All Objections Relating to the State of the Dead

Editor’s note: Collected here are all 24 objections in the section entitled, “Mortal Man,” relating to the state of the dead, objections 69 through 92.

We began this section on October 28, 2024, so it took almost a year to complete, but I stopped posting “Answers to Objections” for about eight and a half months, between November and July, so it really only took three months.

Objection 69: When Christ was transfigured there appeared with Him on the mount "Moses and Elijah talking with him." (Matt. 17:3) The fact that Moses was there proves that man has an immortal soul, for Moses died and was buried at the time of the Exodus.

There are two ways to view this transfiguration incident: as a vision or as a real physical event. If it was a vision, then the objection before us is pointless: The nature of a vision is that the things being shown are not actually before the one being shown the vision. They are like a movie or video shown to the prophet to teach him about past or future events, or events then happening elsewhere, but they are not actually taking place within the view of the prophet.

We do not think the story of the Mount of Transfiguration is describing a vision, but rather the real appearance of flesh and blood men who were physically present with Jesus. There is nothing in the story about an immaterial spirit or disembodied soul hovering beside Christ. Instead, we read that Christ was present, and beside Him were “Moses and Elijah.” We know that Christ was physically real, that the Word was indeed made flesh (John 1:14). Why would we not believe that both Moses and Elijah were also there in the flesh?

We know that Elijah was translated bodily to heaven (2 Kings 2). So even if one believes that, after one dies, one continues on as a disembodied consciousness, there is no need of that hypothesis in the case of Elijah. He was translated while alive in his living body. And although Moses died and was buried, Jude 9 tells as that Michael the archangel (who is believed to be Christ) contended with Satan for his body. The presence of Moses on the mount of transfiguration helps us to understand the real meaning of the passage:

"Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a railing accusation. But said, The Lord rebuke thee." Jude 1:9.

Further, the disciples evidently must have considered Moses to be as truly real as the other two, for Peter wished to build three tabernacles or shelters, “one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” (Mat. 17:4) Housing is not built for immaterial spirits, but rather for our frail living flesh, which needs shelter.

In his famous Bible commentary, the Methodist commentator Adam Clarke makes an interesting point about this story, to wit, that Moses and Elijah demonstrated two ways of receiving a glorified body; (1) by being translated without seeing death, as in the case of Elijah, or (2) by dying but then later being resurrected and given a glorified body, as in the case of Moses. Perhaps one of the purposes of the story is to show us that both routes lead to the same end result:

"Elijah came from heaven in the same body which he had upon earth, for he was translated, and did not see death, 2 Kings 2:11. And the body of Moses was probably raised again (Jude 9), as a pledge of the resurrection; and as Christ is to come to judge the quick and the dead, for we shall not all die, but all shall be changed, 1 Cor. 15:51-2. He probably gave the full representation of this in the person of Moses, who died, and was thus raised to life (or appeared now as he shall appear when raised from the dead in the last day), and in the person of Elijah, who never lasted death. Both their bodies exhibit the same appearance, to show that the bodies of glorified saints are the same, whether the person had been translated, or whether he had died."

Properly understood, the story of the transfiguration provides support not for the doctrine of immortal souls freed from a body, but rather for the teaching that the redeemed dead will be resurrected with glorified but very real bodies.

Objection 70: Christ said, “Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell!” Matt. 10:28. This proves that the soul and the body are two distinctly different things, that the body can be destroyed and the soul remain, and therefore, that the soul is a separate entity that lives on forever after the body is dead.

Preliminarily, we would note that Jesus clearly says that a soul can be killed, so whatever this verse is teaching, it is not teaching that the soul “lives on forever.” Quite to the contrary.

Many Christian groups teach that the soul is immortal, and that upon death the redeemed go directly to heaven to live forever, whereas the lost go directly to hell to suffer torment forever. By contrast, Adventists teach that death is an unconscious or dreamless sleep until the resurrection, and that after the second resurrection—the resurrection of the unsaved after the millennium—judgment is executed upon the unsaved. They are cast into the lake of fire and consumed, so that they no longer exist. Nothing of them remains, neither a body, nor a “soul.” Other Christians sometimes refer to this belief, somewhat disparagingly, as “annihilationism.”

And yet what do we find Jesus teaching in this passage? Annihilationism! Jesus clearly stated that both the body and the soul are destroyed in hell. There is no eternal torment of a soul that cannot die. So when Seventh-day Adventists teach annihilationism, we are merely following what Jesus clearly and plainly said to His disciples.

But, yes, Jesus is also teaching that there is more to a living soul than just the body. We also have a mind, and by that I mean more than just a brain with firing synapses. We have a will, an intellect, memories, a character, and all these things that are not just our body. The mind is what makes us us.

An imperfect analogy is to a computer. There is the physical part, the machine, but there is also the software and the data. The software and data are not part of the machine; they are portable. But it is important to note that you cannot run the software, the program, or access the data without a machine. It doesn’t have to be your machine, but it has to be a machine of some sort.

And so it is with us. The mind is not part of the body, but the mind cannot operate without a body. So when our body is dead, our mind ceases to operate. As the Bible says, our thoughts perish. Psalm 146:4.

But, thank God, that is not the end of the story. God, in his omnipotence and omniscience, has made a copy of your software and data. He knows and remembers everything about you—your likes, dislikes, your memories, your character. God knows everything that makes you you. God can load the data He copied onto an even better machine. He can resurrect you, and give you a glorified body and put your mind into that glorified body.

This is what Jesus means when He says you have a body and a soul. By soul, He means the mind, the character, whatever makes you you. What Jesus is saying in Matthew 10:28 is that the death of the body shouldn’t be a terror to us, because God has promised to resurrect us, including everything that makes us us. But we should fear the eternal death of the lost, because both the machine and the software will be destroyed in the fires of hell. Both body and mind are gone forever.

Is there any reason to get hung up on the fact that Jesus used the word “soul” as distinct from the body? No, because there clearly is more to us than just our body. We do have a mind that is not a just a product of our body, that is more than just a brain.

Perhaps we fear the word soul because so many Christians have attached immortality to the word “soul.” But as we see in Matthew 10:28, the Bible doesn’t teach the immortality of the soul. Souls can die in hell. The soul that sinneth shall die. Ezek. 18:20.

By the way, the Greek word translated as soul in Mat. 10:28 is psuche, and that word is also often translated as “life.” Consider this passage:

“For whosoever will save his life [psuche] shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life [psuche] for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul [psuche]? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul [psuche]?” Matt. 16:25, 26.

Psuche is translated as both “life” and “soul” in the same passage. So Mat. 10:28 could have been translated “fear him who can destroy both life and body in hell.”

The main point is that what makes you you is more than your body. There is something else, call it a soul, call it a life, call it a mind, call it software and data. But fear not, because whatever it is, God has that thing in the palm of His hand. He will not lose it. The grave is not the end of our story.

Objection 71: Paul says, “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.” 2 Cor. 4:16. This proves that the real man, the soul, is something different from the body, and flourishes despite the perishing of the body.

Believers in the immortal-soul doctrine seem to feel that if a Bible writer speaks of a contrast between one aspect of a person and another, between the body and the spirit or the soul, that proves the truth of their doctrine. But we also believe there is a difference between body and spirit, or between body and soul. We are to glorify God in our body and in our spirit, the Scriptures declare. We simply insist that the Scriptures nowhere say that the soul, or spirit, is a distinct, a separate, immortal entity encased within a shell, the body.

Paul wrote to the Corinthian church about his being “absent in body but present in spirit.” 1 Cor. 5:3. Did Paul wish us to understand that he left his body in one place while his disembodied consciousness flitted off to Corinth? Then why seek to discover an immortal-soul doctrine in his words: “Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day”? Let’s not make this more difficult than it is. The “inner man” is another way of describing the spiritual aspect of a person. The “outer man,” by contrast, would be the visible, external aspect of a person.

In several passages Paul speaks, in variant language, of this “inward man.” To the Ephesians he wrote, “That He would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.” Eph. 3:16-17. Again he writes, “You have put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.” Col. 3:9-10. In these passages and others, Paul is discussing the spiritual regeneration that comes with conversion. The phrase "inward man" or "inner man" or "new man” all refer to the change that comes to us when Christ enters our hearts, and our old sinful habits and customs are cast off.

As Paul declares, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Gal. 2:20. The "inward man" is renewed daily by the presence of the indwelling Christ who causes us to grow constantly in spiritual stature even though the body is inevitably declining as we grow old.

Objection 72: When Stephen was martyred he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Acts 7:59. Christ on the cross said, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit!” Luke 23:46. This proves that at death the real man, that immortal entity called the “spirit,” departs from the body.

The word here translated "spirit" is the Greek word pneuma (as with virtually every other instance of “spirit” in the New Testament). The primary meaning of pneuma is “wind” or “air.” Because life is associated so inextricably with the air we breathe—we cannot live long without air—pneuma also means “life.”

There is nothing in the word pneuma that suggests a disembodied consciousness, or the notion that a man can continue to be conscious and think after his body dies. A plain reading is that Stephen and Jesus asked God to receive back the breath that gives life.

Moreover, in asking God to receive his spirit, Stephen is acknowledging that he will no longer have it when he dies. If the immortal soul teaching were correct, we would expect Stephen to say, “Receive me.” If Stephen believed that the righteous dead remain conscious and go directly to heaven, he would have said, “Receive me into glory.” But he did not. Rather he asked God to hold that which made him Stephen until the resurrection of the dead, when he would receive a glorified body.

Stephen knew, with Job, that life is a gift from God: “The breath of the Almighty hath given me life.” Job 33:4. This great gift was about to leave him, and he wished to commit to the keeping of God that which he could no longer retain. He believed the truth, later penned by Paul: “Your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory.” Col. 3:3-4.

Much of what has just been said regarding Stephen's words applies, most evidently, to Christ's words also. He commended to the keeping of His Father the life He was about to lay down for the sins of the world. On Sunday morning, the angel of God called Him forth from Joseph’s new tomb to take up once more the life He had voluntarily laid down.

Objection 73: Hebrews 12:23 proves that man has a spirit, which is the real man, and that with this spirit we shall have fellowship in our perfected state. In other words, this text proves that disembodied spirits dwell in heavenly bliss.

In this portion of Hebrews, Paul, the presumed author, is contrasting the old covenant and the new covenant:

You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.”[Exodus 19:12,13] The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”[Deut. 9:19]

But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.”[Haggai 2:6] The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.”[Deut. 4:24] Hebrews 12:18-28

The primary purpose of Hebrews is to show the superiority of the new covenant over the old, the superiority of Christ's sacrifice and heavenly ministration for the believer over the Aaronic priesthood. In verses 22 and 23 he is describing people under the new covenant on this earth, not in heaven. Paul would not belabor so obvious a point as that heaven is superior to earth.

But he knew it was necessary to remind the Hebrews that although the Mosaic dispensation, especially the presence of God at Sinai, was glorious and awesome, nevertheless the Christian dispensation, the New Covenant in the blood of Jesus Christ, is yet more glorious.

That he is describing Christians in the Christian Era, not saints in heaven, is revealed by the fact that he says, “You are come ... to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant.” Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant for us now, while we are here on earth. Though the language is in part figurative, it is not difficult to see that Paul is describing the state of the believer in this world.

