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

Christ. IF PAUL WERE NOT SPEAKING OF A RESURRECTION
THAT WILL COME AFTER THIS LIFETIME, THEN WHEN HE SAID, "THEN
THEY ALSO THAT ARE FALLEN ASLEEP IN CHRIST HAVE PERISHED" THEY
HAD PERISHED (depicting a process that had pass before Paul wrote this, not "an on
going process." They had perished - died before he wrote, not were perishing - dying at
the time he wrote) [1 Corinthians 15:18]; he was speaking of some that had died past
tense that were dead present tense in about A. D. 57, but still would be raised, future
tense, with a spiritual body at the coming of Christ. PAUL WAS NOT SPEAKING OF A
RESURRECTION THAT HAD PASSED OR THAT WAS TAKING PLACE AT THAT
TIME, BUT OF THE RESURRECTION TO LIFE AND IMMORTALITY THAT WILL
NOT TAKE PLACE UNTO THE COMING OF CHRIST. At the coming of Christ, (1)
all the saved that have died ("fallen asleep") "the dead in Christ shall rise" (2) and the
living saints will be changed and both at the same time shall be caught up to meet the
Lord in the air and shall "ever be with the Lord" [1 Thessalonians 3:14-17]; this did not
happen in A. D. 70, and those who are fallen asleep are not yet with Christ. PAUL SAYS
THE RESURRECTION OF THOSE WHO ARE ASLEEP IN CHRIST, AND PUTTING
ON IMMORTALITY BY THOSE WHO ARE LIVING WILL BOTH BE AT THE
SAME MOMENT, BOTH IN THE TWINKLING OF AN EYE. REALIZED
ESCHATOLOGY SAYS, "NOT SO PAUL, THE RESURRECTION OF THE OLD
TESTAMENT SAINT WAS IN A. D. 70, BUT THERE WILL BE NO
RESURRECTION FOR US AS WE WILL BE CHANGED AT THE MOMENT OF
DEATH, BOTH ARE NOT IN THE SAME MOMENT." IF ALL WERE
TRANSFORMED (RECEIVES A "SPIRITUAL BODY" IN WHICH THEY WILL
DWELL IN IMMEDIATELY AND ETERNALLY AT THE MOMENT OF
DEATH) NOTHING IS RESURRECTED; THERE WOULD BE NO
RESURRECTION FOR ANYONE AFTER A. D. 70. ACCORDING TO THEM,
THE ONLY RESURRECTION DAY IN THE BIBLE WAS AT A. D. 70 AND IT IS
PASSED. THERE WILL BE NO RESURRECTION AND JUDGMENT DAY FOR
ANYONE. "Faithful is the saying: For if we died with him, we shall also live with
him...Hymenaeus and Philetus, men who concerning the truth have erred, saying the
resurrection is past already" [2 Timothy 10-19]. ISRAEL WAS NOT DELIVERED IN
A. D. 70, BUT WAS JUDGED AND DESTROYED. THERE IS NOTHING IN 1
CORINTHIANS 15, MATTHEW 24, OR ANY PASSAGE ABOUT ISRAEL BEING
RESURRECTED OR RESTORED IN A. D. 70.
