Nehphesh (soul) is translated:
1. Life about 122 times.
2. Person about 26 times.
3. Mind about 15 times.
4. Heart about 15 times.
5. Personal pronouns 44 + times (yourselves, themselves, her, me, he, his, himself).
6. All others, about 200 times (man, creature, living being, own, any, living thing, lives, the dead, dead body, kills, slays, slay him, mortally, discontented, ghost, breath, will, appetite, hearty desire, desire, pleasure, lust, deadly, fish).
All 870 times have one thing in common, they are all associated with the activity of a living being, including dying of both of person(s) and animal(s), and it never implies anything about life after the death of the living being, they are all speaking of living beings that will die, not of an immortal deathless something in a living being.
Bible words must be changed to mean the exact reverse of their real meaning. God must be made to say one thing when He intended the exact opposite of what He said.
· Death must be changed to life— an endless life of being tormented by God.
· Destruction must be changed to indestructible—destruction is made to mean all souls will be kept alive in torment.
· End must be changed to endless.
· Kill must be changed to never able to be killed—never able to end life.
· Sleep must be changed to always being awake in Heaven of Hell.
· Consumed must be changed to never able to be consumed.
· Perish must be changed to imperishable—always perishing for all eternity but never perished.
· Burned up must be changed to always burning, but never burned up.
· Destroy must be changed to indestructible.
The soul that was in a person going to Heaven at the moment of death makes the judgment of the soul that was in that person be at the death of the person, not at the second coming of Christ, and makes the resurrection impossible. Who do you believe, Christ or the Platonic philosophy of the survival of the soul?
When unconditional immortality says the soul is the real person and can never die, that the soul of Christ, which was the real Christ, was alive before the resurrection on the third day, that only the body of flesh dies, it makes the real Christ to have never died, only a body of flesh died; therefore, the real Christ never died for us, and we are still in our sins. An immortal undying soul makes death, the wages of sin, and the resurrection impossible. Who do you believe, God or Satan?
"But now has Christ been raised from the dead, the first fruits of them that are asleep. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But, each in his own order: Christ the first fruits; then they that are Christ's at his coming." Could Paul have been any more specific? ONLY THROUGH THE RESURRECTION AT THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST WILL ANYONE HAVE LIFE AFTER DEATH.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
HISTORICAL PROOF
OF THE CHANGING OF THE TEACHING OF THE BIBLE
The heathenizing of the church in the medieval dark age: The Bible teaching were changed by bringing into the church the doctrines of Purgatory, the sale of indulgences, an immortal soul, Hell, going to Heaven or Hell at death without the judgment, worship of Mary and saints, Nether World, Holy Water, forbidding eating of meat on Friday, candle-burning, and many other teachings.
CHURCH FATHERS
The early so-called church fathers, Clement of Rome (said to be a companion of Paul), Ignatius (killed 107), Theophilus (died 181), Justin Martyr (killed 166), Tatian, Irenaeus, and others of the second century writers believed in conditional immortality. It was not unto the end the third century that the doctrine of an immortal soul gained a foothold in the church. The immortal soul doctrine is not in the writings of the first centuries. Tertullian near the end of the third century is the first to say anything about it, and then he made it clear that his opinion was that of Plato, and it was not the opinion of Christ
J. A. BEETH summed it up very well. "The phrase, the soul immortal, so frequent and conspicuous in the writings of Plato, we have not found in pre-Christian literature outside the influence of Greek philosophy; nor have we found it in Christian literature until the latter part of the second century. We have noticed that all the earliest Christian writers who use this phrase were familiar with the teaching of Plato; that one of these, Tertullian, expressly refers both the phrase and doctrine to him; and that the early Christian writers never support this doctrine by appeals to the Bible, but only by arguments similar to those of Plato...We have failed to find any trace of this doctrine in the Bible...It is altogether alien, both in phrase and thought, to the teaching of Christ and His apostles" Immortality Of The Soul, pages 53, 54
Tertullian is truthful about where his belief came from and said he based it on Plato, not the Bible. He said, "For some things are known even by nature: the immortality of the soul, for instance, is held by many...I may use, therefore, the opinion of a Plato, when he declares, 'Every soul is immortal'" Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, about 220 A. D., page 1916.
JUSTIN MARTYR: Killed about A. D. 166. The Greek doctrine of an immortal soul was believed by some in his time and opposed by him and others of the Church Fathers. He said, "For if you have fallen in with some who are called Christians, but who do not admit this...who say there is no resurrection of the dead, and that their souls, when they die, are taken to heaven; do not imagine that they are Christians." The First Apology Of Justin, Edinburgh Edition, page 480. He is saying those who believe the dead are alive any place before the resurrection do not believe in the resurrection, and because they do not believe in the resurrection they are not Christians even if they think they are.
