In Adventist theology, according to both Ellen White and the SDA Bible Commentary, glorification is where a person will be given a body made of completely new particles and, from His memory, God will put your personality into this new body such that you can be recognized by others. The only thing different about this body will be that it won’t decay. It will be like Adam and Eve’s were in the Garden of Eden. Adventism does not teach a true resurrection of the same body that you died in, but a recreation of a new body that won’t decay that your “character/personality” will be placed into from God’s memory.
The Bible teaches that glorification is the state in which a person will eventually be brought after God resurrects your current body, but transforms it into an incorruptible body (1 Corinthians 15:35-54). This new body will never experience sickness, decay, deterioration, or death, nor will it have any sinful proclivities or desires.
We see what our resurrected bodies will be like when we look at Jesus’s post-resurrection appearances. He still had visible wounds (John 20:27), and His disciples could physically touch Him (Luke 24:39), yet He was able to travel effortlessly and appear and disappear at will. He could go through walls and doors yet could also eat, drink, sit and talk (John 20:19). The Bible says our “lowly bodies” will be “like His glorious body” (Philippians 3:21). Because Jesus resurrected in the same body that He died in, and our bodies will be like His, that means the same bodies we die in will be resurrected but glorified like Jesus’s was. Jesus did not have a new body of new particles made that His “character” was placed into.
In conjunction with this, the Bible also teaches that sin makes a person fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). When one is glorified, they will no longer fall short of God’s glory. This means that until a person is resurrected and glorification is applied, they will struggle and war with sin. The Adventist Church tries to pay lip service to this, where, in the exposition of their Fundamental Beliefs, they write:
Some incorrectly believe that the ultimate perfection that glorification will bring is already available to humans. But Paul wrote near the end of his life, “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected, but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the price of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:12-14. Sanctification is a lifelong process. Perfection now is ours only in Christ, but the ultimate, all-comprehensive transformation of our lives into the image of God will take place at the Second Advent.
Seventh-day Adventists Believe pg. 148
But what’s fascinating about this is that the “some” that they refer to is Seventh-day Adventists within their own ranks who have studied and read the organizations pioneers and prophetess who claimed the opposite. Such as Ellen G. White, who they claim was divinely inspired and correcting of inaccurate interpretations of scripture. On numerous accounts she stated the exact opposite of the above.
We are not to settle down, expecting that a change of character will come to us by some miraculous work, when Jesus shall appear in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. No, my young friends, we are judgment-bound, and probation is granted to us here in this life, in order that we may form characters for the future, immortal life.
Ellen G. White, Sons & Daughters, pg. 9 (SD 9.2)
If you would be a saint in heaven you must first be a saint on earth. The traits of character you cherish in life will not be changed by death or by the resurrection. You will come up from the grave with the same disposition you manifested in your home and in society. Jesus does not change the character at His coming. The work of transformation must be done now. Our daily lives are determining our destiny. Defects of character must be repented of and overcome through the grace of Christ, and a symmetrical character must be formed while in this probationary state, that we may be fitted for the mansions above.
Ellen G. White, Last Day Events, pg. 295 (LDE 295.1)
Part of the Great Controversy paradigm is the idea that God is on trial and needs vindicated from accusations made by Satan regarding God’s character. By “character” they mean the 10 Commandments. Part of the way God has chosen to vindicate himself is to let the great controversy between Jesus and Satan rage on where human beings can side with Jesus in this controversy and show that the 10 Commandments can be kept perfectly. This then demonstrates that Satan is a liar, the law can be kept perfectly, vindicating the law. While on probation, one must get to a totally sinless state. And as Mrs. White clearly said repeatedly, no change in character will come at the resurrection. That’s what probation now is for. This is to say their paradigm teaches sinless perfectionism.
This is yet another area where the Adventist Church is in a bind. Either the fundamental beliefs book is wrong and Ellen White is right or Ellen White was wrong which calls into question her prophetic authority.
