"Be diligent to study yourself approved unto God, as Workers who do not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the Word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15).
"If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ.
"Wherever the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved and to be steady on all the battlefield besides is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that one point."
- Martin Luther
Recently, I have been asked why "soul sleep" is, in my estimation, such a "pernicious" or destructive doctrine.
My response to this is that in our postmodern and propositionally bankrupt Western Culture, all doctrine is deemed abhorrent and irrelevant by secular society and this indifference to sound Biblical theology as greatly influenced the Evangelical Christian culture in America today as well.
Secular society's hatred of even the concept of absolute Biblical truth has greatly spread like a ideological virus throughout American Evangelicalism, to the point that attempting to defend the traditional Evangelical stance against temporal immortality and for the theological view that people are conscious before the resurrection, is deemed the height of futility and arrogant and repressive obstructionist. Yet, in my estimation, every jot and tittle of the Word of God is of vital importance since it was communicated by Almighty God for His Church to know propositionally. Therefore, I believe the concerned Evangelical believer should not give one iota or inch to the mindset of doctrinal relativism, but instead defend and proclaim every bit of the revealed Word of Almighty God, irrespective of how insignificant, mundane or trivial it might appear to those skeptical of such committed adherence to traditional Evangelical theology.
The issue of "soul sleep" is important because it is important to Almighty God the Sovereign Lord of the Universe, and if God saw fit within His providential will to address the issue related to the state between death and the resurrection, then it must be important to all those who love the Word of God in sincerity and in truth.
In an earlier era of American Evangelicalism, long before the inception of seeker sensitive and emergent church Christianity, the Evangelical Christian Church within the contiguous United States placed a tremendous emphasis on the study of and the vigorous adherence to sound Evangelical theology.
While the doctrine of "soul sleep" may not be as "pernicious" as any other false Biblical teaching that is contrary to the revealed Word of Almighty God ( Acts 7:58-60, 2 Corinthians 5:6-8 and Philippians 1:21-24 conclusively demonstrates the veracity of the tradtional Evangelical view that people are very much conscious after death and before their resurrection), the point is that no doctrine is unimportant and deserves anything less than full defense by the seasoned believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Anything less than a full defense of every aspect of the Word of God is to retreat from our calling to defend the faith once and for all delievered to the saints.
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Good Article on Soul Sleep
From:
http://www.letusreason.org/Doct15.htm
Is there an afterlife? There are two extremes that are used to distort the Bible doctrine of the intermediate state of the believer after death. One is Spiritism, that teaches everyone has an afterlife in heaven, so it doesn't matter at all what you believe here on earth. Within this is the belief that we can contact the dead. Those who die have not really passed on into another place away from earth, but they are living in the spirit world, a world which is a dimension right here on earth which we cannot see. In other words, they are among us, they are watching and helping us. The Bible clearly denies this fact by showing that there are two destinations in the afterlife, and none of these are related to any closeness to the living. We cannot contact them and they cannot contact us (Lk.16, Deut.18:10-12).
The other extreme is evolution, that this is all there is and that there is no afterlife, so we needn't consider what happens when we die. This is what Atheism teaches, that there is no eternality to our soul and we all just go back to the ground since that's what we're made of and there is no spirit or soul in man.
The Jehovah's Witness's teaching is quite similar to this since they believe that when you die both the soul and body are extinguished, the body taking longer to cease to exist, yet the soul is immediately snuffed out. Atheism also believes in anihilationism. The Devil, who invents these views, will use both ends to distort the truth. On one hand he has people choose to believe that there is no after life, and on the other he distorts it to say that we all go to the same place, no matter how we live or what we believe in our life right now everything will be alright.
So what exactly happens to us when we die? Is there an afterlife? Do we cease to exist as atheists say? Or does life continue on as the spiritualists state, with everyone ending up in the same place where we will all be comfortable? Throughout the history of mankind, the afterlife has been an enigma. Almost all religions believe in an afterlife, some quality of life in the spiritual realm that exists afterwards, either in a nebulous world or in having an abundant life in a place called heaven. The immortality of the soul is something hoped for by all people. This has also been a subject debated within the church for centuries. Does the Bible teach existence after death, or do we cease to exist, as Jehovah's Witness claim? And what of the soul-sleep of the Seventh Day Adventists?
First, let's look at what the Jehovah Witnesses believe. This comes from Charles Taze Russell being influenced by what was called Second Adventism, (meaning the second advent). This is before they became the Seventh Day Adventists where they based themselves on the Sabbath day belief. Jehovah Witnesses believe that when someone dies their personality and life is so united with the body that it ceases to exist. This not only occurs with believers, but also non-believers and with Jesus, so God has to refashion everyone by memory.
What we're dealing with here is re-creation. What they have is not a resurrection, because the individual's body and soul are carbon copied to exist later on Paradise Earth. This is what they teach as their good news of the kingdom. Everyone is going to live on paradise earth one day. one of the problems is if you die before the resurrection, well, you won't be there. You will not participate in the new earth because God will copy you from memory and your duplicate will be enjoying all the benefits of all your hard work for the kingdom. Of course, none of this is biblical, it's all fantasy and never going to happen. If we ask the Jehovah's Witness about this and explain this to those who come to our door it can strongly affect their false belief system and make them question what hope they have as a Jehovah Witness. So annihilations, which is what they teach, is not a biblical answer for how God deals with the after life of the soul and the body.
When we come to the subject of soul-sleep we find this view has been sporadically held throughout church history. The Ana-Baptists believed in this in the 1500's. King Edward VI stated in his fortieth article out of forty-two, that "The souls that do depart hence do sleep, being without all sense, feeling, or perceiving until the day of judgment, do utterly decent from the right that is closed to us in Holy Scriptures."
In modern times we have two well known major groups that hold to this teaching. One is Christadelphianism and the other is Seventh Day Adventism. Soul-sleep is the denial of man's conscious existence between when he dies and the resurrection day. It's what is called the intermediate state of the believer, in which their view is both the body and the soul lay rest in the ground.
Christadelphian's deny the existence of hell and they hold to what is called conditional immortality, as do the Seventh Day Adventists. What most groups do, who deny an immortal existence either with the Lord or in punishment in the hereafter, end up camping on the Old Testament Scriptures to prove their points.
We need to understand that there are a number of mysteries in the Bible that were not fully revealed until Christ came. This doctrine comes under that heading. It was concealed in the Old Testament and revealed in the New Testament. What most people do is look to the Old Testament Scriptures to validate this teaching such as Eccl. 9:5-6, "For the living know they shall die: but the dead know not any thing," or Psalm 146:4, "His spirit departs, he returns to the earth; in that very day his thoughts perish". Or Psalm 115:17, "The dead do not praise the Lord, nor any who go down into silence" or Psalm 6:5 "For in death there is no remembrance of Thee; in the grave who shall give Thee thanks? And of course, there is Ezek. 18:4, "the soul that sinneth, it shall die. "From these Scriptures and many others, the Seventh Day Adventists and other groups make their air-tight case that death is a peaceful sleep for the soul. Well, actually, it's not so air-tight, it's more like Swiss cheese. This means that it is spiritual death, a separation not a non existence. Otherwise they would cease to exist as soon as they sin. There are many scripture that say the soul is dead even when someone is alive, he is dead even when alive
When someone does a study on this or any other subject, they need to take all the body of literature and weigh it out and see which covenant these things were spoken under, are they a metaphor, is it a hyperbole, is it poetic? To make biblical sense out of this serious issue, we need to look at all the literature of that particular subject.
Because this is not just a spirit sleeping, waiting for the resurrection that is being promoted. This doctrine actually affects other crucial doctrines, such as eternal punishment and eternal life.
