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Commentary on "The Promise of His Return"
Day 6: Thursday, March 29, 2012 - "Behold, I Come Quickly"
Overview
This day takes another shot at the timing of the second coming. While the previous day dealt with the apparent delay, today the focus shifts to the subjective experience of the believers that makes the second coming to be perceived as happening soon. From the Adventist point of view, death brings a cessation of consciousness. It doesn't matter if Jesus comes after one hour, one year, one hundred or even one thousand years, the lack of consciousness reduces the waiting time to zero. In other words, death coincides with the second coming. Compared with thousands of years of waiting, the time of a life span is short, contributing to the sensation that Jesus is coming soon.
Observations
While a biblical view of the intermediate state occurring between death and resurrection could not be expounded in this short review, some thoughtful questions are appropriate. For example, 2 Corinthians 5:6-9 is well-known both by Adventists and by those who believe that here Paul talks about the intermediate state in which the spirit of the believer is at home with the Lord. Adventists argue that this text should be interpreted through the lens of the perspective mentioned above, namely that from a subjective perspective death brings the believer to be at home with the Lord because the next moment experienced after death is the event of resurrection as far as the believer is concerned.
But there is an element that doesn't fit in the Adventist perspective. The text speaks about being "in the body" and "away from the Lord", also being "away from the body" and "at home with the Lord" In addition, the Bible speaks of what is common to these two states: the soul's desire to please God: "So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. " (2 Cor. 5:9). The problem posed by the Adventist perspective is that the soul is composed by both body and breath, and when the two elements are separated, the soul, or the individual, no longer exists. From birth to death the living soul lives, and the existence is resumed after resurrection. But in both phases, before death and after resurrection, the individual is "in the body." In the Adventist understanding there is no existence "away from the body". If the soul cannot have it's existence apart or away from the body, Paul's words are meaningless, talking about a phase of existence that is not real. For anybody who takes God's word as inspired and inerrant, Paul's words clearly describe the intermediate state.
One of the objections raised by Adventists to the Christian doctrine of the intermediate state is that it removes the incentive for resurrection. If believers are reunited with Christ at death, why long for the resurrection? What Adventists miss is the fact that besides being with the Lord at death, the soul doesn't share the full benefits that will be bestowed at resurrection. True indeed, he is with the Lord, but his brothers are still suffering on earth from all the troubles that a fallen world brings on the believers. Despite being present with the Lord, the soul longs to see justice being done and God's judgment to be inflicted against the persecutors of the church. He longs to see his brothers liberated from the sufferings brought by sin, sinners and Satan.
"When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been" (Revelation 6:9-11).
As ironic as it may appear, the Adventist doctrine of soul sleep is the one removing the incentive for resurrection. First, it makes resurrection impossible, as the commentary on Tuesday's lesson explained, and second, if the soul has no consciousness, Jesus may as well come after 100,000 years. It doesn't matter, since every believer will experience it subjectively after 80, 90, 100 + years. If somebody suffers persecution, his death will bring him directly to the second coming, and if this coming happens sooner or later, it doesn't matter. He has no concern for his brothers, he has no incentive to see God doing justice sooner by bringing judgment on the entire earth. The doctrine of soul sleep has an opposite effect from what Adventists usually assume. It demotivates them in regard to the soon coming of Jesus. It offers instant gratification at death, and what is after it no longer concerns them.
Copyright 2012 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised March 21, 2012. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Camp Verde, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.
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Official Adventist Resources
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