Death and Resurrection
As taught in the Seventh-day Adventist tradition
Understanding the state of the dead as an unconscious sleep until the resurrection at the second coming.
The question of what happens when a person draws their last breath is perhaps the most profound inquiry of human existence. In the Seventh-day Adventist tradition, this subtopic—Death and Resurrection—answers the fundamental question of human identity: What is a soul? While much of mainstream Christianity has historically embraced the Platonic concept of an immortal soul that departs the body at the moment of death, the Adventist tradition stands firmly upon a "holistic" or "monistic" view of humanity. This perspective asserts that a human being does not have a soul; a human being is a soul.
By the end of this lesson
- **Identify** the biblical components of a "living soul" as understood in the Adventist tradition (Genesis 2:7).
- **Distinguish** between the concept of "innate immortality" and "conditional immortality."
- **Explain** the biblical metaphor of death as "sleep" using the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles.
- **Articulate** the relationship between the state of the dead and the necessity of the Second Coming of Christ.
- **Trace** the historical development of conditionalism within the 19th-century Advent movement.
- **Defend** the holistic view of man against the challenges of dualism and modern Spiritualism.
- **Apply** the doctrine of the resurrection to the Christian's experience of grief and hope.
- **Compare** the Adventist view of death with the traditional "intermediate state" found in other Christian confessions.
Scripture
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