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Exposing Adventism - How is Adventism like Atheism?

A Christian was talking with an Atheist one day. The Atheist was making fun of the Bible the Christian had. The Christian asked the Atheist, "Don't you believe that we go somewhere when we die?" The Atheist replied, "No. We just cease to exist. We just go out like a light bulb and cease to exist."

According to Seventh-day Adventist doctrine, when a person dies, they just cease to exist. They just go out like a light bulb, and cease to exist. Their breath leaves them and that's it. Poof! They're gone. Nothing but dust. No soul. No spirit. Nothing but dust.

Of course that creates a real problem trying to make it to a resurrection, and so more creative theological surgery is required.

In the book, "Seventh-day Adventists Believe", page 352, it says

"Death Is a Sleep. Death is not complete annihilation; it is only a state of temporary unconsciousness while the person awaits the resurrection."
That statement doesn't even make any sense. What is "incomplete annihilation"?

To say, "the person awaits the resurrection" is equally disingenuous. What "person"? What, actually is awaiting the resurrection?

Awaiting implies anticipation. Anticipation is a function of consciousness requiring a conscious existence. Both are impossible during death according to SDA doctrine. No one and no thing dead "awaits" the resurrection.

According to SDA doctrine, how does a dead person exist? And if they don't exist, then the resurrection can have nothing to do with any person who has lived and died, but is the creation of another being altogether.

Furthermore there can be no such thing as "eternal life" for all persons who die. No other persons created in the image of the formerly living, even the exact same image, can bring them back.

Ellen White, in Great Controversy, page 588, also states that "immortality of the soul" is one of the "two great errors ... Satan will bring the people under his deceptions."

How then can Seventh-day Adventism even have a resurrection?
 
Our Observation

Here are additional related verses:


Matthew 10:28 (King James Version)
28 And 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.

Luke 12:4-5 (King James Version)
4 And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.
5 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.

Luke 23:42-43 (King James Version)
42 And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.
43 And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.

John 4:24 (King James Version)
24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

John 5:24 (New International Version)
24 "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.

Acts 7:59 (King James Version)
59 And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

Romans 2:7 (New International Version)
To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.

Romans 8:22-23 (New International Version)
22We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
23Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

1 Corinthians 15:53-54 (New International Version)
53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."

2 Corinthians 5:1-10 (King James Version)
1 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:
3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.
4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
5 Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.
6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
9 Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

2 Corinthians 12:1-4 (King James Version)
1 It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.
2 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 knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.
3 And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)
4 How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

1 Peter 3:18-22 (King James Version)
18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
20 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.
21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
22 Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.

Jude 1:9 (King James Version)
9 Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.

 

 
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Public Comments

Patria - Posted on Saturday, May 31, 2008:

Gilbert,

Sadly, that is so true. Your analogies are terrific. Isn't it amazing how ALIVE the Bible really is when the Holy Spirit is actually illuminating it through our spirits? It's just incredible.

When you take the equation body + breath = living soul and remove the body through death, then the breath cannot equal a living soul...it needs the body. In other words, the soul is not asleep, it is annihilated. So, in Adventist doctrine, there is no resurrection, but rather, a re-creation hence the teaching about God keeping our 'blueprints' in His mind.

Probably my first BIG cognitive dissonance with soul sleep was several years ago when I was studying John in an inductive study (and it was my first study out of Adventistm, too) and I ran across 5:24 when Jesus said that all who believe in Him HAVE eternal life. (I had memorized John 3:16 so completely I was innoculated to it...) I couldn't figure out WHAT had eternal life... He wasn't saying that the person would eventually have eternal life, but rather that the person who believed in Him, had eternal life right then. That stumped me.

 
 
Unless otherwise noted, all original material on this ExposingAdventism.com website is © 2007-2008 by Gilbert Jorgensen. Careful effort has been made to give credit as clearly as possible to any specific material quoted or ideas extensively adapted from any one resource. Corrections and clarifications regarding citations for any source material are welcome, and will be promptly added to any sections which are found to be inadequately documented as to source.