All:

The SDA cult/church teaches that those who die do not go to heaven or to hell but their soul sleeps unconsciously in the grave until the resurrection.

    "To be dead does not mean to go to heaven; it does not mean to go to hell; it does not mean to go to purgatory.
    Indeed, it does not mean to go anywhere at all.  It means simply an end of life.  ... Death is cessation of life, an
    absence of life, the exact opposite of life.  ...  The man does not live; the body does not live; the soul does not
    live; the spirit does not live; the soul does not live; the spirit does not live; the mind does not live.  Intelligence
    ends, consciousness ends, memory ends, knowledge ends, thought ends"  -('When A Man Dies', pg. 20).

Adventism teaches that the body and soul are not separate entities that can be parted at death.

    "...the soul of man nowhere is represented as a separate conscious part of man existing as such when the
    body sleeps in death... the soul of man comes with the breath; it goes with the breath.  ... it has no function
    or power of manifestation or of action, no existence, apart from the body...."  -('When A Man Dies', pgs. 32,33).

They teach that the spirit is the breath.

    "... notice Job 27:3:  "All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils."  Again, we
    find in the margin that spirit might also be translated 'breath'.  The two words are often used interchangeable
    in Scripture.  ... Now listen, "And breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."
    Nowhere are we told in Scripture that God gave man a living soul.  Man became a living soul as the result of
    the union of the body with the breath of life.  ...  It is clear that the spirit that a man received from God and
    that goes back to God when he dies, is what God put into his nostrils.  ...  When he dies, the two separate.
    The dust returns to the ground.  The breath, or spark of life, from saint or sinner, returns to God who gave it.
    The living, loving, acting soul does not go anywhere.  It simply ceases to be a conscious entity until the
    resurrection morning, when the body and the breath of life are united again.  That is Scripture pure and simple"
    -('Planet in Rebellion', pgs. 320-323.).

What does the Bible really say?  The word "soul" has different meanings in Scripture.  Sometimes it does refer to the whole man.  Often, though, it refers to a conscious, immaterial part of man that exists apart from the body beyond death.  Words in the Bible must be defined by the context in which they are found.

Old Testament examples of the soul as an immaterial, conscious part of the man are seen in Genesis 35:18 and 1 Kings 17:21-22.  In Genesis 35, the death of Rachel is recorded, and we are told that her soul departed when she died.  "...as her soul was in departing, (for she died)..."  In 1st Kings 17 a young boy died and was raised again through Elijah's ministry.  The Bible plainly says that his soul departed and then returned:  "O Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again.  And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived."  Obviously the prophet Elijah did not have the same idea about the soul and death as the Adventists do.

In the New Testament, the word "soul" is also used to describe a spiritual part of man distinct from his body.  "I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ  -(1st Thessalonians 5:23).  Here we are told that man has three parts, man is triune.  Paul did not say man IS a soul; he says man HAS a soul.

The word "spirit" also has various meanings in Scripture.  Just as the word "soul" does not always refer to the whole man, but often refers to the immaterial part of man that is distinct from his body and that is separated from the body at death.

This is the meaning in Genesis 45:26-27, where the spirit is used interchangeably with the heart.  "And Jacob's HEART FAINTED, for he believed them not.  And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said unto them: and when he saw the wagons which Joseph had said unto them: and when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, THE SPIRIT OF JACOB THEIR FATHER REVIVED."

Obviously, this passage does not refer to the spirit as the breath!  In Exodus 6:9, the children of Israel had "anguish of spirit."  Was it their breath that was anguished?  How silly.  The word "spirit" obviously means something different in Scripture than breath.  Again, in Exodus 35:21, the Bible describes those who contributed toward the construction of the Tabernacle as those "whose heart stirred him up, and every one whom his spirit made willing." Deuteronomy 2:30 is another example of this.  Here we find God hardening the spirit of King Sihon.  In 1st Kings 21:5 King Ahab is said to have had a "sad spirit".  Certainly none of these references could be construed as speaking of the spirit as the breath.  The SDA doctrine that the spirit is limited to breath is contrary to the Bible's own teaching.

The New Testament plainly describes death as a departure of the spirit form the body.  When we come to the New Testament, any uncertainty remaining from our Old Testament studies disappears in the light of full revelation.  One uniform doctrine of death is plainly seen as a department of the spirit from the body.  Death means separation, not cessation.  This is how Adam and Eve could die the same day they partook of the fruit.  They died spiritually.  They were "dead in tresspasses and sins".  Later they died physically and the soul was separated from the body.  This has been the orthodox doctrine of death throughout the New Testament age.  SDA doctrine is scary to put it mildly to those less knowledgeable about what the Bible really says.

There are New Testament reasons for believing that death is a departure of the spirit from the body to another conscious realm of existence:

First, it is the body that dies -(James 2:26).

Second, Paul testified that death is a journey.  Take a look at 2nd Corinthians 5:6-7; Philippians 1:23-24; and 2nd Timothy 4:6.

Third, Jesus promise to the thief on the cross shows that death is a departure.  "And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise"  -(Luke 23:43).  Adventists claim that this passage is not translated correctly, that the comma should be after the word "today".  "Verily I say unto thee today, 'Thou shalt be with me in paradise'."  No Bible translation reads like this.  It is simply bad grammar on the SDA's explanation.   It is merely an effort to twist the passage to fit false Adventist doctrine.  I have at my access the top four computer Bible software programs, and not a single translation contained in those four software programs translates it the way the Adventists want you to believe something different.  The fact remains, the Lord Jesus Christ promised the repentant thief that he would be with Him in paradise that very day.  What more proof does one need than the Word from the Lord Himself?