As I read the fundamental doctrines of Seventh Day Adventism, there are a few Scriptures either missing or purposely neglected which actually changes one's view on this particular subject, because they hold vital information on the afterlife. Before I go to that I'm going to walk us through the arguments and some biblical answers.
There is poetry in the Psalms, for instance Psalm 22:26:" The meek shall eat and be satisfied; they shall praise the Lord that seek him; your heart shall live forever." Now, logically, I don't think anyone takes this Scripture in its solid, literal sense or would believe that someone's physical heart is going to live forever while our body and our soul die. Our heart is not going to be outside our body living forever. The word heart obviously means something other than how we interpret it today. the intent of this word means something other than the physical organ. Proverbs 23:7 tells us as a man thinks in his heart, so is he, or Matt. 13:5, lest they should understand with their heart. Obviously there's an intent of this Scripture that means not just the physical organ.
Actually the word heart represents the inward man, his soul, his spirit, and is usually interchangeable throughout the Scriptures. Just as soul can be substituted for one's life, their heart, mind and body, so can the word heart. They are interchangeable throughout the Scriptures.
The main argument for those who promote soul-sleep are these: the word sleeping is for those who die, that it is unconsciousness (1 Thess.4:13-14, 1 Cor. 15:20,51). Some go so far to say that one's eternal destiny is determined, not at death, but later at the final judgment. And some will even claim that we can still repent, even in the afterlife. We don't find this is the Seventh Day Adventism but there are other groups that believe this kind of teaching.
So, let's look at the word sleep, because that's what's crucial here. What does sleep mean? The Bible uses this term when speaking of death in that the physical body, a dead body, looks very similar in this state. It's always referring to the physical body, not the soul. It is the appearance of the body that is sleeping, no one is able to see the spirit . It is also a term used exclusively for believers. The term sleeping, in reference to death, is not used for unbelievers. I find that to be crucial in understanding what the Bible is trying to portray to us when it says that the dead in Christ are sleeping.
Believers and unbelievers do not experience the same afterlife. So, sleeping is used for one who is in Christ, it is God' s viewpoint of a temporary suspension of physical activity, yet, there is a continuation of the mind and the soul, the personality.
Does the believer wake up in the resurrection? Is he put back in an immortal physical body? Yes, he is, yet, we never see a spirit resurrected because they have not died like the body. The term resurrection only applies to the body.
The Bible is very clear that the spirit can live outside the body. Angels can and do function outside a body and yet, they can also function within a body. We see they can possess people and actually there can be more than one spirit or fallen angels inside a body. Although this alone does not make a strong case for a continuation of an afterlife, it does show that a spirit can operate and function outside the body.
There are numerous passages that teach that humans are conscious after their death, so let's look at a few. Matt. 17:1-8 and Luke 9:28-36 are just a few of the passages on the transfiguration where we find Moses and Elijah appearing on the Mount with Jesus and a few of His disciples. Elijah was taken to heaven alive while Moses died a physical death, yet, Moses is consciously alive just like Elijah. Moses couldn't have been resurrected because Christ is to be the firstfruits of the resurrection and he had risen yet. While Christ raised may from the dead they were people that recently died not old Testament saints dead for hundred of years. There were others raised to life on earth on earth by Jesus only to die again later. But, here is someone who is dead for 1,500 years, so it isn't Moses' decomposed body brought back out of the ground as a resurrection, this was a spiritual appearance.
Jesus taught that he is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of the living, not of the dead, referring to Exodus 3:5, I am who I am, insinuating that all these prophets were still living. This silenced the Sadducee’s who challenged Him on this matter because they did not believe in an afterlife. So we have Moses here, appearing in spirit. That is the only plausible explanation because, again, Jesus had to be the first body resurrected unto eternal in life in that way.
Paul himself relates a story in the New Testament In 2 Cor. 12:1-4 in which, fourteen years before, he was caught up to the third heaven. This is the place where God dwells. He calls this place Paradise and he was awed by the experience and the things that he heard but, he wasn't sure if this occurred in his body or without his body, so he wasn't sure if he was alive or dead when this event occurred. Now obviously, his corruptible body could not enter heaven since all must go through transformation to be able to function there. Mortal flesh is unable to enter heaven, as Jesus said, flesh and blood cannot enter, so there has to be some kind of transformation to enter in there.
What happens to believers, according to the Bible, at death? This is the question we're pondering about as far as soul-sleep. Do we just rest in the ground just like our body? What exactly happens to our body, what exactly happens to our soul? The Bible speaks about a material and immaterial part of man. We find in Gen. 3:19 our bodies are made of the earth and they return to the earth. In Phil. 1:23-24, Paul states that he desired to depart to be with Christ, which is far better. Now, Christ is in heaven, He's not in the ground, so if this was soul-sleep, he being with Christ, Christ would have to be in the ground. Paul goes on to say, nevertheless, to be in the flesh is more needful for you. so he wanted to stay to help out the saints in the church and fulfill his ministry.
We also find in 2 Peter 1:13, Peter talks about putting off his tabernacle, or tent, calling it a temporary dwelling place. James 2:26 tells us the body without the spirit is dead. He doesn't say the spirit also dies, he says the body without the spirit dies. In Gen. 35:18, speaking of Rachel, it tells us, her soul was departing and she died. The spirit exists afterwards and gives us life, when he leaves the body it dies. The body dies and goes back into the ground, yet the spirit continues on with a life of its own.
Eccl. 12: 6-7 describes in poetry the shattering of life, that the dust returns to earth, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. Yet, earlier, in verse 5, he writes a man goes to his eternal home and mourners go about the streets. So Solomon is speaking about those who turn to God as he started off this chapter, stating remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before difficult days come. And then he speaks about our eternal home. If it is sleep in the grave, as people are claiming, then that means we are going to stay in the grave, the ground, forever, if our soul actually sleeps. They are using this scripture in a way that it's an eternal home in the ground and we are never to be raised up. Of course, that is not what it means.
One of the scriptures they use is Eccl. 9:5, the dead know nothing. Now this is true, since it is the body that dies, that part of the man which dies and goes into the ground, knows nothing. But there is a part of man that flies away at death and returns to God who gave it, Psalm 90. So, Those who believe, go to rest in Christ. It couldn't mean only our breath since that would not go to God but to the atmosphere.
Many of the Old Testament Scriptures, rather that showing a state of unconsciousness of the soul, are really languages of appearance, that after death they had the inability to continue the process that was normal while they were here on earth in their bodies. So it is a language of appearance as man's perspective is looking at the body functions. Yet, in Heb. 9:27 we find after death, the judgment, in other words one goes either to heaven or to hell, and it is determined at death, not afterwards. So we go to rewards, to rest, or to punishment and eternal separation. Death is not a cessation of existence, but a separation of existence. We have choices to make now that will effect our eternal destiny. Jesus knew very well of this and he warned of it constantly.
Now, what of the Scripture in 1 Tim. 6:16 speaking of God, who alone has immortality? The Scripture applies mortal and immortality to one's bodily condition. It is the body that is mortal, never the soul, or spirit. For example, Paul writes in 1 Cor. 15: this mortal will put on immortality, speaking of the resurrection of our bodies. Likewise, in 1 Tim. 6:16, he's speaking of Jesus as the immortal God/man. Spirit, by its own nature, is a deathless entity. God is spirit, and so are angels. God is spirit and fashioned man in the image of Himself, and, while God has always existed, no beginning or end, he has given mankind a limited similarity, like Himself, something that lives on. The body is described as mortal the soul is never described in these terms. Paul states this mortal must put on immortality (1 Cor.15:53). He is speaking of a resurrected body just as it was said in 2 Pt.1:13 to put off this tent as a temporary dwelling. In. Rom. 6:9: "Knowing that Christ having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him." Therefore 1 Tim.6:16 means he alone has immortality as his nature and being the first fruit raised in the resurrection.
