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

soul would have has eternal life and could not die.
• “For the end of these things is DEATH” (Romans 6:21) “These things result in
DEATH” New International Version. This has been changed to, “For the end of these thing is
eternal life in torment.”
• “Acts that lead to DEATH” (Hebrews 9:14) New International Version
• “His servants you are whom you obey; whether sin unto DEATH, or obedience
unto righteousness” (Romans 6:16).
• “For to be carnal minded is DEATH” (Romans 8:6).
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• “Sin…brings forth death”(James 1:15) but we are repeatedly told that an immortal soul is not
subject to death.
(3) DIE "If you live after the flesh, you must DIE; but if by the spirit you put to death
the deeds of the body, you shall LIVE" (Romans 8:13). The immoral soul doctrine must
make DIE to mean exactly the same thing as LIVE, just live in two different places;
therefore, "die" and "live" both mean eternal life! "Die" and "live" must both be
interpreted to means to exist forever! Who can believe it? It is obvious that "die" is only
interpreted to mean "eternal life in torment" when it serves the purpose of the doctrine of
eternal torment, and all other times "to die" really means "to die"; also that we must have
someone tell us when "die" means "eternal life in torment" and when "die" really means
"die"; and without this help we could never know when God intended us to understand
the opposite of what He said and when He intended us to understand what He said in the
way He said it.
(4) DESTRUCTION must be changed to be only a loss of well being. The
traditionalist argument is that the words "destroy" and "destruction" should not be taken
with their established meaning but be interpreted as "a loss of well being" or an
"irreparable loss." How could they or anyone know this without a revelation from God?
How can the Scriptures speak of the destruction of the lost if they are not destroyed? Why
would God say He were going to destroy the lost if He knows the soul is immortal and
He could not destroy it? DESTRUCTION HAS BEEN CHANGED TO EXISTING
FOREVER IN TORMENT.
(5) DESTROY must be made to mean to preserve forever. They must add, "Can never
be" to destroyed and make it read, "Can never be destroyed." They argue that an
immortal soul cannot die, therefore, "destroy" cannot mean "destroy" and the Bible did
not really mean "destroy" when it said "destroy," just as "death" cannot really mean
"death;" but these words must mean something; therefore, they are changed and given a
meaning that is the opposite of their true meaning. Many words MUST always be used
with a meaning that is the opposite of what the words mean. They argue that nothing can
be annihilated in the scientific sense, that nothing is annihilated by fire; it just changes its
form. They overlook the fact that the Bible is not a scientific book and is not written in
today's scientific language, and that God made all things out of nothing and all things will
go back to nothing. No one to whom Paul was writing would not have thought that if a
book were burnt up that it was not destroyed.
In Matthew 10:28 there is no figurative language, but we are told that one word must
be used in a figurative way to mean just the opposite of its true meaning, that the one
word "destroy" must be made to mean "an eternal life of torment." There is no figurative
language in 2 Thessalonians 1:9, but two words, "destruction" and "perish" must be made
figurative to mean the same, "an eternal life of torment."
One word must be made figurative even when nothing is figurative in the context that
the word is in.
• DEATH, when made figuratively, is eternal life in Hell separated from God but
definitely not dead.
• DESTRUCTION, when made figuratively, is only a loss of well being.
• DESTROY and PERISH, when made figuratively, means to preserve forever.
Did God intend to say imperishable when He said perish?
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• SLEEP, when made figuratively, is to be awake in Heaven or Hell but definitely
not asleep, that would make their "immaterial, invisible part of men" be asleep in
Hell; therefore, they have labeled this "soul sleeping." It is true that the Bible says
nothing about "soul sleeping" of an "immaterial, invisible part of men," but it
repeatedly says a person sleeps unto he or she wakes at the resurrection.
(6) PERISH like destruction and destroy, perish must be made to mean, "can never
perish or be destroyed but to live forever in an unhappy and miserable condition in Hell."
Forever perishing but imperishable!
(7) FIRE destroys useless things like chaff, we know what fire is and what it does,
fire consumes, devours and destroys. For today’s theology to be true fire must be made
into figurative language of something that is not like fire, something that is altogether
different from fire, something that cannot consume. With this kind of "fire" you would
only have to put wood in your fireplace one time and it would heat your house forever. It
took some thought to come up with a fire that does not do what fire does, a fire that burns
but never burns, which consumes but never consumes. Fire destroys, consumes; in
figurative language there is always a parallel; if it were figurative language, just as real
fire consumes the chaff the wicked will be consumed, devoured, destroyed by the wrath
of God (Hebrews 10:27).
• FIRE WILL BURN UP the useless chaff of wheat [Matthew 3:12, Luke 3:17]
• FIRE WILL BURN UP the weeds, tares and bad fish [Matthew 13:30-50]
• FIRE WILL BURN UP the withered branches [John 15:6]
Chaff, tares, weeds, stubble, dry branches are highly combustible materials, but the
“figurative fire” of today’s theology is nothing like fire and the “figurative fire” burn up
nothing.
(8) SPIRITUAL DEATH is not found in the Bible but added and used repeatedly in
today's preaching. To escape from death being death the word “spiritual” is added to
death despite the fact that “spiritual death” is not in the Bible. The wages of sin is not
spiritual death, which would be a death that cannot really be death to a spirit if that spirit
can never be dead.
