Immortality or Resurrection (Updated) - William West (top ten ebook reader .TXT) 📗
- Author: William West
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the depths of Gehenna, or of the lowest Gehenna. Neither do we read of the gates
of Gehenna. All these things are said of Sheol and Hades...Besides, no representation are given of
Gehenna, as of Sheol and Hades, that all the dead, or even the wicked, are there. No persons are
ever represented as alive in Gehenna, as speaking out of Gehenna, or as tormented in its flames.
It is never, like Sheol and Hades, represented as a dark, concealed place, under the earth. No; it
is represented as on a level with the persons addressed concerning it. These facts show a
remarkable difference in the scripture representations of the two places. Such a marked
difference must strike every man's mind with great force that takes the trouble to examine this
subject. An examination of the twelve places in which Gehenna occurs in the New Testament will
show that what I have stated is strictly correct. In them we read of the judgment of Gehenna or
hell; persons are said to be in danger of it; they are threatened with going into it, or being cast
into it; but we never read that any one was alive in it, and lifter up his eyes in its torments. Now,
comparing all these different forms of speech, about Sheol and Hades, with those of Gehenna,
the difference is not only manifest, but very significant" Walter Balfour, "An Inquiry Into The
Scriptural Import Of The Words, Sheol, Hades, Tartarus and Gehenna," 1854.
Summary of chapter six: TO TRANSLATE SHEOL, GEHENNA, HADES, OR
TARTARUS INTO HELL, IS A TOTAL PERVERSION OF THE TRUTH; AND
IS AN INTENTIONAL MISTRANSLATION. IF WE USE IT OR TEACH IT, CAN
THERE BE ANY HOPE FOR US? HELL IS A VERY DIFFERENT GOSPEL
[GALATIANS 1:9]. IT IS CERTAINLY MORE DIFFERENT THAN ANYTHING
THAT WAS PREACHED IN PAUL'S TIME.
298
CHAPTER SEVEN
A STRANGE AND UNEXPLAINABLE SILENCE
THE SILENCE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
ON PUNISHMENT AFTER DEATH
In the Old Testament the penalty for disobedience is always in this lifetime.
There is no allusion made to any punishment after this lifetime. THE
PUNISHMENTS WERE TEMPORAL, NOT ENDLESS BUT LIMITED
PUNISHMENTS, NOT PUNISHMENTS IN THE HEREAFTER BUT IN THIS
LIFETIME.
FROM ADAM TO MOSES
[1] ADAM: God told Adam in the day he ate he would die. The day he ate was the
beginning of the dying process, "Dying you shall die." The death that came into the world
by Adam's sin is the same death that he died for eating, a physical death. His punishment
was that he had to work to live, and dying. It was not the death of Adam's "soul," an
inward immortal never dying part of Adam that could not die but it would die anyway if
he eat. He was not told that after his death he would be subjected to endless torment in
Hell, but endless torment is almost always read into this. The complete silence of any
punishment after death would be unthinkable if the doctrine of Hell were true.
[2] CAIN: His sin was the first murder, which by most is believed to be the greatest of
all sins. What was his punishment? Today he would be told that he would go to Hell if he
did not repent, but his punishment was that he was to be a fugitive and a vagabond in his
lifetime on the earth. Not one word about any punishment after his death. The
punishment for anyone who killed Cain would be SEVEN TIMES GREATER than the
punishment of Cain. How could anything be seven times greater than today's Hell?
[3] THE FLOOD: The people had become so evil that God destroyed them. Only eight
were saved. What was their punishment? Read the Bible. It was death. There is no
mention of any punishment after their death. They were not told they had lost their souls
or that they would go to Hell. Their punishment was not something that would be after
the flood; it was the flood and their death. "And the Lord was sorry that He had made
man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. And the Lord said, 'I will BLOT OUT
MAN whom I have created from the face of the land'" [Genesis 6:6-7 New American
Standard]. "And all flesh DIED that moved upon the earth, both birds, and cattle, and
beasts, and every creeping thing that creeping that creeps upon the earth, and every man:
all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, of all that was on the dry land
DIED. And every living thing was DESTROYED that was upon the face of the ground,
both man, and cattle, and creeping things, and birds of the heavens; and they were
DESTROYED from the earth" [Genesis 7:21-23]. The same thing happened to "every
man" also happened to every beast; their punishment was death, not eternal torment. If
the punishment of Hell awaited all those who drown in the flood, the punishment given to
them utterly pales into insignificance when it compared to an eternal life of torment in
Hell, yet absolutely nothing is said about eternal punishment after death.
