s lesson opens with a a paragraph including a quote from Ellen White:
The fable that death is really just entrance to a new stage of life is based on the concept of the soul’s natural immortality. This pagan idea infiltrated the church early on as it moved away from its biblical foundations in an attempt to make its faith understandable to the wider Roman world. “The theory of the immortality of the soul was one of those false doctrines that Rome, borrowing from paganism, incorporated into the religion of Christendom.”—Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 549.
This paragraph is based on assumptions that the Bible does not teach and that Christianity does not believe. The idea that the early church moved away from a biblical foundation and incorporated spiritualistic ideas into its doctrines in order to appeal to Roman minds is simply a lie.
First, Christians do not believe that death is entrance into a new stage of life. Neither do Bible-believing Christians believe that a soul has “natural immortality”. The Bible tells us that we are all born dead in transgressions and sins, “by nature children of wrath”, yet while we were dead, God “made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved” (Eph. 2:1,5).
When we believe in the Lord Jesus and His completed blood atonement, our dead spirits come to life, and we pass at that moment from death to life (Jn. 5:24). We are literally born again of the Spirit. We are transferred by the Father out of the domain of darkness into the kingdom of the beloved Son (Col .1:13), and we are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise (Eph. 1:13,14) who never leaves us.
This spiritual transformation from dead to alive is real and literal, not a metaphor—and it is real because we HAVE immaterial spirits. It is our spirits, our identities that can know God that are born dead and must be made alive. This spiritual life is the life of God, and when we are born again, we have eternal life at that moment.
When we have been born again, we are promised “immortality”. Romans 2:7 calls immortality “eternal life”. 1 Corinthians 15:53, 54 also tells us that when the saved are resurrected, they will “put on immortality”. The fact that Jesus equated believing Him with passing into eternal life means that those who are born again are already inheriting immortality. It is already ours.
The fact that Jesus equated believing Him with passing into eternal life means that those who are born again are already inheriting immortality. It is already ours.
But the lesson falsely equates a person’s having an immaterial spirit with “immortality” and mocks the idea, calling it pagan. The Bible, however, is clear that people do have immaterial spirits. They are by nature dead in sin, but for a person to have eternal life, those spirits must be brought to life by God Himself when we believe that Jesus has fully atoned for our sins. Thus, when a person believes and is born again, that person has been given the life of God Himself and is inheriting immortality—an attribute that only God possesses by nature. Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 6:16 that God “alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light.” This unending life of God is what we inherit when we trust Jesus and are made spiritually alive!
Adventism’s physicalism and its mocking of our true nature possessing immaterial spirits makes it almost impossible for an Adventist to understand his being dead in sin and his need to be born again. Christians do not believe that having an immaterial spirits makes one immortal! Only being made alive by God gives us life and immortality.
Furthermore, because Adventists are not taught the truth about human nature, they are vulnerable to spiritual deception. It surprised me to learn that Adventists have far more encounters with seeing their dead relatives and experiencing paranormal phenomena than Christians do. I have never known a true Christian who has had encounters with the supposed spirits of the dead—but it happens frequently among Adventists. In fact, Richard’s very Adventist grandmother saw her dead brother in the days before she died and was able to tell her family about the encounter.
What about death?
At the end of Sunday’s lesson, Mark Finley says this:
Though unbliblical, the belief that the dead go right to heaven at death has been around for so long and is so firmly entrenched that it’s very difficult for people to let go of it. People use a few texts that are taken out of context to try to justify the belief. But this false teaching leaves them with no protection against the deceptions Satan can foist on them, especially in the final crisis.
Again, the lesson presumes to tell Adventists what Christian falsely believe—but they are wrong. Christians do not believe that people necessarily “go right to heaven at death”. Only those who have BELIEVED go to the Lord at death. The unbelievers also go through the separation of their spirits from their bodies, but they do not go to heaven. In the context of warning against false teachers and explaining that God has chained “angels who sinned” in “the pit”, Peter tell us that “the LORD knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment” (2 Peter 2:9).
Adventism has taught its members complete falsehood about the nature of man and about what Christians supposedly believe about death.
In other words, Adventism has taught its members complete falsehood about the nature of man and about what Christians supposedly believe about death.
Moreover, the lesson completely lies, saying people justify their belief that people go to the Lord upon death by using a few texts out of context. Of course, they never mention what these texts are so that the reader can examine for himself whether there is context or not!
Let’s look at some central passages that teach that believers are with the Lord when they die:
22 But if [I am] to live [on] in the flesh, this [will mean] fruitful labor for me; and I do not know what I will choose. 23 But I am hard-pressed between the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for [that] is very much better, 24 yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake.—(Philippians 1:22-24 LSB)
1 For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For indeed in this we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, 3 inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. 4 For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. 5 Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. 6 Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord– 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight– 8 we are of good courage and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. 9 Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. (2 Corinthians 5:1-9 LSB)
These passages are clear. A person’s immaterial self is housed in mortal flesh, and when we die we leave this temporary tent and are immediately present with the Lord. There is no missing context! The lesson of course, will not deal with these texts but will refer to them abstractly as a “few” texts taken out of context!