In our human experience our spirit never feels old, no matter how old the body gets our spirit inside does not feel the same age. If one becomes an invalid it doesn’t affect their spirit, their spirit does not also become an invalid , it essentially is unaffected by the outer person it still is free. Science tells us our body renews all its cells every 7 years. If we were only our body we would have to relearn everything again because all of our knowledge is contained in the physical aspect of man. But this again is not so, even the bible shows people who died in heaven remembering and recognizing others.
The New Testament teaches Spirit existence after death as doctrine. James says the body without the spirit is dead not the spirit itself. For example, in Rev. 6:9-10, we see souls who have been slain, under the alter of God, asking the Lord to avenge them. We find they are conscious and they are speaking. The soul and personality of each one of us lives on. Jesus taught in Matt. 10:28, Fear not those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. The Greek word for destruction, aplollumi, has numerous meanings. We have to look at the context it's put in. It can mean perish, lost, destroy, to render useless, or to give over to eternal misery, and I believe that is the correct rendition when we look at where he's saying the soul will be in the afterlife of those who disobey the Gospel.
In Matt. 25:46 there are those in the judgment who go into everlasting punishment and those who go into everlasting life. The same Greek word means eternal and forever. If there is no eternal punishment, then the same word that is applied for eternal life means there is no eternal life, ever. So the Greek, appropriated to both these places that destined for those who either believe or not believe, means eternal. Likewise in Luke 16, the story of the rich man and Lazarus. Jesus always used real-life situations to illustrate His teachings. In this story He actually names the person. Jesus does not teach fictitious stories and it's not a parable, in my opinion, because He actually names a person, which He did not do in parables.
These are living conditions in the afterlife of torment and peace. The New Covenant has revealed what was unclear in the Old Testament writings. 2 Cor. 4:16,18 tells us "though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. . . .While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." Now here, Paul applies the outer man to the temporal and the tabernacle we live in, and the inner man to the eternal. In the following verse he states, "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" Here is the scripture that is often neglected and, put in context, we find it fully elaborating on the continual existence of man, 2 Cor. 5:1-8. He sums it all up in verse 8 saying, we are always confident knowing that while we are home in the body we are absent from the Lord. and he goes on to say to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. When all our earthly tent is dissolved, we can be assured that we will be in the presence of the One we serve and we love here on earth We will be further clothed. This is the Scripture that is consistently neglected by those who promote soul-sleep. As in Phil.1:23 Paul states to be with Christ is far better. This would be impossible if we go to sleep in the ground with the body.
Likewise, in 1 Thess. 4:13-17, we are told that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him. Then he states, those who are alive will not precede those who have fallen asleep. The Lord from heaven will come down with a trumpet call and the dead in Christ will rise first. And then those who are alive will be caught up together with them in the air with the Lord forever.
Since the resurrection did not occur before this event, who is Jesus bringing with him from heaven? They don't have bodies, the resurrection hasn't occurred, so they are immaterial souls that will be united with their bodies at this resurrection event. They existed fellowshipping with the Lord in heaven. Jude says the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints. Paul describes this event in 1 Cor. 15:51 Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed. When? At the last trump. The dead are raised incorruptible, and then he goes on to describe that mortal will put on immortality. So he's talking about our bodies. Then death, he states, is swallowed up in victory; our souls are not dead because we were made alive in Christ.
Rom. 8:11 says, But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who dwells in you.
There is a day of uniting with those who fell asleep in Christ, with their bodies to be transformed and live forever, and the hope of the believer is that, whether we live or die, we are to be with the Lord. It is stated in the Scriptures, I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, death, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is Christ Jesus our Lord.
If you're in Christ be persuaded, be encouraged, we have assurance. Yet, there are many other people all around us who don't have this assurance and I hope that we will be the ones to bring the good news to them. We should not sorrow as the world does (1 Thess.4:16-18)
http://www.letusreason.org/Doct15.htm
Is there an afterlife? There are two extremes that are used to distort the Bible doctrine of the intermediate state of the believer after death. One is Spiritism, that teaches everyone has an afterlife in heaven, so it doesn't matter at all what you believe here on earth. Within this is the belief that we can contact the dead. Those who die have not really passed on into another place away from earth, but they are living in the spirit world, a world which is a dimension right here on earth which we cannot see. In other words, they are among us, they are watching and helping us. The Bible clearly denies this fact by showing that there are two destinations in the afterlife, and none of these are related to any closeness to the living. We cannot contact them and they cannot contact us (Lk.16, Deut.18:10-12).
The other extreme is evolution, that this is all there is and that there is no afterlife, so we needn't consider what happens when we die. This is what Atheism teaches, that there is no eternality to our soul and we all just go back to the ground since that's what we're made of and there is no spirit or soul in man.
The Jehovah's Witness's teaching is quite similar to this since they believe that when you die both the soul and body are extinguished, the body taking longer to cease to exist, yet the soul is immediately snuffed out. Atheism also believes in anihilationism. The Devil, who invents these views, will use both ends to distort the truth. On one hand he has people choose to believe that there is no after life, and on the other he distorts it to say that we all go to the same place, no matter how we live or what we believe in our life right now everything will be alright.
So what exactly happens to us when we die? Is there an afterlife? Do we cease to exist as atheists say? Or does life continue on as the spiritualists state, with everyone ending up in the same place where we will all be comfortable? Throughout the history of mankind, the afterlife has been an enigma. Almost all religions believe in an afterlife, some quality of life in the spiritual realm that exists afterwards, either in a nebulous world or in having an abundant life in a place called heaven. The immortality of the soul is something hoped for by all people. This has also been a subject debated within the church for centuries. Does the Bible teach existence after death, or do we cease to exist, as Jehovah's Witness claim? And what of the soul-sleep of the Seventh Day Adventists?
First, let's look at what the Jehovah Witnesses believe. This comes from Charles Taze Russell being influenced by what was called Second Adventism, (meaning the second advent). This is before they became the Seventh Day Adventists where they based themselves on the Sabbath day belief. Jehovah Witnesses believe that when someone dies their personality and life is so united with the body that it ceases to exist. This not only occurs with believers, but also non-believers and with Jesus, so God has to refashion everyone by memory.
What we're dealing with here is re-creation. What they have is not a resurrection, because the individual's body and soul are carbon copied to exist later on Paradise Earth. This is what they teach as their good news of the kingdom. Everyone is going to live on paradise earth one day. one of the problems is if you die before the resurrection, well, you won't be there. You will not participate in the new earth because God will copy you from memory and your duplicate will be enjoying all the benefits of all your hard work for the kingdom. Of course, none of this is biblical, it's all fantasy and never going to happen. If we ask the Jehovah's Witness about this and explain this to those who come to our door it can strongly affect their false belief system and make them question what hope they have as a Jehovah Witness. So annihilations, which is what they teach, is not a biblical answer for how God deals with the after life of the soul and the body.
When we come to the subject of soul-sleep we find this view has been sporadically held throughout church history. The Ana-Baptists believed in this in the 1500's. King Edward VI stated in his fortieth article out of forty-two, that "The souls that do depart hence do sleep, being without all sense, feeling, or perceiving until the day of judgment, do utterly decent from the right that is closed to us in Holy Scriptures."
In modern times we have two well known major groups that hold to this teaching. One is Christadelphianism and the other is Seventh Day Adventism. Soul-sleep is the denial of man's conscious existence between when he dies and the resurrection day. It's what is called the intermediate state of the believer, in which their view is both the body and the soul lay rest in the ground.
