RESURRECTION
OR
IMMORTALITY
-------------------
LIFE IS ONLY IN CHRIST
Chapter Two
The
Resurrection, Our Only Hope Of Life After Death
ISBN
978-1-4497-1503-8
William
Robert West
Author
of ÒThe Rapture And IsraelÓ
Unconditional Immortality
Makes The Great Doctrines Of The New Testament Useless And\Or
Impossible
Is "The Wages Of Sin Death"
Or
"Eternal Life With Torment In HellÓ
An Immortal Soul And The Doctrine Of Hell
Updated
8/20/2021
Over
1,655,550 downloads
CHAPTER
TWO
Chapter Two:
Life or Death
(1). Life
(7). Fire
(2). Death
(8). Spiritual Death
(3). Perish
(9). Sleep
(4). Die
(10). Kill
(5). Destruction (11).
First Resurrection – Second Death
(6). Destroy
Life or
Death
In John 5 and 6 when the
Pharisees, Sadducees, and the great multitude that fallowed Christ heard Him
say He will give life to those that hears His word and believes on Him (John
5:21); those that believe have Òpassed out of death into lifeÓ
(John 5:24-29); this takes place when a person become a believer; the believer still
has a mortal body that will die, then the person will sleep in Christ unto the
resurrection, and be awaken with an immortal body at the second coming of
Christ (1 Corinthians 15:42-44). ÒAll of us who were baptized into
ChristÉwe shall be also in the
likeness of His resurrectionÓ (Romans 6:15); do you think it is a person or
a soul that is baptized that Òshall be
also in the likeness of His resurrection?Ó
ÒUnto the resurrection
of lifeÓ
(John 5:29), they would never have understood Him to be saying He would give a
reward to already immortal souls that had been in the believers; souls if they
did exist souls would already have life and would always have life without
Christ. It is clear that Christ is
promising a resurrection to life only to the persons that believed, not
promising life to souls that are already deathless. The death Òthey have passed out ofÓ (John 5:24) is
not passing out of an endless life of misery for souls that cannot die, souls
that cannot ever be dead; therefore, if there were a soul it could not Òpass out of death into lifeÓ (John
5:24).
Eternal life or
immortality is never said to be something a person is born with, but something
that only the faithful will ever have.
(1). Eternal life WILL
BE INHERITED. ÒAnd shall inherit eternal lifeÓ (Matthew 19:29). A
promise only to believers, never a possession of unbeliever, or not a
possession of a pagan soul some believe to be in a person.
(2). Eternal life IS A
GIFT. ÒFor the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ our LordÓ (Romans 6:23).
(3). Eternal life IS
NOW A HOPE. ÒWE might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal lifeÓ (Titus 3:7).
(4). Eternal life IS
PROMISED. ÒAnd this is the promise which he promised US, even eternal lifeÓ (1 John 2:25). It would be very
unreasonable to believe Christ promise what every one already possessed.
Many continually
preach, "The wages of sin is death"
(Romans 6:23), but then by what they preach they contradict themselves by
preaching that all now have a soul in them that now has endless life, and souls
that are in unbelievers will have eternal life in Hell. If no ÒsoulsÓ are dead,
or will ever be dead, the Òwages of sinÓ
cannot be death. Life is as essential to suffering as it is to happiness;
without all having endless life there could be no endless suffering in Hell, or
any other place; therefore, believers in Hell must change, ÒThe wages of sin is death" to, "Wages of sin is an eternal life being endlessly tormented by
God." ÒDestructionÓ must be
changed to mean Òeverlasting preservation in misery undestroyed.Ó In death,
life comes to an end; if it did not the resurrection would have no meaning,
only the dead can be resurrected from the dead. If, as many tell us, the dead
are not really dead then the resurrection could not be really a resurrection of
the dead.
THE CHANGING OF LIFE AND DEATH
"Life" has been changed to mean only a "reward," or ÒhappinessÓ for a
soul that already has life and cannot die.
How is it that when
Christ promised ÒlifeÓ to those that
believed Him if He did not mean Òlife?Ó
The argument is made
that all already have Òlife,Ó and
that when Christ promised ÒlifeÓ to
those that believed Him that He was only promising happiness to souls that
already had Òcontinues existence.Ó Life is existence; those that do not have ÒlifeÓ do not have any existence. Those
to whom Christ does not give ÒlifeÓ
will have no existence after Òthe second
death.Ó
(a). There cannot be ÒlifeÓ without existence.
(b). There cannot be
existence without Òlife.Ó If there
were a soul it could not exist in endless misery if it does not have endless Òlife.Ó A soul cannot be endlessly
tormented if it dose not have endless existence.
(c). Death is not a living
existence.
ÒI say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear
the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He gave Him
authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in
which all who are in the tombs will
hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgmentÓ (John 5:26-29).
1. The Father has life.
2. The Son had life with the Father (John 1:1-10), but give it up and became a man
and He died in manÕs place (Hebrews 2:14-16); God raised Him up from death and
give Him the life He had had before
He became a man.
3. All persons that
believe and obey Christ will be resurrected
to life (John 5:29). After the resurrection they will not die, will not
have tears, death, mourning, crying, or pain (Revelation 21:4); there will be
endless happiness in Heaven, but to have the endless happiness there must be
endless life, but no one will live and have endless life without the
resurrection to life at the coming of Christ.
"DEATH" HAS BEEN CHANGED TO ÒLIFEÓ
(1). Changed from
death to an endless life of miserable existence.
(2). Changed from death
to endless life being tormented by God.
(3). Changed death to
be a deathless death.
(4). The orthodox view
changes death into a different mode
of life, makes death into a deathless
death. ÒThe wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in
Christ Jesus our LordÓ (Romans 6:23) is changed to mean the wages of sin is
not death, but the wages of sin is endless life with endless torment by God.
Changing ÒlifeÓ to happiness and ÒdeathÓ changed to endless life in
misery being endlessly tormented by God is nothing more than a feeble attempts
to make a person have a soul in them that leaves a person at the death of the
person, and that soul has endless life even if the person a soul had been in
did not believe in Christ. Death is the opposite of birth, just as birth is the
beginning of life, death is the ending of life; just as we know the day and
hour of birth, the day and the hour of our death will be known. For a soul to
have unconditional immortality to be true, death must be changed into endless dying
but never dead, which we are told is not death but an endless life being endlessly
tormented by God; told that death is not death, that death is life; a deathless
soul cannot be resurrected from the dead.
(5). The Greek in
which the New Testament was written is one of the best and most expressive
languages the world has known. If the Greek had no words to express the ideas
of happiness and misery, then the use of life to mean happiness and death to
mean endless life in misery would have been an exceedingly poor choice. Believers
in an immortal soul are saying that the souls that are in them will accept
happiness from Jesus, but Òno think to life; their souls already have endless
life and do not need life from Christ.Ó
(6). Death does not
mean life in misery; a dead person has no life or no misery, life or death mean
existence or non-existence. Death and an endless life of misery is not even
close to being the same thing.
(7). Many persons have
life but little or no happiness. We may possess life without happiness, but we
cannot possess happiness without life; life and happiness is not the same
thing. Life is necessary to both
happiness and misery; there could not be endless misery without eternal life.
Eternal life is a
conditional gift only to the saved; it is not something that every person is
born with, only the faithful will ever have it. ÒHe that has the Son HAS
ETERNAL LIFE. He that has not the Son HAS NOT LIFE;Ó (1 John 5:12) therefore,
cannot have immortality; how could it be said any clearer that those that do
not believe in Christ dose not have endless life? "He
that hears My word, and believes Him that sent Me, has eternal life, and comes not into judgment, but has passed out of death into
life" (John 5:24).
Life and death are two
of the most misused words by those that believe in Hell. Many are unwilling to
believe that when God said, "The
wages of sin is death" that God did really means what He said, that
death is death. Death is not endless life being tormented by God in some place
other than Heaven. Death is not life, not a life long imprisonment with
torture. Death is not a better life in
Heaven, or a worse life in Hell; it is life or death, death is not one kind of
life for believers and another kind of life for unbelievers. Death is the
exact opposite of life, and death cannot be changed to be endless life being
endlessly tormented by God. For a person to have an immortal soul from birth,
death as the wages of sin must be explained away. Innate inborn immortality is
hostile to God's word. If a person is born with an immortal "immaterial,
invisible part of men" (W. E. Vine) that is not subject to death, and this
"soul" is the only being that will survive death, the law of God
would have no power over whether that soul lives or dies, for according to
innate inborn immortality a soul cannot die; God can only say how or where this
soul, this "immaterial, invisible part of men" is to live if it is
not subject to death and it is only this soul that will always live some place
without the dead person that a soul had been in, live some place without you.
"He that hears my word,
and believes him that sent me, has
eternal life, and comes not into judgment, but has passed out of death into lifeÉthey that have
done good, unto the resurrection of life"
(John 5:24-29). It is a person, not a soul Òthat
hears my word, and believesÓ that has life, not a soul that was not dead that
has passes out death into life; it is a person (ÒheÓ) that has Òpassed out of death into life.Ó
If there were a soul that now has life, it could not be resurrected Òout of death into life.Ó The life could
not be literal (real) life if the death was not a literal (real) death.
"It is appointed unto man
once to die, and after this comes judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). "For the hour comes, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear
his voice, and shall come forth; they
that have done good, unto the resurrection
of life; and they that have done
evil, unto the resurrection of judgment"
(John 5:28-29). We now bear the image of Adam, and like Adam, we all will die,
but both the saved and those not saved will be raised at the second coming of
Christ. The saved will bear the image of Christ and have life forever (1
Corinthians 15:45-49). The church at Smyrna was told, "Be you faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of
life...He that overcomes shall not be hurt of the second death" (Revelation 2:10-11). Throughout the
Gospels, Christ promised life to all who believed Him. Paul says, "His servants you are whom you obey;
whether of sin unto death, or obedience
unto righteousness" (Romans 6:16). "What fruit then had you at that time in the things whereof you
are now ashamed: for the end of these
things is death. But, now being made free from sin and become servants to
God, you have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life" (Romans 6:21-22). As clear as human
language can be, Paul says, "For the
wages of sin is death; but the free
gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord"
(Romans 6:23), it is life or death for a person, not life of death for a
deathless soul. ÒIf YOU are living according to the flesh, YOU must die; but if by the Spirit YOU are putting to death the deeds of the body, YOU shall liveÓ (Romans 8:13).
JESUS
THE BREAD OF LIFE (John 6). After Jesus fed the five thousand He taught
them that He is the bread of life
that came down out of Heaven. The bread given to the five thousand preserved
life for a short time, the bread Jesus give from Heaven preserved life without
end. ÒI am the living bread which came
down out of heaven: if any MAN eat
of this bread, HE shall live
foreverÓ (John 6:51). Bread is not a symbol of happiness but a preserver of
life, if a person has no food that person would die. Believing in Christ gives life to the person that believes, and
without Christ that person will die. Endless life depends on having Christ, the bread that came down out of
Heaven; without Christ a person will have no life, will perish just as a person that has no food. ÒYou
have not life in yourselves. HE that
eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life: and I will raise HIM
up at the last dayÓ (John 6:53-54). It is the person that eats and
drinks, it will be the person, not a deathless soul that already has life that
will be raised up from a grave at the last day. Those not in Christ will not Òlive forever.Ó Christ gives to the
person Òthat eats my flesh and drinks my
bloodÓ exactly what He said, life,
not just a reward to a soul that already has life.
(a). It is the person that if he or she eats
that person will live.
(b). If the person does not eat, that person
will not live.
(c). The literal endless life of a person
depends on receiving Christ and being faithful to Him.
(d). ÒHe (the person) that eats this bread shall live for everÓ (John 6:58). John 6 is
speaking of the person that believes and the person
that dose not believe. Nothing, not one word is said about a deathless soul.
(f). It is the literal life or death of a
person at the last day, the Judgment Day, not the well-being, or the lost or
the well-being of a soul that has life and cannot die even if the person that
soul was in did not believe in Christ.
In Romans 6:23, the
issue is
LIFE–––––––––––––––––––OR – DEATH
Not life in one place-Heaven–OR–life
in another place-Hell
Death is the absence of life––NOT–another
kind of life
It is not either a better life–––NOR––a
worse life in misery
All who obeys Christ and "overcomes,"
will at the judgment be given the crown of life, and shall not be hurt of Òthe second deathÓ (Revelation 2:11). The clear implication is that anyone who
does not overcome shall be hurt of Òthe
second deathÓ at the judgment. "He
that overcomes shall inherit these
things: and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But for the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and
murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their
part shall be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone; which is the second death"
(Revelation 21:7-8). Death dose not mean life; to have a conscious existence
there must be life, not death. The dead do not have conscious existence; if
they did have an endless conscious existence they would not be dead.
(a). The first death is not any kind of
life.
(b).
The Òsecond deathÓ is not a Òsecond
life.Ó
Both the first death and the second death are death, neither the first death, or Òthe second deathÓ dose not means any
kind of life anyplace.
There may be more in
the New Testament on life and death than any other subject. If God can destroy
a person, the whole person (Matthew 10:28), unconditional immortality cannot be
true. If a person can lose his life (Matthew 10:39), unconditional immortality
cannot be true. Those who believe there is something that is in a person, and
believe that this something cannot die knows "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23) must be changed
to be something other than death, for if "death"
means "death" the sinner
will die, neither a sinner or a soul if there were a soul that had been in a
sinner could not have endless life in Hell if death is death. The Bible teaching on death must be done
away with or there can be no Hell; Christ is made to be saying God will
destroy souls that todayÕs theology says cannot be destroyed.
John 3:16, it is either ÒperishÓ or Òlife.Ó To ÒperishÓ is
not to live, ÒperishÓ is not to have
a good life in one place, or a bad life in another place. If all have a ÒsoulÓ
in them that now has endless life, and it will always have endless life and
cannot perish, why did God give His Son that the ÒsoulsÓ that are in all who
believe on Him would have endless life and not perish? How could the gift of
God be life to deathless souls if these souls already have endless life?
Eternal life is only for the persons that believe, not souls. Just as sure as those that believe on
Christ will have endless life, the persons that do not believe on Christ will
not have endless life any place. The gift of God to those who believe on
His Son is endless life (John 3:16), and this gift is something they did not
already have; not something ALL were born with. If all have souls in them that
have endless life from birth, even those who do not believe, how could life be
a gift only to believers? When those who believe that all now have a ÒsoulÓ
that is inside of them and this soul now has endless life read the Bible, and they
change "life" into "a
reward," they must change death,
die, perish, destroyed, and destruction into "endless life." To them,
the Bible cannot mean what it says and they must change it to make it say what
they want it to say.
Only those that are in
Christ will be given immortality that those that are not in Christ will never
have, is changed by those who say they do not change GodÕs word, changed it to
all are born with something in them that now has endless life, and only
whatever a soul is that is in a person, only it will live forever, either in
Heaven or Hell. If there was a soul that is deathless, life could not be given
to a soul that is already deathless. ÒShould
not perish, but have eternal life,Ó it is a person that will perish, or a
person that will have endless life. Perish in John 3:16 is from ÒapollumiÓ in
the Greek and is translated ÒdestroyÓ
in James 4:12, ÒThere is one lawgiver and
judge who is able to save and to destroy (apollumi).Ó
(a). The unbelieving persons that will perish,
they will be destroyed; they will not have endless life any place.
(b). The believing persons that will have endless
life, they will not perish.
(c). You either perish or you donÕt perish. When
a newspaper says, ÒTwenty persons perished in a plane crash,Ó twenty persons
died, perish means die. Perish is not endless life with a Òlost of well-being,Ó
perish is not endless life in endless torment, to perish is not any kind of
life anyplace.
1 John 3:11-12, ÒGod gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that has the Son has the life; he that has not the Son of God has not the life.Ó The immortal
soul doctrine, that all are born with a soul that has eternal life makes John
be completely wrong when he said, ÒHe that has not the Son of God has not
the life.Ó How could those that have not the Son and; therefore, has not
life, but have immortality without life? Would they not be like a rock that
exist but has no life, no thoughts?
John 11:25, "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believes on me, though he die, yet
shall he live; and whosoever lives and believes on me shall never die." If no one Òshall never die,Ó then why did Jesus
promise something that all, even all sinners already had? "And declare unto you the life, the eternal life" (1
John 1:1). Only those who are raised with Christ through baptism (Romans 6:4-5)
have life. Only those in Christ are the only ones who, ÒThough he die, yet shall he liveÓ (John 11:25), there will
be no endless life or immortality for those that are not in Christ, no
immortality for those that die in sin. Christianity without a resurrection to
life for those in Christ is inconceivable.
(1). LIFE
The gift of God is endless
LIFE, but only to those in Christ. God's gift is LIFE, life could not be a gift
to a soul that already has life and can never not has life; GodÕs gift is not
just a reward to a soul that was born with endless life and cannot die.
1. The Greek concept of an immortal soul assumes that a soul would be
better off without the person it is in, that it already possesses endless life
and is not subject to death.
2. The orthodox view
is that a person has an "immaterial,
invisible part of men" (Vine), and only this soul that is in a person
possess endless life at the birth of the person it was put in; the orthodox
view is that it is only this invisible deathless soul that will be in Heaven or
Hell, not the person that a invisible soul had been in,
3. The Bible says that Christ "abolished
death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel" (2 Timothy 1:10). Without the
resurrection there would be no life after death. Before the resurrection, no
person, or nothing that some believe to be in a person now has immortality.
Both (1) Òlife,Ó for a person after
the death of the person, and (2) Òimmortality,Ó life that will have no
end (2 Timothy 1:10) was brought to
light through the gospel of Christ; both were not known about before Christ;
there cannot be one without the other, cannot be immortality without life, or
endless life without immortality. If there were a soul in a lost person and that
soul already had endless life then Christ could not have
brought neither life nor immortality to light. If life and immortality after
death for a person or for a soul was taught in the Old Testament, Christ could
not have brought life and immortal to light.
PSUKEE (LIFE)
Psukee (life) is the
only word that is translated soul in the New Testament. The adjectives eternal and everlasting (aionios–ageless)
are never used with psukee. Psukee is translated life 40 times, you 1 time,
us 1 time, mind 3 times, heart 1 time, heartily 1 time, soul 57 times in the
King James Version, but psukee is changed to soul much fewer times in most
translations; the times it is changed to soul is down from 57 times in the King
James Version to 23 times in New International
Version 2011 update, and 0 times in some translations. (See ÒTHE DYING USE OF ÔSOULÕ IN THE NEW TESTAMENTÓ in chapter
one, also the dying translation of nehphesh into soul in the Old Testament).
Psukee (life) is the natural life of a person or animal (Revelation 8:9; 16:3).
It is the life common to all living creatures, both to all mankind, and to all
animals. All living creatures by natural birth have psukee (life) from birth to
death. "The first man
Adam become a living soulÓ (1
Corinthians 15:45 in King James Version, Òliving beingÓ in most
translations). Psukee is the same as nehphesh in the Old Testament; Adam became
"a living being"–nehphesh–
(Genesis 2:7); nehphesh is the life Adam had in common with animals and all
living creatures, life that can be destroyed, saved, lay down, end, loss, put
in danger, or die.
Psukee is used about
104 times in the New Testament, with 50 of them in the four gospels. In spite
of the belief of the King James translators they were compelled to translated
it ÒlifeÓ 28 of the 50 times, ÒusÓ 1 time, and were able to change it to ÒsoulÓ
only 21 of the 50 times. Life and soul are not synonymous in English; life and
soul are not even close to being the same thing. In
trying to put PlatoÕs teaching into the mouth of Christ they were forced to
translate the same word into two words that are not even close to meaning the
same thing; basically they translated psukee ÒlifeÓ when it was speaking of
animal life, and changed to ÒsoulÓ when it was speaking of mankind. Unfortunately most English readers never
see what the translators did, that they made psukee be both (1) any earthly mortal life that cannot keep from dying,
(2) and the same word, psukee, sometimes in the same sentence to be immortal
souls that cannot die. Psukee is not both (1) a mortal being that must
dies, (2) and an immortal being that cannot die, if it did mean both there
would have been no way the translators could have known when a psukee was a
deathless immortal being that cannot die, and when a psukee was a mortal being
that cannot keep from dying. In spite of their belief that souls are immortal
and cannot die they were forced to translate psukee as mortal life that can die
more times than they were able to mistranslate it as PlatoÕs cannot die soul
being that is inside of a person.
ÒWhosoever will save his life (psukee) shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life (psukee) for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited if he gains the
whole world and lose his own soul (psukee -life)? Or
what shall he give in exchange for his
soul (psukee -life)Ó (Matthew 16:25-26); in the same verse they
made psukee mean both (1) animal life, mortal life that they believed must die,
(2) and an immortal, immaterial soul that they believed cannot die. When
rightly translated, psukee always means the life of a mortal being, either the
life of a person, or the life of an animal.
ZOE LIFE
Zoe (life) (Strong's word 2227, ÒZoopoico...make
alive, give life, quickenÓ) Zoe (life), endless life is a gift from Christ to those who
believe, the life He gives to those who are His; an ageless life that those
that are not His will never have. "Zoe" is used about one hundred
thirty four times, and is translated "life"
every time but one where it is translated ÒlifetimeÓ
(Luke 16:25). It refers to the life given by Christ to believes in all but
about ten of the one hundred thirty four times, and in those ten it is the gift
of earthly life; ÒSeeing He Himself gives to all life (zoe), and breath, and all thingsÓ (Acts
17:25; Luke 12:15; 16:25; 1:75; 1 Corinthians 15:19; James 4:14, and about three
more). All life (zoe) of ever-living thing on this earth come from God and is a
gift from God to both persons and animals.
Christ gives life
(zoe) to believerÕs now, a life that will be continued after the resurrection
in the ages to come (John 6:40); a life that will last beyond this earthly life
that nonbelievers do not now have and will never have. Life (zoe) that Christ
gives to a believer is endless existence for a believer as opposed to
non-existence or death for a nonbeliever; neither endless life nor any kind of
endless existence are not once used to describe the future state of the lost,
not to a lost person, or not to a soul that many believe had been in a lost
person. The penalty for sin is death,
but Christ made the atonement for our sins by his death; endless life for a
believer is only through ChristÕs atonement, and without His atonement there
will be only death, not endless life anyplace with or without torment. ÒThe wages of sin is death,Ó and Christ
has not made the atonement for the sins of the wicked that never believe Him,
and there is no life for them; neither a person nor a soul, if there were a soul,
it could not be endlessly tormented if it has no life.
(1). "Shall
inherit eternal (aionios) LIFE (zoe)"
(Matthew 19:29).
(2). "That whosoever believes may in
him have eternal (aionios) LIFE (zoe)"
(John 3:15). The only way to have eternal life is through believing in Christ,
not by birth, not, as many believe, by being born with whatever they believe an
immortal soul to be, even if the person a soul is believed to be in never
believes in Christ.
(3). "Whosoever
believes on him should not perish, but
have eternal (aionios) LIFE (zoe)"
(John 3:16).
(4). "He
that believes on the Son has eternal (aionios) LIFE
(zoe); but
he that obeys not the Son shall not see
LIFE (zoe)Ó (John 3:36). He
or she that obeys not the Son is not now immortal, and will never be immortal
in Hell or any place, will never have eternal life any place. If this is not
speaking of the person, if it was speaking of an immortal soul that Òshall not see life,Ó then how is it
that the immortal soul that we are repeatedly told is deathless, but that
deathless soul Òshall not see life?Ó
(5). "The water I shall give him shall become in him a well or water
springing up unto eternal (aionios) LIFE
(zoe)" (John 4:14).
(6). "Fruit unto LIFE (zoe) eternal (aionios)Ó (John
4:36).
(7). "Son also gives LIFE (zoe)" (John 5:21).
(8). "He
that hears my word, and believes him that sent me, has eternal (aionios) LIFE
(zoe), and comes not into judgment,
but has passed out of death into LIFE (zoe)" (John 5:24).
(9). "That you may have LIFE (zoe)"
(John 5:40).
(10). "Unto the resurrection of LIFE (zoe)" (John 5:29).
(11). "Food which abides unto eternal (aionios) LIFE
(zoe)" (John 6:27).
(12). "Should have
eternal (aionios) LIFE (zoe); and I will raise him up at the last day" (John 6:40).
(13). "And I give unto them eternal (aionios) LIFE (zoe)"
(John 10:28). Christ is not giving them life that they already had, or life to
a being that is in them that already had eternal life at the birth of the
person it was put in, but Christ gives life to persons that no one did not have
before the new birth. When Jesus said, "He
that believes not the Son shall not see life," how could these that
shall not have eternal life have eternal life be tormented by God?
