Immortality or Resurrection (Updated) - William West (top ten ebook reader .TXT) 📗

as alive and just as immortal before death as it will be after death and after the
resurrection.
100
The Hebrew word translated “spirit” in Ecclesiastes 12:7 is from Ruach, not from nehphesh,
which is the word that is translated “soul.” Ruach is translated breath, wind, spirit, etc., but never
translated “soul.” It is the breath of life [Genesis 2:7] that came from God and made man “a
living being” and that returns to God. In Ecclesiastes 11:4 it is, “He who watches the wind
[ruach].” If Ecclesiastes 12:7 did prove that a person has an immortal soul that returns to God in
Heaven, then it proves that the same immortal souls preexisted with God in Heaven before the
birth of the body. By misusing this verse to prove a person now has a part that is immortal and it
is this immortal part of a person goes back to God at death then it would prove more than they
want to prove.
It would prove:
1. BEFORE BIRTH: The preexistence of ALL in Heaven. In the part of eternity before
birth ALL would have been safe in Heaven.
2. AT BIRTH: ALL were put out of Heaven and sent down to earth.
3. FROM DEATH UNTO THE RESURRECTION THE BODY: At their death ALL will
go back to Heaven with God unto the judgment. Some of the lost will be in Heaven for
thousands of years before the judgment.
4. AT SECOND COMING: ALL sent back to earth for judgment.
5. AFTER JUDGMENT: ALL go to Heaven or Hell. According to their teaching many who
preexisted in Heaven before their birth (most of mankind) will go to Hell after the
judgment. In the part of eternity that will be after the judgment, they will end up in Hell
with God forever tormenting them. If this view were true, why did God not leave them in
Heaven? Did He want most to be lost where He could torment them forever?
If the spirits that came from God is man’s immortal soul then:
• Birth is changed to be only a moving day from Heaven to earth for a soul that preexisted
in Heaven before birth.
• Death is changed to be only a moving day from earth to Heaven or Hell for a soul that
preexisted in Heaven but had moved to earth.
• From the resurrection onward: For many Protestants, nothing happens. The saved are
resurrected only to return to Heaven where they were before the resurrection and the lost
are resurrected only to return to Hell where they were before the resurrection. Both the
saved, and the unsaved would have to be judged at death to know whether they would go
to Heaven or Hell. They say they believe in the resurrection and the judgment day, but by
their teaching they deny both the Day of Judgment and the Resurrection by making both
impossible.
• Both the saved and the lost preexisted in Heaven but most of them will never return to
Heaven after the judgment.
TODAY'S THEOLOGY TELLS US TWO CONFLICTING THINGS
1. IT SAYS THAT MOST SOULS GO TO HELL AT DEATH AND THAT SOME
SOULS RETURN TO GOD AT DEATH
2. AND AT THE SAME TIME IT USES ECCLESIASTES 12:7 TO SAY ALL SOULS
RETURNS TO GOD AT DEATH
If the immortal soul of all returns to God at death, will the immortal soul of the lost leave God
and go to Hell after the resurrection? The way Ecclesiastes 12:7 is misused to prove a person has
an immortal part that cannot die makes this passage prove:
1. Before birth: Today's theology makes the soul be both alive and immortal; JUST THE
SAME AS THEY SAY IT WAS AT BIRTH AND AS IT WILL ALWAYS BE. The
view of many implies the spirit that came from God was an immortal, conscious,
independent and an intelligent being before it came from God to man, before birth.
2. From birth to death: They make the soul be both alive and immortal; JUST THE SAME
AS THEY SAY IT WAS AT BIRTH AND AS IT WILL ALWAYS BE.
101
3. From death unto the resurrection: They make the soul be both alive and immortal; JUST
THE SAME AS THEY SAY IT WAS AT BIRTH AND AS IT WILL ALWAYS BE.
4. From the resurrection onward: They make the soul be both alive and immortal; JUST
THE SAME AS THEY SAY IT WAS AT BIRTH AND AS IT WILL ALWAYS BE.
Soul and spirit are used as if they are the same thing.
According to today's theology the only thing that can change for the soul is its location. Birth,
death, and the resurrection are only three moving days for it. There could not be a real death for
an immortal soul or a real resurrection for a soul that was not dead.
If the spirit that returns to God is an inward part of a person that is immortal, and it came from
God, this inward immortal part of a person had to preexist in Heaven with God before the person
was born. Most do not want preexistence before birth of ALL, neither do they want ALL, both
the saved and the lost going back to Heaven unto second coming of Christ; but if their view were
right, that the spirit is an immortal inter part of a person that came from and them returns to God
at death, there would be no way around it. THE INCORRECT USE OF THIS PASSAGE TO
PROVE A PERSON IS BORN WITH AN IMMORTAL SOUL UNDENIABLY IMPLIES THE
PREEXISTENCE OF THAT SOUL and that at death all souls, the saved and the unsaved, also
the souls of animals, returns to God who is in Heaven.