The clarity that we have in the Christian era regarding the Gospel of Jesus Christ—that Christ died for our sins giving us a salvation that we could never gain on our own—is what is making us perfect, perfect in the imputed righteousness of Christ and soon perfect in His imparted righteousness. This is one of the things Paul is pointing to, in his own inimitable style, as making the Christian era superior to the “Old Covenant.”

Why is the word “spirit” used here? For the same reason Christ said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, You must be born again.” John 3:6, 7. Paul and Christ are both speaking of the converted man who is walking this earth in the flesh, but not according to the “flesh,” which is to say, he is not acting upon his inborn sin-contaminated nature; rather, he is walking according to the “spirit.” (Rom. 8:3-4).

The term “spirit” is used as a general term to describe the “born again” man who in controlled by the Spirit rather than by his inherited flesh. But there is nothing airy, ghostly, immaterial, about this born again man; even though it is said of him, “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit,” he sits in a pew in the church!

If you view this passage through the lens of the believer in an immortal soul, then you may indeed have difficulty with it, and assume that it refers to departed saints, but not all non-Adventist commentators view the passage in that light. Some view it as we do. Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown, in their comment on this text, remark:

'“Spirit and spirits are used of a man or men in the body, under the influence of the spirit the opposite of flesh.” (John 3.6)

Adam Clarke, Methodist commentator, remarks on this text:

"The spirits of the just men made perfect, or the righteous perfect, are the full grown Christians; those who are justified by the blood and sanctified by the Spirit of Christ. Being come to such implies the spiritual union which the disciples of Christ have with each other, and which they possess how far so ever separate; for they are all joined in one spirit, Eph. 2:18; they are in the unity of the spirit, Eph. 4:3,4; and of one soul. Acts 4:32."

Objection 74: Paul makes clear that it is possible for him to be “out of the body” (2 Cor. 12:1-4), proving that man is an immaterial soul or spirit, who can live independently of his body.

The passage, in its context, reads thus:

“It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knows); such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knows) how that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.” 2 Cor. 12:1-4.

Preliminarily, even those who believe that we have, or are, an immortal soul also believe that the soul stays within the body until the instant of death. (The idea of astral projection is from eastern mysticism, not from any species of Christianity.) Indeed, they believe that the soul departing the body results in death to the body. Two of their proof texts indicate (as they interpret them) that bodily death is, or is caused by, the departure of the soul from the body:

“And it came to pass, as her soul was departing (for she died).” Gen. 35:18.

“And the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.” 1 Kings 17:22.

We will examine these texts closely under Objection 81, but, for now, let us acknowledge that, according to those who hold to the doctrine of unconditional immortality, if Paul’s soul was out of his body, his body would have died!

But is anyone really bold enough to assert that Paul does not know whether or not he died over 14 years ago? And if he did die, he must have been raised from the dead when he returned from “the third heaven.” That would be well worth writing about, yet Paul makes no allusion anywhere in his writings to his having died and been resurrected. Obviously, there is something very wrong with this interpretation of the passage.

The clue as to how rightly to interpret this passage is found in the second sentence: “I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.” Paul is speaking of “visions and revelations”! He is talking about what he saw and experienced while in vision, and he is saying that what he experienced was so real and vivid that he is not certain whether he was bodily transported to heaven—”in the body”—or whether the vision was shown to him in his mind—“out of the body.”

If Paul was not literally taken to heaven, he seemed to be there nevertheless, and naturally he might describe that state as being “out of the body.” How better could one express the thought of being in a far-off place without literally going there?

In writing to the Colossian church Paul uses this very same kind of language: “For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joyful and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.” Col. 2:5. Everyone understands this mode of expression; no one finds in these words proof of an immortal entity called a soul.

In fact, we might write to a friend with whom it will not be possible for us to be on a certain important occasion: “I'll be with you in spirit.” But none of us believes that when we speak thus we mean that an immortal entity within us will flit away at a certain time to be with the friend. Why, then, should anyone think that Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:1-5 is teaching the doctrine of a disembodied soul?

Objection 75: The apostle Paul says that at the second coming of Christ, God will bring with Him from heaven those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. (1 Thess. 4:14.) This proves that the righteous go to heaven at death instead of lying unconscious in the grave until the Second Advent.

The full reads as follows:

“But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.

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 by no means precede those who are asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.” 1 Thess. 4:13-18

Paul is discussing two groups: (1) “those which are asleep” in Jesus, i.e. those righteous ones who have died, and (2) "we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord." i.e., we who are still living at the Second Coming of our Lord. In his discussion of these two groups, Paul is trying to accomplish five things:

1. Assure the believers in Thessalonika that they need not sorrow at the death of other believers, as do the pagans who have no hope of a resurrection. (Verse 15)

2. Inform the believers that the living saints would not be taken up to glory without those who had already fallen asleep in Jesus; in other words, those who had already fallen asleep in Jesus will not be left behind. Verse 15.

3. Inform the believers how “they which are asleep” will be awakened; namely, “the trump of God” shall cause them to "rise." The dead in Christ are going to be awakened by a trumpet blast. Verse 16. “For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible,” as Paul says in 1 Cor. 15:52.

4. Inform the brethren what happens immediately following the resurrection of those who have fallen asleep in Jesus: The still-living saints are “caught up together with them [the resurrected saints] in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.” Verse 17.

5. Inform the brethren as to what the living and resurrected saints will do after meeting their Lord in the air: “And so shall we ever be with the Lord.” We are all going to be with the Lord forever in heaven, but we will go to be with Him after the resurrection of the dead, not before. Verse 17.

If the righteous dead are to be blasted awake by celestial trumpets and "rise," and then, together with the living saints, ascend to the clouds to dwell forever with the Lord, how can Paul possibly mean, in verse 14, that the righteous dead come down from heaven on the resurrection day?

And in what condition are these righteous dead that God “brings [them] with him” in verse 14? They are asleep: “those who sleep in Jesus.” Why would God be bringing sleeping saints from heaven back to earth to be awakened? If they are sleeping, they are in the grave, not in heaven.

The obvious meaning of “God will bring with Jesus” those who sleep in Jesus is that God will wake up the righteous dead with a trumpet blast, resurrect them in glorified bodies, and “bring them” back to heaven (along with “we who are alive and remain” at the Second Coming).

We must again emphasize that the righteous dead are uniformly described as being asleep:

Verse 13: "Them which are asleep." Verse 14: "Them also which sleep in Jesus." Verse 16: "The dead in Christ."

The dead are asleep! And not just their bodies; rather, they are asleep. Again, why would the saints be sleeping in heaven, and why would God bring sleeping saints back to earth, stick them in the grave, blast them awake with a trumpet blast and then resurrect them from the grave and cause them to rise to the clouds??

This is obviously a wrong interpretation. The idea that God is bringing disembodied conscious spirits or souls back from heaven to earth to then inhabit glorified resurrected bodies is not in the text. It does not arise from the text; to the contrary, those with an already existing belief in non-conditional immortality bring that belief to the text, and eisegete it into the text.

The state of the dead—that they sleep in the grave—is not at all in dispute in this passage. Paul assumes it to be true. The point of the passage is to assure the believers that the resurrection is a certainty, and that both groups of believers, the living and the dead, all go to heaven at the same time.

The certainty of the resurrection was the key point that the apostles stressed in their preaching. Christ was raised from the dead, and because of that we also can be freed from the prison house of death. Listen to Paul argue the case:

"And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. 15 Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up if in fact the dead do not rise. 16 For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. 17 And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! 18 Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. 20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” 1 Cor. 15:14-20.

His reasoning sums up thus: Unless we believe that Christ rose from the grave we have no hope of being resurrected. Christ rose as the first fruits from the grave, and "afterward they that are Christ's" will be raised "at his coming." There will be a resurrection because Christ rose from the grave! It is a certainty!

In his letter to the Hebrews, Paul thus describes God:

"Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.The God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus." Heb. 13:20.

In the light of these and related passages, it becomes plain that Paul does not teach the immortal-soul doctrine, which was alien to the Jews and is more an invention of the pagan Greeks; Paul teaches, clearly and thunderously, the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead.

Objection 76: We agree that those who died before the time of Christ remained unconscious in their graves, as the Old Testament Scriptures prove. (See, e.g., Eccl. 9:5-6, 10).

But when Christ came He declared that "whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die." John 11:26. This proves that in the Christian era, those who believe in Christ go directly to heaven when they “die.” See, also, Paul's declaration that Christ “abolished death” (2 Tim. 1:10), and Scripture’s repeated statements that Christians now possesses everlasting life.

We agree that the Old Testament saints are yet in the grave. The Scriptural evidence is overwhelming. On the day of Pentecost, Peter said to the multitude: “ . . . Let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day. . . . For David is not ascended into the heavens." Acts 2:29, 34.

But this admission is fatal to their whole case. Why do most believe that a Christian goes to heaven at death? Because they believe that there resides within man an immortal soul that must go either to heaven or to hell when the body dies and is buried. To admit that this was not so during the pre-Christian dispensation would seem to be a comprehensive denial of the immortal-soul doctrine.

But let us leave that to one side and demonstrate that the Bible makes no distinction between the state the dead in the two dispensations:

• “We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede them which are asleep). For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout ...: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.” 1 Thess. 4:15-17. The dead in Christ—that is the dead who have accepted Christ in the New Testament era—are asleep in the grave until the Second Coming.

• “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors. And their works do follow them.” Rev. 14:13. The dead who die in the Lord are resting.

• “After he had said this, he went on to tell them, ‘Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.’ His disciples replied, ‘Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.’ Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. So then he told them plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.’” John 11:11-16 Here, Jesus describes death as sleep. Yet Lazarus was a believer in Jesus, and a New Testament figure; clearly, there is no difference between Old and New Testament where it concerns the state of the dead.

What then are we to make of verses such as John 11:25-26?:

“Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?”

Jesus is speaking of spiritual realities, not the mechanics of life and death as we think of them. He is not telling Martha “you’ll never die but go straight to heaven,” he’s telling her, “if you believe on me, your eternal destiny is certain; you will have life everlasting.” In light of Rev. 20:6 [“Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power”], Jesus is telling Martha, “one short sleep past, and you’ll come up in the first resurrection and spend eternity with me.”

There are many passages in the New Testament that speak of life and death in spiritual terms:

• “He that hears my word, and believes on him that sent me, bath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” John 5:24. Obviously the person John here describes was not literally dead when he believed on Jesus, and then literally came to life. No, he was spiritually dead, then believed on Jesus and passed from a spiritually dead condition to spiritual life. He will still die and be resurrected in the first resurrection, but the important spiritual decision that secured eternal life for him has been made.

• “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loves not his brother abides in death.” 1 John 3:14. John is here making the same point again, talking about spiritual life and death.

• “For to be carnally minded is death; but to he spiritually minded is life and peace." Rom. 8:6. Again, the same point is made by Paul. The carnally minded are literally alive, but spiritually dead.

• Christ declared to the unbelieving Jews, "You will not come to me, that you might have life." John 5:40. They were, of course, literally alive when he said this to them, but they were spiritually dead.

