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

| 2 CORINTHIANS 5:1-2
BUT OURSELVES ALSO, WHO HAVE THE | WHO GIVE UNTO US THE EARNEST OF THE
FIRST-FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT | SPIRIT" SEE EPH 1:13-14; ROM 8:11
EVEN WE OURSELVES GROAN | IN THIS WE GROAN,
WITHIN OURSELVES | .
WAITING FOR OUR ADOPTION, TO | LONGING TO BE CLOTHED UPON WITH OUR
WIT, THE REDEMPTION OF OUR BODY | HABITATION WHICH IS FROM HEAVEN
Scott P. Wiley in "Eternal Torment or Annihilation" makes the grave be the place where man puts bodies but he says sheol is not the grave but a place under the earth where God puts the souls of the dead, some in one part of sheol are happy and some in another part of sheol are in torment, and they are waiting there for the resurrection. If Paul and all the saved go to be with the Lord at death and the Lord is in Heaven there is no such place as sheol or hades or if there where such a place, no one would be in it for they would be with the Lord in Heaven. If the dead all go to sheol and they are with the Lord, the Lord would be in sheol under the earth or wherever those who believe sheol is a storehouse for living souls believe it to be, He would not in Heaven, not setting on the right hand of God. Being transported to Heaven or Hell instantly at death makes all the passages that speak of the dead being in sheol or hades a lie and all the passages that speak of the resurrection of the dead a lie for those in Heaven could not be dead; and makes the Bible say one thing in one place and another thing in another place.
COMPANION BIBLE by E.W. Bullinger, on 2 Corinthians 5:8: “It is little less than a crime for anyone to pick out certain words and frame them into a sentence, not only disregarding the scope and context, but ignoring the other words in the verse, and quote the words ‘absent from the body, present with the Lord’ with the view of dispensing with the hope of the Resurrection (which is the subject of the whole passage) as though it were unnecessary; an as though ‘present with the Lord’ is obtainable without it.”
Summary: The teaching of some makes Paul be wrong when he said we are "longing to be clothed upon with our habitation which is from heaven" for their teaching says we had it at birth and will always have it even if we go to "Hell.
[6]. W. E. VINE'S SIXTH PASSAGE OF HIS EIGHT
"Supposed that they beheld a spirit" Luke 24:37
The sixth proof that Vine used to prove a person now has an "immaterial, invisible part of man" is Luke 24:37-39,"Supposed that they beheld a spirit." This is what they [as men] thought based on their fear, and was not based on inspiration. The two parallel account of this says phantom [Matthew 14:26; Mark 6:49]. Strong [Page 1006] says this word is not pneuma [spirit] #4151, but "phantasma" #5326 [also #5324]; "A [mere] show...i.e. specter [a hunting vision]" When Christ walked on the water is the one time this word (plantasma) is used in the Bible, and is translated "ghost" in the American Standard Version and most others. It is translated "a phantom" by Marshall and in the "Christian Bible." The "Englishman Greek Concordance," Page 783 says, "Lit. A phantom." These disciples seem to have believed they were seeing a ghost or phantom; and like these disciples, some today believe in ghosts, spooks, haunted houses, and such things. This maybe the only time Vine’s thin air with no substance ghost or spirit is in the New Testament, and then it was only what these disciples thought they were seeing, and not what they did see. Spirits, God, Christ, Angels have a body, and mankind after judgment will have a body, and are more than just thin air; but not two bodies with two opposite natures both at the same time. The use of this passage to prove a person has an immortal soul makes the proof be based on a lie, on what the disciples thought they were seeing, not on what they did see. Then what they thought they were seeing, a phantasm or ghost must be changed to say they were seeing "The immaterial, invisible part of man" which W. E. Vine does not seem to know whether it was an invisible "soul" or an invisible "spirit" they were seeing, but it was not very invisible for they were seeing it. Christ said to them that He was not a spirit, not a phantom or ghost that has no body that they thought He was, that He was flesh and blood. Why did Vine use an uninspired statement, made by men in fear, who was not seeing what they thought they were seeing, to prove something to be a divine truth? This passage says absolutely nothing about a person having an immortal invisible soul that he used it to prove. Does he think they were inspired to believe a lie and that this lie becomes truth, but only after he changes this "phantom" to a "soul"? And that this "immaterial, invisible part of man" is just air, and it has no kind of substance or no body of any kind; and that a spiritual body is no body at all, with just nothing to it? Yet, V. W. Vine said these disciples thought they were seeing something that he says is invisible, therefore, could not be seen. Although what they were seeing was not invisible, he used it to prove a person has an invisible part in him. Most who believe a person has an immortal soul do not believe a soul can be seen, but will use this to prove these men were seeing a soul that they say cannot be seen.
