RESTORED, IT IS AN EVERLSATING PUNISHMENT. Lost of property, loss of liberty, loss of life, may all be meted out to the transgressors under the label of punishment. And death as the capital punishment, legalized on the statutes of all civilized nations of the world, is the highest punishment man can inflict—or so recognized,--being the deprivation of life, the first source of all pleasures and enjoyments, and recognized as being forfeited for certain crimes.‖ E. D.
Slough, ―The Indictment Of Eternal Torment—The Self-negation Of A Monstrous Doctrine,‖ Page 196-197, F. L. Rowe, Publisher, 1914, evangelist, church of Christ.
Summary: There is no way that those who believe all are born immortal could really believe in the resurrection or in the need for it. By teaching that all are born with an immortal part that can never die the resurrection is denied and made not possible. The two are not compatible and both cannot be true. Satan has done his work well.
ETERNAL
ETERNAL JUDGMENT Hebrews 6:2. The judgment will be in one "day" at the second coming of Christ and is not being judged forever without end; but a judgment in which the results will last for eternity. Eternal is not describing a judging that has no end. Eternal has reference to the result of the judgment, not to the act of judging. The judging will end, but its result will never end. The punishment is after the judging. Will it take God all eternity to do the judging? If so, He will never get to the punishment. Whether the punishment is, Hell or death will not matter if God never gets past the judging. It is the results of the judgment, an endlessly binding verdict that will never be changed that is eternal, not the judging.
ETERNAL REDEMPTION Hebrews 9:12, and ETERNAL SALVATION Hebrews 5:9.
Not redemption or a saving that goes on without end, but saving once that will be for eternity.
The time of salvation ends. God will not be savings those in Heaven for eternity. The redemption will not be going on forever, but the results of the redemption will be with out end. Those that are saved are forever saved, forever redeemed, not forever being redeemed; their salvation is without an end. Even those who believe in Hell believe those in Heaven are redeemed, not being eternally redeemed; and those they believe to be in Hell can never be redeemed.
ETERNAL SIN [Mark 3:29] is a sin, which will be committed in this lifetime, and not a sin that will be being committed without end in Hell after the judgment. It is a sin that the results
[death: the wages of sin] is a death from which there will never be a resurrection.
ETERNAL FIRE [Jude 7] is not a fire that is still burning Sodom and Gomorrah and will be burning these cities from now on, but the results, the total destruction of them will have no end.
These cities are not still burning, but the results of the fire were their eternal destruction. The fact 93
that Sodom and Gomorrah suffered the vengeance of "eternal fire" shows that the results are eternal, not the fire was eternal and that it is still burning today and will burning these cities for eternity. The fire that destroyed Sodom has long since gone out but their destruction remains and will always remain, and their eternal destruction is set forth as an example of
"eternal fire" that will eternally destroy the wicked just as it eternally completely destroyed these cities. Although it is continuous used to prove “Hell fire,” this fire was not in Hell, but was a fire on this earth that could be seen by all that were in that place on earth; there is no reference in it to Hell, or to an eternal life of suffering in fire; it has reference to “destroyed
them that believed not” [Jude 5] just as Sodom was eternality destroyed.
ETERNAL DESTRUCTION 2 Thessalonians 1:9 and ETERNAL PUNISHMENT
Matthew 25:46. Is this a destruction that will be bit by bit, but will take forever? No. It is destruction that the results will be final and eternal; a destruction that never destroys would not be destruction for destruction would never take place if the destroying were never completed. An everlasting process of destroying would never be destruction. Death, the wages of sin, is eternal punishment, but not eternal punishing; the death will be a permanent death, not forever dying but never dead. Eternal destruction and eternal punishment are speaking of the permanent results of both, a destruction and a punishment that will last forever, and is not describing the duration of the destroying, that it will take forever; not describing a destruction that the destroying will go on forever but never be destroyed. There will never be a resurrection from the second death, it is eternal. Those who teach that a person has a soul that can never be destroyed make God be forever destroying but never able to completely destroy the lost. Unconditional immoralists believe God made them destruction proof, and even He cannot destroy them, but nevertheless He will be trying to destroy them by burning them for all eternity. It is the destruction that is eternal, not eternally destroying.
Eternal judgment, not eternally judging
Eternal redemption, not eternally redeeming
Eternal salvation, not eternally saving
Eternal sin, not eternally sinning
Eternal destruction, not eternally destroying
Eternal punishment, not eternally punishing
Does anyone think the saving will go on forever?
Does anyone think the redeeming will go on forever?
Does anyone think the dying will go on forever but death will never come?
The Bible does not say the lost will receive eternal punishing, eternal destroying, eternal dying, eternal perishing, but eternal punishment is death, destruction.
