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

/> MOST ENTERTAINING, AND GIVE THE HIGHEST PLEASURE TO THOSE WHO
LOVE GOD, AND RAISE THEIR HAPPINESS TO INEFFABLE HEIGHTS.
SHOULD THIS ETERNAL PUNISHMENT AND THIS FIRE BE EXTINGUISHED,
IT WOULD IN A GREAT MEASURE OBSCURE THE LIGHT OF HEAVEN AND
PUT AN END TO A GREAT PART OF THE HAPPINESS AND GLORY OF THE
BLESSED." Samuel Hopkins, "The works of Samuel Hopkins, D.D." Page 458.
What kind of sick man could get the highest pleasure from seeing a cruel God doing
his cruel work on billions and even on many he knows and loves? He makes the saints in
Heaven be deprived of qualities God has given to us, sympathy, pity, love for others,
caring for others; and made them to be cruel monsters that delight in the pain of others,
and loves to hear the groans of those they now love, and the groans of the countless
millions of the lost. He makes the saints in Heaven taking satisfaction from seeing God
inflict eternal pain without end on those who they loved on earth be more cruel and blood
thirsty then those in Rome who took satisfaction in seeing lions eating Christians.
Saints On Earth Become Like The God they Worship: (See “The Crusades, bloody
Mary” in chapter one.)
“I am reminded of this talk show, which showed a group of religious “Christians” screaming at
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people in a department store parking lot. Waving their bibles, they were shouting lines like
‘You’re all going to hell!’ (Of course what they really meant by this was ‘You’re all gonna be
tortured forever and ever!)’ Needless to say, they looked like hideous fiends, and to think that
such people actually believe they’re obediently doing God’s will. What deception. I can’t help but
be a mite suspect of the character of those who unswervingly defend the eternal torture
doctrine…I personally believe that these people who staunchly support eternal torture – these
folks who almost seem to relish the idea of human beings consciously roasting in agony for all
eternity and who become ridiculously irate when a fellow Christian rejects such a ghastly view
(even though based upon a thorough biblical analysis) – I believe that such people have given
reign to their flesh in this one area. Their very character must be questioned; it has somehow
become warped and perverted. I say this because they would zealously do everything in their
power to oppose supporters of everlasting destruction. Some go as far as to teach that adherents
of literal destruction aren’t even saved, that they aren’t fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord.
Such people have such a sinister, repulsive, hostile air to them that I wouldn’t doubt that, if this
was the Inquisition era of medieval infamy, they would not hesitate to put to death or torture
adherents of everlasting destruction” From a web page www.hell-know.net chapter eight.
“The smoke of their burning flesh shall be as a sweet smelling savor in the nostrils of the
Almighty” Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”
Summary: THE REAL ISSUE IN THE DOCTRINE OF HELL IS THE NATURE OF
GOD. IS HE A GOD OF LOVE AND MERCY OR IS HE A CRUEL, SADISTIC, AND
FIENDISH GOD TO MOST OF MANKIND AND MADE THEM JUST SO HE
COULD TORMENT THEM AND GIVE THEM NO CHANCE TO NOT BE
TORMENTED AND WILL NOT LET THEM DIE? THOSE WHO BELIEVE IN
SUCH A GOD MUST DEFEND EVERLASTING TORMENT AND THE GOD
WHO MADE MOST OF MANKIND KNOWING THAT HE WOULD TORMENT
THEM FOREVER; AND ACCORDING TO THE CALVIN AND JONATHAN
EDWARDS VERSIONS OF HELL THIS GOD WILL DELIGHT IN IT, AND
ACCORDING TO CREEDS, AUGUSTINE, SPURGEON AND MANY OTHERS,
THOSE IN HEAVEN WOULD FIND DELIGHT IN SEEING THOSE IN HELL
BEING ROASTED IN FIRE. SUCH A GOD AND HEAVEN CANNOT BE
DEFENDED. A GOD WITH SUCH VINDICTIVENESS IS A TOTALLY
CONTRADICTION TO THE GOD WHO WOULD HAVE ALL MEN COME TO
REPENTANCE. God is not an eternal prison keeper who loves to torments all that are in
His prison. Those who believe in an immortal soul must believe in an eternal hell, and in
eternal punishment that has no purpose, a punishment that is not proportionate to the sin,
and in a god with a nature that the basest of men would not defend; eternal torment in
Hell requires a god that is so dreadful that it make many reject him and his bible. When I
gave up the evil God of Hell, and believed in the true God; it brought a peace and
joy I never believed possible. I now worship a God who is worthy of being loved and
worshiped.
