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

is death, perish, destroyed, lost, and end.
It does not say the punishment is eternal torment after the Judgment Day is over. To teach that
Matthew 25:46 says the punishment is an eternal life of torment in Hell, as many do, is adding to
it.
Some traditionalists say annihilation [death] is not punishment. They believe that "by no
stretch of the imagination can the punishment spoken of in Matthew 25:46 be defined as an
extinction of consciousness, for if actual suffering is lacking, then so is punishment." Where does
Matthew 25:46 say anything about suffering? Punishment must be CHANGED to eternal
suffering and a place ADDED to have anyone suffering in Hell. If death row is not punishment,
then why is the death sentence the worse punishment a person can get, for worse than life in
prison; and how is being on death row is to be in the worst part of a prison. WHAT WOULD
THOSE ON DEATH ROW SAY IF SOMEONE TOLD THEM DEATH IS NOT A
PUNISHMENT? Throughout all of history, death has been thought of as being the worst
punishment there is. Why would most on death row love to get off it and have the punishment of
life in prison instead of death? They are told they are not fit to live, and their punishment is to be
death. For the sinner to stand before God on the judgment day and be told he is not fit to live and
will be punished with the second death is the worst kind of punishment. Most fear death more
than pain and will do all they can to live a little longer even if it is in pain. Death is worse because
it takes everything from them and deprives of all the life and joy a person would have had, and
the second death will deprive of eternal life in Heaven, of an eternity of ceaseless years of joy
beyond any joy we can now even dream of, it is an infinite punishment in that it takes an infinite
amount of life and joy from a person. We cannot vision all the joy that will be in Heaven for all
eternity; therefore, we cannot know how much death will take from them. It is much more than
we can know before the judgment. Death is a much greater punishment than any person can now
imagine, and the second death will be an eternal punishment. THOSE WHO TEACH HELL
MUST MAKE THEM SELVES, AND ALL OTHERS BELIEVE DEATH IS NOT A
PUNISHMENT, THEREFORE, THERE MUST BE TORMENT IN HELL. When a lost person
comes to the judgment, he may see that the saved will have an eternal life of joy and bliss in a
place of indescribable glory and to know that all this could have been his, but for him there will
be only the blackness and darkness of nothing. And some say this is not punishment!
Summary: WHATEVER THE PUNISHMENT IS IN MATTHEW 25:46, IT IS THE SAME
PUNISHMENT AS Romans 6:16; 6:23; 8:6; Revelation 21:8; James 5:22; 2 Peter 2:1; 2:6; 3:7;
Philippians 1:28; 3:19; 2 Corinthians 7:10; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9; Matthew 3:12; 13:40; John
3:16, etc. The Bible does not teach one kind of punishment in one verse and another in another
verse. It does not teach the punishment is everlasting life with torment in one verse and death in
another verse. It comes down to the question of,
• Is the wages of sin death, or is the wages of sin everlasting life with torment?
• Is the second death a death, or is the second death everlasting life?
• Did God really mean "life" and mistakenly said "death?"
A PASSAGE, WHICH DOES NOT SAY WHAT THE PUNISHMENT IS, CANNOT
OVERRIDE THE MANY PASSAGES THAT DOES SAY WHAT IT IS. FROM
MATTHEW 25:46 ALONE, NO ONE CAN SAY WHAT THE PUNISHMENT WILL BE.
JUST THAT IT WILL BE AFTER THE JUDGMENT AND WILL BE FOREVER. The
only way to know what is the punishment of Matthew 25:46 is to go to other passages that
do say how God is going to punish the lost. THAT A PASSAGE WHICH DOES NOT SAY
WHAT THE PUNISHMENT WILL BE IS THE #1 PROOF TEXT FOR HELL SHOWS
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THE WEAKNESS OF THE PROOF. Can they deny that they are going beyond what the
Bible says when they say what the punishment of Matthew 25:56 will be, and that they are
adding eternal life in Hell when it is not there?
IS THE ONLY DIFFERENCE IN WHAT THE PUNISHMENT WILL BE? Robert A.
