Immortality or Resurrection - William West (best pdf ebook reader for android TXT) 📗

they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but ARE AS ANGELS IN HEAVEN" [Matthew 22:30]. "For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as angels in heaven" [Mark 12:26].
The image of Christ, the spiritual bodies we will have after the resurrection is not an earthly body in the image of Adam. We are now a soul [living being] in the image of Adam, but we will not be a soul [living being] in the image of Adam after the resurrection. All animals are souls [living beings-Hebrew nehphesh-Greek psukee] but they will never have a spiritual body.
In commenting on "the natural man" in 1 Corinthians 2:14, Guy N. Woods said, "...the soulish man, since the adjective 'natural' translates a form of the Greek word for soul, which may be expressed in English as psychical. Thus, this usage is supported by etymology and required by the context. See, especially, Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians 1:18-28 and 2:6-16." Gospel Advocate, 1985, November 21.
"Natural" is translated from "psuchikos." Psuchikos is the adjective form of psukee is used six times in the New Testament.
1. "But the natural [psuchikos-soulish] man received not" [1 Corinthians 2:14].
2. "It is sown a natural [psuchikos-soulish] body, it is raised a spiritual body" [1 Corinthians 15:44].
3. "There is a natural [psuchikos-soulish] body, there is also a spiritual body" [1 Corinthians 15:44].
4. "Howbeit that is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural [psuchikos-soulish]; than that which is spiritual" [1 Corinthians 15:46].
5. "But it is earthly, sensual [psuchikos-soulish], devilish" [James 3:15]."Natural" in the New American Standard Bible.
6. "These are they who made separations, sensual [psuchikos-soulish], having not the Spirit" [Jude 19]. "These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural [psuchikos-soulish] instincts and do not have the Spirit" New International Version.
The adjective form of a noun never has a meaning that is totally different from the meaning of the noun. Both the noun [psukee] and the adjective [psuchikos] are the earthly, natural (soulish) person, the image of Adam. If I believed the psukee [soul] was an immaterial invisible part of a person, then I would hope no one would ever see its adjective form in the above six passages.
A living soul, the earthly being in the image of Adam will be changed to a spiritual body in the image of Christ at the resurrection.
• Sown in corruption - raised in incorruption [1 Corinthians 15:42].
• This mortal - must put on immortality [1 Corinthians 15:53].
• Sown in dishonor - raised in glory [1 Corinthians 15:42].
• Sown in weakness - raised in power [1 Corinthians 15:43].
• Sown a natural body (flesh and blood) - raised a spiritual body [1 Corinthians 15:44].
• First (now) the natural - then that, which is spiritual [1 Corinthians 15:44-49].
• The first Adam a living soul - the last Adam (Christ) a life giving spirit [1 Corinthians 15:45].
• As we bare the image of the earthy (Adam) - we shall bare the image of the heavenly (Christ) [1 Corinthians 15:49].
• Image of Adam is the earthy soul (psukee – body). Image of heavenly - Christ, the spiritual body [1 Corinthians 15:49].
This change from the image of Adam's natural soul body to the spiritual body in the image of Christ, from mortal to immortal, will occur at the Resurrection, not at death. No one now has the spiritual body, not anyone that is now alive or anyone that is now asleep in Christ.
If a person has a soul that is now immortal, it cannot be mortal; therefore, it cannot put on immortality. What do some think is now mortal and will put on immortality? If a person has a soul that is now immortal, it could only be the body that will put on immortality. It is the person that will put on immortality at the resurrection, not a part of a person that was immortal from birth that could never be mortal. "And just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly" [1 Corinthians 15:49]. “There shall be a resurrection both of the just and unjust” [Acts 24:14]. When Paul said this many believers had died but their resurrection was still a thing to come, not something that had already came at their death.
Summary: a "living soul" is the earthly body of flesh and blood in the image of adam, not the "spiritual body" which will be in the image of Christ. There is a difference in "a living soul," which we now are; and a "spiritual body," which we will be after the resurrection but are not at this time. The "living soul," being, life, or creature that is in the "image of Adam" is not the "spiritual body" ["image of Christ"] that we will have. This clearly says after the resurrection, we will not be a "living soul," but changed to a "spiritual body"; therefore, a "living soul" and the "spiritual body" are different things. One ("The living soul”) belongs to this life; the other (a "spiritual body") will belong to life after the resurrection. They are opposite to each other; a person cannot be both simultaneously. Many preachers today say, "Save you soul" which is saying, "Save your 'image of Adam,'" or, "Save your earthly flesh and blood body." While we are a "living soul," we cannot be a "spiritual body." After the resurrection, when we shall have been changed to a "spiritual body," we will no longer be a "living soul," no longer be an earthly creature in the image of Adam. If the "living soul"was an immortal part of a person that would live forever, that person would always have the image of Adam, not the image of Christ. Can anyone have the image of Adam in heaven? No. We are a "living soul" only while we are alive in this world; in heaven we will have a "spiritual body" and will not be a soul. Adam was, and we now are "a living soul-being"; but Adam did not, and we do not have an immortal "spiritual body" [not unto the resurrection 1 Corinthians 15:53].
