o Of the nine times ektos is used, why are only two translated in a way that would support the belief of there being an immortal something in a person, why is ektos translated seven times with only one word, and only two times ektos is translated into not one word but four words? In the Greek, body is from “soma,” there is no way to get “body” from “ektos,” but the translators added “body” anyway, but in only two of the nine times ektos is used. There is no way to get a disembodied immaterial soul that can leave the person it is in out of Paul’s vision.
Summary: First ADDED, then CHANGED. First "psukee (life, soul, living being)" must be ADDED into this passage when it is not in it, then the ADDED psukee must be CHANGED into an immortal bodiless being that can exist “apart from the body.” Theology had to go on a long trip to put what they wanted into this. There is nothing in this passage about the intermediate time from death unto the resurrection; but that a part of a person called "soul" is alive in the intermediate time from death to the resurrection is what they are trying to prove with it. Paul was speaking about a vision that had happened fourteen years before (2 Corinthians 12:1), not a death for at the time of the vision Paul was very much alive, and there is nothing in this passage (1) about a soul or a spirit, (2) nothing about death, (3) or nothing about anything that will be after death. How could this possibly be used to prove that there is a soul in Paul or anyone that is immortal and cannot die; therefore, cannot be resurrected from the dead?
(5). THE BELIEF OF THE PHARISEES
AND OF THE SADDUCEES
ABOUT WHOSE WIFE SHALL SHE BE
There is much conflict and confusion in what has been written about the beliefs of both the Pharisee and the Sadducees. Below is a brief outline of their beliefs, which is in agreement with most writers.
THE SADDUCEES believed in a strict following of the Law, and they believed that the Law said nothing about an immortal soul, or about the resurrection of the dead. See (6). "The God of Abraham" next in this chapter.
THE PHARISEES were originated in the time of the Maccabees, and probably died out in A. D. 70 or soon after. A belief in some kind of resurrection was established among some of the Jews in the time of Christ, but was not believed by most, but the teaching of Christ in Mark 12:26-27 on anyone having eternal life and immortality in Heaven after death was new to them (2 Timothy 1:10). The Pharisees seem to have believed much of Rabbinic Judaism, mostly writings that were written between the Testaments that were influenced by Greek pagan teaching. Some form of an immortal soul was believed by the Greeks, and is in some of the Rabbinical writings. The Pharisees did believe in both the resurrection of the dead, and in spirits and angels (Acts 23:8); they did believe the teaching of eternal life was found in the Scriptures, and searched the scriptures for proof (John 5:39), but what kind of life and where did they believe it would it be; what did they believe about the resurrection? The only resurrections in the Old Testament Scriptures that they searched were resurrections of earthly body back to a mortal life that was no different from the mortal life of those who had not been resurrected; the seven men and the wife were physically breathing people, and the Pharisees believed they would be the same when they were resurrected with the same earthly needs, marriage, need for food, sleep, etc. The New Testament teaching of a resurrection to immortality in Heaven is not in the Old Testament and was unknown to them. Christ abolished death, and "brought life and immortality to light through the gospel" (2 Timothy 1:10-11); something brought to light is made visible, something that was not seen, but now it can be seen; something not brought to light could not have been seen by them; therefore, how could the Pharisees or anyone have known about something God had not made known? They looked for the Christ to restore Israel as a great nation and to set on the throne of David in Jerusalem; a Christ that would be killed and resurrected, and He would set on His throne in Heaven over a kingdom not of this world was completely unknown to them. They may have thought Abraham, David, and others would be resurrected as mortals in the restored Israel under the savior they looked for, but even the prophecies of the Old Testament about Christ (Acts 2:25) were not understood by them to be a resurrection to immortality or to life in Heaven for they thought their savior would be a person just as David was, a person who would save the nation of Israel and would literally set on the throne of David in Jerusalem. Whatever they believed about a resurrection, it could not have been the resurrection to eternal life in Heaven, which was not known about before Christ. A resurrection and judgment of all, and eternal life in Heaven for believers after death was unknown to them. They had many traditions and were rebuked for making the Law void by their traditions. Jesus said to them, "You hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, this people honors my with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain do they worship me, teaching as their doctrines the precept of men" (Matthew 15:7-9). Much of the teaching of Christ was a rebuke to the both the Pharisees and the Sadducees about their beliefs. See Matthew 19.