They prove Universalism, but not the same Universalism taught by the Universalist. If this
"spirit" that returns to God is an immortal soul, they prove all, both good and bad will go to
Heaven at death without the "attitude adjustments" taught by the Universalism; but it may not last
forever for, according to their doctrine, ALL will be taken out of Heaven and return to earth at
the judgment; then if one is a Christian or not a Christian, his spirit that came from God at birth
goes back to Heaven to God at death, but all will leave Heaven for judgment and only some will
go back. If the “spirit” that came from God were an immortal part (soul) of a person them MOST
OF THE ALL THAT WAS WITH GOD IN HEAVEN BEFORE THEIR BIRTH WILL END UP
IN HELL, even if they do not believe what their incorrect use of this passage would prove, it
would still prove it.
IT IS THE "SPIRIT," NOT "AN IMMORTAL SOUL" THAT RETURNS TO GOD. What is
the spirit? "Then the Lord God formed a man of the dust from the ground and BREATHED INTO
HIS NOSTRILS THE BREATH OF LIFE; and man [the body of dust] became a living being [a
soul - nehphesh." - Genesis 2:7]. A body made of dust + the spirit, the breath of life from God
[Genesis 2:7] = a soul, a living creature whether it is a person or an animal. The spirit (breath of
life) all life comes from God whether a person or animal and returns to God. When the life
returns to God, the body returns to dust and we will have no work, device, knowledge, or wisdom
[Ecclesiastes 9:10] unto the resurrection when life comes from God. All life is from God.
Ecclesiastes 12:7 is the reverse of the process in Genesis 2:7.
• Body from the ground + breath of life from God = a soul, a living being [Genesis 2:7].
• Dust returns to the ground - spirit returns to God = a dead being (soul) [Ecclesiastes
12:7].
• Body minus the spirit = a dead soul (a dead being, a person or animal) [James 2:26].
Job said, "If He should gather to Himself His SPIRIT AND HIS BREATH, all flesh would
perish together, and man would return to dust" [Job 34:14-15]. The breath of life came from God
and returns to God, it was not a conscious immortal being before it came from God and is not a
conscious immortal being after it returns to God. The spirit that returns to God at death is not an
immortal soul. It is not the spiritual body that the dead in Christ will put on at the resurrection [1
Corinthians 15:44].
Most Eastern religions, most New Age believers, and many Christians believe in the
preexistence of the soul, literally billions. Many Christians believe God creates a new soul for
each at birth (some at the time of conception-some at the time of the first breath), which they
believe to be only a part of a person that is immortal and it is only this immaterial something in a
102
person that will be in Heaven or Hell. However, if Ecclesiastes 12:7 is used to prove a person has
an immortal soul that will live forever, THERE IS NO WAY TO GET AROUND
PREEXISTENCE OF THE SOUL THAT CAME FROM HEAVEN AT BIRTH, OR THAT ALL
(the saved, the lost, and all beasts) WILL GO BACK TO HEAVEN AT DEATH.
It is said that the dead do not know anything is only, "The way the world perceives the dead"
but that is not true. Most of the world at that time, other than the Jews, believed in reincarnation
and the dead had some kind of life and thoughts in the underworld until they were reincarnated.
Egypt where the Jews had come from believed the dead lived and had always lived and would
always live, therefore, they would have had thoughts and known something. Many Pagans
believed the soul has always existed and must always exist, that the soul is self-existence. It has
always been reincarnated and always will be. If a person has an immortal soul that came from
God and will go back to God; it lived before the person was born and will live when the person is
dead. The inescapable conclusion would be that the pagans were right, and all that I am; all that I
think and do is just a temporary passing thing just as my body is. It is only the soul that existed
before me and was put in a prison in my body for a short time and it (not me) will always exist.
This is no surprise for it is just what the pagans teach and is the source from which the church
fathers brought this teaching into the church.
Old age and death are the subject in Ecclesiastes 12:7. All are born and all die and when "it"
the spirit [Ruach-breath of life-See Job 27:3; 33:4] of both men and animals returns to God.
Solomon says it is a vanity, not a blessed event of going home to God [Ecclesiastes 12:7-8].
Those who use the spirit returning to God to prove a person has an immortal soul that returns to
God at death overlook verse 8.
Solomon called the "spirit" an "it." Ecclesiastes 12:7 "And the spirit [ruach] returns to God
who give it." Psalms 104:29-30 "You take away their breath [ruach - sea creature and animals -
see verses 24-25], they die, and return to their dust. You send forth Your spirit [ruach - sea
creature and animals]; they are created." Psalms 146:4 "His breath [ruach] goes forth, he returns
to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish." It is not possible to reconcile today's immortal
soul theology or immortal spirit theology with God's word.
Summary: IF THIS SPIRIT THAT RETURNS TO GOD WERE AN IMMORTAL
SOUL, IT WOULD UNDENIABLE BE IN CONFLICT WITH THE TEACHING OF
TODAY'S THEOLOGY THAT LOST SOULS GO TO HELL IMMEDIATELY AT
DEATH AND NOT TO HEAVEN. Why is this one of the most used passages to teach