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

both men and animals. Death is not death for animals and another kind of life for men; it is death for both. The second death will be death, not another kind of life that will go on forever.
• Spirit in the Old Testament is from ruach [Strong's word number 7307]. It is translated spirit, breath, and wind, in the King James Version, but it is never translated soul.
• Spirit in the New Testament is from pnuma [Strong's word number 4151]. It is translated spirit, ghost, and wind in the King James Version, but it is never translated soul.
o Pneuma is translated both wind and spirit in the same passage. “The wind [pneuma] blows wherever it pleases. You may hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the spirit [pneuma]” [John 3:8].
• Soul in the Old Testament is from nehphesh [Strong's word number 5315]. It is translated life, creature, soul, person, mind, etc. in the King James Version, but it is never translated spirit.
• Soul in the New Testament is from psukee [Strong's word number 5590. Psukee-Wigran, Page 807]. In the King James Version it is translated life, soul, heart, heartily, mind, he, strength, and us, but it is never translated spirit.
There are more than 1,600 references to soul and spirit in the Bible but not a one of them says anything about the soul or spirit living without the body yet many who say they teach only the Bible teach it all the time.
"May your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, [may the whole person, not just an invisible no substance part of a person] without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
• Spirit preserved entire, when, “at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”
• Soul preserved entire, when, “at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”
• Body preserved entire, when, “at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”
o This is speaking of the whole person being preserved when “this mortal must put on immortality” [1 Corinthians 15:53], a spiritual being with a spiritual body when mortal earthly body of flesh and blood will not be preserved.
"Blessed are the poor in spirit [pneuma]" [Matthew 5:3]. Are they poor in a no substance immortal spirit? Spirit and soul are not used interchangeably, and a passage that has one in it cannot be used to prove anything about the other one as many do today. Body, soul, spirit: The whole man of Genesis 2:7 and 1 Thessalonians 5:23 "And Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground [body], and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life [spirit]; and man became a living soul [soul]." Body + the breath of life (spirit) = soul-a living being.
PASSAGES IN WHICH "SPIRIT" [pneuma]
IS USED BY MANY AS IF IT IS THE SAME AS "SOUL" [psukee]
Not one time is any part of a person said to have an existence after death or to be able to function without the body.
[1]. THE SPIRITS IN PRISON 1 Peter 3:18-20
Most who uses this to prove the "spirit" is immortal believe the Protestant version that lost souls go to Hell instantaneous at death; therefore, to them these disobedient spirits that were destroyed in the time of Noah for being disobedient were not destroyed but are now being tormented in Hell. If they were in Hell why did Christ go to these disobedient spirits?
(1) For what purpose would Christ go into Hell and preach to only some that were there? To save them; can those in Hell ever be saved? The very ones who believe there is a Hell and use this passage to prove the souls of the lost are alive in Hell before they are raised from the dead and before they are judged also says no that once a person is in Hell he or she can never get out, can never be saved.
(2) What message would He take them that can never get out of Hell; the time when they could be saved was past, therefore, the Gospel would do them no good? Would He go to raise a hope of release that could never be, or to taunt them?
1. It would mean that Christ was alive in the three days from His death unto His resurrection; therefore, He was never dead and could not have been raised from the dead.
2. It would mean that Christ did not die for our sins; therefore, we are still in our sins. If the soul is immortal and cannot die, Christ gave only His earthly body for our sins. He was as much alive in the three days His earthly body was in the grave as He was before He came to earth and as He was after the resurrection of His earthly body. Therefore, Christ could not have died for our sins if he were never dead. If only His earthly body were dead, then He was the same "spiritual being" with all the power and glory in the three days His body was in the grave that He is now, or had before He came to earth. There would have been no difference in Christ when only His earthly body was in the grave than there is now when He is in Heaven, or in the time before He came to earth. If His death were not a real death, than what did God gave when He gives His only Son? Just one human body for three days. Nothing more. According to today's teaching there was no real sacrifice by God or Christ, no real death or resurrection as He was not really and in truth dead. Nevertheless, He said, "I am he that lives, and was dead" [Revelation 1:18].