When we understand the spiritual realities Christ is talking about in John chapter 11, we do not need to give His words a strained interpretation. We do not have to make ourselves believe the plainly un-Scriptural idea that there is a difference between the condition of deceased Old and New Testament saints. We do not have to claim that when the Christian goes into the grave he really goes to heaven.

We simply understand Christ to mean that those who accept His proffered salvation are freed from the penalty of death that hangs over all men. They will never suffer that “second death,” which is death in the ultimate sense of the word, because there is no return from the second death. Of the one who has eternal life, or everlasting life, it can be said that the “second death” has no power over him.

Adam Clarke, Methodist theologian, in his commentary, says this in comment on the phrase in John 11, "shall never die":

"Shall not die for ever. Though he die a temporal death, he shall not continue under its power for ever; but shall have a resurrection to life eternal."

In the light of the foregoing, Paul's statement that Christ "abolished death" (2 Tim. 1:10) may most naturally be understood to mean this: Christ, having risen from the grave, has the victory over death, and has provided thereby absolute assurance that it will be abolished. But the actual abolition of death awaits the second coming of Christ, when the righteous dead are raised. Then it is that "death is swallowed up in victory." 1 Cor. 15:54.

Compare John's description of the final consuming fires that are to burn up every trace of sin: "And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire." Rev. 20:14. Only then will death truly be abolished. Christ's resurrection made certain the abolition of death, even as it made certain the resurrection of all who have died in Christ. But even as the resurrection of the righteous awaits the end of the world, even so the abolition of death awaits that great hour.

Objection 77: In Matthew 22:32 Christ declares that He is not the God of the dead but of the living. Yet He said, "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'. This proves that the souls of these patriarchs, who died long ago, are really alive in heaven.

Let us look at this passage of Scripture in its context:

That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. “Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for him. Now, [suppose] there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. Finally, the woman died. Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?”

Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. At the resurrection, people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.” When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching. Mat. 22:23-33

What is the issue here? The issue is whether or not there is a resurrection of the dead. “The Sadducees, who say that there is no resurrection,” were arguing, by presenting Jesus with this preposterous hypothetical, that there cannot really be a resurrection of the dead.

Mark introduces the incident with the same explanatory theological note on the Sadducees: “Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question.” Mark 12:18. As does Luke: “Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question.” Luke 20:27. Obviously, the only issue in this passage is whether or not there will be a resurrection of the dead.

By asking, “whose wife will she be in the resurrection,” the Sadducees thought that they had asked an unanswerable question and had thereby proved the doctrine of the resurrection to be unworthy of belief. Christ exploded the hypothetical by declaring, "In the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage."

Jesus then proceeded to the real issue, the resurrection of the dead: "But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have you not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." Matt. 22:31-32.

Again, the only issue in this passage is whether there will be a resurrection of the dead, and a resurrection of the dead is necessary only if the dead are sleeping in the grave. Jesus is defending the doctrine of the resurrection from skeptical Sadducees, who, Scripture tells us in several places, did not believe what Scripture teaches regarding the resurrection. Would Jesus, in His defense of the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, fatally undermine it by implying that the righteous dead are all in heaven, so there does not need to be a resurrection of the dead? What absurd nonsense!

Here, as in several instances we mentioned in answer to objection 76, Jesus is speaking of the named patriarchs as being alive spiritually, meaning that their eternal destiny is secured in that they will be resurrected in the First Resurrection of those over whom the second death has no power. Rev. 20:6. These patriarchs have, "passed from death unto life”; God does not regard their sleep in the grave as eternal, but only as a little interval between the earthly life and the heavenly.

This is a case described by Paul, when he says, “God, who quickens the dead, and calls those things which be not as though they were.” Rom. 4:17. Jesus is commenting not on the current condition of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but on their ultimate spiritual status. Paul further states, “For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living." Rom. 14:7-9. And why are we still "the Lord's," even though we die? Because we "sleep in Jesus," and the "dead in Christ shall rise" in the resurrection of life. (1 Thess. 4:16; John 5:29)

Objection 78: Ecclesiastes 12:7 proves that there is a conscious, immortal entity that leaves the body at death. (See, also, Eccl. 3:21.)

Ecclesiastes 12:7 reads,

"Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it."

This text speaks of the dissolution of man at death. Both the Greek word, pneuma and the Hebrew word ruach primarily mean “wind” or “breath.” In the passage above, ruach is used colloquially to mean the life of a person, because when we stop breathing we die. So when the breath returns to God, i.e., when we stop breathing, the body begins turning to dust. The verse is saying that when we die, our body decomposes into dust, which returns to the earth, and our life returns to God, the great giver of life.

Those who believe in the immortal soul doctrine interpret this to mean that a disembodied consciousness floats away to heaven. We do not accept this interpretation, for the following reasons:

1. Ecclesiastes 12:7 tells us that the ruach or “breath” returns to God who gave it. Is our breathing a conscious entity when God gives it to us? No. When babies are born and the doctor slaps their bottom, and they gulp their first breath of air, they are conscious of very little; a personality takes years to grow and develop. What God gives us when we are born is merely breath. Why then, would we expect that what returns to God is not that same breath, but rather a disembodied personality?

But the case is much stronger than that. Remember that equating “breath” or breathing with life is colloquial; in fact, it takes both more and less to make a human being than the ability to breath which, if you temporarily lose it, can be done for you by a machine. A baby is alive as a separate human being from the moment of conception, when the joining of DNA from both mother and father gives him his full genetic complement, the full organic blueprint of what he is to develop into physically. Your mother breathes for you for the next 40 weeks or so (just as a machine might breathe for you at the other end of your life), but you are already a separate being. Is the baby conscious at the moment of conception? Of course not, yet that is when we can say, with scientific rigor, that God has given the child the “spark of life,” has overseen the procreation of a new being.

Now, the Bible teaches the preexistence of Christ before He was born as a male child in Bethlehem (See, e.g., John 1:1-16), but that is one of the things that makes Christ very different from the rest of us: we were not preexistent beings before we were conceived. Each child conceived is unique, genetically different from every other child who ever lived, or who will ever live.

(One caveat on this issue: my understanding is that Mormons do believe that there is a backlog of souls waiting in heaven for a body to be born into. But this is a unique Mormon teaching, and smacks more of Eastern and pagan religious concepts, such as reincarnation and the transmigration of souls, and is not found in Judaism, Christianity, or Islam.)

2. Solomon, in his book of Ecclesiastes, is making a general statement about the human condition. He is not talking only about the saved. God gives life to everyone, and everyone dies, so presumably everyone’s spirit returns to God as described in Eccl. 12:7. If the spirit which returns to God is a conscious entity, then all men, whether good or bad, go to God at death. Are all to have the same destination? Do the unsaved go to heaven to be with God?

It might be argued that the wicked go to God only to receive judgment, yet the Bible is clear that the execution of judgment is a future event that does not even begin to happen until the Second Coming. (See Matt. 25:31-46; Rev. 22:12) So if we interpret the term “spirit” as these folks do, we are forced to conclude that even the eternally lost have been enjoying heaven for hundreds or perhaps even thousands of years waiting for the judgment. What an astonishing doctrine!

3. Of the creation of man we read, "The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life." Job 33:4. And life is contemporaneous with that God-given breath: "All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils." Job 27:3. If God decided to withdraw his life-giving spirit from the world, everyone would die at once: “if He set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath; all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust." Job 34:14-15. The spirit returns to God because it came from God and because God gathers it to Himself. There is nothing here to indicate a disembodied consciousness.

What about Ecclesiastes 3:21, which reads as follows: “Who knows the spirit of man that goes upward, and the spirit of the beast that goes downward to the earth?” Because this text says that man's spirit goes upward and the beast's downward at death, we are supposed to conclude that therefore man, in contrast to the beast, has an immortal soul, or spirit, that soars heavenward at death.

This interpretation raises many of the problems we’ve already discussed, e.g., at death all men go “upward” to heaven—which is practically universal salvation, and clearly wrong—plus additional problems, such as that animals have souls. ore than they wish it to prove.

Furthermore, in the immediately preceding verses, Solomon explicitly states that as regards their destination at death, there is no difference between man and beast. “For that which befalls the sons of men befalls beasts; even one thing befalls them. As one dies, so dies the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man bath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.” Eccl. 3:19-20. (The Hebrew words here translated "breath" and "spirit" are both from the same Hebrew word: ruach.)

Where believers in the immortal soul doctrine find themselves in perplexity is that they define the word "spirit" (ruach), when it is used in relation to man, as an immortal conscious person. But when the word "spirit" (ruach) is used in relation to beasts, they are content to define it abstractly as the principle of life, the breath of life. They must make this arbitrary distinction in definition because otherwise both man and beasts have within them an immortal entity, or neither are possessed of such an entity.

Seventh-day Adventists find no necessity of making arbitrary differences in definition of a word. We see in such a passage as Ecclesiastes 3:19-21 a simple statement that life from God is given to all, man and beasts, and that at death that life returns to God.

To be clear, we believe that man was made in “the image of God,” which the beasts were not. We believe that man has a moral nature, which the beasts have not. We believe that man may have communion with God, which the beasts cannot. We believe that man will answer at a final judgment day for all his deeds, which the beasts will not. Finally, we believe that man may ultimately be translated to dwell with God in an earth made new, which the beasts will not.

Objection 79: That the righteous dead go to heaven immediately at death, and that man therefore possesses an immortal spirit, is evident from Paul's statement in 2 Corinthians 5:8. (See also 2 Peter 1:14)

The full context of 2 Corinthians five passage reads:

“For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” 2 Corinthians 5:1-10

We note that the New International Version, which was not translated by or for Seventh-day Adventists, heads these ten verses with the heading, “Awaiting the New Body.” Exactly so.

When we are resurrected from the dead, we are given new bodies, glorified bodies. Paul says, “we shall not all sleep [the first death], but we shall all be changed, in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” 1 Cor. 15:51-54.

At the resurrection, we will be given glorified, immortal, incorruptible bodies. The Scriptural example is Christ’s glorified body: it was flesh and bone and could be touched and felt, and we will eat in our glorified bodies as Christ did before his disciples. (Luke 24:36-43; Philippians 3:20-21)

Armed with the knowledge that we will be given glorified, immortal bodies, we can more easily make sense of this passage:

For we know that if the earthly tent we live in [our current corruptible, mortal body, which will die the first death] is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands [which is the incorruptible, immortal body we will be receive at the resurrection]. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling [we long for the glorified, immortal body], because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent [our corruptible, mortal body], we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling [our incorruptible body, given to us at the resurrection at the second coming], so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

Regarding “groaning,” i.e., waiting with longing for the new, glorified body, Paul uses the same language in Romans 8:22-23, when he speaks of waiting “for the redemption of our bodies.”

Regarding being found “naked” or “unclothed,” Paul primarily means: not currently being in a “house,” meaning having died the first death. We do not want to be in this condition. But I would argue that Paul, by “naked” or “unclothed” also means lacking the robe of Christ’s righteousness and thus being lost eternally. We fear the first death, but I think Paul is here telling us that we ought to have much greater fear of being found not clothed with Christ’s righteousness, because that means we will never be given the glorified body, the “building from God.”

