Immortality or Resurrection - William West (best pdf ebook reader for android TXT) 📗
- Author: William West
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is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Destruction is used in contrast to life, not two kinds of life. Jesus said as clear as language can be that the wide gate leads to destruction not life. “Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and killed them…except you repent, you shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:4-5). “Killed” and “likewise perish” are both the same, both death, not eternal life.
“Worthy of death” but cannot die Romans 1:32. "They that practice such things are worthy of death," but if they have an immortal never dying something from birth they can never die. Why did Paul bother to say they are worthy of death if he knows they could not die?
When does a sinner die? If death means only separation, the sinner is separated from God now. Is the second death to be a "double separation?" Will they be any more separated than they now are? If the lake of fire, which is the second death, is only a separation from God, and they are now separated from Him, they cannot be any more separated than they are now.
Literally or figuratively: Thomas Andrews said that those who accept annihilation as the end of mankind claim that the words destroy and death that are used to describe eternal punishment should be understood literally (1997 Florida College Lectures, Page 169). Those who believe in Hell must make "death" figuratively or allegorical, not real; but they make "life" real even when both are used in the same sentence. On the same page he said, “The Biblical concept of eternal extends to both life and death.”
• The Biblical concept, eternal death
• The Biblical concept, eternal life
The Biblical concept is that the death is just as eternal as the life. If one is figuratively, then both are. He cannot make one figuratively and the other literal just because he need it that way for his theology. If death is figurative, then there is no death, but two kinds of life. He cannot give any reason why death is figurative, and life is literal other than he needed it to be, for it must be or there can be no "Hell."
• If death is figurative, then life must be figurative.
• Eternal "death" is as literal as eternal "life." Does a real sin have a figurative punishment? Death must be "wrest" (2 Peter 3:16) into something that is not death to make it fit around the doctrine an immortal, immaterial, invisible "soul" that cannot die but have a figurative death.
• “There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy” (James 4:12). “But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved” (Hebrews 10:39). If the destroying is figuratively and is not literally destroying then the saving is also figuratively and is not literally saving.
Three blind men were told to feel an elephant and tell what it looks like. One felt the tusk and said, "It is hard and smooth." One the leg- "It is like a tree." One the tail- "It is like a brush." None told what the elephant is like. "It is like a brush" is not a description of an elephant, and "separated" from God but alive without Him is not a description of death.
"Dead while she lives" 1 Timothy 5:6: Dead and alive at the same time. In what sense is she alive? Physically she is not dead but alive. In what sense is she dead? She is the same as all other sinners and unsaved people. Their death is so certain that they are spoken of as being dead (See Luke 9:60). They do not have Christ living in them, and the "life" He came to give (John 5:21-29). They have only the resurrection of judgment (John 5:29) to look forward to, and the wages of sin, death (Romans 6:23), not the resurrection unto life (John 5:29). Both life for those who believe, and death for those who do not believe, are so certain that through out the New Testament it speaks as if we now have the eternal life or death, which will come at the judgment. The only life she has is physical life. How can an immortal soul that will always have life be gotten out of "while she lives"? It was her body that "lives," not an immortal, immaterial, invisible something that lives without the body; therefore, if a "soul" were in this passage it could only be in the part of her that was "dead" to which is added “spiritual dead.” Because the passage speaks of her being dead while she lived, her having a soul that is alive while she is dead is read into this passage when nothing is said about an immortal soul or about life after death. This passage is often used to prove that the "soul" cannot be dead but it has another kind of life even when there is nothing said about a "soul" in it. "Dead while she lives" must be changed to be "Alive while she is alive." Death must be removed from this passage. This is what is called pulling something out of thin air or reading into a passage something that is wanted to be in it.
• The Bible uses death in both a literal and a figurative application. In the literal use of death life has ceased to exist. The figurative use of a word must take it meaning from it literal use. The figurative use of death is often confused with the literal use of death. She had a relationship with God that is dead; it no longer existed.
• In Luke 15:11-32, Matthew 8:21-22. "Follow me; and leave the dead (those who have no relationship with God) to bury their own dead." There is nothing about an "immaterial invisible part of man" that is alive in the dead that are to bury the dead. Neither the dead that was doing the burying, nor the dead that were buried were a dead immortal soul, both were dead in their relationship to God. The Prodigal son had a relationship with his father, the relationship ceased to exist, then was restored when the son returned. He was alive, then dead, then alive in his relationship with his father, but he was never literally dead and there was no literal resurrection of the dead. In this passage there is nothing said about an immortal soul.
• This was more than a simple separation. Frequently one person is separated from another but not counted as dead. When a child leaves home we do not say our child is dead, but in Bible times the Hebrews would say the child was dead if it left home and had no relationship with the father or mother, it was as if he was dead to them. When God gives a revelation, He used words just as the words were used by the persons to whom He gave the revelation, and not only the words but also the customs of the persons to whom He give the revelation. To the Hebrew mind and to the Oriental cultures even today, the Prodigal son is counted as dead and the father no longer has a son.
