THE SILENCE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
ON BEING ETERNAL TORMENTED BY GOD AFTER DEATH
Just as there is nothing in the Old Testament about God eternally tormenting after death, there is nothing in the New Testament. A resurrection and immortality for those in Christ is taught, but these were not known about before being made known by Christ. A resurrection and judgment followed by the second death is also new to the New Testament and were not known about under the Old Testament.
Gehenna was used on four occasions by Christ, and recorded in three of the four Gospels, and James, writing to the twelve tribes, used Gehenna one time. In the rest of the New Testament Gehenna was not used, as Gentiles would not understand it; and the people not living near Jerusalem would not know what Gehenna was, that it was the name of the trash dump of Jerusalem. Just as most who read this would not know the name of the trash dump of London. John did not use Gehenna in his Gospel for when he wrote the destruction of Jerusalem was passed, and most believe he wrote to Gentiles, and Paul was an apostle to the Gentiles; neither John nor Paul used Gehenna. Every time Christ used Gehenna, on all four occasions it was spoken to the Jews in or near Jerusalem. Gentiles are not once threatened with destruction in Gehenna.
Today, those who believe in Hell are always warning unbelievers about going to Hell if they do not believe. Acts covers about thirty years of preaching, but not one time is anything said about Hell. Paul said he did not keep back anything that was profitable (Acts 20:20), and that he declared the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27), yet he did not say anything about Hell in any of his letters. In about thirty years of preaching to many in many countries, he never told anyone that they had an immortal something in them and it would be forever tormented by God in Hell if they did not believe. Why? He certainly would not have omitted such a doctrine as Hell. Today it is preached as a most profitable teaching, and the fear of Hell is used to keep many going to church. Paul did not declare anything about Hell for the same reason he did not declare anything about Purgatory; there are no such places; he did use and apply to the lost words like destruction, death, destroy, consume, burned, devour, end, and perish about 80 times.
PAUL: The whole counsel of God declared by Paul.
· “Those who practice such things are worthy of death” (Romans 1:32).
· “All who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law” Romans 2:12).
· “You are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness” (Romans 6:16).
· “For the outcome of these things is death” (Romans 6:21).
· “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).
· “For if you are living according to the flesh, you must die” (Romans 8:13).
· “For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness” (1 Corinthians 1:18).
· “For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing: to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life” (2 Corinthians 2:15-16).
· “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing” (2 Corinthians 4:3).
· “The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction” (Galatians 6:8 New International Version).
· “Which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you” (Philippians 1:28).
· “Whose end is destruction” (Philippians 3:19).
· “And these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction” (2 Thessalonians 1:9).
· “For those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved” (2 Thessalonians 2:10).
· “And it ends up being burned” (Hebrews 6:8).
· “But a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES” (Hebrews 10:27).
· “But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction” (Hebrews 10:39).
JAMES:
· “Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin: and the sin, when it if full grown, brings forth death” (James 1:15).
· “Who is able to save and to destroy” (James 4:12).
· “Will save him from death” (James 5:19 New International Version).
PETER:
· “Bringing upon themselves swift destruction” (2 Peter 2:1)
· “And their destruction slumbers not” (2 Peter 2:3).
· “But these, as creatures without reason, born mere animals to be taken and destroyed, railing in matters whereof they are ignorant, shall in their destroying surely be destroyed” (2 Peter 2:12).
· “By the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men” (2 Peter 3:7).
· “Which the ignorant and unstable distort, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:16).
JUDE:
· “Like creatures without reason, by these thing they are destroyed” (Jude 10).
JOHN:
· “He that overcomes shall not be hurt of the second death” (Revelation 2:11).
· “But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death” (Revelation 21:8).
Summary: Under the Old Testament the punishments were always in their lifetime with no punishment or threat of punishment after death. Under the New Testament the punishment “is the second death” after the resurrection and judgment.
If the lost have a soul in them and this soul shall be forever tormented in Hell, it is only reasonably to believe there would be many warning anyone about it, but there are none. The Hell that is preached today was not a part of the teaching of the apostles and early church. The same strange silence on torment after death that is found through out the Old Testament is also through out the New Testament. Did God just forget to warn of the awful place some are always preaching about?
Those that believe in Hell, try to prove it by their interpretation of metaphors and symbols, for they have not one plain statement in the whole Bible. (1) The name they give it (Hell) is not in the Bible. (2) The place they preach about is not in the Bible under any name. Its origin is Pagan to the core.
