CHAPTER THREE
A Deathless, Immaterial, Invisible, No Substance Soul
Versus The Resurrection Of The Dead
The main point of an article, “Reinterpretation Of The Scripture” in Truth Magazine, August 7, 2003, page 458 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 are 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 believe that 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.
(2) The wages of sin being reinterpreted from being 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. The resurrection versus an immortal soul that cannot die, therefore it needs no resurrection.
(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 and\or 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). "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 is an undying soul that can never die; therefore, Christ could not have died in its place to save a deathly soul 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.
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 His resurrection was just His coming back from someplace where He was alive, just coming back to His human body; that would not have been a death or a resurrection 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). "Now the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep with the blood of an eternal covenant, even our Lord Jesus" (Hebrews 13:20). 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 6:23). Jesus died for us, but He is not being forever tormented for us.
(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.
Curtis Dickinson: "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." What The Bible Teaches About Immortality And Future Punishment, page 16, church of Christ.
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; 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.
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 was 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. 5:7-9). "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 those that are in Christ have 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. The wages of sin is death and death is definitely the forfeiture of life, 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 already 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 they are already 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
INTO AN INSTANT TRANSLATION TO HEAVEN
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 it is 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 it is not now in the grave, and it will not be dead, or in the grave at the coming of Christ; 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 Christ 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 only part of him that will ever be in Heaven, and it is already in Heaven, then there could not be a resurrection of the dead, for this undead part of a person would not be dead. The resurrection is at the coming of Christ; if those who have died in Christ are now alive in Heaven, some for two thousand years or more, what would be the point of the second coming of Christ to receive them unto Himself (John 14:3). Would it not be ridiculous for Christ to come to Earth for His people when they had been with Him in Heaven, some for thousands of years? There would be nothing on earth to rise, but the earthly body that will never be in Heaven. 1 Corinthians 15:50 "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God."
There could not be a resurrection to immortal life if a person now has immortal life; the only part of them that will be in Heaven would just go on living. Can those who are not asleep wake up? Dying has been made into a translation to another kind of life, not a death. Death has been made into a doorway into a continuation of life without the resurrection in which the lost will be just as alive as the saved, and the lost would have eternal life that is just as eternal as the saved. The sting of death has been removed, and death made into a victory, made into instantaneous life in Heaven, and in so doing has completely eliminated the need for a resurrection. Many believe the dead now have a spiritual body that now has incorruption (1 Corinthians 15:42), that it now has glory and power (1 Corinthians 15:43), and believe that it is now in the image of the heavenly (1 Corinthians 15:49). If, as soon as they die, the dead are alive and they have the image of Christ, what more will they have or could want after the resurrection? Going instantly to Heaven at death makes David and all the Old Testament saints to have been saved, and went to Heaven before and without any need of the death and resurrection of Christ.
What about those who would now be in Hell; are they to be resurrected; what could possibly be the purpose of their resurrection; if it is for judgment why are they now in Hell before they are judged? To judge them after they had been in Hell, some for thousands of years, would be nothing but pure mockery; it would make God to have sent them to Hell without a judgment, or be unsure of His first judgment and need a second one.
THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD
IS AN UNSOLVABLE PROBLEM
For those who believe an undying soul is translated to Heaven or Hell at the moment of death without the resurrection at the second coming of Christ, the resurrection is a problem for which they seem to have no solution. What do they think will be raised from the dead when Christ comes? What body will be raised; what will be done with the earthly body after it was raised from the dead? It cannot go to Heaven; what would happen to the earthly body if it were raised? A resurrection of those who are alive in Heaven or Hell is no resurrection at all; it is an empty show. It is an inescapable fact that according to the popular teaching, that there is no place for a resurrection in the popular view of today, and no logical reason for it. A resurrection requires that the person raised be dead at the time of their resurrection, not more alive than when they were living. The Bible teaching of the resurrection of the dead at the coming of Christ cannot be reconciled with the heathen doctrine of an immortal soul. They are opposed to each other, and both cannot be true; an immortal soul that cannot be dead cannot be resurrected from the dead. But we are told that death means separation from God, if the lost are only separated from God, what would be resurrected? What would the separated that are living be resurrected from if they were alive not dead? How could life be restored to those that are alive?
THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD IS A FUTURE EVENT
John 5:28-29; Acts 24:15
If a person has an immortal soul that will never be dead, and this "soul" is the only part of a person that will be in Heaven, the New Testament teaching of the resurrection has been destroyed. The Greek concept of the immortal soul assumes that an individual already posse's eternal life and the only question is, “Where will this eternal life be spent?” It cannot be said that something that is now living can be raised from the dead. It is utterly impossible to harmonize the New Testament teaching of a resurrection with the pagan teaching of an immortal soul. If there is no resurrection, then all life ceases at death. "For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised: and if Christ has not been raised, you faith is vain; you are yet in your sins. Then they also that are fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable" (1 Corinthians 15:18). There is no stronger way Paul could have said that there is no hope of life after death if there is no resurrection; that those who are fallen asleep in Christ have perished; that they are not now in Heaven before the resurrection. If they were in Heaven they could not have perished in any way. What ever you think will be in Heaven, the whole person or just a soul, it is clear form this passage that neither one will be in Heaven if there is no resurrection, both (1) the person or (2) their soul has ceased to exist, and neither one is now in Heaven before the resurrection, or neither one will ever be in Heaven if there is no resurrection.
They have not yet been raised – OR – they are in Heaven without being raised.
They have not yet been judged – OR – they are in Heaven without being judged.
The two are incompatible.
Both cannot be true. The resurrection of the dead destroys the theory of an immortal soul that is never dead; therefore, cannot be resurrected.
Death is the end of life. The resurrection is a return to life. If death is life in another place, the resurrection is nothing more than a moving day, from being alive at one place to being alive at another place, just a continuation of life in another place, not a real resurrection from the dead.
THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD
IS THE ONLY HOPE OF LIFE AFTER DEATH
The Bible could not say any stronger than it does that an awakening from the dead by the resurrection is our only hope of life after death. Without the resurrection to life from death, there would be no existence after death. Being raised from the grave to immortality is the teaching of the New Testament (See 1 Corinthians 15; Matthew 22:31; Luke 14:14; John 11:25; Acts 17:31; Philippians 3:8-11; John 6:3-9). Without the resurrection, "Your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished" (1 Corinthians 15:17-18). "If from human motives I fought with will beasts at Ephesus, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die" (1 Corinthians 15:32); not tomorrow our immortal soul lives. Both reincarnation and the immoral soul from birth are a poor substitution for the truth. As clearly as life and death, the return of Jesus, the resurrection from the grave, and the Judgment Day are taught in the New Testament, how could anyone read the New Testament and believe reincarnation, or that Plato's immortal soul is alive before and without the resurrection?
“If the dead are not raised” (1 Corinthians 15:16-19).
If we had a soul that will never be dead, it will always live independent of the resurrection; all would now have eternal life, and all will live forever without the death and resurrection of Christ. The doctrine of the immortality of the soul has replaced the resurrection of the dead, and made the resurrection to be completely of no con