o “But as touching the dead, that they are raised” Mark 12:26.
o “But that the dead are raised” Luke 20:37.
o “But as touching the resurrection of the dead” Matthew 22:31.
o The subject was the resurrection, that there will be a resurrection, not an immortal soul that could not be resurrected.
o “But as touching the dead”--not a deathless soul that was never dead, that was already alive in Heaven or Hell without the resurrection. If Abraham kept on living, if only his body was dead, but the real Abraham was alive in Heaven, in Abraham’s bosom, or anyplace, then he could not have been resurrected from the undead; a soul that is not dead could not be resurrected from the dead.
1. God is the God of Abraham.
2. Without the resurrection there is no life after death.
3. Therefore, Abraham will be raised from the dead and live again; proves the resurrection of Abraham, not that there was a soul in Abraham that is not dead.
THE QUESTION OF THE SADDUCEES
The Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection, their question was an attempt to disprove the belief of the Pharisees of an earthly resurrection. "On that day there came to him Sadducees, they that say that there is no resurrection" (Matthew 22:23). To prove there was no resurrection they tried to trick Jesus with a question that would prove there was not. The point of His answer was to prove there is to be a resurrection, not to prove anything about the state of the dead before the resurrection. There is nothing in their question or in Christ’s answer about a disembodied soul or a spirit that is alive before the resurrection. Christ was asked, "The woman also died...in the resurrection; therefore, whose wife of them shall she be" (Luke 20:33)? They did not ask whose wife she would be after the death of the body, but whose wife in the resurrection; they seem to think that those who believed in the resurrection thought it would be a resurrection to life on this earth, life much as it now is, their question was not who now has her disembodied spirit in the intermediate state. Christ said to them, "But they that are accounted worthy to attain to that world (aion-age) and the resurrection from the dead...but that THE DEAD ARE RAISED" (Luke 20:35-37). "But as touching the resurrection of the dead (Matthew 22:31). "For when they shall rise from the dead...But as touching the dead, that they are raised" (Mark 12:25-26).
"In the resurrection; therefore, whose wife shall she be of the seven?" (Matthew 22:28. Notice the question or the answer did not mention an intermediate state. The fact that they thought that if there were a resurrection she would have to be the wife of one of the seven points out that they were thinking of a resurrection of an earthly mortal body with life on this earth as it is now with husbands, wives, and children. The only resurrections in the Old Testament, resurrections that they would know about, were resurrections back to a mortal life that would die again, back to life just as it was before death.
This has two parts:
First part: Christ answers their argument.
Second part: Christ’s new revelation about believes going to be as angels in Heaven.
Then He adds proof of the resurrection, “I am the God of Abraham.”
FIRST PART
“YOU DO ERR, NOT KNOWING THE SCRIPTURES”
Matthew 22:29; Mark 12:24
Marriage and the Law -- women with seven husbands
Their err was not on what the Law said about a resurrection, but on what the Law said about marriage. “Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man” (Romans 7:1-3, New International Version). When all seven died, the women was freed from them all, each one when he died. The New Testament says the same as the Old Testament on marriage, “A wife is bound for so long time as her husband lives; but if the husband be dead, she is free to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 7:39).
Then Christ adds a new revelation
“In the resurrection”
This reply by Christ is one of, if not the first suggestion of a resurrection that will not be a resurrection back to a mortal life. This was a new teaching of Christ that was not known about before He abolished death and brought immortality to light through the gospel (2 Timothy 1:10); therefore, immortality could not have been known about by either the Sadducees or the Pharisees; if Christ “abolished death,” there had to be “death” to be abolished; death could not be “abolished” to a deathless soul that both was not subject to death and was already immortal. "The sons of this world (aion-age) marry, and are given in marriage: but they that are accounted worthy to attain to that world (aion-age), and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: for neither can they die any more; for they are equal unto the angels; and are sons of God" (Luke 20:34-36). Jesus is speaking of life in two different ages, life in this age where there is marriage and death, and life in an age (Heaven) where there is no marriage or death. The Pharisees view of the resurrection that the Sadducees did not believe seems to be a resurrection to life as it now is in this age. Christians, while living on this earth are (1) not immortal, (2) not deathless, (3) not spirits, (4) not equal unto the angels, (5) they do marry.
