IS HE CORRECT? by E. Lanphear

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 28, 1879

IS HE CORRECT?

By E. Lanphear

[Our answers to the following queries will be found inclosed in brackets. Ed. Review.]

EDITOR OF THE REVIEW: I observe that Rev. Wm. H. Ernst, in his article in the Sabbath Recorder of June 12, under the head of “What is the Condition of the Spirit after Death?” refers to the Adventists, or materialists, as to their theory, and says: “It claims that the spirit lies with the body in the ground, if they admit of any spirit properly so called, and that both will be brought up at the close of the Christian dispensation, having the same composition as before death.”

Is it a fact that this is the theory of Adventists on this subject? [No.] I had supposed that the spirit of all men, at death, returned to God who gave it, and the body (dust) returned to the earth as it was, as set forth in Eccl. 12:7; and that the man, soul, body, and spirit, remained in as dormant a state as before creation, until the close of this dispensation, when Christ shall come the second time, and call them forth by the resurrection to be judged. And at that time the righteous shall be raised a spiritual body, and this mortal put on immortality. Am I correct in this view? and is it in accordance with the Adventist faith? [Yes.]

I do not believe that man at the resurrection takes on the same material as while living in this world; but that they will be raised like Christ’s glorious body after his resurrection. Christ said (1 Cor. 15:50), “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” The blood of Christ was sacrificed, taken from his body on the cross; consequently there was no blood in his resurrected and most glorious body, and no corruption connected therewith. The saints shall be like him, their elder brother, and joint heirs with him in glory. Does this view correspond with the theory accepted by Adventists? [Yes.]

Rev. Mr. Ernst says that Christ will come bringing the saints with him. But I understand Christ to say (John 14:2, 3), “In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” Does this text justify Mr. Ernst in his statement that Christ will bring his saints with him? [It does not. The place from which God brings the saints with Christ, is from the grave. “Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus,” etc. Heb. 13:20. So those that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him, or in the same manner as he brought him, from the grave. God does not “bring” Christ when he comes the second time; he “sends” him. Acts 3:20.]

Does he correctly represent the Adventists? or does he make his statements with a view to deceive, and thus make it appear that the spirit of man that goes to God at death is the real man, the soul, life, and ever-conscious being that God created out of the dust of the ground, and made accountable? [Whatever Mr. E.’s motive may have been, he does not correctly represent Adventists.] Is there any Scripture evidence that the same spirit that leaves the body at death will return to it again at the resurrection? [This spirit is not an entity.] Do we know any further than that it (the body) will be raised a spiritual body, and this mortal put on immortality, as the gift of God? [That is all that is revealed.] It seems wonderfully strange that educated men will resort to such extravagant ideas in order to make out man an ever-living entity without the gift of God.

E. LANPHEAR. Plainfield, N. J.