There is much conflict and confusion in what has been written about the beliefs of both the Pharisee and the Sadducees. Below is a brief outline of their beliefs, which is in agreement with most writers.
THE SADDUCEES: They believed in a strict following of the Law and believed that the Law said nothing about an immortal soul, or about the resurrection of the dead. See
[6]. "The God of Abraham" next in this chapter.
THE PHARISEES: The Pharisees originated in the time of the Maccabees and died out soon after A. D. 70. A belief in some kind of resurrection was established among some of the Jews in the time of Christ, but was not believed by most; but the teaching of Christ in Mark 12:26-27 on anyone having eternal life and immortality in Heaven after death was new to them [2 Timothy 1:10]. The Pharisees seem to have believed much of Rabbinic Judaism, mostly writings that were written between the Testaments that were influenced by Greek pagan teaching. Some form of an immortal soul was believed by the Greeks and is in some of the Rabbinical writings. The Pharisees did believe in both the resurrection of the dead, and in spirits and angels [Acts 23:8] and they did believe the teaching of eternal life was found in the Scriptures and searched the scriptures for proof
[John 5:39], but what kind of eternal life and where did that believe it would it be; what did they believe about the resurrection? The only resurrections in the Old Testament Scriptures that they searched were resurrections of earthly body back to a mortal life that was no different from the mortal life of those who had not been resurrected. The New Testament teaching of a resurrection to immortality was unknown to them. Christ abolished death, and "brought life and immortality to light through the gospel" [2
Timothy 1:10-11]; a resurrection to immortality was unknown in the Old Testament, therefore, how could the Pharisees or anyone have known about something God had not made know? They looked for the Christ to restore Israel as a great nation and to set on the throne of David in Jerusalem, not to be killed and resurrected and set on His throne in Heaven. They may have thought Abraham, David, and others would be resurrected as mortals in the restored Israel under the savior they looked for. Whatever they believed about a resurrection, it could not have been the resurrection to eternal life in Heaven, which was not known about before Christ. A resurrection of all, judgment, and eternal life in Heaven for believers after death was unknown to them. They had many traditions and were rebuked for making the Law void by their traditions. Jesus said to them, "You hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, this people honors my with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain do they worship me, teaching as 82
their doctrines the precept of men" [Matthew 15:7-9]. Much of the teaching of Christ was a rebuke to them about their beliefs. See Matthew 19.
"In the resurrection; therefore, whose wife shall she be of the seven?" [Matthew 22:28. Notice the question or the answer did not mention an intermediate state. Although there were resurrections of the earthly body back to life just as it was before the death of the person resurrected in the Old Testament, there is nothing of a resurrection to immortality life with a spiritual body without the earthly body. The fact that they thought that if there were a resurrection she would have to be the wife of one of the seven points out that they were thinking of a resurrection of an earthly mortal body with life on this earth as it is now with husbands, wives, and children. This reply by Christ is one of, if not the first suggestion of a resurrection that will not be a resurrection back to a mortal life.
This was a new teaching of Christ that was not known about before He brought it to light through the gospel [2 Timothy 1:10], therefore, could not have been known about by the Pharisees.
"The sons of this world (aion-age) marry, and are given in marriage: but they that are accounted worthy to attain to that world (aion-age), and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: for neither can they die any more; for they are equal unto the angels; and are sons of God" [Luke 20:34-36]. Jesus is speaking of life in two different ages, in this age where there is marriage and death, and life in an age (Heaven) where there is no marriage or death. The Pharisees view of the resurrection seems to be a resurrection to life as it now is in this age. Christians, while living on this earth, are (1) not immortal, (2) not deathless, (3) not spirits, (4) not equal unto the angels, (5) they do marry.
Today most that are called Jews believe more like the Sadducees did, and do not believe the Old Testament says anything about an immortal soul or anything about anyone going to Heaven at anytime after death; they do not believe their savior had come, and believed when he did come he would restore Israel as a nation.
Alexander Campbell said, "1. That before the Captivity, and the Macedonian and Roman conquests, the Jews observed the most profound silence upon the state of the deceased, as to their happiness or misery. They spoke of it simply as a place of silence, darkness, and inactivity. 2. But after the Hebrews mingled with the Greeks and Romans, they insensibly aided into their use of terms, and adopted some of their ideas on such subjects as those on which their oracles were silent." Appendix to "The Living Oracles" Page 59.
The belief of the Greeks was reincarnation back to some kind of earthly life that would die again; they had no conception of eternal life in Heaven that was made known by Christ.