(14). "He
should give eternal (aionios) LIFE (zoe)" (John 17:1-3).
(15). "And
that believing you may have LIFE (zoe)" (John
20:31). This life is a free gift given to the person that believes; it is not a
gift of life to a soul that those that believe in unconditional immortal tell
us that a soul already has life, and according to them all souls will always
have life someplace.
(16). "The
free gift of God is eternal (aionios) LIFE (zoe) in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans
6:23).
(17). "Believe on Him unto
eternal (aionios) LIFE (zoe)" (1 Timothy 1:16).
(18). "Lay
hold on the LIFE (zoe) eternal (aionios), whereunto you were called" (1 Timothy 6:12).
(19). "May lay hold on the LIFE (zoe)
which is LIFE (zoe) indeed" (1
Timothy 6:19).
(20). "Abolished
death and brought LIFE (zoe) and
immortality to light" (2
Timothy 1:10).
(21). "In
hope of eternal (aionios) LIFE (zoe)" (Titus 1:2).
(22). "We
might be made heirs according to the
hope of eternal LIFE (zoe)" (Titus 3:12).
(23). "Shall
receive the crown of LIFE (zoe)"
(James 1:12).
(24). "Declare unto you the LIFE (zoe), the eternal (aionios) LIFE
(zoe), (Christ) which was with
the Father" (1 John 1:2).
(25). "And this is the promise which he promised us, even the LIFE (zoe) eternal (aionios)" (1 John 2:25). At the
resurrection the saved shall put on immortality (eternal life). This is so sure
that it is spoken of as if we now have it.
(26). "And
in the world (age) to come eternal (aionios) LIFE
(zoe)" (Mark 10:30). (1)"God gave unto us eternal (aionios) LIFE
(zoe),
(2) and this LIFE (zoe) is in his Son.
(3) He that has the Son has the LIFE
(zoe); (4) he
that has not the Son of God has not the LIFE (zoe)" (1 John 5:11-
(12). No invisible immaterial soul in a person that is not in Christ now
has eternal life, or the promise of eternal life.
(27). "And the end, eternal (aionios) LIFE (zoe)" (Romans
6:22).
(28). "Looking
for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal (aionios) LIFE (zoe)" (Jude 21.
(29). "That of all that which he has given
me I should lose nothing, but should
raise it up at the last day" (John 6:29). "For this is the will of my Father, that every one that beholds the Son, and believes on him, should have
eternal (aionios) LIFE (zoe); and I will raise him up at the last day" (John 6:40). "And I will raise him up at the last day"
(John 6:44) 30. "And I will raise him up at the last day"
(John 6:54).
(31). "Who will render to every man according to his works: to them that by patience in well doing seek for glory and honor and incorruption,
eternal (aionios) LIFE (zoe)"
(Romans 2:7).
(32). "I
AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE (zoe)" "Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the LIFE (zoe): he that believes on me, though he die,
yet shall he live; and whosoever lives and believes on me
shall never die" (John 11:25-26).
(33). "Our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought LIFE (zoe) and
immortality to light through the
gospel" (2 Timothy 1:10). Christ is the Word of life.
(34). "Concerning the Word of life (and the
life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare unto you
the life, the eternal life, which was with the Father)" (1 John 1:2).
Only those raised with Christ through baptism have eternal life and will not be
subject to Òthe Second Death.Ó
LIFE
FOR THE PERSON THAT BELIVES IS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE, NOT IMMORTAL SOULS.
IT IS A RESURRECTION TO LIFE FOR BELIEVERS, OR A RESURRECTION TO JUDGEMENT FOR
UNBELIEVERS (John 5:28-29). Eternal life at the
judgment only to those who believe in and obey Christ is positive proof that no
person does not now have immortality; ÒHe who believes in the Son has eternal (aionios) life
(zoe); but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life (zoe)Ó (John
3:36); having life depends on having a relationship with Christ; ÒTherefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above,
where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things
above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life (zoe) is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ, who is our life (zoe), is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in gloryÓ (Colossians
3:1-4). The man made theology that says a person is born with an immortal soul
in them that is deathless, gives life to all and robs Christ of giving the gift
of life to all who believes. These
passages make no sense if there were a soul in us that now has eternal life,
and that soul can never die, and only this soul that is not subject to death is
all that will ever be in Heaven. This theology makes Christ give life only to a
soul that already is deathless, that already has endless life and it cannot
die. Immortality is conditional on being in Christ; there is no eternal
life except to these in Christ. It would be nonsense for Christ to promise life
in the age to come to a deathless soul if that soul already had life and couldnÕt ever not have life. ÒGod gave unto US eternal (aionios) LIFE
(zoe), and this LIFE (zoe), is in his
Son. HE that has the Son has the LIFE (zoe); HE that has not he Son of God
has not the LIFE (zoe),Ó (1
John 5:11-12). Yet we are told that Òhe
that has not the SonÓ has a soul that now has life, that it is not ÒusÓ but ÒitÓ that now has eternal life.
(1). "Your fathers ate the manna in the
wilderness, and they die. This is
the bread, which came down out of heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread
which came down out of heaven; if any
man eat of this bread HE shall live
for everÉHE that eats this bread shall
live forever" (John 6:51-58). The comparison is undeniable that a
person will die if that person does not eat of this bread, but that a person
will live if he or she does eat the bread; absolutely nothing is said about a
deathless soul that cannot die, not that a soul will live if it eats, or of a
soul that cannot die if it does not eat of this bread.
(2). ÒI am the resurrection and the LIFE (zoe); HE who believes in Me shall live even if HE dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never dieÓ (John 11:25-26).
(3). ÒAs the living Father sent me, and I
live because of the Father; so HE
that eats me, HE also shall live
because of meÓ (John 6:57). Dose anyone believe this is not speaking of
endless life–endless existence, that it
is only speaking only of endless happiness of the person that eats? Happiness
would beyond any doubt be included in the endless life, but Christ gives endless
life only to believers.
Because those that
believe still die the first death, many misapply this promise of life only to a
soul, not to the person.
(1). If this life was
to a soul, not the person, then a soul that is in the person that does not
believe will die; therefore, it would make souls, if there were souls in all
that do not believe in Christ be both mortal and will die.
(2). If, as we are
told, all souls have always been immortal and can never die, then this promise
of life does not give anything to a soul that a soul did not already have. It
would be a useless, empty, meaningless promise to a soul that already had life
and it could never die, if there were a soul it could never be without life
even if the person did not eat the bread Christ gives.
(3). It is mortal man
that is Òfaithful unto deathÓ that is
promised life, not an immortal something that has always and will always have
life even if it were not Òfaithful unto
deathÓ. To change the person (ÒheÓ
and ÒeveryoneÓ) that is given life for believing to being an ÒitÓ that already has
life even if ÒitÓ never believe is not Òspeaking where the Bible speaks and
keeping silent where the Bible is silent.Ó
(4). The ÒheÓ
is the person that believes that Òshall live forever.Ó There are all
kinds of attempts made to change this from ÒheÓ
to Òit,Ó to change it from being a person to being a soul that will live
forever, either live a better life, or live a worse life. The person living
forever just will not work with unconditional immortality, therefore; they must
change this from a person being given life to a soul that already has life even
if the person does not eat of Òthis
bread,Ó after all, according to them it is only whatever a soul is that
will live forever, not the person.
(a). "WE shall be also in the likeness
of His resurrection" (Romans
6:5).
(b).
ÒAnd this MORTAL must put on immortalityÓ (1
Corinthians 15:53).
(c). "Made alive" (Ephesians 2:1-5).
(d).
ÒWho according to his great mercy begat US again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead, unto an inheritance
incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in Heaven for YOU, who by the power of God are guarded
through faith unto a salvation ready to
be revealed in the last time...receiving the end of YOUR faith, the salvation
of YOUR soulsÓ (psukee-lives) "the salvation of your lives. Set your hope perfectly on the grace that
is to be brought unto YOU at the revelation of Jesus ChristÓ (1 Peter
1:3-13). Our lives are saved from death by the blood of Christ who gave His
life to save our lives from death, not just to save something that is in a
person from a death that a soul cannot die; therefore it cannot be saved from
death.
(e).
"But if by the Spirit, YOU
put to death the deeds of the body YOU
shall live" (Romans 8:13).
(f).
"That WE may be also
glorified with Him" (Romans 8:17).
(g).
"With the glory which shall
be revealed to us-ward" (Romans 8:18). When? Not now, but revealed
at the resurrection.
(h).
"Waiting for OUR adoption"
(Romans 8:23). Not an immaterial being waiting for "its" adoption.
(i). "Foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son" (Romans 8:29).
(j).
For this hope we must "with
patience wait for it" (Romans 8:25).
(k). Four
times in John 6:39-54 Christ says He will rise up those that are His "at the last day" (John
6:39; 6:40; 6:44; and 6:54).
Endless life is the
gift of Christ only to those who obey Him, not some- thing all mankind now
possess without obeying Christ. Innate
immortality denies that Christ will give eternal life to those that believe by
teaching that all souls already have eternal life; eternal life cannot be given
to a soul that already has eternal life. It cannot be changed to a better
life in Heaven, or a worse life in Hell; it is life of death, not life or life.
We can choose between life and death, not a better life, or a worse life of
torment.
EDWARD WHITE, ÒThe
second line of doctrine which runs throughout the gospel of John from the first
paragraph to the last, is that this Incarnation of the Divine Logos of God has
for its object TO GIVE LIFE ETERNAL TO MANKIND. This is repeated more than
thirty times in the most emphatic manner. And if the epistles of John are added
to the account, it will be found that nearly fifty times does this apostle
declare the gift of LIFE, or LIFE EVERLASTING, to the end of the incarnationÉ The
statement is reiterated in every possible form that His work on earth is to
give life, everlasting life, to prevent men from dying, from perishing.Ó ÒLife In Christ,Ó Ch. 17, Section 2, 1875. This book is free
at: http://www.robertwr.com/LifeInChrist.htm
HENRY HAMLET
DOBNEY, ÒThe holders of the popular doctrine, proceeding on the assumption that
all man have eternal life, in the literal sense, must of course deny altogether that the idea of existence is even
included in the terms Ôlife,Õ Ôeverlasting life,Õ and the like. For seeing,
according to the common notion, that the wicked have everlasting life as well
the righteous (taking the phrase literally), when this is promised to the
followers of Christ, as something peculiar to them and unutterably glorious,
they must perforce affirm that the phase is used metaphorically, and only so.Ó ÒOn The Scripture Doctrine Of Future Punishment, An Argument,Ó page
180, Kessinger Legacy Reprints, 1850.
WHEN DO THE SAVED
PERSONS
RECEIVE IMMORTALITY?
Paul writing to Titus
said, ÒIn hope of eternal life, which God who cannot lie, promisedÓ (Titus
1:2). Immortality will be given at the Day of Judgment to those who Òseek for glory and honor and
incorruptionÉin the day when God shall judge the secrets of manÓ (Romans
2:5-16); could it be said in a more positively way that immortality is
something Christians Òseek for,Ó and
not something that souls now have? ÒShould
have eternal LIFE (zoe); and I will raise HIM up at the last day" (John 6:40). Those who are
believers will sleep in Christ unto all believers will be raised up with
immortal bodies at the second coming.
(a). Immortality will be received by persons in the future (John 3:16).
(b). Immortality will be inherited by persons (Matthew 19:29), it is not something that
ÒsoulsÓ now have. ÒUnto an inheritance incorruptible, and
undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved
in heaven for YOU, who by the power of God are guarded through faith unto a
salvation ready to be revealed in the last timeÓ (1 Peter 1:5).
(c).
The gift of God is life (Romans 6:23) is only to those who obey God,
not something that souls that are in all sinners already have?
(d). The saved now have the hope of endless life in the future
(Titus 3:7); something only believers shall receive, but sinners do not have
this hope and never will have endless life.
(e). Endless life is promised only to the saved (1 John 1:25). If all have it from
birth, then life could not be the gift of God promised only to believers.
(f). Christians are Òwaiting for OUR adoptionÉif
we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for itÓ
(Romans 8:23-25).
(g).
ÒSince, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on
things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds
on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and YOUR life is now hidden with Christ in
God.
(h). When Christ, who is our life appears,
then YOU also will appear with Him in gloryÓ (Colossians 3:1-4).
(i). ÒBe faithful unto death, and I will give
YOU the crown of lifeÓ (Revelation 2:10). The Òcrown of lifeÓ is not given before the second coming of Christ, and
will be given only to the faithful (2 Timothy 4:8).
Summary - If there
were now a soul in everyone that is now immortal and deathless, that deathless soul
could not be given life even if the person it was in was a believer, it could
not be given life or immortality at the resurrection, it would make much of the
New Testament be complete nonsense. If there were a soul that is now immortal
and deathless, that soul would not be subject to death, it could not die, it
could not pay Òthe wages of sinÓ
which is death (Romans 6:23); it could not be resurrected for it would not be
dead. If there were deathless souls, even these souls in the lost would now
have endless life; all souls would now be immortal and have no need for Christ
to have died in their place to save deathless souls from death (Romans 6:23).
The immortal soul doctrine that all have a soul that is immortal, that all
souls now have endless life is a gospel that is totally different than the
gospel of the New Testament (Galatians 1:6-9), which teaches that only those persons
that believe and obey Christ have endless life, and that no person now has, or ever
will have immortality without the resurrection.
BREAD
FROM HEAVEN–THE RESURRECTION–ENDLESS LIFE. ÒÔTruly, truly, I say to you,
you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because
you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not work for the food which perishes,
but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give
to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.Õ Therefore they said to
Him, ÔWhat shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?Õ Jesus answered
and said to them, ÔThis is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has
sent.Õ So they said to Him, ÔWhat then do You do for a
sign, so that we may see, and believe You? What work do You
perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ÔHe
gave them bread out of heaven to eat.Õ Jesus then said to them, ÔTruly, truly,
I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it
is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God
is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.Õ Then they
said to Him, ÒLord, always give us this bread.Õ Jesus said to them, ÔI am
the bread of life; HE who comes to Me will not hunger, and HE
who believes in Me will never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the
one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. For I have come down
from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of
Him who sent Me. This is the will of Him who sent Me,
that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My
Father, that EVERYONE who beholds
the Son and believes in Him will have
eternal life, and I Myself will raise HIM up on the last day.Õ Therefore
the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, ÔI am the bread that came
down out of heaven.Õ They were saying, ÔIs not this
Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say,
ÔI have come down out of heaven?Õ Jesus answered and said to them ÔDo not
grumble among yourselves. No one can come to Me unless
the Father who sent Me draws him; and I
will raise HIM up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, ÔAnd they
shall all be taught of God.Õ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me. Not that anyone has seen the Father,
except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to
you, HE who believes has eternal life.
I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread, which
comes down out of heaven, so that one
may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down out of
heaven; if ANYONE eats of this bread,
HE will live forever; and the bread
also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.Õ Then the
Jews began to argue with one
another, saying, ÔHow can this man give us His flesh to eat?Õ So Jesus said to them, ÔTruly, truly, I say
to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. HE who eats
My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I
will raise HIM up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. HE
who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me,
and I in HIM. As the living Father
sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so HE who eats Me, HE also will live because of
Me. This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate
and died; HE who eats this bread will
live foreverÕÓ (John 6:26-58). The fathers were given bread in the
wilderness, but that bread was only to sustain earthly life for a little time,
while the bread of Christ gives endless life; those persons who eat of it will
be resurrected with life that never ends.
(a). Persons that eat the bread in the
wilderness died.
(b). Persons that eat the bread that Christ
gives will never die.
This is speaking of the
persons that died in the wilderness, and the persons that will not die if they
eat the bread Christ gives. If it were speaking of an immortal something that
cannot die that had been in a person, then Christ would be giving no life to
these immortal souls that already had life.
J. M. DENNISTON, ÒThe
one thing really announced is that, through Christ the living Bread, there
comes to believers an endless duration which did not come by the manna–the clear understanding being that in no
other way than through that Bread can such duration be theirsÉlife, including existence, comes to us only
through the Son as the Bread of Life.Ó ÒThe Perishing Soul According To
Scripture,Ó pages 55-56, Longmans, Green, and Co., 1874.
The usual orthodox
argument is that to be dead dose not mean to be without an existence.
(a). Death is changed
to life separated from God, to be dead is not to live any
kind of life some place where God is not at.
(b). ÒShall liveÓ they say does not mean
life, but is changed to mean a deathless soul will find favor with God.
There
cannot be life without existence, or existence without life.
(a). Existence is life, to existence is to be
alive.
(b). Life is existence; when Christ gives
endless life to believers He give endless existence that they did not already have.
For a person to have
life, or for a person to have existence is exactly the same thing. If there
were souls that have endless existence, to say Christ gives them life would be
to say Christ gives them nothing.
Those who do not eat of the
bread Christ gives will die; to teach that all will live some place is to teach
that all that do not eat of the bread Christ gives already have life that is
just as endless as those that do eat; therefore, even if they do not eat of
this bread of life they can never die; only the place where they would live
their endless life they already have would be in a different place then those
that do eat this bread, but both would have life, both would have existence. ÒEven as You gave
Him authority over all mankind, that to all whom You have given Him, He may
give eternal lifeÓ (John 17:2).
While it is beyond all
doubt that there will be endless happiness in Heaven, life cannot be changed to
be only happiness, death cannot be changed to be endless existence being
tormented by God. In this world there can be life without happiness, there
cannot be happiness without life. In Heaven there will be both endless life and
endless happiness.
IN THE
BOOK OF REVELATION
ONLY
BELIEVERS WILL BE GIVEN LIFE
(a).
The tree of life (Revelation 2:7; 22:2; 22:14).
(b). The crown of life (Revelation 2:10).
(c). Name written in the book of life
(Revelation 20:12; 20:15; 21:27; 22:19).
(d). A river of water of life (Revelation
22:1-2).
(e). Those who are not in the book of life
are cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:15), Òwhich is the second deathÓ (Revelation 21:8).
In the Book of
Revelation it is life for those in Christ, death for those not in Christ. God Òwill take away his name from the tree of
lifeÓ (Revelation 22:19).
Endless life is a gift
from God only to believers (Romans 6:23). Death is the opposite of life, not another
kind of life. Life is the opposite of death.
(2) DEATH
IS DEATH
DEATHLESS?
DOSE DEATH
REALLY MEAN DEATH?
OR IS
DEATH ETERNAL LIFE WITH TORMENT?
ARE THE
DEAD REALLY DEAD?
IS DEATH
THE ABSENCE OF LIFE?
DEATH, just plain
ÒdeathÓ is Òthe wages of sin,Ó not
some kind of death that is not a real death. Platonic theology changes death
from being death. Death has been made into an illusion where when a
person dies that person is not dead, but is more alive then when he or she were
alive; death is made to means more alive than life does. If, as we are repeated
told, death is not death, but death means endless life in Hell or some place,
them what word could have been used to mean completely dead? There is not one
word that could have been use that many would not say death does not mean to be
actual dead. If death is not death, what would it take
to be dead?
Salvation is from
death for the person that sinned, not from being endlessly tormented by a God tormenting
souls that cannot die. For believers DEATH has been changed and made into a
glorious LIFE with Christ. Both those that believe in Hell and Universalist
MUST prove death is not death, that Òthe
wages of sinÓ is endless life; both MUST make there be no such thing as
death, to be dead is changed and made to be alive. Whether it is in plants,
animals, or person, death by definition is the absence of life; there is no
life in a dead plant just as there is no life in a dead person. Endless life
with endless torment in Hell would mean that there is no absence of life, that
there is no death; death is not an endless deathless life of being endless
burned in fire by God; death is death, death
is not life. Death being death
completely destroys the pagan immortal soul doctrine that the real person dose
not dies, that there is a soul that will live endlessly without the person, and
without the resurrection. The Òbreath
of lifeÓ is given by God, it is a priceless blessing; death is the removal
of the priceless life that came from God; death ends life; Òthe second death,Ó the end of all life
will be a terrible punishment for sin. It is life or death, not a bad kind of
life in one place, or a good kind of life in another place, death is not any
kind of life, not a good or a bad life; if death is not a literal real death
then life is not a literal real life. Death being life is a change to GodÕs
word made by those that say they do not change GodÕs word; a change they must
have to make God be an endless tormentor. Death is changed from death to life,
changed to endless life being endlessly tormented by God.
According to the
immortal soul doctrine, that a soul that is in a person has never been subject
to death and cannot be dead. At the death of the person that a soul had lived
in, that soul only changes the place where it had lived when it was in a person
for another place to live without the person.
1. The
penalty of sin is death (Romans 6:23), not endless life in Hell for a soul that is
not subject to death. This passage is preached continually, but very few that
preach it believe it. They preach, "The wages of sin is death,"
and in the same breath preach a person has a deathless something in them that
cannot die, and Òthe wages of sinÓ
for that deathless something in a person is not death; according to many Òthe
wages of sinÓ is life for a soul that cannot be dead, an endless life in
Hell being tormented by God.
2. If Òthe wages of
sin is death,Ó then after the penalty, Òthe
second death,Ó there will be no life of any kind for the lost that are dead;
death is total nothingness, no awareness of anything, no love, no hope, no
relationships, no joy, no torment, no thoughts, no nothing. Eternal death is eternal punishment, the
punishment last as long as the death. Eternal suffering would be a saving from Òthe wages of sin,Ó a saving from death,
a changing of death to life. Life in Heaven is the greatest possible reward
that God can give to us; therefore, death, the lost of all that the saved have
gained, the lost of endless life is the greatest punishment possible.
(a). ÒWhether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousnessÓ (Romans
6:16).
(b). ÒFor the end of these things is
deathÓ (Romans 6:21). Death for a deathless soul?
It would not be possible to torment the dead if they are dead.
(c). ÒFor godly sorrow works repentance unto
salvation, a repentance which brings no regret: but the sorrow of the world works deathÓ (2 Corinthians 7:10).
(d). ÒSin, when it is full grown, brings forth deathÓ (James 1:15).
(e). ÒAnd
you shall call His name Jesus; for He shall save his people from their sinsÓ (Matthew 1:2).
(f). Christ
Jesus made me free from the law of
sin and deathÓ
(Romans 8:2).
(g).. ÒThat He might redeem US from all
iniquityÓ (Titus 2:14).
(h). ÒWho delivered
US out of so great a deathÓ (2 Corinthians 1:10).
(i). "Will save him from death" James 5:20, New
International Version.
(j). ÒFor
to be carnal minded is death; but to
be spiritually minded is life and
peaceÓ (Romans 8:6).
ÒBut when
this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have
put on immortality, than shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death
is swallowed up in victoryÓ (1 Corinthians 15:53-54). If, as we are
repeatedly told that a soul never dies, and only a soul will be in Heaven, then
how would it be possible for death to be Òswallowed up in victoryÓ if
death is not death, if a soul cannot be dead, what would be Òswallowed upÓ?
THE VICTORY IS NOT A VICTORY OVER HELL;
IT IS A VICTORY OVER DEATH. THE VICTORY IS NOT A DEATHLESS SOUL SAVED FROM
ENDLESS LIFE IN HELL; THE ÒVICTORYÓ OVER DEATH IS A PERSON SAVED FROM
DEATH. ÒO grave, where is thy
victory?Ó (1 Corinthians 15:55, King James Version), the victory is over
death. Those that are not in Christ that do not have the victory over death
will die Òthe second deathÓ never to have life again, Òthe wages of
sin is deathÓ (Romans 6:23), not Òthe wages of sinÓ is endless
life for a soul that had been in a person that is dead. Mankind has a love of
life and a dread of death; life is the most precious thing that we have,
without life there is nothing, death
takes all life away and without the resurrection there will be no life, Òthe
second deathÓ will take ever thing away forever.
It is difficult not to
understand this passage; it is difficult to explain away Òthe wages of sin
is death;Ó difficult to change ÒdeathÓ to Òlife.Ó All
attempts to explain death out of the Bible fall far short. Death is death, not
an endless dying but never dead; death is not endless life for a soul being
tormented by God because of the sins of a dead person that soul had been in.