None of the above is an endless processes that will go on forever, but rather they have a permanent result; the result of salvation is being eternally saved, not eternally being saved.
Eternal judgment is a judgment that happens one time, but the verdict will never be changed.
Eternal redemption and eternal salvation is not a saving will be going on for eternity; not a saving that the saving will never be finished.
Eternal sin is a sin that happens in this lifetime, but the results will last for eternity.
Eternal destruction and punishment is a destruction that the results will last for eternity.
[10]. 1 Peter 4:5 "Ready to judge the living and the dead"
Christ will be ready to judge those who are living at the time of His coming, and those who have died before He comes. Nothing is said about a spirit or soul in this verse. Nothing is said about any of the dead being alive and having immortality before the resurrection. Before the resurrection the dead will be dead, not more alive than when they were alive.
OLD TESTAMENT PASSAGES THAT ARE USED TO PROVE
A PERSON HAS AN IMMORTAL SOUL AND/OR SPIRIT AT BIRTH
This doctrine, "That man cannot die," made it necessity for evil people to have an endless existence, and this existence has been made into endless torment in a place that has been given 94
the name Hell; but where did this doctrine or this name came from? The Bible says, "This mortal
must put on immortality" 1 Corinthians 15:53. How can we put on that which we now have on?
A person cannot be both mortal and immortal at the same time.
[1]. MADE IN GOD'S IMAGE Genesis 1:27
Most probably the #1 proof text for immortality at birth. The argument is that God is immortal. A man is in God's image. Therefore, a man must also be immortal. This argument would make:
God is immortal. A man is in God's image. Therefore, a man must also be immortal.
God is omniscient [almighty]. A man is in God's image. Therefore, a man must also be almighty.
God is omnipotent [all knowing]. A man is in God's image. Therefore, a man must also be all knowing.
When God made a man, He did not give him all His characteristics. God is omnipotent
[almighty] and omniscient [all knowing]. A man is not almighty or all knowing although he is in God's image, but God is both; it does not prove that a person is immortal anymore than it proves a person is almighty. Animals are "living souls" [Genesis 1:20, 21, 24, 30, 2:19] just as persons are
"living souls," but animals were not created in the image of God; it is not the "living soul" that makes a person be in the image of God. It is obvious that immortality, not subject to death, is not the way man is in "image of God," and it is only assumed to be even when the Bible specifically says otherwise. We now seek immortality [Romans 2:7] and will put on immortality at the resurrection [1 Corinthians 15:53-54], but we are not now immortal; nor do we now have an immaterial invisible part of us that has no substance which is now as immortal as it will ever be.
This argument gives the impression that the person making it thinks God has only one attribute, therefore, if a person is in the image of God, that person must also be just as immortal as God is.
A man is to rule (have authority) over all that God has put under him just as God rules over all.
It maybe that man's authority over all the earth, which none of the other created being of the earth have, is the way man is in the image of God. The two are without any doubt spoken of in the same context. Mankind rules over all created beings on earth in a finite way as God does in an infinite way. Christians "have put on the new man that is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that created him" [Colossians 3:10, See Romans 3:29; 1 Corinthians 15:49; Ephesians 4:24].
[2]. THE BREATH OF LIFE [Genesis 2]
The breath of life is used to prove God breathed into a person an immortal soul, which He did not give to lower animals. They overlook the fact that the same writer applies the same expression to both a person and animals, also to fish and birds. "So they went into the ark to Noah, by twos of all flesh in which was the breath of life...And all flesh that moved on the earth perished, birds and cattle and beasts and every swarming that the swarms upon the earth, and all mankind; of all that was on the dry land, all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life,
died" [Genesis 7:15-22 New American Standard Bible, also Ecclesiastes 3:19-20].
"Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life and man became a living soul" Genesis 2:7
"Two of all flesh wherein is the breath of life" Genesis 7:15
The reverse of Genesis 2:7 " His breath [ruach-spirit goes forth, he returns to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish" Psalms 146:4. All personal pronouns of the earthly person
1. His breath [ruach-spirit]
2. He returns to his earth
3. His thoughts perish
"Stop regarding man, whose breath of life is in his nostrils" [Isaiah 2:22]. I find it difficult to understand how anyone can find an immortal soul in this. It is the body that has breath, and that breath is in its nostrils. Do they think the immortal soul is nothing but breath in the nostrils of man? As long as the "breath of life" is in his nostrils, a person has "life." When the "breath of life" is no longer in his nostrils, he no longer has "life." Instead of saying mankind is immortal 95
and therefore, cannot be destroyed, this is speaking of the frail and perishable nature of a person that their life depends on the breath in the nostrils.
