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

“‘He went and preached’ By the ministry of Noah, one hundred and twenty years. Unto the spirits in prison. The inhabitants of the antediluvian world, who, having been disobedient, and convicted of the most flagrant transgressions against God, were sentenced by his just law to destruction. But their punishment was delayed to see if they would repent; and the long-suffering of God waited one hundred and twenty years, which were granted to them for this purpose; during which time, as criminals tried and convicted, they are represented as being in prison - detained under the arrest of Divine justice, which waited either for their repentance or the expiration of the respite, that the punishment pronounced might be inflicted” Clarke’s Commentary on 1 Peter 3:18-20.
Dillard Thurman: Gospel Minutes, Volume 34, Number 5, February 1, 1985, West Freeway church of Christ, “I have heard funeral orations extol the happiness and bliss the departed has instantly with death; but on checking the New Testament assiduously, I have het to find a single promise where the dead go to heaven on instant pass, or have immediate conscious happiness.” Gospel Minutes April 2, 1990, "Notice carefully what is said. Jesus was put to death in the flesh, and died like any mortal man. But He was quickened, or made alive by the Spirit. By what Spirit? By the same Spirit by which He once preached to spirits imprisoned by sin and Satan in the days of Noah! When did this happen? The passage plainly states it: 'When once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah.' The word 'when' is an adverb of time that tells when the action took place: in the days of Noah! The idea of the Son of God being off on a preaching junket for the three days and nights that His body was in the tomb is utterly foreign to any Bible teaching! If false doctrines had not first brought forth this fanciful idea, this passage would not have been twisted to support the error."
PASSAGES IN WHICH "SOUL" [psukee]
IS USED AS IF IT IS THE SAME AS "SPIRIT" [pneuma]
[1]. LOSING LIFE [SOUL] or SAVING LIFE [SOUL]
Matthew 16:26; Mark 8:37
Those who believe the soul to be immortal and cannot die also believe it is the soul that must be saved or lost. To them, to lose your soul means you will go to Hell; therefore, to "lose his soul [psukee] for my sake" means going to Hell for Christ. Their own definition of "lose his soul" is going to Hell. Do they think anyone will go to Hell for Christ's sake? If "psukee" means an immortal something in a person that will live forever in Heaven or Hell and a person loses their soul [psukee] for Christ, going to Hell for Him would be just what this passage would say they would do. Back when I believed all the lost would be eternality tormented in Hell by God, this passage was a problem to me; I believed, as many do, to lose your soul meant you would go to Hell, but the King James Version undeniable says if your soul went to Hell for Christ you would save your soul, and that we are to hate our immortal soul.
BY TODAY'S THEOLOGY DOES LOSING THE SOUL SAVE IT? Christ said, "For whosoever would save his psukee [soul or life] shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose his psukee [soul - life] for my sake shall find it. For what shall a man be profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and forfeit his psukee [soul - life]? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his psukee [soul-life]?" To lose ones life for Christ's sake is to lose it because of being faithful to Christ and many did in the first century. Those who lose there life for Christ will find eternal life at the judgment. But, if psukee is an immortal soul, will some lose their immortal soul because they are faithful to Christ? In today's theology, "save the soul" is to save it from Hell, and "lose the soul" is to lose it in Hell. When this passage is used to prove a person has an immortal "immaterial, invisible part of man" that will never die, it makes Christ say:
1. "Whosoever would save his immaterial invisible immoral soul from Hell will lose his immaterial invisible immoral soul in Hell."
2. "Whosoever would lose his immaterial invisible immoral soul in Hell will save his immaterial invisible immoral soul from Hell."
Those who say the soul is immortal also say we lose it when we sin, and save it when we obey Christ. If they were right, the only way we could lose our souls for Christ's sake would be for us to sin. According to them the only possible way to lose our "immortal soul" is to sin; then did Christ say we were to sin to save our soul? No, it is life some would lose because they will not sin and are faithful to Christ, not lose some immaterial, invisible immortal part of them selves because they do sin and are not faithful to Christ. The promise that the psukee [soul-life] will be saved when it is sacrificed for Christ makes no sense if the soul is some "immaterial, invisible" undying part of a person. How could we lose “our soul” for Christ's sake? "He that loves his psukee [life] loses it; and he that hates his psukee [life] in this world shall keep it unto life eternal" [John 12:25]. How do they think a person could lose the only part of his or her self that they say cannot die? When a person has sinned and "lost his soul," does that person have a living body with no soul in it? Christ was saying that gaining much would profit us nothing if we lose our life-our very existence. All who die without being in Christ have lost their psukee [life], they will not put on immortality at the resurrection; they will not have eternal life in Heaven. After the judgment and second death, they will have lost their very existence.
