The two are incompatible.
· An immortal deathless soul makes the resurrection from the dead impossible.
· The resurrection from the dead makes an immortal deathless soul impossible.
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 immortal souls 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).
· “Neither has Christ been raise.”
· “Your faith is vain (useless).”
· “You are yet in your sins.”
· “They also that are fallen asleep (are dead) in Christ have perished.” If there is no resurrection of the dead, there will be no hereafter for anyone who has died.
· “If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable” for there would be no resurrection, no Judgment Day, no second death, no eternal life.
If an immaterial soul is the only thing that will never be dead, it will always live independent of the resurrection; if all souls now have eternal life, then all souls 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 consequence, it has destroyed the need for the resurrection. It is a fact that the doctrine of an immortal soul that cannot die has pervaded over the doctrine of a resurrection in most churches. There could not be a gospel more different than the gospel of an immortal soul that will never die. Nothing is more plainly taught then there will be no life for anyone after death without the resurrection of the dead at the coming of Christ.
AFTER THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD
IS THE ONLY TIME ANY OF THE DEAD
WILL BE ALIVE AND WITH THE LORD
"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).
THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD
IS WHEN THE JUST SHALL BE RECOMPENSED
NOT RECOMPENSED AT DEATH FOR THOSE WHO ARE NOT DEAD
"For you shall be recompensed in the resurrection of the just" (Luke 14:14). No one is recompensed by going instantly to Heaven at death before the resurrection and judgment. "In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also" (John 14:3). No one, or no deathless “immaterial part of a person” (W. E. Vine) that will at the death of the body go to His Father's house in Heaven before He comes again. “Unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in Heaven for YOU, who by the power of God are guarded through faith unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:4-5). The “you” is the person, not something in a person that will leave that person at death. It is “you” that Christ is preparing a place for.
1 CORINTHIANS 15: This entire chapter is devoted to the subject of the resurrection of the dead. In it, it is clear that Paul believed in the resurrection of the dead as being our only hope of life after death, not in an instant translation to Heaven at the moment of death.
The dead are asleep: Christ was “the first fruits of those who are asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20). “Are asleep” is present tense, the Corinthian Christians who had died were asleep at the time Paul was writing this, not awake in Heaven. The dead in Christ are spoken of as being asleep through out this chapter.
1. “Some have fallen asleep,” some had died, (1 Corinthians 15:6).
2. “Those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished” if there is no resurrection, (1 Corinthians 15:18).
3. Not all Christian will fall asleep before the coming of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:51).
The first fruits: In the Old Testament the first of the harvest was to be offered unto God, and then the harvest would come after the first fruits. “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20). The harvest will come at the coming of Christ, “But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming” (1 Corinthians 15:23). The resurrection of the dead will be when Christ comes, if those who has pass on are alive they could not be resurrected as Christ was resurrected from the dead. To deny the resurrection by teaching an instant translation into Heaven is saying there will be no harvest at the coming of Christ. A more direct or positive statement about how long the dead will be dead, and when the dead will no longer be dead (“at His coming”) could not be made. Yet many say no Paul you are wrong, the dead are never dead.
Christ was the first fruits (first one raised from the dead); afterward those who are Christ's shall be made alive (raised from the dead) at His coming (1 Corinthians 15:22-23). The doctrine of an immortal soul that grow out of Plato's teaching makes Christ being the first fruits or firstborn from the dead not possible, for it makes those who lived and died before His resurrection be alive before Him.
“Utterly lost:” “For if the dead are not raise, it follows that Christ was not raised; and if Christ was not raised, your faith has nothing in it and you are still in your old state of sin. It follows also that those who have died within Christ’s fellowship are utterly lost” (1 Corinthians 15:16-18, New English Bible). Unconditional immortality says the real you never dies; therefore, cannot be resurrected, the real Christ could not die; therefore, was not resurrected. If Christians lives on after the death of the body they could in no way be said to be, “Utterly lost.” If the dead saints go to Heaven at death it makes this statement by Paul be totally wrong for there would be no way that the dead saints that were already alive in Heaven could be “utterly lost,” even if there were no resurrection, and if wrong it could not be inspired by God. If this passage were not inspired there would be no way we could know that anything Paul said was inspired.
“In Christ all shall be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22). If those in Christ were alive in Heaven they could not be made alive, they would already be alive. Nothing is said about an immaterial soul in this chapter on the resurrection, it is us that are saved, not an it that nobody knows what it really is, it will be us, not it that will be resurrected with a spiritual body. Is there any way that God could have told us any stronger that no one will have life after death before the resurrection?