Life and death in
torment are not synonymous terms; a dead person cannot be tormented. Salvation is from an endless death, Òthe
wages of sin is deathÓ (Romans 6:23); there is no passage in the entire
Bible that says anything about being saved from an endless life of being tormented
by God. All have sinned, and all that have been saved from endless death
were saved by the death of Christ, Òthe wages of sin is deathÓ (Romans 6:23). Death is God's penalty
for sin; how could God have said this anymore clear and simple? The gift of God
canceled Òthe wages of sinÓ and gives
life to the person that sinned. The free gift of God is not changing one kind
of life for another kind of life, it is not changing life in one place for life
in another place; it is a person being given life in place of
death. This is made possible not by Christ being eternally torment
for us, but by Christ dying our death for us. The free gift of God is life,
not just a change of address from Hell to Heaven for a soul that already has endless
life and cannot die; therefore, it cannot be given life. NO
PROCESS OF DYING IS NOT DEATH UNTO THE PERSON IS DEAD; DEATH IS NOT DEATH
UNTO THERE IS NO LIFE IN THE PERSON. Any endless torment that goes on forever
without ever coming to an end is not death. The Òwages of sinÓ (Romans
6:23) is not death if there is no death; the penalty of the law has not been
inflicted on any that are not dead. The immortal deathless soul doctrine must
make death not be death, it changes death into an endless imprisonment for a
deathless soul that will be endlessly alive and tormented by God; according to
this doctrine for a soul there would be no such thing as an actual death, the
theology of those that believe in Hell requires that they change GodÕs word to
make it sustain their teaching of a deathless soul. This theology
has changed death into two doors that open instantly into two parallel endless
lives.
(a). Door one, death
opens a door into instant endless life in Heaven.
(b). Door two, death
opens a door into instant endless life in Hell.
Both doors change
death into life, but only life for deathless souls that we are told can never
be dead, can never not have life; life for souls that have life without a resurrection
of the dead, have life without a Judgment Day.
"Shall save a
soul (psukee–life
or person) from death." "Will
save him from death" (James 5:20 New International Version), not a soul that cannot
ever be dead, but that deathless soul is saved from the death it cannot die. The person saved is saved from death,
not saved from an unending life of torment. It is the person that is converted
that is saved from death, not a deathless soul that had been in a person that
is dead, not a soul saved from a death that a soul could not die, not a
deathless soul saved from being tormented by God only because the dead person
it had been in had been converted when the person still had life. From the many
sermons I have heard, and the many books I have read, the belief of most
Protestants is that the conversion of the person will give endless life in
Heaven to a soul, but gives nothing to the person that a soul had been in. The
mistranslation of psukee into soul in the King James Version makes a soul that
is believed to be already deathless be saved from an endless life of torment for
a soul could not be dead to be saved from death.
When Òthe second deathÓ is changed from death
to endless life with torment then who or what will have the endless torment. It
has been changed from the person that sinned to a soul that had been in the
person that sinned having endless torment because the dead person it has been
in had sinned.
"Receiving the
end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls (life–psukee)" (1 Peter 1:9).
"Sin unto death" (Romans 6:16), not saved from an endless
life of torment for a soul that cannot be dead, that cannot Òsin unto death.Ó
"What fruit then
had you at that time in the things whereof you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now being made free
from sin and become servants to God, you
have your fruit unto sanctification,
and the end eternal life (at the judgment).
For the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal
life"
(Romans 6:21-23); death is not a gateway to a better life;
death is an "enemy," and
our only hope for life after death is the resurrection, not death being life. "For you shall
be recompensed in the resurrection" (Luke 14:14), not a soul recompensed
instantly at your death.
"Be YOU faithful unto death (end of this life) and I will give YOU the crown of life (at the judgment)...shall
not be hurt of the second death." "I will give YOUÉlife," not life to whatever
a soul is (Revelation 2:10).
And with the world they
shall "passes away" (1
John 2:17). "For if YOU live
after the flesh, YOU MUST DIE;
but if by the Spirit YOU are putting to death the deeds of the body, YOU
WILL LIVE" (Romans 8:13). "You" must die,
not something that is in "you" that cannot die must die. Why
did Paul not say, ÒIf you live after the flesh, you must be tormentedÓ? Did
Paul not know there is a big difference in dying and in living in torment; did
Paul not know that if you die you could not be tormented?
"We have passed out of
death into lifeÓ (1
John 3:14). ÒWeÓ not ÒitÓ passed out
of death into life. Death is so sure to those not in Christ that they "abides in death" (1 John 3:14).
"If we have only
hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable. But now
has Christ been raised from the
dead, the first fruits of THEM
that are asleep. For since
by man came death, by man came also the resurrection
of the DEAD. For as in Adam all DIE,
so also in Christ shall all be made ALIVE" (1 Corinthians
15:19-23). In the plainest language possible, Jesus
said, "If you believe not, YOU
shall die in your sins"
(John 8:21-24). Many read this passage and see, ÒIf you believe not, a soul
that cannot die shall die because of your sins.Ó
"The wages of sin
is death, but the gift of God is eternal life" (Romans 6:23). There
are two reasons why the sinner will die in this passage. (1) The lost will
receive the wages they earned for sin, which is death. (2) Eternal life,
immortality, is given only to those who are in Christ. There is not one passage
that says the lost will ever be given the gift of immortality.
J. W. McGARVEY, ÒBut
now having been made free from the slavery of sin, and having become a servant
of God, your present reward is the blessedness and joy of a clean life, and
your future reward is life eternal. And this is obvious, for, following my
figure of slave, masters and wages to the end, the wages which men earn and
receive from your former master, sin, is death; but the wages which you cannot
earn, or deserve, but which God freely gives you for serving him, is eternal
life in Christ Jesus our Lord.Ó Commentary on Romans 6:23,
Standard Publishing Company 1916.
Those who
believe in eternal torment are saying
1. To the unsaved that they have souls that
already have endless life, but these souls will spend their endless life in the
wrong place.
2. They are saying to the lost that there
is a souls in them that can never die, but that soul
will live an unhappy everlasting life being endlessly tormented by God because of
the sins of the person that soul was in.
3. They are saying to the lost that a souls that is in them will be in Hell, and that soul will
be just as alive as souls in Heaven, and in no sense can the souls that had
been in the lost to be said to be dead. In no plain common sense language can Òthe wages of sin is deathÓ (Romans 6:23)
be said to be death to an immortal soul that cannot be dead; if there were a
soul and it was dead it would not be immortal, that soul would have no life.
4. They are saying that death cannot be
death, but that death is only a transfer of life for a soul from this realm to
life in another realm. For a person to now have an immortal soul that can never
die, death, particularly Òthe second
deathÓ must be changed to a second life, death changed to deathless life.
Death is death, death
is not endless life
In all the repeatedly
times Christ promised endless life to believers, He is made by those that
believe in an immortal soul to mean that what Christ promised is not endless
life, but He promised only a reward or happiness to a deathless soul, not life to
a person. ÒLifeÓ and ÒdeathÓ cannot be twisted to mean the same
thing, but the immortal soul doctrine says both are the same, that the Òwages
of sin is deathÓ must be changed to wages of sin is endless life in Hell. 1
John 3:5 says, ÒNo murderer has eternal life abiding in him,Ó but the
immortal soul doctrine says, ÒYes, there is an immortal soul in a murderer that
has life abiding in it, and life will abide in that soul forever in Hell.Ó This doctrine that gives endless life to
all souls is a complete contradiction of the Bible doctrine that says Christ
gives endless life only to PERSONS that believe, not life to deathless
souls.
"WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH" (Romans 6:23), not an endless life of being tormented by
God for a ÒsoulÓ that cannot ever be dead. Death is not life in a different
form; death ends life, and without the resurrection of the dead, death means
the utter destruction of life to both believers and unbelievers. Death is to be
abolished at "the end" (1
Corinthians 15:24-26) by casting it into lake of fire. Jesus endured Òthe wages of sinÓ; He died in our place
so that we would not have to die. Christ
could not be our savior if Òthe wages of
sinÓ is changed to endlessly life being tormented. Jesus died in our
place (Romans 3:24-25; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4; Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:21-22;
Hebrews 9:12-15; 1 Peter 1:18-19), but He is not enduring endless torment in
our place; therefore, if Òthe wages of sinÓ were an endless life
of torment Christ could not be our savior; He would not have paid our debt. He
did "taste of death for every
man" (Hebrews 2:9); He paid our debt in full with His death. When
today's theology says that death is only life in a different place, and death
is not really death, then it makes our salvation impossible by making the death
of Christ not to have happened if there is no death, it makes Christ not to
have died for our sins.
(a). Theology destroys the Bible doctrine of Òthe wages of sinÓ being death.
(b). It destroys the Bible doctrine of a
Judgment Day to come by making all be judged at death.
(c). It destroys the Bible doctrine of a
resurrection by making no soul never be dead to be resurrected from the dead.
(d). It changes the gift of God from being endless
life given to all the faithful to only being an escape from endless torment in
Hell for souls that were born with and already have endless life.
ROBERT TURNER,
"Sin separates us from God, and 'the soul that sinneth, it shall
die.'" Florida College Annual Lectures, page 172, 1986. Which one is he
saying? (1) That a soul that sins lives forever separated from God, (2) or that
a soul that sins shall die. The two are a total contradiction of each other and
both cannot be true, but many are so blinded by their man made theology that
they are unable to see the contradiction, that he is saying both a soul cannot
die and a soul that sins will die.
Romans 6:23
(a).
"For the end of these things is death...for the wages of sin is
death" King James Version.
(b). "For the outcome of these things is
death...for the wages of sin is death" New American Standard.
(c). "These things result in death...for
the wages of sin is death" New International Version.
(d). "These things only bring death...when
people sin, they earn what sin pays–death" New Century Version.
(e). "And they lead to death...sin pays off
with death" Contemporary English Version.
(f). "Things that end in eternal doomÉfor
the wages of sin is deathÓ New Living Translation.
(g). ÒGodly sorrow brings repentance that leads
to salvation and end in eternal doom...for the wages of sin is death"
New Living Translation.
(h). "The result of those things is death...for
sin pays it wage–death" Today's English Version.
There is not the
slightest sign of an immortal soul that is not subject to death in this
passage; it is the person that sins that
will die.
Romans 8:5-13, ÒFor those who are according to the flesh
set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the
Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the
Spirit is life and peaceÉfor if YOU are living according to the flesh, YOU must die; but if by the Spirit YOU are putting to death the deeds of
the body, YOU will live.Ó Again,
it is life or death for a person, live or die for a person, not two kinds of
life for a deathless soul.
The three steps to death, James 1:15.
LUST (when it has conceived)
(2) gives birth to SIN (3) Sin (when it is accomplished) brings DEATH. In today's preaching death is
taken out and the three steps are
changed to (1) lust (2) sin (3) LIFE in Hell.
(a).
"Then when lust hath
conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and
sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death,"
King James Version.
(b).
"Then, when desire has
conceived, it gives birth to sin:
and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death," New King James Version.
(c).
"Then the lust, when it
hath conceived, beareth sin: and the
sin, when it is full grown, bringeth forth death,"
American Standard Version.
(d).
"Then when lust has
conceived, it gives birth to sin and
when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death,"
New American Standard Version.
(e).
"Then, when that desire
has conceived, it gives birth to sin,
and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death." New Revised Standard Version.
(f).
"Then, after desire has
conceived, it gives birth to sin;
and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." New International Version.
2 Corinthians 7:10, ÒGodly sorrow brings repentance that leads
to salvation and leaves no regret, but
worldly sorrow brings death.Ó Many read this and change death to life
in Hell even when there is nothing said, not one word about Hell, nothing about
an endless life of endless torment by God, why do they not believe God? Death
is death; death is not endless life any place, death is not endless life being
tormented by God.
It is life or death, not reward or torment, never an everlasting life of
torment with God doing the tormenting. There is so much teaching in the New
Testament on life and death that it is as if God foreknew men would change the
death that is Òthe wages of sinÓ into
an everlasting life of torment, and He gives them no way to say at the
judgment, "I did not know." Why do men not believe God? Death is in contrast to life; it is the
opposite of life; death is not just another kind of life. Death is not life in
Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, or in AbrahamÕs bosom. Death is not life of any kind
anywhere; death is death, not a mere change in the mode of existence; death is
not life separated from God, dead is dead. After death the unsaved cannot
be both endlessly dead and endlessly alive and conscious; they cannot be both
dead and alive at the same time. Why would God say one thing to us, and mean
the opposite of what He said? Why would
God say Òthe wages of sin is deathÓ
if Òthe wages of sin is life endlessly being tormented by God?Ó TodayÕs
theology has changed GodÕs death into
life because Plato and much of the heathen world said man has a soul that
cannot be dead, that a soul will live after the person it is in is dead. Death
dose not mean endless life any more than life means endless death; life is existence, death is non-existence.
Death is not life in Hell being tormented by God.
Death is understood by
all to be death when we say, ÒThe dog is dead,Ó but when we say, ÒThe person is
dead,Ó death must be changed to be life. The dog is dead–the person is dead. Which one is dead? How can this mean
one is dead and the other is alive?
"For if you live according to the flesh, YOU will die: but if by the Spirit YOU put to death the deeds of the body, YOU will live" (Romans 8:13). ÒYOUÓ will live or die,
not just an "immaterial, invisible part of man" (W. E. Vine). A person that is lost "will die," a person that is saved "will live," but we are told that a soul cannot die;
therefore, the ÒYOUÓ that can live or
die could not be a soul that cannot die, nevertheless this passage that
says, ÒYOU will dieÓ is often changed
to say after ÒYOUÓ are dead there is
a soul that that had been in ÒYOUÓ
and ÒITÓ cannot die.
1. Narrow way = life // Broad way = destruction (Matthew 7:13-14)
2.
Life, or death (Romans
6:23; 4:17; 1 Corinthians 3:22)
3.
Life, or perish (John
3:16)
4.
Life, or die (Romans
8:13)
5.
Life and peace, or death (Romans 8:6)
6.
Salvation, or death (2
Corinthians 7:10)
7.
Saved, or destroy (James
4:12)
8.
Life, or destruction
(Matthew 7:13-14)
9. Into
life, out of death (1 John 3:14)*
10. Under the Old Testament Law (earthly
life or death)
a.
Life and death (Deuteronomy
30:15-20)
b.
Death and live (Ezekiel 18:23)
c.
Death and live (Ezekiel 18:32)
The Bible says what it
means, and means what it says. God inspired John to say, "Should not perish," but many say God did not mean, "perish," but "shall have
an endless life of torment." Death has been made not to exist, no one ever
dies, they just pass from one kind of life to another kind of life; death is changed
to be a transfer of life to life in another realm. The popular theology of
today represents Jesus as using language so ambiguously that no one can
understand what He said.
Is the world on Satan's side?
1. God said, "You shall surely
die" (Genesis 2:17).
2. Satan said, "You shall surely not
die" (Genesis 3:4).
3. Most Protestant change the person to a soul
and say, "A person shall surely die, but a soul that had been in the forever
dead person Ôshall surely not dieÕÓ
(Genesis 3:4), that it will live
without the dead person it was in.
In Romans 1:28-23 Paul
gives a list of sins, and then he said, "They that practice such things are worthy of death." He did
not say, "They that practice
such things have souls in them that are worthy of endless life in Hell being
tormented by God." Will you believe them or Paul? You cannot believe
both. "What fruit then had you at
that time in the things whereof you are now ashamed? For the end of these things is death...You have your fruit unto
sanctification, and the end eternal life,
for the wages of sin is death; but
the free gift of God is eternal life
in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:21-23). The gift of God to those
who believe on His Son is endless life (John 3:16), and this gift of endless
life is something they do not already have; not something ALL were born with.
If all have endless life from birth, even those who do not believe, how could
life be a gift to believers? When those who believe that all now have endless
life (an immortal soul) read the Bible, and change "life" into "a reward" and change death, die,
perish, destroyed, and destruction into life with "punishment." To
them, the Bible dose not mean what it says, they have change it to what they
want it to say.
FROM WHAT ARE WE SAVED? We are saved from death by the death of
Christ and given life, not saved from endless life in Hell. Christ died our
death; He is not now suffering an endless life in Hell for us.
ADDITIONS
TO THE BIBLE. ÒEternal
Hell,Ó Òimmortal soul,Ó Òsave your
immortal soul,Ó and Òeternal suffering in Hell fire,Ó are not in the Bible, but
are used often by preachers and Bible teacher, and are falsely presented as
being the teaching of the Bible.
The first death is the
end of life of the flesh, the end of life as it exist
now. The Òsecond deathÓ then must
also be the end of life. The end of life as it will exist for the unsaved after
the resurrection, or it is not a Òsecond
death,Ó but something altogether different from death; Òthe second deathÓ is changed to a second
life that will never not be life; those that believe there is a soul in a
person that has endless life much change the Òsecond deathÓ to life; an endless life of being tormented by God is
not a Òsecond death.Ó The traditional
concept is that there is a immortal soul in a person, which neither the first
or Òsecond deathÓ can kill;
therefore, death must be changed to be something other than death for souls;
death is changed to be a translation from this life to endless life in Hell,
the Òsecond deathÓ is changed to be
only a translation from one life form to another life form, is changed to a
translation from this life to endless life being tormented in Hell where souls
already had endless life for we are told that souls were already translated to
endless life in Hell at the first death. On about every page throughout the New
Testament it is life or death, not rewarded or tormented. The unsaved die, perish, are destroyed, and are lost. The obedient are
saved from death and are given life and immortality. Why is there so much in the Bible on death if there is no death?
Many have believed what their preacher or church says, and they have rejected
the Bible as being untrue, although most do not realize they have put the teaching
of a church or preacher over the Bible. Eternal life is frequently promised to
the righteous, but never to the wicked. If the wicked do not have endless life
they cannot endure endless torment.
Our body (not a soul) will be
"Fashion a new" American Standard
Version (Philippians 3:21)
"Change" King James Version
"Transform" New American Standard
Version
If it were going to be
a soul, not the person that will be in Heaven, then why would our earthly
bodies be, ÒFashion a new,Ó ÒChange,Ó ÒTransformÓ?
1 Corinthians
15:53-54, "But when this corruptible
shall have put on incorruption, and this
mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying
that is written, Death is swallowed up in victoryÉbut thanks be to God, who
gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." If the lost will
live forever in Hell, do they also have the victory over death; will not their
life in Hell (not their death) be just as endless as the life of the saved in
Heaven? Those in Hell would have to be just as alive, have just as much of a
victory over death as those in Heaven.
Summery - If it were
true that there is no real death, that death is life that is separated from
God, a deathless death, then there could not be a resurrection of the dead for
no one could be really dead; all souls would already have endless life, souls
in Hell would have life just as endless as those in Heaven. The pagan doctrine
of the immortality of a soul makes the Bible doctrine of the resurrection of
the dead both impossible and useless. Any life after death depends wholly on
the resurrection of the dead persons at the coming of Christ, not on a
resurrection of deathless souls (Luke 14:13-14; 1 Thessalonians 4:16; 1
Corinthians 15:51-55). THE BIBLE HAS
BEEN CHANGED TO TEACH THAT DEATH IS ENDLESS LIFE.
"We have
passed out of death into life" (1 John 4:14). It is us, the whole person that was
dead in our relation to God, not a deathless soul that Òpassed out of death into life,Ó the whole person ÒweÓ that is now alive. If we did have a soul that was dead, but
that dead soul is now alive, it would be a contradiction of the doctrine that a
soul can never die, for an immortal soul that cannot be dead would have been
dead, and a deathless soul that could not be dead would have "passed out of death into life;" a soul, which we are told can never be
dead would have been dead at one time, but now a soul that was a dead soul is
now alive again. It was the person that was dead before they were in Christ;
the person that is now alive in Christ; it is the person that has passed out of
death into life, not an undying immaterial soul that could never be dead but
was dead, but now the dead soul is alive.
Those who are
destroyed are not destroyed (James
4:12; 2 Peter 2:12; 2 Peter 3:7). What kind of destruction can it be which destroys nothing? There is no similarity between
destruction and endless life in torment in Hell.
Believers in immortality
from birth must change the Bible to say,
(a).
Those who perish do not perish
(1 Corinthians 1:8; John 3:16).
(b).
Those who die do not die
(Romans 6:23). Death is not death.
(c).
The end of the wicked is not
their end (Phil. 3:19; Hebrews 6:8).
(d).
Those who are consumed are not
consumed (Hebrews 10:27).
It is believed by many
that Òthe second deathÓ is not
a death, that death is endless life with endless torment by God (Revelation
21:8). That death is only a miserable condition of endless life being tormented
by God, that death is not an actual death; therefore, life that is given by
Christ to believers is changed to be not actual life, but endless joy and
well-being to a soul that cannot be dead; therefore, that soul cannot be given
life.
Is ÒTHE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATHÓ or ÒIS THE
WAGES OF SIN AN ENDLESS LIFE OF TORMENT FOR A DEATHLESS SOUL?Ó It cannot be both. If there
is a soul in a person that is immortal from birth, then death could not exist;
no soul could ever die; no soul could ever be dead; therefore, Òthe wages of sinÓ could not be death.
Are they really teaching the Bible when they corrupt it into saying the
opposite of what it really says, when they are changing the Bible to make it
say what they want it to say?
Death, the enemy defeated for believers. "Jesus said unto
her, your brother shall rise again. Martha said unto
him, I know that he (not a soul)
shall rise again in the resurrection at
the last day. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believes on me, though he die, yet shall he live; and whosoever
lives and believes on me shall never die" (John 11:23-26); the same he that shall die is the same he that shall live, not the same soul
that cannot die that shall live. "If
a man keep my word, he shall never see death"
(John 8:55). "I am the living bread
which came down out of heaven: if any man
eat of this bread, he shall live
forever" (John 6:51). It is evident that Jesus was not speaking of
physical death, for like Lazarus believers shall die, but unlike nonbelievers
they have a life in Christ that is no longer subject to the enemy, death. They
have a victory over death, and the saved are be able say, "Death is swallowed up in victory, O death, where is your sting?
The sting of death is sin: and the power of sin is the law: but thinks be to
God, who gives us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 15:55-56). Living
Christians now have the victory over death, we are told twice that Òthe second deathÓ has no power over
believers (Revelation 2:11; 20:6); they are not subject to it and shall live
forever. "Our Savior Christ Jesus,
who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the
gospel" (2 Timothy 1:10), for all the faithful believers Christ
defeated the enemy by His resurrection.
ALEXANDER CAMPBELL,
"The words of the Bible contain all the ideas in it. These words, then,
rightly understood, and the ideas are clearly perceived. The words and
sentences of the Bible are to be translated, interpreted, and understood
according to the same code of laws and principles of interpretation by which other
ancient writings are translated and understood; for, when God spoke to man in
his own language, He spoke as one person converses with another-in the fair, stipulated, and
well-established meaning of the terms. This is essential to its character,
as a revelation from God; otherwise, it would be no revelation, but would
always require a class of inspired men to unfold and reveal its true sense to
mankind." Alexander Campbell, "The Christian System," page 3,
Gospel Advocate Company, 1835. "It is absolutely essential to the very
idea of a Divine communication in the from of a revelation, that its words and
sentences be understood according to their usual sense at the time when that
communication was made, and amongst the people to whom it was addressed and to
whose care it was committed." An essay on "Life And
Death" from the Millennial Harbinger, 1844.
E. D. SLOUGH, ÒWhen the Lord talked with men, and used human language,
if he placed other meanings on the words than those understood by men, how could God teach us? Or if he used
them in a figurative sense, in their last and most important application, why
were we not apprised of the change...if
the Bible doesnÕt mean what it says, then nobody knows what it does mean.Ó
Page 195-206, ÒIf the people would allow the words in the Bible to teach them
the same thought they get from the Dictionary, and from common use–allow
God to mean the same thing when talking to us that we mean when talking to one
another–these disputes would quickly
adjust themselves. The condition of unrest everywhere on these issues of the
Bible is ample argument that something is needed as a standard which makes
words mean the same whether in or out of the Bible.Ó ÒThe Indictment Of Eternal
Torment–The Self-negation Of A Monstrous
Doctrine,Ó page 42, F. L. Rowe, Publisher, 1914, evangelist, Church of Christ.
