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

alive in Hell.
In "Truth Magazine," June 7, 2001, Page 343, Johnie Edwards has a short article, "What Death Says." What does death say? It says that for there to be life after death, there must be a resurrection from the dead. What does the resurrection say? It says if there is to be a resurrection there must be death to be resurrected from, not a higher kind of life than we now know that would not need a resurrection. It says someone who is not dead cannot be raised from the dead by a resurrection. The resurrection says death is a real death.
2 Corinthians 2:16 "The meaning therefore is, the Gospel, which arises from Christ and which is preached through us, is to the unbelieving, but the incense arising from one crucified and dead, and so it is to them a savor from the dead and producing death. But to the believing it is a savor FROM THE LIVING, PRODUCING LIFE." J. W. McGarvey, 1916. "McGarvey pointed out the extremely significant phrases 'from death' and 'from life' as used in this passage. To the unbelieving, the news of the Gospel is from one who was crucified and is dead: so, for them, it is an odor from death unto death EVEN ETERNAL DEATH; but to Christians, the news of the Gospel is 'from life unto life' in them that are saved." J. B. Coffman.
The sentence of death has been removed for those in Christ, and the promise of life (immortality, incorruption) given to them. For those not in Christ, there is only death, the wages of their sin. They will be raised only to face the judgment and the second death "a savor from death unto death."
"A Savor from life unto life" The new birth (John 3:3). "Walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:4). "Have passed out of death into life" (1 John 3:14). At the second coming of Christ shall "put on immortality" (1 Corinthians 15:53) after which there will be no death.
"A Savor from death unto death" Dead while she lives (1 Timothy 5:6). "Abides in death" (1 John 3:14). The lost will be raised from the dead at the second coming of Christ then judgment and the second death after which there will never be any life, never a resurrection from this death.
"In all classical literature no instance can be found where the word death has this signification of eternal torment" H. L. Hastings, "The Last Judgment," 1853
For those who are not in Christ, there is no eternal life anywhere.

Chapter Three

Truth Magazine, August 7, 2008, page 457 had an article about “Reinterpretation Of The Scripture.” The main point this article makes is about reinterpreting Genesis 3 to mean the Serpent was not real, but was taken from well-known pagan myths. The article points out that when one reinterpretation is accepted more will soon come and gives some reinterpretations they think may come. Without doubt, many have made reinterpretations of many scriptures and many more will make more reinterpretations. Reinterpretation that the magazine said nothing about have been made and accepted by many. Some reinterpretations that have been made in the past that are historical facts and believed by many today, reinterpretations that have caused many of the divisions we now have are Purgatory, Limbo, worship of Mary and Saints, Nether World, holy water, the rosary, forbidding Priest to marry, the crucifix, Monks and Nouns, forbidding eating of meat on Friday, and candle-burning. About all Protestants believe Purgatory to be a change or reinterpretation, and there are hundreds more reinterpretations that are historical facts and are believed by many today, but no one believes all to the hundreds of reinterpretations made in the past. Most believe only a few of them, and all the many others they believe to be the doctrine of man, not God. On what does anyone basic his or her belief that most reinterpretations are not from God, but a few are from God? Going to God's word is the only way anyone can know whether any teaching is from man or if it is from the Bible.
THE SUBJECTS OF THIS CHAPTER
(1) The nature of man, from mankind now being mortal reinterpreted to mankind now being immortal. The reinterpretation of the nature of a person, that a person has a part that is now immortal and it goes to Heaven or Hell at death. The general confusion of soul and spirit, are they both the same or are they two different immortal parts of a person that one or both will live after the person is dead? The resurrection versus an immortal soul that cannot die, therefore, needs no resurrection.
(2) The wages of sin being changed from death to being eternal life with torment. "The wages of sin is death" reinterpreted to be the wages of sin is an eternal life of torment in Hell for an immortal soul that is not subject to death.
(3) The reinterpretation of the final destiny of a person changed from heaven to earth. That the saved will forever be with Jesus in Heaven is reinterpreted to be that Jesus will forever be with the saved on this earth and no person will ever be in Heaven.
These three reinterpretations are believed by many today and are causing many of the divisions we now have.

Unconditional immortality makes many of the great doctrines of the New Testament useless andor impossible.