LUKE 24:27-29 and ACTS 7:59: Two of the passages, which W. E. Vine used to prove a person has an immortal part are uninspired statements. What these disciples thought they were seeing but were not, and what Stephen was asking that could not be unless they believed in Christ. (See [2] Acts 7:59 above) Does this not say anything about how weak his proof is?
[7]. ANOTHER PASSAGE OF HIS EIGHT THAT W. E. VINE USED
"THE SPIRITS OF JUST MEN MADE PERFECT"
He used “the spirits of just men made perfect” to prove that the spirits of the just dead men are alive in Heaven and were made perfect at the moment of death. Hebrews 12:22-23 is a list of seven ways the New Covenant is now better than the Old Covenant. Paul said they had come, not will come after death to the spirits of just men made perfect. This was then, while Paul and the others were alive, it was before death, before the Resurrection, before the Judgment, before anyone will be in Heaven they had already come "to the spirits of just men made perfect" at the time Paul wrote this. We could not have come to the spirits of those made perfect in Heaven for they are not yet in Heaven. If it did refer to spirits in Heaven after the Resurrection, they would not have been "made perfect" when Paul was writing this before the Resurrection.
Seven ways the New Covenant is better than the Old Covenant.
1. You have not come unto a mount that could be touched and that burned with fire, "but you are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem."
2. You are come "To innumerable hosts of angels."
3. You are come "To the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven."
4. You are come "To God the Judge of all."
5. You are come "To the spirits of just men made perfect." "And to the spirits of the righteous made perfect" [New Revised Standard Version]
6. You are come "To Jesus the mediator of a new covenant."
7. You are come "To the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel."
If the "spirits" of the just dead were now in Heaven, the just dead under both the Old and New Covenants would be in Heaven and would not prove the New Covenant to be better than the Old Covenant. It would be out of place in this list of ways the New Covenant is better than the Old Covenant. those who believe all, the saved and the lost, have souls that are now immortal believe they were just as immortal under the Law as they now are under the New Covenant, therefore, it would not be a way the New Covenant is better than the Old.
When and how are the spirits of just man made perfect? "The spirits of just men made perfect" refers to men made perfect by having their sins washed away by the blood of Christ. We have had our sins washed away and have come to have fellowship with others who have been made perfect by having their sins washed away.
Adam Clarke in his Commentary on Hebrews 12:23, "In several parts of this epistle teleiov, the just man, signifies one who has a full knowledge of the Christian system, who is justified and saved by Christ Jesus; and the teteleiwnemoi are the adult Christians, who are opposed to the nhpioi or babes in knowledge and grace...The spirits of the just men made perfect, or the righteous perfect, are the full grown Christians; those who are justified by the blood and sanctified by the Spirit of Christ. Being come to such, implies that spiritual union which the disciples of Christ have with each other, and which they possess how far so ever separate; for they are all joined in one spirit, #Eph 2:18; they are in the unity of the spirit, #Eph 4:3, 4; and of one soul, #Ac 4:32. This is a unity which was never possessed even by the Jews themselves in their best state; it is peculiar to real Christianity: (See Heb 12:29)."
There is no way we could have come to the "spirits" of those in Heaven; if they were in Heaven, they would be beyond our reach unto we are in Heaven with them. We would not have come to them.
"And to the spirits of the righteous made perfect" [New Revised Standard Version]. If disembodied spirits were in Heaven and in any way had fellowship or communication with us it would prove Spiritualism, which is forbidden by God. Most all who uses this to prove we now have an immortal soul do not believe we have any communication with the dead if they are in Heaven, Hell, the grave, or any other place, therefore, they do not believe we could have came unto them, but