“Worthy of death,” but cannot die Romans 1:32. "They that practice such things are worthy of death," but if they have an immortal never dying something from birth, this something could never die. Why did Paul bother to say they are worthy of death if he knows they could not die?
When does a sinner die? If death means only separation, the sinner is separated from God now. Is the second death to be a "double separation?" Will they be any more separated than they now are? If the lake of fire, which is the second death, is only a separation from God, and they are now separated from Him, they cannot be any more separated than they are now.
Literally or figuratively:
Thomas Andrews said that those who accept annihilation as the end of mankind claim that the words destroy and death that are used to describe eternal punishment should be understood literally (1997 Florida College Lectures, page 169).
Those who believe in Hell must change "death" to be figuratively or allegorical, not a real death; but they make "life" real even when both are used in the same sentence. On the same page he said, “The Biblical concept of eternal extends to both life and death.”
· The Biblical concept, eternal death.
· The Biblical concept, eternal life.
o Death will last just as long as life, if life is without end, death is also without end.
The Biblical concept is that the death is just as eternal as the life. If death is figuratively and not real death, then life is figuratively and not real life. One cannot be figuratively and the other literal just because he need it that way for his theology. If death is figurative, then there are two kinds of figuratively life.
· “There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy” (James 4:12). “But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved” (Hebrews 10:39). If the destroying is figuratively, and is not literally destroying, then the saving is also figuratively, and is not literally saving.
Three blind men were told to feel an elephant and tell what it looks like. One felt the tusk and said, "It is hard and smooth." One the leg- "It is like a tree." One the tail- "It is like a brush." None told what the elephant is like. "It is like a brush" is not a description of an elephant, and "separated" from God, but are alive without Him is not a description of death.
"Dead while she lives" 1 Timothy 5:6, What was dead?
· Her body was alive.
· According to those that say we now have an immortal soul, that soul is always alive and it can never be dead.
o Even though this passage is used to prove she had an immortal soul, it says nothing about a soul or a spirit.
o She was dead in her relationship to God. She did not have a dead body, or a dead soul.
Dead and alive at the same time. In what sense is she alive? Physically she is not dead, but was alive. In what sense is she dead? She is the same as all other sinners and unsaved people. Their death is so certain that they are spoken of as being dead (See Luke 9:60). They do not have Christ living in them, and the "life" He came to give (John 5:21-29). They have only the “resurrection of judgment” (John 5:29) to look forward to, and the wages of sin, death (Romans 6:23), not the “resurrection of life” (John 5:29). Both life for those who believe, and death for those who do not believe, are so certain that through out the New Testament it speaks as if we now have the eternal life or death, which will come at the judgment. The only life she has is physical life. How can an immortal soul that will always have life be gotten out of "while she lives"? It was her body that "lives," not an immortal, immaterial, invisible something that lives without the body; therefore, if a "soul" were in this passage it could only be in the part of her that was "dead" to which is added “spiritual dead.”
· Because the passage speaks of her being dead while her body lived, her having a soul that is alive while she is dead is read into this passage even when nothing is said about an immortal soul, or nothing about any kind of life after death.
· This passage is often used to prove that the "soul" cannot be dead, but it has another kind of life, even when there is nothing said about a "soul" in it. "Dead while she lives" must be changed to be, "Alive while she is alive."
· Death must be removed from this passage and life with torment for something that cannot be dead added to it; this is what is called pulling something out of thin air, or reading into a passage something that is wanted to be in it.
The Bible uses death in both a literal and a figurative application. In the literal use of death life has ceased to exist. The figurative use of a word must take it meaning from it literal use. The figurative use of death is often confused with the literal use of death. The Christian widow that “has her hope set on God” had a relationship with God but if she “gives herself to pleasure” that relationship is dead; it no longer exist, the relationship is dead. She “is (figuratively) dead while she lives,” but the real death will not come unto after the judgment.
In Luke 15:11-32, Matthew 8:21-22. "Follow me; and leave the dead (those who have no relationship with God) to bury their own dead." There is nothing about an "immaterial invisible part of man" that is alive in the dead that are to bury the dead. Neither the dead that was doing the burying, nor the dead that were buried were a dead immortal soul that cannot be dead, both the one that was alive, and the one that was dead, were both dead in the same way, both were dead in their relationship to God. The prodigal son had a relationship with his father, the relationship ceased to exist, then was restored when the son returned. He was alive, then dead, then alive in his relationship with his father, but he was never literally dead, and there was no literal resurrection of the dead; in this passage there is nothing said about an immortal soul although it is repeatedly used to prove the prodigal son was an immortal soul that was separated from his father. Even today a Jewish family often have a funeral for a person that has been converted to another religion, or leaves the Jewish religion.
