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

6:23]. Jesus died for us, but He is not being forever tormented for us.
• "He laid down his LIFE for us" [1 John 3:16].
• "Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man BE RISEN FROM THE DEAD" [Matthew 17:9].
• "And go quickly, and tell his disciples, HE IS RISEN FROM THE DEAD" [Matthew 28:7].
• "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer, and RISE AGAIN FROM THE DEAD the third day" [Luke 24:46].
• "This is now the third time that Jesus was manifested to the disciples, after that HE WAS RISEN FROM THE DEAD" [John 21:14].
• "And killed the Prince of life; whom God RAISED FROM THE DEAD" [Acts 3:15].
(a) Christ is our Passover: Exodus 20: The lamb died in the place of the first-born. It was slain, not forever tormented. Its blood was placed on the doorpost, and the death angel passed over. If there were no blood, there was death for the first born, not an eternal life of torment. "For our Passover also has been sacrificed, even Christ" [1 Corinthians 5:7]. "That by the grace of God he should taste of death for every man" [Hebrews 2:9]. Christ died in the place of the sinner. It is by His blood that we are saved from death just as the blood of the lamb saved the first-born from death; the saved will be passed over by the second death. He tasted of death for all, but He is not forever being tormented for all.
(b) No atonement: If God's penalty for sin is not death, it would not have been necessary for Christ to die to redeem us from the curse of the law; for if the law did not inflict death on the sinner, and yet required the death of Christ for the redemption of the sinner, it inflicted on Christ as payment for our sins something it would not have inflicted on us as payment for our sin.
"If the punishment due for our sins is not actual death, then Christ could not have made an atonement for us by his death. Under the Mosaic Law there was no such punishment as imprisonment for life, much less imprisonment for life under continuous torture. The penalty for the greatest offenses was always and only death." Curtis Dickinson, What The Bible Teaches About Immortality And Future Punishment, Page 16.
If the soul does not die, but is translated to Heaven or Hell at death, then Christ was not dead. He was not raised the third day, but only came back from Heaven or Hell, but it could not be a resurrection. In Old Testament types, it was the life given up in the blood poured out on the altar that atoned for sin; and it was life given up by Christ that atones. Sin must be atoned for; the wages of sin is death. If Christ did not die, no atonement was made. If the wages of sin is an everlasting life of torment, then Christ did not pay it and no atonement was made. When "soul" [nehphesh - life] is reinterpreted to be an immaterial, invisible, undying inter part of a person, then when Christ "poured out his soul [nehphesh - life] unto death" [Isaiah 53:10-12], was this undying part of Him dead? If He were not dead, He did not pour out his life [nehphesh] unto death and there was no atonement.
(c) No New Covenant: "For where a testament is, there must of necessity be the death of him that made it. For a testament is in force where there has been death: for it never avail while he that made it lives" [Hebrews 9:16-17]. If Christ only changed from living on Earth to living any other place, whether it was Heaven, Hell or wherever.
1. If His soul which was alive before He came to Earth
2. Was alive while He was on Earth
3. And was alive when His earthly body was in the grave
4. Just as it now alive in Heaven
He did not die, there was no death, and the New Covenant is not in force.
"He was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And He made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death" [Isaiah 53:8-9]. "Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: whom God has raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be held of it...Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his grave is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with and oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne, he seeing this before spoke of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hades, neither did his flesh see corruption. this Jesus has god raised up, whereof we are all witnesses" [Acts 2:24-32]. This passage speaks of the death of David and the death of Christ as being the same death with David still dead but Christ rose from the dead after three days. Christ was as dead for three days as David still is and will be unto the resurrection. Christ was dead and buried in the grave just as David was, not alive someplace.
"And therefore it was imputed unto him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our offenses and was raised for our justification" [Romans 4:22-25]. "For He has made Him to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" [2 Corinthians 5:21]. "Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that he feared, though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience through the things that he suffered; and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him" [Hebrews. 5:79]. "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entered into the holy place every year with the blood of others; for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the age (aion-age, not world, probably the end of the Jewish age that ended at His death) has he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself And as it appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation" [Hebrews 9:24-28].
We are saved by the death of Christ. We were baptized into the death of Christ and raised from the dead. In some way that we may never fully understand we died with Him and His death became our death for our sins. See 2 Corinthians 5:14; Romans 6:3-8; Colossians 2:12; Galatians 2:20; Philippians 3:10; 2 Timothy 2:11.
(d) Makes Christ's death be inadequate: Many who say they "speak where the Bible speaks and are silent where the Bible is silent" say "we cannot fully grasp the righteousness and holiness of God, nor the sinfulness of sin in His perfectly created universe." They believe that the sinfulness of sin makes eternal torment in Hell necessary, and eternal death would not be enough for God to be a just God. If they "speak where the Bible speaks," then how do they know that sin is not evil enough to require the supreme penalty of the death of the sinner, therefore, the sinner must be let off with a lesser penalty of a life of torment. The Bible clearly says death is required. "The wages of sin is death" not just a life of torment. They are clearly speaking where the Bible does not speak. It is often said that the sinfulness of sin makes Hell necessary but not once does the Bible say this; it says, "The wages of sin is death."
Summary: When Christ paid the wages of sin for us, it was with His death. He is not suffering eternal torment for us, therefore, if the wages of sin is eternal torment and not death then the death of Christ was inadequate to pay for our sins. If eternal torment is the wages of sin Christ did not pay it and there is no salvation for anyone.

[2] THE REINTERPRETATION OF
THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST
If all the saved are now in Heaven with Christ and all the lost are now in Hell, why is He coming back to this earth? Death the "last enemy" has been made to do what Christ would have done at His second coming, namely taken all the saved to Heaven. There would be no need for Him to come back to do what death has already done. The doctrine of an immortal undying soul has supplanted the second coming of Christ by making the enemy of mankind be his best friend that takes him instantly to Heaven. This view has Christ coming back to earth for those who are not on earth but are with Him in Heaven.
The Abraham's bosom view says Christ is coming back to the earth for the resurrection, but the ones He is coming back to earth to raise from the dead are those who are not dead but are alive somewhere other than on earth. This view makes souls be alive wherever they think Abraham's bosom to be. No one is dead; therefore, there cannot be a resurrection of the undead who are alive either in Heaven or alive in Abraham’s bosom.

[3] THE REINTERPRETATION OF THE RESURRECTION
OF THE DEAD FROM THE GRAVE
MAKES A RESURRECTION IMPOSSIBLE
AND NOT NEEDED BY ELIMINATING DEATH
Those that are not dead cannot be raised from the dead. Unconditional immortality says a person has an immaterial part that is immortal and not subject to death, and that all go to Heaven or Hell at death. If this were true, it would make the resurrection be of no consequence, impossible, and not needed. Most unconditional immoralists say that this immaterial part of a person is the only part of a person that will be in Heaven, and it is not now dead and not in the grave and will not be dead or in the grave at the coming of Christ; and we are told the souls (the immaterial part) of those who have died are now in Heaven or Hell and are not now on this earth and will not be on this earth when He comes. If all are now in Heaven or Hell, then all have been judged. If it were true that the only part of a person that can never die is the