This book is free on line at www.robertwr.com/EternalTorment.htm
GEORGE STORRS, ÒOne evil of the common theory of endless being in sin
and suffering, is, it sustains the
mischievous practice of mystifying, or making the Scriptures to have a secret
or hidden meaning, in the plainest texts. This mischievous practice was
brought into the church, almost as soon as the Apostles had left the world. The
converts from heathenism seemed intent on uniting heathen philosophy with
Christianity. Hence they must find an abundance of mysteries in the Scriptures;
and the practice of allegorizing, i. e. making the
language to contain something that does not appear in the words, commenced and
generally prevailed, before the third century. This was done, doubtless, with a
view to lead heathen philosophers to embrace Christianity, as affording them a
fruitful field for their researches. But it led the church astray into the wild
fields of conjecture; and every lively imagination could find hidden wonders in
the Bible, while the plain literal meaning of the text was disregarded. That
fatal practice increased from age to age, till the simplicity of the gospel was
totally eclipsed, and the obscuration has not wholly disappeared to this
dayÉThe common method of making the terms life and death mystical, or
figurative, i. e. to mean something more, and far
different from what appears in the literal and obvious signification of the
words, I conceive is unwarranted by the Scriptures, and tends only to throw
confusion upon the plainest subjects of the Bible, and also to take away the
force and beauty of very many otherwise clear and intelligible portions of
GodÕs word.Ó ÒSix Sermons On The Inquiry, Is There Immortality In Sin And
Suffering?Ó Page 131-132, Bible Examiner, 1856.
J. M. DENNISTON, ÒMany seem to think that they can at once
demolish all our arguments by a simple application of such statements as–Ôto be carnally minded is death; to be spiritually minded is life and peace;Õ–the
inferences which they draw from them being these, (1) That neither does life refer to existence, nor death to the cessation of it. (2) That life signifies simply a right spiritual
condition, and death a wrong one.
(Which two conditions, extended into the next world, and there developed,
become respectively everlasting life and everlasting death.
Hence, it is maintained, all the statements in the New Testament as to the Ôliving,Õ
the Ônever dying,Õ the everlasting lifeÕ of believers have no reference at all
to the continuance, but only the character of their being; –while the multiplied assertions and
descriptions of the Ôperishing,Õ Ôdestruction,Õ ÔdeathÕ of the ungodly do not
mean what such language invariably means elsewhere–in
the Bible or out of it–but, instead of
that, endless evil and misery of souls that are imperishable. A serious
conflict indeed betwixt the Old Testament and the New in their employment of
the same language–yes, betwixt the New
and everything else, not excepting them self!Ó ÒThe Perishing Soul According To
Scripture,Ó page 68, Longmans, Green, and Co., 1874.
EDWARD WHITE, ÒThat
the persistent resolution, through many ages, to strip these converse terms
Life and Death, in their application to ChristÕs work and ManÕs destiny, of
their proper signification, has resulted in eclipsing fully one-half of the
light of the Sun of Righteousness, of the glory of Christ, of the truth of
ChristianityÉBut, indeed, this has been the delusion alike of Jews and Gentile,
that the Bible scarcely ever means what it saysÉThe notion is deeply rooted
that when God speaks, as in the person of Christ, the Incarnate WORD, scarcely
any of His words are to be taken in their obvious sense. Surely the rule of
thought ought to be the opposite, and we ought to think that He who was the
Truth as well as the Life employed human speech in its most direct signification.Ó
ÒLife in Christ,Ó chapter 17. This book is free on
line at www.robertwr.com/LifeInChrist.htm
THOMAS DAVIS, ÒPutting
together all the passages which teach, either expressly or constructively, that
the end of sinners is absolute destruction, the number may be counted by
hundreds. Sometimes the word used is ÔdestructionÕ
itself; and destruction, we say, cannot mean endless preservation in misery.
Sometimes it is Ôdeath;Õ and death,
we say, cannot mean eternal life in suffering. Sometimes it is being Ôburnt up like chaff;Õ and being burnt
up like chaff, we contend, cannot mean being kept unconsumed, like the bush of
old, in the flames. Sometimes it is Ôbeing
devouredÕ (as the Scripture, ÔJudgment
and fiery indignation shall devour themÕ); and being devoured, we assert,
cannot rightly be believed to signify being kept whole and living to undergo
suffering for ever. So of several other expressions, such as Ôto perish,Õ Ôto be slain,Õ Ôto be killed,Õ
Ôto lose life,Õ Ôto be consumed,Õ Ôto reap corruption,Õ Ôto be blotted out,Õ
Ôto be rooted up,Õ Ôto be cut off,Õ to be cut down,Õ Ôto be dashed in pieces,Õ
Ôto be lost,Õ Ôto be ground to power,Õ Ôto be cut asunder,Õ Ô to be cast away,Õ
Ôto have the house broken up,Õ Ôto be torn to pieces,Õ Ôto be put away as
dross,Õ Ôto melt away,Õ Ônot to abide for ever,Õ Ôto be as nothing.Õ Many
of these are doubtless figurative phrases; but
if they do not indicate finality, no language would suffice to do so.Ó ÒEndless Sufferings Not The Doctrine Of ScriptureÓ pages 16-17;
Longmans, Green, and Co. 1867.
PHILIP E. HUGHES, ÒIt
would be hard to imagine a concept more confusing than that of death which
means existing endlessly without the power of dying.Ó ÒFacing Hell, The Story
of a Nobody,Ó page 223, Paternoster Press, 1998.
Those who believe men
are now immortal have to make the words that God used not mean what they say.
Is it not unreasonable to make words in the Bible have a meaning attached to
them that are unlike the way they are used in any other book in the world,
unlike the way they were used in the language of the people God was speaking
to?
Death is a lost of
life, death is not an endless life with a lost of all joy, happiness, and well-being. To traditionalists death is just an illusion,
the dead are not dead, the dead are more alive than when they were alive; to traditionalists
souls in the lost are incapable of ever being dead.
CHANGES THAT MUST BE MADE
A new meaning must be
given to words to make them teach what many traditionalists want them to teach.
Any person
can prove anything if they are allowed to change the meaning of words to
whatever they want to, if they are allowed to change death to be life.
1. LIFE MUST BE CHANGED TO BE NOT LIFE, BUT
TO BE ONLY A REWARD
to something that some believe to be in a person and they believe whatever this
something is already has endless life. Is it not unreasonable to say the many
times Christ promised endless life to those that believe Him, that He promised
only a reward to whatever a soul is, not endless life to the persons that
believed in Him? And just as unreasonable to say that He promised life to only
something in a person that already had endless life and could not die. This
doctrine of an immortal soul that cannot die makes Christ promise something
over and over to souls that we are told souls already have. Throughout the Book
of John Christ repeatedly promised life to persons who believed, not life to
souls, and those persons who did not believe would not see life (John 3:36;
4:14; 4:36; 5:21; 5:40; 6:33; 6:39; 6:44; 6:47; 6:57; 6:63; 6:68), Òshall
not see life,Ó shall not be alive, but THOSE THAT ÒSHALL NOT SEE LIFEÓ IS CHANGED FROM PERSONS THAT WILL NOT SEE
LIFE, CHANGED TO BEING SOULS THAT WILL SEE LIFE, THEN BEING ENDLESSLY TORMENTED
BY GOD IS ADDED TO THESE SOULS THAT ÒSHALL
NOT SEE LIFEÓ. "That to all
whom You have given Him, He should give eternal life.
And this is life eternal, that they should
know You the only true God, and Him whom you did send, even Jesus Christ"
(John 17:2-3). There could not be a stronger statement saying only those persons who believe in Jesus will have
life, and those persons who do not
believe will not be given any life anywhere.
ALEXANDER CAMPBELL in
the preface to "The Living Oracles," his translation of the New Testament
said, "The reader will please to consider, that, when God spoke to man, he
adopted the language of man. To the fathers of the Jewish nation he spoke in
their mother tongue. By his Son, and his Son by the Apostles, spoke to every
nation in its own language. When he spoke to any nation, he uniformly adopted
the words of that nation in expressing his will to it. And that he used their
words in the commonly received sense, needs no other proof than this, that if
he had not done so, instead of enlightening them in the knowledge of his will,
he would have deceived and confounded them, than which, no hypothesis is more
impious. For example, were God to speak to us in English, and select from our vocabulary the words death, punishment, perpetual, and wicked; were he to use the last term as
we use it, and annex to the others a significant different from that we affix
to them–such as to mean life by the
term death, happiness by the punishment,
and a limited time by the word perpetual; and without apprising us of
such a change, in their meaning...what a deception would he practice on us!Ó
How many changes "death" to "life," by changing "the wages of sin is death" to
"the wages of sin is eternal life with torment"?
HENRY CONSTABLE,
"Its uniform testimony (the New Testament) is that 'eternal life'
hereafter will be the exclusive possession of the just, and that the wicked
will certainly not obtain it: 'He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting
life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life.' Our simple enquiry is, what is meant by
that Greek word translated 'life' in the passages referred to. Our Lord in
addressing Himself to the Jewish people, Luke in writing a Gospel for the
Gentile world, Paul in writing to Rome, the metropolis of heathenism, or
Corinth priding itself on the Grecian tongue, James, Peter, and Jude writing to
Christians wherever scattered over the earth, all alike use this word as
universally understood. We have only, therefore, to refer to our classical
dictionaries, and there we find its primary and universally accepted sense to
be existence. If we want any further
confirmation, let us listen to the Apostle James defining it's meaning. 'What
is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeared for a little time, and then
vanishes away.' On the classical usage, and express definition of the New
Testament, we take our stand. Dictionaries of the New Testament, and
commentators on it, may, if they please, put upon the phrase the sense of
'happiness' in the numberless passage where it occurs, but we deny to them the
right to alter the meaning of a well understood Grecian word for the sake of
bolstering up their baseless and horrid creed." ÒThe
Duration and Nature of Future Punishment" 1871.
2. DEATH MUST BE CHANGED SO THAT IT DOES
NOT MEAN DEATH, BUT AN ENDLESS LIFE WITH TORMENT FOR A SOUL THAT CAN NEVER BE
DEAD.
The dead cannot really be dead if death is only "a loss of
well-being," a loss of happiness and if death were really endless life
with endless torment by God. Death must be changed to be not death, but changed
to a doorway to a spiritual world where the souls that are in all must have endless life; to the saved
death must be changed to mean an instant doorway to a greater and fuller life,
but life only for souls that are believed to be in them, not life for the
persons; to the lost an instant doorway to an endless life of pain, but only
for a soul. In no plain language can
death be said to be Òthe wages of sinÓ
to immortal souls that cannot die.
Death is made to be not death, but a mere change in the mode of
existence for a soul that cannot be dead. To many, death means for a soul
to be alive, to have endless life, but life that is separated from God, yet we
are told the dead that are not dead are somehow tormented by the God that they
are separated from. To make the word "death"
fit their view; they must make death figurative. The true meaning of the word ÒdeathÓ will destroy their view. All plain
passages like Romans 6:23, Òthe wages of
sin is deathÓ must be changed into figurative language, but they cannot
tell us how they know what the figurative language means, how they know death
is not death, how do they know that death is endless life that is separated
from God. They cannot tell us how they know "death"
means "life." Figurative language always draws it
meaning from literal language, it never means the opposite of the literal; ÒdeathÓ in figurative language could not
mean any kind of Òlife.Ó Any word
that sometime has a figurative sense must have a well-known literal sense. A
basic rule of Bible study, which is accepted by most, is a word or a passage
must be assumed to be literal unless the context demands that it must be taken
figuratively. They cannot tell why the word ÒdeathÓ
literally means ÒdeathÓ when it is an
animal or a person that is dead, but ÒdeathÓ
figuratively means ÒlifeÓ only when
it relates to whatever they believe a soul to be. They cannot tell why death
must be made figurative other than it would destroy their teaching that there
is a deathless something in a person that lives after the person is dead if
death were used with itÕs true meaning, if death is really death with it's
universally understood meaning. If there were a Hell, for souls in it to feel
pain they could not be dead, they would literally have to be just as alive as
souls in Heaven; they would have to have life just as endless as souls that they
believe are in believers.
When the death of
anyone is spoken of in the Bible, the modern phraseology, Òthey have gone to be
with Christ, have gone to their reward, have gone to be with their
loved ones in Heaven, etc.Ó are never used. Not even Abraham is said to have
gone to his home in Heaven at his death before the judgment. "And Abraham breathed his last and died in a ripe old age, an
old man and satisfied with life; and he was gathered to his people"
(Genesis 25:8 New American Standard Version). Such a radical change of death to
be an endless life in torment is a denial of death; it is an attempt to evade
death by saying in each person there is a deathless soul that will live after
the death of the person it had been in; therefore, a soul is not subject to
death, but the person will die. It is a deliberate carefully thought out
wresting of the scriptures (2 Peter 3:16). If the Bible does not mean what it
says, then nobody can know what it does mean; when the Bible says, ÒThe wages of sin is death,Ó if the
wages of sin is not an actual real death, then who can know what Òthe wages of sin isÓ? Death is
definitely the forfeiture of life, and without a resurrection there would never
be any kind of life anyplace for anyone.
DEATH HAS BEEN CHANGED TO LIFE. Those that refused to have God in their
knowledge Òare worthy of deathÓ (Romans 1:28-32), but
instead of death, Platonism gives them endless life in Hell being endlessly tormented
by God.
(a). Sin is Òunto deathÓ
(Romans 6:16) ÒLeads to deathÓ New International Version.
(b). ÒThe wages of sin is deathÓ (Romans 6:23), but the wages of sin can never be paid
because man teaches an immortal soul cannot die.
(c). ÒFor if you live according to the flesh, you must dieÓ
(Romans 8:13), but if there were an immortality soul it would have eternal
life, it could not die.
(d). ÒFor the end of these things is deathÓ (Romans 6:21). ÒThese things result in deathÓ New International Version. This has been changed to,
ÒFor the end of these thing is eternal life in torment for souls;Ó endless life
for whatever it is that many believe a soul to be.
(e). ÒActs that lead to deathÓ (Hebrews 9:14) New International Version.
(f). ÒHis servants you are whom you obey;
whether sin unto death, or obedience
unto righteousnessÓ (Romans 6:16).
(g). ÒFor to be carnal minded is deathÓ (Romans 8:6).
(h). ÒSinÉbrings forth deathÓ (James 1:15), but we are repeatedly told that there is
an immortal soul that is not subject to death.
(i). ÒFor except you believe that I am he, you
shall die in your sinsÓ (John
8:24), but we are told there is a soul in us that cannot die, that we will die,
but after we are dead a soul that had been in us will always live?
Those that teach death
is an endless life of torment are as someone said, ÒForced to argue that a
horse could not die so dead that it cannot stop dying deader.Ó Do you believe the dead keeps on dying but
are never dead? Do you believe the destroyed keeps on being destroyed but are
never destroyed? Why would God say one thing to us and mean the opposite of
what He said?
DEATH, when given a
Òscriptural sense,Ó when made figuratively, is made to have a hidden secret
meaning, death is changed from being
dead to endless life in Hell for a soul, most that believe there is a soul believe that a soul definitely cannot
ever be dead.
DESTRUCTION, when given a
Òscriptural sense,Ó when made figuratively, is changed to a loss of well-being, an endless life of misery, but believers in Hell
says destruction never means destruction. How can a person be destroyed without
ceasing to exist?
DESTROY AND PERISH, when given a
Òscriptural sense,Ó when made figuratively destroy and perish both means to
preserve forever. Did God intend to say imperishable when He said perish?
SLEEP, when given a
Òscriptural sense,Ó when made figuratively is a soul that is now awake in Heaven or Hell, but definitely not asleep, that would make their "immaterial,
invisible part of men" be asleep in Hell; therefore, they have labeled
this "soul sleeping." It is true that the Bible says nothing about
"soul sleeping" of an "immaterial, invisible part of men,"
but it repeatedly says a person, not a soul, sleeps unto the person wakes at
the resurrection, not an immaterial something in a person that sleeps; it is
the resurrection that turns the death of a person into a sleep from which a
person, not a soul, will wake up.
SATAN AND DEMONS TO BE
DESTROYED.
Christ shall Òbring to nothing him (Òdestroy himÓ King James Version) that has the power of death, that it, the
devilÓ (Hebrews 2:14), not just destroy the ÒhappinessÓ of the devil.
Demons will also be destroyed will be brought to nothing,
will not exist.
(3). PERISH
Perish like destruction and destroy, perish must be changed to mean, "can
never perish, or never be destroyed, changed to live forever in an unhappy and
miserable condition in Hell." It is difficult to imagine a perpetually but
inconclusive process of perishing that never ends. Forever perishing, but
imperishable! To say to ÒperishÓ is
to Òlive foreverÓ is a complete contradiction. How can anyone believe that ÒparishÓ is synonymous with Òliving forever
in misery unperished?Ó
Do you wonder why the
writers of the Bible said the lost will die, be destroyed, will perish, but we
are told souls that had been in the lost persons cannot die, cannot ever be
destroyed, and cannot ever perish?
Words that, according
to both Roman Catholic and Protestant, must be given a Òscriptural sense.Ó
(a). Death must be changed from
death to endless life in misery.
(b). Die must be changed to live,
changed to never being dead.
(c). Destruction must be
changed to endless life in misery undestroyed.
(d). Perish must be changed to
imperishable.
Would
the Bible say, ÒThe wages of sin is
DEATHÓ if the wages of sin is LIFE? How could the wages of sin be death to
a soul that cannot die!
LIFE AND DEATH IN ROMANS
CHAPTERS FIVE AND SIX
1. DEATH OF CHRIST. ÒFor while we were
yet weak, in due season Christ died
for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will
one die: for peradventure for the
good man some one would even dare to die.
But God commended his own love toward US,
in that, while WE were yet sinners, Christ died for US. Much more then,
being now justified by his blood,
shall WE be saved from the wrath of God through him. For if, while WE were enemies, WE were reconciled to God through
the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, shall WE be saved by his
life; and not only so, but WE
also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom WE have now received the
reconciliationÓ (Romans 5:6-11). Can anyone read of how Christ was put to death,
was burred, and resurrected on the third day and say His death was not a real
death? Say His death was only life with a Òlost of well being.Ó Death is death,
not any kind of life anyplace, Christ died for us. When Christ died for us,
died our death, He ceased to live; to have any kind of life unto God raised Him
from the dead.
2. ALL DIE.
ÒTherefore, as through one man sin
entered into the world, and death
through sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned; for
until the law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no
law. Nevertheless death reigned from
Adam until Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the likeness of
Adam's transgression, who is a figure of him that was to come But the free gift is not like the
transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace
of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. The gift is not
like that which came through
the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression
resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions
resulting in justification. For if by the transgression of the one,
death reigned
through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of
the gift of righteousness will reign in
life through the One, Jesus Christ. So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all
men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For as
through the one manÕs disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through
the obedience of the One the many will be made righteousÓ (Romans 5:12-19).
When a person dies and is burred, before the resurrection that person is really
dead, and will be forever dead if there is no resurrection.
3. DEATH BY SIN. ÒThe Law
came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased,
grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin
reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may
increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?Ó (Romans 5:20-21).
4. LIFE IN CHRIST. ÒOr do YOU not
know that all of US who have been
baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized
into His death? Therefore WE have been buried with Him through baptism
into death, so that as Christ was raised
from the dead through the glory of the Father, so WE too might walk in newness
of life. For IF WE have become
united with Him in the likeness
of His death, certainly WE shall
also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this,
that OUR old self was crucified with
Him, in order that OUR body of sin might be done away
with, so that WE would no longer be
slaves to sin; for HE who
has died is freed from sin. Now if WE have died with Christ, WE
believe that WE shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been
raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over
Him. For the death that He
died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives He lives to God.
Even so consider YOURSELVES to be
dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign
in YOUR mortal body so that YOU obey its lusts, and do not go on
presenting the members of YOUR body
to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present YOURSELVES to God as those
alive from the dead, and YOUR
members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master
over YOU, for YOU are not under law but under graceÓ (Romans 6:1-14). All
the pronouns in the above passages are to living persons, not one is to souls. It is the person that Òshall also live with Him,Ó not whatever a soul is believed to be.
5. SIN BRINGS DEATH, NOT TORMENT. ÒWhat
then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never
be! Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for
obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience
resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God
that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that
form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from
sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms
because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members
as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to
righteousness, resulting in sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin,
you were free in regard to righteousness. Therefore what benefit were you then
deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is deathÓ (Romans 6:15-21).
Is not Òthe second deathÓ changed and made to be
nothing more that a continuation of the state they say the lost are now in,
just a continuation of lost souls being alive? Therefore, they have done away
with Òthe second death,Ó for they
tell us that the lost are already "spiritual dead," and the souls
that had been in them will always be Òspiritual dead,Ó even when the souls that
are dead are alive in Hell. The use of Òspiritual deadÓ is not to Òspeak where
the Bible speaks, and be silent where the Bible is silent.Ó There is a parallel
between the two deaths, between death as we know it
and the death of the lost after the judgment. Look at a dead person and there
is no life; there will be no life for the lost after Òthe second death.Ó
JOHN HANCOOK
PETTINGELL, The ÒScripturalÓ or the
Òliteral senseÓ?
ÒWhat if the Greek and Hebrew words of the Original Scriptures will not bear
these new senses that they would put upon them? What if these meanings are not
to be found in their Standard Classical Lexicons? These too must be over
hauled, and special ÔBiblical LexiconsÕ prepared for the use of Bible scholars,
with these new meanings put upon these words, and the places in the Bible
particularly referred to, where these words should be taken in this new sense;
and this is called the ÔScriptural
senseÕ of these words!! This is no exaggerated hypothesis. The writer has
such an improved (?) Lexicon attached to his Greek Testament, which he bought
when a student of Theology. It was evidently prepared in the interest of the
Platonic theory of the natural immortality of man, and in support of such
interpretations of Scripture as this theory required. It may be instructive to
give from its pages a few specimens of this sort of leaned philosophy. We open the Testament at Matthew 7:13
and read as follows,
ÔEnter ye in at the strait gate; for wide
is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction (apbleian)
and many there be with go in thereat; because strait is the gate, narrow is the
way which leads unto life (zoe) and few there be that find it.Õ
We know what ÔdestructionÕ means in the
ordinary sense of the word, and what apoleia
means in Greek; they both mean the same thing. But we want to know the ÔScriptural senseÕ of the word. So we
turn to ÔThe Polymicrian Greek Lexicon to the New TestamentÕ in which the
various senses of the words and distinctly explained in English, and authorized
by references to passages of Scripture.
By W. Greenfield, Editor of BagsterÕs Comprehensive Bible. The Polymicrian
Greek Lexicon; and after the various ordinary definitions are given, we are
referred to this passage, and informed that it here means ÔperditionÕ ÔmiseryÕ etc. We look at the word perdition, in
WebsterÕs Dictionary, and find that its
religious sense is Ôthe utter loss of the soul, or of final happiness, in
the future state.Õ We know also, what the word ÔlifeÕ means in English, and
what the word zoe means in Greek; they both mean the
same thing. But that we may find out just what the ÔScriptural senseÕ of the word is, we again consult our biblical
Lexicon, where its ordinary sense is very correctly given; but we are referred
to this passage, and told that it here means Ôeternal happiness.Õ Now having got the true ÔscripturalÕ meaning
of these two crucial words, from this learned lexicographer, we know how to
understand the passage it should be read thus,
ÔEnter ye in at the strait gate; for wide
is the gate and broad is the way that leads to misery, and many there be
which go in thereat; because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way which
leads unto eternal happiness, and few there be that find it.Õ
Again, we read in Romans 5:12, as follows,
ÔWherefore as by one man sin entered into
the world, and death (thanatos) by sin; and so death (thanatos) by sin; and so death
(thanatos) passed upon all men, for
that all have sinned.Õ
We know well enough what the ordinary
sense of the ÔdeathÕ is, and that it means the same as thanatos in Greek, but that we may know what the ÔScriptural senseÕ of the word is, we again consult our Biblical
Lexicon. We find the word correctly defined, so far as its ordinary sense is
concerned, but we are referred to this passage, and told that it here means, Ôan unchanging eternal state of wretchedness
and misery passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.Õ Hence, we are to
understand this passage as though it reads as follows,
ÔWherefore, as by one man sin entered the
world, and an unchanging, eternal state of wretchedness and misery by sin,
and so an unchanging, eternal state of wretchedness and misery passed upon all man, for that all have
sinned.Õ
Where, we ask, did our Biblical
lexicographer get the peculiar ÔScriptural
Sense,Õ which he puts upon the pivotal words, in these and other similar
texts, bearing on this question? How
does he know that the ÔdestructionÕ of the wicked does not mean destruction,
but only misery, and that the Ôlife,Õ
which is promised to the righteous, is not actual life, but simply Ôeternal happiness,Õ or that the ÔdeathÕ
that is the fruit of sin, is not actual death, but on the contrary, is Ôan unchanging eternal state of
wretchedness and misery.Õ The
classical writings of the Greeks, in the time of our Lord, and when the
Scriptures were written, do not justify any such sense as the lexicographer
puts into there Greek words. What authority has he then, for putting this sense
into them in his Biblical Greek Lexicon? None whatever, unless it be the authority of his cotemporaries and predecessors, of
the same school of philosophy, whose lead he has followed. They all have evidently, first read these meaning into these words, to
make them accord with their own philosophy.Ó ÒThe Unspeakable Gift,Ó pages
25-26.
