Foreword
There are two views that are commonly believed about what will happen to mankind after death.
VIEW ONE: The belief that all have a “soul” that W. E. Vine says is nothing but “the immaterial, invisible part of man,” (“Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary Of Old And New Testament Words,” page 588) and Robert A. Morey says, that after the death of the body the soul will be nothing but “mental thoughts” (“Death And The Afterlife,” page 79), and this will be the only part of a person that will have eternal life in Heaven; this immaterial something that is nothing but mental thoughts is all that will be in Heaven or Hell, the person it is in will forever be gone. Most that believe all are born with an immortal “soul” have only a vague unclear understanding or even no idea of what they believe this unknown something they believe to be in them to be, but “it” (not themselves) is what they believe must be saved, and only “it” will be in Heaven if they save “it,” or in Hell if they do not. The belief that everyone has something in them and this something, whatever this nothing but “mental thoughts” could be, will live forever and cannot die makes it not possible for death to be the wages of sin. If a person has something in them that is deathless, it would not be subject to the wages of sin, which is death, and it could not ever be destroyed; this something would be born with eternal life, and it could never die; therefore, it could not be resurrected from the dead.
This view has two major divisions.
VIEW TWO: The belief that the person you now are will put on immortality at the resurrection, and it is you (not just some immaterial something in you) that will live forever in Heaven; we, not an immaterial soul, is now in the image of Adam, we, not an immaterial soul, will have the image of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:49). The wages of sin is death, and the lost will die the second death, they do not now have immortality and never will be immortal; those who do not belong to Christ will forever be destroyed after their judgment.
Protestant Premillennialists
Most Protestant Premillennialists believe the lost will be totally destroyed, but there are three Premillennial views that are common in Protestant churches on how or where the lost will be destroyed.
If we have either a soul or a spirit that is now immortal and can never die or be dead, how could there be a resurrection of the dead? Do you believe in the resurrection of the dead? If yes, what do you believe will be resurrected; will your dead body be raised from the dead, or do you believe a soul that is not dead will be raised from the dead? When I first begin this study I was surprised and made to tremble at how few believed in the resurrection, and how many there are that do not really know what they believe about it. Many believe some part of themselves will instantly be transited from this world to Heaven or Hell at death without a resurrection before the resurrection and Judgment Day, and before the second coming of Christ, but when they are asked what is the reason for the resurrection, they not only do not know, but have never really thought about it. Death is looked at as being a doorway to life in another form, that death is not really death, and there is nowhere in their thoughts or in their faith for a resurrection for their theology says no one is really dead. The resurrection has been removed from the faith of many by today's theology that says some immortal part of a person will go to Heaven at the moment of death. But is there any life after death before the second coming of Christ and the resurrection of the dead? Paul said it will be at the resurrection when, "This mortal must put on immortality," but if we have a soul that is now immortal, then what is it that is now mortal that will put on immortality at the resurrection?
What does the Bible say about an immortal soul and/or spirit? Together soul and spirit are used about 1,600 times in the Bible, but not one time is immortal ever used in the same verse with either one, “immortality soul or spirit,” “deathless or never dying soul or spirit” is not in the Bible, not even in the King James Version. Immortal and immortality is not in the Old Testament, the promise of immortality is given to no one. In the New Testament, immortal is used only one time in the New Testament, immortality is used five times, all five by Paul. What does he say?
Why are we to "seek for immortality" if we are born immortal? Why will we "put on immortality" if the only part of us that will ever be immortal has been immortal from birth (or before birth)? The fact that a person must "seek for...immortality" and immortality must be "put on" at the resurrection is conclusive proof that a person does not now have immortality, nor does a person have some immaterial, immortal something in them that cannot die. If Romans 2:7 and 1 Corinthians 15:53 teaches nothing more, it teaches that no part of a person now possess immortality. Not one passage in the Bible says anyone is now immortal; if no one is now immortal, no one can now have a soul that is now immortal. The immortal soul theology is from pagan philosophy, if all have a deathless soul, and we are told that this deathless soul is the only part of a person that will ever be immortal, and it is already immortal, the resurrection is made to be useless.
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