WHO WILL BE “ACCOUNTED WORTHY”?
o “They that are accounted worthy to attain to that world (age), and the resurrection from the dead” (Luke 20:35).
o “That you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God” (2 Thessalonians 1:5).
o “They were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name” (Acts 5:41).
o It is obvious that the “they who” does not include all, that the “they who” that are counted worthy are only the saved.
“BUT AS TOUCHING
THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD”
Matthew 22:31-33
Christ now introduces proof of the resurrection. “But regarding the fact that the dead rise again, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the burning bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living; you are greatly mistaken” (Mark 12:26-27). The Sadducees understood this proof of the resurrection and were put to silence (Matthew 22:34). “Neither dared any man from that day forth ask him any more questions” (Matthew 22:46).
But how did Christ get a resurrection out of, “I am the God of Abraham”? If Abraham were alive in Heaven then it would prove the resurrection to be both not needed and not possible.
o If Abraham was not dead them he could not be resurrected from the dead.
o David is not yet in Heaven (Acts 2:29).
o Christ is the only one that has been resurrected and is now in Heaven (1 Corinthians 16:20). He is the only one that will be alive unto after the resurrection and judgment.
o All that have died are now asleep and will sleep unto the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:20-24).
o The Old Testament did not teach life in Heaven for anyone, Jesus “abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Timothy 1:10). See chapter seven on, “A strange and unexplainable silence the silence of the Old Testament on punishment and life after death.”
Those that teach there is a deathless immortal soul that is in a person say this speaking of a soul that had been in Abraham, but a deathless soul could not be used to prove that there will be a resurrection of the dead.
o It cannot prove both. If it proves life after death on the grounds of inherit immortality, it proves that there cannot be a resurrection.
How “I am the God of Abraham” proves there will be a resurrection was understood by those hearing Christ, but the commentaries are extremely divided on this passage and I have not found even one that has a convincing answer. Luke adds, “Now he is not the God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him” (Luke 20:38). Even though Abraham is now asleep and will be unto the resurrection, is Christ saying Abraham exist in the mind of God and Abraham the person will be resurrected but with a new body that will be “equal unto the angels” (Luke 20:34-36). Abraham will be raised but not his natural earthly body; he will be raised with a spiritual body (1 Corinthians 15:44) made for life in Heaven.
Today most that are called Jews believe more like the Sadducees did, and do not believe the Old Testament says anything about an immortal soul, or anything about anyone going to Heaven at anytime after death; they do not believe their savior has come, and believed when he dose come he will restore Israel as a nation.
ALEXANDER CAMPBELL: "1. That before the Captivity, and the Macedonian and Roman conquests, the Jews observed the most profound silence upon the state of the deceased, as to their happiness or misery. They spoke of it simply as a place of silence, darkness, and inactivity. 2. But after the Hebrews mingled with the Greeks and Romans, they insensibly aided into their use of terms, and adopted some of their ideas on such subjects as those on which their oracles were silent." Appendix to "The Living Oracles," page 59, 1826, Gospel Advocate Company.
The belief of the Greeks was reincarnation back to some kind of earthly life that would die again, and would be reincarnated over and over with little or nothing being remembered about any of the earlier lives, not even what kind of plaints or animals they may have been in past lives; they had no conception of eternal life in Heaven that was made known by Christ.