1. John 11:25, ÒI am the resurrection, and the life (zoe),Ó Life is changed from life to be only the Òscriptural senseÓ of
happiness.
2. John 6:54, ÒHe that eats my flesh and drinks my blood has life (zoe).Ó ÒLifeÓ is
changed to only a Òscriptural senseÓ of happiness for a soul after the person a
soul had been in is forever dead.
3. 1 Timothy 4:8, ÒGodliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life (zoe) which now is, and of that which is to come.Ó Life of a person is changed
to the Òscriptural senseÓ of happiness for a soul after the person a soul had
been in is dead, after the person dose not exist.
4. Revelation 1:18, ÒI was dead, and behold, I am
alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death (thanato, mistranslated,
changed to Hell in King James Version)
and Hades (grave).Ó Christ was not in endless torment the three days He was
in a grave; He was dead and resurrected from the dead on the third day; He
could not have been resurrected if He was alive in Hell. According to orthodox
teaching no one can get out of Hell once anyone is in it for they tell us there
is no salvation from Hell.
5. The Pagan theology that is in both Roman
Catholics Church and most orthodox Protestants Churches says that there is a
soul in you and that soul will live forever after you are dead, and that God
has no chose but to endlessly torment that soul all because of what you did,
not for what a soul did or did not do; to teach this they must give meanings to
many words that these words do not have, they are given a Òscriptural sense,Ó example, death must be given a scriptural
meaning of endless life in misery because they believe there is a soul in you
that is deathless. That death is given a
scriptural sense in the Bible to make death be nothing like death for if death
is death their theology completely falls apart.
6. There is nothing about Òspiritual deathÓ
in the Bible; it is a made up death that is not a real death in attempt to do
away with a real death, and to change death into an endless life being
tormented by God, there is nothing about death, or about death being an endless
life of being tormented by God.
ÒBut now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your
benefit, resulting in sanctification, and
the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death,
but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our LordÓ (Romans 6:22-23). TO MAKE DEATH NOT BE DEATH IS A
DELIBERATE CHANGE OF GODÕS WORD, A DELIBERATE SAYING ÒNOT SO GOD, YOU ARE
WRONG.Ó
(4). DIE
"If you live after the flesh, you
must die; but if by the spirit you
put to death the deeds of the body, you
shall live"
(Romans 8:13). The immoral soul doctrine must make die to mean exactly the same thing as live, just live in two different places; therefore, die is given a
Òscriptural sense,Ó die is changed to deathless life!
(a). ÒYouÓ must be changed to Òa soulÓ will
live after ÒyouÓ are forever dead.
(b).
ÒDieÓ must be changed to endless life with torment. It must be
changed from speaking of you that
will die if you live after the
flesh, changed to a soul that cannot die
will die, but that dead soul will live forever in Hell if you live after the flesh; dead
definitely cannot be dead!
This passage is
speaking of you the person; there is nothing about a soul that cannot die in
it, nothing about being Òspiritual dead,Ó it is saying the whole you shall die,
the whole you will be dead. The way many read this is, ÒIf you live after the
flesh, a soul that is in you must live forever being endlessly tormented by God;
but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, that soul shall
live in Heaven;Ó accord to the endless
torment doctrine if you sin it is
not you that will be torment in Hell, but a soul that is now in you will be
tormented for your sins after you are dead.
Die and live must be
interpreted to both means to live forever! Who can believe it? It is obvious
that die is only interpreted to mean "endless life in torment" when
it serves the purpose of the doctrine of endless torment, and all other times
"to die" really means "to die"; just as obvious that we
must have someone tell us when "die" means "endless life in
torment" and when "die" really means "die"; and
without this help we could never know when God intended us to understand the
opposite of what He said, and when He intended us to understand what He said in
the way He said it.
(5). DESTRUCTION
Destruction must be
changed to be only a loss of well-being. The traditionalist argument is that
the words "destroy" and "destruction" should be given
a Òscriptural sense,Ó and not be taken with their established meaning, but be
interpreted as "a loss of well being." How could anyone know this
without a revelation from God? Why do the Scriptures speak of the destruction
of the lost if they are not destroyed? The
word destruction would be meaningless if there is not a point where the
destruction is complete. Why would God say He was going to destroy the lost
if He knows a soul is immortal and He could not destroy it? Destruction has been changed and given a
Òscriptural senseÓ of existing forever being tormented by God, living forever
in misery undestroyed. For destruction to mean existing undestroyed in endless
torment by God they much find a way to somehow have a destruction that will
preserve the destroyed person undestroyed. ÒBroad
is the way that leads to destruction,Ó
(Matthew 7:13) is given a Òscriptural senseÓ and changed to ÒBroad is the
way that leads to endless life in miseryÓ for a soul that cannot be destroyed,
that even God cannot destroy it; Christ is
comparing life to destruction, not life in one place to life in another place.
Paul said, ÒWhat if God, willing to show
his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering
vessels of wrath fitted unto destructionÓ
(Romans 9:22). Anyone that is willing to change GodÕs word from destruction to
endless life being tormented by God has no respect for His word; they would
change anything to make it say what they wanted it to say.
ÒWhose end is destructionÓ (Philippians 3:19)
cannot be changed to, Òwhose end is an undestroyed endless life being tormented
by God.Ó Destruction means destruction, not indestructible life. It is life or
death, not a high quality life in Heaven or a low quality life being endlessly
tormented by God. Death is not life; death is death.
E. D. SLOUGH, ÒÔBut
these as natural brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the
things they understand not and shall utterly perish in their own corruptionÕ (2
Peter 2:12). What is the plain and
natural sense of perish? Is it not a literal
destruction? The people of the flood perished. Sodom and Gomorrah perished.
Fifteen hundred in the great Titanic tragedy perished. Five hundred people in
the Iroquois Theater fire perished. And thousands, tens of thousands, perish
annually in one manner or another. Oh, Yes. We too keenly realize what the
plain and natural sense of perish meansÉPeter says they shall Òutterly perish,Ó
utterly, completely, absolutely, put an end to. Why not plead for the plain,
natural sense of the word then? Listen, reader, he knows his theory would
Òutterly perishÓ that instant.Ó ÒIndictment of Eternal Torment–The Self-negation of a Monstrous Doctrine.Ó
Evangelist Church of Christ, F. L Rowe Publisher, this book is free on line at
www.robertwr.com/EternalTorment.htm
(6). DESTROY
Destroy does not mean
unable to be destroyed; ÒdestroyÓ
must be changed to mean to preserve forever undestroyed. "Can never
be" must be added to ÒdestroyÓ
and make it read, "Can never be destroyed." It is argued that an
immortal soul cannot die; therefore, "destroy"
cannot mean "destroy," and
the Bible did not really mean "destroy"
when it said "destroy,"
just as "death" cannot
really mean "death," but these
words must mean something; therefore, they are changed and given a Òscriptural
sense,Ó a meaning that is the opposite of their true meaning; many words must
always be changed and used with a meaning of a Òscriptural senseÓ that is the
opposite of what the words mean. It is argued that annihilated in the
scientific sense, that nothing is annihilated by fire; it just changes its
form; it is assumed that God is bound by the laws of science, that He can
neither make or destroy matter, just change it form as man does; the power to
create and destroy is taken from God; matter is made to be uncreated and is
just as eternal as God is, that God did not create anything, only changed the
form of matter in the creation that was not a creation. They overlook the fact
that the Bible is not a scientific book, and is not written in today's
scientific language, and that God made all things out of nothing, and He has
the power to send all things that He made out of nothing back to nothing. Those
to whom Paul was writing would not have thought that if a book was burnt up
that it was not destroyed. Just as they would not have thought the elements
that the book was made of was a book before the elements were made into a book.
When destroy is applied to things it is always the end of them, they no longer
exist even though the elements that were in them existed both (1) before the
book existed (2) and after the book dose not exist.
In Matthew 10:28 there is no
figurative language, but we are told that one word must be taken out of itÕs
literal context and used in a figurative way to mean just the opposite of its
true meaning, that the one word "destroy"
must be changed to mean "an endless life of torment for souls;" one
word must be made figurative, even when nothing is figurative in the context
that the word is in. There is no figurative language in 2 Thessalonians 1:9,
but two words, "destruction"
and "perish" must both be
changed to figurative, both words must be changed and made to have the same
meaning, both changed to be "an endless life of torment" only for a
soul that is in you that is believe cannot be destroyed or perish.
(a). In the Old Testament God destroyed many cities and nations.
Sodom was completely destroyed, not just lost its well being;
it is an example of the complete destruction coming to the lost (2 Peter 2:6).
(b). The lost will be destroyed, not live forever in endless torment.
(c). ÒDestroyedÓ
cannot be made to mean both (1) death, going out of existents and (2) endless
life, never going out of existents; cannot mean endlessly being destroyed but
never destroyed, cannot mean a destroying that God will never be able to
complete.
Words that orthodox
Protestants mystify to sustain the mischievous practice of making the
Scriptures have a secret or hidden meaning by mystifying words, by changing death to endless life in imperishable
misery. Sleep must be changed from
persons being asleep in Christ changed from persons to souls having endless
life awake in misery for all souls that had been in the lost, dead persons.
ÒIf Christ has not
been raised then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. Moreover we
are even found to be witnesses of God, because we witnessed against God that He
raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not
even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is
worthless; you are still in your sins. Then
those also that are fallen asleep in Christ have perishedÓ (1 Corinthians
15:14-18). Certainly Paul did not say that those who are asleep in Christ are
alive and in torment if there is no resurrection; he clearly said that those
that are asleep Òhave perishedÓ if the dead are not raised, that the dead would
forever remain dead, the dead Òhave
perished;Ó if Christ was not dead and raised up from the dead there is
neither a resurrection nor immortality; if Christ was not raised from the dead
there will be no life after death for neither the saved nor the lost. Perished
cannot be made to mean one thing when it is speaking of the saved, those in
Christ, and another thing when it is speaking of the lost; without the
resurrection ÒperishÓ means all that
died have ceased to exist forever, and when we die we will also forever cease to
exist if there will be no resurrection. There is no way it could it be said any
plainer that not one dead person will be alive anyplace before the resurrection
at the second coming of Christ at the end of this Christian age.
Perished cannot mean
both life and death.
(a). PAUL, Òhave perishedÓ (1
Corinthians 15:14-18) when it is speaking of persons that
are in Christ if there is no resurrection.
(b). TODAY, Eternal life in torment, life
with a loss of well being that cannot
ever perish when it is speaking of souls that were in lost persons.
(c). Why would their labor be in vain if
there is no resurrection if a soul is now immortal, and is now alive without a
resurrection?
(d). If ÒperishÓ
and ÒdestroyÓ means to live in misery, as some preachers say,
then beasts live in endless woe, for these terms are often applied to them. It
is a perfect contradiction in language to say a thing is to be Òconsumed,Ó Òdevoured,Ó Òburned up,Ó
&c., if it is indestructible, as many say a soul is.
H. L. HASTINGS, ÒWe
shall be guided by the literal meaning of these word, refusing to give them a
strange or unusual signification for the purpose of saving or up building a
cherished theory.Ó ÒAfter The Verdict,Ó page 4, 1982.
JACOB BLAIN, ÒWhen I
read that all who came out of Egypt over twenty years of age–of the fate of Sodom and PharaohÕs army–of the 2,000 swine which ran into the sea, I
shall not go to the learned to find out whether they died, or were only made miserable,
when it is said they ÔperishedÕ and
were Ôdestroyed.ÕÓ ÒDeath Not Life:
Or, The Theological Hell and Endless Misery Disproved,Ó page 21, Public domain.
FRED THOMPSON, ÒWithout the Divine gift
of immortality man is doomed to die, perish, cease to
exist. His mortal condition is terminal. Immortality is neither a part of his
nature nor an unconditional bestowal of God. Only those who meet GodÕs terms
are beneficiaries of the promise. Thus, not to be included in the company of
the saved is to be excluded from life.Ó ÒWhat the Bible Says
about Heaven and Hell,Ó page 299, College Press, 1988.
1. ÒFor the preaching of the
cross is to them that perish,
foolishnessÓ (1 Corinthians 1:18).
2. If there is no resurrection, ÒThen those also how have fallen asleep in
Christ have perishedÓ (1
Corinthians 15:18). Perish would be the same to both those that are saved and those
that are lost, neither one would have endless life with a lost of well-being. ÒWhose end is destructionÓ (Philippians
1:28). ÒEndÓ
cannot be changed to Òendless.Ó ÒDestructionÓ
cannot be changed to endless life with
Òa lost of well being.Ó
ASHLEY
JOHNSON, Founder and president of the Johnson Bible College. ÒÕPerishÕ!
ÔPerishedÕ!! And ÔPerishingÕ!!! What do these words mean? They occur in the
sacred scriptures about one hundred and forty times. Again, I ask what do they
mean? I answer in every reference the word carries the thought of destruction,
in numerous cases, utter annihilation, utter destruction. Let us suppose that
all we can know of the destiny of the ungodly we must get from the passages in
which these words are found. What would we conclude? Eternal conscious
punishment for all the wicked, without regard to how wicked? Not if there is any meaning in the
language? The word is used in the scriptures in the exact sense in which
the word as it stands in English is used, or its corresponding word in every
language and dialect. We say, ÔHis hand has perished.Õ We say: ÔFor want of
rain our crops have perished.Õ We say: ÔBabylon has perished.Õ We say: ÔThe
seed we sowed perished because it was without life.Õ What do we mean? We can
only mean one thing. Absolute destruction! So far as we know God has but one
way of communicating with man; namely, language. This language is clear,
pointed, unmistakable. Christianity has life, or immortality, and he offers it
to men here, and those who reject the light and the life must perish.Ó ÒThe
Resurrection And The Future Life,Ó page 420-421, Knoxville Lithographing
Company, 1913.
(7). FIRE
Fire causes things to
disappear; it completely destroys useless things. like
chaff. We know what fire is and what it does, fire consumes, devours and
destroys; fire is used in the Bible as a symbol of utter destruction, never as
a preservative; no life can survive in
fire, no life can continue to live in fire; there is no life that is not
utterly destroyed by fire. FIRE BRINGS
DEATH TO ANY LIVING THING MAKING IT THE PERFECT SYMBOL OF A COMPLETE END OF
LIFE. For todayÕs theology to be true fire
must be given a Òscriptural sense,Ó changed
into figurative language of something that is nothing like fire, changed to
something that is altogether different from fire, changed to something that
preserves and cannot consume, fire must be changed to a fire that cannot kill
any living thing. With the kind of "fire" that we are told will be in
Hell you would only have to put wood in your fireplace one time and it would
heat your house forever. It took some thought to come up with a fire that does
not do what fire does, a fire that burns but never burns, which consumes but
never consumes. Literal fire always destroys, always consumes; in figurative
language there is always a parallel; if it were figurative language total
destruction would be symbolized, just as real fire consumes the chaff, the wicked
will be consumed, devoured, destroyed by the wrath of God (Hebrews 10:27). If being consumed as chaff is consumed by
fire does not denote the utter destruction of both the chaff and the wicked
there is no language that would be able to. NO LIFE CAN EXIST IN FIRE; IT IS
THE PERFECT SYMBEL OF THE COMPLEATE END OF LIFE, OF COMPLEATE DESTRUCTION.
It is argued that an
immaterial soul cannot be destroyed by fire and worms; IF THERE WERE AN IMMATERIAL SOUL THAT CANNOT BE DESTROY BY FIRE THEN
THAT SOUL COULD NOT BE ENDLESSLY TORMENTED BY FIRE, THIS ARGUMENT IS SELF
DESTRUCTIVE. In neither the Old Testament nor the New Testament fire is not
used by God to eternally torment an immortal soul after the death of the person
a soul had been in, whatever a soul is believed to be.
FIRE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
(a). Consumed the burnt offering, no one
thinks the burnt offering was torment (Leviticus 9:24).
(b). Consumed Nadab
and Baihu, ÒAnd
they died before the LordÓ (Leviticus 11:1-2). Their life ended.
(c).
ÒFire also came forth from the Lord and consumed the two hundred and
fifty men who were offering the incenseÓ (Numbers 16:35), consumed, not
tormented.
(d).
ÒAnd it shall be that the one who is taken with the things under the ban
shall be burned with fire, he and all that belongs to him.Ó Zerahites, his family, and all that belonged to them were destroyed
by fire (Joshua 7:15ff).
(e).
ÒThen the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his
fiftyÓ (2 Kings 1:10-12).
(f).
"Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah: Behold, mine anger and my wrath
shall be poured out upon this place, upon man and upon beast, and upon the
trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and
shall not be quenched" (Jeremiah 7:20). If this was the LordÕs
anger being poured out in Hell, it would make beasts, trees, fields, and the
fruit of the ground be in unquenchable fire in a Hell that is on this earth. In
Jeremiah 17:27 it is Òthe palaces of
JerusalemÓ that would be destroyed by an unquenchable fire; are Òthe palaces of JerusalemÓ now burning
in Hell?
(g). Ezekiel speaks of Judah being destroyed by
Babylon using the imagery of a forest burning. "And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, son of man, set
your face toward the south, and drop your word toward the south, and prophesy
against the forest to the field in the South; and say to the forest of the
South, Hear the word of Jehovah: Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I will
kindle a fire in you, and it shall consume every green tree in you, and it
shall devour ever green tree in you, and ever dry tree; the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces
from the south to the north shall be burnt thereby. And all flesh shall see
that I, Jehovah, have kindled it; it
shall not be quenched" (Ezekiel 20:47-48). This fire that could
not be quenched by mankind was not in Hell, it was not a literal fire, it was
God using Babylon to destroy Israel for their sins (Ezekiel 21:19; Nehemiah
1:3).
(h). Living people on this earth go out to
look at dead bodies that were slain by the Lord and were being consumed by an
unquenchable fire (Isaiah 66:15-24). No one could put it out, but when it had
did what the Lord wanted it to do it went out, it is not still burning the dead
bodies today.
(i). Cities, nations, Israel, people,
IsraelÕs enemies, and fortresses were consumed and destroyed by fire, (both
literally or figuratively - Hosea 8:14; Amos 1:7; 1:14; Jeremiah 17:27; 49:27;
Numbers 21:28; Obadiah 18; Joel 2:2-3; Isaiah 1:31; 34:6-15; 47:14; Malachi
4:1-3; 1 Kings 14:10; Ezekiel 20:47-48).
FIRE IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
(a). The end of worthless ground is to be burned (Hebrews 6:7-8). All the worthless plants are destroyed by the fire, not tormented.
(b).
Fire totally destroyed, not forever tormented Sodom and Gomorrah
(Jude 7; 2 Peter 2:6-9; Luke 17:28-29).
(c).
ÒFor if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of
the truth, there remains no more a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful
expectation of judgment, and a
fierceness of fire which shall devour the adversariesÓ (Hebrews
10:26-17). ÒFor our God is a consuming fireÓ (Hebrews 12:29).
(d).
ÒBut the heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word have been
stored up for fire, being reserved against the
day of judgment and destruction of ungodly menÉBut the day of the Lord will
come as a thief; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise,
and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned upÓ
(2 Peter 3:7-9).
(e). ÒThe lake of fire which is the second
deathÓ (Revelation 21:8).
(8). SPIRITUAL DEATH
Spiritual death is not
found in the Bible, but it has been added, and it is used repeatedly in today's
preaching. To escape from death being death the word ÒspiritualÓ is added to
death despite the fact that Òspiritual deathÓ is not in the Bible. ÒThe wages of sinÓ is a real death, it is not spiritual death, which we are told would be
a death that is not really a death to a soul or a spirit that can never be
dead. ÒThe wages of sin is deathÓ to
the person whom sins are not washed away by the blood of Christ. If adding to
GodÕs word were a sin, why would both adding Òspiritual death,Ó and preaching
Òspiritual deathÓ that is not in the Bible not be a sin? Romans 6:23 is changed
to, ÒThe wages of sin is spiritual death.Ó What is spiritual death?
(a). If physical death is the end of all life
of the body.
(b). Then if there was a spiritual death it would
be the end of all life of a soul if there were a soul.
(c). Death would be death to both, not death
to one, and endless life to the other. Death is death; death is not endless
life anyplace.
Spiritual (pnumatikos)
is used in the New Testament 21 times in the King James Version, but
"spirituality death" not one time, yet many preach it continually.
From where did they get this? Do they mean a soul is dead? If they mean
"lost," why do they use an unscriptural term that does not say what
they mean? In his review of my "From Where Came Hell" Csonka says,
"We are spiritually dead when, as Isaiah says, 'your sins have separated
you from your God,'" Guardian of Truth, (now ÒTruth MagazineÓ) January 5,
1995, page 17, (Isaiah 59:2). Csonka must know that Isaiah is speaking about "the house of Jacob their sins"
(Isaiah 58:1) "A nation"
(Isaiah 58:2). This is about a nation that had left God, and there is not one
word about any kind of death of a person in it, absolutely nothing about a soul
in it, but he added it. He changes this from a nation (Israel) being in bondage
to another nations, changed to persons "we" being separated from God, and then adds another change, he
changes these persons "we"
from living persons to souls that are not really dead, but are alive and these
souls have endless life in Hell forever separated from the God that Csonka says
is endless tormenting them. Has he heard this verse misused so often he does
not know that he is misusing it? Csonka added changes to changes to make the
nation of Israel be a deathless soul that had been in
a person, but he did not seem to know whether he wanted it to be (1) a soul
that is now alive in Hell that had been in a dead person, (2) or a living
person that is now "spiritually dead."
If there were such a
thing as "spiritual death," it would have to be when a soul had no
life for if it still had life it would not be dead. If there were a soul that
was living somewhere with endless life, how could that soul be dead? A soul
could not be "dead" if it were "alive" anyplace.
Most who believe in Hell say after the
resurrection Òthe second deathÓ will
be a "spiritual death," not a read death, that
a deathless soul will be alive but separated from God, but not dead; Òthe second deathÓ must be changed to
something other than death. Do they not
make Òthe second deathÓ be nothing
more that a continuation of the state they say the lost are already in, just a
continuation of the lost being already alive, the lost being already Òspiritual
deadÓ? Therefore, they have done away with Òthe second deathÓ that will be after the judgment (Revelation 21:8),
for they tell us that the lost are already "spiritual dead," before
the judgment and will always be Òspiritual dead,Ó even when the souls that had
been in them are alive in Hell. The use of Òspiritual deadÓ is not to Òspeak
where the Bible speaks, and is not being silent where the Bible is silent.Ó
There is a parallel between the two deaths, between death
as we know it and Òthe second deathÓ
of the lost after the judgment; look at a dead person and there is no life;
there will be no life for the lost after Òthe
second death.Ó
(9). SLEEP
If souls are being endlessly
tormented in Hell, how could souls in any way be sleeping; therefore, sleep
could not really mean sleep and must be changed to awake. All the dead persons are sleeping unto the resurrection; it is the
resurrection that turns ÒdeathÓ into
a ÒsleepÓ of a person from which the
person will awake, without the resurrection death would be the end of life; no person
would come out of a grave at the coming of Christ. The metaphor of the dead
person being asleep that is used repeatedly in the Bible is made void and
foolishness by the doctrine of an immortal soul being awake in Heaven or Hell
before the resurrection. The Bible does not use words in such a
self-contradictory manner. Death is referred to as sleep about 67 times in the
Bible, about 47 in the Old Testament, and about 20 in the New Testament with
both the righteous dead persons and the unrighteous dead persons being asleep;
asleep does not mean awake, not awake in Heaven, not awake in Hell, not awake
in AbrahamÕs bosom. ÒThe second deathÓ
is never called sleep; there will be no waking up from it.
ÒMay they rest
in peaceÓ that is often on graves would make no sense if the person in a grave
was not asleep, but were awake and enjoying Heaven or suffering in Hell. Sleep
would be a very inappropriate and misleading word if the dead were awake in
Heaven or awake in Hell, if they were more awake than we are. That a person
sleeps between death and the resurrection, and then wakes up at the
resurrection makes be awake in Heaven, or being awake in AbrahamÕs bosom at the
time of death not possible; innate immortality and being asleep are contradictions,
both cannot be.
(10). KILL
"And I will kill her
children with pestilence"
(Revelation 2:23). Kill is used interchangeably with die and destroyed.
"To be killed," "to die," "to be destroyed."