"I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; and with every living
creature (soul-nehphesh) that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the
earth with you; of all that go out of the ark, even every beast of the earth. And I will
299
establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters
of the flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to DESTROY the earth" [Genesis
9:9-11]. All the souls, both of beast and man were destroyed, not forever tormented.
"For this they willfully forget, that there were heavens from of old, and an earth
compacted out of water and amid water, by the word of God; by which means the world
that then was, being overflowed with water, PERISHED [apollumi]" [2 Peter 3:5-6
American Standard Version]. "WAS DESTROYED" New American Standard Bible.
Nothing is said about endless torment or any torment after death.
[4] THE DESTRUCTION OF SODOM AND GOMORRAH: Genesis 13 and 14:
These cities were literally burnt up [Psalms 11:6; Isaiah 34:9], not still burning with the
people walking around in torment. Their end was complete total destruction and is an
example of the total destruction that is coming to the ungodly at the judgment. Sodom did
not just suffer a lost of “will being” but was completely and forever totally destroyed “by
burning them to ashes and made them an example of what is going to happen to the
ungodly” [2 Peter 2:6]. Peter adds in the next chapter that the earth will be “burned up.”
The earth has been stored up for fire “being reserved against the day of judgment and
destruction of ungodly men” [2 Peter 3:7-13].
[5] FROM ADAM TO MOSES: For about twenty-five centuries, from Adam to
Moses, Lot's wife, Pharaoh, building of Babel, etc., punishment was always in this life,
not in life after death.
THE LAW OF MOSES
ALL THESE BLESSING, ALL THESE CURSING
"Now it shall be, if you will diligently obey the Lord our God, being careful to do all
His commandments which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high
above all the nations of the earth. AND ALL THESE BLESSING SHALL COME UPON
YOU AND OVERTAKE YOU, if you will obey the Lord your God" [Deuteronomy 28:1-
2]. "Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians" [Acts 7:22], therefore, he
knew of their teaching of life after death, but he did not put a word of it in the Law.
ALL THESE BLESSINGS of the Law were in this lifetime, not after death
[Deuteronomy 28:11]. NOT ONE WORD ABOUT A BLESSING AFTER DEATH.
• God would set Israel high above all nations [Deuteronomy 28:1].
• Blessing in the city and in the country [Deuteronomy 28:4].
• Blessing in children, cattle, and the ground [Deuteronomy 28:5].
• Blessing in full barns [Deuteronomy 28:8].
• Blessing in all they set their hand to do [Deuteronomy 28:8].
• The Lord will establish them as a holy people to Himself [Deuteronomy 28:9].
• All nations will see and be afraid of you [Deuteronomy 28:10].
• They will abound in prosperity, in children, and the fruit of the land
[Deuteronomy 28:11-12].
• They will lend to many nations and not borrow, be the head and not the tail
[Deuteronomy 28:12-13].
ALL THESE CURSES of the Law if they did not keep it were in this lifetime
[Deuteronomy 28:18-19]. NOT ONE WORD ABOUT A CURSE AFTER THIS
LIFETIME. "But it shall come about, if you will not obey the Lord your God, to observe
to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that ALL
300
THESE CURSES SHALL COME UPON YOU AND OVERTAKE YOU" [Deuteronomy
28:15].
• Cursed in the city and the country [Deuteronomy 28:16].
• Cursed in your basket and kneading bowl [Deuteronomy 28:17].
• Cursed in their children, the produce of their ground, the increase of their herd
[Deuteronomy 28:18].
• Cursed when they come in and when they went out [Deuteronomy 28:19].
• Confusion, rebuke, in all they did unto they were destroyed [Deuteronomy 28:20].
• Cursed with pestilence until they were consumed from the land [Deuteronomy
28:21].
