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

both the resurrection and the judgment. The popular
idea of an immortal soul going instantly to Heaven at death makes the resurrection and
judgment be out of place and many have abandoned it. At the most, the judgment day
could be nothing more than another reward day for these who were already judged and
rewarded at death. Many churches say we get our reward of going to Heaven at death;
therefore, for them the judgment day is made to be nothing more than an empty and
useless show.
The judgment of all will take place on a special day IN THE FUTURE, the day of the
second coming of Christ, NOT AT DEATH. Matthew 16:27; John 5:27-29; 2 Timothy
4:1; 1 Corinthians 4:5; 2 Peter 3:7; Acts 17:31; Matthew 10:15; 11:22; 11:24; Mark 6:11;
Matthew 7:22; Luke 19:22; John 6:39, 40, 44, 54; 11:24; 12:48; Romans 2:5; 2:16; 1
Corinthians 1:8; 3:13; Ephesians 4:30; 6:13; Philippians 1:6; 1:10; 2:16; 1 Thessalonians
5:2; 5:4; 2 Thessalonians 2:2; 2:3; 2 Timothy 1:12; 1:18; 4:8; 2 Peter 2:9; 3:7; 3:10; 3:12;
1 John 4:17; Jude 6. The Bible is so clear on when anyone will be judged that I find it
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difficult to understand how anyone can read the Bible and then say we are judged at death
to be saved or loss.
A SECOND JUDGMENT: If all are translated instantly to Heaven or Hell at death as
is taught by today's theology, WOULD NOT A SECOND JUDGMENT MAKE GOD
UNSURE OF HIMSELF? If in all the billions He had judged at death and sent them to
Heaven or Hell, if He found just one that He had misjudged, He would not be infallible
and, therefore, would not be God. Satan fashions himself as an angel of light and his
ministers as ministers of righteousness, and they has done their work well [2 Corinthians
11:14-15].
“The immortality of the soul makes a mockery of all this. Resurrection becomes superfluous,
since we can relate to Christ “out of body.” Because the saints have already spent long ages with
Christ, the Parousia becomes something less than the great ‘revelation’ portrayed by Scripture.
Finally, the Judgment is transformed into a farce. After spending thousands of years in heaven,
will Abel have to pass before the bar of divine justice to determine whether or not his name is
written in the Book of Life? Conversely, will Judas be summoned from a hell he has occupied for
two millennia to discover if he is really among the damned? Any doctrine, which allows for such
scenarios ought to be suspect from the very outset.” Kenneth Fortier, Resurrection Magazine,
Volume 95, Number 2, 1992.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, "Hell" by P. Kreeft says, "God must appoint some fixed term for
the time of trial, after which the just will enter into the secure possession of a happiness that can
never again be lost in all eternity...Accordingly, it is the belief of all people that eternal retribution
is dealt out immediately after death." Most Protestants also believe a person goes to Heaven or
Hell immediately after death, therefore, their judgment must be immediately after death, not at
the second coming of Christ.
“Inasmuch as He has appointed A DAY in which He will judge the world” [Acts
17:31]. “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” [Hebrews
9:27]. “For we must all be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ; that each
one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether it
be good or bad” [2 Corinthians 5:10]. THERE WILL BE A DAY OF JUDGMENT
WHEN ALL WILL COME BEFORE THE JUDGMENT-SEAT OF CHRIST, NOT A
JUDGMENT OF EACH PERSON AT DEATH.
"For the hour is coming when ALL WHO ARE IN THEIR GRAVES WILL HEAR HIS
VOICE AND COME OUT, those who have done good TO THE RESURRECTION OF
LIFE, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation" [John 5:28-29
New Revised Standard Version, also 2 Corinthians 5:10]. THE DEAD WILL HEAR
THE VOICE OF JESUS “WHEN THEY ARE IN THEIR GRAVES”
AND “COME OUT” OF THEIR GRAVES, NOT HEAR WHEN THEY ARE IN
HEAVEN, HELL, OR ABRAHAM'S BOSOM. THE RESURRECTION IS NOT A
BRINGING BACK FROM HEAVEN OR HELL THOSE WHO ARE NOT DEAD; IT
WILL BE A REAL RESURRECTION FROM A REAL DEATH. Jesus clearly said,
“ALL who are in their graves.” He did not say, "The souls of ALL who are in Heaven or
Hell." If the dead now have life in Heaven or Hell, then Christ was wrong. “But should
raise it up AT THE LAST DAY. For this is the will of my Father that everyone that
beholds the Son, and believes on him should have ETERNAL LIFE; and I will raise him
up AT THE LAST DAY” [John 6:39-40] “And I will raise him up IN THE LAST DAY”
[John 6:44] “And I will raise him up AT THE LAST DAY” [John 6:54]. "I know that he
SHALL RISE AGAIN in the resurrection AT THE LAST DAY" [John 11:24].
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[6] THE REINTERPRETATION OF DEATH
TO BE NOT DEATH BUT ETERNAL LIFE
EITHER ETERNAL LIFE IN HEAVEN OR ETERNAL LIFE IN HELL
BEFORE THE RESURRECTION AND JUDGMENT
AND BEFORE THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST
UNCONDITIONAL IMMORTALITY MAKES DEATH A FRIEND, NOT THE
LAST ENEMY THAT SHALL BE ABOLISHED AT THE SECOND COMING OF
CHRIST [1 Corinthians 15:26]. "To die" never signifies "to live in torment." If
Abraham, David and all the saints of the Old Testament were in Heaven they were there
before and without the resurrection or the death of Christ; neither His death or
resurrection would have been needed, nor would there be any death to abolish to a “soul”
that cannot die.
1. Death would have been destroyed by changing death into eternal life for everyone
at the time of their death, not at Christ's second coming. Death would have been
destroyed for those in the Old Testament before and without the death of Christ
by putting them all in Heaven or Hell at the time of their death.
2. If death that takes anyone to Heaven it would be no enemy to him or her.
3. Death would not be death, for changing from life on this earth to life in Heaven or
life in Hell would not be death.
THERE CANNOT BE ETERNAL LIFE IN HELL FOR “THE FREE GIFT OF
GOD IS ETERNAL LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD” [Romans 6:23]. Without
Christ there is no eternal life. “He that believes on the Son has eternal life; but that obeys
not the Son SHALL NOT SEE LIFE” [John 3:36]. DEATH IS NOT LIFE. The doctrine
of the immortality of the soul, which gives eternal life to the lost, is in direct
conduction to the Bible. “He that believes on the Son of God has the witness in him: he
that believes not God has made Him a liar; because he has not believed in the witness
that God has borne concerning His Son. And the witness is this that God gave unto us
eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that has the Son has the life, HE THAT HAS
NOT THE SON OF GOD HAS NOT THE LIFE” [1 John 5:10-12]. What we believe
does make a difference.
 God said, “You shall surely die.”
 Satan said, “You shall not surely die.”
 The theology of many says, “All have an immortal soul that ‘shall not surely
die,’” all the dead are more alive then they were before they died, that death is not
really death but only a change from life in one place to life in another place.
[7] THE REINTERPRETATION OF ASLEEP
ARE THE DEAD ASLEEP OR AWAKE?
What is asleep, the body, or soul, or spirit, or man? The scriptures never speak of a
soul being asleep, or the body, or spirit, but the whole person as being asleep and will be
asleep unto the resurrection day. If Christ were not raised the dead are gone; those who
are asleep in Christ will never wake up. The Bible must be changed and made to say that
the soul, the only part of a person that many believe will be in Heaven is not asleep and
can never sleep. 1 Corinthians 15:18 "Then they also that are fallen asleep in Christ have
PERISHED [Apollumi]." WHEN PAUL SAID THOSE WHO ARE ASLEEP IN
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CHRIST HAVE "PERISHED" HE IS SAYING THEY WILL NEVER LIVE AGAIN
ANYWHERE IF THERE IS NO RESURRECTION FROM THE SLEEP OF DEATH.
THEY ARE GONE "PERISHED" FOREVER. HE IS NOT SAYING THEY HAVE
JUST "lost their well-being" BUT ARE ALIVE SOMEWHERE EVEN IF CHRIST
WERE NOT RAISED FROM THE DEAD. Perished cannot mean tormented, but a total
end, for if "perished" means "tormented," then Paul said those who are "asleep in Christ"
will be "tormented" if there is no resurrection [1 Corinthians 15:12-19]. Paul is not saying
that if Christ were not raised, the dead in Christ have just "lost their well-being" because
they are alive and will forever live in pain and torment, but he is saying that they are dead
and will never live again anywhere if there is no resurrection. If a part of us cannot die
and must forever live somewhere then Paul has no argument for it cannot perish, and
there cannot be a resurrection of the undead that cannot die; when Paul said some had
perished, he just did not understand that a soul cannot perish, that the only part of a
person that will live forever cannot die or perish. Paul's argument has been neutralized,
and he is made to be saying nothing; and the death and resurrection of Christ has been
made to be useless and not needed? PAUL SAID THE DEAD IN CHRIST ARE
ASLEEP, THE THEOLOGY OF MANY SAYS NOT SO PAUL, ALL THE DEAD IN
CHRIST ARE AWAKE IN HEAVEN.
• Jesus said, "Lazarus is fallen asleep" [John 11:11].
• Then said, "Lazarus is dead" [John 11:14].
He did not say Lazarus's body is asleep, but his soul is alive in Heaven. Lazarus would
have spent four days in Heaven, but Lazarus or no others in the Bible that were raised
from the dead ever said one word about what it was like. Do you think that if they had
seen the joy of Heaven, or the pain of Hell, which many believe they would have seen,
that a single one that was brought back from Heaven or Hell could have kept quiet about
what they had seen? Could you? They said nothing because they were as Christ said
"asleep," not more alive than the living. Lazarus was a problem to the chief priests and
Pharisees because everyone knew he had been dead and was alive [John 11:47], not
because he was telling of what he had seen. Not a one that was brought back from the
dead had an "afterlife experience." Why? Because they were "asleep." Is earth better than
Heaven; if Lazarus were in Heaven for four days, would he want to come back to earth?
Would you or anyone want to leave Heaven and come back to this earth? Why would
Christ have been cruel to Lazarus by taking him out of the joy of Heaven?
• Lazarus had to be dead to be resurrected from the dead.
• A "soul" would have to be dead if it was resurrected from the dead but we are told
that it cannot be dead; then this part of us that has no substance cannot be
resurrected from the dead.
a) GATHERED TO HIS PEOPLE: Abraham [Genesis 25:8-9] and others died, and
were "gathered to his people." The argument is made that this could not refer to their
physical body; therefore, it was the soul that was gathered to his people. If that were true
then the souls would be