1. I didn’t actually state my thoughts about whether the Sadducees believed in an afterlife or not. I have not research that issue enough to comment about it. What I wrote is my belief.

2. I agree that I am not inerrant or infallible. We are told not to lean on our own understanding and that is because we are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God. Ecclesiastes just proves that, without God, there is no worthwhile endeavor at any place or time under the sun.

3. I agonize over the meanings of scripture, like everyone else, and I agree with your assessment that I may have misunderstood what Jesus meant, as is true of you.

4. Intellectually, we could go back and forth for the rest of our lives and never agree. Therefore, it is unwise to continue debating this way.

The matter is this; that we have ALL sinned against a Holy God and are subject to his judgment.

Anyone that believes that God will just forgive you without any judgment, whatsoever, is guilty of breaking his 2nd commandment and has created God as an idol in their own image.

God is Perfect Truth. Perfect Truth is the complete and total absence of falseness. Where falseness is, Perfect Truth cannot be.

There will come a time when God must remove all falseness from his sight and right now, that would include every person that has ever walked the earth, except Jesus. God does not want that to happen, which is why he provided a Way out of this impending judgment and destruction, by physically coming to Earth himself, as Jesus, and living the perfect life that we are incapable of. Mercifully, he will not force you or anyone else to accept his gift of salvation even though he doesn’t want you to perish.

He simply has to do this, but is holding off for whatever his reasons are.

We must accept this gift and bear the fruit of that decision. Many “Christians” today will be shocked to find out that they have missed the boat entirely. You simply cannot go to church on Sunday and live like Hell the rest of the week. If they are doing that, then they are most likely not true Christians and will still be subject to judgment.

So it is not just the unbelievers that will perish, but also the pretenders.

You can read this in more detail here:
http://www.theboldchristian.com/TheTruth.html
http://www.theboldchristian.com/TheWay.html
http://www.theboldchristian.com/TheLife.html

I understand if you don’t want to post this as it is against your cause. I just felt the need to respond because I don’t want to see you or your readers perish either. Many see this as a scare tactic, but the truth is always scary, when you realize that you are on the wrong side of it.

I know that you don’t think that you are on the wrong side of the truth, so all I can do and WILL do, is pray that God will reveal his truth to you.

May God bless you Deacon Duncan.

Joe

..I thought it was pretty well established that the Sadducees didn’t believe in life after death. (mikespeir)

Followed by,

I think it’s likely true [that the Sadducees did believe in life after death], but there are conflicting accounts, (DD, brackets mine)

I agree with mikespeir, as did Josephus in the Jewish Wars, and I would challenge DD to cite these “conflicting accounts.” The rest of my objections can be found here.

The main point I want to make is that most religions in that area and period of history held to a belief in an afterlife, but without the literal physical resurrection and judgment of Zoroaster and the Pharisees, so even if we assume Jesus’ only point was life after death, it’s still not a valid conclusion to go from Exodus 3:6 to a future bodily resurrection. Jesus is either misapplying the Scripture or misleading his hearers by making a false connection.

I’ll do some more studying on the beliefs of the Sadducees and let you all know what I find out.

Why do you say that? I realize we don’t have a lot to go on, but I thought it was pretty well established that the Sadducees didn’t believe in life after death.