• Smite with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with fiery heat, with the
sword, with blight, with mildew, and pursued unto they perished [Deuteronomy
28:22].
• The heaven over their head as bronze and the earth under them as iron
[Deuteronomy 28:23].
• The rain on their land made as power and dust unto they were destroyed
[Deuteronomy 28:24].
• Defeated before their enemies and their carcasses shall be food for birds
[Deuteronomy 28:25-26].
• Smite with boils of Egypt, with tumors, with scab, with an itch, which cannot be
healed, with blindness, madness and bewilderment of heart [Deuteronomy 28:27-
28].
• They would not prosper and would be oppressed and robbed continually
[Deuteronomy 28:29].
• Their wives would be violated, and they would build a house and not live in it,
plant a vineyard but not use it [Deuteronomy 28:30].
• Many more curses if they did not obey the Lord [Deuteronomy 28:31-68]. Those
who came out of Egypt and provoked the Lord died in the wilderness. Death was
their punishment, not eternal torment after death [Numbers 14; Hebrews 3:16-19].
"I declare unto you this day, that you shall surely PERISH; you shall not prolong your
days in the land" [Deuteronomy 30:18]. "So they, and all that appertained to them, went
down alive into Sheol: and the earth closed upon them, and they PERISHED from among
the assembly" [Numbers 16:33]. "And whatsoever soul it be that does any manner of
work in that same day, that soul will I DESTROY from among his people" [Leviticus
23:30]. Throughout the Old Testament perish and destroy means dying and has nothing to
do with any kind of torment after death. It would be past comprehension that God would
give them such detail of what would happen to then in this lifetime and say nothing of the
unending pain He was going to forever heap on them in Hell that awaited them.
"One of the first phenomena which draws attention in the Pentateuch is the omission, both in
the historical and perceptive portions of it, of any mention of the immortality of the soul. If this
view of man's nature were true in our time, it was true from the beginning, and true in the time
of Moses. And if it were as important as it is supposed to be now, it was equally important then.
Yet no single indication of it is discoverable in the writings of Moses...There is but one tolerable
explanation of this silence. Moses was withheld by divine control from teaching what was
of Gehenna. All these things are said of Sheol and Hades...Besides, no representation are given of
Gehenna, as of Sheol and Hades, that all the dead, or even the wicked, are there. No persons are
ever represented as alive in Gehenna, as speaking out of Gehenna, or as tormented in its flames.
It is never, like Sheol and Hades, represented as a dark, concealed place, under the earth. No; it
is represented as on a level with the persons addressed concerning it. These facts show a
remarkable difference in the scripture representations of the two places. Such a marked
difference must strike every man's mind with great force that takes the trouble to examine this
subject. An examination of the twelve places in which Gehenna occurs in the New Testament will
show that what I have stated is strictly correct. In them we read of the judgment of Gehenna or
hell; persons are said to be in danger of it; they are threatened with going into it, or being cast
into it; but we never read that any one was alive in it, and lifter up his eyes in its torments. Now,
comparing all these different forms of speech, about Sheol and Hades, with those of Gehenna,
the difference is not only manifest, but very significant" Walter Balfour, "An Inquiry Into The
Scriptural Import Of The Words, Sheol, Hades, Tartarus and Gehenna," 1854.
Summary of chapter six: TO TRANSLATE SHEOL, GEHENNA, HADES, OR
TARTARUS INTO HELL, IS A TOTAL PERVERSION OF THE TRUTH; AND
IS AN INTENTIONAL MISTRANSLATION. IF WE USE IT OR TEACH IT, CAN
THERE BE ANY HOPE FOR US? HELL IS A VERY DIFFERENT GOSPEL
[GALATIANS 1:9]. IT IS CERTAINLY MORE DIFFERENT THAN ANYTHING
THAT WAS PREACHED IN PAUL'S TIME.
298
CHAPTER SEVEN
A STRANGE AND UNEXPLAINABLE SILENCE
THE SILENCE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
ON PUNISHMENT AFTER DEATH
In the Old Testament the penalty for disobedience is always in this lifetime.