[1] THE REINTERPRETATION
OF THE DEATH OF JESUS
"Him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in him" [2 Corinthians 5:21]. Jesus actually died for our sins [Romans 5:8], and "We were reconciled to God through the death of his Son" [Romans 5:10]. The wages of sin is death [Romans 6:23], and Christ died our death that we may have life, not to keep us from an eternal life of torment, but to give us life [eternal life]. He paid the wages for our sin and died our death in our place, but He is not forever being tormented in our place. Death is the penalty for sin, not eternal life with torment. [Hebrews 9:11-28; 1 Peter 2:24; 2 Corinthians 5:16-19; Matthew 27:20; John 10:15; 12:23-26; 1 Corinthians 15:3; Hebrews 2:14; 9:16-17; 10:14; Isaiah 43:12]. If, as many teach, the wages of sin is eternal life in torment, Christ did not suffer eternal torment for us, therefore, He would not have paid the wages of sin for us. Jesus bore the punishment of sin that the sinner will bear at the judgment, but He is not suffering eternal torment; therefore, if eternal torment were the wages of sin, He is not paying it for us. Life is His gift to us, not just a reward for an immaterial, invisible "soul" that has eternal life and cannot die. Those who do not reach the blood of Christ [His death] will die, for the wages of their sin is death, "For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection" [Romans 6:5]. If those not united in the likeness of His death will not be in the likeness of His resurrection, then what likeness will they have in Hell? The wages of their sin is death, not having the likeness of Christ or Adam or any other likeness when in Hell. The only part of a person many says is immortal and will be in Heaven or Hell an undying soul that can never die, therefore, Christ could not have died in its place to save it from the wages of sin for that immortal soul would not be subject to death and would have no need for Him to have died in its place.
If Christ were as much alive in the three days His earthly body was in the grave as He was after the resurrection then there was no difference in Christ (1) than when before He came to earth (2) than when His earthly body was in the grave (3) and now when He is in Heaven, if His death were not total and complete. If only His earthly body were dead, then He was the same spiritual being with all the power and glory in the three days His body was in the grave that He had before He came to earth, or that He now has in Heaven. Jesus could have given nothing but His earthly body for our sins. According to those who believe we have a soul, which is only a part of us that cannot die, the soul of Christ could not and did not die, therefore, according to their teaching Jesus did not die for our sins for he was never dead, and the death of Jesus was not just a door by which He went instantly back to Heaven before His resurrection. He was not "received up from you into heaven" [Acts 1:11] unto 50 days after His death, not at the time of His death, not before His resurrection.
Christ “poured out his being unto death” [Isaiah 53:12]. “He poured out Himself to death” New American Standard Bible. Christ poured out his being, not just a human body, unto dead. Unto His resurrection He was dead, not alive in Hell or any other place.
Christ was as dead and as much under the power of death as mankind will be after death. He was not somewhere very much alive with the same body [spiritual body], and the power and glory He had before He came to earth; and just came back to His human body; that would not have been a death or a resurrection. His coming back to His earthy body on the third day would not have been a resurrection of anything but His earthly body. The Wages of sin is death [Romans 6:23] and Christ died in our place with all God's wrath that we would have had upon us at the judgment. Jesus paid our debt in full. He "lay down his life" for us [john 15:13] but he is not suffering eternal punishment for us, therefore, if eternal punishment is the wages of sin, He is not now paying our debt.
The death Christ died and his resurrection are opposites. If His death was not a real death, His resurrection could not be a real resurrection. Then what would God has given when He gave His only Son, nothing more than one human body for three days. There was no real sacrifice by God or Christ, no real resurrection as Jesus was not really and in truth dead. We are told repeatedly God raised Christ [Acts 3:15; 4:10; 5:30; 10:40; 13:30; 13:37; Romans 4:24; 8:11; 10:9; 1 Corinthians 6:14; 15:15; 2 Corinthians 4:14; Galatians 1:1; Ephesians 1:20; Colossians 2:12; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 1 Peter 1:21]. "May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus" [Hebrews 13:20 New International Version]. Suffering is never said to be the wages of sin, but many take away the wages of sin (death) and put an eternal life of suffering in Hell in its place. Not to take anything away from the suffering of Christ, but if He had suffered all He did right up to His death, and then not have died for our sin; we would still have to pay the penalty of our sin, which is death [Romans