Christadelphian's deny the existence of hell and they hold to what is called conditional immortality, as do the Seventh Day Adventists. What most groups do, who deny an immortal existence either with the Lord or in punishment in the hereafter, end up camping on the Old Testament Scriptures to prove their points.
We need to understand that there are a number of mysteries in the Bible that were not fully revealed until Christ came. This doctrine comes under that heading. It was concealed in the Old Testament and revealed in the New Testament. What most people do is look to the Old Testament Scriptures to validate this teaching such as Eccl. 9:5-6, "For the living know they shall die: but the dead know not any thing," or Psalm 146:4, "His spirit departs, he returns to the earth; in that very day his thoughts perish". Or Psalm 115:17, "The dead do not praise the Lord, nor any who go down into silence" or Psalm 6:5 "For in death there is no remembrance of Thee; in the grave who shall give Thee thanks? And of course, there is Ezek. 18:4, "the soul that sinneth, it shall die. "From these Scriptures and many others, the Seventh Day Adventists and other groups make their air-tight case that death is a peaceful sleep for the soul. Well, actually, it's not so air-tight, it's more like Swiss cheese. This means that it is spiritual death, a separation not a non existence. Otherwise they would cease to exist as soon as they sin. There are many scripture that say the soul is dead even when someone is alive, he is dead even when alive
When someone does a study on this or any other subject, they need to take all the body of literature and weigh it out and see which covenant these things were spoken under, are they a metaphor, is it a hyperbole, is it poetic? To make biblical sense out of this serious issue, we need to look at all the literature of that particular subject.
Because this is not just a spirit sleeping, waiting for the resurrection that is being promoted. This doctrine actually affects other crucial doctrines, such as eternal punishment and eternal life.
As I read the fundamental doctrines of Seventh Day Adventism, there are a few Scriptures either missing or purposely neglected which actually changes one's view on this particular subject, because they hold vital information on the afterlife. Before I go to that I'm going to walk us through the arguments and some biblical answers.
There is poetry in the Psalms, for instance Psalm 22:26:" The meek shall eat and be satisfied; they shall praise the Lord that seek him; your heart shall live forever." Now, logically, I don't think anyone takes this Scripture in its solid, literal sense or would believe that someone's physical heart is going to live forever while our body and our soul die. Our heart is not going to be outside our body living forever. The word heart obviously means something other than how we interpret it today. the intent of this word means something other than the physical organ. Proverbs 23:7 tells us as a man thinks in his heart, so is he, or Matt. 13:5, lest they should understand with their heart. Obviously there's an intent of this Scripture that means not just the physical organ.
Actually the word heart represents the inward man, his soul, his spirit, and is usually interchangeable throughout the Scriptures. Just as soul can be substituted for one's life, their heart, mind and body, so can the word heart. They are interchangeable throughout the Scriptures.
The main argument for those who promote soul-sleep are these: the word sleeping is for those who die, that it is unconsciousness (1 Thess.4:13-14, 1 Cor. 15:20,51). Some go so far to say that one's eternal destiny is determined, not at death, but later at the final judgment. And some will even claim that we can still repent, even in the afterlife. We don't find this is the Seventh Day Adventism but there are other groups that believe this kind of teaching.
So, let's look at the word sleep, because that's what's crucial here. What does sleep mean? The Bible uses this term when speaking of death in that the physical body, a dead body, looks very similar in this state. It's always referring to the physical body, not the soul. It is the appearance of the body that is sleeping, no one is able to see the spirit . It is also a term used exclusively for believers. The term sleeping, in reference to death, is not used for unbelievers. I find that to be crucial in understanding what the Bible is trying to portray to us when it says that the dead in Christ are sleeping.
Believers and unbelievers do not experience the same afterlife. So, sleeping is used for one who is in Christ, it is God' s viewpoint of a temporary suspension of physical activity, yet, there is a continuation of the mind and the soul, the personality.
Does the believer wake up in the resurrection? Is he put back in an immortal physical body? Yes, he is, yet, we never see a spirit resurrected because they have not died like the body. The term resurrection only applies to the body.
The Bible is very clear that the spirit can live outside the body. Angels can and do function outside a body and yet, they can also function within a body. We see they can possess people and actually there can be more than one spirit or fallen angels inside a body. Although this alone does not make a strong case for a continuation of an afterlife, it does show that a spirit can operate and function outside the body.
There are numerous passages that teach that humans are conscious after their death, so let's look at a few. Matt. 17:1-8 and Luke 9:28-36 are just a few of the passages on the transfiguration where we find Moses and Elijah appearing on the Mount with Jesus and a few of His disciples. Elijah was taken to heaven alive while Moses died a physical death, yet, Moses is consciously alive just like Elijah. Moses couldn't have been resurrected because Christ is to be the firstfruits of the resurrection and he had risen yet. While Christ raised may from the dead they were people that recently died not old Testament saints dead for hundred of years. There were others raised to life on earth on earth by Jesus only to die again later. But, here is someone who is dead for 1,500 years, so it isn't Moses' decomposed body brought back out of the ground as a resurrection, this was a spiritual appearance.
Jesus taught that he is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of the living, not of the dead, referring to Exodus 3:5, I am who I am, insinuating that all these prophets were still living. This silenced the Sadducee’s who challenged Him on this matter because they did not believe in an afterlife. So we have Moses here, appearing in spirit. That is the only plausible explanation because, again, Jesus had to be the first body resurrected unto eternal in life in that way.
Paul himself relates a story in the New Testament In 2 Cor. 12:1-4 in which, fourteen years before, he was caught up to the third heaven. This is the place where God dwells. He calls this place Paradise and he was awed by the experience and the things that he heard but, he wasn't sure if this occurred in his body or without his body, so he wasn't sure if he was alive or dead when this event occurred. Now obviously, his corruptible body could not enter heaven since all must go through transformation to be able to function there. Mortal flesh is unable to enter heaven, as Jesus said, flesh and blood cannot enter, so there has to be some kind of transformation to enter in there.
What happens to believers, according to the Bible, at death? This is the question we're pondering about as far as soul-sleep. Do we just rest in the ground just like our body? What exactly happens to our body, what exactly happens to our soul? The Bible speaks about a material and immaterial part of man. We find in Gen. 3:19 our bodies are made of the earth and they return to the earth. In Phil. 1:23-24, Paul states that he desired to depart to be with Christ, which is far better. Now, Christ is in heaven, He's not in the ground, so if this was soul-sleep, he being with Christ, Christ would have to be in the ground. Paul goes on to say, nevertheless, to be in the flesh is more needful for you. so he wanted to stay to help out the saints in the church and fulfill his ministry.
We also find in 2 Peter 1:13, Peter talks about putting off his tabernacle, or tent, calling it a temporary dwelling place. James 2:26 tells us the body without the spirit is dead. He doesn't say the spirit also dies, he says the body without the spirit dies. In Gen. 35:18, speaking of Rachel, it tells us, her soul was departing and she died. The spirit exists afterwards and gives us life, when he leaves the body it dies. The body dies and goes back into the ground, yet the spirit continues on with a life of its own.
Eccl. 12: 6-7 describes in poetry the shattering of life, that the dust returns to earth, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. Yet, earlier, in verse 5, he writes a man goes to his eternal home and mourners go about the streets. So Solomon is speaking about those who turn to God as he started off this chapter, stating remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before difficult days come. And then he speaks about our eternal home. If it is sleep in the grave, as people are claiming, then that means we are going to stay in the grave, the ground, forever, if our soul actually sleeps. They are using this scripture in a way that it's an eternal home in the ground and we are never to be raised up. Of course, that is not what it means.
