Well it was interesting discovering how SDA people interpret texts.
This isn't and exclusive "SDA interpretation" but your statement suggests you've only studied contemporary Christian doctrine, and haven't looked into church history to see what used to be taught.
I learned some things. I find it very easy to interpret the texts properly that they are misinterpreting and so I am not really persuaded that they themselves believe their own interpretations. Those scriptures are not hard to understand. Someone is not being honest. And when we recognize that, then we know we are wasting our breath trying to explain hermeneutics.
I feel the EXACT same way toward people who refuse to acknowledge the many Scriptural contradictions that erupt by making the Rich Man and Lazarus passage literal. They willfully ignore basic doctrines plainly taught elsewhere such as that the dead do not receive resurrection bodies UNTIL the resurrection, not when they die. We call that twisting Scripture.
In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.
Are Sodom and Gomorrah still literally burning? Before you argue, "Yeah, spiritually in hellfire", I remind you that right there in your NEW TESTAMENT Peter plainly tells us the punishment of the wicked is now "reserved" for a time in the future "unto the day of Judgment" where they are "to be punished". Again, the Immortal Soul/Eternal Torment crowd willfully ignores Peter's words so that Hitler and Jeffery Dahmer and the Sodomites/Gomorrahmites are burning in hell right now, right or wrong?
To convince people who think that there is no judgment for the homosexaul agenda. Don't forget that God has demonstrated that he has intervened in human history making it know how he will deal with this sort of rebellion, and those that were killed in Sodom and Gomorrah are suffering in the flames of hell and one day those who are in hell will be raised bodily to be thrown into the Lake of Fire, as it says .. both Hell and Death will be cast into the Lake of Fire and that eternal fire will continue as their final place.
Who's trying to convince people there's no judgment? I'm trying to convince people that hell is HOTTER than the Christian world teaches, because while they teach the wicked will slow-simmer for all eternity, WE TEACH that the fire is so hot, it's going to burn them up and completely out of existence.
it is so clear that no one will be without excuse. Just like the rich mans brothers. And just like all SDA members. Their excuses will be rejected. The scriptures of the New Testament which was a greater revelation are not vague on this topic.
Let's get something straight: it is YOU who teach the lie of the Serpent that the dead really ain't "surely" dead. It is YOU who believe the Serpent told the truth and that God was lying. God said "ye shall SURELY die" but you guys teach, "Oh, they're dead all right -
but not surely...they're still alive in joy above or in flames below". Total rubbish.
The SDA seems to take this approach... The New Testament Scriptures that give a fuller revelation about eternal punishment must mean something else because the OT writers did not have this revelation.
The approach we SDAs take on this issue is one of common sense: "eternal redemption" does not mean Jesus will be nailed repeatedly to a Cross to redeem us over and over, because "eternal" refers to the RESULT, not the PROCESS. Same for "eternal judgment" and "eternal salvation" which all refer to the RESULT, not the PROCESS. I've shown you that Sodom and Gomorrah were burnt with "eternal fire" but are presently NOT ON FIRE because the "eternal fire" with which those cities were burned refers to the RESULT of that fire, not the PROCESS of burning.
Which is really dumb. Most Christians understand that Jesus brought a fuller revelation about many things, including salvation and the kingdom of God and also about eternal punishment.
Look man, does the text say "eternal punishING" or eternal punishMENT"? It says "punishment"...but what is the punishment? Eternal torment? Do you believe Romans 6:23 or not? Obviously, most of the Christian world doesn't understand what they're reading, because the truth is they are NOT reading anything, they are regurgitating bulldookey preached by false pulpit prophets who themselves are blind guides leading the blind.
We don't contradict Jesus and Paul's teachings about the afterlife just because Solomon had a limited understanding. But the SDA does. And it is probably due to some kind of carnality in not being able to appreciate the holiness of God. An unwillingness to believe that it is just that the wicked are in eternal torment. That is usually at the heart of the objection.
What do you mean you don't contradict what Jesus said? Jesus said the dead don't rise until the resurrection, which at that time is when they get their resurrection bodies, but you teach the Rich Man, Lazarus, and Abraham have "literal" bodies in a "literal" passage about "literal" afterlife events. YOU CAN'T GET ANY MORE CONTRADICTORY THAN THAT, FRIEND.