Finley does use another central passage, but it conveniently leaves out half of the passage that contains the words that provide the full context. In Tuesday’s lesson Finley asks us to read 1 Thessalonians 4:15–17 and compare this with Old Testament descriptions of death. Here is the passage:
15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of [the] archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.—(1Thessalonians 4:15-17 LSB)
Now look at what Finley left out, speaking of context! Verse 14, right before the passage above, says this:
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. (1Thessalonians 4:14 LSB)
Did you see that? When Jesus returns, “God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus”! Then the resurrection will happen as each of those righteous ones who have been with Him are reunited with their resurrection bodies. They come with Jesus because they have been with Jesus!
Furthermore, the lesson portrays Jesus’s resurrection as the evidence that we have no immaterial spirits by quoting 1 Corinthians 15:16–18 where Paul says if Christ has not risen, then “‘your faith is futile; you are still in your sins,’ and the dead remain in the ground, perished.”
Yet Paul is not saying that people are just bodies that die and remain in the ground. Christ’s resurrection wasn’t simply a display of Jesus’s ability to rise from death and thus to promise we would also rise some day. Jesus’ resurrection was a statement from God that Jesus’s blood had been sufficient to pay for human sin. Jesus rose from death because His blood had paid the price and had broken the curse of death on all humanity!
When Paul said if Christ was not raised, our faith would be futile, he was saying that if Christ had not been raised, He wouldn’t have been the perfect sacrifice. If Jesus hadn’t been raised, then He wouldn’t have been the Lamb of God! His blood wouldn’t have been sufficient to break the curse of death.
His resurrection wasn’t a divine parlor trick; it was a statement that death was broken because His blood was a sufficient propitiation. The atonement was 100% complete, and no more work of atonement was necessary.
His resurrection wasn’t a divine parlor trick; it was a statement that death was broken because His blood was a sufficient propitiation. The atonement was 100% complete, and no more work of atonement was necessary. Now when we believe and trust Jesus’s finished work, we pass from death to life and receive eternal life at that moment. Our spirits come to life eternally, and we are born again—and that new birth is the fruit of Jesus’s resurrection! Our curse of death is broken because the price has been paid once for all!
Unlike EGW said, Jesus did not have to leave the tomb and return to the Father to see if God accepted his sacrifice. The resurrection was the statement that Jesus’ blood was sufficient, and the resurrection is both our source of spiritual life when we believe and our assurance that our eventual glorification is secure.
The resurrection is not a “hope” that our bodies will one day rise. It is the statement that our eternal life is certain if we believe!
Adventism’ unconscious admission of guilt
Finally, the Teachers Comments once again reveal Adventism’s sleight of hand. These teachers’ aids emphasize the Adventist teaching that to believe humans have material spirits is “spiritualism” and opens people up to occult and paranormal activity. The first paragraph on page 132 says this:
To maintain any form of spiritualism is to be stuck on the side of the devil. To promote spiritualism, the devil changed the biblical definition of death and the Bible teaching about the nature of humanity. These false doctrines lay the groundwork for the spurious teaching that we are eternal and indestructible and that we continue to exist even beyond death. As a consequence, this deception opens the door to the dangerous belief that after we die we can continue to communicate with other people and even angelic beings.
Notice what they did: they literally blamed the devil for what they themselves have done: they have “changed the biblical definition of death and the Bible teaching about the nature of humanity”! These are EXACTLY the offenses Adventism has perpetrated in order to keep its membership believing the lies of their heretical foundations of Arianism, anti-trinitarianism, and physicalism! Adventism—on the authority of EGW’s visions—has indoctrinated its membership to believe that humans are merely bodies that breathe.
Moreover, they have proof-texted and suppressed the central passages that teach the true nature of man and of what happens when we die, causing its members to mock Christians’ biblical understanding and to be blinded to what God’s word actually says.
In fact, they have unconsciously revealed exactly what we have been saying is their real foundation that supports the entire false great controversy worldview: their unbiblical—dare I say evil—belief that humans have no immaterial spirits. This belief leads to unbiblical doctrines of sin, of salvation, and of the nature of Christ.
Moreover, they have unconsciously revealed that their own perversion of the nature of humanity and the definition of death is actually inspired by Satan. They are trying to say that Satan is the one who has deceived Christianity about the nature of man and death, yet if a person reads the Bible without the interpretive lens of Ellen White, the Bible will reveal exactly what Christianity teaches about man and death.
For them to say that the devil has changed these definitions is to reveal their own source.
For them to say that the devil has changed these definitions is to reveal their own source. The biblical teaching that man has a spirit is not heresy; rather, Adventism’s physicalism is heresy—and heresy can only come from one place: the father of lies.
The Adventist doctrines of death and the nature of man hold Adventists in a false reality. They identify reality through an unbiblical lens, and they are blinded to the truth of who they are, of who Jesus is, and of our triune God—and they have no understanding of the purpose or power of the gospel.
There is only one way out of this tangle of lies. Read the Bible, in context, and ask the Lord to remove the veil of Ellen White. See what the truth is about yourself and your need for a Savior, and see what Jesus has done for you—and believe!
You will be made alive by His resurrection life, and you will know what it means to be hidden with Christ in God. You will forever be freed from the Adventist fear of death. Believe today, and live! †
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Hi Colleen, suggest you read the article in Wikipedia entitled “Soul in the Bible”. This is one area that the Adventists have got essentially right. As for 1 Thess. 4:14 the probable meaning is that just as God brought Jesus from the grave so also He will bring “with Christ” believers from the grave. Best wishes, Winston McHarg