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

Wages of Sin,
www.truthaccordingtoscripture.com/death/Wages-of-sin-6.php
“The smoke of their torment” is in the third of the seven angels having seven plagues.
Revelation 15:1 says, “For in them is finished (complete) the wrath of God.” “Because in
them the wrath of God is finished” New American Standard. According to those who
believe in Hell the wrath of God will never be finished. The seven plagues are plagues
that take place in time and will be finished in time, not plagues after the judgment day
that will never be finished.
A CONTRADICTION TO THEIR OWN BELIEF. In an attempt to find their belief in
the Bible, many make the symbolic picture of souls under the altar literal, but when they
do it does not say what they want it to say.
1. SOULS UNDER THE ALTAR BEFORE THE JUDGMENT DOES NOT
FIT WITH THE PROTESTANT VERSION OF HEAVEN, THAT ALL
THE SAVED GO DIRECTLY TO HEAVEN AT DEATH. Those who believe
souls go to Heaven to be at home with the Lord, but they do not believe those in
Heaven will be shut up and unhappy under an altar crying out for revenge on
those in Hell and/or some still on the earth. If made literal, it does not fit with
their belief. If souls go to their eternal home with Christ in Heaven at death, why
are they so unhappy that they cry unto God? Why are they crying to God for
judgment and vengeance on those who are in torment if the lost go to Hell at
death? Will those in Heaven want more vengeance than the awful torment they
believe Hell will be for some who maybe their father, mother, brother, or sister?
2. SOULS UNDER THE ALTAR BEFORE THE JUDGMENT DOES NOT
FIT WITH THE AFTER JUDGMENT VERSION, THAT ALL THE
SAVED ARE IN ABRAHAM’S BOSOM AND WILL NOT BE IN HEAVEN
UNTO THE JUDGMENT DAY. Many who believe in Abraham's bosom also
make this literal, but when they do they have an even greater contradiction of
their belief. They have people in Heaven before the Judgment Day. They have
souls that are not in Abraham's bosom, but in prison under an altar before the
judgment. They do not believe any will be in Heaven before the Judgment, but
they have some that are now in Heaven under an altar. They have some that are in
Heaven and some that are in Abraham's bosom simultaneously before The
Judgment Day. This is inconsistent with their own teaching, particularly on Luke
16. They teach Abraham's bosom with the good and bad sides, then they use this
passage and teach that souls are "under the altar," therefore; souls are in two
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different places before the resurrection. They change from one to the other, and
then back to the first, as they need to. If a symbolic passage can be made to prove
something they want it to prove by making it literal; they make it literal and use it
just as they do Revelation 12:7-9 and other passages in Revelation. In their
attempt to prove Hell, they make two symbolic passages literal, [Luke 16:19-31;
Revelation 6:9], but if they did proved what they are trying to prove with each of
the two passages they would contradict each other.
A drowning man will desperately grab at anything to try to keep his head above water.
They have no plain statement [no boat to save them] that teaches men have an immortal
inter part that is not subject to death, therefore, they grab at any symbolic language or
parable.
"Some persons have turned to the Book of Revelation and hung over its sublime imagery, as if
these were literal descriptions of our eternal home; but we must remember that this is a book of
symbols, and that this fact will not permit a strict adherence to the letter in seeking the meaning
of its glowing visions. Revelation does not aim to teach us, as some have thought, that the
ceaseless employment of heaven is eternal singing or praising, but that it is an abode of
rapturous joy of which song and praise are the natural expressions. Nor are we to conclude that
the heavenly city is literally paved with gold and fenced in with jasper walls and pearly gates, but
that it is a splendid and glorious home beyond anything that mortal eye has ever seen." B. W.
Johnson, Christ and the Future Life, 1891.
Commonly accepted rules: (1) A symbolic passage cannot overturn the teaching of a
passage that is not symbolic. (2) A symbolic passage cannot be used to build a doctrine
on.
REVELATION 14:9-11 WORSHIPERS OF THE BEAST
"And the smoke of their torment doth go up to ages of ages; and they have no rest day
and night, who are bowing before the beast and his image, also if any doth receive the
mark of his name." Footnote in the American Standard Version, "Gr. UNTO the ages of
the ages." This smoke goes up UNTO the ages of ages, not without end IN the ages of
ages.
Revelation is a book of figurative language taken from the Old Testament. It was
written to people who know the Old Testament and would be familiar with its
symbolisms but those persecuting them would not understand it. The symbolism in
Revelation can be understood by the way it is used in the Old Testament.
WHO ARE WHAT IS THE BEAST?
To understand whom the worships of the beast are we need to know what the beast
symbolizes. In Daniel, "beast" is used to represent a great political empire.
A. M. Ogden says worshiping Babylon is Emperor worship. "The Avenging of the Apostles and
Prophets" Page 295.
F. E. Wallace "The name Babylon had come to symbolize the ultimate in corruption, and the
fallen Babylon of verse 8 is figurative of the spiritual degradation of Jerusalem-'the faithful city
turned harlot.'" "The Book Of Revelation" Page 310.