With no revelation from God about Hell, how could we: (1) Know about it. (2) Know what it is. (3) Know its name. (4) Know souls will be torment in it. (5) Know it will last forever. (6) Know who or if anyone will be in it. (7) Who told us these things? God has given us not one word of revelation on it.
GOD WAS NOT SILENT ON THE FATE OF THE LOST
The apostles did tell what would be the fate of the unbelieving, but the words they used are very different than what is preached today. Most churches would throw a preacher out if he preached the lost would be destroyed, perish, die, death, or end. Death is very different than everlasting life in Hell (see chapter two, "Life and Death"). The words used to describe the fate of the lost are miles apart from much of today's preaching.
Some of the none symbolic Greek words used in the New Testament to describe the fate of the lost are:
(1) Death "For the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). See chapter two "Life or Death." Death is death, not everlasting life with torment; life and death are opposites, not two kinds of life. Unconditional immortality makes both life and death into life in a different place.
DEATH HAS BEEN CHANGED TO BE LIFE
· It makes life be life in Heaven for Plato’s immortal soul that will be freed from the body at the death of the body.
· It makes death be eternal life in Hell for a soul that is now in you.
Death deprives us of all life. It does not give more life than we now have. It is not just a continuation of life in a different form. The resurrection restores the life of the person that death took away. The resurrection will be persons returning to life from death, not a return of the undead to still being undead, as we are told “souls” now are before the resurrection. The resurrection is our only hope of life after death. A change from one state of being to another state of being, moving from one place to another place, is not a resurrection.
Death is the big problem for unconditional immoralists. Innate immortality says whether it is a sinner or saint, the immortal soul that is in a person cannot die, and it cannot be subject to death. They must prove that death is eternal life, that death is not death, that death is only a change from one kind of life to another kind of life, but if they did, then they would have proven that Christ could not have died, and that He has not been raised from the dead. Unconditional immoralists have taken all resurrections, both of Christ and ours out of the Gospel. Without the resurrection death is the end of life for persons, and means our utter destruction.
The immortal soul doctrine says death is not the enemy Paul thought it to be (1 Corinthians 15:26), but the friend Plato and Greek philosophy thought it to be. In Greek philosophy the preaching of the resurrection was foolishness for to them death is not dead; it is a gateway to a better life for a soul that is now in you. In today teaching death has replaced the resurrection by making death be the gateway to a better life in Heaven for “the invisible, immaterial part of a person” (W. E. Vine) without the resurrection.
A. Campbell: "The words of the Bible contain all the ideas in it. These words, then, rightly understood, and the ideas are clearly perceived. The words and sentences of the Bible are to be translated, interpreted, and understood according to the same code of laws and principles of interpretation by which other ancient writings are translated and understood; for, when God spoke to man in his own language, He spoke as one person converses with another-IN THE FAIR, STIPULATED, AND WELL-ESTABLISHED MEANING OF THE TERMS. This is essential to its character, as a revelation from God; otherwise, it would be no revelation, but would always require a class of inspired men to unfold and reveal its true sense to mankind." "The Christian System," page 3, Gospel Advocate, 1970.
In today's teaching that there is an immortal something in a person is not subject to the death, and death cannot be used "In the fair, stipulated, and well-established meaning of the terms." Therefore, death must be changed to be life, for whatever “it” is that is in a person “it” cannot be dead.
By the way they translated these words the world's greatest scholarship is collectively seen in the translations as to the meaning of (1) death (2) apollumi (3) apolia (4) olethros (5) phthiro (6) phthora (7) kataphileo (8) exolothreuo (9) katargeo, (10) phtherio, (11) destroy and (12) apothneesko The translators chose words that to the average mind convey the end of life, not life in another location. The Bible is not a physics textbook, and does not give a scientific definition of annihilation, but God could not have been any clearer on what will happen to the lost, and the translators of most versions give us a true translation of the above words. God could have used words that means separation from God but alive and in torment, eternal life in torment, deathless, but instead He used death, die, destruction, destroy and perish.