THE FATE OF THOSE WHO ARE NOT IN CHRIST
[1] UTTERLY DESTROYED [Acts 3:23]
[2] DEATH [Romans 6:23; 6:21; 7:5; 4:17; 8:6; 1 Corinthians 3:22]
[3] MUST DIE [Romans 8:13; John 8:24; 6:50]. This is not the first death, which comes
to all, to both those who are saved and those who are lost [Hebrews 9:27], but is the
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SECOND DEATH (eternal nothingness) [Revelation 21:8]. All will die once but the lost
will die twice
[4] "And when sin is accomplished, it brings forth DEATH" [James 1:15]
[5] "Condemned them to EXTINCTION" Revised Standard Version [2 Peter 2:6]
[6] They “are WORTHY OF DEATH” [Romans 1:32]
[7] PASSES AWAY [1 John 2:17]
[8] Their END is DEATH [Romans 6:21-22]
[9] Their wages for sin “IS DEATH” [Romans 6:23]
[10] They “MUST DIE” [Romans 8:13]
[11] "Their END is DESTRUCTION" [Philippians 3:19]
[12] "Whose END is TO BE BURNED" [Hebrews 6:8]
[13] "Everlasting DESTRUCTION" [2 Thessalonians 1:9]
[14] "Sudden DESTRUCTION" [1 Thessalonians 5:2-3]
[15] "Swift DESTRUCTION" [2 Peter 2:1]
[16] "Will reap DESTRUCTION" [Galatians 6:8]
[17] "DESTRUCTION of ungodly man" [2 Peter 3:7]
[18] Are on the broad way leading to DESTRUCTION [Matthew 7:13-14; Philippians
3:19; 1:28; 2 Peter 3:7]
[19] God will DESTROY [1 Corinthians 3:17; 2 Peter 2:12]
[20] Will be "DESTROYED" like Sodom [Luke 17:29]
[21] BRING TO NOTHING [2 Thessalonians 2:8]
[22] Will be TURNED TO ASHES like Sodom and Gomorrah [Peter 2:6]
[23] Will "BE BURNED UP" [2 Peter 3:10]
[24] Will "PERISH" [John 3:16]
[25] Will be "SLAIN" [Luke 1914]
[26] Will be "THROWN AWAY" [Matthew 13:18]
[27] They "SHALL NOT SEE LIFE" [John 3:36; 5:40; 1 John 3:15]
[28] DO NOT HAVE THE "LIFE" Christ gives to them that obey Him [John 3:36;
5:21; 5:24; 5:29; 5:40; 6:27; Matthew 19:29; 1 John 5:12]
[29] Will LOSE LIFE [Matthew 10:39]
[30] Will have NO ACCESS TO THE TREE OF LIFE [Revelation 2:7; 22:2; 22:14]
[31] Will be BLOTTED OUT OF THE BOOK OF LIFE [Revelation 3:5]
[32] Shall PASS AWAY in "the Day of Judgment and DESTRUCTION OF
UNGODLY MEN," the "heavens shall pass away...shall be dissolved...burned up" [2
Peter 3:7-13]
[33] Will be "DEVOUR" [American Standard Version] "CONSUME" [New American
Standard Version] [Hebrews 10:27; 12:29]
[34] Fate of the wicked in the parable-always destroyed, death, not tormented
• THEY WILL BURN UP like the useless chaff of wheat [Matthew 3:12,
Luke 3:17]
• BURNED like weeds, tares and bad fish [Matthew 13:30-50]
• Like harmful plants will be rooted up [Matthew 15:13]
• Cut asunder like the unfaithful servant [Matthew 24:45-51]
• Cut down like useless fig tree [Luke 13:6-9]
• SLAIN (killed) like enemies [Luke 19:27]
• Cast out and KILLED like the unfaithful husbandman [Luke 20:9-17]
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• Are BURNED UP like withered branches [John 15:6]
o If the above language does not denote the utter destruction of the wicked,
what language could God have used that would? None. Those who try to
explain away the above would try to explain away any language that could
be used.