This was more than a simple separation. Frequently one person is separated from another, but not counted as dead. When a child leaves home we do not say our child is dead, but in Bible times the Hebrews would say the child was dead if it left home and had no relationship with the father or mother, it was as if he was dead to them. When God gives a revelation, He used words and customs just as they were used by the persons to whom He gave the revelation, and not only the words, but also the customs of the persons to whom He give the revelation. To the Hebrew mind and to the Oriental cultures even today, the Prodigal son is counted as dead and the father no longer has a son.
"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming AND NOW IS, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear shall live" (John 5 24-25). He was not saying the hour had came when He was going to the graveyard, and the dead there would hear His voice and live, be resurrected from the grave. He was not speaking of a physical or literal resurrection, but of those who are not believers (dead by the Hebrew and Oriental cultures) becoming believers and alive to God. The widow was dead to God just as the Prodigal Son was dead to his father because she had put something ahead of God in her life. The resurrection at the second coming of Christ is not spoken of in this passage.
· “And YOU were dead in YOUR trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1).
· “But SHE who gives HERSELF to wanton pleasure is dead even while SHE LIVES” (1 Timothy 5:6).
o Nothing is said about an immortal something that cannot die being dead, it is the person that is dead to God. She was dead to God even while she was still alive just as the Ephesians were dead to God before they became Christians, not one thing is said about a soul, not about it being alive or it being dead, not that is even exist; why then is this passage used repeatedly to show all have in immortal something in them.
Matthew Henry: “She that lives in pleasure is dead while she live, is no a living member of the church, but as a carcass in it, or a mortified member. They are in the world to no purpose, buried alive as to the great ends of living” Matthew Henry’s Commentary, page 1891.
Die in the Old Testament: Die is from "moosh" in the Old Testament and occurs over 800 times. None of the 800 has any references to death being anything but death. In no one is death a separation of the earthly body from a soul that is alive, or that anything is as alive as it will ever be after the death of the person. Throughout the Old Testament, "moosh" is used of both men and animals, and makes no distinction between them. Both die. "For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same. As one dies (moosh) so dies (moosh) the other" (Ecclesiastes 3:19). Fish, cattle, frogs, men, dogs, lions, a city, and flies all die (moosh). For all, death is the end of life, and if there were no resurrection, a person would be as all the above, dead forever.
In "Truth Magazine," June 7, 2001, page 343, Johnie Edwards has a short article, "What Death Says."
· What does death say? It says that for there to be life after death, there must be a resurrection from the dead.
· What does the resurrection say? It says if there is to be a resurrection, there must be death to be resurrected from, not a higher kind of life than life that we now have that would not need a resurrection.
· The resurrection says death is a real death; it says someone who is not dead cannot be raised from the dead by a resurrection.
J. B. Coffman, 2 Corinthians 2:16: "The meaning therefore is, the Gospel, which arises from Christ and which is preached through us, is to the unbelieving, but the incense arising from one crucified and dead, and so it is to them a savor from the dead and producing death. But to the believing it is a savor FROM THE LIVING, PRODUCING LIFE." J. W. McGarvey, 1916. "McGarvey pointed out the extremely significant phrases 'from death' and 'from life' as used in this passage. To the unbelieving, the news of the Gospel is from one who was crucified and is dead: so, for them, it is an odor from death unto death EVEN ETERNAL DEATH; but to Christians, the news of the Gospel is 'from life unto life' in them that are saved."
The widow is under the sentence of death, but the sentence of death has been removed for those in Christ, and the promise of life (immortality, incorruption) given to them. For those not in Christ, there is only death, the wages of their sin. They will be raised only to face the judgment and the second death "a savor from death unto death."
"A Savor from life unto life" The new birth (John 3:3). "Walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:4). "Have passed out of death into life" (1 John 3:14). At the second coming of Christ the saved shall "put on immortality" (1 Corinthians 15:53), after which there will be no death.
"A Savor from death unto death" Dead while she lives (1 Timothy 5:6). "Abides in death" (1 John 3:14). The lost will be raised from the dead at the second coming of Christ, then judgment and the second death after which there will never be any life, never a resurrection from this death.
H. L. Hastings: "In all classical literature no instance can be found where the word death has this signification of eternal torment" "The Last Judgment," 1853
For those who are not in Christ, there is no eternal life anywhere.
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 the writer 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 Nuns, 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.
· The reinterpretation of the nature of a person, that a person has a immaterial something in them is now immortal, and only it, not the person, goes to Heaven or Hell at death, only this immortal something in a person will ever live after the death of the person, only it will ever be in Heaven.
· The general confusion of soul and spirit, are they both the same, or are they two different immortal, invisible, immaterial being that are in a person and one or both will live after the person is dead?
(2) "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 deathless 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; if He had not been dead He could not have been resurrected.
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. 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 alive while His body was in the grave. We are told repeatedly God raised Christ from the dead (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 fr