There is no allusion made to any punishment after this lifetime. THE
PUNISHMENTS WERE TEMPORAL, NOT ENDLESS BUT LIMITED
PUNISHMENTS, NOT PUNISHMENTS IN THE HEREAFTER BUT IN THIS
LIFETIME.
FROM ADAM TO MOSES
[1] ADAM: God told Adam in the day he ate he would die. The day he ate was the
beginning of the dying process, "Dying you shall die." The death that came into the world
by Adam's sin is the same death that he died for eating, a physical death. His punishment
was that he had to work to live, and dying. It was not the death of Adam's "soul," an
inward immortal never dying part of Adam that could not die but it would die anyway if
he eat. He was not told that after his death he would be subjected to endless torment in
Hell, but endless torment is almost always read into this. The complete silence of any
punishment after death would be unthinkable if the doctrine of Hell were true.
[2] CAIN: His sin was the first murder, which by most is believed to be the greatest of
all sins. What was his punishment? Today he would be told that he would go to Hell if he
did not repent, but his punishment was that he was to be a fugitive and a vagabond in his
lifetime on the earth. Not one word about any punishment after his death. The
punishment for anyone who killed Cain would be SEVEN TIMES GREATER than the
punishment of Cain. How could anything be seven times greater than today's Hell?
[3] THE FLOOD: The people had become so evil that God destroyed them. Only eight
were saved. What was their punishment? Read the Bible. It was death. There is no
mention of any punishment after their death. They were not told they had lost their souls
or that they would go to Hell. Their punishment was not something that would be after
the flood; it was the flood and their death. "And the Lord was sorry that He had made
man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. And the Lord said, 'I will BLOT OUT
MAN whom I have created from the face of the land'" [Genesis 6:6-7 New American
Standard]. "And all flesh DIED that moved upon the earth, both birds, and cattle, and
beasts, and every creeping thing that creeping that creeps upon the earth, and every man:
all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, of all that was on the dry land
DIED. And every living thing was DESTROYED that was upon the face of the ground,
both man, and cattle, and creeping things, and birds of the heavens; and they were
DESTROYED from the earth" [Genesis 7:21-23]. The same thing happened to "every
man" also happened to every beast; their punishment was death, not eternal torment. If
the punishment of Hell awaited all those who drown in the flood, the punishment given to
them utterly pales into insignificance when it compared to an eternal life of torment in
Hell, yet absolutely nothing is said about eternal punishment after death.
"I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; and with every living
creature (soul-nehphesh) that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the
earth with you; of all that go out of the ark, even every beast of the earth. And I will
299
establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters
of the flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to DESTROY the earth" [Genesis
9:9-11]. All the souls, both of beast and man were destroyed, not forever tormented.
"For this they willfully forget, that there were heavens from of old, and an earth
compacted out of water and amid water, by the word of God; by which means the world
that then was, being overflowed with water, PERISHED [apollumi]" [2 Peter 3:5-6
American Standard Version]. "WAS DESTROYED" New American Standard Bible.
Nothing is said about endless torment or any torment after death.
[4] THE DESTRUCTION OF SODOM AND GOMORRAH: Genesis 13 and 14:
These cities were literally burnt up [Psalms 11:6; Isaiah 34:9], not still burning with the
people walking around in torment. Their end was complete total destruction and is an
example of the total destruction that is coming to the ungodly at the judgment. Sodom did
not just suffer a lost of “will being” but was completely and forever totally destroyed “by
burning them to ashes and made them an example of what is going to happen to the
ungodly” [2 Peter 2:6]. Peter adds in the next chapter that the earth will be “burned up.”
The earth has been stored up for fire “being reserved against the day of judgment and
destruction of ungodly men” [2 Peter 3:7-13].
[5] FROM ADAM TO MOSES: For about twenty-five centuries, from Adam to
Moses, Lot's wife, Pharaoh, building of Babel, etc., punishment was always in this life,
not in life after death.