The inconsistency of making death a friend: (1 Corinthians 15:52-57). According to the belief of many, the dead are instantaneous translated to Heaven at death and are with God. Yet they do all they can, pray to God to keep the sick alive and out of Heaven, spend a great sum of money to keep them on earth, and grieve when they think a loved one goes to be with Jesus. It is obvious there is an inconsistency in what they claim to believe, and what they really believe, it is obvious that they believe death to be an enemy, not a friend. Death is not an instant pass to Heaven before the resurrection.
PAUL’S FUNERAL SERMON
“But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we, who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). The Thessalonians were not concerned that some of their members had died and were with the Lord in Heaven, they were concerned about there members that had died before Christ came, that they would not be there to meet Christ when He came. Paul points out that those was no difference in privilege between that had fallen asleep and those that were alive, that both would be caught up to meet the Lord when He comes. Paul did not comfort them then by telling them that there loved ones were already up in Heaven looking down on them, he comforted them by telling them that:
1. Their loved one who had fallen asleep in Jesus “will rise first.” It is by knowing that loved ones who are now asleep in Jesus will be resurrected to life that gives both the Thessalonians Christians and us comfort, not an immortal soul that is not dead. “And the dead in Christ will rise first,” Christ will raise them that are dead from the grave, not resurrect them that are alive from Heaven. The immortal soul doctrine is Pagan, not Christian; immortality is promised, it is not now possessed by living saints or possessed by sleeping saints after death; no one will ever be alive and have immortality after death before or without the resurrection at the coming of Christ.
2. Then any that are alive when Christ comes will be “caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
3. And so we (both those who are resurrected from sleep when Christ comes and those that are alive when Christ come) shall always be with the Lord.”
The doctrine of being awake in Heaven at death, or awake any other place before the resurrection, is both a rejection of Paul’s inspired teaching and is changing God’s word to the Pagan teaching of Plato. How can anyone say they believe in the resurrection if they believe no one is asleep to wake up, if they believe no one is dead to be resurrected? If all Christians that die were now alive in Heaven, no one would be dead to be resurrected.
NEW BIBLE DICTIONARY: "The most startling characteristic of the first Christian preaching is its emphasis on the resurrection. The first preachers were sure that Christ had risen, and sure, in consequence, the believers would in due course rise also. This set them off from all the other teachers of the ancient world...Nothing is more characteristic of even the best thought of the day than its hopelessness in the face of death. Clearly the resurrection is of the very first importance for the Christian faith" page 1010, 1996. The resurrection is a New Testament teaching. The word resurrection is used forty-one times in the New Testament but not once in the Old Testament.
ADAM CLARKE on 1 Corinthians 15:32: "I believe the common method of pointing this verse is erroneous; I propose to read it: 'If, after the manner of men, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what does it advantage me? If the dead rise not, let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die.' What the apostle says here is a regular and legitimate conclusion from the doctrine that there is no resurrection; for if there be no resurrection, then there can be no judgment-no future state or rewards and punishment; why, therefore, should we bear crosses, and keep ourselves under continual discipline? Let us eat and drink, take all the pleasure we can; for tomorrow we die, and there is an end of us forever."
JERRY CROSS: "It is important to notice that Paul argues for a resurrection, and not a release. Paul does not have in mind some disembodied existence such as advocated by Greek thinkers such as Plato. Furthermore, Paul is arguing for a resurrection that is a transformation and not a continuation or resumption of life just as it had been laid down. The resurrected body is to be radically different from the body of this earthly life (vv. 35-49). This is the same position argued by Jesus against both the view of the Sadducees and that of the Pharisees (Matt. 22:23-33; esp. v. 30)" Magnolia Bible College 1984 Lectures, pages 47-48.
DILLARD THURMAN, Brown Trail church of Christ: "The hope and aspiration of many has been shifted from His coming again to receive His own, to an immediate immortality and heavenly bliss immediately at death! Jesus DID NOT promise that!" Gospel Minutes, Volume 34, Number 5, February 1, 1985. “I have heard funeral orations extol the happiness and bliss the departed has instantly with death: but on checking the New Testament assiduously, I have yet to find a single promise where the dead go into heaven on an instant pass, or have immediate conscious happiness” Gospel Minutes, Volume 34, Number 5, February 1, 1985, church of Christ.
