Immortality or Resurrection (Updated) by William West (reading strategies book .TXT) 📖

man" Matthew 24:37
BOTH are identical statements in the same discourse separated by only a few verses.
How are we to understand one to be in A. D. 70 and the other one in the same discourse
to be speaking of an event thousands of years later?
1. BEFORE - The lightning seen in the East and the West BEFORE the transition
text [Matthew 24:27].
2. BETWEEN THEM - the falsely called "Transition Text" Matthew 24:36
3. AFTER - Eating drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage AFTER the
transition text [Matthew 24:37].
"But of that day and hour É÷ÉÏÉø, here, is translated season by many eminent
critics, and is used in this sense by both sacred and profane authors. As the day
was not known, in which Jerusalem should be invested by the Romans, therefore
our Lord advised his disciples to pray that it might not be on a Sabbath; and as the
season was not known, therefore they were to pray that it might not be in the
winter; Matthew 24:20." Adam Clarke, Commentary on Matthew 25:36.
SUMMARY:
• Christ came when He set up His kingdom [Matthew 16:28; Mark 9:1] on the day
of Pentecost [Acts 2].
• Christ came in judgment on Israel in A. D. 70.
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• But, neither of these is His coming in person at the end of this age [1
Thessalonians 3:13-18].
• The destruction of the temple put an end to the worship of Israel, the destruction
of their genealogical records put an end to their identity and an end to their
existence as a nation.
THE A. D. 70 DOCTRINES
The A. D. 70 doctrine that all the passages, which speak of the second coming, were
fulfilled in A. D. 70, also called Preterit Eschatology, Realized Eschatology, Fulfilled
Eschatology, Covenant Eschatology.
FOUR POINTS THAT MUST BE PROVEN FOR THE A. D. 70 DOCTRINES TO
BE TRUE.
[1] That the Law and the Jewish age did not end unto 40 years after the death of Christ.
That the Old Covenant and the New Covenant over lapped for 40 years.
[2] That anyone was resurrected from the dead in A. D. 70.
[3] That the resurrection is passed and all the saved go to Heaven at the moment of death.
[4] That there will be no judgment day for the lost after the judgment they say took place
in A. D. 70.
WAS A. D. 70 THE SECOND AND FINAL COMING OF CHRIST? OR IS THE
SECOND COMING OF CHRIST AND THE JUDGMENT OF ALL YET TO COME?
1. According to Realized Eschatology the second coming of Christ was an
invisible coming in A. D. 70, and He will not come again. There will be no
resurrection and judgment day to come for all at the coming of Christ.
2. According to Realized Eschatology the resurrection was when all the Old
Testament saints were resurrected in A. D. 70. The "judgment day" was when
the Jewish age ended in A. D. 70.
3. According to Realized Eschatology after A. D. 70 all that die in Christ go to
their eternal reward at the moment of death.
4. According to Realized Eschatology the Great Commission given in Matthew
28:18-19 has been completely fulfilled therefore, it is not for us today.
5. According to Realized Eschatology the old heavens and earth have passed
away, and the new heavens and earth are now here.
6. According to Realized Eschatology all the New Testament was written
before A. D. 70, and there is no revelation about anything that will happen
after A. D. 70; therefore, there is no revelation about when or even if the
earth will ever end. They must deny the vast amount of evident that much of
the New Testament (including Peter's letters and Revelation) was written
after A. D. 70 for if just one book was written after that date the Preterit
Eschatology could not be true. Early writers, Eusebius, Irenaeus, Clement,
Origin, and others say Revelation was written in the reign of Domitian.
7. According to Realized Eschatology the Great Tribulation and Armageddon
are both past.
8. According to Realized Eschatology death and hades were thrown into the
lake of fire in A. D. 70.
9. According to Realized Eschatology Satan has been put in the lake of fire.
Max King, "The Spirit of Prophecy," Page 356, 1971.
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o Their teaching is that in A. D. 70 Jesus moved all the righteous dead to
Heaven and cast the Devil and his angels, and the wicked dead into the
Lake of Fire. If Satin were cast into the Lake of Fire which is the second
death, where does evil and temptations come from today?
10. According to Realized Eschatology all prophecy, including all of the Book of
Revelation, has been fulfilled.
11. According to Realized Eschatology all New Testament writer believed that
the coming of Christ was to be in their lifetime.
What the early non-inspired writers said about “the last days” and the second coming
of Christ a few years after A. D. 70; from Florida College Annual Lectures, Almon L.
Williams, 1986, page 217.