THE LAW OF MOSES
ALL THESE BLESSING, ALL THESE CURSING
"Now it shall be, if you will diligently obey the Lord our God, being careful to do all
His commandments which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high
above all the nations of the earth. AND ALL THESE BLESSING SHALL COME UPON
YOU AND OVERTAKE YOU, if you will obey the Lord your God" [Deuteronomy 28:1-
2]. "Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians" [Acts 7:22], therefore, he
knew of their teaching of life after death, but he did not put a word of it in the Law.
ALL THESE BLESSINGS of the Law were in this lifetime, not after death
[Deuteronomy 28:11]. NOT ONE WORD ABOUT A BLESSING AFTER DEATH.
• God would set Israel high above all nations [Deuteronomy 28:1].
• Blessing in the city and in the country [Deuteronomy 28:4].
• Blessing in children, cattle, and the ground [Deuteronomy 28:5].
• Blessing in full barns [Deuteronomy 28:8].
• Blessing in all they set their hand to do [Deuteronomy 28:8].
• The Lord will establish them as a holy people to Himself [Deuteronomy 28:9].
• All nations will see and be afraid of you [Deuteronomy 28:10].
• They will abound in prosperity, in children, and the fruit of the land
[Deuteronomy 28:11-12].
• They will lend to many nations and not borrow, be the head and not the tail
[Deuteronomy 28:12-13].
ALL THESE CURSES of the Law if they did not keep it were in this lifetime
[Deuteronomy 28:18-19]. NOT ONE WORD ABOUT A CURSE AFTER THIS
LIFETIME. "But it shall come about, if you will not obey the Lord your God, to observe
to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that ALL
300
THESE CURSES SHALL COME UPON YOU AND OVERTAKE YOU" [Deuteronomy
28:15].
• Cursed in the city and the country [Deuteronomy 28:16].
• Cursed in your basket and kneading bowl [Deuteronomy 28:17].
• Cursed in their children, the produce of their ground, the increase of their herd
[Deuteronomy 28:18].
• Cursed when they come in and when they went out [Deuteronomy 28:19].
• Confusion, rebuke, in all they did unto they were destroyed [Deuteronomy 28:20].
• Cursed with pestilence until they were consumed from the land [Deuteronomy
28:21].
• Smite with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with fiery heat, with the
sword, with blight, with mildew, and pursued unto they perished [Deuteronomy
28:22].
• The heaven over their head as bronze and the earth under them as iron
[Deuteronomy 28:23].
• The rain on their land made as power and dust unto they were destroyed
[Deuteronomy 28:24].
• Defeated before their enemies and their carcasses shall be food for birds
[Deuteronomy 28:25-26].
• Smite with boils of Egypt, with tumors, with scab, with an itch, which cannot be
healed, with blindness, madness and bewilderment of heart [Deuteronomy 28:27-
28].
• They would not prosper and would be oppressed and robbed continually
[Deuteronomy 28:29].
• Their wives would be violated, and they would build a house and not live in it,
plant a vineyard but not use it [Deuteronomy 28:30].
• Many more curses if they did not obey the Lord [Deuteronomy 28:31-68]. Those
who came out of Egypt and provoked the Lord died in the wilderness. Death was
their punishment, not eternal torment after death [Numbers 14; Hebrews 3:16-19].
"I declare unto you this day, that you shall surely PERISH; you shall not prolong your
days in the land" [Deuteronomy 30:18]. "So they, and all that appertained to them, went
down alive into Sheol: and the earth closed upon them, and they PERISHED from among
the assembly" [Numbers 16:33]. "And whatsoever soul it be that does any manner of
work in that same day, that soul will I DESTROY from among his people" [Leviticus
23:30]. Throughout the Old Testament perish and destroy means dying and has nothing to
do with any kind of torment after death. It would be past comprehension that God would
give them such detail of what would happen to then in this lifetime and say nothing of the
unending pain He was going to forever heap on them in Hell that awaited them.
"One of the first phenomena which draws attention in the Pentateuch is the omission, both in
the historical and perceptive portions of it, of any mention of the immortality of the soul. If this
view of man's nature were true in our time, it was true from the beginning, and true in the time
of Moses. And if it were as important as it is supposed to be now, it was equally important then.
Yet no single indication of it is discoverable in the writings of Moses...There is but one tolerable
explanation of this silence. Moses was withheld by divine control from teaching what was
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