Contrasts and Counterfeits by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 26, 1908

Contrasts and Counterfeits

By C. M. S.

—No. 3

We have seen how man’s belief of Satan’s contradiction of God in Eden resulted in a system of deception and untruth that attempts to make gods of men and rob God of his glory as the uncreated founder and ruler of the universe. It was but the perpetuation in the earth of Satan’s campaign of deception in heaven. He purposed to accomplish man’s fall, and then to make man believe himself unfallen and incapable of falling, therefore in no need of a Saviour or Redeemer who should make it possible for him to be restored to his former estate. Thus he hoped to thwart the plan of God for bringing the earth back into the possession of man after he (Satan) had won it from him.

Satan’s other statement, “Ye shall not surely die,” made at the same time, had in it the same subtle purpose. Satan knew that God only was immortal; but he would make man believe that he, too, was immortal, and believing that, he would take from Christ the glory due him as the One who should bring “life and immortality to light through the gospel,” to bring man under Satan’s power and to thwart God’s purpose for man and for the universe.

What was the result of Satan’s effort? His statement is more generally believed to-day than is that which God made to Adam. God said: “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Satan said: “Ye shall not surely die.” To die is to be mortal. To be beyond the possibility of death is to be immortal. God’s statement to man in Eden, therefore, was a declaration of man’s mortality. Satan’s contradiction of that statement was a declaration of man’s immortality. In which of these declarations do the majority of mankind believe to-day? Assuredly it is not God’s declaration in which they place belief; for almost the entire body of Christendom has accepted the belief of the inherent immortality of the soul.

In all the great denominations one tenet of faith is that death is the gateway to eternal glory; that at death come the eternal rewards and punishments. More than that, the belief in the immortality of the soul has made necessary the institution of a place of punishment wherein the immortal wicked shall writhe in torment as long as the righteous inhabit heaven—as long as God lives.

But all this is outside the purpose of God. Man is not immortal; death is not the gateway to glory; neither the righteous nor the wicked are rewarded at death; there is no everlasting place of torment.

To prove this, we have but to quote the words of Inspiration: “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” There is no plainer declaration in human language than this, nor can there be. Satan contradicted it, and men have sought to make it mean something entirely different—everlasting life in eternal burnings. The one is as much a contradiction of God’s statement as the other; for both are a denial of death and an assumption of immortality on the part of those whom God had declared mortal. There is involved in that contradiction the contradiction of another statement of Inspiration, which is this: “The blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; who only hath immortality, dwelling in light unapproachable.” 1 Tim. 6:16. If men have inherent immortality, this statement of Inspiration can not be true. Man must decide for himself in whose word he shall put his trust; whether he will drink at the fountain of wisdom or at the pool of deceit; whether he will believe the Father of light and truth or the prince of darkness and the father of lies.

There is much, very much, involved in the attitude we take in this matter. If we believe Satan’s statement that man is deathless and therefore immortal, we, in the first place, make God a liar; and in the second place, we confuse ourselves and all who follow us in reference to the whole plan and work of God for man. We make death the gate to glory, when the Bible calls it the “king of terrors” (Job 18:14; Ps. 55:4), and “the last enemy that shall be destroyed” (1 Cor. 15:26); we make unnecessary the death of Christ to give us life, for we do not die, and therefore have life already; we make unnecessary the resurrection from the dead, for no one is dead, or in need of a resurrection; we make unnecessary the coming of Christ to reward the saints, for the saints who have “died” have gone to Christ and had their reward already; we give the reward of life to the righteous and the punishment of eternal misery to the wicked at death, whereas Christ says, “Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to render to each man according as his work is” (Rev. 22:12); we do away with “the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (2 Peter 3:7; Acts 17:31), for the immortal righteous and the immortal wicked, in order to enter upon their reward and punishment at death, must have been judged at death; we make Christ’s statement untrue—“I am the way, the truth, and the life”—for death is the way, the door, the gate, into the eternal reward, and Christ could not be “the truth,” because we have life, immortal life, inherent in us without reference to Christ’s work in our behalf.

It seems almost sacrilegious even to state the logical conclusions to which one is led who accepts the dogma of inherent immortality. How dishonoring to God and to Christ, therefore, to accept the dogma as truth and teach it to the world! The bare statement of what is wrapped up in it should be enough to cause the Christian man or woman to turn from it as we believe Eve ought to have turned from the temptation in Eden. It is a part of that very temptation, and we have the sad example of her unwise choice to help us in deciding wisely.

C. M. S.