• Isnatius: "These are the last times"
• Barnabas: "Wherefore let us take heed in these last days"
• Clement: "Herein He speaks of the day of this appearing, when He shall come and redeem
us, each man according to his works. And the unbelievers shall see His glory and His might:
and they shall be amazed"
• Clement: "But you know that the day of judgment comes even now as a burning oven, and
the powers of the heaven shall melt, and the earth as lead melting on the fire, and than shall
appear the secret and open works of man"
• Polycarp: "Now He that raised Him from the dead will raise up also...Whoever shall pervert
the oracles of the Lord to his own lusts and say there is neither resurrection nor judgment,
that man is first-born of Satan"
There was revelation given in the Old Testament on the establishment of the kingdom
[Micah 4:1] and the resurrection of Christ was given in types and shadows as Moses
lifting up the serpent in the wilderness [John 3:14]; which few if any understood, but the
doctrine of the resurrection, life, and immortality, which Christ taught, were new. The
words, resurrection, immortal, and immortality are not in the Old Testament in the King
James Version or the American Standard Version. The resurrection was new to the
heathen world, which believed in an immortal soul that had no need for a resurrection.
The first coming of Christ, His suffering and rejection, His death and resurrection were
told about in the Old Testament; but there is noting about His second coming in it; the
second coming of Christ, the resurrection, the judgment of all at His second coming and
the promise of life after death in Heaven was new to the New Testament.
THE NEW TESTAMENT CLEARLY TEACHES THAT THE SECOND
COMING, THE RESURRECTION OF ALL, AND THE JUDGMENT OF ALL
HAVE NOT CAME. All the lost will awake from the dead and the saved will awake to
eternal life at the same time. IT WILL BE A RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD, NOT
AS REALIZED ESCHATOLOGY TEACHES, DEATH IS ONLY A CHANGE FROM
ONE KIND OF LIFE TO ANOTHER KIND OF LIFE, WHICH WOULD NOT BE A
RESURRECTION AND WOULD MAKE A RESURRECTION IMPOSSIBLE.
“For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God” (Romans 14:10).
“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be
recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or
bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10).
“He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And inasmuch as
it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having
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been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, apart from sin, to
them that wait for him, unto salvation” (Hebrews 9:26-28).
“For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no
longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury
of a fire which will consume the adversaries” (Hebrews 10:26-27).
“But the heavens that now are, and the earth, 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).
John 5:28-29: "For an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear
His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life,
those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment." ALL, both the good
and the evil will BE RESURRECTED FROM THE DEAD IN THE SAME HOUR, NOT
SOME OVER TWO THOUSAND YEARS APART FROM A. D. 70 TO NOW AND
STILL COUNTING; AND NOT CHANGED FROM ONE FORM OF LIFE TO
ANTHER FORM OF LIFE IMMEDIATELY AFTER DEATH WITHOUT A
RESURRECTION.
Philippians 3:20-21: "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly
wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state
into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even
to subject all things to Himself." Our body being transformed into conformity with His
body is at His coming from Heaven, not at our death. Christ does not come from Heaven
ever time a person dies. That there will be a resurrection and judgment of all at the
second coming of Christ is discussed throughout this book and in the review below.
A REVIEW OF "THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD"
By Samuel Dawson
A web page in which he attempts to prove from 1 Corinthians 15 that the Old
Testament does teach that the dead in Christ will be resurrected, and that this
resurrection was in A. D. 70.
Dawson says, "I think West inadvertently gives the Old Testament's teaching of the subject short
shrift. You can be a good guy and do that because I've done exactly the same thing." Below is an
examination of how he thinks I give the Old Testament teaching of the resurrection short
shrift.
Some point to restoring of the nation of Israel as a nation as being a resurrection, but
the restoring or resurrection of Israel as a nation after it had gone into captivity, which
happen many times in the Old Testament, is not the resurrection of the New Testament. It
is not the resurrecting of a person to eternal life or immortality. Not even the resurrection
of a nation to immortality or to eternal life. IT IS NOT EVEN CLOSE TO BEING THE
RESURRECTION TAUGHT IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. "Behold, I will cause breath
to enter you that you may come to life" [Ezekiel 37:5] is speaking of a nation being
restored as a nation, the people that were alive but in captivity being restored to their land
and coming to life as a nation, this is not the resurrection of a single person that was
dead; there is nothing in it about anyone or any nation being given immortality. THE
RESURRECTION TAUGHT IN THE NEW TESTAMENT IS NOT THE
RESURRECTION OF A NATION (RESTORING THAT NATION ONLY FOR A
SHORT TIME) BUT IS THE RESURRECTION OF INDIVIDUALS TO ETERNAL
LIFE AND THERE IS NOTHING LIKE IT IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. There is
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nothing in 1 Corinthians 15, or any of the New Testament about the resurrection of
"fleshly bodies" at the coming of Christ. No one put on immortality in A. D. 70, and no
one's corruptible (fleshly) bodies were changed to incorruption, and all that were living in
A. D. 70 died; death was not "swallowed up in victory" [1 Corinthians 15:54], as it will
be at the coming of