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

from heaven." Therefore, if this house were an immortal soul or an immortal spirit as many teach it to be, the lost do not have and will never have an immortal soul or spirit.
2. THE SAVED are "longing to be clothed upon with our habitation which is from heaven." Therefore, if this house is an immortal soul or an immortal spirit as many teach it to be, the saved do not now have an immortal soul or spirit but are longing to have one or both.
3. Paul was not longing for a disembodied existence but the gaining of a body far superior to this earthly body.
According to the immortal soul teaching of today, what is “mortal that is swallowed up of life?” [2 Corinthians 5:4.
• At death, the body that is mortal dies and goes to the grave. The dead body has no life and is not swallowed up of life.
• They believe the soul is now as immortal as it will be after the death of the body and as immortal as it will ever be. Is there any swallowing of mortality by life here? No. According to this view the body will be dead, and soul will have no more life after death and be no more immortal than it now is, therefore, there will be less life than now. Nothing will be swallowed up by life. According to this view, there is no way to make any sense from what Paul said.
o The mortal person is swallowed up by life at the resurrection of the dead when immortality will be put on. "He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee" [2 Corinthians 5:5 New Revised Standard Version].
We need to take care that we do not put an interpretation on any passage that will make it clash with other passages. It is evident that Paul did not expect the dead in Christ, those who have fallen asleep [1 Corinthians 15:1-28], to be with Christ before the resurrection.
1. In the body (now)
2. Death, out of the body
3. The resurrection to eternal life when all the dead in Christ will simultaneously be raised together. Then "so shall we ever be (at home) with the Lord." Paul looked for and thought the Lord may come soon, maybe in his lifetime. He said, "I tell you a mystery: WE all shall not sleep, but WE shall all be changed [shall instantly put on a spiritual body] in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump" [1 Corinthians 15:51]. He did not want to die [sleep unto the resurrection] and be naked [have no body] but wanted to be alive at the time Christ came and in a moment put off this earthly body and put on the spiritual body and be with Christ. There is some evident in Paul's letters that he may have thought Christ would come in his lifetime. Paul seems to have been longing the return of Christ and for the time when he would be at home with Christ thinking it would be soon and that any day he would be at home with the Lord without the sleep of death unto the resurrection, although he knows many believers were already asleep in Christ [1 Thessalonians 4:14], already out of the body, but not at home with the Lord.
Paul speaks of three states.
• State 1 - The earthly house or tabernacle, the present body we now have.
• State 2 - The naked or unclothed, the state he did not groan for, asleep in Christ without a body.
• State 3 - A building of God not made with hands eternal in the heavens, the clothed or resurrected body he wanted.
If, as Vine says, the naked state is the "disembodied" soul in Heaven during the intermediate state, why does Paul not want to be "found naked"? Did he not want to be in Heaven without the earthly body in the intermediate state? Did he not want to be in Heaven with Christ and all the saved unto the Judgment Day? No. Paul knew that he would not be with Christ unto the Resurrection if Christ did not return before his death. He knew that there is no life for the dead before the Resurrection. To be naked or unclothed is to have no life, not be alive in Heaven or Hell.
The doctrine that the body is only a dwelling place of an immortal soul that goes to Heaven or Hell as a "disembodied" soul without the “spiritual body” before the resurrection and judgment is not found in this passage, but many read it into it. The passage says nothing about a "soul." Paul used "we" not "our soul." "But that we would be clothed upon that what is mortal may be swallowed up of life." The context this passage is in is speaking of the resurrection from the dead [2 Corinthians 4:14 to 5:10], not on being alive after death without a body, and having no need of the resurrection.