[35] Fate of the wicked in the Old Testament (the fate of people and nations in this
lifetime)
• "Behold the day comes, it burns as a furnace [see 2 Peter 3:10-12] and all the
proud and all that work wickedness shall be stubble; and the day that comes
SHALL BURN THEM UP, says the LORD of hosts, that IT SHALL LEAVE
THEM NEITHER ROOT NOR BRANCH" [Malachi 4:1-3]. Probably said of the
nation of Israel. Burn up a plant and leave it neither root nor branch and nothing
will remain of it. Nothing will remain of the nation.
• The wicked "shall soon be cut down like the grass" [Psalms 37:2]
• "Shall be cut off...shall not be" [Psalms 37:9-10]
• "Will be as nothing" [Isaiah 41:11]
• "Become as if they has never existed" [Obadiah 16]
• "Shall perish...in smoke shall they consume away" [Psalms 37:20]
• "They shall be destroyed" [Psalms 37:38]. "Altogether destroyed" New Revised
Standard Version
• Shall "melt away" [Psalms 112:10; 68:2]
• "But the way of the wicked will perish" [Psalms 1:6]
• "But all the wicked, He will destroy" [Psalms 145:20]
• "Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book" [Exodus 32:33]
• "The wicked is reserved to the day of destruction" [Job 21:30]
• "They are like the chaff which the wind drives away" [Psalms 1:4]
• Souls shall die [Genesis 3:3; Ezekiel 18:4; 13:19]
[36] Add to this the fact that Hell is not in the Bible, not the name or the concept; nothing
is said about God tormenting anyone after the judgment; nothing is said about the wicked
after the second death; and you have a clear picture of the fate of the wicked. GOD
COULD NOT HAVE SAID IN HUMAN LANGUAGE ANY CLEARER OR
STRONGER WHAT THE FATE OF THE WICKED WILL BE. If you think it
could be said any more clearly, try it. You cannot do it. BETWEEN THE
STATEMENTS OF THE INSPIRED WRITERS OF THE BIBLE ABOVE, AND
THE UNINSPIRED TEACHING OF MEN, THERE IS AN ENORMOUS
DISCREPANCY AND CONTRADICTION THAT CANNOT BE EXPLAINED
AWAY.
Our choice is life or death [see Deuteronomy 30:19-20]. To live or die [Ezekiel
18:20], an eternal life in Hell forever being tormented by God is not one of our choices.
“But even if we are an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to
what we preached to you, let that one be accursed! As we have said before, so now I
PRPEAT, if anyone preaches to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let that one
be accursed” [Galatians 1:7-8]. Is there another time Paul said something so serious that
he repeated it? If “the wages of sin is death” and someone preaches to you “the wages of
sin is eternal life in torment” that one should be accursed of preaching a gospel contrary
to that which Paul preached.
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AFTER THE RESURRECTION
THE FATE OF THOSE WHO ARE IN CHRIST
[1] Eternal life [Romans 6:23]
[2]"Shall inherit eternal life" [Matthew 19:29]
[3] After the judgment they "shall go away into eternal life" [Matthew 25:46]
[4] Will "have eternal life" [John 3:5]
[5] Christ will raise them up on the last day [John 6:40]
[6] Will be immortal after the resurrection [1 Corinthians 15:51-56]
[7] Will have incorruption [1 Corinthians 15:42]
[8] Will have glory [1 Corinthians 15:43]
[9] Will be like Christ "We shall be like him; for we shall see him even as he is" [1 John
3:2]
[10] Are "heirs according to the hope of eternal life" [Titus 3:7]
[11] Will have a spiritual body [1 Corinthians 15:44]
[12] "And as we have borne the image of the earthly (The earthly flesh and blood body
of Adam was made to live on this earth but it "cannot inherit the kingdom of God" 1
Corinthians 15:50), we shall also bear the image of the heavenly" (Shall be like the
spiritual body of Christ for life in Heaven) [1 Corinthians 15:47-56]
[13] "Will never perish" [John 10:28]
[14] Forever with the Lord [1 Thessalonians 4:17]
[15] MANY MANSIONS IN MY FATHER'S HOUSE: "In my Father's house (Who
is in Heaven Matthew 5:16; 5:45; 5:48; 6:1; 6:9; 7:21; 10:32-33) are many mansions...I