IRENAEUS MARTYR: Died about A. D. 202, a pupil of Polycarp, Martyr A. D. 147 said, “Some who are reckoned among the orthodox to beyond the prearranged plan for the exaltation of the just, and are ignorant of the methods by which they are disciplined beforehand for incorruption; they entertain heretical opinions. For the heretics…affirm that immediately upon their death they shall pass above to heavens. Those persons, therefore, who reject a resurrection affecting the whole man, and do their best to remove it from the Christian scheme, know nothing as to the plan of resurrection” Ante-Nicene Fathers, Erdmann Publishing, Volume one, page 560. "It is the Father of all who impart continuance forever and ever to those who are saved. For life does not arise from us, nor from our own nature; but it is bestowed according to the grace of God. And therefore he who shall preserve the life bestowed on him, and give thanks to Him who imparted it, shall receive also length of days forever and ever, But he who shall reject it, and prove himself ungrateful to his Maker, inasmuch as he has been created and has not recognized Him who bestowed the gift upon him, deprives himself of continuance forever and ever. And for this reason the Lord declared to those who showed themselves ungrateful towards Him: 'If you have not been faithful in that which is little, who will give you that which is great?’–indicating that those who in this brief temporal life have shown themselves ungrateful to Him who bestowed it, shall justly not receive from him length of days forever and ever." Edinburgh Edition, Volume 1, page 252. “Continuance forever and ever” should have been translated “continuance ages and ages.”
ORIGEN Died A. D. 235: Mosheim said, "The foundation of all his faults was, that he fully believed nothing to be more true and certain than what the philosophy he received from Ammonius taught him respecting God, the world, souls, demons, etc. and therefore he in a measure recast and remolded the doctrines of Christ after the pattern of that philosophy" Historical Commentaries, Volume 2, page 159.
The early non-inspired writers used Bible statements, which are used by both sides. Two examples:
1st. Unconditional immoralists translate “psukee” (life) into "soul" and then apply today's English meaning, an undying something that is in a person to "psukee."
2nd.Conditional immoralists read the same writers and say the early writers used "psukee" (life) as the Hebrew word "nehphesh" is used in Genesis, a "living creature."
The view of the church fathers on death according to Henry Constable in "The Duration And Nature Of Future Punishment," 1871.
From the above, it is clear that it was not unto near the end of the second century that "the wages of sin is eternal life with torment" was first believed, and them at first by only a few. By teaching the resurrection, both the Bible and most of the early Church Fathers denied emphatically the unconditional immortally of the soul.
JOHN H. OGWYN: "The story of the Christian church between Pentecost of 31 a. d. and the council of Nicea in 325 a. d., almost 300 years later, is an amazing story. It is the story of how yesterday's orthodoxy became today's heresy and how old heresies came to be considered orthodox Christian doctrine. It is the story of how church tradition and the teaching of the bishops came to supersede the word of God as a source of doctrine. It is a story that is stranger then fiction, yet is historically verifiable." "God's Church Through The Ages."
HENRY CONSTABLE: “Educated in Platonism, they (church fathers) did not like to renounce it, and flattered themselves that they might, with great advantage to the cause of Christianity, bring at least a portion of their old learning into its service. Some brought less, some more, according as they were more or less thoroughly acquainted with Christianity. But on one point they were substantially agreed. All of them, with Tertullian, adopted in the sense of Plato Plato’s sentiment—‘Every soul is immortal.’ On this point Plato took rank, not among prophets and apostles, but above all prophets and apostles. A doctrine which neither Old Testament nor New taught directly or indirectly, nay, which was contrary to a great part of the teaching of both, these Fathers brought in with them into the Church, and thus gave to the old Sage of the Academy a greater authority and a wider influence by far than he had ever attained or ever dreamed of attaining. It was in effect Plato teaching in the Church, under the supposed authority of Christ and his Apostles, doctrine subversive of, and contrary to, the doctrine, which they had one and all maintained. This dogma of Plato was made the rigid rule for the interpretation of Scripture. No Scripture, no matter what its language, could be interpreted in a sense inconsistent with Plato’s theory. Christ, and Paul, and John, all were forced to Platonise. The deduction of reason, half doubted by Plato himself, was by these Platonising Fathers palmed off on men’s minds as the teaching of revelation” Duration And Nature Of future Punishment, 1871.
W. ENFIELD: "Very soon after the rise of Christianity, many persons, who had been educated in the schools of the philosophers, becoming converts to the Christian faith, the doctrines of the Grecian sects, and especially Platonism, were interwoven with the simple truths of pure religion. As the Eclectic philosophy spread, Heathen and Christian doctrines were still more intimately blended, till, at last, both were almost entirely lost in the thick clouds of ignorance and barbarism which covered the earth." "The History Of Philosophy."
"The doctrine of hell evolved long after the core doctrines of the historic Christian faith were established. The views of the early Church fathers about hell were far from unanimous. It took the Christian community hundreds of years to come up with a consensus on the issue. The majority view– that hell is a place of eternal fiery torment– emerged only after a long debate within the Church. By the Middle Ages, the concept of a fiery underworld had become a dominant element in people's minds" www.inplainsite.org
The doctrine of Hell has been strongly opposed from the time is was first brought into the church by the church fathers, but in the last fifty years the opposition is rapidly growing in the Protestants churches and particularly in the church of Christ. As a result of the rapid growth in opposition to the God slandering doctrine of Hell two books by those who believe in Hell have been written. "Hell of Trial: The Case for Eternal Punishment" by Robert A. Peterson, and "Hell Under Fire" which is ten essays by ten orthodox Protestant authors all defending Hell that is now under attack by many. The names they give to their books shows the doctrine of Hell is being strongly opposed and rejected by many.