• "It is sown a natural body: it is raised a spiritual body" ["Greek physical" body: Footnote in American Standard Version].
• "It is sown a physical body" [1 Corinthians 15:44]. "The dead shall be raised incorruptible" [1 Corinthians 15:52].
Paul could not have said any stronger that we will be raised "a spiritual body" [1 Corinthians 15:44] "incorruptible" [1 Corinthians 15:52], not with the physical body we now have. The physical body is the "living soul" body we now have and it is not the body that will be raised. If we are raised with a body that is a spiritual body and is incorruptible, we could not at the same time be raised with an earthly body that is a corruptible body. McCord's translation, printed by Freed-Hardeman College says, "And the dead shall be raised immortal" [1 Corinthians 15:53]. Paul said that at the time those who are asleep in Christ shall be raised incorruptible, that we who are not asleep shall "be changed" [1 Corinthians 15:51]. All will be raised from the dead at the resurrection, and those in Christ will have a new body not of flesh. We will not be a "living soul" after the resurrection. The "soul" [the image of Adam], which many say we must save for they think it is the only part of us that will be in heaven, will not exist then; therefore, it is not a part of us that will be in heaven. It is our whole self that we must save, not just an "immaterial invisible" inter part of our self. We will not have the image of Adam, the earthly "living soul," in heaven. We will not be a soul in the image of Adam as we are now, but we, will be the same person we now are. How is it that many cannot see that when they say "save your soul" they are saying "keep the image of Adam" [the earthly body]? Do they want to be raised with an earthy body in the image of Adam or the spiritual body in the image of Christ? “And as we have borne the image of the earthy (now in this life time we are a psukikos – a living being in the image of the earthy Adam) we SHALL also bear the image of the heavenly” [1 Corinthians 15:49]. We are born a soul – a living being, but the saved will be resurrected a spiritual being in the image of Christ and will not have the earthly image of Adam after the resurrection.
There are many, the Church of God, many Premillennialists and others that believe the earthly body, the image of Adam, will be raised and we will live on this earth forever, not in Heaven, that the earthly body will restored to be like Adam before he sinned. I know of no passage that says Adam's body was different before and after he sinned, but even if his body was different the rest of mankind never had the body Adam had before he sinned, therefore, all but Adam would have to be raised with a body different from this body we now have. There is a mountain of writing on how God will be able to restore the same body with the same particles of matter it now has. All the particles of matter in our bodies are completely changed every few years; all the matter that has been in the body of a person that lives to be old would be enough to make many bodies, it would be a mountain of matter.
T. P Connelly, in The Connelly Field Debate says, "The resurrection is, therefore, a reunion of spirit and matter, and this being true, the same particles of matter in the same body are no more necessary in order to a reunion, than that the same particles should remain at all times the same here to perpetuate the union."
Then is would be the spirit coming back from Heaven or Hell and creating a new earthly body, not a resurrection of the body a person had when he or she was living, not a resurrection of anything, not a resurrection of the body we now have and not a resurrection of a soul that would not be dead. Because the natural body, the image of Adam, will not be raised, this mountain of writing is about nothing. I can understand why those in the Church Of God are concerned about what particles of matter the earthly body will be raised with, but he is an evangelist in the Christian Church, and I cannot understand why he thinks a soul which he thinks has no substance and will live forever in Heaven without this body must come back to earth and make itself a new body, but many who say they do not believe this body will ever be in Heaven think that we now have an immortal part that must put the earthly body it had left back on at the resurrection.
Synonyms for "soul" that are used in 1 Corinthians 15: earth, earthly [dust], corruption, natural body, mortal, image of Adam, flesh and blood.
How can death be a separation of body and soul when:
• The soul is the body, which is in the image of Adam?
• It is the soul, which is the earthly body in the image of Adam that dies.
• It would be a separation of the