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

for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which shall devour the adversaries” (Hebrews 10:26-27).
“For the land (those who were once enlightened and fell away Hebrews 6:4-6) which has drunk the rain that comes often upon it, and brings forth herbs meet for them for whose sake it is also tilled, receives blessing from God: but if it bears thorns and thistles, it is rejected and nigh unto a curse; whose end is to be burned” (Hebrews 6:4-8). Those that fall away will be burned in the lake of fire, which is the second death just as thorns are burned.
“Why do we burn briers and thorns? To destroy them, to get permanently rid of them.” Ashley Johnson, Founder and president of the Johnson Bible College, “The Resurrection And The Future Life,” Page 413, 1913, Knoxville Lithographing Company, Church of Christ.
"As there is a second higher life, so there is also a second and deeper death. And as after that life there is no more death, SO AFTER THAT DEATH THERE IS NO MORE LIFE" Afford. As quoted by Homer Hailey in "Revelation."
The resurrection of all at the coming of Christ makes death be a sleep from which all will awake, but there will be no resurrection from the second death. It will be permanent and everlasting death.
Made alive at His coming, not at death: "In Christ all will be made alive. But, each in his own turn: Christ, the first fruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him" 1 Corinthians 15:22-23 New International Version. Paul says that those who belong to Christ will be "made alive" at His coming. If the "immaterial, invisible part of man" is very much alive in Heaven or Hell it could not be "made alive" at the resurrection. Christ the first fruits of them that are asleep (now) then they that are Christ's, at his coming. Unconditional immortality makes all, Christ, those that are His, and those that reject Him now be alive before, not at His coming, therefore, Christ could not have been the "first born" (Romans 8:29; Colossians 1:15-18) for all who died before Christ died would have been alive before Him.
Death is the end: Paul says of those who are servants of sin that "the end of those things is death" (Romans 6:21-22). But, many now say "the end of those things is eternal life with torment without an end"? Who are you going to believe, God or man?
The sting of death 1 Corinthians 15:54-57: After the resurrection when the saved will have put on immortality, death would have been swallowed up in victory. Victory over what? Over death. We will have put on immortality, and will never again be subject to death, but we are now subject to it and it takes away our life. If we now have immortality we would now have the victory over death. If there is no death, then death has no sting. The doctrine of unconditional immortality from birth makes nonsense out of 1 Corinthians 15:54-57, and gives all, those in Christ, and those not in Christ the victory over death; and gives all this victory without the death and resurrection of Christ. If all are born immortal and cannot die, then no one is subject to death from the day of their birth and never will be. What kind of victory could there be over the nothingness of death that is not death to a soul that was never subject to death?
Is death an enemy or a gateway to Heaven? A companion of Paul, Epaphroditus, was nigh unto death but God had mercy on him. If death is a gateway to Heaven, then when God had "mercy on him," was God not being cruel by keeping him out of Heaven? Why do most do all they can to live a little longer even if it is in pain? If death is a friend, why is this friend not a welcome visitor? Why are we grief-stricken and not rejoicing when someone we love is taken by his "friend" to be with Christ and God in Heaven? How could going from this life (from pain and troubles for many) to paradise be an enemy? If death is a doorway by which we go to Heaven at the moment of death, why would a person who had lived in pain for years, do everything possible to live a little longer? Why do we mourn and not rejoice if a love one who lives in pain would go to their everlasting residence in Heaven immediately after death where there is no pain? Is it not because we know death is an enemy, not a friend (1 Corinthians 15:26), and they are under the power of death, not in Heaven; do they not by their actions demonstrate beyond any doubt that they do not believe what they profess, that death is a friend that takes there loved one to be with Christ? We will not have the victory over death unto the resurrection? But, many say going to Heaven is just what happens at death, even for the Old Testament saints who died before the death of Christ, therefore before their sins were paid for by His death. If this were true, death would then be a friend, not an enemy. How can death be an enemy to an immortal "immaterial, invisible part of men" (W. E. Vine) that is not subject to death and it and cannot die?