One of the scriptures they use is Eccl. 9:5, the dead know nothing. Now this is true, since it is the body that dies, that part of the man which dies and goes into the ground, knows nothing. But there is a part of man that flies away at death and returns to God who gave it, Psalm 90. So, Those who believe, go to rest in Christ. It couldn't mean only our breath since that would not go to God but to the atmosphere.
Many of the Old Testament Scriptures, rather that showing a state of unconsciousness of the soul, are really languages of appearance, that after death they had the inability to continue the process that was normal while they were here on earth in their bodies. So it is a language of appearance as man's perspective is looking at the body functions. Yet, in Heb. 9:27 we find after death, the judgment, in other words one goes either to heaven or to hell, and it is determined at death, not afterwards. So we go to rewards, to rest, or to punishment and eternal separation. Death is not a cessation of existence, but a separation of existence. We have choices to make now that will effect our eternal destiny. Jesus knew very well of this and he warned of it constantly.
Now, what of the Scripture in 1 Tim. 6:16 speaking of God, who alone has immortality? The Scripture applies mortal and immortality to one's bodily condition. It is the body that is mortal, never the soul, or spirit. For example, Paul writes in 1 Cor. 15: this mortal will put on immortality, speaking of the resurrection of our bodies. Likewise, in 1 Tim. 6:16, he's speaking of Jesus as the immortal God/man. Spirit, by its own nature, is a deathless entity. God is spirit, and so are angels. God is spirit and fashioned man in the image of Himself, and, while God has always existed, no beginning or end, he has given mankind a limited similarity, like Himself, something that lives on. The body is described as mortal the soul is never described in these terms. Paul states this mortal must put on immortality (1 Cor.15:53). He is speaking of a resurrected body just as it was said in 2 Pt.1:13 to put off this tent as a temporary dwelling. In. Rom. 6:9: "Knowing that Christ having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him." Therefore 1 Tim.6:16 means he alone has immortality as his nature and being the first fruit raised in the resurrection.
In our human experience our spirit never feels old, no matter how old the body gets our spirit inside does not feel the same age. If one becomes an invalid it doesn’t affect their spirit, their spirit does not also become an invalid , it essentially is unaffected by the outer person it still is free. Science tells us our body renews all its cells every 7 years. If we were only our body we would have to relearn everything again because all of our knowledge is contained in the physical aspect of man. But this again is not so, even the bible shows people who died in heaven remembering and recognizing others.
The New Testament teaches Spirit existence after death as doctrine. James says the body without the spirit is dead not the spirit itself. For example, in Rev. 6:9-10, we see souls who have been slain, under the alter of God, asking the Lord to avenge them. We find they are conscious and they are speaking. The soul and personality of each one of us lives on. Jesus taught in Matt. 10:28, Fear not those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. The Greek word for destruction, aplollumi, has numerous meanings. We have to look at the context it's put in. It can mean perish, lost, destroy, to render useless, or to give over to eternal misery, and I believe that is the correct rendition when we look at where he's saying the soul will be in the afterlife of those who disobey the Gospel.
In Matt. 25:46 there are those in the judgment who go into everlasting punishment and those who go into everlasting life. The same Greek word means eternal and forever. If there is no eternal punishment, then the same word that is applied for eternal life means there is no eternal life, ever. So the Greek, appropriated to both these places that destined for those who either believe or not believe, means eternal. Likewise in Luke 16, the story of the rich man and Lazarus. Jesus always used real-life situations to illustrate His teachings. In this story He actually names the person. Jesus does not teach fictitious stories and it's not a parable, in my opinion, because He actually names a person, which He did not do in parables.
These are living conditions in the afterlife of torment and peace. The New Covenant has revealed what was unclear in the Old Testament writings. 2 Cor. 4:16,18 tells us "though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. . . .While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." Now here, Paul applies the outer man to the temporal and the tabernacle we live in, and the inner man to the eternal. In the following verse he states, "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" Here is the scripture that is often neglected and, put in context, we find it fully elaborating on the continual existence of man, 2 Cor. 5:1-8. He sums it all up in verse 8 saying, we are always confident knowing that while we are home in the body we are absent from the Lord. and he goes on to say to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. When all our earthly tent is dissolved, we can be assured that we will be in the presence of the One we serve and we love here on earth We will be further clothed. This is the Scripture that is consistently neglected by those who promote soul-sleep. As in Phil.1:23 Paul states to be with Christ is far better. This would be impossible if we go to sleep in the ground with the body.
Likewise, in 1 Thess. 4:13-17, we are told that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him. Then he states, those who are alive will not precede those who have fallen asleep. The Lord from heaven will come down with a trumpet call and the dead in Christ will rise first. And then those who are alive will be caught up together with them in the air with the Lord forever.
Since the resurrection did not occur before this event, who is Jesus bringing with him from heaven? They don't have bodies, the resurrection hasn't occurred, so they are immaterial souls that will be united with their bodies at this resurrection event. They existed fellowshipping with the Lord in heaven. Jude says the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints. Paul describes this event in 1 Cor. 15:51 Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed. When? At the last trump. The dead are raised incorruptible, and then he goes on to describe that mortal will put on immortality. So he's talking about our bodies. Then death, he states, is swallowed up in victory; our souls are not dead because we were made alive in Christ.
Rom. 8:11 says, But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who dwells in you.
There is a day of uniting with those who fell asleep in Christ, with their bodies to be transformed and live forever, and the hope of the believer is that, whether we live or die, we are to be with the Lord. It is stated in the Scriptures, I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, death, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is Christ Jesus our Lord.
If you're in Christ be persuaded, be encouraged, we have assurance. Yet, there are many other people all around us who don't have this assurance and I hope that we will be the ones to bring the good news to them. We should not sorrow as the world does (1 Thess.4:16-18)
What's So Pernicious About Soul Sleep?
Part 1.
"So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord."
(2 Corinthians 5:6-8)
"For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body" (Philippians 1:21-24).
"While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he fell asleep" (Acts 7:59-60).
Well, it is interesting what things strike a cord with the readers of my blogs and essay's. My recent work entitled, "Is the Seventh Day Adventist Church a Cult?" even drew Nathan Hitchcock, my old "Cross Talk" co-host on Biola's KBBK's radio station into the fray, as well as Biblical Unitarian Patrick Navas. These fine gentlemen and others have asked me essentially, what is so "pernicious" about the doctrine of "Soul Sleep" espoused by Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Christadelphians and other abberant religious groups.
The doctrine of Soul Sleep or unconscious temporal mortality essentially postulates the wayward thesis that human beings do not possess immortal souls, rather their souls are their physical existence and when the body dies, the soul goes to the grave to wait the resurrection. Some heretical cults such as the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Christadelphians teach, the soul goes to the grave, subsequently those who are righteous are risen at the resurrection and those who are evil are anniliated.
For the sake of time, I will limit the scope of this response essay to the doctrine of "Soul Sleep" exclusively and exclude the additional conception of annilationism, since not all advocates of "Soul Sleep" necessarily espouse the doctrine that the soul of the wicked is annilated at the resurrection. If time and interest arises for me to take on the issue of annilationism, I shall.
Now, the doctrine of Soul Sleep is "pernicious" or destructive because it is contrary to the Bible's explicit teaching that, "to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord", that is, the Bible clearly teaches that the soul of a Christian immediately goes to heaven to be with Christ. Thus, the souls of redeemed people immediately are with Jesus Christ in heaven and are not "sleeping" or in a state of unconsciousness. Paul said to be "absent from the body is to be present with the Lord" and that he had a "desire to depart to be with Christ." Yet, the main argument for those who promote soul-sleep are these: the word sleeping is for those who die, that it is unconsciousness (1 Thess.4:13-14, 1 Cor. 15:20,51).