According to the immortal-soul doctrine, after death the disembodied consciousness simply continues, freed from the mortal body. But does Paul want this? No! Paul longs to be "clothed" with the heavenly house, “that what is mortal may be swallowed up of life.” Paul clearly understood that the immortal, glorified body was a precondition to eternal life with God.

That Paul expected to be clothed with the “heavenly house,” a glorified immortal body, at the resurrection day is the certain conclusion from all his statements. Being "present with the Lord" is contingent upon being "clothed" with the heavenly house. Therefore being "present with the Lord" awaits the resurrection day. Otherwise, what are we to make of Paul’s statement in Thessalonians that at the resurrection we are caught up "to meet the Lord," and so shall we ever be with the Lord." 1 Thess. 4:17.

The fact that Paul coupled together being freed from the earthly house and the being clothed with the heavenly does not prove that he expected an immediate transfer from one to the other. He makes specific reference to an "unclothed," a "naked," state. On the question of immediate transfer, the reader is referred to the discussion of Philippians 1:21-23 under Objection 83.

In the light of the foregoing we need not spend much time on 2 Peter 1:14, which is also mentioned by the objector. The passage in its context reads as follows:

"I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things." 2 Peter 1:13-15.

Objection 80: Man is made in the image of God; God is immortal; therefore man is immortal.

It should go without saying that God has many characteristics that man does not have, including omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, and perfect righteousness. It is only in some limited sense that man is created in the image of God. Although we are created in the image of God, our attributes are not co-extensive and coterminous with all the attributes of divinity. God did not create junior Gods when he created man.

It is useful to examine four Scriptural instances of the word “immortality”:

1. Romans 2:7: “To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, He will give eternal life.” Why should the Christian seek for immortality if he already possesses it? And why would God give him eternal life if he already has it?

2. 2 Timothy 1:10: “the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ . . . has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel . . ." Immortality, far from being inherent in man, is one of the good things made possible to us only through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. Paul wrote, "The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ." Rom. 6:23. Again, why would we need this gift if we already have it? We need it because we do not have it.

3. 1 Corinthians 15:53: “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” Why would we have to put on immortality at the resurrection if we already have it? Obviously, we do not have immortality until the first resurrection, the resurrection of the redeemed; that is when we will finally put it on.

4. 1 Timothy 6:15-16:  “He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.” God alone has immortality.

This settles the matter. God is immortal, we are not.

Objection 81: The Bible describes the death of Rachel by saying that “her soul was departing” her body (Gen. 35:18) showing that she had an immortal soul. (See also 1 Kings 17:21-22)

This is a mere translation problem. The King James Bible is gives a confusing translation for this text, reading:

And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin.

Whereas the New International Version reads:

“As she breathed her last—for she was dying—she named her son Ben-Oni. But his father named him Benjamin.”

The New Living Translation reads:

Rachel was about to die, but with her last breath she named the baby Ben-oni (which means “son of my sorrow”). The baby’s father, however, called him Benjamin (which means “son of my right hand”).

Now it it true that the underlying Hebrew reads “nap̄·šāh” (herself, her soul) and “bə·ṣêṯ” (went out, went forth, was departing, had gone, was gone, came out, etc.), but it is obvious that the author of Genesis, Moses, is writing euphemistically. We often do the same thing: “he passed away,” “he passed,” “the departed,” the “dearly departed,” (Do we mean that someone departed on a trip or vacation?), he “crossed over,” he “expired” (like a carton of milk?), he is “at rest,” (go wake him up), he was “called home” (after he departed?).

Everyone in our English-speaking American culture understands that all of these expressions are euphemisms for “he died.” We do not like to use the harsher phrase “he died,” especially around the loved ones of the “dearly departed,” so we use euphemisms (from the Greek eúphēmos, meaning “sounding good”). We use a softer term that “sounds good” or sounds better and less harsh, like “let go” or “laid off” instead of “fired.”

Moses, is doing the same thing in telling the story of the death of his beloved ancestor, Rachel, who was Israel’s favorite and the mother of the tribes of Benjamin and Joseph (Ephraim and Manasseh).

But the thing with euphemisms is that they often are not trans-cultural or trans-linguistic, so it is usually better to eliminate them in translation and use the more precise word (even if it is harsher), such as the NIV and the NLT have done above. What Moses is telling us is that Rachel was dying, and with her last breath she named her son Ben-Oni (“son of my sorrow”).

We have much the same translation issue in 1 Kings 17:21-22. The King James reads:

And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.

But the NIV reads:

Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him!” The Lord heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived.

Which is an excellent translation, because the Hebrew word translated “soul” here is nephesh (ne·p̄eš), which is very often translated “life.” It is also occasionally translated “breath,” so The Message also gives a good translation:

Three times he stretched himself out full-length on the boy, praying with all his might, “God, my God, put breath back into this boy’s body!” God listened to Elijah’s prayer and put breath back into his body—he was alive!

Obejction 82: Revelation 6:9-10 proves that the souls of the righteous dead are in heaven.

This passage of Scripture reads thus:

“When He had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, does thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?”

This language is so obviously figurative and symbolic, as is much of the Apocalypse, that one worries about anyone who would insist on taking it literally.

But before going into that, we note that whenever Adventists seek to prove their position by reference to the book of Revelation, our detractors jump up and insist that this part of the Bible is too mystical to be understood. Does Revelation suddenly become plain and understandable when they believe it supports their belief in an immortal soul? Do they wish to give a literal meaning to this sole passage in the book? Evidently so.

We would ask, if a disembodied consciousness, freed of this mortal coil, soars away to enter into eternal happiness in heaven, how is it that the most worthy of these, the martyrs, should find themselves imprisoned under an altar, stuck in a tightly confined space when all of the delights of heaven are available to explore and sample? Why would God do such a thing to His most noble followers?

Another question comes to mind: If, at death, the souls of the lost go directly to Hell to begin experiencing punishment there, why would these martyrs need to cry for vengeance on their persecutors? Wouldn’t their persecutors, at least the great majority of them, be experiencing the flames of eternal Hell already? Surely the martyrs would not be stacked up under the altar pleading for a more terrible vengeance than eternal burning?

The believers in natural immortality argue that Christ's parable of the rich man and Lazarus should be taken literally in its details. We will address this parable later, but we have to ask: If heaven and hell are so close together that Lazarus could actually hear from the rich man's own lips the details of his suffering, why should the martyrs need to cry for vengeance? Are we to understand that these souls were not satisfied with the sights and sounds of torture and agony which, according to popular theology, greeted their eyes and ears as they looked over into hell?

It is so obvious that this passage is not to be taken literally that we have no need to resort to Adventist theologians for commentary. Albert Barnes, a Presbyterian commentator, affirms:

"We are not to suppose that this literally occurred, and that John actually saw the souls of the martyrs beneath the altars, for the whole representation is symbolical. Nor are we to suppose that the injured and the wronged in heaven actually pray for vengeance; . . . but it may be fairly inferred from this that there will be as real a remembrance of the wrongs of the persecuted, the injured, and the oppressed, as if such prayer were offered there; and that the oppressor has as much to dread from the divine vengeance as if those whom he has injured should cry in heaven to the God who answers prayer. . . . Every persecutor should dread the death of the persecuted as if he went to heaven to plead against him." - Comments on Revelation 6: 10.

Adam Clarke, the noted Methodist commentator, says:

"Their blood, like that of Abel, cried for vengeance. . . . We sometimes say, Blood cries for blood." - Comments on Revelation 6:9, 10.

But we obviously do not take that literally. The blood does not literally call for vengeance.

Having demonstrated that this language is not to be understood literally, we have removed the whole basis of the argument. This passage clearly does not prove that man has an immortal soul.

Objection 83: Paul declared that when he died he would go immediately to be with Christ. (See Philippians 1:21-23.)

The passage states:

“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;”

It is important to emphasize that Paul is talking about what he will experience when he dies. There is very little difference between what Adventists believe and popular theology as it relates to the experience of death. Popular theology holds that when you die, your soul, which they believe is a disembodied consciousness, goes to heaven to be with the Lord. Adventists believe that when you die, you have no consciousness of the passing of time, so that in the next instant after you die, you are resurrected in a glorified body and you meet the Lord, who has come down at his Second Advent.

(If you have ever had surgery and been under general anesthesia, you understand the experience of death. You are too far under to have dreams, so you wake up—in your experience—the instant after you lost consciousness, with no lapse of time in your experience.)

In both cases—in terms of your consciousness, your experience of events—the moment you die, you go to be with the Lord Jesus. There are differences, of course, including that Adventists believe we will meet Jesus in a glorified body, whereas popular theology maintains that we go to him as a disembodied consciousness. But in terms of what we experience when we die, there is very little difference between the Adventist position and popular theology.

So when Paul says, “I desire to depart and be with Christ,” he is not endorsing the immortal soul doctrine, he is describing what he will experience: When he dies, in the very next instant of his experience, he will be resurrected with a glorified body and rise to be with the Lord Jesus.

We must not interpret Paul as contradicting Paul. Paul clearly taught that the resurrected dead and living saints go to meet Jesus at the same time. (1 Thess. 4:16-18) And he clearly stated that the change from mortality to immortality takes place for both the living and the resurrected saints at the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus. (1 Cor. 15:51-54; 2 Tim. 4:8) If we are reading Paul to contradict what Paul clearly stated in other places, there is something radically defective with our exegesis.

We would be reading Paul to contradict not only his other writings, but the clear statements of Christ Jesus Himself, who clearly taught that he would receive his disciples at His Second Coming. (John 14:3 [“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”] Mat. 24:30-31 [“Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.”] Rev. 22:12 [“Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done.”]).

Paul understands that the resurrection awaits the second coming of Christ, and that only at the Second Coming will we receive our glorified bodies and go to be with the Lord. But he also understands that the dead in Christ have no consciousness of the passing of time so that, experientially, we die and in the next instant we go to be with the Lord. Paul understands both the actual chronology, and what the dead experience. Read in this light, the passage presents no difficulties. Let us not require Paul to be speaking systematically on all occasions; let’s allow him to speak informally about what he will experience when he dies.

Objection 84: During the time between His crucifixion and His resurrection Christ went and preached to the spirits in prison. (1 Peter 3:18-20.) This proves that there is an immaterial spirit, the real person, which departs from the body at death.

The passage reads thus:

"Christ also hath once suffered for sins. ... being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water."

If this passage seems to support popular theology with regard to the doctrine of an immortal soul, it also seems to support two ideas that Protestants believe are false: (1) purgatory, and (2) a second probation.

If Christ went to preach to certain sinners after their death, the clear inference is that He was extending a second chance, a second probation, to those people. Moreover, the place where these souls were being confined seems quite close to the Roman Catholic idea of purgatory. So, if read too literally, this passage is troubling to all Protestants, not just Seventh-day Adventists.

If this is the correct way to read the passage, and Christ at His crucifixion really preached to the undead in some sort of subterranean prison house, we are forced to ask: Why did Jesus single out the spirits of those who were disobedient in the days of Noah? Why were no others among the living dead entitled to this second chance?

But we do not believe that this is the correct way to read the passage. The context of 1 Peter 3:13-22 is that the Christian will be called upon to suffer for doing good. Peter warns us to be ready to suffer for preaching the gospel. There might be threats and actual violence against us, if we preach Christ Jesus. Then Peter mentions how Christ, who did only righteousness, suffered and died for our salvation, but was raised back to life by the Holy Spirit.

