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The Desire of Ages
and wife would be reunited, marriages consummated, and all things
go on the same as before death, the frailties and passions of this life
being perpetuated in the life beyond.
In answer to their questions, Jesus lifted the veil from the future
life. “In the resurrection,” He said, “they neither marry, nor are given
in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.” He showed that
the Sadducees were wrong in their belief. Their premises were false.
“Ye do err,” He added, “not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of
God.” He did not charge them, as He had charged the Pharisees, with
hypocrisy, but with error of belief.
The Sadducees had flattered themselves that they of all men ad-
hered most strictly to the Scriptures. But Jesus showed that they had
not known their true meaning. That knowledge must be brought home
to the heart by the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. Their ignorance
of the Scriptures and the power of God He declared to be the cause of
their confusion of faith and darkness of mind. They were seeking to
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bring the mysteries of God within the compass of their finite reasoning.
Christ called upon them to open their minds to those sacred truths that
would broaden and strengthen the understanding. Thousands become
infidels because their finite minds cannot comprehend the mysteries
of God. They cannot explain the wonderful exhibition of divine power
in His providences, therefore they reject the evidences of such power,
attributing them to natural agencies which they can comprehend still
less. The only key to the mysteries that surround us is to acknowledge
in them all the presence and power of God. Men need to recognize God
as the Creator of the universe, One who commands and executes all
things. They need a broader view of His character, and of the mystery
of His agencies.
Christ declared to His hearers that if there were no resurrection of
the dead, the Scriptures which they professed to believe would be of
no avail. He said, “But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have
ye 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.” God counts the things that
are not as though they were. He sees the end from the beginning, and
beholds the result of His work as though it were now accomplished.
The precious dead, from Adam down to the last saint who dies, will
hear the voice of the Son of God, and will come forth from the grave