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The Spirit of Prophecy Volume 3
God worked through human efforts, or natural means, they still held
that man, through the proper employment of his own natural powers,
could become elevated and enlightened, and that his life could be
purified by rigorous and austere exactions.
There was but little union among them; a people who refused to
acknowledge the influence of the Spirit of God upon the actions of
men, would have but little respect for the opinions and feelings of
one another. They lived for themselves; their natural sympathies were
brought within a narrow compass; their hearts were not touched by the
sorrow and want of others; for in their belief it was possible for all to
secure the comforts and blessings of life.
In common with the rest of the Jews, the Sadducees boasted much
upon their birthright as children of Abraham after the flesh, and upon
the strictness with which they observed the outward requirements of
the law; but their views were inconsistent and heterogeneous. They
entirely rejected the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, and
reasoned that if the same particles of matter which constituted the
mortal body must also compose the future immortal being, then that
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body must have flesh and blood, and resume in the eternal world the
carnal life interrupted on earth, all the frailties and passions of this life
being perpetuated in the life beyond.
In the days of Christ the Sadducees loved controversy, and vehe-
mently urged their objections to the resurrection of the dead. In their
discussions with the Pharisees, the latter became confused in their
faith concerning the future state of the dead. Death became to them a
dark and unexplainable mystery. They learned to look upon it as the
most dreaded calamity which could come upon man.
But life and immortality were brought to light through Jesus Christ.
Those who accepted him as the world’s Redeemer saw more clearly
than before the future life of the resurrected dead. Christ passing
through death, coming forth from the grave, and appearing again to
man in his own person, and as such ascending to the Father, forever
settles the sacred facts of the resurrection and the future, immortal life
of the just, in the the minds of all who believe in Christ.
The Sadducees were very annoying to the Pharisees, because the
latter could not prevail over them in argument. The discussions be-
tween the two parties usually resulted in angry disation, and left them
further apart than before. But many of the Sadducees, living only for