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The Spirit of Prophecy Volume 3
not the direct means of condemning him. Should he agree with them
in regard to the resurrection of the dead, he would be entirely cut off
from any fellowship with the Pharisees. Should he differ from them,
they designed to present his faith to the people in a ridiculous light,
and turn their influence against him by showing the apparent absurdity
of the doctrine of the resurrection of the body. They were accustomed
to dise upon this point, and their arguments were greatly dreaded by
those who believed in the literal resurrection of the identical body
which had moldered away in the grave.
The Sadducees reasoned that if the dead were raised with bodies
formed of the same particles of matter of which they had formerly
been composed, and were actuated by the same propensities, then the
relationships of the earthly life would be resumed, husband and wife
would be united, marriage would be consummated, and all the affairs
of life would go on the same as before death. From this belief they
shrank with repugnance, and, in their efforts to grasp a higher ideal,
[49]
groped in thick darkness.
But, in answer to their questions on this point, Jesus lifted the
veil from the future life and said to them, “In the resurrection they
neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God
in Heaven.” He unhesitatingly showed that the Sadducees were wrong
in their belief. He proved their premises to be false and the structure
of their faith to be built upon a false foundation. “Ye do err,” said he,
“not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.” He did not charge
them with hypocrisy as he had charged the Pharisees, but with error of
belief.
The Sadducees had flattered themselves that, of all men living,
they were strictly adherent to the Scriptures; but Jesus declared that
they had not known their true interpretation. That knowledge must
be brought home to the heart by the enlightening power of the grace
of God. The Sadducees were seeking to bring the mysteries of God
to a level with their finite reasoning instead of opening their minds
to the reception of those sacred truths by which their understanding
would have been expanded. Thousands become infidels because their
finite minds cannot fathom the hidden mysteries of God. They cannot
explain the wonderful exhibition of divine power, as manifested in
the providences of God, and they therefore reject the evidences of
such power, and attribute all to some natural agency which they can