p. 242 | LIFE | AdventAI

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, April 15, 1880

FromAdvent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 16

LIFE

“And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” 1 John 5:11.

The question to be considered is, What is life and what is its basis? Dr. Kellogg’s recent work on “The Soul and the Resurrection,” having been indorsed by the Seventh-day Advent General Conference, may be considered as a true expose of their present faith upon these points.

On page 124, he says: “Matter is the basis of all existence.” “Force is a property of matter; . . . matter and force are inseparable. Where one exists, the other must exist. Neither can exist alone.” On page 40, he says: “Life results from organization, not organization from life.” Now, if matter is the basis of all existence, force, and life, then no power or intelligent being existed before matter. Hence, matter is the basis of God’s existence. He did not create it, but was produced by it. Yet on page 125 he says, “All life was evidently originated by the Creator, who alone has power to originate such an arrangement or organization.” This statement contradicts the one on page 124. Both cannot be true; yet he makes no effort to explain the discrepancy. If life cannot exist without organization, then God could not; and hence did not exist till he had a material organization, nor did any force exist to produce such organization. Then how came he to exist? But if, on the contrary, life and force existed before matter, as it must, if God created all things, then they existed by law, independent of matter, and as eternal and perpetual as he is.

On pages 51 and 52, the Doctor says: “We must consider, the mind, then, as the function of the brain, the result of its action, and so independent of matter. Thought is cell action.” Then he cannot conceive that there was ever a divine thought till after matter existed and formed itself into brain cells. If “mind is inseparably connected with matter,” it never existed before it.

Dr. Allman, President of the British Scientific Association, and a recognized authority on biology, says: “Between thought and the physical phenomenon of matter, there is not only no analogy, but no conceivable analogy. . . . The chasm between unconscious life and thought is dark and impassable, and no transitional phenomena can be found to bridge it over. This conclusion rests wholly on analogy where no analogy exists. The argument and its conclusion must fall to the ground together. Although, as yet, the mind is incapable of conceiving of a substance different from matter, this is no more an argument that it cannot exist than the fact that lower orders of intelligence cannot conceive of natural laws proves that natural laws do not exist.”—Inaugural Address before the British Association, August, 1879.

According to Dr. Kellogg’s theory, all moral character is the product of matter, which makes matter the only responsible part of man, it being the fountain from which all thoughts, feelings, desires, purposes, acts, words, etc., flow, and derive their character. According to the purity and impurity of the fountain, so must the stream be. Hence a man’s character can never change till the quality of his brain changes, so as to produce different thoughts, feelings, purposes, etc.

On page 43, the Doctor says: “The matter of which the body is composed is continually undergoing change, and, in course of a lifetime, is entirely changed many times.” The matter of the body being thus continually thrown off and replaced by new matter which had nothing to do with the sins committed before they entered into the organization, how is just retribution to be meted out? The guilt belongs to the matter which is gone, and not to that which takes its place. The matter which thus sinned may go to make up other human organizations, or remain unorganized. Must that which took its place be punished in its stead? Would this be just? or will all the matter that ever went to make up a person’s body be collected into one body and be punished according to the sin it has committed? And then, perhaps, a large portion of that matter might belong also to several other persons, and have committed sin in them to be punished for. If man is only organized matter, when he is disorganized all character and responsibility must go out of existence. When he ceases to have a conscious being, he ceases to have a character, and is neither rewardable nor punishable, as there is nothing to reward or punish.

But what say the Scriptures? “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” Gen. 1:26, 27. “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” Gen. 2:7.

The difference in these descriptions is evidently because of the different ends the Author had in view. The first described his higher nature, by which he was fitted to hold communion with his Maker, and exercise authority over inferior creatures. The second described his relation to earth as cultivator of the soil, and his dependence upon its products for his earthly existence. His body, being formed of earth, is necessarily sustained by its fruits, and finally returns to the earth. His spiritual nature represented the divine image (God is a spirit), and is neither male nor female, nor formed of dust, but breathed into him by the Creator, and so fitted to be God’s vicegerent on earth. Solomon tells us that man’s body returns to the earth, which it came from, and his spirit to God, from whence it came. Eccl. 12:7. It does not go to the earth, for the earth is not God.

In Gen. 2:9, we read: “Out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also, in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” And in chapter 3:22, 23, we read, “And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever; therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.” These passages show that man’s body was not naturally immortal, but was subject to dissolution, and therefore had to be nourished by food, and it was only by having access to the tree of life that the tendency to death was counteracted; and that said fruit would have preserved his physical life, after the fall as before, could he have had access to it; access being prohibited that he might not live forever. This shows that physical death was not the penalty, but a secondary result of sin. The term “life” is used in Scripture in at least two senses. First, physical: “God did send me before you to preserve life.” Gen. 45:5. “Take no thought for your life.” Matt. 6:25. “The time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles.” 1 Pet. 4:3.

Second, spiritual life: “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” Matt. 19:17. “Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” John 5:40. “To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” Rom. 8:6. “He that hath the Son hath life.” 1 John 5:12. “He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life.” John 5:24. “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.” 1 John 3:14, 15. “Verily I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.” John 6:47. “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Gal. 2:20. Thus Paul was living two lives at the same time, natural and spiritual. How much does this look like his believing that mere physical life is the reward of righteousness? “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” John 3:36. “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” John 17:3.

The above passages make it clear that neither physical life, with mental activity, is the reward of the saints, nor physical death and cessation of knowledge the penalty for sin; but it affects a higher element of man’s nature.