• "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear shall live" (John 5 24-25). He was not saying He was going to the graveyard and the dead there would hear His voice and live, be resurrected from the grave. He was not speaking of a physical resurrection but of those who are not believers (dead by the Hebrew and Oriental cultures) becoming believers and alive to God. The widow was dead to God just as the Prodigal Son was dead to his father because she had put something ahead of God in her life.
Die in the Old Testament: Die is from "moosh" in the Old Testament and occurs over 800 times. (Wigram, Old Testament, Pages 675-681). None of the 800 has any references to death being anything but death. In none is death a separation of the earthly body from a soul that is alive, or that any part of a person lives after death. Throughout the Old Testament, "moosh" is used of both men and animals and makes no distinction between them. Both die. "For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same. As one dies (moosh) so dies (moosh) the other" (Ecclesiastes 3:19). Fish, cattle, frogs, men, dogs, lions, a city, and flies all die (moosh). For all, death is the end of life and if there was no resurrection, a person would be as all the above, dead forever.
"Spirituality dead" Spiritual (pnumatikos) is used in the New Testament 21 times, but "spirituality dead" not one time, yet many preach it continually. From where did they get this? Do they mean the spirit is dead? If they mean "lost," why do they use an unscriptural term that does not say what they mean? In his review of my "From Where Came Hell" Csonka says, "We are spiritually dead when, as Isaiah says, 'your sins have separated you from your God'" Guardian of Truth, January 5, 1995, Page 17, (Isaiah 59:2). He must know that Isaiah is speaking about "the house of Jacob their sins" (Isaiah 58:1) "A nation" (Isaiah 58:2). This is about a nation that had left God being separated from God, and there is not one word about any kind of death of a person in it, but he reads it in. He changes this from a nation (Israel) being separated from God to a person "we" being separated from God and then changes this person "we" from a living person separated from God to a dead person that is not really dead, but alive and has eternal life in Hell forever separated from God. Has he heard this verse misused so often he does not know that he is misusing it? He must add changes to changes to make the nation of Israel be a living person in Hell, but he did not seem to know whether he wanted it to be (1) a dead person that is alive in Hell, (2) or a living person that is "spiritually dead."
"Spiritual death" is not in the Bible, but if there were such a thing as "spiritual death," it would have to be when the spirit had no life for if it still had life, it would not be dead. If a soul were living somewhere with eternal life, how could that soul be dead? It could not be "dead" if it were "alive." Most who believe in Hell say the second death is a "spiritual death" which is only separation from God, not a real death; but they also say the lost are now "spiritual dead" even before they die. Do they not make the second death be nothing more that a continuation of the state they say the lost are now in, just a continuation of the lost being separated from God? Therefore, they have done away with the second death, for they tell us that the lost are already "spiritual dead" and will always be “spiritual dead” even when they are
“Worthy of death” but cannot die Romans 1:32. "They that practice such things are worthy of death," but if they have an immortal never dying something from birth they can never die. Why did Paul bother to say they are worthy of death if he knows they could not die?
When does a sinner die? If death means only separation, the sinner is separated from God now. Is the second death to be a "double separation?" Will they be any more separated than they now are? If the lake of fire, which is the second death, is only a separation from God, and they are now separated from Him, they cannot be any more separated than they are now.
Literally or figuratively: Thomas Andrews said that those who accept annihilation as the end of mankind claim that the words destroy and death that are used to describe eternal punishment should be understood literally (1997 Florida College Lectures, Page 169). Those who believe in Hell must make "death" figuratively or allegorical, not real; but they make "life" real even when both are used in the same sentence. On the same page he said, “The Biblical concept of eternal extends to both life and death.”
• The Biblical concept, eternal death
• The Biblical concept, eternal life
The Biblical concept is that the death is just as eternal as the life. If one is figuratively, then both are. He cannot make one figuratively and the other literal just because he need it that way for his theology. If death is figurative, then there is no death, but two kinds of life. He cannot give any reason why death is figurative, and life is literal other than he needed it to be, for it must be or there can be no "Hell."
• If death is figurative, then life must be figurative.
• Eternal "death" is as literal as eternal "life." Does a real sin have a figurative punishment? Death must be "wrest" (2 Peter 3:16) into something that is not death to make it fit around the doctrine an immortal, immaterial, invisible "soul" that cannot die but have a figurative death.
• “There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy” (James 4:12). “But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved” (Hebrews 10:39). If the destroying is figuratively and is not literally destroying then the saving is also figuratively and is not literally saving.
Three blind men were told to feel an elephant and tell what it looks like. One felt the tusk and said, "It is hard and smooth." One the leg- "It is like a tree." One the tail- "It is like a brush." None told what the elephant is like. "It is like a brush" is not a description of an elephant, and "separated" from God but alive without Him is not a description of death.