In the days ahead, I will further develop my thoughts on "soul sleep" I am in Hawaii, so be patient with me, I'll get to this little by little until I develop a full essay on the immortality of the soul.
"So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord."
(2 Corinthians 5:6-8)
"For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body" (Philippians 1:21-24).
"While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he fell asleep" (Acts 7:59-60).
Well, it is interesting what things strike a cord with the readers of my blogs and essay's. My recent work entitled, "Is the Seventh Day Adventist Church a Cult?" even drew Nathan Hitchcock, my old "Cross Talk" co-host on Biola's KBBK's radio station into the fray, as well as Biblical Unitarian Patrick Navas. These fine gentlemen and others have asked me essentially, what is so "pernicious" about the doctrine of "Soul Sleep" espoused by Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Christadelphians and other abberant religious groups.
The doctrine of Soul Sleep or unconscious temporal mortality essentially postulates the wayward thesis that human beings do not possess immortal souls, rather their souls are their physical existence and when the body dies, the soul goes to the grave to wait the resurrection. Some heretical cults such as the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Christadelphians teach, the soul goes to the grave, subsequently those who are righteous are risen at the resurrection and those who are evil are anniliated.
For the sake of time, I will limit the scope of this response essay to the doctrine of "Soul Sleep" exclusively and exclude the additional conception of annilationism, since not all advocates of "Soul Sleep" necessarily espouse the doctrine that the soul of the wicked is annilated at the resurrection. If time and interest arises for me to take on the issue of annilationism, I shall.
Now, the doctrine of Soul Sleep is "pernicious" or destructive because it is contrary to the Bible's explicit teaching that, "to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord", that is, the Bible clearly teaches that the soul of a Christian immediately goes to heaven to be with Christ. Thus, the souls of redeemed people immediately are with Jesus Christ in heaven and are not "sleeping" or in a state of unconsciousness. Paul said to be "absent from the body is to be present with the Lord" and that he had a "desire to depart to be with Christ." Yet, the main argument for those who promote soul-sleep are these: the word sleeping is for those who die, that it is unconsciousness (1 Thess.4:13-14, 1 Cor. 15:20,51).
In the days ahead, I will further develop my thoughts on "soul sleep" I am in Hawaii, so be patient with me, I'll get to this little by little until I develop a full essay on the immortality of the soul.
Is the Seventh Day Adventist Church a Cult?
"But examine everything carefully, hold fast to the truth"
(1 Thessalonians 5:21).
The weather has been fantastic here on Oahu and the other day, while taking King Kameamea hwy to north shore to experience the famous "surfing beaches" such as Pipeline, I saw a rather large Seventh Day Adventist Church on the north side of this beautiful island paradise and I realized that even being more than 2,500 miles from home that I cannot escape the reality of Biblical truth and false teaching. After seeing the Seventh Day Adventist Church my mind began to ponder the following...
I have noticed that the Seventh Day Adventist Church (SDA) has a significant presence here in Oahu. Here are some of my thoughts on the Seventh Day Adventist Church and American Evangelicalism.
In today's postmodern world, the notion of absolute truth has been all but eviscerated from the collective consciousnesses of the vast majority of citizens now residing in contemporary society. Even more so, the very idea of an Evangelical body of doctrinal specificity and theological exactitude that determines the criterion of Biblical orthodoxy and heresy is voraciously deemed irrelevant, abhorrent and the height of Fundamentalist obstructionism by the atheistic and humanistic liberal intelligentsia that sets the ideological trends in our society.
Even in most quarters of today's Evangelical Christian Church in America, doctrinal precision and personal stands for conscience sake and doctrinal integrity goes against the grain and ecclesiastical expectations of today's theologically lapsed, seeker sensitive, pragmatic and emergent church orientated churches.
However, in diametrical counter distinction to this ad hoc doctrinal relativism, the Evangelical Christian Church since its inception has always been founded on and greatly concerned about Biblical truth. The Evangelical Christian Church is founded on the Biblical and revelational proposition that an "Evangelical theology" is possible.
That is, in direct ideological opposition to contemporary post modernistic anti-doctrinarism, historic Christianity maintains and espouses that Almighty God does exist and has spoken specifically, propositionally and coherently to human civilization in the perfectly and uniquely inspired, infallible, inerrant, authoritative and self-authenticating Word of Almighty God (2 Timothy 3:15-17 and 2 Peter 1:18-21).
Having established that the Bible alone is the Evangelical Christians absolute and only standard of truth and in attempt to answer the question that serves as the eponymous title of this theological essay entitled, "Is the Seventh Day Adventist Church a Cult?” a specific Biblical criterion and definition of what Evangelicals mean by "cult" must be first determined. In other words, "what is a cult?"
While the term “cult” is not used within the pages of inspired Biblical Writ, the concept of heresy and false teaching is and Conservative Evangelical Christians residing within the North American Hemisphere have generally utilized the term "cult" to personify any religious group or sect that teaches a doctrine or dogma that is heretical. Heresy, according to the Oxford Dictionary is a theological or religious opinion or doctrine maintained in opposition, or held to be contrary to the Orthodox doctrine of the Christian Church.
The pages of Holy Scripture and the written annals of ecclesiastical history are replete with a myriad of examples of heretical sects and aberrant groups that have arisen to teach unsound doctrines to draw away members of the true Church of Christ. The Arians, Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses are among those pernicious heretical sects who have been successful in drawing away members from the Faithful. (Matthew 7:13-15, Matthew 24:1-44, Acts 20, Galatians 1, 1 John 3-4 and Jude are chapters in the Bible that deal with this conception of false teachers and heretical doctrine being propagated amongst the elect.
Generally, a “cult” or heretical sect will teach egregious errors contrary to established Christian doctrine and in particular will be heretical concerning the triune God (they will deny the Trinity), justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone based on the authority of the Bible alone. And finally most cultic sects will supplant and replace the authority of the Bible with their own derived authority such as the Book of Mormon.
Now, in the case of the Seventh Day Adventist organization, (from here on mentioned as SDA) a tremendous debate has raged within conservative Evangelicalism over the doctrinal status of the SDA Church. For example, Anthony A. Hoekema, in his book, the Four Major Cults, Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1963, Hoekema argues that the SDA is definitely heretical and a cult, yet the late Evangelical cult expert Walter Martin in his book “The Kingdom of the Cults, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 1965, argues that while the SDA has several serious doctrinal problems, Martin would not place the SDA in the same category as other groups deemed “cultic” such as the LDS Church and the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
In contemporary conservative Evangelical circles this same difference of opinion still remains as to how Biblical Evangelicals should view the SDA church.
In the face of this debate within contemporary Evangelicalism over the doctrinal and ecclesiastical status of the SDA church, the question immediately arises, “Why the Evangelical Disagreement over the Seventh Day Adventist Church?”
The issue of doctrinal status of the SDA church and how Biblical Evangelical Christians should regard Seventh Day Adventists is a complex one and every SDA member must be evaluated on a case by case basis. Some members or more biblical than others.
The SDA church is a religious organization that is well known for teaching that observing Saturday, the seventh day of the week is a universal and transcendent mandate for all humanity and that God commands all people to keep Saturday as the Sabbath.
The SDA movement was established in 1863 and grew out of the “Millerite Movement” in the mid 1800’s that gained enormous popularity when a Baptist minister named William Miller (1782-1849) sensationally predicted that Jesus Christ would return on October 22, 1844.
