Commentary on "The Message of the Prophets"

MARTIN CAREY

 

Day 5: Wednesday, March 4, 2009

The lesson begins with the statement that God alone has immortality, and with that, Christians can agree. In him only is life, and all things are upheld by the word of his power. The lesson then makes a sharp departure from the rest of Christianity with the sweeping claim that any view of a non-physical existence after death, apart from the body, is a notion common to “primal, animistic, and polytheistic religions.” The author calls this, “human immortality.” The Greeks also held to a shadowy existence in Hades, the place where the souls of the dead lived, released from the prison of their bodies.

The lesson then jumps into the question of Hell: Do Matthew 25:46 and Revelation 14:9-11 teach eternal torment in Hell? The words, “everlasting,” and “for ever” don’t necessarily mean never ending. The Greek words aion and aionios “express duration as long as the nature of the subject allows.” Examples are given in Jude, where Sodom and Gomorrah are punished with eternal fire. The same word is used to describe the lives of the redeemed in Heaven, in which case it means time without end. When it is used to describe to the punishment of the wicked, it means a limited time period.

 

Problems

God alone has immortality, and in the Bible, that word is used to describe resurrected bodies that have souls, not disembodied entities. A dead spirit does not have life, in that it has no communion with God, even though it is capable of sin.

The lesson makes a sweeping generalization that any notion of a non-material existence after death is primal, animistic, etc., and appears in Greek mythology. This “guilt by association” argument fails to acknowledge several realities. First, we can just as easily condemn the author’s materialistic view of man by finding unsavory associations with other Greek philosophers such as Democritus, Epicurus, Lucretius (“Religion lies cast beneath our feet”), and in modern times, Marxism, atheism, most of the Western academy, and Jehovah’s Witnesses. Materialism lowers the value of man to an animal, and has an idolatrous and bloody history.

The Bible freely uses the terms soul and spirit, and there are serious problems with the Adventist argument that spirit = breath. If we insert the word “breath” everywhere in the Bible where that spirit is translated, we have difficulty. In the Old Testament, the human spirit has feelings. Pharaoh has a dream, “It happened in the morning that his spirit was troubled” (Gen. 41:8). And in Exodus 6:9, “but they didn't listen to Moses for anguish of spirit.”

The spirit of man includes his thoughts. Proverbs 20:27 says, “The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all the innermost parts of his being.” Try inserting “breath” into that sentence. This reminds us of Paul in I Cor. 2:11, “For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so, the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.”

The story of Saul seeking Samuel’s spirit through the witch of Endor is only hard to explain if you have a materialist’s view of life after death. There is nothing in the story that indicates that this was a satanic deception. The spirit is called “Samuel,” and the character of the spirit is true to Samuel. Everything he told Saul was either true then, or a true prophecy for the future. None of that has Satan’s mark. It is true that consulting mediums was forbidden by God, but being sovereign over Satan, God could turn Saul’s folly to his own purposes. That spirit spoke the words of God, just as Samuel did in life.

Jesus himself made it plain that the new birth is an event that requires our possession of a non-material entity. He told Nicodemus, “that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Try inserting breath into that statement. If spirit is only breath, then the new birth is only some kind of physical transformation, and that flies in the face of the NT. Romans 8:5 tells us that there is nothing in our flesh that desires God, or can know him. Only if we have a spirit (Romans 8:16) can his Spirit bear witness to us that we are children of God. Spiritual things are spiritually discerned (I Cor. 2:14). That is why we must worship him in spirit and truth (John 4:24). God, as a spirit, does not commune with flesh.

Regarding Hades In the NT, Jesus uses this Greek term for the place of the dead, Hades, fully aware of how his listeners heard it. He described hell, where there is conscious, eternal torment.

It is a place of outer darkness where men will weep and gnash their teeth (Matt. 25:30). It is a place of eternal fire (Matt. 25:41). There is eternal punishment for wicked, and eternal life for the righteous, a clear parallel, giving a strong hint as to why an eternal hell is real. It is a place of unquenchable fire where the “worm does not die” (Mark 9:43, 48). Luke 16 tells the story of the rich man and Lazarus the beggar. Here is yet another story in the Bible that Adventists claim is not true, though there is no indication it is metaphor or symbolism. In this story, hell is a place of torment, and Jesus paints that picture deliberately.

If the lesson is right, in that aion and aionios “express duration as long as the nature of the subject allows,” then some are raised to everlasting destruction by God’s power. That would be their nature that God allows. A short, “merciful” time of punishment trivializes sin. Grudem points out that if a short punishment is enough to pay for the sins of the wicked, then afterward they should be permitted to enter heaven. The cost of sin is of such magnitude, only God could pay the penalty. (Grudem, Systematic Theology, 1150)

Probably the strongest objections to an eternal hell are based on the justice and love of God. We can only trust in his infinite wisdom and mercy, knowing the horror of sin that God feels, to appreciate its necessary penalty. We can remember the sadness for the lost found in God: “…turn back, turn back from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel?” We are also reminded of the exceeding value of eternal life. Whatever our conclusions on this subject, we can take confidence that “God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all” (I John 1:5).

 

Summary

• Jesus gave a promise to Martha when Lazarus died, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” That is the meaning of eternal life.
• We can have it now (Jn. 5:24), and “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:28).
• The question we must answer: "Do you believe this/"

 

 

Copyright 2009 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised March 6, 2009. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Glendale, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.

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