Friend wants me to talk about the afterlife. What to talk about and how?

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I got into a discussion with a Seventh-Day Adventist friend on fb, and we agreed that we will meet up to talk about the afterlife. She will tell me what her church believes and the scriptures to back it up. I will tell her what the Catholic Church believes in too. Obviously, the afterlife is a really broad topic. What can I talk about and how can I present it?
Btw, this was her idea, not mine. I’m new to active apologetics.
 
migencluz said:
I got into a discussion with a Seventh-Day Adventist friend on fb, and we agreed that we will meet up to talk about the afterlife. She will tell me what her church believes and the scriptures to back it up. I will tell her what the Catholic Church believes in too. Obviously, the afterlife is a really broad topic. What can I talk about and how can I present it?
Btw, this was her idea, not mine. I’m new to active apologetics.
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You should ask her what she believes; then come back on here. Also important - what she ‘hopes happens’, I mean as distinct from any dogma etc.?

Present that on here and you may be led to discuss some interesting and beautiful concepts.

God Bless
paduard
 
I would recommend this audio set by Tim Staples, available either in MP3 or CD format: shop.catholic.com/last-call-the-catholic-teaching-on-death-judgment-heaven-hell-set.html. Although it requires purchase, this set is wonderful, especially if you’re looking for a Biblical basis for various doctrines.

There’s also a website that apparently examines Seventh Day Adventism from a Catholic perspective. Although I haven’t vetted it, they do have a section on SDA beliefs about death: blog.theotokos.co.za/?page_id=366#dead

Those links seem to debunk ideas like soul-sleep and defend the dogma of hell being eternal. The rest of the website might be of some use, too.

Also, you might want to check out this little (free) series from the Institute of Catholic Culture: instituteofcatholicculture.org/kingdom-of-the-cults-jehovahs-witnesses-mormons-seventh-day-adventists/

Obviously, the conference on Seventh Day Adventism will be most relevant, but the other ones might come in handy one day, too. (Cults like the Jehovah’s Witnesses ultimately come from Adventism and, like their progentior, have the same problematic views of the end times that have led to countless failed end-of-the-world predictions.)
 
Seventh day Adventists believe in soul sleep. So she probably will talk about that. Here is something you can read about it.

catholic.com/quickquestions/how-do-we-refute-the-soul-sleep-argument

The thing about soul sleep, if true, would mean that what rises from the dead is not you but a clone of you who either gets punished or rewarded for your actions.

The Seventh day Adventist, JWs, and Mormons all come out of the Stone Miller Campbell movement in the 1800s. It was a group that claimed the early Church fell away right out of the gates. And that Joseph Campbell was God’s annointed to restore the church. Of course each of these subgroups claimed the same thing for their leaders. For the Seventh day Adventist it was Ellen White. They follow the Saturday Sabbath. Its interesting though if you read the early church Fathers on this issue.

catholic.com/tracts/sabbath-or-sunday
 
fisherman_carl said:
Seventh day Adventists believe in soul sleep. So she probably will talk about that. Here is something you can read about it.

catholic.com/quickquestions/how-do-we-refute-the-soul-sleep-argument

The thing about soul sleep, if true, would mean that what rises from the dead is not you but a clone of you who either gets punished or rewarded for your actions.

The Seventh day Adventist, JWs, and Mormons all come out of the Stone Miller Campbell movement in the 1800s. It was a group that claimed the early Church fell away right out of the gates. And that Joseph Campbell was God’s annointed to restore the church. Of course each of these subgroups claimed the same thing for their leaders. For the Seventh day Adventist it was Ellen White. They follow the Saturday Sabbath. Its interesting though if you read the early church Fathers on this issue.

catholic.com/tracts/sabbath-or-sunday
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They teach annihilationism , not soul sleep
 
migencluz said:
I got into a discussion with a Seventh-Day Adventist friend on fb, and we agreed that we will meet up to talk about the afterlife. She will tell me what her church believes and the scriptures to back it up. I will tell her what the Catholic Church believes in too. Obviously, the afterlife is a really broad topic. What can I talk about and how can I present it?
Btw, this was her idea, not mine. I’m new to active apologetics.
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In your position, I would make sure to tell her up front:

“Listen, I’m not a professional theologian or apologist of my faith, so it may well be that you will stump me at first with something, and I’ll need to think about it. The key is, though, that I trust my Church’s doctrine, not my own, so if it appears at first that I don’t have the answer to something you are saying, please understand if I take a day or two to get back to you, so I can consult with the teaching of my Church.”

If you lead with this, it will give you the opportunity to step back and find the answer to something she says if it is outside of the scope of what you were prepared to answer, and hopefully you won’t lose her in the process.

May God’s Grace and Wisdom be with you. 🙂
 
fisherman_carl said:
Seventh day Adventists believe in soul sleep. So she probably will talk about that. Here is something you can read about it.

catholic.com/quickquestions/how-do-we-refute-the-soul-sleep-argument

The thing about soul sleep, if true, would mean that what rises from the dead is not you but a clone of you who either gets punished or rewarded for your actions.

The Seventh day Adventist, JWs, and Mormons all come out of the Stone Miller Campbell movement in the 1800s. It was a group that claimed the early Church fell away right out of the gates. And that Joseph Campbell was God’s annointed to restore the church. Of course each of these subgroups claimed the same thing for their leaders. For the Seventh day Adventist it was Ellen White. They follow the Saturday Sabbath. Its interesting though if you read the early church Fathers on this issue.

catholic.com/tracts/sabbath-or-sunday
Click to expand...
Alexander Campbell.
 
Starwarsfan2 said:
They teach annihilationism , not soul sleep
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Actually, they do teach soul sleep. Did you read the article? Or just google it.

Annihilation has to do with destroying a soul out of existence. Soul sleep is about waiting for the resurrection of the dead
 
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