3. The Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection. "On that day there came to him Sadducees, they that say that there is no resurrection" [Matthew 22:23]. To prove there was no resurrection they tried to trick Jesus with a question that would prove there was not. The point of His answer was to prove there is to be a resurrection, not to prove anything about the state of the dead before the resurrection. There is nothing in their question or in Christ’s answer about a disembodied soul or spirit that is alive before the resurrection. Christ was asked, "The woman also died.. .in the
resurrection; therefore, whose wife of
them shall she be" [Luke 20:33]? They did not ask whose wife she would be at death but in the resurrection; their question was not who now has her disembodied spirit in the intermediate state.
Christ said to them, " but they that are accounted worthy to attain to that world (aion-age) and
the resurrection from the dead...but that THE DEAD ARE RAISED" [Luke 20:35-37], "But as
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touching the resurrection of the dead" [Matthew 22:31]. "For when they shall rise from the
dead...But as touching the dead, that they are raised" [Mark 12:25-26].
[6]. THE GOD OF ABRAHAM
Matthew 22:32 “But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have you not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, „I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.‟” Christ was proving to the Sadducees that there will be a resurrection, not that Abraham was alive at the time He was saying this; at that time Abraham was not alive in Heaven, Hell, in Abraham‘s bosom, or alive any other place. If the dead are living in a disembodied state, for God to say he was the God of Abraham would not prove there will be a resurrection, but would prove one was not needed. If Abraham were not dead, Christ could not have used Abraham to prove the dead will be raised. The dead must be dead to be raised; a living Abraham would not need to be raised, would not need a resurrection to make him alive. The whole point Christ was making is that there will be a resurrection, not that none are dead to be resurrected. Not that a disembodied spirit is the only part of a person that will be in Heaven or Hell, and this immaterial part of a person is now alive in Heaven or Hell while his or her dead body is in the grave. If this disembodied part of a person were alive anywhere it would make the resurrection impossible. A resurrection of those who are living would be an empty show, a fraud, not a resurrection. The belief of many says, "Not so Christ, I was born immortal and cannot die, therefore, I cannot be dead or raised from the dead"? This theology destroys the Biblical doctrine of the resurrection.
1. Either Abraham was dead and will be resurrected.
2. Or Abraham was alive and he cannot be resurrected.
It could not be both; he could not be resurrected of he was alive.
If Abraham were alive, as many teach he was, then he was never asleep. Many believe we have an immortal part of us that can never be dead but despite the fact that it is alive, it is going be resurrected from the dead so that he can be in Heaven even thought he is already in Heaven before the resurrection. Paul said of Able, "He being dead" [Hebrews 11:4], if language has any meaning, Abel was dead, not alive at the time Paul said this. "For David...fell asleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption" [Acts 13:36]; if David were living (awake) at this time, if only his body was in the tomb, Peter had no point or argument; what Peter said had no meaning.
1. Christ was not in the grave at that time was visible for all to see
David was
2. Christ did not see corruption
David did
3. Christ ascended into Heaven
David has not and will not unto the resurrection
"From the day that the fathers fell asleep" [2 Peter 3:4] shows that Abraham and David are still asleep, along with all other's that "are fallen asleep" [1 Corinthians 15:6]. To say that Abraham has been raised is to say the resurrection is past, and Christ was not the "first fruits" [2
Corinthians 15:20], or the "first born" [Colossians 1:18, Revelation 1:5]. To say that an immortal part of Abraham was never dead is to make a resurrection impossible. The resurrection at the coming of Christ is the subject, and nothing is said about what will be between death and the resurrection. Abraham "believed, even God, who gives life to the dead, and calls the things that are not, as though they were" [Romans 4:18]. "For none of us live to himself, and none die to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord; whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living" [Romans 14:7-9]. How could Christ be Lord of the dead if no one is dead?
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Although Exodus 3:6 is constantly quoted to prove the dead Abraham was not dead there is nothing in it that says Abraham was alive in Heaven at that time.
Summary: If the dead are more alive than when they were living, it both takes away the need for a resurrection and made it impossible. Christ's argument that there will be a resurrection is totally destroyed. When this passage is used to prove the dead are not dead but are conscious then it would proves that there is no resurrection. If the dead are alive then how would His answer prove there would be a resurrection, and what would be the need of one?
This is a serious problem for those who teach unconditionally immortality. IT CANNOT
BE TAUGHT THAT THE DEAD ARE MORE ALIVE THAN THE LIVING WITHOUT
DESTROYING THE BIBLICAL DOCTRINE OF THE RESURRECTION. If Abraham,
David, Job, and other saints are alive in Heaven, death has already been destroyed. Death would have been destroyed for all at death, not at Christ's second coming; and even those in the Old Testament would have had life, eternal life, without the death of Christ and without the resurrection and judgment. Take away the fact that Abraham was dead, which is the very thing that those who say a person is born immortal and can never die are trying to do; and you take away the point of Christ's argument, and make Him be saying just so many words that say nothing. Christ's argument, that there will be a resurrection, requires that Abraham is dead at the time Christ made the argument. Abraham being alive would have requires that he never died or that his resurrection was past before the death and resurrection of Christ. When did it happen?
