'When you die, the next thing you know is the coming of Christ'
Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson believes people live in an evil world "so bad things will happen to some people."
However, he does not believe that a worst place called hell exists.
"I don't see any evidence for that in the Bible," he told The Washington Post. "I don't believe there is a physical place where people go and are tormented. No. I don't believe that."
What he does strongly believe in though is the existence of God. The Seventh-day Adventist is even so in awe of God that he cannot find the right words to describe Him.
"There's no man who can explain God, or he would be God. He's a force that doesn't believe in dictating and gives you a choice: Whether you want to be associated with Him or not. It can provide enormous strength and power if you do. And He has been an integral part of my life. There are many things I would have never taken on in the medical field had I not felt that He was behind me," he said.
At the same time, Carson believes in the idea that heaven is a physical place because there is proof of its existence in the Bible.
"The Bible says when you die, you know, there is no soul that kind of floats away. But essentially, when you die, the next thing you know is the coming of Christ because you don't know anything when you're dead. If you're dead for a second or a thousand years, it's the same. But when he comes, according to the book of First Corinthians, that the sound of the archangel will rise and that's when things happen," he said.
Carson also believes that Jesus Christ is coming back, and when He finally does, there will be tribulation. "We believe that Christ is going to return to the earth again," he said. "I think [Christ] could come any time."
Because of this mindset, Carson stressed the need for people to "live your life as if He's coming back today. As if He's coming back tomorrow."
#1. To: Willie Green, redleghunter, GarySpFc, tomder55 (#0)(Edited)
This seems to be par for the course in Adventist theology.
Carson is not in the more modern strain of charismatic Adventism. Adventists are among the minor denominations that had an insurgent charismatic strain rise in the last forty years or so. Carson is the more conservative traditional type of Adventist.
Carson's views here are typical for Adventists (Millerites). They are derived theologically from Christian conditionalism (or conditional immortality), a popular theological idea among various denominations in the mid-nineteenth century.
This idea of "soul sleep" was one that Martin Luther was interested in as well. John Calvin sharply criticized him for it.
Wiki: "Belief in forms of conditionalism became a current in Protestantism beginning with the Reformation, but it was only adopted as a formal doctrinal tenet by denominations such as early Unitarians, the churches of the English Dissenting Academies, then Seventh-day Adventists, Christadelphians, the Bible Students and Jehovah's Witnesses."
