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

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 a person has an immortal soul? Maybe because there is no passage that really teaches it, and this is the best that can be found.
[8] THE SPIRIT OF MAN AND THE SPIRIT OF BEAST
Ecclesiastes 3:21
If this SPIRIT [ruach] were an immortal soul, then it is like Ecclesiastes 12:7 above in that it would prove ALL are saved at death. See notes above.
"They all have the same breath [ruach] and there is no advantage for man over beast"
"Who knows that the spirit [ruach] of man" goes up when the body return to the dust?
"Who knows that the spirit [ruach] of beast" goes down when the body return to the dust?
There is an old saying, "That which proves to much proves nothing." The SPIRIT of a person going up after his death is used to prove a person has a SOUL that does not die when his body dies; therefore, this soul is immortal. If it does, then the beast having a spirit that goes down after its death would prove that the beast has a soul just as immortal as a person's soul and that it does not die when it body of the beast dies, therefore, its soul is immortal. The "spirit [ruach] of a beast" and the "spirit [ruach] of a man" are in the same sentence and both times “spirit” if from the same Hebrew word, therefore, there is no way to make one "spirit" be an immortal something that cannot die and the other "spirit" be only the life of the body that is not immortal. If a beast has a soul or spirit that separates from its body and goes anywhere after its death, then it is just as alive after its death as the soul of a person would be after it separated from its body. If the spirit going up proves it is immortal, then the spirit going down would prove that it is immortal.
This is spoken of all men, not just the good ones. If it is an immortal spirit going to Heaven, then both the good and the bad go to Heaven at death, and this was before the death of Christ. If all were going to Heaven ["up" which they say is back to God in Heaven] at death before and without the death of Christ, before anyone had ascended to Heaven, why did Christ die? Has not the death of Christ been made useless?
This is a question that Solomon asked but did not give an answer. Yet, many give their own answer and say, “Yes I know where the spirit of man goes, it goes to up all the way to Heaven,” and then use their uninspired answer to prove that Solomon said a person has an immortal soul that goes up to God in Heaven or down to Hell at death. That the lost are transported directly down to Hell at death much be added, for if not, they have made this passage teach all will be saved at death, and that before and without the death of Christ. But was Solomon asking whether anyone knows that the dead go to Heaven? In the time of Solomon the Pagans that were all around Israel believed in reincarnation. The doctrine of an immortal soul as taught today is not in the Old Testament and did not come about unto the Dark Age. His question might have been to the Pagans asking them how do they know about reincarnation, how do they know a spirit, or soul of a person or beast goes anywhere after death and is reincarnated. According to Pagan teaching, all, both persons and beasts do have an immortal soul and they believe this soul goes somewhere after death. He asked by what authority do you know this; how did they know some reincarnated down to a lower life and some up to a higher life? Their only answer would be none. They had no revelation, no way to know about reincarnation but human reasoning.
Unconditional immortality must change what Solomon said. He said, "For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same. As one dies so dies the other; indeed, they all have the same breath [ruach] and there is no advantage for man over beast, for all is vanity. All go to the same place, All come from the dust and all return to the dust. [After clearly saying man and beast go to the same place, he is made to say in the next sentence that they do not go to the same place]. Who knows that the breath [ruach] of man ascends upward and the breath [ruach] of beast descends downward to the earth?" His question must be changed into a statement of fact that is a direct contradiction of what he had just said for it to teach today's theology. Solomon says the living knows something, but the dead do not know anything. [Ecclesiastes 9:5]. He did not say, "Dead bodies do not know anything." There is no way anyone can say the dead know anything unless they say Solomon did not tell the truth for if the dead go immediately to Heaven or Hell at death they do know something. How could they be in torment in Hell if those in Hell do not know anything?
[9] LIFE DEPARTING AND RETURNING 1 Kings 17:2
"Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and called to the Lord, and said, 'O Lord my God, I pray Thee, let this child's LIFE [nehphesh] return to him.'" [1 Kings 17:21 New American Standard Version]. The same Hebrew word is used in Genesis 1:30. "And to everything that creeps upon the earth, wherein there is LIFE [nehphesh]." Nehphesh is translated "life" or "lives" 108 times in the King James Version. A person having an immortal part that is not subject to death is not in this passage. Since the child later died again, he was still mortal after this resurrection, just as mortal as before.
Passages that speak of life departing and returning (to the body)
1 Kings 17:21
• "And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, I pray thee, let the child's SOUL [life - nehphesh] come into him again. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the SOUL [life - nehphesh] of the child came into him again, and he revived" King James Version.
• "Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and called to the Lord, and said, 'O Lord my God, I pray Thee, let this child's LIFE [nehphesh] return to him,' And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the LIFE [nehphesh] of the child returned to him and he revived" New American Standard Bible.
• "Then he stretched himself out on the body three times and cried to the Lord, 'O Lord my God, let this boy's LIFE [nehphesh] return to him!' The Lord heard Elijah's cry, and the boy's LIFE [nehphesh] returned to him and he lived" New International Version.
• "He called out to the Lord: 'O Lord, my God, will you afflict even the widow with whom I am staying by killing her son?' Then he stretched himself out upon the child three times and called out to the Lord: 'O Lord, my God, let the LIFE BREATH [nehphesh] return to the body of this child.' The Lord heard the prayer of Elijah; the LIFE BREATH [nehphesh] returned to the child's body and he revived" The New American Bible.
Genesis 35:18
• "And it came to pass as her soul [life - nehphesh] was in departing (for she died)" King James Version.
• "As she breathed her last [nehphesh] -for she was dying" New International Version.
• "Then with her last breath [nehphesh], as she was dying" Revised English Bible.
• "As she lay dying [nehphesh], she named the boy" New Century Version.
• "Rachel was about to die, but with her last breath [nehphesh] she named him Bensni" New Living Bible.
• "With her last breath [nehphesh]...for she was at the point of death" The New American Bible.
An immortal undying part of a person can be read into this only by applying today's meaning of the English word "soul" to the Hebrew word "nehphesh" See Acts 20:9-10. It was "life" that departed, not some inter immortal part of a person that cannot die departing for Heaven or Hell before and without the Judgment. Psalm 104:29-30 "You take away their spirit [ruach-sea creature and animals-see verses 24-25], they expire, and return to their dust. You send forth Your spirit [ruach-sea creature and animals] they are created."
[10] GATHERED TO HIS PEOPLE Genesis 25:8-9
See chapter three.
[11] DAVID'S SON 2 Samuel 12:23
"I shall go to him, but he will not return to me" 2 Samuel 12:23. How and where did David think he would go to his son? See [10] above. Many years after David's death, Peter said David has not gone to Heaven [Acts 2:29].
[12] SAMUEL OR A DEMON 1 Samuel 28:7-28
From the days of the "church fathers," it has been debated whether this was Samuel or a demon. Those who believe in an immortal "immaterial, invisible part of man" say this was Samuel to prove all are living after death. If it were Samuel, then it proves he was in the earth or the ground [in sheol - the grave]. Whether it was Samuel or a demon, he "came up out of the earth." Saul said, "Bring UP Samuel," not "Bring down Samuel from Heaven." "And the woman said to Saul, I see a divine being coming up out of the earth," not coming down from Heaven [1 Samuel 28:13]. This being did not come from Heaven or Hell. An immortal