The next part of the passage warns us that our suffering might seem to be of no avail, but we are not to be discouraged: through that same Holy Spirit who would later raise Christ from the dead, Christ preached, through Noah, to the antediluvians. But, despite this Spirit-filled preaching, only Noah and his family, eight souls in all, were saved from the deluge.

We believe Peter is saying, “if your work seems to be in vain, remember that through the Spirit the Lord Jesus Christ preached to the those who lived before the Flood, yet with no results other than Noah’s immediate family. So don’t despair or be discouraged, just continue to preach Jesus Christ.”

Note that Peter calls Noah “a preacher of righteousness,” (2 Peter 2:5) and Genesis records God as saying, “My Spirit shall not always plead with man, for that he also is just flesh: yet his days shall he an hundred and twenty years." Gen. 6:3. We know that the 120 years could not be referring to a cap on lifespans, because people lived vastly longer lives in those days (up to 969 years), and generally much shorter ones these days (typically about 70 to 90 years).

So when God said, “his days shall be 120 years,” God was setting the antediluvian's probationary period. It would be 120 years until the Flood came, and during this 120 years, Noah preached to them, as is implied from Peter's the statement that Noah was a "preacher of righteousness."

This interpreation is confirmed by Ellen White in Patriarchs and Prophets:

A hundred and twenty years before the Flood, the Lord by a holy angel declared to Noah His purpose, and directed him to build an ark. While building the ark he was to preach that God would bring a flood of water upon the earth to destroy the wicked. Those who would believe the message, and would prepare for that event by repentance and reformation, should find pardon and be saved. Enoch had repeated to his children what God had shown him in regard to the Flood, and Methuselah and his sons, who lived to hear the preaching of Noah, assisted in building the ark.

"By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith." Hebrews 11:7. While Noah was giving his warning message to the world, his works testified of his sincerity. It was thus that his faith was perfected and made evident. He gave the world an example of believing just what God says. All that he possessed, he invested in the ark. As he began to construct that immense boat on dry ground, multitudes came from every direction to see the strange sight and to hear the earnest, fervent words of the singular preacher. Every blow struck upon the ark was a witness to the people.” Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 94-5

But why should these people be said to be "in prison"? Here again, the message is not literal but spiritual. The Bible describes those who are in spiritual darkness as being "prisoners.” (See Isa. 42:7; 61:1) Was Jesus, in quoting the prophet Isaiah, saying that his mission was to empty the prisons of Roman-controlled Palestine? (Luke 4:18-21) No, Jesus was saying that his work was to set us free from our spiritual prison houses, our prisons of sin, and of ignorance of God’s everlasting love and righteousness. The work of the Spirit in antediluvian times was the same as in our day: preaching to those who are prisoners of sin, offering them a way of escape.

It might be asked why the antediluvians were called “spirits” if they were men alive on the earth at that time. We will let an eminent commentator, Dr. Adam Clarke, answer this:

"The word pneumasi, spirits, is supposed to render this view of the subject improbable, because this must mean disembodied spirits. But this certainly does not follow. For the spirits of just men made perfect (Heb. 12:23) certainly means righteous men, and men still in the church militant; and the Father of spirits, Heb. 12:9, means men still in the body. And the God of the spirits of all flesh, Num. 16:22 and 27:16, means men, not in a disembodied state." - Comments on 1 Peter 3:19.

Another learned commentator, Dr. J. Rawson Lumby, in The Expositor's Bible, remarks that during the earlier centuries, which was the period when the Catholic religion, with its belief in purgatory, was dominant, the passage was interpreted to mean that Christ went to preach to souls in hell.

"But at the time of the Reformation the chief authorities expounded them [these words of Peter's] of the preaching of Christ's Spirit through the ministry of the patriarch [Noah]." - Comments on 1 Peter 3:17-22.

Bishop John Pearson, in his Exposition of the Creed, a classic work in the Church of England, observes:

"It is certain then that Christ did preach unto those persons which in the days of Noah were disobedient, all that time 'the long-suffering of God waited,' and, consequently, so long as repentance was offered. And it is as certain that He never preached to them after they died." - Page 166.

Why should we be asked to explain this passage when eminent non-Adventist theologians admit that the immortal-soul doctrine is not taught in this text?

[Editor’s note: This passage is a good example of why Seventh-day Adventists do not believe in verbal inspiration. These are Peter’s words, not God’s, and they are borderline gibberish. We think we can figure out what Peter was trying to say, but, honestly, he made of a hash of it. This is also why we do not form doctrines based upon one text, but upon the consensus of the entire Bible.]

Objection 85: Christ told the thief on the cross that he would be with Him that day in Paradise. (See, Luke 23:43.)

The text reads thus: "Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise."

Ironically, believers in the immortal soul doctrine told us, in the previous objection, that when Jesus died he went down to hell to preach to spirits who had not believed Noah’s message. Now, they’re telling us He went immediately to heaven with the thief with whom He was crucified.

This latter assertion is no better grounded that the previous one. Comparing Revelation 2:7 with Revelation 22:1-2, we see that Paradise is where the throne of God is. Therefore, if Christ had gone to Paradise that Friday afternoon, He would have gone into the presence of God. But Christ Himself, on the resurrection morning, declared to Mary, as she fell at His feet to worship Him:

"Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God." John 20:17.

Christ’s statement corroborates the words of the angel to the women at the tomb: "Come, see the place where the Lord lay." Matt. 28:6. Note that it says “were the Lord lay,” not where “his body” lay.

Jesus had lain in the tomb for parts of three days, Friday, Sabbath, Sunday, in fulfillment of His prophetic statement “destroy this temple [i.e., take the life from my body] and I will rebuild it in three days.” John 2:19-21 (See, also, Mat. 26:61; 27:40; Mark 14:58; 15:29). He had not ascended to heaven on Friday nor on the Sabbath; He rested in the tomb on Sabbath. Only on Sunday Morning was Christ resurrected from the dead. This is why Christ said on Sunday Morning, "I am not yet ascended to my Father."

Are we to interpret Christ’s statement to the thief on Friday afternoon in a way that would make it inconsistent with what he told Mary on Sunday Morning? No, Christ did not contradict Himself.

We are dealing with an issue of punctuation. If we move the comma, we get this statement: "Verily I say unto thee today, thou shalt be with me in paradise." And the difficulty vanishes; Jesus’ Friday Afternoon statement to the thief becomes consistent with his Sunday Morning statement to Mary.

Punctuation in the Bible is quite recent. The early Greek manuscripts not only did not use the comma, which is the particular punctuation mark in this sentence, they did not even space the words, butranthemtogetherinaline. Modern translators use their best judgment in placing punctuation marks, but their work is certainly not inspired, nor infallible. We are not bound by these recent, non-inspired marks when endeavoring to determine the intent of the gospel writers who wrote some nineteen hundred to two thousand years ago.

Punctuation can make a huge difference in the meaning of a sentence. “The teacher says my boy is no good,” is the teacher’s comment about your boy. But add two commas and you have your boy’s comment about the teacher: "The teacher, says my boy, is no good." The words are the same, but the commas have made the meaning very different.

Cover of Lynne Truss’s “Eats, Shoots & Leaves”

Lynne Truss has written a book about punctuation entitled, “Eats, shoots & leaves.” If you want to describe the diet of a typical panda bear, you write that he, “eats shoots and leaves,” but if you insert one comma in the wrong place, you have a panda who is an anti-social gunslinger. This one comma has changed the meaning of two of the three words in this short phrase!

Now where ought the comma to be placed? To make Jesus’ Friday Afternoon statement to the thief on the cross consistent with his Sunday Morning statement to the women, we need to place the comma after “today.”

But why did Jesus even used the word today? Why not just say, “Thou shall be with Me in Paradise”? Because “today” was a very bad moment in time for both of them. They were both in the worst circumstances imaginable: condemned prisoners, hanging naked on crosses, being executed with as much pain, shame, and humiliation as the Roman Empire could impose them. And so Jesus said, “today, right now, in the midst of all this horror, I’m telling you that you will be with me in heaven.” Jesus was telling him to look past the pain and terror of that day to a future in paradise, not that paradise was happening, or was going to happen, that day.

So all factors point to moving the comma after “today.”

Here is my paraphrase: "I am telling you the truth right now, and hold onto it: you will be with me in paradise."

Objection 86: How do you harmonize with your belief in the unconsciousness of man in death with the Biblical account of the Witch of Endor, who brought up Samuel to talk with King Saul? (See, 1 Sam. 28:7-19)

The enigmatic passage in 1 Samuel reads, in its entirety:

Saul then said to his attendants, “Find me a woman who is a medium, so I may go and inquire of her.”

“There is one in Endor,” they said.

So Saul disguised himself, putting on other clothes, and at night he and two men went to the woman. “Consult a spirit for me,” he said, “and bring up for me the one I name.”

But the woman said to him, “Surely you know what Saul has done. He has cut off the mediums and spiritists from the land. Why have you set a trap for my life to bring about my death?”

Saul swore to her by the Lord, “As surely as the Lord lives, you will not be punished for this.”

Then the woman asked, “Whom shall I bring up for you?”

“Bring up Samuel,” he said.

When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out at the top of her voice and said to Saul, “Why have you deceived me? You are Saul!”

The king said to her, “Don’t be afraid. What do you see?”

The woman said, “I see a ghostly figure coming up out of the earth.”

“What does he look like?” he asked.

“An old man wearing a robe is coming up,” she said.

Then Saul perceived it was Samuel, and he bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground.

Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?”

“I am in great distress,” Saul said. “The Philistines are fighting against me, and God has departed from me. He no longer answers me, either by prophets or by dreams. So I have called on you to tell me what to do.”

Samuel said, “Why do you consult me, now that the Lord has departed from you and become your enemy? The Lord has done what he predicted through me. The Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hands and given it to one of your neighbors—to David. Because you did not obey the Lord or carry out his fierce wrath against the Amalekites, the Lord has done this to you today. The Lord will deliver both Israel and you into the hands of the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. The Lord will also give the army of Israel into the hands of the Philistines.”

This story is narrated in a straightforward manner, with no intentional indication that things are not as they seem. But as we read closer, we will see that there are important clues that there is something else going on here, something darker and more sinister, something that perhaps the narrator himself is unaware of.

First, everyone uses variations of the phrase “bring up.” Saul says, “bring up for me the one I name,” the medium says, “whom shall I bring up,” and “Samuel” says “why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?”

But if Samuel was in heaven, why does he need to be “brought up”? We might well ask, “How do you believers in the immortal soul doctrine harmonize this with your beliefs?” You believe that the righteous dead are up in heaven, not on earth, and certainly not below the earth, such that they need to be ‘brought up”? Surely you believe that Samuel went to heaven when he died, so wouldn’t he need to be “brought down”? Wouldn’t it be people who are in the grave or in an even worse place “down there” whom we would speak of as needing to be “brought up”? Speaking colloquially, people in hell need to be “brought up” whereas people in heaven need to be “brought down.”