(6). THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, ISAAC
AND JACOB Luke 20:27-38
Matthew 22:32 “But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have you not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.’” Christ was proving to the Sadducees that there will be a resurrection, not that Abraham was alive at that time. If the dead are living in a disembodied state, for God to say he was the God of Abraham would not prove there will be a resurrection, but would prove one was not needed. If Abraham were not dead, Christ could not have used Abraham to prove the dead will be raised. The dead must be dead to be raised; a living Abraham would not need to be raised, would not need a resurrection to make him alive. The whole point Christ was making is that there will be a resurrection, not that none are dead to be resurrected. Not that there is a disembodied spirit that is now alive in Heaven or Hell while the dead body it had been in is in the grave. If a disembodied Abraham were alive anywhere it would make his resurrection impossible. A resurrection of the living would be an empty show, a fraud, not a resurrection. The belief of many says, "Not so Christ, I was born with in immortal soul in me and it cannot die; therefore, it cannot be dead or raised from the dead"? This theology destroys the Biblical doctrine of the resurrection.
Paul said of Able, "He being dead" (Hebrews 11:4), if language has any meaning, Abel was dead, not alive at the time Paul said this. "For David...fell asleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption" (Acts 13:36); if David were living (awake) at this time, if only his body was in the tomb, Peter had no point or argument; what Peter said had no meaning.
1. Christ was not in the grave at that time He was visible for all to see.
o David was in the grave.
2. Christ did not see corruption.
o David did.
3. Christ ascended into Heaven.
o David has not ascended into Heaven, and he will not unto the resurrection.
"From the day that the fathers fell asleep" (2 Peter 3:4) shows that Abraham and David are still asleep, along with all other's that "are fallen asleep" (1 Corinthians 15:6). To say that Abraham has been raised is to say the resurrection is past, and Christ was not the "first fruits" (2 Corinthians 15:20), or the "first born" (Colossians 1:18, Revelation 1:5). The resurrection at the coming of Christ is the subject, and nothing is said about what will be between death and the resurrection. "For none of us live to himself, and none die to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord; whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living" (Romans 14:7-9). How could Christ be Lord of the dead if no one is dead if all are alive, either alive in Heaven or alive in Hell?
Although Exodus 3:6 is constantly quoted to prove the dead Abraham was not dead, there is nothing in it that says Abraham was alive in Heaven at that time, but on the other hand the use of this passage by Christ to prove there will be a resurrection proves beyond any doubt that the dead are not now conscious, are not now alive before and without the resurrection.
This passage cannot prove both that:
o The dead are alive without the resurrection.
o That there will be a resurrection of the dead.
Christ used it to prove there will be a resurrection, thereby proving that Abraham or a soul that had departed from Abraham was alive without the resurrection. The, “Resurrection of the dead” was the issue of the Sadducees; nothing is said about departed spirits being alive in Heaven or Hell without the resurrection. It was, “As touching the resurrection of the dead” that Jesus quotes, “I am the God of Abraham…He is not the God of the dead but of the living” (Matthew 22:31-32), and His conclusion is that there will be a resurrection of the dead. Without the resurrection there is no life after death.
“For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his fathers, and underwent decay: but He whom God raised did not undergo decay” (Acts 13:36-37). After the resurrection and ascension of Christ Peter said, “For David ascended not into the heavens” (Acts 2:34); David is asleep, not just his body is asleep, but may believe the real David is now awake in Heaven. David will be asleep unto the resurrection, neither the real David, nor some immaterial something that had been in David has not ascended to Heaven, no one but Christ has. John 3:13 clearly and undeniable said, “No one has ascended into heaven, but he that descended out of heaven, even the Son of man, who is in heaven” King James Version. John wrote this years after Jesus had ascended to Heaven when Jesus was in Heaven; this is believe by many to be a parenthetical statement (words put in as a note of explanation) by John when he was writing this probably after A. D 70, long after Christ had ascended back to Heaven in Acts 2, which would make John be saying that years after Christ has ascended back to Heaven (at the time when John was writing the Gospel according to John) that no one but Christ, not even the Old Testament saints were in Heaven. When Jesus ascended in Acts 1:9 He was alone, none of the Old Testament saints accompanied Him, and none were in Heaven before Him. None of the Old Testament saints went to Heaven at death, and they were not in Heaven at that time, not even Abraham or David was in Heaven.