Summary – ÒDeathÓ and all these words must be
changed into figurative language even when they are in plain passages, they must
be given a Òscriptural senseÓ or a Òtheological meaningÓ that is total opposite
to the real sense, but we are never told how anyone knows what this theological
meaning is. But one thing is clear, if they did not change them into figurative
language the theology of deathless souls would be destroyed. Death,
destruction, destroy, and perish are simple words, and there is no hint of them
being figurative language when they are used in plain passages; therefore, they
must be taken in their simple literal meaning. These words cannot be changed to
be figurative, and given a meaning not found in the words to save a theology
that is not in the Bible. These words can and therefore must be taken literally,
to be killed dose not mean to be alive. The
only reason these words are made to be figuratively language is that if these
words are taken with their literal meaning they make the doctrine of an
immortal soul and endless life in Hell not possible.
When figurative
language (Lake of Fire) is changed and made literal, then the literal language
must be changed to agree with the figurative language that has been changed
into literal language. If not, the Bible would say in one place that
destruction is not destruction, and in many others that destruction is
destruction. ÒDeathÓ is not life in Hell. There
are no stronger words that could have been used to say the end of the wicked is
a total end of existence; ÒDEATHÓ IS
CEASING TO LIVE. Is there any word
God could have used that they would not say it does not mean what it says?
No, there is not a one that would not be changed if it would conflict with
their Platonic theology.
R. F. WEYMOUTH,
"My mind fails to conceive a grosser misinterpretation of language then
when the five or six strongest words which the Greek tongue possesses,
signifying 'destroy,' or 'destruction,' are explained to mean maintaining an
everlasting but wretched existence. To translate black as white is nothing to this."
ÒLife In Christ,Ó page 365. R. F. Weymouth is the translator of "The New
Testament in Modern Speech."
DR. C. CAMPBELL, who
believed in eternal torment said, "If the words and phrases employed by
the apostles and evangelist, in delivering the revelation committed to them by
the Holy Spirit, had not been agreeable to the received usage of the people to
whom they spoke, their discourse being unintelligible, could have conveyed no
information, and consequently would have been no revelation to the hearers."
ÒPreliminary Dissertation,Ó Part 1, Sect. 1, 1854.
EDWARD WHITE,
"There must exist some argument of almost overpowering influence which has
thus determined the interpretation of masses of language to a sense exactly
contrary to its natural meaning. For the
process by which such terms as death,
perishing, destruction are made to stand for the idea of endless misery, is one so remarkable as
to arrest attention and demand instant inquiry. A corresponding action on the
word 'life' so often used in the
Bible to denote the eternal reward of the saints would result in making it
stand for the strange idea of a happy
extinction, or a blessed abolition of existence–an
euthanasia. The radical idea of destruction,
that is extinction of being, if first taken out of the term Death; then the word is made to stand
for its opposite, eternal being; and then the associated idea of misery is
grafted upon the stock of the converted primary; the result being, that destruction stand for endless misery.
An exactly parallel treatment of the promise of Life, therefore, will result,
first, in taking out of it its radical idea or conscious existence–next, in making it stand for its opposite,
extinction–and lastly, in joining the
idea of happiness with the converted primary,–so that you obtain the complex result
of a happy extinction. It would
require some argument of overmastering force to persuade nine-tenths of the
scholars of Christendom to perform this operation upon the promise of life to
the righteous. "Life in Christ," 1875, This
book is free at, http://www.robertwr.com/LifeinChrist.htm
GEORGE STORRS, ÒThe
next principle of interpretation I would lay down is that it is a truth, from
which we are not to depart without the clearest evidence, that words are never
used to mean more than their primary significationÉNot to adhere to this
principle is to make revelation no revelation. Those who abandon it may as well
admit, at once, that the common people ought not to have the Bible, for it will
only lead them astray. Why should Protestants boast over the Catholics in this
respect? Do not both, virtually, claim that the language of Scripture is
mystical, or has a meaning that does not appear in the common signification of
the words? And, therefore, the Priests must interpret them to the people? Might
we not as well give our Bibles altogether into the hands of these interpreters?
Especially, if the plain common sense meaning of words is not to be followed,
when there is no clear necessity for departing from itÉWhat should we think of a law that says, "For murder thou shalt
die," if we were told the meaning is not, that the transgressor shall
actually die, but be kept alive in indescribable torments, protracted to the greatest possible extent?
Would any man think he was fairly dealt with by such an administration? And
would he not have just cause of complaint at the want of definiteness in the
terms used to denote the punishment threatened!Ó Sermon One, page 13.
JOHN LOCKE, "By
death some understand endless torments in hell fire; but it seems a strange way of understanding a law, which requires the
plainest and directs of word, that by death should be meant eternal life in
misery."
DEAN ALFORD, "A
canon of interpretation, which should be constantly born in mind, is that a
figurative sense of words is never admissible except when required by the
context." Commentary on Acts 10:42.
H. L. HASTINGS,
"Eight times he (Paul) speaks of the wicked as destined to perish. Death
is used to express their destiny seven times; nine times they are spoken of as
being destroyed, once as devoured by
fire, and once as burned. Not one of
these words has, in the original or the translation, the meaning of eternal
torment. Not one of them means any such thing in common conversation, and it is only by a 'theological' or false
definition, alike repugnant to the laws of language and common sense, that such
an idea can be conveyed by such language. Paul does not tell us that he
used these words in a peculiar or theological sense. No Greek would have
supposed so, had they heard him; and we are led to conclude that as Paul would
not use words calculated to mislead; therefore, we should take these words in their most obvious and current signification.
Paul did teach the utter DESTRUCTION or PERISHING, or DEATH, or EXTERMINATION of ungodly menÉNo stronger expressions can be found in
Greek or English, to denote the utter extirpation of the ungodly. If these
words can be evaded or explained away, then, if the doctrine be
ever so true, it would be impossible to teach it. If these words do not convey the idea, than no words can be made to do it." ÒAfter The Verdict,Ó page
30-31, reprinted 1982.
That "death" be changed from ÒdeathÓ to ÒlifeÓ is a must for todayÕs theology. Today's teaching is that the Bible almost never means what it says and
must be interpreted, and one of the ways it must be interpreted is to explain
the meaning of death to be life.
The Bible must be made
to use words with a meaning that is opposite than what the words means. The
theological use of these words today is the same as saying white is black,
sweet is bitter, night is day.
(a). WHITE must be changed to mean black.
(b).
SLEEP
must be changed to mean awake.
(c).
DEATH
must be changed to mean life. Death is made to be deathless, to be Òalways dead
yet never dead.Ó
(d). TO DIE must be changed to mean to living
forever in endless torment.
(e).
DESTRUCTION must be changed to mean the destroyed are never destroyed,
but are alive being endlessly tormented by God.
(f). TO PERISH, to be destroyed, must
be changed to mean for a soul (not a person) to be preserved incorruptible and
imperishable in Hell. Perish and destroy do not and never has had a meaning of
a loss of well-being.
(g). FIRE must be changed into something that
preserves life, not something that devours or consumes life. The
Òconsuming fireÓ that cannot consume.
THE ONLY WAY THE FORCE
OF THESE WORDS CAN BE BROKEN IS TO DENY THAT LIFE MEANS LIFE, AND DENY
THAT DEATH MEANS DEATH. WITH DEFINITIONS SUCH AS ARE GIVEN BY TODAY'S THEOLOGY,
ANYTHING, WHATEVER ANYONE WANTS CAN BE PROVED, AND WHATEVER ANYONE DOES NOT
WANT CAN BE DISPROVED. To put endless torment by God in an endless Hell in the
Bible is the exactly opposite of what the scripture clearly say. That God is an
endless tormenter must be read into the Bible.
Those who believe in
Hell give God the power to "destroy
both body and soul in Gehenna," but only after they put their own
meaning on both destroy and Gehenna, and they say the meaning of both destroy
and Gehenna is an endless life of misery and suffering in Hell being tormented
by God.
There is no way that
anyone could know that death is not death, but that death is endless life being
tormented by God. How could Òthe wages of
sinÓ be ÒdeathÓ if souls that had
been in sinners will have an endless life in Hell? Without a revelation from
God, no one could know that God meant only a loss of well being when He used
these words. If Hell exists then ÒdeathÓ cannot be Òdeath;Ó if ÒdeathÓ is ÒdeathÓ there cannot be a Hell.
THE MISSING WORDS
Words that are not in
the Bible, but are preached today as if they were on every page, (1) Immortal
soul (2) Hell (3) An endless life of torment (4) spiritual dead. The Bible is
made to say what the readers want it to say, and their faith (what they
believe) is only a projection of their own desires. Many words, life, death, die, dead, destroy, perish, destruction, kill,
end, consumed, burned up, and sleep, must be redefined in a way
that the world does not use them; to mean the very opposite of their real
meaning; therefore,
there must be "a class of inspired menÓ to unfold and reveal its true
sense to mankind for if these words were not changed then the Bible would be
understood to mean what it really says. The belief that men are born with an
immortal soul in them that can never die makes ÒdeathÓ impossible, and ÒdeathÓ
must be redefined to be life, changed
to a different kind of life in a different place. This is just what they have
done by saying ÒdeathÓ does not mean
to be dead, but ÒdeathÓ means a soul
is alive and living a deathless, endless life being tormented by God. Anyone who reads the Bible believing that a
soul is an "immaterial, invisible part of a person" (W. E. Vine) that
is immortal and can never die; they are compelled to change all texts that
speak of the lost being ÒdestroyedÓ
to mean that souls are only tortured forever but cannot ever be Òdestroyed.Ó "Destroy" cannot be understood, "In the fair, stipulated, and well-established meaning of the terms,"
(Alexander Campbell). Interpretation of parables, symbols, and figurative
languages are made to be superior over plain statements. What is clear language
must be changed and made to agree with what is believed to be
said in the symbolic language.
CHANGES THAT MUST BE
MADE BY THOSE WHO BELIEVE IN ETERNAL LIFE IN HELL MUST MAKE TO MAKE THE BIBLE
AGREE WITH THEM. If there were a deathless soul, changing the meaning of these
words is the only way in which the force of these words can be broken, they
must be changed to make them mean the very opposite of there true meaning.
A DOUBLE CHANGE
1. First change is to change from being a
person that will be in Heaven must be changed to being whatever a soul is, that
only it will be in Heaven.
2. Then the meaning of many words must be
changed (see the 13 below).
GOD SAID IT THE WAY HE MEANT IT
1. ÒLIFEÓ
is life, not just a reward to an immaterial invisible being that is in a person
that now has endless life and can
never not have life.
2. ÒDEATHÓ cannot be changed to an endless life of torment
by God.
Death is death and it is the opposite of life, not a different form of life; death
is death, not endlessly dying but never dead.
3. ÒDESTRUCTIONÓ is destruction. Destruction does not mean there is
something in a person that can never be destroyed. Destruction does not mean
kept alive undestroyed, and being endlessly tormented by God. Not after being
destroyed by God for thousands of years yet are no more destroyed then when God
first began the destroying. Everlasting destruction cannot be changed to
everlasting living undestroyed.
4. ÒENDÓ
changed to be endless. End is end, not going on forever without an end.
5. ÒKILLÓ
is to end life, kill does not mean never able to be killed, cannot be changed
to life that can never end.
6. ÒBURNED UPÓ is burned up, it does not mean never able to be burned up. ÒBurn upÓ must be changed to God
endlessly burning, but God is never able to Òburn up.Ó
7. ÒCONSUMEDÓ
is consumed, it does not mean never able to be consumed.
8. ÒPERISHÓ
is perish, not just a loss of well-being to those who
cannot perish.
9. SLEEP is sleep, not to be
forever awake in Hell without the resurrection.
10. ÒDIEÓ changed to live; to
die is not to be alive.
11. ÒLOSE LIFEÓ changed to be preserved alive in a miserable existence.
12. ÒDESTROYEDÓ changed to preserved without ever being destroyed.
13. TO BE DEVOURED, to perish, and to be
consumed, all these must be changed to being immortal and indestructible.
(a). Traditionalist must change the Bible to
say the opposite of what it says. ÒHe
that believes on the Son has eternal life; but he that believes not the Son
shall not see lifeÓ (John 3:36) must be changed to, ÒHe that believes not
the Son was born with a deathless soul in them, and that soul will see life in
Hell where it will live forever being endlessly tormented by God.Ó
(b). ÒFor the gate is narrow
and the way is hard that leads to life, and few are they that find itÓ
(Matthew 7:13-14) must be changed to, ÒFor the gate is narrow, and the way is
hard that leads to life in Heaven, and most souls shall see life in Hell being
endlessly tormented by God.Ó
(c).
ÒFor God so loved the world that He give His only begotten Son, that
whosoever believes on Him should not perish, but have eternal lifeÓ (John
3:16) must be changed to all souls that had been in all persons will have eternal
life in Heaven, or in Hell, or someplace.
(d).
ÒEven He who is able to save and to destroyÓ (James 4:12) must be
changed to, ÒEven He who is able to save souls alive in Heaven, or save souls
alive and undestroyed in Hell.Ó
(f).
ÒFor he that sows unto his
own flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption: but he that sows unto the Spirit
shall of the Spirit reap eternal lifeÓ (Galatians 5:8) ÒheÓ must be changed to ÒsoulsÓ that were
in both the saved and the lost and both shall reap eternal life, just not both
life in the same place, changed to some souls will reap endless life in Heaven,
some souls will reap endless life in Hell being endlessly tormented by God.
(g).
ÒFor the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life
in Christ Jesus our LordÓ (Romans 6:23) must be changed to, ÒFor the wages
of sin is to be endlessly tormented by God in Hell for souls that already have endless
life, and the gift of God is endless life must be changed to an escape from being
endlessly tortured by God for a ÔsoulÕ that already has endless life, changed
to being just a reward, not endless life for a ÔsoulÕ that is in you that now
has endless life.Ó
The changes that must
be made by those who teach eternal life in Hell for a deathless soul that is
being endlessly tormented by God could be extended to many pages, but this
should be enough for anyone who loves the truth more than the Òdoctrines and precepts of menÓ (Matthew
15:9). These words do not teach what
many believe; therefore, they must change the meaning of these words to make
the Bible say what they believe, changed to be the opposite of their meaning, ÒdeathÓ changed to endless life being
endless tormented by God, etc. changed even by those who say they do not
believe the Bible should be changed. Why we are told that the words used in
the New Testament must be changed–they
give us no reason but that the belief in the pagan Greek philosophy that was
believed by PlatoÕs requires these words to be given a new meaning that is the
very opposite of there true meaning, ÒdeathÓ
cannot be ÒdeathÓ if PlatoÕs immortal
soul was true, destruction cannot be destroyed but must be changed to be an
undestroyed soul that just lost its well being. In the traditional teaching we
are told ÒdeathÓ cannot be Òdeath,Ó ÒdeathÓ must be changed to be anything but Òdeath;Ó Òthe wages of sin is
deathÓ (Romans 6:23) must be changed to be Òthe wages of sin is some kind
of endless miserable life.Ó The deathless soul doctrine makes Christ not to
save us from Òdeath,Ó but is changed
to be that Christ only saved a deathless soul from living its endless life being
tormented by God; According to them Christ did not give His life to save a soul
from Òdeath,Ó Christ give His life to
save no ones life from Òdeath,Ó or
save no soul from Òdeath,Ó but according
to them He just give His life to change where a soul will live the life that a
soul already has. The orthodox position is that Christ gives happiness only,
not life to a deathless soul that Christ does not save from Òdeath.Ó They substitute (1) happiness in
place of life, (2) torment in place of Òdeath.Ó
The reinterpretation of the many words used that mean the end of life
has no equal. Other reinterpretations are based on the changing of a few
passages; Peter being the first Pope is based mostly on a reinterpretation of
Matthew 16:18; but for souls to be deathless and tormented forever, there had
to be many plus many more changes and many adding to GodÕs word. Was Paul
trying to deceive by using the word "destruction,"
and today's theology has to correct him by saying, "No Paul, you really
meant to say everlasting torment"? ÒDestructionÓ
does not mean to preserve alive undestroyed being endlessly tormented by God.
"And you know that no
murderer has eternal life abiding in him" (1 John 3:15). Was John
wrong when he said no murderer has eternal life? If, as many say, all
"souls" that are in all mankind are now immortal and cannot die, many
believe all the murderers now have an "immaterial, invisible part of
man" (W. E. Vine); without endless life a murderer cannot have an immortal
soul; if he did have an immortal soul,
he would already have endless life abiding in him; if he does not have endless
life abiding in him he does not have an immortal soul. Many teach that all persons
have a soul in them that is endless and it can never die make there be a deathless
soul in them that now has endless life, with them it is only a question of where
that soul will spend itÕs endless life. John said, "And this is the promise which he promised us, even the life eternal" (1 John 2:25). "We
have passed out of death into life...no murderer has eternal life abiding in
him" (1 John 3:14-15). Is there anyway John could have said any
clearer that a murderer does not have an immortal soul that now has endless
life abiding in him, any clearer that a murderer has not Òpassed out of death into lifeÓ?
ROGER D. CAMPBELL, In
ÒSeek The Old Paths,Ó printed by Leoni Church of Christ, Brother Campbell has
an article, ÒThe Reality Of Death,Ó but then says only the body dies, and death
is not real to the soul. He said, ÒDeath is the closing chapter of one phase of
our existence – the earthly stage. However, there is an eternal aspect of
our being, as each human has a spirit that will never pass through death or go
out of existence.Ó He makes no different in the souls he thinks are in the lost
and the souls of the saved, he used Ecclesiastes 12:7 to prove all souls that
are in both the saved and the lost return to God at the death of the person
they were in without the resurrection. Volume 28, number 4, page 29.
ÒDEATHÓ IS NOT
HELL
A dead person cannot
be tormented; the dead can feel no pain. Only the living can be tormented. If
Hell were a real place, those in it would be alive, not dead; their life would
be just as endless as the life of the saved; if there were souls that are living
in Hell they could not be paid Òthe wages
of sin is deathÓ (Romans 6:23).
(a).
ÒThe wages of sin is deathÓ makes Hell impossible.
(b).
Hell makes, ÒThe wages of sin is
deathÓ impossible.
(c).
Immortal life in Hell makes the resurrection of the dead impossible.
If there is no death,
there cannot be a resurrection of the undead. If there is no resurrection, we
have no hope (1 Corinthians 15:16-19). Can
there be a doctrine more harmful than the doctrine of an immortal soul, which
takes away our resurrection; therefore, our hope of salvation?
WHAT THE DEAD DO NOT DO
1.
There is no activity (Ecclesiastes 9:10).
2.
They do not have plans (Ecclesiastes 9:10).
3.
They have no wisdom (Ecclesiastes 9:10).
4.
Their bed is in darkness (Job 17:13).
5.
They do not mention God (Psalm 6:5).
6.
They give God no thanks (Psalm 6:5).
7.
They have no thoughts (Psalm 146:4).
8.
They know nothing (Ecclesiastes 9:5).
9.
The wicked are silent, no speech (Psalm 31:17).
What do the dead do,
think, and know? Nothing. Does anyone think this is a picture of Heaven or
Hell? Without the resurrection that was
made known by Christ the dead would never know anything after death, would
never have any kind of life (1 Corinthians 15:12-22). Only the dead can be resurrected from the dead. If there were any souls that are already alive
in Heaven they could not be resurrected, those not dead cannot be resurrected
from the undead.
Unwilling to accept God's word.
Inspired writers speak often about death being a sleep, and about its
unconscious nature. "His breath goes
forth, he returns to the earth; in that very day his thoughts perish" (Psalm
146:4). If Solomon had said, "Their love, as their hatred and their envy
will continue...for there is work, and device, and knowledge, and wisdom, in
Sheol, whither you go" (Ecclesiastes 9:5-10), then those who teach there
is a immaterial, invisible soul that is alive from our death unto the
resurrection could rightly say this ends all debate on this subject. But, when
it is put the way God inspired it they
reject it. If you try for the rest of your life, you would never be able to
say any stronger than Solomon that there is nothing after death, and without
the resurrection that was unknown about in the Old Testament, unknown about by
anyone that there will be any life after death unto it was taught by Christ. Many plain statements that there is no knowledge in a grave must be
rejected by those that believe in a deathless soul, and many plain
statements that death is a sleep must be rejected. See Isaiah 38:18-19; Psalm
115:17; 6:5; John 11:11-14; Daniel 12:1-2; Job 14:12-15; 1 Corinthians 15:20.
Some say that
Ecclesiastes is the view of those in the world, the way they see life when God
is left out, but it is not the way a child of God sees life. Ecclesiastes has statements
that are so conductivity to a soul being immortal that many try to make the
whole book not be the truth, that the whole book is only "life...viewed
from the perspective where God is left out." Because it was conductivity
to his belief that salvation is by faith only without works, Calvin did with
the book of James the same as many do to Ecclesiastes. There is much in
Ecclesiastes that cannot be said to be the way those in the world looks at
life, see Ecclesiastes 12:1; 12:13, and many other statements throughout the
book, but to do away with some parts of Ecclesiastes they are willing to do
away with all of it. If Ecclesiastes is only "life...viewed from the
perspective where God is left out," why is it not used that way by the
very ones that say this when they use Ecclesiastes 12:7 to prove the
"soul" is immortal? If Ecclesiastes is, "life...viewed from the
perspective where God is left out," then nothing in the book is the truth.
Was a book that is not the truth inspired by God? If the book is only
"life...viewed from the perspective where God is left out," what good
could it be to those that read it? Then why do we have this book in the Bible?
Because it is not true that it is only the way the world sees life with God
left out.
Death that never dies!
The living dead! The undead dead!
If this sounds like
something out of a horror film, it is the teaching of many about some deathless
something that they believe is an "immaterial, invisible part of man"
(Vine). If there is something in a person
that can never die, the lost could never be dead; common sense tells you
that an immortal being can never die, that a deathless soul would have no need
of a savior to die in its place to keep it from dying. ÒDeathÓ is not life, not a good life in Heaven, or not a bad life in
Hell. To die is not to live. There cannot be life after death without a
resurrection that ends the death.
(11). FIRST
RESURRECTION
SECOND
DEATH
"He that
over comes shall not be hurt of the second death" (Revelation 2:11,
20:6). The first resurrection is when a person is "born anew...born of the water and the Spirit" (John
3:3-5). "And you did he make alive
when you were dead...made us alive
together with Christ (by grace have you
been saved), and raised us up with
him" (Ephesians 2:1-6; Galatians 2:18-19; 3:1).
"But God is so rich in
mercy, and he loved us so much, that even while we were dead because of our
sins, he gave us life when he raised
Christ from the dead...for he raised us
from the dead along with Christ" (Ephesians 2:4 New Living Bible). "But God, rich in mercy, for the great
love he bore us, brought us to life with
Christ...He raised us up" (New
English Bible).
The Òfirst resurrectionÓ is when a person puts
on Christ, not whatever a soul is believed to be puts on Christ. "We
were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as Christ
was raised from the dead" (Romans
6:3-4). ÒAnd you did he make alive, when you
were dead through your trespasses
and sinsÉeven when we were dead
through our trespassed, made us alive together with ChristÉand
raised us up with himÓ (Ephesians
2:1-10), it was ÒusÓ ÒweÓ that were dead and made alive, not a deathless soul. "I say unto you, the hour comes, and
now is when the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God; and they that
hear shall live" (John 5:25). The Òfirst resurrectionÓ is when a person Òlike as Christ was raised from
the dead" when they were
buried through baptism and resurrected to a new life in Christ, a resurrection
to a life that the unsaved will never have; a life that begins when a person is
buried through baptism and ÒAnd you did he make alive when you were
dead...made us alive together with Christ.Ó
The endless life that begins when a person comes up out of the water of
baptism, ÒThat like as Christ was raised from the dead" (Romans
6:3-4). ÒIf then YOU have been raised up with ChristÉYOU have died and YOUR life
is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed,
then YOU also will be revealed with
Him in gloryÓ (Colossians 3:1-4). Life after the resurrection for Òthose alive from the deadÓ (Romans
6:13) is not a different life but a continuance of the life that began when a
person was Òraised up with ChristÓ when
baptized, then our life Òis hid with Christ,Ó it is in his
keeping and at His coming that our life Òwill be revealed with Him in
Glory.Ó All the faithful in
Christ have been raised from the dead when they were Òburied with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ
was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk
in newness of lifeÓ (Romans 6:4), and now have life as long as they remain
faithful and Òshall not be hurt of the
second deathÓ (Revelation 2:11). At the second coming of Christ, those that
are alive in Christ, (1) whether they have fallen asleep in Christ, (2) or if
they are living when He comes, both will be changed and put on incorruption,
immortality, the saved have the victory over death (1 Corinthians 15:52-55). ÒEven when we were dead through our
trespasses, made us alive together with ChristÓ (Ephesians 2:5).