WHEN WILL WE BE PRESENT WITH THE LORD? If "to be present with the Lord" is to take up our residence in Heaven immediately at death, what is the "naked" and "unclothed" state of verses 3 and 4, and when is it? It is not while Paul was in "this tabernacle" or when he would be clothed in Heaven, therefore, neither in this life nor in Heaven is when he could be "unclothed." All will be absent from the body at death (the naked state), but no one will be present with the Lord in Heaven unto after the second coming of Christ. The intermediate nakedness from death unto the resurrection is something Paul did not want, something he DID NOT GROAN FOR; it is death, not any kind of life anyplace. From 1 Thessalonians 4:17 we learn that after death the only way we will be with the Lord is the resurrection, not immediately at death without the resurrection.
• "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; [all the dead in Christ shall rise at the same time at the coming of Christ] them that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" [1 Thessalonians 4:16-17]. Both (1) believers that are dead in Christ and (2) believers that will be alive at His coming will both together be caught up and ever be with the Lord; this clearly shows that the dead in Christ are not now in Heaven with the Lord before and without being resurrected from the dead. If they were now alive in Heaven they would not be “dead in Christ,” they could not “rise first,” be resurrected from the dead before those who are alive are “changed.”
• “We all shall not sleep but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, AT THE LAST TRUMP: for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we (those who are alive when Christ comes) shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” [1 Corinthians 15:51-53]. Paul is clearly speaking of this mortal person putting on immortality, not an immortal soul putting on immortality. An immortal soul is read into this passage when nothing is said about a soul in it.
• At our gathering together unto Him at “the coming of the Lord” [2 Thessalonians 2:1]
• When the Lord shall descend from Heaven with a shout [1 Thessalonians 4:13-17]
• When Christ who is our life shall be manifest [Colossians 3:4]
• "In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing" [2 Timothy 4:8]. If it is "on that day" it is not possible to be at death.
• "In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and RECEIVE YOU to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also" [John 14:2-3]. Christ has not yet come to receive Paul or any one; therefore, Christ has not received any one to be in the prepared place. He did not say to those in Heaven with Him, "I will come again, and receive your body, that where we are, there your body may be also be with us." Did Jesus say, "And if I go" your death shall soon bring you to me? No. He said, "I will come again and receive you to Myself.”
• "For this is the will of my Father that everyone that beholds the Son, and believes on him, should have eternal life; andI will raise him up at the last day" [John 6:40, 44, 54]. Is He going to rise up "everyone that beholds the Son, and believes on him" by bringing them from Heaven, or by raising them from the dead? Also 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17; John 11:24; 1 John 3:2, and many other passages.
Even though Paul know his death was near he anticipated receiving “the crown or righteousness” to be given to him by the Lord “at that day,” not at his dead if he should die before the coming of the Lord, and that this crown of life would also be given to “all them that have loved his appearing” at that day [2 Timothy4:6-8], both to all that are asleep in Christ and to all that will be alive when He comes.
In the above passages it is said when we will go to Heaven in such a simple and clear way that I cannot understand how anyone cannot understand them, or how they could say, "Not true Lord, we are not going to wait unto You come again. If an immaterial no substance soul were alive with the Lord immediately after death it could not be resurrected from the dead at His coming; an immortal soul could not “put on immortality” at the coming of Christ. In 2 Corinthians 5:1-10 Paul says nothing about a “soul,” he is speaking of the whole person.
• According to both the Catholic and Protestant versions, the body is now mortal and the soul is now immortal. At the death of the body, the soul is already immortal and is not changed, and nothing of this mortal is swallowed up of life; at death the body goes back to the earth and nothing of the body will put on immortality or is swallowed up of life.
• According to the Bible version, this mortal is changed and puts on immortality at the resurrection, immortality that this mortal does not now have [1 Corinthians 15:50-55; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17]. This mortal is swallowed up of life.
Paul says the same thing in Romans 8:23-24 and 2 "Corinthians 5:1-2. “ Waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body" and "longing to be clothed upon with our habitation which is from heaven" is the same thing and will be at the resurrection, not at death and says nothing about a part of an immortal person that will be alive from death unto the resurrection.
ROMANS 8:23-24