When the Second Coming of Christ (the Second Advent) did not occur a major disappointment occurred with many of Millers followers leaving the movement. However a significant portion of Miller's disciples remained within the movement and eventually began to follow a woman that many SDA believed to be a divinely inspired prophet named Ellen G. White (1827-1815).
During Ellen G. White's lifetime she was a prolific author (wrote 40 books, 5,000 journal articles and over 50,000 written pages in total) and undisputed prophetic leader of the SDA movement that now numbers over 14 million people worldwide.
Among the aberrant teachings of Ellen G. White and the SDA are as follows (From the Official SDA Website)
see: http://www.adventist.org/beliefs/fundamental/index.html
1. Sabbath Keeping is Mandatory:
The beneficent Creator, after the six days of Creation, rested on the seventh day and instituted the Sabbath for all people as a memorial of Creation. The fourth commandment of God's unchangeable law requires the observance of this seventh-day Sabbath as the day of rest, worship, and ministry in harmony with the teaching and practice of Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is a day of delightful communion with God and one another. It is a symbol of our redemption in Christ, a sign of our sanctification, a token of our allegiance, and a foretaste of our eternal future in God's kingdom. The Sabbath is God's perpetual sign of His eternal covenant between Him and His people. Joyful observance of this holy time from evening to evening, sunset to sunset, is a celebration of God's creative and redemptive acts. (Gen. 2:1-3; Ex. 20:8-11; Luke 4:16; Isa. 56:5, 6; 58:13, 14; Matt. 12:1-12; Ex. 31:13-17; Eze. 20:12, 20; Deut. 5:12-15; Heb. 4:1-11; Lev. 23:32; Mark 1:32.)
2. Levitical Dietary Laws
"Along with adequate exercise and rest, we are to adopt the most healthful diet possible and abstain from the unclean foods identified in the Scriptures."
3. Soul Sleep (the dead are unconscious until the Second Coming)
The wages of sin is death. But God, who alone is immortal, will grant eternal life to His redeemed. Until that day death is an unconscious state for all people. When Christ, who is our life, appears, the resurrected righteous and the living righteous will be glorified and caught up to meet their Lord. The second resurrection, the resurrection of the unrighteous, will take place a thousand years later. (Rom. 6:23; 1 Tim. 6:15, 16; Eccl. 9:5, 6; Ps. 146:3, 4; John 11:11-14; Col. 3:4; 1 Cor. 15:51-54; 1 Thess. 4:13-17; John 5:28, 29; Rev. 20:1-10.)
4. The Authority of Ellen G. White
One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is prophecy. This gift is an identifying mark of the remnant church and was manifested in the ministry of Ellen. G. White . As the Lord's messenger, her writings are a continuing and authoritative source of truth which provide for the church comfort, guidance, instruction, and correction. They also make clear that the Bible is the standard by which all teaching and experience must be tested. (Joel 2:28, 29; Acts 2:14-21; Heb. 1:1-3; Rev. 12:17; 19:10.)
5. Investigative Judgment
There is a sanctuary in heaven, the true tabernacle which the Lord set up and not man. In it Christ ministers on our behalf, making available to believers the benefits of His atoning sacrifice offered once for all on the cross. He was inaugurated as our great High Priest and began His intercessory ministry at the time of His ascension. In 1844, at the end of the prophetic period of 2300 days, He entered the second and last phase of His atoning ministry. It is a work of investigative judgment which is part of the ultimate disposition of all sin, typified by the cleansing of the ancient Hebrew sanctuary on the Day of Atonement. In that typical service the sanctuary was cleansed with the blood of animal sacrifices, but the heavenly things are purified with the perfect sacrifice of the blood of Jesus. The investigative judgment reveals to heavenly intelligences who among the dead are asleep in Christ and therefore, in Him, are deemed worthy to have part in the first resurrection. It also makes manifest who among the living are abiding in Christ, keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and in Him, therefore, are ready for translation into His everlasting kingdom. This judgment vindicates the justice of God in saving those who believe in Jesus. It declares that those who have remained loyal to God shall receive the kingdom. The completion of this ministry of Christ will mark the close of human probation before the Second Advent. (Heb. 8:1-5; 4:14-16; 9:11-28; 10:19-22; 1:3; 2:16, 17; Dan. 7:9-27; 8:13, 14; 9:24-27; Num. 14:34; Eze. 4:6; Lev. 16; Rev. 14:6, 7; 20:12; 14:12; 22:12.)
Conclusion
Many people over the years have asked me what I thought about the SDA Church. While the issue is complex, I generally believe there is enough false and destructive teaching in the SDA religion, that people should be very cautious about attending a SDA church. Sabbath Keeping, Keeping Old Testament Dietary Laws, Soul Sleep, the role of Ellen G. White and the Unbiblical and unwarranted teaching of the "investigative judgment" are seriously aberrant and false teachings that every Christian should avoid. Whether or not the SDA religion is a cult or not, I cannot say for certain, but it's shown me enough for me to avoid it. The SDA concepts of Sabbatariansim, "investigative judgment" Ellen G. White's prophetic authority and the pernicious doctrine of "soul sleep" are aberrant at best and border on being heretical.
(1 Thessalonians 5:21).
The weather has been fantastic here on Oahu and the other day, while taking King Kameamea hwy to north shore to experience the famous "surfing beaches" such as Pipeline, I saw a rather large Seventh Day Adventist Church on the north side of this beautiful island paradise and I realized that even being more than 2,500 miles from home that I cannot escape the reality of Biblical truth and false teaching. After seeing the Seventh Day Adventist Church my mind began to ponder the following...
I have noticed that the Seventh Day Adventist Church (SDA) has a significant presence here in Oahu. Here are some of my thoughts on the Seventh Day Adventist Church and American Evangelicalism.
In today's postmodern world, the notion of absolute truth has been all but eviscerated from the collective consciousnesses of the vast majority of citizens now residing in contemporary society. Even more so, the very idea of an Evangelical body of doctrinal specificity and theological exactitude that determines the criterion of Biblical orthodoxy and heresy is voraciously deemed irrelevant, abhorrent and the height of Fundamentalist obstructionism by the atheistic and humanistic liberal intelligentsia that sets the ideological trends in our society.
Even in most quarters of today's Evangelical Christian Church in America, doctrinal precision and personal stands for conscience sake and doctrinal integrity goes against the grain and ecclesiastical expectations of today's theologically lapsed, seeker sensitive, pragmatic and emergent church orientated churches.
However, in diametrical counter distinction to this ad hoc doctrinal relativism, the Evangelical Christian Church since its inception has always been founded on and greatly concerned about Biblical truth. The Evangelical Christian Church is founded on the Biblical and revelational proposition that an "Evangelical theology" is possible.
That is, in direct ideological opposition to contemporary post modernistic anti-doctrinarism, historic Christianity maintains and espouses that Almighty God does exist and has spoken specifically, propositionally and coherently to human civilization in the perfectly and uniquely inspired, infallible, inerrant, authoritative and self-authenticating Word of Almighty God (2 Timothy 3:15-17 and 2 Peter 1:18-21).
Having established that the Bible alone is the Evangelical Christians absolute and only standard of truth and in attempt to answer the question that serves as the eponymous title of this theological essay entitled, "Is the Seventh Day Adventist Church a Cult?” a specific Biblical criterion and definition of what Evangelicals mean by "cult" must be first determined. In other words, "what is a cult?"
While the term “cult” is not used within the pages of inspired Biblical Writ, the concept of heresy and false teaching is and Conservative Evangelical Christians residing within the North American Hemisphere have generally utilized the term "cult" to personify any religious group or sect that teaches a doctrine or dogma that is heretical. Heresy, according to the Oxford Dictionary is a theological or religious opinion or doctrine maintained in opposition, or held to be contrary to the Orthodox doctrine of the Christian Church.