The Òfirst resurrectionÓ is pictured under
two figures
ONE: A RESURRECTION to a new life in Christ, a death burial and resurrection to life in Christ (Romans 6). Coming up out of the water is the first resurrection
when persons that were dead because of sin, not deathless souls, the person become
Òalive
unto God in Christ JesusÓ (Romans 6:11).
TWO: A BIRTH. Born to a new life in Christ, a new birth of water and the
spirit (John 3:5). ÒExcept one be born of
water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.Ó ÒAccording to
his mercy he saved us, through the washing of regenerationÓ (Titus 3:5).
In John 5 Christ gives
Òeternal lifeÓ to those that believe,
ÒHe
that hears my word, and believes him that sent me, has eternal life, and comes not into judgment, but has passed out of death into lifeÓ
(John 5:24). All persons that hear and believe Christ have now passed out of
death and they now have endless life, but they are still in the image of Adam, they
have not yet put on an incorruptible body; they will sleep with their life Òhidden with Christ in God.Ó But Òthe hour comes in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his
voice and shall come forth; they that have done good,
unto the resurrection of lifeÓ (John 5:28-29). At that time the saved will
awake from their sleep and will be in the image of Christ with incorruptible
bodies that will be suitable for endless life in Heaven (1 Corinthians
15:42-44). Christ speaks both (1) of the believers passing from death to life
in this lifetime, (2) and also a resurrection with immortal bodies for believes
that will take place at His second coming. It is a continuance of life for
believes that begin when they became Christians that never will have an end
even when they have Òfallen asleep in
ChristÓ (1 Corinthians 15:18). Believes Òcomes
not into judgment,Ó but are raised from their sleep with new bodies, those
that do not believe will be raised for judgment, not life; those that believe
not Òshall not see lifeÓ (John 3:36),
after they have been raised for judgment (John 5:29), there will be Òthe second deathÓ for them, not life
(Revelation 21:8).
In John 11:25-26
Christ speaks of the life the believer will receive both (1) when they become
believers, (2) and after the judgment. ÒI
am the resurrection, and the life; he
who believes in Me shall live even if he
dies, and everyone who lives and
believes in Me shall never dieÓ Even when the saved are asleep in Christ
they live unto God; it is the person that is asleep in Christ, and the person that
will wake up from their sleep. All that are in a grave, both the saved persons and
the lost persons, will hear His voice and come forth at the resurrection. All the
unsaved that are in graves will be raised and stand Òbefore the judgment-seat of Christ; that each one may receive the
things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether it be good or
badÓ (2 Corinthians 5:10). All who were born again, made alive by being
raised with Christ through baptism, and live faithful shall not be hurt of Òthe second death,Ó which will be after
the judgment. Christ paid the wages of sin for them, He died their death. All others will pay their own Òwages of sin,Ó which is death (Romans
6:23). "But the fearful, and
unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and
idolaters, and all liars, their part shall be in the lake that burns with fire
and brimstone; which is the second death"
(Revelation 21:8). An endless life of torment would not be a Òsecond death;Ó if there were an endless
life of torment it would bear no resemblance to a death, not the first or Òthe second death.Ó There will be a
resurrection to judgment and then Òthe second
deathÓ for unbelievers, but there is nothing said about another
resurrection to any kind of life after Òthe
second death.Ó
To feel pain those in
Hell would have to be just as alive as those in Heaven are. If a dead person
were in a lake of fire, that dead person would not feel or know about the fire;
if an immaterial soul that, according to Dr. Morey in ÒDeath And The
Afterlife,Ó page 79, a soul is nothing but thoughts and will not have a body,
that immaterial souls have no substance; if there were a soul that is thoughts
only, that soul could not feel fire.
Summary - All are now dead
unto they are buried with Christ Òthrough
baptism into death and raised from the dead through the glory of the
FatherÓ (Romans 6:3-5). All saved persons now have endless life even though
their bodies are still in the image of Adam (John 3:15; 3:16; 3:36; 4:14; 5:24;
6:47; 11:28; 20:31). They will sleep with their life Òhidden with Christ in GodÓ unto the second coming of Christ; at
that time the persons that believed and has been given life, the same persons,
not souls, will awake from their sleep with immortal bodies in the image of
Christ. The life a person will have after the resurrection is a continuation of
the endless life given to them when they first became Christians.
HOMER HAILEY, "There are only two alternatives, the crown of
life-eternal life-or the second death." ÒRevelation,Ó
page 128, Baker Book House. It is life or death, not life in Heaven or
life in Hell. Death is real.
I. D. WILLIAMSON, "Relative to the question, whether the lake that
burns with fire and brimstone is to be understood literally or figuratively, I
have little to say. During the dark ages, it might have been necessary to
discuss that question; but the day has passed when any man, claiming even a
tolerable share of theological knowledge, would risk his reputation, as a man
of sane mind, in an attempt to maintain the existence of a real lake of literal
fire and brimstone, in which immortal and immaterial spirits are to be burned.
It is a figure used to represent a reality, and this reality is the second
death." "An Examination Of The Doctrine Of Endless Punishment."
"THE
SECOND DEATH"
Is used four times, all
in Revelation
1. Those that overcome
shall not die Òthe second deathÓ
(Revelation 2:11). The saved will not die Òthe
second death;Ó only the lost will.
2. Those who are
buried and raised with Christ (Romans 6) in the first resurrection, "Over these the second death has no
power" (Revelation 20:6). The first two times Òthe second deathÓ is used it say that
those in Christ will not die Òthe second
death;Ó only those that are not in Christ will die Òthe second death.Ó
3. Death and hades,
and any not found written in the book of life are cast into the lake of fire,
which is Òthe second deathÓ (Revelation
20:14-15). All three come to the same end. All three are completely destroyed;
both hades and death will come to an end. Endless life in Hell is not Òthe wages of sin.Ó ÒThe second death,Ó Òthe
wages of sinÓ is the end of living, whatever kind of life the lost will have
at the judgment will come to an end; neither death nor hades can be tormented.
The symbolical lake of fire pictures all three as coming to an end just as a
literal lake of fire would literally bring the life of any living thing to an
end. The lake of fire is a symbol picture of total destruction of any thing
cast into it, an endless being dead, an endless not existing, not an endless being
tormented by God.
4. Those that overcomes shall inherit and be God's sons, but for all
others, "Their part shall be in the
lake that burns with fire and brimstone; which is the second death"
(Revelation 21:8). No ransom has been offered for Òthe second death;Ó it is without an end. ÒThe second deathÓ is not said to be sleep as the first death is, no
one will wake up from it, there will be no resurrection from Òthe second death.Ó
ÒTHE SECOND DEATHÓ IN PLAIN LANGUAGE
"There remains no more a sacrifice for sins, but a
certain fearful expectation of judgment,
and a fierceness of fire which shall devour
adversaries"
(Hebrews 10:27). For the lost (1) judgment then (2) devoured, not tormented, in
the lake of fire, which is Òthe second
death.Ó Not as it is preached today (1) judgment (2) then an endless life
of being tormented by God, but never devoured; not as preached by many an endless
life in Hell for a soul that begins at the death of the person a soul was in
before and without the resurrection and Judgment.
(a). The Bible speaks of two deaths, Òthe first death,Ó and Òthe second death,Ó the first death when
a person dies to sin and by the new birth (John 3:15) is resurrected to a new life
in Christ. When Òthe second deathÓ is
changed to endless life being tormented by God without a resurrection, then Òthe second deathÓ would not be a death.
(b). ÒThe
second deathÓ is a real death, not life in another form or place.
(c). ÒThe
second deathÓ is never spoken of as a sleep; there will be no waking up or
resurrection from it.
(d). When the unsaved dead are resurrected
for judgment they will have life of some kind at the judgment, but not endless
life that only believers now have.
a. ÒAnd their part shall be in
the lake that burns with fire and brimstone: which is the second deathÓ (Revelation 21:8).
b. ÒAnd the sin, when it is full grown, brings forth deathÓ (James 1:15).
c. ÒWhoever turns a sinner away from his
error will save him from deathÓ (James
5:20 New International Version).
d. ÒFor the end of these things is
deathÓ (Romans 6:21).
e. ÒThey that practice such
things are worthy of deathÓ (Romans
1:32).ÒThose who practice such things deserve
to dieÓ New Revised Standard Version.
f. ÒFor if YOU live after the
flesh, YOU must dieÓ (Romans
8:13).
g. ÒThe wages of sin is deathÓ
(Romans 6:23).
(e). Death is the end of the sinner, not endless
being tormented by God. ÒThe second deathÓ
is a real death. As the death of the earthly body deprives a person of all
psychical life and is the final end of all earthly existence, so Òthe second deathÓ is the final end of
existence after the resurrection and the judgment.
"IF YOU LIVE AFTER THE FLESH
YOU SHALL DIE."
ÒFor if YOU are living according to the flesh, YOU must die (apothncesko); but if by the Spirit YOU are putting to death the deeds of the body, YOU will liveÓ (Romans 8:13). This
is not a reference to Òthe first deathÓ
but Òthe second deathÓ when only
those who live according to the flesh will die Òthe second death.Ó Paul did not say, "If you live after the
flesh you are now spiritually dead," (present tense), but "
YOU shall die" (future tense). Not the death of a deathless soul,
but "YOU shall die." Why do many that say they believe God, but
work hard to change His word? "But
if by the Spirit YOU put to death
the deeds of the body, YOU shall
live." It is YOU that will live or die, not
something in you that will always live and cannot die no mater what you do or
do not do. ÒFor the wages of sin is
deathÓ (Romans 6:23); not the death of the flesh, which all die, but after
the lost come out of their graves then Òthe
second death.Ó
ÒI am the bread of
life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died (apothncesko). This is the bread which came down out of
Heaven, that a man may eat thereof,
and not die (apothncesko)Ó (John 6:48-50). There will be a resurrection of
all, and those who eat of the bread that came down out of Heaven will not die Òthe second death,Ó all that do not eat
of it will die Òthe second death.Ó
J. M. DENNISTION, ÒThe one thing really announced is that, through
Christ the living Bread, there comes to believers an endless duration which did
not come by the manna–the clear
understanding being that in no other why than through that Bread can such
duration be theirs.Ó ÒThe Perishing Soul According To
Scripture,Ó Longmans, Green, and Co., 1874.
ÒI am the
resurrection, and the life: he that
believes on me though he die (apothncesko), yet shall he live; and whosoever
lives and believes on me shall never die (apothncesko)Ó (John 11:25-26). All
who believe will sleep in Christ and be resurrected from their sleep and will
never die Òthe second death;Ó those
who do not believe will also die and be resurrected for judgment and will die Òthe second death.Ó ÒFor the hour comes in which all
that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that
have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto
the resurrection of judgmentÓ (John 5:28-29). Those that believe there
is a soul in us say, (1) a soul will never die; (2) a soul will never be in or
come out of a tomb.
ÒFor the land which has drunk
the rain that comes often upon it, and brings forth herbs meet for them for
whose sake it is also tilled, receives blessing from God: but if it bears
thorns and thistles, it is rejected, and nigh unto a curse; whose end is to be burnedÓ (Hebrews
6:4-8). Those that fall away will be burned in the lake of fire, which is Òthe second death;Ó will be completely destroyed
just as thorns that are burned are destroyed.
ASHLEY JOHNSON,
founder and president of the Johnson Bible College. ÒWhy do we burn briers and
thorns? To destroy them, to get permanently rid of them.Ó Page 413, ÒThe
Resurrection And The Future Life.Ó Knoxville Lithographing Company, 1913.
HOMER HAILEY. "As
there is a second higher life, so there is also a second and deeper death. And
as after that life there is no more death, SO AFTER THAT DEATH THERE IS NO MORE
LIFE" HaileyÕs quote of Afford in HaileyÕs commentary on
"Revelation."
Made alive at His coming, not at death
"In Christ all will be made alive. But, each in his own turn:
Christ, the first fruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him" (1
Corinthians 15:22-23 New International Version). Paul says that those who
belong to Christ will be "made
alive" at His coming; the harvest of those Òwho belong to himÓ will be Òwhen
he comes,Ó at the resurrection, there will not be many harvests at the
death of each saved persons both before the resurrection and before the coming
of Christ.
Paul says of those who
are servants of sin that "the end of
those things is death" (Romans 6:21-22). But, many now say, "The
end of those things is eternal life being tormented by God without an
end"? Who are you going to believe, God, or man?
The
sting of death (1 Corinthians 15:54-57). After the resurrection
when the saved will have put on immortality, death will have been swallowed up in victory. Victory
over what? Over death, victory over Òthe wages of sinÓ (Romans 6:23).
After the resurrection those in Christ will have put on immortality, and will
never again be subject to death. If there is no death, then death has no sting;
if there were a soul in a person that is deathless, that soul would always have
had the victory over death, it would never have been subject to any death. The
doctrine of unconditional immortality from birth makes nonsense out of 1
Corinthians 15:54-57, and it gives all, those in Christ, and those not in
Christ the victory over death; and if it was true it would give all this
victory without the death and resurrection of Christ. If all are born with an
immortal soul that cannot die, then no soul that is in anyone is subject to
death from the day of their birth and never will be. What kind of victory could
there be over the nothingness of death that is not death to a soul that was
never subject to death?
IS DEATH AN ENEMY?
OR A INSTANT GATEWAY TO HEAVEN?
A companion of Paul,
Epaphroditus, was nigh unto death but God had mercy on him (Philippians 3:27).
If death is a gateway to Heaven, then when God had "mercy on him," was God not being cruel by keeping him
out of the glories of Heaven and making him suffer the pains and temptations of
earth longer? Why do most do all they can to live a little longer, even if it
is in pain? If death is a friend, why is this friend not a welcome visitor? Why
are we grief-stricken and not rejoicing if our ÒfriendÓ did take
someone we love to be with Christ and God in Heaven? How could going
from this life (from pain and troubles for most) to Heaven be an enemy? If
death is a doorway by which we go to Heaven at the moment of death, why would a
person who had lived in pain for years do everything possible to stay out of
Heaven and live in pain a little longer? Why do we mourn and not rejoice if immediately
after death a love one who lives in pain would go to their everlasting
residence in Heaven where there is no pain? Is it not because we know death is
an enemy, not a friend, not a doorway to instant joy (1 Corinthians 15:26), and
all the dead are under the power of death and will be unto the resurrection,
not alive in Heaven? We will not have the victory over death unto the
resurrection. But many say going to Heaven is just what happens at death, even
for the Old Testament saints who died before the death of Christ, therefore,
before their sins were paid for by His death. If this were true, death would
then be a friend, not an enemy. How can
death be an enemy to an immortal, immaterial, invisible soul that is not
subject to death, how is death an enemy to a soul that cannot die?
What is it that will
be destroyed (1 Corinthians 15:26)?
Just what is the "enemy?" Death (moving to Heaven or Hell) would be an enemy only to the lost who were
moving to Hell. It would be a friend to the saved if they were moving to
Heaven. But there is a problem, how
can there be a resurrection if it is only souls, not us that will be in Heaven,
and souls that are never dead to be resurrected? If no soul is dead, the
Bible teaching of a resurrection is out of place and should not be in the
Bible. Maybe this is why the teaching of the resurrection is being abandoned in
many churches, and is no longer being taught in many other churches. If death is not real, there is no
resurrection. If death is real, the resurrection is our only hope of life.
Without the resurrection, we perish forever when we die (1 Corinthians 15:18);
the sleeping saints will never wake up. Without the resurrection, the enemy of
death will never be destroyed and the dead believers will be forever dead.
IS DEATH
LIFE SEPARATED FROM GOD?
IS THERE
LIFE WITHOUT GOD?
Death is to be "abolished" (1 Corinthians 15:26)
American Standard Version, "destroyed" King James Version.
How? By being cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14). Yet, some teach
that when evil men are cast into this same lake of fire, they are alive and
tormented by it; death is not abolished or destroyed. Fire is a consumer, if it did not consume it would not be fire, to
use fire to illustrate something that dose not do what fire does, to change fire
into something that endlessly perseveres, but does not consume, would make the
language of the Bible be unintelligible. Does
the Lake of Fire abolish death but does not abolish
people? "Death shall be no
more" (Revelation 21:4). Therefore, being cast into the lake of fire
cannot be an endless life being tormented by God for then death would last
forever, and could never be "abolished."
Death is to be "abolished" before
Christ will be subjected to God (1 Corinthians 15:28ff), before when we will be
in Heaven, "death shall be no more"
(Revelation 21:4); therefore, all "wages
of sin" (Romans 6:23) shall have been paid; if not, they can never be
paid as there will be no death, and cannot go on being paid in Hell forever;
for then death would last as long as the "wages"
were bring paid, which would be forever for if a dead person is alive, if death
is being alive someplace; if there were a Hell the last enemy (death) could not
ever be abolished (1 Corinthians 15:26). We use death in our everyday language
to mean to be dead, not to have life, but in the theology use of the word death
does not mean dead, to be dead is changed to having life, to be more alive than
we are while we are living! Why did God not just say what He means, that death
means being alive not dead? Did God in some way apart from His word revealed to
some that He did not mean what He said in the Bible, but He only revealed this
to some and not to all?
Many who do not
want to say, ÒYou are going to Hell and be endlessly tormented by GodÓ say,
ÒYou are going to be endlessly alive separated from God.Ó They really believe
God is going to forever be tormenting most of humanity, but this is so
revolting that they water down what they really believe. All who believe in
Hell must use their man made theology to explain death out of the Bible. Trying
to put having life someplace separated from God in the place of death is a poor
try, but it seems to be the best they could do. Such a radical redefining of death to be some kind of life that dose
not come from God, life that is separated from God (life not sustained by God) is
nothing more that a denial of the Bible, a denial that God is God.
SEPARATION, Wayne Jackson in an article he called, ÒThe ÔSecond
DeathÕ–Separation or Annihilation?Ó
printed by the ÒChristian CourierÓ redefined Òthe Second DeathÓ to be separation, not death. Jackson changed
death to endless life separated from God, to life that dose not come from God.
I understand him to be saying that after the person is dead a soul that had
been in an unsaved person lives forever being tormented by God even though that
soul is separated from the God that is tormenting it. Does he think a soul has
life if it is separated from God? Where does the life of a soul come from if that
soul is someplace that is separated from God? If this soul was separated from
God, who does he think is doing the tormenting, if a soul were really separated
from God than God could not be the one that was doing the tormenting? But
separation is not usually used to mean that souls or spirits are really
separated from God, but usually is only in an attempt to make death mean some
kind of life, to make ÒdeathÓ not
really be Òdeath.Ó
Reason why ÒdeathÓ is called
Òseparation.Ó It sounds better to say ÒdeathÓ
is only ÒseparationÓ from God than to say ÒdeathÓ
is endless life being tormented by God, but when endless torment by God is
added to the separation, which those that believe death is life that is life
separated from God always do makes God be a tormenter, it is only a way to try
to make God not seem to be as evil as endless torment in Hell makes Him. The Bible doses not say ÒdeathÓ is a separation of a soul from
God. James 2:26 is changed from saying Òthe
body apart from the spirit is dead,Ó and made to be saying that a soul that
is apart from God is not dead, but it is alive despite the fact that it is
someplace that is separated from God, that a soul has life that is not from God,
but JAMES 2:26 SAYS NOTHING ABOUT A SOUL THAT HAS LIFE AFTER THE PERSON IS DEAD;
IT SAYS NOTHING ABOUT ANY KIND OF LIFE FOR A PERSON OR A SOUL AFTER THE DEATH
OF THE PERSON.
ÒSECOND DEATH,Ó ÒBut for the fearful, and unbelieving, and
abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and all liars, their part shall be
in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone which is the second deathÓ
(Revelation 20:8). Who did all these things? (1) Was it persons? (2) Was it
souls? (3) Was it spirits? Did spirits murder other spirits? Did immaterial,
souls that that many say do not have bodies commit fornication? Did souls or
spirits lie to each other? Could God
have said any clearer that the person that committed these sins will die Òthe second death,Ó not a soul that
cannot die will die because of the sins of a person? This is speaking of
persons after they have been resurrected from the dead and judged, the persons
that had committed these sins while they were alive in the flesh and were not
born again (John 3:5) will die Òthe
second death,Ó not deathless souls that we are told cannot die, cannot die
the Òfirst deathÓ or Òsecond death.Ó Wayne Jackson had to
change death to life separation from God to be able to change it from persons
after the resurrection that would die Òthe
second deathÓ to souls that he believes can never die a Òfirst deathÓ or Òsecond death,Ó therefore; he believes souls must live someplace
forever alive, but are alive in a place that is separated from God even though
the persons these souls had been in are dead. ÒThe wages of sin is deathÓ for the person that sins, not endless
life separated from God, not life without God for a soul that had been in the
person that sinned, as if there could be any kind of life anyplace that is
separated from God.
If death means,
"separated but alive," for a deathless death, then we can use it in
place of death. Try it.
á
"I was separation from God but alive someplace
without God, and behold, I am alive
without God for evermore" Revelation 1:18. Therefore, if Jesus were
always alive, separated, but alive,
there could not have been a resurrection. Jesus is made to have just returned
from somewhere, from wherever Christ was when He was separated from God, just a
reunion of Jesus and God, but He could not have been resurrected from the dead
if He were alive someplace that is separated from God.
á
"It
is Christ Jesus that was separation from
God but alive, yet rather, that raised from the separated but alive " Romans 8:34.
á
"The
firstborn from the separation from God
but alive someplace without God" Colossians 1:18.
á
"He
that raised up Christ Jesus from the separation from God but alive someplace
without God " Romans 8:1. This redefining of death to be life would
make Christ not to have died for our sins; therefore, Christ could not have
been raised from the dead; He was never dead, but was alive separated from God. It would make His death not be a
genuine death, it would make His resurrection be just a reunion of Jesus and
God when neither one was dead, just separated from each other. If the Father and the Son were both alive
but were separated from each other for the three days, the Father would have
been just as separated from the Son as the Son was from the Father, neither one
would have died, God would have been separated from God. There is no death in
separation, no shedding of blood in separation, no New Covenant bought with the
blood of Christ.
á
"Christ
was separation from God but alive some
place without God for our sins" 1 Corinthians 15:3
á
ÒThen
those also who have been separated have
perished" 1 Corinthians 15:18.
á
"The
law of sin and separation from God but
alive some place without God" Romans 8:2.
á
"For
the mind of the flesh is separation from
God but alive without God " Romans 8:6.
á
"I
through the law am separated from God
but alive to the law" Galatians 2:19.
á
"Again
from the separation but alive"
Hebrews 13:20.
á
"Was
translated that he should not see separation
but alive" Hebrews 11:5.
á
"How
are the separation but alive
raised?" 1 Corinthians 15:35.
á
"So
also is the resurrection of the separation
but alive some place without God" 1 Corinthians 15:42.
á
" Separation but alive some place without God is swallowed
up" 1 Corinthians 15:55.
á
"Abolished
is separation but alive some place
without God" 1 Corinthians 15:26. If separation is abolished or
swallowed up, then where are the living separated going
to be?
á
"And
the separated from God but alive,
shall be raised incorruptible" 1 Corinthians 15:52.
á
By
man came separation but alive, by
man came also the resurrection of the separation
but alive" 1 Corinthians 15:21.
á
"You
proclaim the Lord's separation but alive
till he comes" 1 Corinthians 11:26.
á
Whosoever
lives and believes on me shall never separate"
John 11:26.
á
"It
is Christ Jesus that separated but alive"
Romans 8:24.
á
"The
body is separated but alive because
of sin" Romans 8:10.
á
"Sin
revived, and I separated"
Romans 7:9.
á
"These
all separated in faith" Hebrews
11:23.
á
"And
I will kill her children with separation
from God but alive" Revelation 2:23.
á
"A
name that you live, and are separated
from God but alive" Revelation 3:1.
á
"Separation shall be on more"
Revelation 21:4. Also "The last enemy that shall be abolished is Separation " 1 Corinthians 15:26.
This would be the same as saying "separation shall be unseparated."
á
Though he die, yet shall he live" John 11:25. This would be saying,
"Though he be separated but alive,
yet shall he be unseparated."
á
ÒAnd whosoever lives and believes on me
shall never dieÓ John
11:26. Shall never have a separation of body and soul.