The wages of sin is death to the person whom sins are not washed away by the blood
of Christ. If adding to God’s word is a sin why would adding and preaching “spiritual
death” not be a sin?
(9) SLEEP does not mean sleep but awake. If the dead are being tormented in Hell,
how could they in any way be sleeping? ALL the dead are sleeping unto the resurrection.
The metaphor of the dead being asleep that is used repeatedly is made void and
foolishness by the doctrine of an immortal soul being awake in Heaven or Hell. The Bible
does not use words in such a self-contradictory manner. Death is referred as sleep about
67 times in the Bible, about 47 in the Old Testament and about 20 in the New Testament
with both the righteous dead and the unrighteous dead being asleep.
"The body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory (Phil. 3:20, 21).
We do not expect this at the moment of each one's death, for at death we sleep in Jesus and rest,
but when He comes from heaven." Bill Reeves, Truth Magazine, February 15, 1973.
“May they rest in peace” that is often on graves would make no sense if the person in
the grave was not in asleep in the grave but were awake and enjoying Heaven or suffering
in Hell.
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(10) KILLS "And I will KILL her children with PESTILENCE" (Revelation 2:23).
Kill is used interchangeably with die and destroyed. "To be killed," "to die," "to be
destroyed."
Summary: LIKE DEATH, THESE WORDS MUST BE MADE INTO FIGURATIVE
LANGUAGE EVEN WHEN THEY ARE IN PLAIN PASSAGES. ALL THESE
WORDS MUST BE GIVEN A THEOLOGICAL MEANING THAT IS NOT FOUND
IN THE WORDS, BUT THEY NEVER TELL US HOW THEY KNOW WHAT THIS
THEOLOGICAL MEANING IS. BUT, ONE THING IS CLEAR, IF THEY DID NOT
CHANGE THEM INTO FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE, THEIR THEOLOGY WOULD
BE DESTROYED. DEATH, DESTRUCTION, DESTROY, AND PERISH ARE
SIMPLE WORDS AND THERE IS NO HINT OF THEM BEING FIGURATIVE
LANGUAGE WHEN THEY ARE USED IN PLAIN PASSAGES, THEREFORE,
THEY MUST BE TAKEN IN THEIR SIMPLE LITERAL MEANING. THEY
CANNOT BE MADE TO BE FIGURATIVE AND GIVEN A MEANING NOT FOUND
IN THE WORDS TO SAVE A THEOLOGICALLY THAT IS NOT IN THE BIBLE.
THEY CAN AND THEREFORE SHOULD BE TAKEN LITERALLY. The only reason
many make these words figuratively language is that if these words are taken with their
literal meaning they make the doctrine of an immortal soul and eternal life in Hell not
passable.
WHEN FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE (LAKE OF FIRE) IS MADE LITERAL, THEN
THE LITERAL LANGUAGE MUST BE MADE TO AGREE WITH THE
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE THAT HAS BEEN CHANGED INTO LITERAL
LANGUAGE. If not, the Bible would say in one place, that destruction is not destruction,
and in many others that destruction is destruction; and say that there is no death.
• When figurative language is changed to literal language
• Literal language must be changed to figurative language in order for them not to
conflict with each other
To say an immortal soul can die, be destroyed or perish is a contradiction of words or
terms. THE PRESENT DEFINITIONS OF WORDS MUST BE DESTROYED,
AND NEW DEFINITIONS GIVEN. The new definitions end up being the opposite of
the old definition, death is no longer death; death is life, eternal life in Hell. When we say
anything, a plaint, animal or person is dead, we do not mean that plaint, animal or person
is alive and being tormented. Death must be made to mean one thing when it is a plaint or
animal that is dead and another when it is a person that is dead. Where is the revelation
by which this is known; where is the book, chapter and verse for it? IS THERE ANY
WORD GOD COULD HAVE USED THAT THEY WOULD NOT SAY IT DOES
NOT MEAN WHAT IT SAYS? No, there is not a one that would not be changed if it
would conflict with their theology.
"My mind fails to conceive a grosser misinterpretation of language then when the five or six
strongest words which the Greek tongue possesses, signifying 'destroy,' or 'destruction,' are
explained to mean maintaining an everlasting but wretched existence. To translate black as white
is nothing to this" R. F. Weymouth, Life In Christ, page 365. R. F. Weymouth is the translator of
"The New Testament in Modern Speech."
Dr. C. Campbell, who believed in eternal torment said, "If the words and phrases employed by
the apostles and evangelist, in delivering the revelation committed to them by the Holy Spirit,
had not been agreeable to the received usage of the people to whom they spoke, their discourse
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being unintelligible, could have conveyed no information, and consequently would have been no
revelation to the hearers" Preliminary Dissertation, Part 1, Sect. 1, 1854.
"There must exist some argument of almost overpowering influence which has thus
determined the interpretation of masses of language to a sense exactly contrary to its natural
meaning. For the process by which such terms as death, perishing, destruction are made to stand
for the idea of endless misery, is one so remarkable as to arrest attention and demand instant
inquiry. A corresponding action on the word 'life' so often used in the Bible to denote the eternal
reward of the saints would result in making it stand for the strange idea of a happy extinction,