The resurrection of Christ, Abraham, or anyone requires that they be dead at the time of the resurrection for they could not be resurrected if they were alive. How could anyone think that a coming back of the living from Heaven is a resurrection of the dead? If David were not still in the tomb then he had been raised the same as Christ, but before Christ, therefore, Christ was not the first fruit. Today's theology has changed this to read, "But that the dead are not dead to be raised,"
or "But that the separated are not dead to be raised." If He were saying Abraham is alive now, He would be denying the point He was making, that there will be a resurrection, for Abraham could not be raised if he were alive. If Abraham were alive at that time then Luke 20:27-38 proves that there will not and cannot be a resurrection. This passage teaches a
"resurrection of the dead," not "no one is dead to be resurrected from the dead."
[7]. THE TRANSFIGURATION: A RESURRECTION or A VISION?
Matthew 17:1-9, Mark 9:2-9.
A VISION: Christ said it was a vision. "Tell the vision to no man" [Matthew 17:9]. Moses and Elijah ("Elias" in the King James Version) were seen with Christ and then were gone, leaving only Christ. Vision [Greek-horama] is used in the New Testament twelve times, and in the King James Version it is always translated "vision" except in Acts 7:31 where it is translated "the sight." This is not the Greek word "optasia" that is translated "vision" in 2 Corinthians 12:1.
1. "Tell the vision [Greek-horama] to no man" Matthew 17:9
2. "He wondered at the sight [Greek-horama]" Acts 7:31
3. "To him said the Lord in a vision [Greek-horama]" Acts 9:10
4 "And has seen in a vision [Greek-horama] a man" Acts 9:12
5 "He saw in a vision [Greek-horama]" Acts 10:3
6 "What this vision [Greek-horama] which he had seen might mean" Acts 10:17
7 "While Peter thought on the vision [Greek-horama]" Acts 10:19
8 "And in a trance I saw a vision [Greek-horama]" Acts 11:5
9 "But thought he was seeing a vision [Greek-horama]" Acts 12:9
10 "A vision [Greek-horama] appeared to Paul in the night" Acts 16:9
11 "And after he had seen the vision [Greek-horama]" Acts 16:10
12 "To Paul in the night by a vision [Greek-horama]" Acts 18:9
If this were a vision, no argument can be taken from it for the existence of disembodied souls for Moses and Elijah were only seen in a vision. Those who believe in unconditional immortality MUST reinterpret this into bringing a soul that was alive in Heaven and came back from Heaven to earth, and that Moses had ascended to Heaven despite the fact that Christ said no 85
man had. They must say to Christ, "No it is not a vision of Moses, but the real Moses back from Heaven where he has been with You alive from his death." It is not said or implied that Moses was in Heaven and came back to earth, or that he was alive. We are told that this was a vision.
"Tell the vision to no man" [Matthew 17:9]. It being a vision proves they were not called back from Heaven; it does not prove that there was an immaterial, invisible part of them that is now alive anywhere; if Moses and Elijah were alive and in Heaven Christ could not have been the first fruits.
A RESURRECTION: If Moses and Elijah were really there, then Matthew was wrong when he called it a vision. If it were a resurrection, it was a resurrection like Lazarus and other resurrections in the Bible and proved Moses was dead, not alive and had to be resurrected to be there. If Moses were alive and immortal, he would have been brought back from Heaven; he would not have needed to be raised from the dead. For this passage to teach a person now has an "immaterial, invisible part of man" it must be proved that this was not a vision or a resurrection of the dead, but a bringing back of the living Moses from Heaven. Would the apostles be able to see an "immaterial, invisible" disembodied spirits that had no human body? It had to be a vision or a resurrection for the apostles to be able to see them. If they were alive in the flesh, they had to be brought back from the dead just as Lazarus and others were. All resurrections in the Bible, other than of Christ, were only temporary, and those who were raised from the dead did not put on immortality, as those in Christ will at the resurrection [1 Corinthians 15:50-54]. Just as Lazarus was brought back in his earthly body to a mortal life, they were resurrected back to a mortal life and still in a mortal body and were not like the resurrection of Christ, or like the resurrection of the saved at the coming of Christ. They were all raised mortals subject to death and all died again. Not one of them is still alive today. Not one of them was raised immortal. In any of these temporary resurrections, not one thing is said about what will be after our death or after the resurrection. If God raised one or ten thousand back to an earthly body, it does not effect the resurrection of all at the coming of Christ and would not in any way prove a person is now mortal or immortal. These earthly resurrections of mortal bodies say nothing about the resurrection at the coming of Christ when the saved will put on immortality. From the resurrections of Lazarus and others back to the mortal earthly body if there were no other revelation about the resurrection we would not know anything about those in Christ that are going to be raised immortal on the Resurrection Day.