"Dead while she lives" 1 Timothy 5:6: Dead and alive at the same time. In what sense is she alive? Physically she is not dead but alive. In what sense is she dead? She is the same as all other sinners and unsaved people. Their death is so certain that they are spoken of as being dead (See Luke 9:60). They do not have Christ living in them, and the "life" He came to give (John 5:21-29). They have only the resurrection of judgment (John 5:29) to look forward to, and the wages of sin, death (Romans 6:23), not the resurrection unto life (John 5:29). Both life for those who believe, and death for those who do not believe, are so certain that through out the New Testament it speaks as if we now have the eternal life or death, which will come at the judgment. The only life she has is physical life. How can an immortal soul that will always have life be gotten out of "while she lives"? It was her body that "lives," not an immortal, immaterial, invisible something that lives without the body; therefore, if a "soul" were in this passage it could only be in the part of her that was "dead" to which is added “spiritual dead.” Because the passage speaks of her being dead while she lived, her having a soul that is alive while she is dead is read into this passage when nothing is said about an immortal soul or about life after death. This passage is often used to prove that the "soul" cannot be dead but it has another kind of life even when there is nothing said about a "soul" in it. "Dead while she lives" must be changed to be "Alive while she is alive." Death must be removed from this passage. This is what is called pulling something out of thin air or reading into a passage something that is wanted to be in it.
• The Bible uses death in both a literal and a figurative application. In the literal use of death life has ceased to exist. The figurative use of a word must take it meaning from it literal use. The figurative use of death is often confused with the literal use of death. She had a relationship with God that is dead; it no longer existed.
• In Luke 15:11-32, Matthew 8:21-22. "Follow me; and leave the dead (those who have no relationship with God) to bury their own dead." There is nothing about an "immaterial invisible part of man" that is alive in the dead that are to bury the dead. Neither the dead that was doing the burying, nor the dead that were buried were a dead immortal soul, both were dead in their relationship to God. The Prodigal son had a relationship with his father, the relationship ceased to exist, then was restored when the son returned. He was alive, then dead, then alive in his relationship with his father, but he was never literally dead and there was no literal resurrection of the dead. In this passage there is nothing said about an immortal soul.
• This was more than a simple separation. Frequently one person is separated from another but not counted as dead. When a child leaves home we do not say our child is dead, but in Bible times the Hebrews would say the child was dead if it left home and had no relationship with the father or mother, it was as if he was dead to them. When God gives a revelation, He used words just as the words were used by the persons to whom He gave the revelation, and not only the words but also the customs of the persons to whom He give the revelation. To the Hebrew mind and to the Oriental cultures even today, the Prodigal son is counted as dead and the father no longer has a son.
• "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear shall live" (John 5 24-25). He was not saying He was going to the graveyard and the dead there would hear His voice and live, be resurrected from the grave. He was not speaking of a physical resurrection but of those who are not believers (dead by the Hebrew and Oriental cultures) becoming believers and alive to God. The widow was dead to God just as the Prodigal Son was dead to his father because she had put something ahead of God in her life.
Die in the Old Testament: Die is from "moosh" in the Old Testament and occurs over 800 times. (Wigram, Old Testament, Pages 675-681). None of the 800 has any references to death being anything but death. In none is death a separation of the earthly body from a soul that is alive, or that any part of a person lives after death. Throughout the Old Testament, "moosh" is used of both men and animals and makes no distinction between them. Both die. "For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same. As one dies (moosh) so dies (moosh) the other" (Ecclesiastes 3:19). Fish, cattle, frogs, men, dogs, lions, a city, and flies all die (moosh). For all, death is the end of life and if there was no resurrection, a person would be as all the above, dead forever.
"Spirituality dead" Spiritual (pnumatikos) is used in the New Testament 21 times, but "spirituality dead" not one time, yet many preach it continually. From where did they get this? Do they mean the spirit is dead? If they mean "lost," why do they use an unscriptural term that does not say what they mean? In his review of my "From Where Came Hell" Csonka says, "We are spiritually dead when, as Isaiah says, 'your sins have separated you from your God'" Guardian of Truth, January 5, 1995, Page 17, (Isaiah 59:2). He must know that Isaiah is speaking about "the house of Jacob their sins" (Isaiah 58:1) "A nation" (Isaiah 58:2). This is about a nation that had left God being separated from God, and there is not one word about any kind of death of a person in it, but he reads it in. He changes this from a nation (Israel) being separated from God to a person "we" being separated from God and then changes this person "we" from a living person separated from God to a dead person that is not really dead, but alive and has eternal life in Hell forever separated from God. Has he heard this verse misused so often he does not know that he is misusing it? He must add changes to changes to make the nation of Israel be a living person in Hell, but he did not seem to know whether he wanted it to be (1) a dead person that is alive in Hell, (2) or a living person that is "spiritually dead."
"Spiritual death" is not in the Bible, but if there were such a thing as "spiritual death," it would have to be when the spirit had no life for if it still had life, it would not be dead. If a soul were living somewhere with eternal life, how could that soul be dead? It could not be "dead" if it were "alive." Most who believe in Hell say the second death is a "spiritual death" which is only separation from God, not a real death; but they also say the lost are now "spiritual dead" even before they die. Do they not make the second death be nothing more that a continuation of the state they say the lost are now in, just a continuation of the lost being separated from God? Therefore, they have done away with the second death, for they tell us that the lost are already "spiritual dead" and will always be “spiritual dead” even when they are
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