Second, if it really was Samuel, where has he gotten his body? Believers in the immortal soul doctrine believe that a disembodied consciousness floats off to heaven; by contrast, we who believe in “soul sleep” believe that we receive a glorified body at the resurrection. Popular theology does not posit that each person is resurrected individually with a glorified body; to the contrary, to the extent that they address this issue at all, they teach that the disembodied redeemed receive their new, glorified bodies only at the Second Coming. Certainly, Satan has no power to actually raise the dead, and God’s omnipotence was not at the disposal of this medium, who by her own acknowledgement was under an edict of death for practicing her dark sorcery. (See Lev. 20:27; Deut. 18:10-11.) So where did “Samuel” get his body?

Third, “Samuel” in foretelling Saul's death, which was to be by suicide, declares, "Tomorrow, you and your sons be with me." Really? Again, are we not to believe that Samuel, a good and faithful messenger of the Lord, is in heaven? But are we to believe that Saul—who (1) has disobeyed God to the point where his throne was taken away, (2) is reduced to visiting a proscribed necromancer to get counsel from “Samuel” regarding the upcoming battle, and (3) will commit suicide the following day—will also be in heaven? Won’t he be going to hell? Scripture tells us that when Saul consulted a forbidden medium, it was the last straw. God’s rejection of Saul was now final. (1 Chron. 10:13-14)

Really, we marvel that those who believe the doctrine of natural immortality ever bring up this incident.

The reality is this: Samuel was not there in the chambers of the Witch of Endor. Samuel was then, and is now, in the grave awaiting the Second Coming of our Lord. A demon, or perhaps even Satan himself, was there impersonating Samuel, saying things that Samuel might have said, things that sounded plausible enough to Saul to complete a masterpiece of satanic deception.

Why doesn’t Scripture clearly state that Satan was impersonating Samuel? Because, at this point in time, the concept of the adversary, or Satan, was not understood to the Bible writers. If we read Genesis 3, for example, the serpent is just a serpent. We forget that. We automatically read “Satan” where the text says “the serpent,” because we are so accustomed to reading later Scriptural knowledge back into Genesis. But in fact we are not told the serpent’s true identity until the last book of the Bible (Rev. 12:9).

Note that this story of Saul and the Witch of Endor is from Samuel, and then note this glaring contradiction:

Again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.” (2 Samuel 24:1)

Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel. (1 Chronicles 21:1)

In Samuel, God incites (or tempts) David to conduct an illegal census of Israel; in Chronicles, Satan incites (or tempts) David to conduct an illegal census of Israel. Which is correct? Chronicles, of course. At some point between the writing of Samuel and the writing of Chronicles, the concept of Satan, the adversary, had come to be understood by the Bible writers.

And what do we know about Satan? Satan is the tempter (Mat. 4:1-11), whereas God does not tempt us to sin (James 1:13-15) but rather makes a way of escape from temptation (1 Cor. 10:13). Satan tempted David, not God. It would have been horribly unjust for God to tempt or incite David to number Israel, and then kill 70,000 men as punishment for something He had prompted. (1 Chron. 21:14; 2 Sam. 24:15) Fortunately, we know this did not happen.

We are told that, “the living know that they will die, but the dead know not anything.” (Eccl. 9:5). See, also, Psalm 146:4 “His spirit departs, he returns to the earth; In that very day his thoughts perish.”; Psalm 6:5 “For there is no mention of You in death; who can praise You from Sheol?” Job 7:9-10 “As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so he who goes down to Sheol does not come back up. He never returns to his house; his place remembers him no more.”

Note carefully that last Scripture reference. Job 7:9-10 tells us that he who goes down to the grave “does not come back up” (until the resurrection, of course—Job 19:25-26). As we pointed out above, everyone involved in this story referred to someone being “brought up.” Well, if the dead do not come back up, as Job tells us, who did the Witch of Endor “bring up”? The uncomfortable truth, for those Christians who dabble in spiritualism and the occult, is that mediums, spiritists, and necromancers cannot raise up your dead loved one. At best, or rather at worst, you will see a demon impersonating your departed loved one.

Here is the danger of spiritualism, mediums, necromancy, and all other attempts to communicate with the dead: The dead are dead; they cannot hear us, nor can they speak to us. When we attempt to communicate with them, we open ourselves up to demonic influence; fallen angels may take the form of our dead loved ones, they may appear to us and tell us things that are not true. We cannot risk being influenced by demons.

What was Satan’s message for Saul, as he impersonated Samuel? Saul clearly did not receive a divine message; he was not told to seek God and repent, so that even at that late juncture of his life, he might have been saved eternally. He received a dark message of discouragement. He was told that it was too late to alter his life’s course, that he was irretrievably lost. What a debilitating message of defeat and doom Saul carried into his final battle!

Objection 87: Christ's story of the rich man and Lazarus proves the immortality of the soul. (See Luke 16:19-3l.)

“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24 So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’

25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’

27 “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, 28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’

29 “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’

30 “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

31 “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

This fanciful story is obviously a parable; parables were Christ’s favorite method of teaching. A parable has a main lesson, a main point; a parable’s details are important only in getting the reader or hearer to understand the main point.

What was the point of this story? Back in verse 14, we are told that, “The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus.” Jesus corrected them by having the poor homeless man go to paradise when he died, whereas the rich man was being tortured in hell after his death.

Jesus was also correcting the false belief, held by the Pharisees and most Jews of that time, that riches were a sign of God's favor, and poverty of His displeasure. Christ drove home this lesson by, again, depicting the wretched homeless man in heaven, and the rich man in hell. This was the opposite of what the Jews believed.

Finally, Christ is teaching that we must make our decision for or against God (and God’s salvation in Jesus Christ) based upon the ordinary evidence to which we all have access in this life. This is the Bible (referred to as, “Moses and all the prophets”) as well as what we see in nature. God is not going to bring someone back from the dead to give us a special warning, and, Christ tells, it wouldn’t make any difference anyway!

These are the points this parable teaches us. We would be foolish to try to use this story to inform a doctrine on the state of the dead. The details are too absurd to be taken seriously, including:

1. Heaven is within conversational distance of Hell, despite the “great chasm” between them;

2. Abraham is appointed to moderate discussions between the saved and the lost;

3. Lazarus’ moist fingertip would bring the rich man relief as he roasted in Hell

Christ has drawn a cartoon for us, precisely so that we would not accept the cartoonish details as a teaching on the state of the dead!

We would also note that the details of this parable do not support the disembodied consciousness theory of the immortal soul: The rich man has eyes with which to see, and he picks out Lazarus on Abraham’s bosom from a great distance; he also has tongue that he believes would benefit from Lazarus’ moist fingertip, and obviously Lazarus has a body with hands and even fingertips.

If this narrative is to be taken literally, then the good and bad do not soar away at death as intangible spirits, but rather go to their rewards with real bodies.

When Christ speaks plainly at the end of the story, he tells us that the dead are in their graves awaiting resurrection:

“If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." Luke 16:31.

Christ describes this clearly in terms of resurrection: The dead would need to “rise” to witness to the living; not come back down from heaven, but rise from the grave. The Old Testament writers are very emphatic in stating that the dead, righteous and wicked alike, lie silent and unconscious in the grave until the resurrection day. (See, Job 14:12-15, 21; 17:13; 19:25-27; Psalm 115:17; Eccl. 9:3-6, 10.)

Christ taught, in Matthew 25, that the dead receive their reward only at His Second Coming, not before: "When the Son of man shall come in his glory. ... and before him shall be gathered all nations: ... then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom. ... Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire." Matt. 25:31-41.

Elsewhere in the Bible we find the vivid parable of the trees going forth to elect a king for themselves, and carrying on conversation amongst themselves. (See, Judges 9:7-15; also 2 Kings 14:9.) Why doesn’t anyone use this parable to try to prove that trees talk and that they have kings? The same rule holds for the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.

Objection 88: The Bible speaks of "everlasting Punishment" (Matt. 25:46) for the wicked, and of "everlasting fire" (verse 41) in which they will burn, and of their being "tormented day and night for ever and ever" (Rev. 20:10). This proves the immortality of the soul.

The underlying Greek and Hebrew words translated "everlasting" and "forever" do not necessarily mean literally unending. But before we delve into the Scriptural usage of these words to prove that, let’s take a minute to ponder the implications of a literal interpretation of these passages.

What would you think of a God who tortures the unsaved with burning literally for all eternity? Let’s say there was a particularly bad person who is cast into Hell. Should he burn for a day to punish him for his sins? A year? Let’s say he is really evil; would he deserve to be tortured in hell for a century? We are already verging into territory difficult to imagine or comprehend, but of course we would barely be getting started. If these verses are to be taken to mean literal forever or everlasting, a person could burn for 80 million years for the sins of a life that lasted only 80 years; a million years of punishment, of burning, for each year of earthly existence.

When you pause to think about it, does the concept of everlasting punishment, eternal burning, unending torture, make any sense at all? What picture of God does this paint? Would the God of love described in the Bible (1 John 4:7-12) burn someone in hell throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity for the sins of a brief earthly life?

There is a branch of apologetics called theodicy, which takes upon itself the task of vindicating God’s justice, of vindicating God’s character as a God of both justice and mercy. If we really believe that God would punish someone in Hell literally forever, for eternity, for the sins of a brief earthly existence, we are creating horrendous problems of theodicy, problems that would convince many reasonable people that this “God” we believe in is really the Devil.

Let’s contrast that with what Seventh-day Adventists believe: the saved and the lost do not go to Heaven or Hell when they die; rather, they lie in the grave in complete unconsciousness. (Eccl. 9:5) They have no sensation of the passing of time; as they experience it, the moment after they die they are resurrected (see Objection 83).

The redeemed are resurrected at the Second Coming of Christ (1 Cor. 15:51-54; Rev. 20:6) and, together with those redeemed who are still living, they are given glorified bodies and taken to be with the Lord (Mat. 24:30-31; 1 Thess. 4:16-18). The unsaved are not resurrected at the Second Coming, and the lost who are alive will be killed by the brightness of Christ’s coming (2 Thess. 2:7). Satan will be bound to the earth during the millennium (Rev. 20:1-3) but will have no one to tempt, because the redeemed have been taken to heaven and the lost are all dead.

The redeemed spend a thousand years in heaven, called the millennium, during which time they will have ample opportunity to “examine the books of heaven,” that is, to examine the case of each person of interest to them who was not saved and resurrected at the Second Coming. (1 Cor. 6:2-3; Rev. 20:4-6)

At the end of the millennium, the New Jerusalem descends to the earth, the saved with it. (Rev. 21:1-4) The unsaved are then resurrected and eventually judgment is executed upon them; they are thrown into the Lake of Fire, to be burned up (“fire came down from heaven and devoured them” Rev. 20:9) (Rev. 20:7-9).

Keep in mind that the friends and loved ones of each person who is lost have had an opportunity to satisfy themselves of God’s justice in each case before judgment is executed.

Each lost person is consumed in the Lake of Fire. Some take longer than others to be burned up, depending upon their just punishment, but all are consumed, in a matter of minutes, hours, or days. No one burns longer than that. Satan, who has caused all the sin and sufferings, continues to burn long after everyone else is consumed, but even he eventually is turned to ashes.