What is it that will be destroyed (1 Corinthians 15:26)? Just what is the "enemy?" Could the enemy be anything other than changing from life on this earth to life in Heaven? Is not this change what many say death is, moving from earth to Heaven or Hell, is this moving an enemy that will be destroyed? There would be no death, and it would be impossible to die. Death (moving to Heaven or Hell) would be an enemy only to the lost who were moving to Hell. It would be a friend to the saved who were moving to Heaven. But there is a problem How can there be a resurrection if no one is dead?. If no one is dead, the Bible teaching of a resurrection is out of place and should not be in the Bible. Maybe this is why the teaching of the resurrection is being abandoned in many churches. If death is not real, there is no resurrection. If death is real, the resurrection is our only hope. Without the resurrection, we perish forever when we die (1 Corinthians 15:18). Without the resurrection, the enemy of death will never be destroyed and we will be forever dead.
Death is to be "abolished" (1 Corinthians 15:26) American Standard Version "destroyed" King James Version. How? By being cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14). Yet, some teach that when evil men are cast into this same lake of fire, they are tormented by it, but not abolished or destroyed. Does the Lake of Fire abolish death but torment people? "Death shall be no more" Revelation 21:4. Therefore, "being cast into lake of fire" cannot be "being separated from God" (their definition of death), for then death will last forever and could never be "abolished." Death is to be "abolished" before Christ will be subjected" to God (1 Corinthians 15:28ff), before when we will be in Heaven, "death shall be no more" (Revelation 21:4), therefore, all "wages of sin" (Romans 6:23) shall have been paid; if not, they can never be paid as there will be no death; and cannot go on being paid in Hell forever; for then death would last as long as the "wages" were bring paid, which would be forever. If death is "being separated from God," then death must last forever. If death did not last forever, Hell could not last forever, the last enemy (death) can never be abolished (1 Corinthians 15:26). The people in Bible times would not have understood "death" to mean "separation" any more than the people of the world today understand it or use it in this way. We use death in our everyday language to mean to be dead, not to have life, but in the theology use of the word, it does not mean dead, but to be dead is to have life and be more alive than we are while we are living! Why did God not just say what He means, that death means alive not dead? Did God in some way apart from His word revealed to some that He did not mean what He said in the Bible, but He only revealed this to some and not to all?
IS DEATH LIFE SEPARATION FROM GOD?
IS THERE LIFE WITHOUT GOD?
Many who do not want to say, “You are going to Hell and be eternally tormented by God” say, “You are going to be eternally alive separated from God.” They really believe God is going to forever be tormenting most of humanity but this is so revolting that they water down what they really believe. All who believe in Hell must use their theology to explain death out of the Bible. Trying to put separation in the place of death is a poor try, but is the best they could do. Such a radical redefining of death to be life is nothing more that a denial of death. If death means, "separated but alive," then we can use it in place of death. Try it.
• "And the LIVING ONE; and I WAS SEPARATED BUT ALIVE, and behold, I AM ALIVE for evermore" Revelation 1:18. Therefore, if Jesus were always alive, SEPARATED, but alive, there could not have been a resurrection. Jesus just returned from somewhere, just a reunion, but He could not have been resurrected from the dead if He were alive.
• "It is Christ Jesus that was SEPARATED, yet rather, that raised from the SEPARATION" Romans 8:34
• "The firstborn from the SEPARATION" Colossians 1:18
• "He that raised up Christ Jesus from the SEPARATION" Romans 8:1. This redefining of death to be life would make Christ not to have died for our sins; therefore, there could not have been a resurrection. Christ could not have been raised from the dead; He was never dead, JUST SEPARATED. It would make His death not be a genuine death, but a reunion of Jesus and God when neither one was dead, just separated from each other. If the Father and the Son were just separated from each other for the three days the Son was in the grave, the Father would have been just as separated from the Son as the Son was from the Father, neither one would have died, God would have been separated from God. There is no death in separation, no shedding of blood, no New Covenant bought with the blood of Christ.
• "Christ was SEPARATED for our sins" 1 Corinthians 15:3. Was He separated from God but alive, not really dead? Was God separated from God?
• "They also that are SEPARATED BUT ALIVE in Christ have perished" 1 Corinthians 15:18
• "The law of sin and SEPARATION" Romans 8:2
• "For the mind of the flesh is SEPARATION" Romans 8:6
• "For without the law sin was SEPARATED" Romans 7:8
• "I through the law am SEPARATED to the law" Galatians 2:19
• "Again from the SEPARATION" Hebrews 13:20
• "Was translated that he should not see SEPARATION" Hebrews 11:5
• "How are the SEPARATED raised?" 1 Corinthians 15:35
• "So also is the resurrection of the SEPARATED" 1 Corinthians 15:42
• "SEPARATION is swallowed