The resurrection was the backbone of the belief and teaching of the New Testament Church (Philippians 3:10-11; Acts 17:31, 23:6, 24:15, John 6:39-54, Luke 14:13-14, Hebrews 9:27, 1 Corinthians 15:1-58). If the body is only a house in which the soul lives, then the putting off this house is not a death, but only an immaterial what ever it is moving from this house to were ever an immaterial something moves to; if the soul is alive, and if anything comes forth out of the grave, it could only be the body of flesh; and then the "soul" must come back from Heaven to rejoin the body, or (1) we would have our dead earthly body resurrected on earth, but with no "soul" (2) with our “soul” alive in Heaven with a disembodied existence, both at the same time. The apostles never preached a disembodied life after death, but a resurrection of the person that is dead. "God both raised the Lord, and will raise up us" (1 Corinthians 6:14).
If we were now a two parts being of (1) body and (2) spirit; then what is the spiritual body that the saved soul or saved spirit will "put on" (1 Corinthians 15:44)? Is the "soul" (as the word is used today) different from the spiritual body that the resurrected persons that are in Christ will put on at the resurrection? Is the immaterial spirit, which some teach we now have, going to put on a body at the resurrection and become a become a material being, or will this immaterial being put on a spiritual body that will be just as immaterial as “it” now is? Will it be a second spiritual body? If we now have this spirit or soul, how can it be changed in any way? Will it be different from the soul we now have? If it will not be different, all we could do would be to put off the body of flesh; then the immortal disembodied something that is in us would now be just as it will be in Heaven; if not, why not? There could be no other change or a resurrection; nothing other than putting off the body of flesh at death, and those who have died would have already done this, and are now without the resurrection just as they will always be. If the "soul" is now immortal, there will be no resurrection, and no spiritual body to be put on at the resurrection.
Unconditional immortality teaching is that:
1. The soul is alive now; the soul of both the saved and the lost now has the same eternal life.
2. The soul will be alive after death before the resurrection; and it will be "at home with the Lord" from the time of the death of the body before and without the resurrection.
3. The soul will be no more alive after the resurrection than it now is.
David Owen said in 1996 Florida College Lectures, page 216 that it should be noted that Paul said we would be raised with a spiritual body, not a spirit. It will be "us" that will be raised with a new "spiritual body," not an undying spirit that is now in a person that is not dead being raised from Heaven?
If the resurrection were taken from the Bible, it would not affect the theology of many churches today. They take a short cut and go directly to Heaven at death without the resurrection. Because they believe they are born with an immortal soul in them, which is the only thing that they believe will be in Heaven, “it” does not need to put on immortality at the resurrection; this disembodied “it” will have bypassed the resurrection by going straight to Heaven when it leaves the person it was in.
A believer in unconditional immortality said, "Therefore, at the Second Coming, all the resurrected saints are brought together and publicly displayed, not raised at that time." From a web site at: http//www.tranexp.com/win/intertrans.gif.
One of the "church fathers," Justin Martyr said those, "Who say there is no resurrection of the dead, and that their souls, when they die, are taken to heaven are not Christian at all."
If you believe that only a part of a person will be saved, and that this part is an immortal soul that can never die, you cannot believe in the resurrection. Both cannot be true. Satan's lie, "You shall not surely die" after being changed to, "My soul shall not surely die" has succeeded to the point that many now say, "No Christ, there is something in me that needs no resurrection, this being that has no substance is now immortal and at my death it will come to You in Heaven; this invisible being that is in me will not wait to go to Heaven unto after your second coming and the resurrection." A faith in something God has not spoken is a vain useless faith; therefore, a faith based on life after death because we have an immortal soul that is not subject to death is a vain faith that is based on a lie. The belief in the resurrection and the need for it is being abandoning by many, but the Bible teaches that all die, and none will live before the resurrection; without it there would be no life for anyone after death, no life for the saved or no life for the lost.
(4) THE REINTERPRETATION OF THE WAGES OF SIN
MAKES "THE WAGES OF SIN" IMPOSSIBLE
BY ELIMINATING DEATH (Romans 6:23)
If the soul cannot die, it cannot pay the wages of sin, which is to die; therefore, the wages of sin had to be changed from death to an eternal life of torment.
· Romans 6:23: "The wages of sin is death" has been reinterpreted to be an eternal life with torment. I cannot understand how anyone can read “death” and understand death to be endless life, “the wages of sin is endless life.”