On page 6 he says, "Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to
life" Ezekiel 37 refers to the death of Israel, then says, "West is absolutely right that the
word 'resurrection' isn't there, but what word should we call the process whereby Israel
was dead, and God's purpose was to bring them to life." He needs to see that when the
Old Testament speaks of restoring or resurrecting a nation to life as a nation that would
die again, it is not speaking of the resurrection to eternal life of even a resurrection to
eternal life of one dead person. Not one dead person was restored to life and given
immortality. There is no promise that anyone would ever be given immortality in Ezekiel
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37 or the Old Testament. ISRAEL WAS RESURRECTED OR RESTORED AS A
NATION FOR A TIME BUT SOON DEID AGAIN (WENT INTO CAPTIVITY), IT
WAS NOT GIVEN IMMORTALITY. No nation, not even Israel, will ever be given
immortality; but the saved individuals of all nations will at the resurrection. HOW CAN
HE NOT SEE THAT THE RESURRECTION OR RESTORING OF ISRAEL AS A
NATION FOR ONLY A SHORT TIME IN EZEKIEL 37 IS NOTHING LIKE THE
RESURRECTION OF INDIVIDUALS TO IMMORTALITY PAUL WAS
SPEAKING OF IN 1 CORINTHIANS 15? When Israel was restored as a nation after
the seventy-year captivity in Daniel, it was not even the same individuals in "the
resurrection" of the nation that was in Israel before the captivity from which the nation
was resurrected. One group of Jews went into the captivity and Israel died as a nation,
another group of Jews came out of the captivity and Israel were restored or resurrected as
a nation; not one dead Jew was resurrected. The many restorations of Israel as a nation
from captivity in the Old Testament, which was one hundred percent physical earthly
restoring of a nation, is not the resurrection to eternal life for those who are in Christ,
NOT THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD in 1 Corinthians 15. NOT ONE DEAD
PERSON WAS RESURRECTED TO ETERNAL LIFE IN ANY OF THE
RESURRECTIONS OR RESTORING OF ISRAEL AS A NATION; THERE IS
NOTHING SAID IN ANY OF ISRAEL'S RESURRECTION AS A NATION
ABOUT ANY PERSON EVER BEING GIVEN IMMORTALITY.
Page 89: "'We all shall not sleep, but we shall all be changed.' Here's a time statement.
When Paul said, 'We shall not all sleep,' he affirmed that not all of those in Corinth were
going to die physically before the resurrection happened" Samuel G. Dawson. IF PAUL
WERE SAYING NOT ALL WOULD DIE PHYSICALLY BEFORE THE
RESURRECTION HAPPENED IN A. D. 70, THEN HE WAS ALSO SAYING ALL
THOSE IN CORINTH AND ALL LIVING CHRISTIANS WOULD BE CHANGED
FROM PHYSICAL BODIES TO SPIRITUAL BODIES WHEN THE RESURRECTION
DID HAPPEN IN A. D. 70. NOT ONE LIVING CHRISTIANS WAS CHANGED
FROM PHYSICAL BODIES TO SPIRITUAL BODIES AT THAT TIME; BOTH
CHRISTIANS AND NON CHRISTIANS STILL HAD PHYSICAL BODIES AFTER A.
D. 70 JUST AS THEY DID BEFORE IT, AND ALL STILL HAVE PHYSICAL
BODIES TODAY; ALL STILL DIE, THEREFORE, DEATH HAS NOT YET BEEN
DESTOYED [1 Corinthians 15:54-57]. THIS TEACHING WOULD HAVE MADE THE
CHURCH ON EARTH GO OUT OF EXISTENCE ON EARTH IN A. D. 70 FOR ALL
LIVING CHRISTIANS WOULD HAVE BEEN “CHANGED” FROM PHYSICAL
BODIES TO “SPIRITUAL BODIES” IN A MOMENT [1Corinthians 15:50-55]; AT
THE SAME TIME THAT THOSE WHO ARE “FALLEN ASLEEP” ARE REISED,
ALL THE LIVING CHRISTIANS “SHALL TOGETHER WITH THEM BE CAUGHT UP
IN THE CLOUSDS, TO MEET THE LORD IN THE AIR: AND SO SHALL WE EVER BE
WITH THE LORD” [1 Thessalonians 4:13-17]. NO ONE WILL HAVE THE
SPIRITUAL BODY BEFORE THE RESURRECTION. Read this "time statement" in the
context, "Behold, I tell you a mystery: We all shall not sleep, but we shall all be changed,
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound,
and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this
corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. But, when
this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on
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immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in
victory" [1 Corinthians 15:51-53]. The "time" is when "the trumpet shall sound." At the
sound of the trumpet, "the dead shall be raised incorruptible" AND "we shall be
changed," BOTH THE LIVING AND THE DEAD IN THE SAME MOMENT,
