To Correspondents by J. H. Waggoner

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 25, 1874

To Correspondents.

By J. H. Waggoner

Wm. Evans: The report of the Mo. & Kan. T. & M. Society was published in the last number of the True Missionary.

To J. B. T. N., Richland, O.:—Your difficulties seem to grow out of a misapprehension of terms as well as of facts.

1. We do understand that to inherit the kingdom, 1 Cor. 15:50, is just the same as entering it. We cannot imagine how a person can inherit a kingdom which he does not enter. He may be an heir of it before he enters it, but to inherit is to possess.

2. We do not understand that the saints are to be “restored to the Adamic condition,” as Adam was on probation, which the immortal saints will not be. Also Adam was not immortal; his condition was not a fixed or final one, as will be that of the immortalized saints. To reason closely from Adam’s condition to that of resurrected saints is a grave error.

3. We are still certain that Paul, in 1 Cor. 15, uses the phrase “flesh and blood” as the equivalent of mortality or of a corruptible state. The whole connection shows this.

4. We are greatly surprised that you should use Heb. 9 to prove that the present life or condition of our Saviour may be represented by the phrase, “flesh and blood.” Verse 12, which says he entered into Heaven “by his own blood,” does not refer to his own personal condition, but to the offering which he presents to his Father, as a priest. Aaron did not enter the most holy place by means of the blood which was in his veins, but by the blood of the sin offering which was slain outside the sanctuary. Even so Christ as our High Priest entered into Heaven itself “by his own blood,” the blood which he shed as a sacrifice upon the cross.

We think you will see reason to change your mind when you examine these points with care. And may the Spirit of the Lord guide us all, according to His promise.

J. H. Waggoner.