PAUL'S QUESTIONS by John H. Waggoner

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 9, 1869

PAUL'S QUESTIONS.

By John H. Waggoner

“How are the Dead Raised Up? and with what Body do They Come?”

The Herald of Life (George Storrs) charged Wm. Sheldon with advancing the view in his “Adventism—What is it?” that the saints will be raised mortal, and be immortalized some time after their resurrection. And the Herald called upon Mr. Sheldon and the editor of the Voice of the West, who published Mr. Sheldon’s book, to define their position on that point. But so far as I have been able to learn, neither of them has responded to the inquiry. So far, then, as their Adventism is concerned, the “What is it?” remains to be answered. The editor of the Bible Repository, Eld. Rufus Wendell, says that Mr. Sheldon has heretofore held and advanced the mortal-resurrection view. I was surprised on reading this, being hardly able to believe that any Adventist would advocate a view so manifestly unscriptural.

Recently, in reading a number of the Crisis, I found an article by Hiram Munger in which he argues that “Michael the archangel” is not Christ. To reconcile this idea with 1 Thess. iv, he says:

“As Christ has had charge over the angels since he went up, why may he not send his angel Michael and wake up the dead, instead of doing it himself? . . . Angels cannot give immortality, but they may wake up the dead to judgment.”

This, of course, does not harmonize with 1 Thess. iv, for it says, “the Lord himself shall descend,” and “the dead in Christ shall rise.” But it shows that Mr. Munger holds that the resurrection of the dead is to judgment previous to their receiving the gift of immortality.

I have now before me the report of a discussion between Miles Grant, editor of the Crisis, and Joseph T. Curry, of Springfield, Mass., on the resurrection of the wicked, wherein Eld. Grant takes positive ground on the mortal resurrection of the righteous. He says:

“I read that we are going to put on immortality. My friend admitted that mortal never applies to anything dead. Certainly a correct admission. Then, of course, they have got to be brought up mortal to put it on.”

The remarks of Mr. Curry on this point are so just I will copy from him also, as follows:

“He explicitly states that the reward follows the Judgment. Of course we all agree to that. But what is the reward of the righteous? Immortality. Well, then, they cannot get immortality till after the Judgment. That is plain. If the reward follows the Judgment, then it follows that when the righteous get immortality, this judgment has been passed upon them. According to his own showing, the Judgment precedes the immortalization. Now, as the Judgment precedes the immortalization of the righteous, it follows that it precedes the resurrection of the dead, for “the dead are raised incorruptible.”

It seems that the first-day Adventists are fast drifting on to the mortal-resurrection theory; the editor of the Crisis being publicly committed to it, and the editor of the Voice lending his influence to spread it, not disavowing it. Seventh-day Adventists have uniformly taught that judgment precedes the resurrection, as the saints are raised immortal—the act of raising them and of immortalizing them being identical. The words of inspiration are, raised in incorruption; raised in glory; raised in power; raised a spiritual body. Such expressions would seem to place it beyond the possibility of dispute.

While we are led to wonder that Adventists are taking a position contradictory to such plain, positive statements as those of 1 Cor. xv, on the resurrection of the saints, it also seems a marvel that other Adventists who admit that the Judgment precedes the coming of Christ, overlook the announcement of the Judgment in Rev. xiv, 6, 7, and its relation to the third angel’s message of verses 9–12. Those who deny that the saints are raised incorruptible, cannot be expected to discover the harmonious arrangement of this subject as given in the Scriptures. But those who recognize that fact and rightly place the Judgment prior to the resurrection, ought to see, in Rev. xiv, the whole Advent movement beginning with the Judgment-hour cry of 1844, and leading down, step by step, to the appearing of the Son of Man on the white cloud to reap the harvest of the earth. If Rev. xiv is not a second-advent prophecy I do not know of any. And if that is a prophecy of the second advent, then who are the Adventists? Will professed Adventists consider this question?

J. H. Waggoner.

W. Gardiner, Me., Jan. 27, 1869.