The pages of Holy Scripture and the written annals of ecclesiastical history are replete with a myriad of examples of heretical sects and aberrant groups that have arisen to teach unsound doctrines to draw away members of the true Church of Christ. The Arians, Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses are among those pernicious heretical sects who have been successful in drawing away members from the Faithful. (Matthew 7:13-15, Matthew 24:1-44, Acts 20, Galatians 1, 1 John 3-4 and Jude are chapters in the Bible that deal with this conception of false teachers and heretical doctrine being propagated amongst the elect.
Generally, a “cult” or heretical sect will teach egregious errors contrary to established Christian doctrine and in particular will be heretical concerning the triune God (they will deny the Trinity), justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone based on the authority of the Bible alone. And finally most cultic sects will supplant and replace the authority of the Bible with their own derived authority such as the Book of Mormon.
Now, in the case of the Seventh Day Adventist organization, (from here on mentioned as SDA) a tremendous debate has raged within conservative Evangelicalism over the doctrinal status of the SDA Church. For example, Anthony A. Hoekema, in his book, the Four Major Cults, Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1963, Hoekema argues that the SDA is definitely heretical and a cult, yet the late Evangelical cult expert Walter Martin in his book “The Kingdom of the Cults, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 1965, argues that while the SDA has several serious doctrinal problems, Martin would not place the SDA in the same category as other groups deemed “cultic” such as the LDS Church and the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
In contemporary conservative Evangelical circles this same difference of opinion still remains as to how Biblical Evangelicals should view the SDA church.
In the face of this debate within contemporary Evangelicalism over the doctrinal and ecclesiastical status of the SDA church, the question immediately arises, “Why the Evangelical Disagreement over the Seventh Day Adventist Church?”
The issue of doctrinal status of the SDA church and how Biblical Evangelical Christians should regard Seventh Day Adventists is a complex one and every SDA member must be evaluated on a case by case basis. Some members or more biblical than others.
The SDA church is a religious organization that is well known for teaching that observing Saturday, the seventh day of the week is a universal and transcendent mandate for all humanity and that God commands all people to keep Saturday as the Sabbath.
The SDA movement was established in 1863 and grew out of the “Millerite Movement” in the mid 1800’s that gained enormous popularity when a Baptist minister named William Miller (1782-1849) sensationally predicted that Jesus Christ would return on October 22, 1844.
When the Second Coming of Christ (the Second Advent) did not occur a major disappointment occurred with many of Millers followers leaving the movement. However a significant portion of Miller's disciples remained within the movement and eventually began to follow a woman that many SDA believed to be a divinely inspired prophet named Ellen G. White (1827-1815).
During Ellen G. White's lifetime she was a prolific author (wrote 40 books, 5,000 journal articles and over 50,000 written pages in total) and undisputed prophetic leader of the SDA movement that now numbers over 14 million people worldwide.
Among the aberrant teachings of Ellen G. White and the SDA are as follows (From the Official SDA Website)
see: http://www.adventist.org/beliefs/fundamental/index.html
1. Sabbath Keeping is Mandatory:
The beneficent Creator, after the six days of Creation, rested on the seventh day and instituted the Sabbath for all people as a memorial of Creation. The fourth commandment of God's unchangeable law requires the observance of this seventh-day Sabbath as the day of rest, worship, and ministry in harmony with the teaching and practice of Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is a day of delightful communion with God and one another. It is a symbol of our redemption in Christ, a sign of our sanctification, a token of our allegiance, and a foretaste of our eternal future in God's kingdom. The Sabbath is God's perpetual sign of His eternal covenant between Him and His people. Joyful observance of this holy time from evening to evening, sunset to sunset, is a celebration of God's creative and redemptive acts. (Gen. 2:1-3; Ex. 20:8-11; Luke 4:16; Isa. 56:5, 6; 58:13, 14; Matt. 12:1-12; Ex. 31:13-17; Eze. 20:12, 20; Deut. 5:12-15; Heb. 4:1-11; Lev. 23:32; Mark 1:32.)
2. Levitical Dietary Laws
"Along with adequate exercise and rest, we are to adopt the most healthful diet possible and abstain from the unclean foods identified in the Scriptures."
3. Soul Sleep (the dead are unconscious until the Second Coming)
The wages of sin is death. But God, who alone is immortal, will grant eternal life to His redeemed. Until that day death is an unconscious state for all people. When Christ, who is our life, appears, the resurrected righteous and the living righteous will be glorified and caught up to meet their Lord. The second resurrection, the resurrection of the unrighteous, will take place a thousand years later. (Rom. 6:23; 1 Tim. 6:15, 16; Eccl. 9:5, 6; Ps. 146:3, 4; John 11:11-14; Col. 3:4; 1 Cor. 15:51-54; 1 Thess. 4:13-17; John 5:28, 29; Rev. 20:1-10.)
4. The Authority of Ellen G. White
One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is prophecy. This gift is an identifying mark of the remnant church and was manifested in the ministry of Ellen. G. White . As the Lord's messenger, her writings are a continuing and authoritative source of truth which provide for the church comfort, guidance, instruction, and correction. They also make clear that the Bible is the standard by which all teaching and experience must be tested. (Joel 2:28, 29; Acts 2:14-21; Heb. 1:1-3; Rev. 12:17; 19:10.)
5. Investigative Judgment
There is a sanctuary in heaven, the true tabernacle which the Lord set up and not man. In it Christ ministers on our behalf, making available to believers the benefits of His atoning sacrifice offered once for all on the cross. He was inaugurated as our great High Priest and began His intercessory ministry at the time of His ascension. In 1844, at the end of the prophetic period of 2300 days, He entered the second and last phase of His atoning ministry. It is a work of investigative judgment which is part of the ultimate disposition of all sin, typified by the cleansing of the ancient Hebrew sanctuary on the Day of Atonement. In that typical service the sanctuary was cleansed with the blood of animal sacrifices, but the heavenly things are purified with the perfect sacrifice of the blood of Jesus. The investigative judgment reveals to heavenly intelligences who among the dead are asleep in Christ and therefore, in Him, are deemed worthy to have part in the first resurrection. It also makes manifest who among the living are abiding in Christ, keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and in Him, therefore, are ready for translation into His everlasting kingdom. This judgment vindicates the justice of God in saving those who believe in Jesus. It declares that those who have remained loyal to God shall receive the kingdom. The completion of this ministry of Christ will mark the close of human probation before the Second Advent. (Heb. 8:1-5; 4:14-16; 9:11-28; 10:19-22; 1:3; 2:16, 17; Dan. 7:9-27; 8:13, 14; 9:24-27; Num. 14:34; Eze. 4:6; Lev. 16; Rev. 14:6, 7; 20:12; 14:12; 22:12.)
Conclusion
Many people over the years have asked me what I thought about the SDA Church. While the issue is complex, I generally believe there is enough false and destructive teaching in the SDA religion, that people should be very cautious about attending a SDA church. Sabbath Keeping, Keeping Old Testament Dietary Laws, Soul Sleep, the role of Ellen G. White and the Unbiblical and unwarranted teaching of the "investigative judgment" are seriously aberrant and false teachings that every Christian should avoid. Whether or not the SDA religion is a cult or not, I cannot say for certain, but it's shown me enough for me to avoid it. The SDA concepts of Sabbatariansim, "investigative judgment" Ellen G. White's prophetic authority and the pernicious doctrine of "soul sleep" are aberrant at best and border on being heretical.
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