FOURTH QUARTER 2022
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #9
NOVEMBER 26, 2022
“CONTRARY PASSAGES”

 

Our Sabbath School lesson this week is an apologetic for passages of Scripture that have been used by those who believe in the unconditional immortality of the human soul – for both the saved and the lost.  The arguments presented by the lesson are clear and convincing, and worth your review both in the Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide and the SDA Bible Commentary.

 

In addition to these resources, E. J. Waggoner has reviewed each of these “contrary passages” in his writings over the years and has the most forceful and compelling review of these passages I’ve encountered – including the above-mentioned Study Guide and Commentary.  I will list below the references in Waggoner’s material for each of the contrary passages we are studying this week.

 

If you find the Waggoner references hard to track down, simply search the “Words of the Pioneers” in the Ellen White CD-ROM, or the “Adventist Pioneer Library” on www.egwwritings.org.  Then you would search for “rich man” and “Lazarus” for example.

 

These are all E. J. Waggoner responding to “questions to the editor” about these common passages used to support the immortality of the soul.

 

Rich man and Lazarus: Luke 16:19-31:  Waggoner - "The Editor's Private Corner. The Punishment of the Wicked.” The Present Truth 17, 18 - May 2, 1901, EJW, PTUK 277.

 

Today in Paradise: Luke 23:39-43:  Waggoner – “"The Editor's Private Corner. From Death to the Resurrection" The Present Truth 17, 11 - March 14, 1901, EJW, PTUK 165.

 

Depart and Be With Christ: Phil.1:21-24:  Waggoner – “The Editor's Private Corner. Departing and Being with Christ" The Present Truth 17, 12 - March 21, 1901, EJW, PTUK 180.

 

Preaching Spirits in Prison: 1Pet. 3:13-20:  Waggoner – “"Spirits in Prison" The Signs of the Times 15, 6 - February 11, 1889, EJW, SITI 86.

 

Souls Under the Altar: Rev. 6:9-11:  Waggoner – “The Editor's Private Corner. Souls Calling for Vengeance" The Present Truth 19, 28 - July 9, 1903, EJW, PTUK 435.

 

I would like to spend the bulk of our time together considering what I believe is the most compelling argument against the unconditional immortality of the soul.  The “proof-text” method, and the “don’t take a text out of context” method both provide fairly compelling evidence for the NON-immortality of the soul.

 

Even science is on our side!  Cognitive scientists and all those who study human consciousness and human nature essentially universally agree that there is scant to no evidence that the mind or “soul” exists outside the body when the brain dies.  If the brain is dead – the “person” is dead.  There is no evidence that consciousness continues after brain function ceases.

 

With biblical exegesis and science on our side, what other case needs to be made?  I believe the gospel case needs to be made also – and it is the most convincing truth for the non-immortality of the soul.

 

“The mystery of the cross explains all other mysteries.” 4SP 469.

 

Let us remind ourselves of some foundational Biblical premises:

1.     Jesus bore our sin(s) in Gethsemane and on the Cross.

       -  Isaiah 53:12 – “He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore

          the sin of many,”

       -   1 Peter 2:24 – “Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the

           tree”

2.     The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

3.     This death that sin produces is called the “second” death – a death of

        body and soul, as compared to the “first” death – a death of body alone.

       -   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.”

       -   Revelation 21:8 - “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable,

          murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall

          have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which

          is the second death.”

4.     Therefore Jesus experienced the equivalent of the second death.

        -   Isaiah 53:10 – “ make His soul an offering for sin”

        -   Matthew 26:38 – “ My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death”

        -   Isaiah 53:12 – “ He poured out His soul unto death”

 

So if Jesus experienced the penalty or punishment or consequences of sin – and that penalty is eternal torment due to the immortality of the soul, then Jesus should have continued to suffer that penalty for sin - forever.  But Peter reminds us, “For Christ also suffered once for sins” (1 Peter 3:18).

Satan would surely have the right to cry “foul”!  All the lost must suffer eternal torment, but Jesus only suffers a couple of hours.  Where is the justice and righteousness of God in that – Satan could rightly say.

In this scenario, the wages of sin for the wicked is eternal conscious torment, while the wages of sin for Jesus is merely a few hours of bodily suffering – as torturous as those hours were.

Furthermore, if Jesus’ human “soul” was immortal, then the most He was facing were the few hours of physical torture. But if Jesus' human “soul” was mortal, then He was facing eternal separation from His Father.  With a “mortal” human soul that was experiencing the penalty/consequence of sin, Jesus was truly facing what the lost, with their “mortal” souls, will face – goodbye to life for all eternity.

A belief in the unconditional immortality of the soul as a doctrinal system limits the ability of the believer in that doctrinal error to see the true height and width and length of the love of God in Jesus. Jesus faced so much more than bodily torment for 6 hours on the cross.  He faced the eternal loss of His soul. He faced the eternal loss of His existence. He faced eternal loss of fellowship with all those He loved – especially His Father and the Holy Spirit.

Evangelical Christianity is handicapped by its belief in the immortality of the soul through a stunted motivational paradigm which restricts their ability to see the greatness of the sacrifice of Christ.  And this will always limit their capacity to respond more fully and completely to the magnitude of the death of Jesus.

At the cross, in Jesus own personal and corporate experience, we see the “wages of sin.”  And it is not eternal torment.  What we see as the “wages of sin” is a weight of guilt and fear and shame and aloneness that crushes the human soul. It crushes it to the point that the brain self-destructs. And the only pathway through that reality is “the faith of Jesus.”

May we be daily growing our faith so that it can mirror that faith of Jesus. May that faith and love of Jesus constrain us, and move us, to live by Him and for Him.

 

~Bob Hunsaker