Sometimes, a superficial understanding, or a great knowledge slightly misguided/bios, about the Scriptures and the power of God can lead to wrong ideas, bad doctrine, or false teaching.
Even priests, Bible scholars, and those who have devoted years to Bible study can be mistaken because they failed to open their minds to the message God intended in His Word. This usually happens when someone applies their biases about the wonderfulness of life on earth to imagine life in heaven.
Once there was (and there still is) a group of Bible Scholars who based some strong doctrine on centuries of Bible Study but found themselves in the midst of much debate about resurrection and life after death in heaven.
Their ideas, based on years of devoted Scripture study, mistook heaven for simply a better earth. But heaven’s life is of a different order altogether.
Those ancient Bible Scholars were known as Sadducees. The Sadducees were well educated, sophisticated, influential, and wealthy. They did not believe in immortality, spirits, or angels.
The Sadducees’ knowledge of the Scriptures led them to the conclusion that there is no such thing as resurrection. And they posed a trick question to the Nazarene Jesus to prove it.
The Purpose of the Sadducees’ Question (Mark 12:23, 24)The purpose of the Sadducees’ question was to make the idea of resurrection seem absurd.
But the Bible not only tells us that the soul lives when the body dies, it also says that the soul will have a new body, a body fit for eternity – a resurrection body.
The Sadducees’ biggest theological distinction was their rejection of the notion of a resurrection. They held this position, they said, because they only accepted the books of Moses as real Scripture. Nowhere in those books was there any mention of a resurrection. No resurrection meant this life was all there was.
That assumption justified their efforts to live as comfortably as they could in this life. They wouldn’t have played very nicely with either the Pharisees or the Herodians, but here they were part of a uniting of enemies against a common foe, so they joined the fray against Jesus.
The Sadducees thought that if there was a resurrection, it was just this same life lived forever. But with the principle when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, Jesus showed that in the age to come our lives will be lived on a completely different principle and in a dimension that we can’t imagine.
The Sadducees framed their question around the ludicrous situation of a woman who had been widowed by seven brothers and wanted to know whose wife she would be in heaven.
Their question to Jesus was rooted in justifying their objection to the idea of a resurrection. They posed to Jesus an impossible, hypothetical situation about a woman who marries a man but is widowed before she has any kids. Fortunately, the man has a brother who takes her on as a levirate wife (see Deuteronomy 25:5-6). Unfortunately, he dies before she can have a child, too. But there is another brother. There are actually seven brothers in total. But each one manages to die before leaving her with any children. After building this silly structure, the Sadducees finally laid their challenge over the top of it: When the resurrection comes, whose wife will she be?
This riddle is also found in Matthew 22:23–33 and Luke 20:27–40.
The question comes off as ridiculous, and Jesus’ takedown of their position is epic.
Jesus’ answer to the question camouflaging the ignorance of the Scriptures has become a stumbling block to many priests, ministers, and Christians of today who think they understand the Scriptures. But the discussion of that debate about husband/wife relationships in heaven (Mark 12:25-27) requires a full explanation given in my next blog.
Many people make the same mistake as the Sadducees when it comes to their ideas about heaven. They think of heaven as just a glorious version of Earth.
Similarly, Native Americans thought of heaven as the happy hunting ground. The ancient Vikings thought of heaven as Valhalla, where they fought as warriors all day and at the end of the day, all the dead and wounded rose whole again, and celebrated all night at a banquet, drinking wine from the skulls of their enemies.
All these ideas mistake heaven for simply a better earth. Heaven’s life is of a different order altogether.
The Different Life in Heaven
The Sadducees were accustomed to taking down strawman opponents, but came face to face with an actual opponent who was well-prepared for the confrontation. But this confrontation’s outcome wasn’t generally pretty.
Jesus responded and blew their entire framework to bits. Jesus completely turned the tables on them and insulted them in the process. He wound up humiliating them, which, no doubt, put them even more firmly in the camp of the other religious leaders in wanting to get rid of Him.
The trouble with the argument of these folks was that they didn’t understand the nature of God, Jesus said. He took them straight to the Scripture they professed to be their primary and singular text to prove it, along with the mocking question, “Haven’t you even read the Scripture you profess to follow?”
Jesus’ assertion that the Sadducees do not understand the Scriptures is especially biting.
The Sadducees, far more than the Pharisees, value a stridently literal interpretation of the Old Testament, specifically the first five books: the Torah.
Their attempt centers on following an idea to a ridiculous conclusion: a technique in rhetoric known as a reductio ad absurdum.However, for this technique to be meaningful, the initial assumptions must be correct. As it turns out, this absurdity merely proves that the Sadducees lack understanding.
Can you be mistaken about your ideas about heaven?When we don’t know the Scriptures, we don’t have an anchor for truth and belief. When we don’t know the power of God, we doubt God’s ability to actually do what He has promised in the Scriptures.
Can you be mistaken about your ideas about heaven? Are you thinking that heaven is just a glorious version of earth?
______________Affiliate link – SHOP: _______________
_This ad is for my favorite version of The Bible _
_____but click on it to go to the whole store______
NASB Comfort Print Thinline Bible, Red Letter Edition–bonded leather, burgundy (click here)
By Zondervan
The beloved 1995 Edition of the New American Standard Bible is now easier to read with Zondervan’s exclusive NASB Comfort Print® typeface. This edition of the NASB Thinline Bibles is available in a variety of sophisticated designs in a portable, easy-to-read format.
- The full text of the New American Standard Bible, 1995 Edition
- Exquisite, durable covers
- Less than one inch thick
- Double-column format
- Presentation page
- Two satin ribbon markers
- Words of Christ in red
- Exclusive Zondervan NASB Comfort Print 9 point type
Features:
____________________________________________
In conclusion, consider the Daily Bread email message sent on 5/19/2025 which says
To receive the Daily Bread email messages, free on Mon., Wed., and Fri., in your email inbox, just fill in the form below or send an email, and ask to be added, to jmikeh@jmhowington.com
Click Here to Scroll To Top of the Page