To fully document the apostasy that took place is beyond the scope of this book, but I have given enough to show those who have never read the history of the early church that there was a great apostasy with many changes in the beliefs and doctrines. The falling away Paul foretold did happen. "Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things? And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he may be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. And then, that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. And for this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they might believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness" (2 Thessalonians 2:3-12; See 1 Timothy 4:1-3). This apostasy led to the church of the Dark Age with its Pope who sits in the place of God and is worshiped as God. Paul said the falling away would come. History says it did come. The Catholic Church says there was no falling away. The Protestant Reformation says there was an apostasy, but they reformed the Catholic Church with many churches that teach many conductivity things.
As Homer Hailey said, "Attitudes were no longer as they were in former years, and the pattern was altered. The pristine simplicity was gradually marred and covered, until little of the original simple plan of God could be recognized."
The second coming of Christ and the resurrection has been made to have little or no value by the doctrine of all the souls of the dead going to Heaven at death, or after spending some time in Purgatory. The heart of the beliefs and hopes of the early church, the coming of Christ and the resurrection from the dead, was put into the background. The Church was not faithful one day and an apostate church the next day. The falling away took centuries. There were many changes, and every change had many who fought it. But, the falling away did come. The teaching of Christ on the resurrection of the dead was replaced by the teaching of Plato (the Heathenizing of the church with the pagan teaching of an immortal soul). One by one, at first only a few in a congregation, but eventually the entire congregation were teaching the doctrines of man that destroyed the teaching of Christ.
(1) TERTULLIAN: Often known as the father of the Latin Church. "How indeed, shall the soul mount up to heaven, where Christ is already sitting at the Father's right hand, when as yet the archangel's trumpet has not been heard by the command of God. When as yet those whom the coming of the Lord is to find on the earth, have not been caught up into the air to meet Him at His coming, in company with the dead in Christ, who shall be the first to arise? To no one is heaven opened" Treatise on the Soul, Chapter 55. The Catholic Church would now call anyone who teaches this a heretic (See 1 Thessalonians 4:13).
(2) MARTIN LUTHER: "Solomon judged that the dead are asleep, and feel nothing at all. For the dead lie there accomplishing nether days not years, but then they are awaked, they shall seem to have slept scarce one minute." "An exposition of "Ecclesiastes or the Preacher" 1573. In Luther's Defense, proposition 27. "Now, if one would say that Abraham's soul lives with God but his body is dead, this distinction is rubbish. I will attack it. One must say, 'The whole Abraham, the whole man shall live.' The other way you tear off a part of Abraham and say, 'It lives.' This is the way the philosophers speak: 'Afterward the soul departed from its domicile,' etc. That would be a silly soul if it were in heaven and desired its body" Luther's Works, Volume 54, page 447. Luther called the theory of the immortality of the soul the "monstrous fables that forms part of the Roman dunghill of decretals." E. Petavel, The Problem of Immortality, page 255.
(3) PAUL ALTHAUS: “The hope of the early church centered on the resurrection of the Last Day. It is this which first calls the dead into eternal life (1 Cor. 15; Phil. 3:21). This resurrection happens to the man and not only to the body. Paul speaks of the resurrection not ‘of the body’ but ‘of the dead.’ This understanding of the resurrection implicitly understands death as also affecting the whole man…Thus the original Biblical concepts have been replaced by ideas from Hellenistic Gnostic dualism. The New Testament idea of the resurrection, which affects the whole man, has had to give way to the immortality of the soul. The Last Day also loses its significance, for souls have received all that is decisively important long before this. Eschatological tension is no longer strongly directed to the day of Jesus’ Coming. The difference between this and the hope of the New Testament is very great” “The Theology Of Martin Luther” pages 413-414, 1966.
(4) JOHN WESLEY: "It is indeed generally supposed that the souls of good men as soon as dislodged from the body, go directly to heaven, but this opinion has not the least foundation in the oracles of God" From Wesley's sermon on Luke 16:23.
(5) WILLIAM TYNDALE translated the first English New Testament: "In putting them (sleeping souls) in heaven, hell or purgatory, you destroy the arguments wherewith Christ and Paul proves the resurrection...if the souls be in heaven, tell me why they be not in as good a case as the angels be? And then what cause is there of a resurrection...The true faith put forth the resurrection, which we be warned to look for every hour. The heathen philosophers, denying that, did put that the souls did ever live. And the pope join the spiritual doctrine of Christ and the fleshy doctrine of philosophers together: things so contrary that they cannot agree...And because the fleshy-minded pope consented unto heathen doctrine, therefore, he corrupted the Scripture to