Peterson, a strong believer in Hell, says, the Old Testament judgments, the Flood, the destruction
of Sodom and Gomorrah, the Egyptian plagues and the crossing of the Red Sea, and the
captivities of Israel, the punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah was the loss of human life. Page
23-24. Then on page 26, he says the punishments described in them are consistently earthly and
temporal, resulting in physical death. None of these passages speak of life after death or eternal
destinies, but Annihilationist err, for their belief would entail cessation of existence at death, not
the resurrection and punishment of the wicked. "Hell On Trial" P & R Publishing. The New
Testament used them as a type of God's judgment after the resurrection. He says they resulted in
physical death. Peterson, Page 26. If the result of the judgment is not DEATH, but an everlasting
LIFE of torment, then the types are not true for they do not show ETERNAL LIFE with
punishment; but they would be true if DEATH is the end. The New Testament writers used the
Old Testament types to show the destruction of [Death], not the torment of the lost. He errs in that
he does not give God the power to raise the dead for judgment and punishment if the punishment
is to be death. God will raise and judge them and just as His judgments in the Old Testament
resulted "in death," so will His judgment at the resurrection be a second death. His statement that
Annihilationist err because they believe the first death to be the end of those not in Christ and the
lost will not be raised for judgment may possibly be true of some Annihilationist (none that I
know of), but it is not true of most. MOST believe the Bible teaching that all the dead will be
raised for the judgment, then for those not in Christ there will be the second death from which
there will never be a resurrection. Did Robert A. Peterson just make a make believe man of hay or
stubble so that he could pull down his stubble Annihilationist? THE ONLY DIFFERENCE IS IN
WHAT THE PUNISHMENT WILL BE AFTER THE JUDGMENT. Annihilationist believes
"the wages of sin is death" [Romans 6:23]. Believers in Hell believe the punishment, the wages of
sin will be "everlasting life with torment." Those who believe in Hell often argue as if they think
that those who oppose Hell do not believe in the resurrection, the judgment, or punishment. They
know that if Annihilationist do believe in the resurrection, judgment and punishment they have
loss much of their argument, FOR THEN THE ONLY QUESTION IS WHAT WILL THE
PUNISHMENT BE AND THERE IS NO QUESTION THAT THE BIBLE SAYS IT IS DEATH.
In much of his book, he does as many, he assumes that those who do not believe in "Hell" do not
believe the lost will be raised for judgment, and he assumes that there is a Hell and that Hell is its
name; then he unjustly puts this name into the mouth of Christ.
A MORE BASIC QUESTION THAN WHAT THE PUNISHMENT WILL BE AFTER THE
RESURRECTION IS "WHAT IS THE RESURRECTION?" If he is right, that there is no death,
then there cannot be a resurrection, and his belief makes him be the one that does not believe in
the resurrection that Annihilationist do believe in. Will what he falsely calls the resurrection be
only a bringing of those who are alive in Heaven and Hell, therefore already judged, back to earth
for a second judgment, or will the resurrection be as annihilationist believe, a raising the dead that
are really dead and bringing them back to life? On page 68 Peterson says God did not send his
Son into the world to condemn the lost, but to rescue them from hell. This is a typical example of
the way Hell is added to the Bible. The Bible is changed to read the way they want it to read and
Hell is added where it is not. How could he know the lost shall be rescued from hell? Does he
have a revelation that is not in the Bible? There is no revelation in the Bible that says the lost are
rescued from hell, but there is much revelation that says the lost are saved from death. "Let him
know that he who converts a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death"
[James 5:20]. Salvation is from death, the wages of sin [Romans 6:23] not from an everlasting life
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of torment. "God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in him Son. He that has the Son has the
life; he that has not the Son of God has not the life" [1 John 5:11-12].
“The word ‘PUNISHMENT’ is not a puzzling word. One of the most familiar terms in the English
language. Do you know its meaning? Just think a moment and try to define it. The Dictionary
tells us it is the infliction of PENALTY for an offence. IS IT? If the teacher tells the pupil she will
‘punish’ him a question would spring up in his mind, WHAT WAY? Even the child knows there
are many ways to punish. THOUGH OUR THEOLOGIANS, AFTER LOSING SIGHT OF THE
DEFINITION OF THE WORD, AT LAST GIVE IT BUT ONE IDEA, THAT OF MISERY. Cunning
enough, indeed, to separate it from its primary meaning in the New Testament. As if death
inflicted for sin was not a punishment. If it is a recompense of the some nature, WHAT IS THE
NATURE, HOW SEVERE? The term punishment as a retaliation for offence, NEVER DEFINES THE
NATURE OF THE INFLICTION TO BE EXECUTEE. It only announces the fact that a judicial
penalty is due, without revealing the severity f it. Punishment, retaliation, recompense, penalty,
are synonymous words, and may be used interchangeably. So if the Lord had said, ‘These shall go
into everlasting recompense’ or penalty, or retaliation, we would still be forced to seek other
scriptures to learn WHAT KIND OF RECOMPENSE IS MEANT. We are told there can be no
punishment with pain. I deny the assertion. I challenge the reader to search the Old Testament
for the hundreds of instances where the infliction of death was the penalty for crimes. And that it
was inflicted to satisfy the offence regardless of the pain accompanying it. Punishment lasts so
long as its results last, and where death has been administered for the satisfaction of crime, THE
PUNISMENT CONTINUES TILL LIFE IS RESTORED, AND IF NEVER RESTORED, IT IS AN
EVERLSATING PUNISHMENT. Lost of property, loss of liberty, loss of life, may all be meted out to
the transgressors under the label of punishment. And death as the capital punishment, legalized
on the statutes of all civilized nations of the world, is the highest punishment man can inflict—or
so recognized,--being the deprivation of life, the first source of all pleasures and enjoyments, and
recognized as being forfeited for certain crimes.” E. D. Slough, “The Indictment Of Eternal
Torment—The Self-negation Of A Monstrous Doctrine,” Page 196-197, F. L. Rowe, Publisher,
1914, evangelist, church of Christ.
Summary: THERE IS NO WAY THAT THOSE WHO BELIEVE ALL ARE BORN
IMMORTAL COULD REALLY BELIEVE IN THE RESURRECTION OR IN THE
NEED FOR IT. BY TEACHING THAT ALL