Fourth, the story of Lazarus and the rich man shows that death is a departure.  The proper names (Lazarus, Abraham) that Jesus used in this story prove that He was speaking about an historical scene, rather than giving it as a parable.  The Lord's parables did not contain such details.  Yet even if this was a parable, it would still teach literal truth.  "... the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; and in hell he lifts up his eyes, being in torment..."  -(Luke 16:22-23).  This passage teaches that death is a journey of the soul either to Heaven or to Hell.

Fifth, the dead saints will return with Christ Jesus from Heaven at the time of the resurrection and rapture of the saved.  This shows that dead saints go to Heaven at death.  "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so THEM ALSO WHICH SLEEP IN JESUS WILL GOD BRING WITH HIM"  -(1st Thessalonians 4:14).  According to the Bible, the dead are not sleeping in the grave as the Adventists claim.  Rather, they are in Heaven and they will return from there with Jesus!

Sixth, John's heavenly visions show dead saints in Heaven before the resurrection and during the Great Tribulation on Earth.  See Revelation 6:9-11.  This is another indisputable testimony that dead saints are not sleeping in the grave, but are residing in Heaven awaiting the return of Christ Jesus to Earth.

Seventh, Moses' and Elijah's appearance on the Mount of Transfiguration proves that the dead have conscious existence before death and resurrection.  Look at Luke 9:28-33.  That Peter and the other apostles were not just seeing a feature millennial scene is demonstrated by the fact that Moses and Elijah were speaking with the Lord Christ Jesus about His approaching death.  Moses and Elijah, though dead, appeared on that mountain and conversed about events that were soon to take place in Jerusalem.  It is obvious that Moses and Elijah are not sleeping in the grave.

It is plain from this brief survey of the New Testament that man has a spirit or soul that departs fro his body at death and that lives eternally, either in Heaven or in Hell.  The Bible speaks of death BOTH as a sleep and as a journey.  It is the sleep of the body and the journey of the spirit.

Even in the Old Testament we are taught that death meant separation from the body by the spirit.  In Genesis 25:8 Abraham "gave up the ghost, and died ... and was gathered to the grave, because Abraham's people were not buried in Mamre.  They were buried in Haran a long distance away -(Genesis 11:31-32).  In Genesis 35:18, it is recorded that Rachel's soul departed at her death.  1st Kings 17 tells us that when the widow's son died, his soul had departed -(vs. 21-22).  God told Moses in Numbers 27:13 that he would be "gathered unto" his people.  For two reasons, this could not mean that he would sleep in a grave.  First, Moses' people were not buried in the wilderness where he died.  Second, Moses appeared centuries later with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, and he was quite conscious at that time.

Thus, no matter where we look in the Scriptures, we see that death does not mean sleeping unconsciously in the grave.  The passages that speak of death as sleep are speaking "poetically".  Some Old Testament references to death, particularly in the book of Ecclesiastes, speak of it from the viewpoint of this world.  The theme of Ecclesiastes is "under the sun", and it describes man's attempt to understand life apart from divine revelation.

The doctrine of immortality was not fully revealed until the New Testament.  See 1st Timothy 1:9-10.  It was with the coming of Christ Jesus that the doctrine of life beyond the grave was brought to full light.  This, we must not interpret the New Testament in light of the Old Testament, but rather the other way around, But the Old in light of the New!

It is somewhat interesting where we are today, in light of the emphasis today on the power of pluralism and ecumenism, especially the acceptance of pluralism, that so many Christians today are so tolerant of believing the SDA's statements that "we are just like you" and that "we believe in Jesus"  The driving theme of our day is "universalism".  Truth or doctrine is sacrificed at the price to achieve consensus.  It's the old Rodney King slogan, "Can't we just get along".  I would counter with my view that "tolerance is not a virtue" in the eyes of God.  This was my biggest criticism of the TBN team of Paul and Jan Crouch.  He regularly smacked down Biblical doctrine for his watered down false gospel of "feel goodism". 

I can tell you right now, with total and absolute certainty, that "universalism" will be the driving force/efforts that will lead to the One-World-Church led by Rome and it will be achieved by 2017 through an orchestrated Vatican effort to reduce faith to the lowest common denominator - feelings.  Look for the pope, this one or another after him, to proclaim that the Protestant Reformation is over, ending the Protestant movement that began with Luther's 95 theses nailed to the Wittenberg church doors on October 31, 1517.  I will deal with that topic point in another post on the growing universalism efforts.

Ellen G. White taught doctrines that deviated from the New Testament message.  The fact that a group holds many true doctrines does not mean we are to overlook its heresies.  False imitations of Christianity have always been characterized by a mixture of truth and error.  The Galatian heretics were apparently orthodox in most of their their doctrines.  We have no reason to believe they were anything but orthodox about the Trinity, Christ's Deity, the Resurrection, and Biblical inspiration, but, and this is the key thing to remember, the fact that they added to Paul's gospel brought upon them a divine curse -(see Galatians 1:8-9).  In fact, they were all the more dangerous because of their seeming orthodoxy.  Remember, rat poison is at least 95% harmless.

God bless,

Pastor Bob