Scripture is very clear that the lost do not burn forever, but rather are burned up, consumed and annihilated. (Psalm 37:10 “in just a little while, the wicked will be no more; though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there.” 20 “But the wicked will perish; the enemies of the Lord are like the glory of the pastures; they vanish—like smoke they vanish away.”; 104:35 “Let sinners be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked be no more!”; Mal. 4:1-3“For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. . . . And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet.”; Mat. 13:40-42 “Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace.”; John 15:6 “If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.”; 2 Pet. 3:10 “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.”

Jude 1:7 tells us that, “just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.” So Sodom and Gomorrah serve as an example of the “punishment of eternal fire,” but they are not still burning today! God burned them up; the result was eternal, but the process was not.

Revelation tells us clearly that the Lake of Fire is the second death, the implication being that those who are thrown into it die rather than living on forever:

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades [the grave] gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. Rev. 20:11-15). 

From the standpoint of theodicy and apologetics, we should want the Seventh-day Adventist view of final events to be true.

With this Scriptural background in mind, let us return to the meaning and usage of the underlying Greek and Hebrew terms. The term translated as “everlasting” comes from the Greek noun aion, or from the adjective aionios derived from it. When we examine various uses of aion, we discover at once how impossible it would be to attempt to make this Greek root always mean literally endless or eternal.

We read in Matthew 13:39 and elsewhere of "the end of the world [aion]." How could the world come to an end if it is literally endless? We read of Christ that He has been exalted above “every name that is named, not only in this world [aion], but also in that which is to come.” Eph. 1:21. How do we get to the world to come if this one never ends? Obviously it does, the use of the term aion notwithstanding.

We read of "this present world [aion]." 2 Tim. 4:10. Again we see that an aion can have an end, because this present aion is to be followed by another and different one. Of Christ we read also, "Thou art a priest forever [aion] after the order of Melchizadek." Heb. 5:6. Here "forever," or aion, clearly means this present age; Christ's work as a priest comes to an end when sin has been blotted out. A priest is essentially a mediator between sinful humanity and a holy God, so when sin and sinners are no more, Christ’s mediatorial ministry is at an end.

We read of "Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them ... suffering the vengeance of eternal [aionios] fire." Jude 7. Are those cities, set ablaze long ago as a divine judgment, still burning? No, their ruins are quite submerged by the Dead Sea. The Bible itself specifically states that God turned “the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes.” 2 Peter 2:6. If the “aionios fire” of Sodom’s long ago judgment turned its inhabitants into ashes, then itself died, we may properly conclude that the “aionios fire” of the last day will do likewise.

When we turn to the Old Testament we discover that “everlasting” and “forever” sometimes signify a very limited time. We shall quote texts in which these two terms are translated from the Hebrew word olam, because olam is the equivalent of the Greek aion.

The Passover was to be kept "forever [olam]." Ex. 12:14. But it ended with the cross. (See Heb. 9:24-26) Aaron and his sons were to offer incense “forever [olam]” (1 Chron. 23:13), and to have an “everlasting [olam] priesthood.” Ex. 40:15. But this priesthood, with its offerings of incense, ended at the cross. (See Heb. 7:11-14)

A servant who desired to stay with his master, was to serve him "forever [olam]." (See Ex. 21:1-6) Obviously, forever does not mean literally forever, it means until death, for there will not be masters and servants in the world to come. Jonah, describing his watery experience, said, "The earth with her bars was about me for ever [olam]." Jonah 2:6. Yet this "for ever" was only "three days and three nights" long. Jonah 1:17. Rather a short forever.

Because Gehazi practiced deceit, Elisha declared, "The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee [Gehazi], and unto thy seed forever [olam]." 2 Kings 5:27. Should we conclude, therefore, that Gehazi's family would never end, and that thus leprosy would be perpetuated for all time to come?

Thus, by the acid test of actual usage, we discover that in a number of cases aion, aionios, and olam have a very limited time value.

What Bible usage thus reveals, Greek scholars confirm. For example, Liddell and Scott's Greek Lexicon, a standard work, gives the following as the principal meanings of aion:

"A space or period of time, especially a lifetime, life.... Also one’s time of life, age: the age of man. ... 2. A long space of time, eternity. ... 3. Later, a space of time clearly defined and marked out, an era, age, ... this present life, this world."

Alexander Cruden, in his concordance, which for many years was the best concordance in the English language, remarks under the word "eternal": "The words eternal, everlasting, forever, are sometimes taken for a long time, and are not always to be understood strictly."

The learned Archbishop Trench, in his authoritative work, Synonyms of the New Testament, remarks concerning the primary sense of aion:

"In its primary, it signifies time, short or long, in its unbroken duration; oftentimes in classical Greek the duration of human life." - pp. 208-9.

Now, having proved from the Bible and from Greek scholars that aion and olam are elastic terms, and oftentimes mean only a limited period, we have removed the basis for the objection. But our case is even stronger when we note the rule that commentators give for measuring the time involved in aion or olam in any text.

Adam Clarke, in commenting on Gehazi's leprosy (2 Kings 5:27), remarks:

"The forever implies as long as any of his [Gehazi's] posterity should remain. This is the import of the word le-olam. It takes in the whole extent or duration of the thing to which it is applied. The forever of Gehazi was until his posterity became extinct."

This agrees with the statement found in the quotation given earlier from Moule on Philemon 1:15: “The adjective [aionios] tends to mark duration as long as the nature of the subject allows.” Therefore, we should first decide whether a "subject" is so constituted that he can live endlessly before we decide that hellfire will continue endlessly.

Note the statement made in the well-known commentary by J. P. Lange:

"The bodies and souls of the wicked will suffer as long as they are capable of suffering, which, since they are immortal, will ... be forever." - Comment on Jude 7.

But if they are not immortal, then obviously they will not suffer literally forever, and the claim that the soul is immortal is the very point to be proved. The Bible nowhere declares that the soul is immortal. We have seen several passage stating that God alone is immortal. (See answer to objection 80.)

In the case of the wicked the "nature of the subject" demands the conclusion that complete and speedy annihilation will take place. The wicked are described as "chaff. .... stubble. .... wax," "fat," etc. (See Mat. 3:12; Ps. 68:2; 37:20.) We are told explicitly that the fire "shall burn them up" and "shall leave them neither root nor branch," so that "they shall be ashes under the soles" of the feet of the righteous. Mal. 4:1-3.

Now, while we can thus correctly conclude that the "everlasting torment of the wicked is but a limited period, we can at the same time logically conclude that the "everlasting" reward of the righteous is an unending one, for we are explicitly told that the righteous "put on immortality" at the Advent of Christ. (See 1 Cor. 15:51-55) Thus the "nature of the subject" being immortal, the "everlasting" is correctly understood as meaning endless.

Objection 89: The Bible repeatedly speaks of hell, and of the wicked going to Hell, or of fallen angels going to Hell. This proves the conscious state of the dead.

The short answer is that the Hebrew and Greek words translated as “Hell” usually just mean “the grave.”

In the Old Testament, “hell” is always translated from the Hebrew word sheol, which means the “unseen place” or the grave. The idea of fire or punishment is not found or implied in the word. Sheol was the destination of everyone (Psalm 89:48) even righteous men like Jacob (Gen. 37:35) and Isaiah (Isa. 38:10), so there is no sense in interpreting sheol as the place of punishment or of burning.

In the New Testament the word “hell” is translated from one of three Greek words: in one instance, tartaros (the abyss), in ten instances, hades (the grave), and in twelve instances Gehenna (the burning place).

Tartaroo: The Dark Abyss

The one instance of tartaroo, “dark abyss,” is found in in 2 Peter 2:4, telling how the fallen angels were cast out of heaven and into "darkness." The passage declares that these angels are "reserved unto judgment." Their judgment will take place in the future. (See, 2 Peter 2:4; Rev. 12:7-10.)

That said, 2 Peter 2:4 should not be taken literally. Tartarus is the mythological underworld of the ancient Greeks, where the Titans were sent for punishment. It is not a real place.

Scripture is clear that when Satan was ejected from heaven, he took a third of the angels with him. (Luke 10:18; Revelation 12:3-4; Revelation 12:9) These fallen angels, often called demons, are active agents in a spiritual war between the forces of good and evil, just as Satan is. (Matthew 8:28; Mark 5:15; Luke 4:35; John 8:49; Matthew 12:43; Luke 8:30; Acts 16:16; Luke 7:21; Matthew 10:1; Revelation 16:14)

It makes no sense that some of the fallen angels should be locked in an abyss awaiting judgment, while others are free to roam about tempting us, sometimes even possessing people. Hence, it would appear that 2 Peter 2:4, and also Jude 6, are telling us with figurative language that Satan and his angels had their time of probation in heaven, before being cast out. Now their eternal destiny is fixed, locked in, as it were, awaiting only the execution of judgment (Mat. 25:41). So while they are not physically jailed in a dungeon or abyss, spiritually they are.

Hades

Like sheol, hades also generally means "the nether world, the grave, death." (See, Liddell and Scott's Greek Lexicon.) The Septuagint, the 3rd Century BC Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, almost without exception uses hades as the translation of sheol.

Dr. Luke, in quoting an Old Testament prophecy of Christ: “Thou wilt not leave my soul in sheol” (Psalm 16:10), translates sheol as hades. (See, Psalm 16:10; Acts 2:27.) But Luke’s quotation also raises this question: Does anyone really think Christ went to Hell when he died? We’ve seen, in answering Objection 85, that some argue that Christ (and the believing thief) went straight to heaven when they died. So which is it, Heaven or Hell?

The truth, of course, is that it is neither. Sheol and hades in Psalm 16:10 and Acts 2:27 simply mean the grave; Christ was in the grave from Friday evening to Sunday morning. But, praise be to God, He would not leave Christ in that grave!

In 1 Corinthians 15:55, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” death is translated from a cognate of thanatos, whereas “grave” is from a cognate of hades, yet more evidence that hades is the grave. Incidentally, 1 Corinthians 15:55 expresses much the same idea as Hosea 13:14, where sheol is again translated as “grave.”

Let’s examine each of the ten instances in which hades is translated “Hell” in the King James Bible, New Testament. In Matt. 11:23 (Luke 10:15 is a parallel passage) Jesus says,

“And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell [hades]: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.”

Jesus is condemning those cities because, although he did most of his miracles in them, their people failed to repent and believe. Was the whole city of Caperneum going to be physically removed to heaven, but now the city will go physically to Hell? Would Sodom really still have been there fifteen hundred years later if Jesus had worked miracles there? This is obviously figurative language.

Jesus is saying that Caperneum (and Chorazin and Bethsaida) had an opportunity that almost no one else in world history had: to see the Messiah in person, working miracles. And yet they rejected Him and hence are deserving of severe punishment. Jesus is speaking figuratively to make His point.

In Mat. 16:18, Jesus tells Peter,

“And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell [hades] shall not prevail against it.”

Here Jesus uses hades a stand-in, not only for death and the grave, but for spiritual forces of wickedness and evil. None of these will prevail against the church built on the Stone that builders rejected, which is become the Cornerstone.

Luke 16:23 is the story of the rich man and Lazarus, which we have already dealt with in answer to Objection 87. Here again, Jesus is meeting people where they are, using figurative language to make a point that has nothing to do with the state of the dead.