3. It would mean:
• That those who were disobedient in the days of Noah were more important than all others who were disobedient, and that Christ went into Hell to preach unto them for those that say the soul is immortal and does not die, say the lost go directly to "Hell" at death; therefore, Christ had to go into "Hell" to preach to them.
• That these may have been given a second chance after death but all others will not be.
• That God is a respecter of persons giving some a second chance, but not to all.
"Put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit" [1 Peter 3:18]. Notice carefully what is said. This passage is used to prove there is an immoral spirit in all that can never die. If it were speaking of an immoral spirit, this immortal spirit was "made alive," therefore it had to be dead. Made alive in the spirit AFTER He was put to death in the flesh. If "made alive in the spirit" was not His resurrection, then the very thing they are trying to prove is that the spirit cannot die, nevertheless, the spirit was dead and was "made alive." If Christ was alive and never dead, He could not have been "made alive," but would have been "kept alive" or "preserved alive" and there could have been no resurrection. Made alive: "Quickened by the spirit" King James Version. "Made alive by the spirit" New King James Version. Strong's word #2227 "made alive, give life, quicken."
If this preaching were by Christ in person, not by Christ through Noah, then the order was:
1. Put to death
2. Quickened or made alive-His resurrection
3. Preached to the spirits in prison after His resurrection. Therefore, the preaching would have been done after His resurrection, not before and would not prove that His "soul" was alive in the three days before He was quickened or made alive.
To fit with today's theology Peter's order must be changed to:
1. Put to death
2. Preached to the spirits in prison in the three days before He was “made alive,” before His resurrection
3. Quickened or “made alive” - His resurrection after He had preached to the spirits in prison. The reason this passage is used is to prove His soul was alive before His resurrection, that it was never dead, but they must change it and make it say Christ did the preaching before His resurrection. If they do not change it, it does not prove what they want it to. If this preaching were by Christ during the three days He was in the grave, and if the prison were somewhere other than Hell it would prove that there is somewhere like the Catholic Purgatory but only for a few, and that most are not in it.
When was this preaching done? In the days of Noah, or in the three days Christ was in the grave? This is the whole question. Was it:
[1] After they were dead and in Hell when they could not be saved? Those who believe the soul of the lost is transported instantly into Hell at death do not believe any that are in Hell can be saved. According to their belief, all go to Heaven or Hell at the moment of death, therefore, if Christ went and preached to them in the three days He was in the grave, He would have had to preach to them either in Heaven or Hell. Why would He go to Hell and preach to those who could not be saved? Why do they use this verve? Is it not because they are desperate for any verse that will prove their immortal soul that they will give a few a second chance after death to be taken out of Hell if it would prove a part of a person is now immortal?
[2] Or was it when they were alive and could be benefited by the preaching? Adam Clarke said He went and preached by Noah for one hundred and twenty years. The preaching was done in the days of Noah through Noah, a preacher of righteousness [2 Peter 2:5], not after the death of Christ. Noah warned them of the destruction to come if they did not repent. How were they in prison? "His servants you are whom you obey" [Romans 6:16]. "For of whom a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved" [2 Peter 19]. "To open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon, and those who dwell in darkness from the prison" [Isaiah 42:7; also Isaiah 61:1; Psalm 142:7; Luke 4:18; John 8:34-45]. Those who obey Satan are in prison to him. Those who would not hear Christ preaching through Noah were in prison to Satan. "For we also once were...enslaved to various lusts and pleasures" [Titus 3:3]. "For of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he also brought into bondage" [2 Peter 2:19].
"Then certain of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, Teacher, we would see a sign from you. But he answered and said unto them, an evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and shall no sign be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet: for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" [Matthew 12:38-40]. If Jesus were in the earth, the grave, from His death to His resurrection, how could He have gone to "Hell" and preached to those in it? I do not think anyone believes "Hell" is in the grave, but the grave is where Jesus was at onto His resurrection.
Adam Clarke: