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

"So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is
sown in corruption; it is raised in INCORRUPTION [aphtharsia]."
 (3) (4) and (5) 1 Corinthians 15:50, 15:53 and 15:54 "Now...flesh and
blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither does corruption inherit
INCORRUPTION [aphtharsia]. 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 dead shall be raised incorruptible, and
we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on INCORRUPTION
[aphtharsia], and this mortal must put on immorality [thanasia]. But,
when this corruptible shall have put on INCORRUPTION [aphtharsia],
and this mortal shall have put on immortality [thanasia]."
 (6) 2 Timothy 1:10 "Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life
and IMMORTALITY [aphtharsia] to light through the gospel." The only
way we can know about immortality after the resurrection is through the
gospel, not from philosophy or science.
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o Aphtharsia used referring to our love for Christ.
 (7) Ephesians 6:24 "Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus
Christ with a love INCORRUPTIBLE [aphtharsia]."
o Aphtharsia used referring to our doctrine.
 (8 Titus 2:7 "In all things showing yourself an ensample of good works;
in your doctrine showing UNCORRUPTNESS [aphtharsia], gravity,
sound speech."
Immortality or uncorruption is not used in the Old Testament. Eternal is used in the King
James Version two times. It is used referring to God one time, "The eternal God" Deuteronomy
33:27, and is used in Isaiah 60:15. The doctrine that God made a person with an immortal soul
that cannot cease to exist, and that even God cannot destroy this part of a person is based on
pagan philosophy, not on the word of God, therefore, the argument that the lost must live
somewhere for they cannot cease to exist is also based on pagan philosophy.
IF A PERSON WERE BORN WITH A PART THAT IS NOW IMMORTAL AND NOT
SUBJECT TO DEATH, WOULD IT NOT BE STRANGE THAT THERE IS BUT ONE CLEAR
PASSAGE IN THE ENTIRE BIBLE WHICH SAYS "YOU SHALL NOT SURELY DIE"
[Genesis 3:4] AND IT IS FROM THE FATHER OF LIES [John 8:44].
THE MANY VIEWS OF "SOUL" and/or "SPIRIT"
A BRIEF REVIEW OF SOME OF THE MANY DIVISIONS IN WHAT PEOPLE BELIEVE
ABOUT IMMORTALITY AND THE SOUL. Views of the soul that require death to mean
eternal life somewhere, and that all men are deathless and possess immortality inherently at
or before birth.
1. THE PAGAN VIEW OF REINCARNATION OF THE SOUL. Ancient Egyptian
belief was that the soul had a gloomy existence in the underworld (transmigration). The
Greeks and Romans believed almost the same with some changes. Oriental and
Pythagorean philosophy, Hindus, Burmans, Buddhists, and Grand Lama all believed in
some form of reincarnation. They believed the "soul" of the evil had some punishment,
but not all believed it had the same punishment. Today, worldwide there are more who
believe in reincarnation than all other afterlife beliefs combined. Many religions that are
not Christian believe in some form of reincarnation.
2. THE CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT VIEW. Mankind is born with an immortal
soul that can never die or be destroyed. A very small percent will go to Heaven at death
but most will go to Hell.
3. THE HADES VIEW. This view is that no one goes to Heaven or Hell at death but the
saved are rewarded in a place many call Abraham's bosom, and the lost are tormented
before they are judged, before the resurrection and judgment. Death is changed to eternal
life but not life in Heaven or Hell.
4. THE UNIVERSALIST VIEW. All will be saved. Those who do not obey Christ in this
lifetime will have an "attitude adjustment" after death and all will end up in Heaven with
none in Hell.
5. THE RESURRECTION TO IMMORTAL LIFE ON THE RESTORED EARTH.
This view is that the earthly body will be raised immortal restored to be like Adam before
his sin on a restored earth. No one's soul will be immortal in Heaven or Hell. Some
believe the lost will be raised with the same mortal bodies we now have, and Christ will
return to earth and will rule forever over the earth from Jerusalem; and the lost will
literally be cast into Gehenna, which will have been restored.
6. Many other minor views in religions around the world.
o There are some minor differences within all the above views. The fate of those
who do not obey Christ is made to fit with their view of immortality. Protestants
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now have many minor differences and some differences that in no way could be
called minor.
7. THE BIBLE VIEW. It does not teach the natural immortality of a person or any part of
a person at birth. All are now mortal. Those in Christ will be raised immortal at the
coming of Christ. All others will be raised to judgment and will have their part in the lake
of fire, which is the second death.
HISTORICAL PROOF
OF THE CHANGING OF THE TEACHING OF THE BIBLE
THE HEATHENIZING OF THE CHURCH IN THE MEDIEVAL DARK AGE: The Bible
teaching were changed by bringing into the church the doctrines of Purgatory, the sale of
indulgences, an immortal soul, Hell, going to Heaven or Hell at death without the judgment,
worship of Mary and saints, Nether World, Holy Water, forbidding eating of meat on Friday,
candle-burning, and many other teachings.
[1] TERTULLIAN: Often known as the father of the Latin Church. "How indeed, shall the soul mount up to
heaven, where Christ is already sitting at the Father's right hand, when as yet the archangel's trumpet has not been
heard by the command of God. When as yet those whom the coming of the Lord is to find on the earth, have not
been caught up into the air to meet Him at His coming, in company with the dead in Christ, who shall be the first to
arise? To no one is heaven opened" Treatise on the Soul, Chapter 55. The Catholic Church would now call anyone
who teaches this a heretic [See 1 Thessalonians 4:13].
[2] MARTIN LUTHER: "Solomon judged that the dead are asleep, and feel nothing at all. For the dead lie there
accomplishing nether days not years, but then they are awaked, they shall seem to have slept scarce one minute."
"An exposition of "Ecclesiastes or the Preacher" 1573. In Luther's Defense, proposition 27. "Now, if one would say
that Abraham's soul lives with God but his body is dead, this distinction is rubbish. I will attack it. One must say,
'The whole Abraham, the whole man shall live.' The other way you tear off a part of Abraham and say, 'It lives.' This
is the way the philosophers speak: 'Afterward the soul departed from its domicile,' etc. That would be a silly soul if
it were in heaven and desired its body" Luther's Works, Volume 54, Page 447. Luther called the theory of the
immortality of the soul the "monstrous fables that form part of the Roman dunghill of decretals." E. Petavel, The
Problem of Immortality, Page 255.
[3] PAUL ALTHAUS, “The hope of the early church centered on the resurrection of the Last Day. It is this which
first calls the dead into eternal life (1 Cor. 15; Phil. 3:21). This resurrection happens to the man and not only to the
body. Paul speaks of the resurrection not ‘of the body’ but ‘of the dead.’ This understanding of the resurrection
implicitly understands death as also affecting the whole man…Thus the original Biblical concepts have been
replaced by ideas from Hellenistic Gnostic dualism. The New Testament idea of the resurrection which affects the
whole man has had to give way to the immortality of the soul. The Last Day also loses its significance, for souls have
received all that is decisively important long before this. Eschatological tension is no longer strongly directed to the
day of Jesus’ Coming. The difference between this and the hope of the New Testament is very great” “The Theology
Of Martin Luther” pages 413-414, 1966.
[4] JOHN WESLEY "It is indeed generally supposed that the souls of good men as soon as dislodged from the
body, go directly to heaven, but this opinion has not the least foundation in the oracles of God" From Wesley's
sermon on Luke 16:23.
[5] WILLIAM TYNDALE translated the first English New Testament, "In putting them (sleeping souls) in heaven,
hell or purgatory, you destroy the arguments wherewith Christ and Paul proves the resurrection...if the souls be in
heaven, tell me why they be not in as good a case as the angels be? And then what cause is there of a
resurrection...The true faith put forth the resurrection, which we be warned to look for every hour. The heathen
philosophers, denying that, did put that the souls did ever live. And the pope join the
spiritual doctrine of Christ and the fleshy doctrine of philosophers together: things so contrary
that they cannot agree...And because the fleshy-minded pope consented unto heathen doctrine, therefore, he
corrupted the Scripture to establish it." bk. 4, chapter 4, pages 108-109, in 1530, and also in Burns, "Christian
Moralism,” Page 99. Tyndale (like Luther) said it was heathen philosophers and the Pope, not the Bible that taught,
"souls did ever live."
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[6] JOHN DARBY: "We would express our conviction, then the idea of the immortality of the soul has no source
in the gospel; that it comes, on the contrary, from the Platonists, and that it was just when the coming of Christ was
denied in the church, or at least began to be lost sight of, that the doctrine of the immortality of the soul came in to
replace that of the resurrection. This was about the time of Origen." "The Hopes of the Church of God" Only in the
early editions before what he said was changed by other persons.
Greek philosophy of an immortal soul was first bought into the church by the so-called church
fathers that were believers in the Greek philosophy, and were only partly converted. They know
more about the teaching of Plato than they did of Christ. It did not become commonly accepted
unto after Tertullian in the third century. It was fought bitterly by Martin Luther, William
Tyndale, and many others as being a part of the false Catholic doctrine. It was eventually
accepted by most Protestant Churches, but only after a long fight. Most today know little or
nothing of all this, and think the doctrine of an immortal soul was held by almost all, even back in
the Old Testament.
NOTE: The teachings of many founders of the Protestant Reformation are an embarrassment
to the Protestants Churches today, which bear their name and or claim them as their founders. The
teaching of the churches they founded now makes them be heretics. Their own churches would
now call anyone teaching the same as Luther and Wesley heretics.
Calvin might have been the leading influence in turning the Protestant Reformation back to
Catholicism. Dr Joseph Priestley said, "Had it not been for the authority of Calvin, who wrote
expressly against soul sleep, the doctrine of an intermediate conscious state would, in all
probability, have been as effectually exploded as the doctrine of purgatory itself" Works, Volume
5, Page 229, 1818.
[7] JAMIESON, FAUSSET AND BROWN: "Nowhere is the immortality of the soul, distinct from the
body, taught: A notion which many erroneously have derived from heathen philosophers. Scripture does not
look for the anomalous state brought about by death, as the consummation to be earnestly looked for [2 Cor. 5:4],
but the resurrection." Notes on 1 Corinthians 15:53.
[8] STRONG: "A breathing creature, i.e. animal..." word number 5315. "Strong's Exhaustive Concordance
Of The Bible."
[9] W. E. VINE: "A Noun soul; self; life; person;