BOTH THE LIVING AND THE DEAD IN THE SAME TWINKLING OF AN
EYE, BOTH THE LIVING AND THE DEAD AT THE SOUND OF THE SAME
TRUMPET. ALL LIVING CHRISTIANS WILL BE CHANGED FROM
PHYSICAL BODIES TO SPIRITUAL BODIES IN THE SAME MOMENT THE
DEAD ARE RESURRECTED WITH SPIRITUAL BODIES. If this had happened in
A. D. 70, there would have been no Christians for the Romans to put to death. He
changed, "and we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last
trump" to "not all of those in Corinth were going to die physically before the resurrection
happened" and nothing will happen to them in A. D. 70, nothing will happen to them at
the time of the resurrection, nothing in the same moment. If I understand him, he says the
living Christians in Corinth were not going to be changed in the same moment but each
one changed in a different moment, each one at the moment of their death, which for
most of them would not be in A. D. 70; and each Christian is changed to a spiritual body
at a different moment than all other Christians. On page 57 he again changed "we shall
all be changed in a moment" to the Old Covenant faithful being taken from the unseen
Hadean state into the presence of Christ in the twinkling of an eye. It seems that Paul's
"we" must be changed to "them." "Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but
we (them?) shall all (only all of "them," not "we" that are living) be changed in a
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump" [1 Corinthians 15:51]. Does he
think the first "we" is us but the second "we" them? If the first "we" is "them," some of
the "them" did not all sleep, then some of the Old Covenant faithful (those who were
faithful to the Law before the death of Christ) was alive in when Paul was writing this in
A. D. 67 or 68, alive before A. D. 70.
"We that are alive." It is believed that Paul was put to death in about A. D. 67 or 68. If
Christ did come in A. D. 70, Paul was not in the "we that are alive" at His coming. "We
that are alive." is the faithful who will be alive when “the trumpet shall sound and the
dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” [1 Corinthians 15:52].
"But, some one will ask, how are the dead raised? And with what manner of body do
they come" [1 Corinthians 15:35]. Paul was reassuring the Corinthians that the
Corinthians that had "fallen asleep in Christ" had not perished, that their hope of the
resurrection did not depend on them being alive at the time of the resurrection [1
Corinthians 15:18-19]. Dawson says, "Who were these 'dead ones?' They were the same
Old Covenant dead ones Paul discussed throughout the chapter." HE SAYS, "WHEN WE
CHANGE WHO THE 'WE' WAS, WE TOTALLY MISS THE TIME ELEMENT IN
PAUL'S TEACHING." THEN HE CHANGED THE "WE" FROM "WE" TO "THEM";
HE CHANGES FROM THE ONES PAUL WAS WRITING TO AT CORINTH ABOUT
THOSE IN CORINTH WHO HAD FALLEN ASLEEP "IN CHRIST" TO THOSE WHO
HAD BEEN DEAD FOR MANY YEARS; HE CHANGED THE "WE" TO ABRAHAM
AND ALL THE OLD TESTAMENT SAINTS. He "totally miss the time element in
Paul's teaching" by changing the "we" from those who were alive at the time Paul was
writing to "them," to those who had been dead for many years The "dead ones" are the
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Corinthians that had fallen asleep in Christ after they were baptized into Christ, not Old
Testament saints who are not even mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15.
On pages 85 -88 he attempts to make the "natural body" be Old Testament Israel and
the "spiritual body" be the new Israel; when he makes Israel be the "natural body" and
the church be the "spiritual body," he takes the resurrection of the dead out of I
Corinthians 15. In about A. D. 57, 13 years before A. D. 70, he has the old Israel "being
sown a natural body, it is being raised a spiritual body (He added “being,” Paul said, “it is
raised a spiritual body” but he changed it to, “it is being raised a spiritual body"). Paul
said, "And as WE HAVE borne the image of the earthly (Adam, 15:45 a natural or
earthly corruptible body), WE SHALL also bear the image of the heavenly (Christ, a
spiritual incorruptible body)" [1 Corinthians 15:49]. He changes the "we have borne" to
"is being sown" and "we shall also bear the image" to "is being raised." Then changes
"we" (those Paul was writing