Was there a special "resurrection of Moses" as some 7th Day Adventists believe?

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Question: Recently I spoke with a relative who is a Seventh Day Adventist. He referred me to Mark 4:13 and asked me, "where does it refer to the special resurrection of Moses?" I told him I was going to go to your website to ask the question.

JB

ATP: JB, the short answer to the question is that there is no mention of a special resurrection of Moses anywhere in the Bible. But your Seventh Day Adventist family member was not asking a trick question. There are those who have taken part of a passage in Jude 9 and with good intentions, but bad Bible study methods, come up with the idea that there was a special resurrection of Moses.

The passage in Jude 9 reads:

But when the archangel Michael, contending with the Devil, disputed about the body of Moses, he (Michael) did not presume to pronounce a reviling judgment upon him (the Devil), but said, "The Lord rebuke you."

The mistaken logic behind their position is as stated here by one who holds the same position:

According to 1 Thessalonians 4:16 it is the "voice of the archangel" which opens the graves of the righteous dead when Jesus comes at the end of the world. We have to conclude that this Angel by the side of Moses’ grave, contending with Satan over the body of Moses, had to be there for one purpose only—to resurrect Moses.

What's the problem with that interpretation? Simply that the clear and simple explanation of the text--that the Devil and Michael contended over the dead body of Moses--has to be ignored, and then great assumptions made about the intent of the archangel in the dispute.

The writer to the Hebrews also tells us in chapter 11, verses 39-40, as he speaks of people of faith--a list of whom includes Moses, And all these, though well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had foreseen something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

The point here is that when we are "made perfect" at the resurrection from the dead it will happen for all at the same time. This echoes perfectly what Paul spoke of in 1 Corinthians 15 verses 22- 23, as he speaks directly about the resurrection to come and how God planned resurrection, beginning with Christ, and then later with us.

He said, For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming, those who belong to Christ.

So the first to be permanently resurrected was Christ himself. That alone negates any special resurrection of Moses back in Old Testament days. Second, the resurrection of those who belong to Christ--and that absolutely includes Moses in that Moses looked for the Messiah to come, whom Jesus is, and thus Moses "belonged to Christ" the same as you and I--will not be resurrected until Jesus comes! And then, as I noted, that resurrection will happen for all at once.

So there is no special resurrection of Moses mentioned in the Bible, and Mark 9 where Moses appeared with Elijah and Jesus in a glorified state, had nothing to do with resurrection.

The Mark 4:13 passage that your friend refers to speaks of parables. But the issue of Moses' supposed resurrection in Jude 9, is not spoken of in parable form. A parable is a figurative story that carries a spiritual meaning or application. It is a metaphor or an illustration, a teaching method. When parables were used by Jesus there was no doubt that they were parables.

In the same chapter, Mark 4, this is crystal clear as Jesus says in verses 30-31:

With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we used for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown into the ground is the smallest of the seeds.....

You get the idea: a parable is a comparative, where a known thing, like mustard seeds, is used as a comparative metaphor to explain something less known, like the kingdom of God.

It is easy to see for anyone willing to be objective, that in the Jude 9 passage that speaks of Michael--a known archangel, and the Devil--the known adversary of God, and Moses--a known follower of God, a parable is not in play.

Parables never use known names of individuals. Places yes, generalities yes, like the Good Samaritan on the road to Jericho, but never specific names of specific individuals, otherwise what you have isn't a parable, but the explaining of a real event.