Bible Students and Seventh Day Adventist, Part 41
We continue once again with our subject,
Death and Resurrection
Our Adventist friends go on to state:
What happens to God’s faithful people?
After the final death of the unfaithful, God will create a new earth free of sin and death. God’s people will live free of pain and sorrow. They will enjoy a life of eternal happiness where sin is no more. “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more… and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:1-4, ESV).
As we have shown in our previous post there is to be a resurrection [a raising-up process] of both the just AND the unjust alike [with the hope of retrieval of some of the latter class], a full and complete resurrection to the perfection of life conditions, whether that be on the earthly or spiritual plain of existence, whether it be instantaneous as it will be with those accounted worthy of the resurrection of life or gradual as it will be with those who will share in the resurrection of judgement.
Mankind not yet having obtain life in its fullest sense are still considered dead in the eyes of God, and will not reach the condition of life until near the end of the thousand years when through the efforts of the Christ (Head and body), the Great Mediator they will have been fully restored to all that was lost in Eden, restored to that human perfection once possessed by father Adam, but with the addition of knowledge of good and evil, having had experience with both.
Did not our Lord say, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, when the dead will hear [who hearken further in obedience] the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.”? (John 5:25)
The following unreferenced and untitled excerpt was attributed to the Bible expositor H. Grattan Guinness in R. E. Streeter’s treatise The Revelation of Jesus Christ (Brooklyn, N.Y.: Pastoral Bible Institute, 1924), Vol. 2, pp. 496–497.
“‘The narrowness which sees nothing but the salvation of the Church of this dispensation is born of human selfishness and not of Divine love; it is founded not on the teaching of Scripture, but on tradition and prejudice.
The Bible in this, its last revelation on the subject, plainly teaches that while the peculiar glories of the Church are hers, and hers alone, that while the special privileges of the natural seed of Abraham belong to Israel, and to Israel only, that there is also a blessed future awaiting mankind under the gracious government of Immanuel; that one of the effects of the completed work of Christ will be to place the saved nations of the eternal kingdom in a restored paradise, completely delivered from the Tempter, and so established in righteousness that the Holy One can take up His abode among them forever.
“He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.’”
“‘The salvation of the Church of this dispensation is not the whole result of the death of Christ (Christ did not die merely to save the Church, but the entire world). There is to be in addition the establishment forever of a Kingdom of God in which His will shall be as fully done by men on earth as it is now done by angels in heaven. The consummation for which we daily pray (“Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth even as it is in heaven.”) is destined to come at last; and holy and happy service, without a flaw and without an interruption is yet to be rendered to God, not merely by the glorified saints of the New Jerusalem, but by redeemed nations on the earth, who walk forever in the light of the Celestial City. “‘Such is the sublime vista of the future of our race, and of our earth in the eternal ages with which Scripture closes.’”
Once again, we refer you to the following blog post for further insight:
In our next post we move on to the next subject, The Millennium and the End of Sin.