Soul sleep and Seventh Day Adventists

[Guest]

I have been reading material by the seventh day adventists and they assert that when you die, you go into a type of "soul sleep"; they assert that only god is immortal and that Christians do not go to be with the Lord when they die, but only during the resurection will they be made alive again. If you read their material, they got it all figured out and it seems compelling. Can anyone help me on this?

[Guest]

I have been reading material by the seventh day adventists and they assert that when you die, you go into a type of "soul sleep"; they assert that only god is immortal and that Christians do not go to be with the Lord when they die, but only during the resurection will they be made alive again. If you read their material, they got it all figured out and it seems compelling. Can anyone help me on this?

Well, first of all I would ask for a passage that states that your soul goes into a soul sleep. I don't know of one that specifically teaches this.

It is true that God is the only immortal one, but if we are in Christ we share in His eternal life. So when believers die, we (our soul) is present with the Lord.

2 Corinthians 5:6-8;
So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

Absent from the body can mean nothing else than physically dead, in my opinion.

Jude 1:9
Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses,

Matthew 17:1 Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; 2 and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. 3 And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. 4 Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."

We see here that Moses body is "buried" yet Moses and Elijah appeared to Peter, James, and John. How could they appear to them if their souls are sleeping?

Matthew 10:28
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

How can the body be killed and the soul remain alive if soul sleep were true?


Now I would have a very hard time proving that an unbeliever does not "sleep" until the second coming of Christ. The only appeal I know of is Luke 16:19;

19 "There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. 20But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, 21desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell[4] from the rich man's table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. 22So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. 23And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
24"Then he cried and said, "Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.' 25But Abraham said, "Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. 26And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.'
27"Then he said, "I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father's house, 28for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.' 29Abraham said to him, "They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.' 30And he said, "No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' 31But he said to him, "If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead."'

It seems here that the saved and unsaved both go to an ernest of eternity. The evil suffer and the saved recieve comfort. This is taking place before the final judgement.

[Guest]

Those who hold to a materialistic view of man, see humanity as a mere sentient biological entity which ceases to exist (i.e.sleep) the moment the heart stops beating and the lungs cease to breathe. Basically they see man as an organic life form only. Terms like the human spirit or inner man are taken figuratively for the emotional personality.
What causes them a problem is that God who is spirit, stated that His soul was vexed. But a soul is a breathing organism they suppose. They cannot explain the passage which states that God created the spirit within a man, thus distinguishing the fleshly form formed through human reproduction. Another more troubling situation is the Incarnation of the WORD of God as the fully human and fully divine Messiah Y'shua the Messiah.
You see, if Messiah is fully human in their theology, then Deity must itself transmute into human organic existence. Thus God would change His Nature of Spirit into Biological Matter. Yet this would terminate the WORD as divine, since God is Spirit and does not change. So how do "soul sleepers" truly profess the Biblical and Chalcedonian Faith of Historic Christianity, while espousing a notion which prevents God from becoming Man.
Chalcedonian Anthropology states that man is composed of a created sentient spirit united to a biological form , which has emotions, feelings, physiological impulses and lower carnal mind. Thus God could become a man, without detriment to His Divine Nature. Thus a Human is a composite "Living Soul" comprised of an created spiritual entity united to a mortal physical body. At the death of the physical body the dissolution of the composite"Living Soul" takes place and the human spirit returns to God who created it for inspection and from there it either remains in Paradise to await the Resurrection of the Righteous, or it is consigned to incarceration to await the Resurrection of the Wicked. This is Orthodox Judeo-Christianity's Anthropology & Christiology.
The first to suppose this materialistic perspective of the Human Soul was within the 3rd or 4th century Arabian Church. It was immediately exposed, refuted and denounced by the Arabian Church and all of Christianity. Yet it has been revived since the Reformation by a very small segment of radical protestantism, especially among the Adventists and their children the Russellites.
There have been some who hold that the human spirit does not yet possess immortality either, and exists as a weakening shade until the resurrection. Some hold that the wicked will be resurrected and face the second death in the Lake of Gehinnom. There their bodies shall again be destroyed and their spirits eventually snuffed out all together. Thus the Second Death is an eternal sentence, but the punishment is extermination of both the Body and Soul in Hell. Only the fallen Angels, who are immortal entities, will eternally be conscious in this Hell forever, since it was for them that this Hell was created. I have no problem with this view, or the other position which holds that all the wicked, angelic and human, shall together suffer eternally in Lake Gehinnom for their sins.
What I do know is that Michael the Chief Prince among the Angels of the Divine Council is not God Himself, nor did he incarnate as Jesus Christ. Nor did God transform into mortal flesh, but He took it upon Himself and indwells it as His Incarnation and Temple among Mankind. It is literally said of Him, "that he incased Himself in flesh and became a human being." This contradicts the Adventists and their understanding of the Human Constitution. They have selectively used the Scriptures to teach this and all sorts of heretical nonsense concerning God, Christ, Michael, Man, their remnant Church, Salvation and Eschatology. Yes there are a great many Adventists who are saints who love and serve God in Christ, but this is despite their sectarian pride and errors..it is due to God's Grace alone.
I have many SDA friends who do not adhere to orthodox SDA Dogma on these issues, and they do not accept Ellen G. White as the Spirit of Prophecy either. Actually there is a growing silent rift among the SDA Church world-wide, just because of these errors and sectarian views.
Hope this helps you.

Fr. +Ken Huffman