Robert Dozier gives us a true picture of the way many try to prove these scholars wrong. He said, "The scripture in Mt. 10:28 is translated 'destroy.' But I don't want to believe that, as it contradicts my preconceived ideas. So I go to the lexicon and find out if the translators and translation is correct. I know little of the language compared to the translators, but I do find out that the Greek word translated 'destroy' is defined by the lexicons. The first definition is, 'to destroy' but that won't work for me. If I accept that, the translators are correct. Also included in the definition is 'to put out of the way entirely.' That is just not precise enough. Next is 'abolish' but that is not much better than destroy. Then, 'put an end to.' Nope, that may be the worst yet! Then 'ruin.' Finally! Something I can work with! I am not saying that James or others are consciously or deliberately trying to avoid the meaning of words or discredit the scholarship of the translations, but if we start out with a false premise and then try to defend it, we can find ourselves making some unreasonable arguments and claims along the way. That all the translators made huge blunders over and over regarding the end of the lost is such a claim. The men who wrote the lexicons rendered it 'destroy' in our Bible, and defined it the same way, but if that won't fit our idea, we must point out their error and be thankful that they left us one word in a lexicon to grasp at. While the word 'annihilation' is not in our scripture, the words translated are much closer to it than they are to 'never ending conscious torment.' that's for sure...Even the rendering of 'ruined' doesn't help that much. It may neutralize that text from being one that favors annihilation, but it sure doesn't teach 'never ending conscious torment.'" Robert Dozier-James Johnson Debate on eternal punishment at: http://www.religiousdebates.org/debates/0044/index.html
But, what do lexicons mean by "ruined"? A book that is burned up is "ruined." As a book it does not exist anymore. It has been destroyed; the ashes are not the book. A school teacher has a good reputation, and then everyone finds that she is working at a house of prostitution at night. Her good reputation is "ruined," it is destroyed and it does not exist anymore.
Al Maxey: “As one examines the many biblical examples of God’s dealings with the wicked, it will be quickly perceived that not one single time in all of recorded biblical teaching is the punishment for sin against God ever declared to be torture. The ultimate punishment, instead, is always declared to be death. Thus, if indeed God’s final punishment for the wicked is endless torture, as some maintain, it is a fate completely without biblical precedents. Nowhere in Scripture does God ever use torture as divine punishment for man. Not even once!” Reflections, Issue 46, June 6, 2003.
Curtis Dickinson: “It will be noted that in each case the thing that threatened was DEATH, not incessant torture. The types and shadows in no instance teach the idea of an immortal soul or eternal spirit being tortured as the punishment for sin. In ALL cases they show the penalty for sin to be death of the person…If God intended for us to understand something other then total death for the wicked, certainly He could have found the means in the marvelous Greek language to express such. Instead He used the plainest terms indicating destruction of the whole man.” “What The Bible Teaches About Immortality And Future Punishment,” pages 20-21, 1984.
(2) Apollumi Used 92 times in the New Testament. In King James Version, it is translated (1) Destroy 19 times, (2) Destroyed 7 times, (3) Perish 25 times, (4) Perished 8 times, (5) Lost 13 times, (6) Lose 18 times, (7) Die 1 time, (8) Be marred 1 time (perished in American Standard Version).
All from the same Greek word: "Bottles perish" (apollumi) (Matthew 9:17). "Lose (apollumi) his reward" (1 Peter 1:7). The Heavens and Earth "shall perish"; (apollumi see 2 Peter 3:10). Even those who believe in eternal torment do not believe these things will be tormented forever, but they will come to an end: yet, when the same word is used for people (Romans 2:12, 1 Corinthians 1:18, 2 Corinthians 2:15, 4:3), some teach their soul will not and cannot come to an end; but after they are dead, a soul that is in them must live forever in torment. It would be hard to say any plainer that "apollumi" means to perish, to come to an end, to be destroyed than the King James Version says it. "Slain" and "perished" (apollumi) are used interchangeability in Acts 5:36-37.
Liddell and Scott: "To destroy utterly, to murder, to kill, to lay waste; from ollumi, to destroy, to consume, to make an end of, to perish, to come to an end, to die."
1) To destroy (apollumi) is to kill. Matthew 2:13; 12:14; 21:41; 22:7; 27:20; Mark 3:6; 9:22; 11:18; 12:9; Luke 11:51; 17:27; 17:29; 19:47; 20:16; Jude 5; 2 Peter 3:6
2) To perish (apollumi) is to die, Matthew 8:25; Mark 4:38; Luke 8:24; 13:33; 15:17; John 18:14; Acts 5:37; 1 Corinthians 10:9; 15:18; Hebrews 11:31. Perish must be changed to live. When it is the body that perishes, as in Mark 4:38 "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing (apollumi)," even those who say to perish does not mean to die when it is speaking of a soul must admit that when the same word is applied to the body of a person or to a tree, it means th