It is even more difficult to understand how anyone can find an immortal soul that cannot die in this when it plainly says, "And all mankind; of all that was on the dry land, all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, DIED. " Beasts and man both have the breath of life, and both died. Did souls that cannot die, die? The breath of life is not a living, thinking, conscious entity that survives death and lives without the body. "Then the Lord God formed man of the dust from the ground [the body without breath was a lifeless person that could not think, see, speak, or feel]
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life [lives, plural in the Hebrew] and man [the thing that was made of dust] became a living being [nehphesh]." Not "A living being" was put into the thing made of dust.
[3]. A LIVING BEING Genesis 2:7
See "USE OF SOUL [NEHPHESH] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT" in the first part of this chapter, all living beings are a nehphesh. The argument of many seems to be that God made man out of the elements He had created, then super-added a living being to the man making him a dual being. It does not say God made a being living and then put another living being in the first one.
It says God made the man and then put life into him. According to Plato a soul was put into the prison house of the body at birth and freed from it at death; while in the prison house of man, the soul uses its eyes to see, its ears to hear, and uses all the body. If it were a living being that was put into the body, before it was put into the body, could it see, hear, etc., before without the eyes and ears of the body, and can it do so after the death of the body? If the ―soul‖ was not capable of performing these functions without the body, how can it do so after the death of the body? The body God made became a living being when God breathed into it’s nostrils the breath of life and when the breath of life leaves the body, it becomes a lifeless body. It was life given to the body, not an immortal living being imprisoned in it that was better off without the body in which it was imprisoned.
[4]. "YOU SURELY SHALL NOT DIE" [Genesis 3]
WHERE DID THE IDEA OF AN IMMORTAL SOUL ORIGINATE? Not from the first lie
as many believe. Adam and Eve were told, " You [not your soul] shall not eat of it; neither shall
you [not your soul] touch it lest you [not your soul] die." Satan said, " You [not your soul] shall not surely die." They were not told their "souls" would die. They [Adam and Eve] not their "soul"
were sent out of the Garden of Eden "lest he [not his soul] put forth his [not his soul] hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever." Not their "immaterial, invisible" undying soul eats and lives forever.
1. There is not one word about a soul in genesis chapter three, but this chapter is used to prove a person has an immortal soul that cannot die
2. There is not one word about "hell" in genesis chapter three, but this chapter is also used to prove an eternal life of torment in hell.
God said, "In the day YOU eat it DYING YOU SHALL DIE."
Eve said, " YOU shall not eat from it or touch it, LEST YOU DIE."
Satan said, " YOU surely SHALL NOT DIE."
o Satan lie has been added to in today's preaching. It has been changed to be , "Your body shall die but your soul, which is the real you, shall surely not die."
o "And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died" [Genesis 5:5]. "Adam lived...and he died." Today's theology says not so,
―Adam lived and he continued to live. Satan was right when he said, ‗you surely shall not die‘‖
The warning for eating of the tree was " YOU shall surely die.” God's sentence for eating of the tree was "to dust YOU shall return" [not your soul shall return to dust]. In God's statement to Adam, the personal pronouns "you" and "your" are used about fifteen times (it varies in different translations). "Then to Adam He said, 'Because YOU have listened to the voice of YOUR wife, 96
and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded YOU, saying, YOU shall not eat from it; cursed is the ground because of YOU; in toil YOU shall eat of it all the days of YOUR life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for YOU; and YOU shall eat the plants of the field; by the sweat of YOUR face YOU shall eat bread, till YOU return to the ground, because from it YOU were taken; for YOU are dust, and to dust YOU shall return" [New American Standard Version]. The
" YOU" is Adam that had to work to live, would sweet, and would die, not just an immaterial, invisible part of Adam. Those who use this passage to teach a person has an immortal soul pick one of the many of the " YOU'S" and say only this one is an immortal part of Adam but say nothing of the others and hope you do not see the others for their immortal "immaterial, invisible part of man" cannot eat, will not return to the ground, does not sweat, etc.; the YOU that eat is the same YOU that died; there is nothing obscure or vague in this statement, language could not be more definite. This passage is used to teach the doctrine of an immortal soul
[nehphesh] even though it says nothing of a soul [nehphesh] or immortality, and at the same time, death, which is in the passage, is removed and it is made not to exist. Why would an immortal, immaterial soul that cannot die have any need of the tree of life to live? Why do many think God would tell Adam he would die if God know Adam was immortal and could not die, and why would God take the tree of life from him “lest he ear and live forever” if God know Adam had an
―immortal soul‖ that was the only part of him that would live forever, and his ―immortal soul‖
would live forever without the tree of life?