Summary: If the dead are more alive than when they were living, it both takes away the need for a resurrection and made it impossible. Christ's argument that there will be a resurrection is totally destroyed. When this passage is used to prove the dead are not dead but are conscious, that David was then alive in Heaven, then it would proves that there is no resurrection. If the dead are now alive then how would His answer prove there would be a resurrection, and what would be the need of one? This is a serious problem for those who teach unconditionally immortality. IT CANNOT BE TAUGHT THAT THE DEAD ARE MORE ALIVE THAN THE LIVING WITHOUT DESTROYING THE BIBLICAL DOCTRINE OF THE RESURRECTION. If Abraham, David, Job, and other saints are now alive in Heaven, death has already been destroyed. Death would have been destroyed for all at death, not at Christ's second coming; and even those in the Old Testament would have had life, eternal life, without the death of Christ and without the resurrection and judgment. Take away the fact that Abraham was dead, which is the very thing that those who say there is a soul in a person that is immortal and can never die are trying to do; and you take away the point of Christ's argument, and make Him be saying just so many words that say nothing. Christ's argument, that there will be a resurrection, requires that Abraham is dead at the time Christ made the argument. Abraham being alive would have requires that he never died or that his resurrection was past before the death and resurrection of Christ. When did it happen? The resurrection of Christ, Abraham, or anyone requires that they be dead at the time of the resurrection for they could not be resurrected if they were alive. How could anyone think that a coming back of either a living person or a living soul from Heaven is a resurrection of the dead? If David were not still in the tomb then he had been raised the same as Christ, but before Christ; therefore, Christ was not the first fruit. Today's theology has changed this to read, "But that the dead are not dead to be raised," or "But that the separated are not dead to be raised." If Jesus were saying Abraham is alive now, He would be denying the point He was making, that there will be a resurrection, for Abraham could not be raised if he were alive. If Abraham were alive at that time then Luke 20:27-38 proves that there will not and cannot be a resurrection. This passage teaches a "resurrection of the dead," not that "no one is dead to be resurrected from the dead."
(7). THE TRANSFIGURATION
A RESURRECTION or A VISION?
Matthew 17:1-9, Mark 9:2-9.
A VISION: Christ said it was a vision. "Tell the vision to no man" (Matthew 17:9). Moses and Elijah ("Elias" in the King James Version) were seen with Christ and then were gone, leaving only Christ. Vision (Greek-horama) is used in the New Testament twelve times, and in the King James Version it is always translated "vision" except in Acts 7:31 where it is translated "the sight." This is not the Greek word "optasia" that is translated "vision" in 2 Corinthians 12:1.
1. "Tell the vision (Greek-horama) to no man" Matthew 17:9.
2. "He wondered at the sight (Greek-horama)" Acts 7:31.
3. "To him said the Lord in a vision (Greek-horama)" Acts 9:10.
4 "And has seen in a vision (Greek-horama) a man" Acts 9:12.
5 "He saw in a vision (Greek-horama)" Acts 10:3.
6 "What this vision (Greek-horama) which he had seen might mean" Acts 10:17.
7 "While Peter thought on the vision (Greek-horama)" Acts 10:19.
8 "And in a trance I saw a vision (Greek-horama)" Acts 11:5.
9 "But thought he was seeing a vision (Greek-horama)" Acts 12:9.
10 "A vision (Greek-horama) appeared to Paul in the night" Acts 16:9.
11 "And after he had seen the vision (Greek-horama)" Acts 16:10.
12 "To Paul in the night by a vision (Greek-horama)" Acts 18:9.
If this were a vision, no argument can be taken from it for the existence of disembodied souls, for Moses and Elijah were only seen in a vision. Those who believe in unconditional immortality MUST reinterpret this into being a soul that was alive in Heaven and came back from Heaven to earth, and that:
o Despite the fact that Christ said no man had ascended to Heaven, Moses and Elijah had ascended to Heaven.
o Despite the fact that nothing is said about where Moses and Elijah were before the vision or after it.
o Despite the fact that nothing is said about them having come down from Heaven. That they were in Heaven must be added to what is said, if not added it would not prove anything