Homer Hailey "Judgment should motivate and bring men to repentance [Acts 17:30f]. But,
what judgment is in the divine mind here-the final judgment, or an immediate one? In the light of
this exhortation to fear God, give Him glory, and worship Him, it is impossible to make 'the hour
of his judgment' refer to the final judgment...but rather, it refers to the hour in which God is to
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judge Babylon." "Revelation, An Introduction and Commentary" Page 307, 1979, Baker Book
House.
Ralph F. Brashears said he is not describing the eternal Judgment, but a temporal retribution,
figuratively. "The Revelation of the Christian Age." Page 276, 1989, Vantage Press.
This passage speaks of a judgment that takes place in time before the coming of
Christ and the judgment day. Whether the beast is pagan Rome or the papal power, it is
only a small part of those who are not in Christ. It says nothing about all the lost in John's
time or today, and nothing about any of the lost going to Hell. It is not the judgment at
the coming of Christ for all the lost will be in that judgment. Those who believe in Hell
do not believe anyone will worship the beast nor receive the mark of his name after they
are in Hell. If the powers of this world are cast alive into Hell and tormented forever, then
the evil powers of this world will exist forever, but even those who believe in Hell do not
believe evil world powers will exist forever and be tormented in Hell.
There are four symbolisms in the passage, each one taken from the Old Testament.
1. Those that worship the beast shall drink of wine of the wrath of God, which
is prepared unmixed in the cup of His anger. This is an Old Testament
expression of destruction. See Jeremiah 25:15-27; Obadiah 16 and 18; Psalm
75:8; Job 21:20; Habakkuk 2:16; Malachi 3:2.
2. Those that worship the beast shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in
the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb. See “The
Types Of The Judgment” in chapter seven.
3. They have no rest day and night. This is often applied to those in Hell being
tormented forever, but it says nothing about all the lost in Hell but about those
who worship the beast (Emperor worship or pagan Rome). All four symbolisms in
this passage are speaking only about those who worship the Emperor and not
God, not about eternal torment in Hell.
4. The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. Even if Revelation 14:9-
11 were literal, it would not be depicting torment, but the aftermath of the
destruction just as the smoke of Sodom that Abraham saw depicted of the total
destruction of Sodom. The ascending smoke is a sign of the destruction that has
already taken place, a destruction that had been completed. Those in Sodom were
dead when Abraham saw their smoke ascending. When a city or a person has
been turned to smoke, the destruction is past, not forever ongoing. If the smoke
were literal, the ascending smoke of Revelation 14 would show their destruction
has taken place, not that they are undergoing torment. The ascending smoke seen
by Abraham became the basis of much of the language of destruction found in the
Bible. It is a sign of an utter destruction that is passed, not of eternal torment,
Genesis 19:24-28; Isaiah 34:9; 66:24; Jeremiah 17:27; Ezekiel 20:45-50;
Revelation 14:9-11; 18:9; 18:18. Much of the symbolism in Revelation can be
understood by the way it is used in the Old Testament. In Daniel "beast" is used to
represent a great political empire.
SMOKE IN HEAVEN Revelation 14:9-11: A symbolic picture of a judgment in the
time of Emperor worship or pagan Rome, It is a picture of the destruction of these powers
on this earth, not of their torment in Hell after the coming of Christ. If this passage were
literal, who would worship a beast with seven heads? How many have you ever seen
with the mark of this seven headed beast on their forehead? That some would make
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everything about the beast be a symbolic picture unto it comes to the punishment of
those with his mark on their forehead, but then change from symbolic to literal
shows how desperate they are for anything that may support the doctrine of Hell.
According to this passage, the torment referred to is occurring on this earth for it is while
they are worshiping (present tense) the beast and while there is "day and night." WHERE
IS HELL? If this passage were literal and is made to be literal picture of Hell, then Hell
would be on this earth and those in it would not have died, but the smoke of the torment
of those still living on the earth would go from the earth and fill Heaven with smoke. This
passage speaks of a limited number when they are living on the earth, only those who
worshiped the beast, not all the lost who will not be living on the earth. Young's literal
translation of the Bible translates this action in the present tense as "bowing" (i.e.
worshiping). These people have no rest while they are still worshiping the beast, while on
earth. WHAT IS NOT SAID IS THAT THEY ARE TORMENTED FOREVER BUT
THE SMOKE FROM THEIR TORMENT (THE AFTERMATH OF DESTRUCTION)
GOSE UP FOREVER, EVIDENCE THAT GOD HAS DESTROYED THEM.
N. W. Allphin said smoke symbolizes the effects or evidences of fire and the evidences of this
destruction will never end, "Visions Unveiled, or The Revelation Explained" Page 168, 1985, Star Bible
Publications.
"Smoke has aptly been said to be the formless relic of an object that has been consumed or
decomposed, by the action of fire. It is but a relic, a vestige, an emblem, a lingering trace of the
passing, the drifting aftermath that remains from AN OBJECT THAT HAS BEEN