In “YOU shall surely DIE,” die is from mooth, Strong‘s world 4191, and it is used repeatedly through out the Old Testament with reference to the death of mankind, animals, fish, etc., but never means eternal life with torment. It is “YOU” Adam that would “DIE” just as animals and fish die, not some part of Adam that could not die that would LIVE some place separated from God.
It was a real tree with a real earthly fruit that a real person with a real earthly hand that was told HE would die if HE eats, and a real earthly person that was put out of a real garden lest HE
[not his soul] put forth HIS hand [not his soul's hand], and take also of the real tree of life by eating the fruit HE would have had in the same hand HE put forth [not his soul eating], and live forever. To what did living depend on eating of the tree of life, to Adam, or to an "immaterial, invisible" immortal part of Adam that could not die even if it did not eat? Would it not be a contradiction to say Adam had an immortal soul that could not die and must live forever, but it depended on eating of the tree of life to live, or that the soul that could not die would die if it did not eat of the tree of life? Yet, we are told that all, even Adam, have an immortal soul that will live forever, and this deathless soul has no need of the tree of life, and that this deathless part of a person is the only part of a person that will ever live forever; therefore, what could the tree of life give to Adam's deathless soul that it did not already have? Nothing. According to this doctrine, Adam‘s deathless soul did not lose it‘s deathless when Adam eat of the tree. This doctrine makes the flaming sword useless to keep Adam from the tree of life so that he may eat and live forever, for it makes Adam live forever if he eats or if he does not eat.
1. God placed Adam in the garden and gave him access to the tree of life to sustain his life; his life was dependent on his having access to this tree, not on his being created with unconditional immortality and not subject to death.
2. Adam was removed from the tree of life “lest he eat and live forever”; his life depended on his eating of the tree before he sinned. He was not remade, not recreated with a different body; he had the same body before and after he was put out of the garden, just did not have access to the tree of life.
It was Adam that God said would die if he ate, not an immortal soul that cannot die. It was Satan that told Adam he would not die if he did eat. God says nothing about Adam having an immortal deathless soul that could not die. "You shall surely die" is far from saying,
"When you die, a part of you will live and suffer eternal torment" but many read this into it. Was Adam created mortal or immoral? If immortal, how could he be threatened with death when he 97
could not die? If he were immortal, he would be death-proof; therefore, God's sentence of death if he eats would have been a lie.
When God said, Adam shall “surely die” He is saying Adam was mortal.
When Satan said Adam shall “not surely die” he is saying Adam is immortal and cannot die.
"It is appointed unto man to die, and after this comes the judgment" [Hebrews 9:27]. Not just part of a person, not only the body of the man. This is changed to read only your outer shell, and not the real YOU shall die. "In the day YOU eat thereof YOU shall surely die" is not, "After the death of your body, your soul, a part of you, shall be eternity alive in Hell and tormented by God"
but this is what many read into it. Some say this is not physical death but a spiritual death. Then where did physical death come from? What death was passed unto ALL men [Romans 5:12]? Is it appointed for a man to die, or changed to be it is appointed for only a part of a man to die?
"The first man is of the earth, earthy" [1 Corinthians 15:47; Ecclesiastes 3:20].
The death sentence: God: " YOU shall surely die" [Genesis 2:17] versus Satan: " YOU
shall not surely die" [Genesis 3:4].
The death sentence repeated: "Dust YOU are, and unto dust YOU shall return"
[Genesis 2:19]. The YOU that shall die is the same YOU that shall return to dust. These words do not point to a continuation of life but to the end of it.
The death sentence passed to all: "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned"
[Romans 5:12]. As a results of Adam‘s sin took him away from the tree of life and brought death which passed on to all for all are born mortal and do not have access to the tree of life, all return to dust.
The remedy for the death that came through Adam's sin. "For the hour is coming, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and those that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment" [John 5:28-29].
Was this sentence of death given to an immortal soul that cannot die? If it is immortal how could any kind of death sentence be given to it, how could it not live forever? It could not be subject to death. It would not matter if Adam ate or did not eat for his immaterial invisible immortal soul could not die. In the fall of Adam and his sentence, nothing is said about an immortal soul. It was Adam that sinned, Adam that died; and it was through Adam that death came into the world and passed unto all men, not death passed to all immortal souls [1
Corinthians 15:21-22; Romans 5:12-14]. The penalty to Adam and all his seed is death, not eternal life in Hell. There will be a resurrection from the death that came into the world from Adam's sin.
Today's preachers would tell Adam that he was going to Hell for his sin, but God said not one word about Hell. "Die" has been changed to "Hell." "Death" has been changed to "life with torment." Satan said, " Y