Summary: Either way, if the transfiguration were a resurrection or a vision, it does not prove that a person is now mortal or immortal. The reason for this vision or resurrection was to show that we are not to hear the law and the prophets, but to "hear you him." Christ is now the one who has "All authority" [Matthew 28:18]. If any of the resurrections in the Old or New Testament were a resurrection to immortality, Christ could not have been "the first-fruits of them that are asleep" [1 Corinthians 15:20-23]. How can death be changed to life in Heaven without a resurrection?
[8]. GOD WILL BRING WITH CHRIST 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17
This is often used to prove those who have died are now in Heaven, and Christ will bring them back when He comes for the judgment. This passage is about the resurrection at the coming of Christ and it says not a word about an "immaterial, invisible part of man" that is now alive before the resurrection, and it says nothing about a place called Hell. "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also that fallen asleep [are dead] in Jesus will God bring with him.
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we that are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise precede [go before] them that are fallen asleep."
There are three point in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17.
1. The second coming of Christ: “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God.”
2. The resurrection of the dead in Christ: The dead in Christ shall rise, be resurrected first, not those who are alive in Heaven or any other place returning to earth.
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3. Those who will be living when Christ returns: then we that are alive at the time Christ descends, “that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the
Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" [1 Thessalonians 4:16-17]. Both the dead in Christ and those who are alive when He comes shall together be caught up from the earth to the clouds. Not as some say, that we that are alive shall be caught up to meet Christ and those He is to bring from Heaven with Him.
This passage is a plain statement that there will be a resurrection, and it is opposed to the theory that no one is really dead. Both cannot be true. It is clearly said that they “are asleep” not awake in Heaven. “And I will raise him up at the last day” [John 6:40].
"The dead in Christ shall rise first." Those who are asleep will wake up first. How could they wake up if they are not asleep? How could they rise from the dead if they are not dead and how could they meet the Lord in the air if they were coming with Him from Heaven? Paul says nothing about immortal souls, but persons.
1. Persons ―who are asleep in Christ"
2. And persons ―that are alive" when Christ comes.
Those who believe we have an "immaterial, invisible part of man" that is now immortal take the resurrection out of this passage and makes it be about:
1. Those who are now alive (not asleep) in Heaven with Christ shall come with Him.
2. And "we that are alive" when Christ comes shall meet them in the air. There will be no resurrection for no one is dead. If you believe in an immortal soul there is no reason for a resurrection and no room for it.
"In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and will receive
you unto Myself that where I am, there you may be also" [John 14:2-3]. Those who teach we have a soul that goes directly to Heaven at death believe that souls are now in the place where Christ has gone to prepare before He comes to receive them and have made the coming of Christ, the resurrection, and the judgment useless. Those who preach at funerals often say our loved ones are now with the Lord in Heaven. This is a contradiction of Paul's detailed account of what will happen at the resurrection.
Two views:
1. The dead in Christ are now in Heaven and God will bring them back to earth with Christ.
2. God will bring those who have fallen asleep in Christ with Christ when He returns to Heaven after the judgment.
The first view makes many problems.
At the time Paul wrote this the dead Christians were "asleep in Christ," not in Heaven.
"Concerning them that fall asleep...even so them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus" [1
Thessalonians 4:13-14]. "Then they also that fallen asleep in Christ have perished" [1
Corinthians 15:18]. There would be no need to sorrow for the dead in Christ if they are alive in Heaven; they should have been rejoicing for their loved ones would be in a much better place and be with Jesus. The fact that those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished if there is no resurrection clearly states that they are not in Heaven before the resurrection, that life after death is completely dependent on the resurrection and that no one will be alive in Heaven before the resurrection of the dead. Many gospel preachers who say they speak only where the Bible speaks and are silent where it is silent, when they teach the dead in Christ are now in Heaven clearly are speaking the opposite of the Bible. “In Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits,
then they that are Christ‟s at his coming” [1 Corinthians 15:22-23]. The victory over death is not instantly at death [1 Corinthians 15:54] but at the resurrection of the dead.
The “dead in Christ” shall rise at the coming of Christ, not at death. [1 Thessalonians 4:16].
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When "those who are asleep" is used to prove a person has an immortal soul, then it would prove the immortal soul is asleep, and they prove "soul sleeping," which they falsely accuse those of believing who do not believe a person has an immaterial invisible something. It is the whole person, not just an immaterial something in the person that is asleep unto the waking up at the Resurrection.
THE DEATH OF LAZARUS: In John 11 is the account of the death of Lazarus and his restoration to life on this earth. When Jesus arrived, the sister of Lazarus said, "Lord,
if You had been here, my brother had not died."