| APPENDIX 1 What About Hell? Satan’s argument at the beginning of the Great Controversy was that sin would not cause death. Virtually all pagan religions, and even Bible believing Jews and Christians, believe the first lie Satan told humanity. God had said, “Ye shall surely die;” the Serpent said, “Ye shall not surely die.”[521] The doctrine of an eternally burning hell has it backwards; God has allowed suffering for a short while in order to eradicate it from the universe forever. The Bible clearly says that “the wages of sin is death,”[522] not “eternal life in hell.” “The “gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”[523] “Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”[524] “God… gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”[525] Jesus and the Bible writers called the first death a sleep[526]. Death is called a “sleep” at least fifty times in the Bible. When a person dies, whether saint or sinner, they are unconscious: “The living know that they shall die; but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.” “ Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.”[527] “the dead praise not the LORD.”[528] Man’s “breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.”[529] They are in the grave until the resurrection: “The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.”[530] “Yet shall he be brought to the grave, and shall remain in the tomb.”[531] “If I wait, the grave is mine house; I have made my bed in darkness.”[532] “O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me in secret… If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee.”[533] They cannot communicate with the living: “So man lieth down, and riseth not; till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.” “His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.”[534] “Neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.”[535] Satan had told Eve, “Ye shall be as gods.”[536] Only God is immortal: “the King of kings and Lord of lords, who only hath immortality.”[537] The term “immortal soul” is nowhere found in the Bible. The word immortal is found only once in the Bible, and it is in reference to God[538]. Paul said that “Jesus… brought forth immortality.”[539]; he said that we should “seek immortality”[540]. If we already possessed it, we would not need to seek it. No, Paul said, “…we shall be changed…for this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”[541] Eternal life is a gift from God, given only to those who trust him.[542] “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.”[543] Matthew 10:28 says “body and soul” are destroyed. |
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| 521 Genesis 3 522 Romans 6:23 523 Romans 6:23 524 James 1:15 525 John 3:16 526 John 11:11-14, I Thessalonians 4:13, I Corinthians 15:18-20, Daniel 12:2 527 Ecclesiastes 9:5,6,10 528 Psalm 115:17 529 Psalm 146:4 530 John 5:28,29 531 Job 21:32 532 Job 17:13 533 Job 14:13-15 534 Job 14:12,21 535 Ecclesiastes 9:6 536 Genesis 3:5 537 I Timothy 6:15,16. 538 I Timothy 1:17 539 2 Timothy 1:10 540 Romans 2:7 541 I Corinthians 15:51-54 542 Romans 6:23 543 Ezekiel 18:20 |
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