We just discussed Acts 2:27 above. Acts 2:31 is merely Peter explaining to his listeners at Pentecost that, yes, Psalm 16:10 was indeed a Messianic prophecy and it was fulfilled by Jesus Christ who indeed was not left in the grave to rot, but was resurrected.

In Rev. 1:18, Christ says,

“I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.”

Christ “has the keys” to both the grave and the burning place, but the grave fits better. Why does Christ have the keys to hades, that is, the grave? Because he was alive, then dead, and now he is alive forevermore; because He died, He slept in the grave, and then He was resurrected, so He has the keys to the grave. Again, hades is simply the grave.

Rev. 6:8 tells us:

“And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.”

In this usage, hades could mean the grave, since many are to be killed with the sword. It could also mean very bad things, evil, as in Mat. 16:18

Finally, we come to Revelation 20:13-14:

And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

This passage is very strong evidence against the notion of disembodied spirits going to straight to heaven or “Hell” when they die. This is a teaching about the resurrection of the unsaved dead, the Second Resurrection, which takes place after the millennium in heaven, when the New Jerusalem descends to earth.

Some of these dead came from the sea, meaning the sailors and passengers lost or buried at sea over the millennia. The Greek term for them is nekrous, “the dead ones.” To this day, in medical terminology, dead tissue is described as “necrotic.” Others came from thanatos, the personification of death in Greek culture, and from hades, the grave.

If “Hell” meant the burning place, wouldn’t all the unsaved dead have come from there? Why would some come from the sea, and some from a generalized “death”? Clearly, the unsaved dead have not yet faced judgment; they are resurrected from wherever they lay—in the sea, in the grave, or just dead, thanatos—only then to face judgment.

This passage is also clearly teaching us that death is real. The believers in an immortal soul do not believe in death and the grave at all; they believe immortality is inherent and universal. No one really dies, they argue, the “dead” just go on living forever, either in heaven or in hell. But Rev. 20:14 tells us that death and the grave are real, and they will not be done away with until after the second resurrection, the execution of judgment, and the second death of the unsaved. Only then will death and the grave themselves be permanently done away with, cast into the lake of fire to be destroyed forever.

Gehenna: the Burning Place

Gehenna is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word Hinnom, the name of a valley near Jerusalem, that was used as a dump, where the refuse, including animal carcasses and dead bodies, were consumed in a fire constantly kept going (See Liddell and Scott's Greek Lexicon.) Hence, Gehenna is the only one of the words translated "hell" in the Bible that actually does contain the concept of fire or burning.

Let’s look at the twelve instances in the King James Version New Testament where Gehenna is translated as “Hell”:

Matt. 5:22 states, “anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.” This is clearly referring to a burning place.

Mat. 5:29-30 (Mat. 18:9 is another instance, and Mark 9:43 and 45 and 47 are parallel passages) states, “If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.”

It is interesting that this passage speaks of people being case bodily into Hell, not as disembodied spirits.

Mat. 10:28 (Luke 12:5 is parallel) states, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”

This clearly states that the soul can be killed in the burning place. It is not immortal.

Luke 12:5 is clearer from an Adventist prospective, in that “soul” is not used:

“But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.”

In other words, “don’t fear the first death, from which you can be resurrected, fear being cast into Hell, which is the second death.”

Mat. 23:15 states, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.”

“Child of Hell” is figurative language, obviously.

Mat. 23:33 states, “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?”

James 3:6 is using figurative language: “The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.”

Now in connection with the twelve times Gehenna is used two facts stand out:

1. The “body” as well as the soul is said to be “cast into hell.” Twice is the phrase used, "the whole body." (See Matt. 5:29-30; 10:28.) Note that the wicked are here said to be "cast into" the fire, as though to describe the act of hurling an object into the flames. Note, further, the interesting fact, which is surely more than a mere coincidence in words, that the very same word "cast" (even in the original Greek) is repeatedly used in the various Gehenna texts. In no less than six of these texts we read, "Cast into hell [Gehenna]."

2. In not one of the twelve instances does the text tell when the wicked will be “cast into Hell.” For the time when this happens, we must consult passages such as Rev. 20:11-15, which we discussed above, and Mat. 25:31-41.

From all the foregoing we reach the conclusion that the Bible does not support the idea that the wicked go into the flames of hell at death, but rather that the day when the impenitent objects of God's wrath are "cast into Gehenna" is still in the future.

Objection 90: The Bible says that hell-fire will not he “quenched” and that "their worm dies not." (See Mark 9:47-48 and Isa. 66:24.) This proves the immortality of the soul.

We have dealt with the belief in an eternally burning hell in answering Objection 88, and will not revisit those arguments here. It should be obvious that language such as “worms not dying” and “fires not being quenched” is figurative language, and that the lessons are spiritual.

The Lord through Jeremiah declared to the ancient Jews, "If you will not hearken unto me . . . then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof [of Jerusalem], and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched." Jer. 17:27. (Note that in the Septuagint the same Greek root is used for “quenched” as in Mark 9.) In 2 Chronicles 36:19-21 is recorded the fulfillment of this prophecy, when, in 586 BC, the Babylonians put the city to the torch.

Is that fire still burning? Are those Jewish palaces ever consuming, but never quite consumed? Then why should anyone wish to force from Christ's statement in Mark 9 the conclusion that the judgment fire will never end, that the wicked will ever be consuming, but never quite consumed?

A God who tortures people throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity for the sins of a brief earthly life is not a God who could properly be described as “love.” 1 John 4:8. A “God” like that is no god at all, but rather the devil. Moreover, there is something diabolical about a Christian who would want God to torture the unsaved for millions upon millions of years. That is not the spirit of Christ or Christianity.

Objection 91: The doctrine that a Christian at death goes down into the grave, there to lie unconscious until the resurrection day, is a gloomy belief.

Whether something is or is not “gloomy” depends upon subjective feelings or emotion; doctrine must be founded upon scriptural proofs. The question is not whether a doctrine appears gloomy or bright to our way of thinking, but whether it is taught in the Bible. That said, the doctrine of never-ending torment for the unsaved is far worse than gloomy; it is diabolical or literally Satanic.

But the doctrine often called “soul sleep” is not gloomy. From the point of view of the dead, there is no difference between it and popular theology. In the immortal soul doctrine, a person dies and, at his next conscious thought, he is in heaven with God; in our doctrine of conditional immortality, a person dies and, in his next conscious thought, he is resurrected with a glorified body and is being caught up to heaven to be with Christ.

Is a sleeping man conscious of the passage of time, or of his condition in sleep? What do those who “sleep in the dust of the earth" (Dan. 12:2) know of the passing of millennia, or of the fact that the earth is their bed? They die, and in their next conscious thought Christ is calling them to "come forth" from the grave. John 5:28, 29.

It is obvious that the immortal soul doctrine is intended to comfort us, who are alive and remain. We like to think of the dearly departed in “a better place” and the grave doesn’t seem like a better place to us, even though the dead are not conscious of their surroundings or the passage of time.

But the immortal soul doctrine would not comfort us if we paused to think it through. Every minister preaching a funeral oration, if he can get away with it without provoking audible mirth, preaches the deceased into heaven. But what if—just what if—our dearly departed (let’s call him John Jones, Jr.) was killed attempting an armed robbery, or in a drug deal that went bad, or he overdosed, or he got drunk and wrapped his car around a tree at 90 mph, or he suffered a fatal heart attack while in bed with his mistress while his wife was at home?

Does any preacher say, “John Jones, Jr., is now beginning his first course of torture in Hell, and will be suffering throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity.” I’d like to see that happen one day. Ask that man’s family whether the doctrine of “soul sleep” is “gloomier” than thinking about their son being tortured in Hell throughout all eternity. You might get a different answer.

Or let us suppose that John Jones, Sr., dies and his wayward progeny lives on. Is heaven a joyful place for the elder Jones as he gazes down upon his wastrel son? While on earth, Jones, Sr., might be able to do something to reform his son, but as a disembodied spirit, he can only look on helplessly as his child hurries to eternal destruction. And then, when the son finally dies, the father's anguish is only multiplied by the thought that his son has now been consigned to the endless tortures of hell-fire. All this logically follows from the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, if we pause briefly to think about it—which is why most people never do!

In view of this, we marvel that an objection based on sentiment should ever be raised against the doctrine called "soul sleep." Any thought of death is tinged with sorrow and gloom, for death and the grave are old enemies. But is the sadness really lessened by belief in the immortal-soul doctrine? On the whole, no. Both the Bible and sentiment agree in favor of the doctrine of unconsciousness in the grave until the resurrection day.

Objection 92: The Adventist doctrine that when a man dies he lies silent and unconscious in the grave until the resurrection day is un-Scriptural, illogical, and gross, as compared with the doctrine held by Christians in general that the real man is an immortal soul that departs from the body at death.

So we’ve gone from “gloomy” to “gross,” but we still seem to be within the jurisdiction of sentiment and feeling, and in that territory nothing trumps the problem of an eternally burning hell. No other doctrine has ever brought such reproach upon the name of God and of Christianity. It is said that Robert Ingersoll after listening, when a boy, to a sermon on the kind of judgment God would mete out to sinners, exclaimed, "If that is God, I hate Him." The arguments of all the Christian apologists who have attempted to harmonize this dogma with the universal and deep-seated belief in a loving God fall far short of their goal. This is the dark spot in apologetics.

Another problem the eternal hell doctrine presents is the lack of completion. The Christian doctrine of the restoration of all things requires that God's plan for the salvation of man and the conquest of evil should bring about the complete restoration of the state of universal holiness and happiness that existed before sin came into the universe. (Rev. 21:5 “Behold, I make all things new”; Isa. 65:17: “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.”)

But if there be an eternal Hell, then we have not the annihilation but merely the segregation of evil. There is still sin and suffering in some corner of God’s perfectly re-created paradise. The former would still be remembered and come into mind—and in a painful way for the saved in heaven who have loved ones continually suffering torment.

How much better the Adventist doctrine, in which the unsaved living are killed by the brightness of Christ’s coming, and the unsaved dead are not resurrected until the end of the millennium. The saints are taken to heaven for the millennium, and during that time, the “books of heaven” are opened, each case examined, and all are satisfied that God has judged correctly in every case. The saved will have one thousand years to go through the lives of those who were not saved before judgment is executed.

Then, at the end of the millennium, the New Jerusalem descends to earth, the unsaved dead are all resurrected, and Satan is set loose. Rev. 20:7-10. It is at this time that “every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Phil. 2:10-11. Everyone will admit that Christ’s judgment was just and fair.

Then, the unsaved will be cast into the lake of fire. Rev. 21:8. Some will be consumed instantaneously, some in mere seconds, some in minutes, a few in hours, and a very few, other than Satan himself, in days. But eventually all are consumed and reduced to ashes. Then the world is made anew, without any trace of sin or evil. Rev. 21:1-5.

“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.” Rev. 22:1-5.

The last paragraph of The Great Controversy reads:

“The great controversy is ended. Sin and sinners are no more. The entire universe is clean. One pulse of harmony and gladness beats through the vast creation. From Him who created all, flow life and light and gladness, throughout the realms of illimitable space. From the minutest atom to the greatest world, all things, animate and inanimate, in their unshadowed beauty and perfect joy, declare that God is love.”