The same thing that is saved is the same thing that will be lost.
• The person who saves his life by denying Christ.
• Will lose the same thing, his life at the judgment.
o It is not the soul that is saved by denying Christ but life on earth.
o It is not the soul that will be lost at the judgment but life in Heaven.
• John 12:25 said the same, "He that loves his life [soul-psukee] shall lose it; and he that hates his life [soul-psukee] in this world, shall keep it unto life eternal."
Those who do not obey Christ shall lose the very thing that is saved by those who do obey Him-life; the lost shall die and the saved shall live. No doctrine of the Bible is more plain than the loss of life in this passage is the lost of our earthly life because of being faithful to Christ, not eternal life with torment for the sinner; finding life is to find eternal life at the resurrection, and the person that saves his earthly life [psukee] by denying Christ will lose his life at the judgment.
Epaphroditus hazarded "his psukee [life]" [Philippians 2:30]. Judas and Silas have "hazarded their psukee [lives] for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" [Acts 15:26-27]. They could put their life in danger for the sake of Christ. Many put their life in danger and lost their life for preaching Christ, but how could they risk an immortal part of a person that cannot die, and no man can see it or kill it? Paul says, "But I hold not my psukee [soul-life] of any account as dear unto myself" [Acts 20:24]. If this psukee is an inter being which has immortality from our birth, Paul must not have thought it not to be of any account, or not worth much. Just as have been said about other passages, today's theology that says psukee means an "immaterial, invisible part of man" makes these passages be nonsense.
"On what authority many have translated the word psukee in the twenty-fifth verse life, and in this verse (26) soul I know not; but I am certain it means life in both places." Adam Clarke.
[2]. "WHAT SHALL A MAN GIVE [not sell]
IN EXCHANGE FOR HIS SOUL."
Matthew 16:26; Mark 8:37 This passage is used to show that a person has an undying soul that is of more value than the entire world, but many will sell their PSUKEE "SOUL" for very little. Does it teach this? The American Standard Version and most other translations, translates "PSUKEE" into "LIFE,'' not "SOUL" as the King James does. A man can give all he has to someone about to take his life to get that someone to let him live, but he could in no way give anything in exchange for an immortal inter part of himself which cannot die. Think about this; how could anyone buy or sell an "immaterial, invisible" immortal part of another person which he cannot see and it can never die? It would be impossible for anyone to give anything in exchange for it.
"Or what shall a man give in exchange for his life?" When "psukee" is made to be an inter immortal part of a person that cannot die, then would not giving something in exchange for it be buying ones way into Heaven? Frequently, in sermons and invitations, I have heard "what would a man give in exchange for his life" changed to "what would a man sell his immortal soul for." To give something in exchange for something is to buy it, not sell it. "Give" [pay, to give money or something] is changed to "sell" [to take money]. It is changed to say the opposite of what it does say to make it say what many want it to say. There is not one word in this verse about a person, or a part of a person being tormented forever. This passage is about how a man would pay all he has in exchange for a few more years of life, but would "forfeit his life" in Heaven in exchange for the pleasure of sin. The wages of sin is death [Romans 6:23]. Do not take the pleasures of sin for a few years in exchange for your life in Heaven as many do. When it is translated right, as in the American Standard Version and many others, the word "soul" as it is used in today's theology is not in this verse.
[3]. SOUL REQUIRED Luke 12:19-21
"And I will say to my LIFE [Greek psukee], LIFE [psukee], you have much goods lain up for many years: take your ease, eat, drink, be merry. But, God said unto him, You foolish one, this night is your LIFE [psukee] required of you; and the things which you have prepared, whose shall they be? So is he that lies up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God." It is not eternal torment that will be required of them but life. The New International Version reads, "And I'll say to MYSELF [Greek psukee-life], 'YOU [Greek psukee-life] have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat drink and be merry.' But, God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your LIFE [Greek psukee] will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?' This is how it will be with anyone whom stores up things for himself