It
is life or death, not life or life
Whatever death is, (1)
if death is really death, (2) or if death is not death, if death is being alive
someplace that is separated from God, someplace where God is not at that place,
but tormented by God who would not be in the place where they are if they were
separated from God. ÒFor as the body
apart from the spirit is deadÓ is used repeatedly to prove death is not
death, that a spirit that had been separated from the lost dead person is
alive, but a soul is someplace separated from God, yet a soul is somehow
tormented by the God that a soul is separated from. James 2:26 is speaking of the body that is dead without the Òbreath of life,Ó it says nothing of a
dead soul that is not dead after that soul has been separated from the dead person
that some believe it to had been in, that there is a soul that can be alive but
separated from God is added. Spirit is changed to soul but spirit and soul are
not the same. If death is being alive but separation from God, James would be
saying, ÒFor as the body apart from the spirit is separated,Ó James said nothing about the spirit
being dead or alive, he said nothing
about the spirit being alive when it is separated from the body, nothing about
a soul or a spirit that is alive when separated from the person it had been in,
but they do not want to make the dead
body to be alive, they want this to be saying only the spirit is alive, that
the spirit that most have changed to a soul that is a living being after that
soul is separated from the dead person. The change they want to make is
that death is death for the body, but death is endless life for a soul. Changed
to being only a soul, not the person, that a soul has life after the death of
the person even though James says nothing, not one thing about a ÒsoulÓ having
any kind of life after the death of the person; not life that comes form God,
or life that dose not come from God.
ÒFor the wages of sin
is death, but the free gift of God
is eternal lifeÓ (Romans 6:23). If ÒlifeÓ
is literal, then ÒdeathÓ in the same sentence
is just as literal. How could anyone know that just one word in a literal
sentence is not just as literal as all the other words? If the death of sinner
is not a literal death, the life for believers is not a literal life. The same
persons that tell us death is not a literally death tell us that death
literally means death when it is used in reference to animals; dead animals are
literally dead. But, according to this
theology, death cannot mean separation from God for the saved; death is
separation from God only for the lost. Death means alive but separated from God
only when they want it to.
If death is being
alive but endless separation from God, that separation would be forever, and
death could never be destroy, the lost would always be separated from God and
always have some kind of life that dose not come from God, and Paul was wrong
in 1 Corinthians 15:54. Any kind of life is not death. Death is to cease to
exist; when we say God cannot die, we mean God cannot cease to exist, not that
God is separated from God.
The same ones that tell us death is life that is separation from God,
that life can and does exist without God also tell us that God will forever be
with the lost in Hell forever tormenting them, that the lost can never be
separated from God. Which time do they believe what they say? ALL LIFE DEPENDS
ON GOD THE GIVER OF LIFE; THEREFORE, SEPARATED FROM GOD NO ONE COULD HAVE ANY
KIND OF LIFE, NOT LIFE IN HELL, NOT LIFE ANY OTHER PLACE. THE ONLY WAY TO BE SEPARATED FROM GOD IS TO
BE MADE NOT TO EXIST; TO EXIST ANYPLACE MAKES BEING SEPARATED FROM GOD NOT
POSSIBLE. This theology makes nonsense of the Bible. The Bible speaks
repeatedly of death, and Òthe wages of
sinÓ being death, but this theology tells us that everyone has a deathless
soul in them; if this were true a soul could not pay Òthe wages of sin,Ó death. The English word death and the Greek word
from which death is translated both mean to be dead, not to have life, not to
exist.
"Spiritual
death" and "death is a separation" are not Biblical expressions.
They are interpretations. They are additions used to teach what some wants to
hear, not what the Bible teaches. Death and separation are different words in
both the Hebrew and the Greek, and have different meanings just as they do in
English.
IS THERE ANY LIFE, ANY EXISTENCES ANY PLACE WITHOUT GOD? IF DEATH IS
LIFE SEPARATED FROM GOD, THEN MANKIND CAN LIVE WITHOUT GOD, AND LIFE CAN EXIST
THAT IS NOT SUSTAINED BY GOD. If the dead are not dead, if the dead are
alive, the living dead can never be separated from God, if they have endless
life with torment then God is both (1) keeping them alive, giving them any life
they may have (2) and God is made to be an endless tormenter. There could be absolutely no existence if a
person or a soul were separated from God, for there can be no life without God,
and without life there can be no
torment; all life in Heaven, earth, or where ever there is life, all life comes
from God, and without God there is no life. The immortal soul doctrine
makes God be giving souls endless life just so God can be an endless tormenter.
To be separate from God can only mean to
be nowhere. If a person can exist separated from God, that person is a self-existing
God, only a God can be self-existing; therefore, according to today's theology,
all the lost who are alive but separated from God are self-existing Gods. How far will they go to prove
"Hell"? Death is a separation from life, death is not eternal
self-existing life separated from God.
The King James Version
puts God in Hell. "If I make my bed
in Hell behold thou art there" (Psalm 139:8). If those in Hell are
separated from God, then God cannot be in Hell, but by its mistranslation to
put Hell in the Bible it is undeniable that the King James Version says that
God is in Hell. Do you think God has forever given the lost to Satan to do with
them what he wants to? Will Satan have his own kingdom where he is in total
control, which will have many more in his kingdom than are in God's kingdom? He
will if the dead are alive but are separated from God,
and Satan was the one doing the tormenting. If there were a Hell, which
way is it? (1) Either God would be in Hell doing the tormenting, and God would
be sustaining the life they have, and they are not separated from Him, (2) or
God would not in Hell, and the lost are separated from Him and He is not doing
the tormenting and He is not sustaining the life they have. It could not be
both ways. Where did the concept come from that there is any life when one
is separated from God, the only source of all life? It is not a matter of endless
life with God, or endless life separated from God; there is no life separated
or apart from God. A sinner does not
have any kind of immortal life. Only those in Christ will have immortality only
after the resurrection.
If death is
"separation" of a soul from the earthly body, and not a real death,
then the resurrection could only be the return and reuniting of a soul to the
earthly person, and they must forever be together or the resurrection would not
last forever. If all earthly bodies end at the end of this earth, then death
(separation) of the saved will last forever; all souls, whether souls of the
saved or the lost would be forever separated from the earthly bodies for the
bodies would not exist. But those who teach death is separation only want death
to be separation when death is a soul that is alive but separated from God, all
other times they believe death is death; death cannot mean both endless life
part of the time, and endless death part of the time.
DEATH IS SEPARATION IS
ONE SIDED
It goes back to the
Greek teaching as taught by Plato and many others that the person dies, but a
soul that was separated from the person it had been in in lives on separate
from the dead person. In this separation the person dies; it was believed that
there is a soul that had been in the person that lives on after the soul is
separated from the dead person. ÒFor as the body apart from the spirit is
deadÓ (James 2:26) is used to prove death as a separation of body and
spirit, the body is dead but some believe that there is a spirit that cannot
die lives on separated from the dead person it had been in; but then the spirit
that is separated from the dead body is someway changed from a spirit that is alive
someplace to a soul that is alive someplace, but that someplace is a place separated
from God.
If death is separation, what is
separated from what?
At death the dead body goes back to the earth, the person goes to a grave unto
the resurrection. But we are told that a spirit, after they change spirit to a soul
that had been in a dead person is separated from the dead person that it had
been in, but that soul (spirit) is just as alive as it was before it was
separated from the dead person; we are told the person separated from a soul is
without life, but spirit changed to a soul separated from the dead person is
alive–if the deathless soul lives, then
what could be resurrected from the dead? Only the dead person would be dead to
be resurrected.
Summary - If, as some
teach, that Hell is the punishment for sin, then being eternally tormented by
God, not death is "the wages of
sin." Being alive and tormented by God is made to be the thing they
call death, but those who change death from being death, to death being a soul that
is alive someplace without God do not seem to see they are teaching two completely
different doctrines at the same time.
(a). That death is an eternal life of torment
with God doing the tormenting.
(b). And also that death is an endless life someplace
that is separated from God. This
redefining of death to be life that is life that dose not come from God has
caused much of the confusion and division that exist today.
John 3:36, "But, he that
obeyed not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on
him." Implied, he shall see death, the opposite of life. You are
alive, or you are dead, there is no in between. Will those in Hell that cannot
die have no life; if they "shall not
see life," how can they be alive to be tormented when they are in Hell
if they "shall not see life"?
Can a rock that does "not see
life" be tormented? "Shall
not see life" is not to be alive in Hell or anywhere. How much clearer
could Jesus have possibly have been, how much clearer could He have said
whoever rejects Him shall not see life, shall not see an endless life of
torment?
Everlasting life, or everlasting
destruction (Matthew 7:13-14). ÒEnter
through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are
many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who
find it.Ó There are two gates, (1) one gate leads to life, (2) and one gate
leads to destruction. Destruction is used in contrast to life; destruction is
not life, not both gates leads to life, not the narrow gate to endless life in
one place and the broad gate to endless life in another place. Jesus said as
clear as language can be that the wide gate leads to Òdestruction,Ó not to ÒlifeÓ
that some believe to be some kind of life that is life that dose not come from
God. ÒOr those eighteen, upon whom the
tower in Siloam fell, and killed
themÉexcept YOU repent, YOU shall all likewise perishÓ (Luke 13:4-5); YOU shall all like them be killed, YOU shall all have your life ended just
as they did. ÒKilledÓ and Òlikewise perishÓ are both the same,
both mean death, both mean the end of life, neither one means endless life.
ÒWorthy of death,Ó but cannot
die (Romans 1:32). "THEY that practice such things are
worthy of death," but if they have an immortal never dying something
from birth, and this something cannot ever die then why did Paul say they are worthy of death if souls that
practice such thing cannot die?
Literally or
figuratively, Thomas
Andrews said that those who accept annihilation as the end of mankind claim
that the words destroy and death that are used to describe eternal punishment
should be understood literally (1997 Florida College Lectures, page 169). On
the same page Andrews said, ÒThe Biblical concept of eternal extends to both
life and death.Ó
(a).
He said the Biblical concept is endless death.
(b).
He said the Biblical concept is endless life.
The Biblical concept, death
will last just as long as life, if life is without end, death is also without
end. If death is figuratively and not real death, then life is figuratively and
not real life. If death is figurative life, then there are two kinds of
figuratively life and no death.
Those who believe in
Hell must change "death" to
be figuratively or allegorical, not a real death; but they make "life" real even when both are
used together in the same sentence. If
death is figurative, life is figurative.
Endless "death" is as literal as endless "life." Does a real sin have a
figurative punishment? Death must be "wrest"
(2 Peter 3:16) into something that is not death to make it fit around the
doctrine of an immortal, invisible, immaterial "soul" that cannot
die; therefore, death of a deathless ÒsoulÓ has to be changed to be only a
figurative death.
ÒThere is only one
Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save
and to destroyÓ
(James 4:12). ÒBut we are not of those
who shrink back and are destroyed,
but of those who believe and are savedÓ
(Hebrews 10:39). If the destroying is figuratively, and is not literally
destroying, then the saving is also figuratively, and is not literally saving.
Three blind men were
told to feel an elephant and tell what it looks like. One felt the tusk and
said, "It is hard and smooth." One the leg-"It
is like a tree." One the tail- "It is like a brush." None told
what the elephant is like. "It is like a brush" is not a description
of an elephant, and "separated" from God, but are alive without Him
is not a description of death.
"Dead while she
lives"
1 Timothy 5:6
What was dead?
Her body was alive at
the time Paul wrote this, and according to those that believe there was a
deathless soul in her believe that soul that was in her was alive at the time
Paul wrote this, that whatever a soul is, it cannot ever be dead. Then what was, ÒDead while she lives,Ó at the time Paul wrote this neither her
body was dead; nor was there a dead soul in her, what was dead? SHE (a
person, not a deathless soul) was dead;
SHE was dead in her relationship to God. She did not have a dead body, or a
dead soul.
Even though this
passage is used to prove she had an immortal soul, it says absolutely nothing about a soul or a spirit; Òspiritual deathÓ or
Òspiritual lifeÓ is not in this passage and not in the Bible, not in the
Old or New Testament, but both are added and used repeatedly to prove there is
both a soul and a spirit and that nether one of the two cannot be dead.
Dead and alive at the
same time, in what sense is she alive? Physically she was not dead, but she
was alive. In what sense is she dead
while she lived? The she that was dead is the same as all
other sinners and unsaved people, dead in their relationship to God. Their ÒdeathÓ
is so certain that they are spoken of as
if they are already dead (See Luke 9:60). They do not have Christ living in
them, and they do not have the "life"
Christ gives to those that believe (John 5:21-29). They have only the Òresurrection of judgmentÓ (John 5:29)
to look forward to, and Òthe wages of sin,Ó
death (Romans 6:23), not the Òresurrection
of lifeÓ (John 5:29). Death for those who do not believe is so certain that
through out the New Testament it speaks as though they now are dead. The only life she had was physical life.
How can an immortal soul that will always have life be gotten out of "dead while she lives"? IT WAS HER BODY THAT "LIVES," but many have changed her body to an
immortal, immaterial, invisible something that is in her that will live after
her body is dead; Òdead while she livesÓ
is changed to Òspiritual dead,Ó which makes it say, Òdead while she is
spiritual dead.Ó
Because the passage
speaks of her being dead, dead in her relation to God while her body lived, her
having a soul that is alive while she is dead is added into this passage even
when nothing, not one thing is said about an Òimmortal soul,Ó or an Òimmortal
spirit,Ó nothing about any kind of life after her death; nothing about her or
anything that had been in her being immortal. This passage is often used to
prove that a "soul" cannot be dead, but it has another kind of life,
even when there is nothing, not one word said about a "soul" in 1
Timothy 5:6.
Death must be removed from this passage, and endless
life with torment for whatever the something is that cannot be dead that is in
a person is believed to be must be added to it; this is what is called pulling
something out of thin air, or adding into a passage something that is wanted to
be in it.
She is of the world, which
will Òpass away,Ó will come to an
end; just as the world will Òpass awayÓ
she will Òpass away,Ó she will not
Òabide forever.Ó
The Bible uses death
in both a literal and a figurative application. In the literal use of death
life has ceased to exist. The figurative use of a word must take it meaning
from it literal use. The Christian widow that Òhas her hope set on GodÓ had a relationship with God but if she Ògives herself to pleasureÓ that
relationship she had with God is dead; it no longer exist, it is her
relationship with God that is dead.
In Luke 15:11-32,
Matthew 8:21-22, "Follow me; and
leave the dead (living persons who have no relationship with God) to bury their own dead." There is
nothing about an "immaterial invisible part of man" that is alive in
the persons that are burying the dead persons. Neither the dead that were dead
in their relationship with God that was doing the burying, nor the dead that was
being buried there was not a dead immortal soul that cannot be dead, both the
one that was physically alive, and the one that was physically dead were both persons
that are dead in their relationship to God even though one was physically alive
as the widow was. The prodigal son had a relationship with his father, the relationship
ceased to exist, the relationship was restored when the son returned. The son
was alive, then dead, then alive in his relationship with his father, but the
son was never literally dead, and there was no literal resurrection of the
dead; in this passage there is absolutely nothing said about an immortal soul
although it is repeatedly used to prove the prodigal son was an immortal soul,
not a person, that was separated from his father. Even today a Jewish family
often have a funeral for a person that has been converted to another religion,
or leaves the Jewish religion.
Frequently one person
is separated from another, but not counted as dead; when a child leaves home we
do not say our child is dead, but in Bible times the Hebrews would say the
child (not a soul) was dead when a child left home and had no relationship with
the father or mother, it was as if the child was dead to them; it was the child,
not a soul, that had no relations with the father. When God gives a revelation,
He used words and customs just as the persons to whom He gave the revelation
used them. To the Hebrew mind and some Oriental cultures even today the
prodigal son, a living person is counted as dead while
the child lives and the father no longer has a child. The widow was dead to God
just as the prodigal son was dead to his father because she had put something
ahead of God in her life; the resurrection at the second coming of Christ is
not spoken of in this passage about the widow.
"Truly, truly, I
say to you, he who hears My word,
and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into
judgment, but HAS PASSED OUT OF DEATH
INTO LIFE. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming AND NOW IS, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear
shall live" (John 5:24-25). Jesus
was not saying the hour is coming when He was going to a graveyard, and the
dead there would hear His voice and live, be resurrected from their graves. He
was speaking of those who are not
believers (dead by the Hebrew and Oriental cultures) becoming believers and alive to God.
(a). ÒAnd YOU were dead in YOUR trespasses and
sinsÓ (Ephesians 2:1).
(b). ÒBut SHE who gives HERSELF to wanton
pleasure is dead even while SHE LIVESÓ (1 Timothy 5:6).
Nothing is said about
an immortal something that cannot die being dead, it is the person that is dead
to God. She was dead to God even while she was still alive just as the
Ephesians were dead to God before they became Christians; in this passage not
one thing is said about a soul, not about a soul being alive, or a soul being
dead, not that a soul even exist; why then is this passage used repeatedly to
show all have an immortal something in them that cannot be dead?
The widow is under the
sentence of death, but the sentence of death has been removed from those in
Christ, and the promise of life (immortality, incorruption) given to them. For
those not in Christ, there is only death, the wages of their sin,
they are dead while they live. They will be raised only to face the judgment
and Òthe second death,Ó "a savor from death unto death."
There
are two groups that are living but are dead.
1. Those that never
have believed in Christ have never been given the life that believers have been
given.
2. Those that believed
and were given life, but became unfaithful by putting
something ahead of Christ.
Both
will be raised at the coming of Christ and judged, then Òthe second death,Ó not life.
Die in the Old Testament
Die is from
"moosh" in the Old Testament and occurs over 800 times. None of the
800 has any references to death being anything but death. In not one of them is
death a separation of a dead earthly body from a living soul, or about anything
that is alive while it is in a person, and whatever it is it will be alive
after it leaves the dead person that it was in. Throughout the Old Testament,
"moosh" is used of both men and animals, and makes no distinction
between them; both die. "For the
fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same. As one dies (moosh) so dies (moosh) the other" (Ecclesiastes 3:19). Fish, cattle, frogs, men,
dogs, lions, and flies all die (moosh). For all, death is the end of life, and
if there were no resurrection a person would be as all the above, dead forever.
In "Truth Magazine," June 7,
2001, page 343, Johnie Edwards has an article, "What Death Says."
(a). What does death say? It
says that for there to be life after death, there must be a resurrection from
the dead.
(b). What does the
resurrection say? It says if there is to be a resurrection, there must be death
to be resurrected from, not a higher kind of life than life that we now have
that would not need a resurrection.
(c). The resurrection says
death is a real death; it says someone who is not dead cannot be raised from
the dead by a resurrection.
J. B. COFFMAN, 2
Corinthians 2:16, "ÕThe meaning therefore is, the Gospel, which arises
from Christ and which is preached through us, is to the unbelieving, but the
incense arising from one crucified and dead, and so it is to them a savor from
the dead and producing death. But to the believing it is a savor FROM THE
LIVING, PRODUCING LIFE.Õ J. W. McGarvey, 1916. McGarvey pointed out the
extremely significant phrases 'from death' and 'from life' as used in this
passage. To the unbelieving, the news of the Gospel is from one who was
crucified and is dead: so, for them, it is an odor from death unto death EVEN
ETERNAL DEATH; but to Christians, the news of the Gospel is 'from life unto
life' in them that are saved."
"A fragrance from life unto life"(2 Corinthians 2:16). The
new birth (John 3:3). "Walk
in newness of life" (Romans 6:4). "Have
passed out of death into life" (1 John 3:14). At the second coming of
Christ the saved shall "put on
immortality" (1 Corinthians 15:53), after which there will be no
death.
"A fragrance from death unto
death" (2 Corinthians 2:16). Dead while she lives (1
Timothy 5:6). "Abides in death"
(1 John 3:14). The lost will be raised from the dead at the second coming of
Christ, then judgment and Òthe second
deathÓ after which there will never be any life, never a resurrection from Òthe second death.Ó
H. L. HASTINGS "In all classical literature no
instance can be found where the word death has this signification of eternal
torment." "The Last Judgment," 1853
For those who are not
in Christ, there is no eternal life anywhere.
Chapter
three is at: http://www.robertwr.com/immortal.html
=================================================
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1: ÒThe nature of man–what is man?Ó
Chapter 2: ÒLife or Death
Chapter 3: ÒThe great doctrines of the BibleÓ
Chapter 4: ÒFrom where came Hell, from man or God?Ó
1. Unquenchable fire, weeping,
gnashing of teeth
2. Old Testament history of Gehanna
3. Gehenna used by Christ on four
occasions
4. The vanishing Hell
5. Thirty-one plus version of Hell
Three Roman Catholic versions of Hell
Nineteen plus Protestant versions of Hell
Nine other versions of Hell
Chapter 5: Sheol, Hades,
and Tartarus
Chapter 6: The thirty-one Hell passages
Chapter 7: A strange and unexplainable silence of the Old
Testament on punishment and life after death, life, death, torment,
destruction, destroy, perish, die, and end
Chapter 8: Figurative language, metaphors, and symbolical
passage
Part one, The rich man
Part two, The symbolic pictures in
Revelation
Part three, The forever and ever of the
King James Version
Chapter 9: Universalist, The "age lasting" Hell
Chapter 10: The results of attributing evil Pagan teachings to
God
Chapter 11: Historical proof of the
changing of the teaching of the Bible
Chapter 12: IsraelÕs destruction, scripture about
the destruction of Israel that are misapplied to Hell
1. IsraelÕs weeping, gnashing of teeth
2. Outer darkness
3. Matthew 24, Preterits Eschatology, Realized Eschatology
4. A D 70 Doctrine
5. The day of the Lord
6. 2 Peter 3, After the Resurrection
The fate of
those who not are in Christ
The fate of
those who are in Christ
Appendix one
ALL THIRTEEN
CHAPTERS ARE AT http://robertwr.com/resurrection.pdf
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OTHER WEB SITES of William Robert West, Church
of Christ
ÒTHE RAPTURE AND
ISRAELÓ can be downloaded free at http://www.robertwr.com/rapture.pdf
THE PRINTED BOOK AT BOOKSTORES ask
for ISBN 978-1452895352
Ch. 1 After the Judgment where will we spend eternity?
Ch. 2 When will the secret rapture
come to pass? Will you miss it?
Ch. 3 Will there be cars
without drivers after the rapture?
Ch. 4 What is the battle of Armageddon?
Ch. 5 Is Armageddon coming soon?
Ch. 6 Will Israel be restored?
Will there be a worldwide conversion of Jews?
Ch. 7 Will the temple be rebuilt
in Jerusalem?
Ch. 8 Will animal sacrifices be restored?
Ch. 9 What are the signs of the
second coming of Christ?
Ch. 10
Who are the 144,000?
Ch. 11
Will there be one, two, or three
resurrections?
Ch. 12
What is the "time of the Gentiles"?
Ch. 13
What is the "gap" theory?
Ch. 1 4 Who is the thirteenth tribe?
http://www.robertwr.com/ReadMyEMailandReviews.html
http://www.robertwr.com/ReadMyEMailandReviews.pdf
http://www.robertwr.com/ThirtyOneHells.htm
http://www.robertwr.com/GodsJudgments.htm
http://www.robertwr.com/OppositionToHell.htm
http://www.robertwr.com/AD70.html
http://www.robertwr.com/UnitedStatesAndTerrorist.htm
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ÒTHE INDICTMENT OF ETERNAL TORMENT: THE SELF-NEGATION OF A
MONSTROUS DOCTRINE,Ó by E. D. Slough, a preacher in the Church of Christ, F. L. Rowe
Publisher, 1914. I have put this book on the web free at
http://www.robertwr.com/EternalTorment.pdf
ÒLIFE IN CHRISTÓ by Edward White was
published in 1875 may have been one of the first major protest against the
doctrine of an immortal soul. For the most part this book teaches the truth on
the doctrine of a soul and Hell however there are a few things in it that are
unbiblical. I have put this book on the web free at
http://www.robertwr.com/LifeinChrist.pdf
ÒA HISTORY OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE SOULÓ by D.
M. Canright. Although there are a few things in this book that I do not believe
to be right, it is the best I have seen on the history of the origin of the
belief in a soul being in a person that will leave the person at their death,
that this belief came from pagan sources, and is not taught in the Bible.
http://www.robertwr.com/soul.pdf
GOOD WEB PAGES BY MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST.
(1) Articles by Ken Fortier and C. Dickinson
http://kenfortier.com/site/articles
(2) "The Maxey—Thrasher Debate" A debate on the
eternal destiny of the wicked between two Gospel preachers.
http://www.zianet.com/maxey/MxThrshr.htm