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

asleep together, not awake together, therefore, it would not prove
a part of a person is conscious after death. The Hebrew belief was that both the good and
the bad went to sheol-the grave. See Genesis 3:7-35; Job 7:21; 14:12; 24:19; Psalms 13:3;
1610; 31:17. "Slept with his fathers" is in the Old Testament about 38 times.
• Abraham "was GATHERED TO HIS PEOPLE" [Genesis 25:8-9].
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• "Moses, Behold, YOU SHALL SLEEP WITH YOUR FATHERS" [Deuteronomy
31:16].
• "So DAVID SLEPT WITH HIS FATHERS" [1 Kings 2:10; 11:21]. "David...fell
asleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption" [Acts 13:36].
• "From the day that the FATHERS FELL ASLEEP" [2 Peter 3:4].
• "So man lies down and rises not: Till the heavens be no more, they SHALL NOT
AWAKE, NOR BE ROUSED OUT OF THEIR SLEEP" [Job 14:12].
• "CHRIST...THE FIRST FRUITS OF THEM THAT ARE ASLEEP" [1 Corinthians
15:20]. Christ is the only one who has been raised from the dead and is the only
one who is not now "asleep."
If, "gathered to his people,” means "awake" then, "asleep" has to mean, "awake." If
not, then wherever Abraham was he would be "asleep" and he would not know where he
was or who was with him. How could Christ be the first fruits if Abraham were alive
before Him?
ABRAHAM'S FATHER SERVED OTHER GODS. "Terah, the father of Abraham,
and the father of Nahor: and they served other gods" [Joshua 24:2], which, according to
most Catholics and Protestants, would send him to Hell, but both believe Abraham went
to Heaven, and was "gathered to his people"; which would include his father. Both seem
to be somewhat unsure of where Abraham is; not sure if Abraham was "gathered to his
people" in sheol, which is the grave, or if he is in Heaven and not "gathered to his
people" for his father the idolater they believe is in Hell.
Not one of the passages, which speak of being "gathered to his people,” is speaking of
any one being gathered in Heaven. Sheol (the grave) is not Heaven; therefore, these
passages are not speaking of anyone at death being translated to Heaven even though they
are often used to prove it.
b) THE STATE OF THE DEAD. THE ANALOGY OF SLEEP IS USED
THROUGHOUT THE BIBLE. If death does not indicate unconsciousness, then the
analogy of sleep, which is used throughout the Bible, is meaningless for the dead are not
asleep. [Deuteronomy 31:16; 2 Samuel 7:12; 1 Kings 1:21; Job 7:21; 14:12; Psalms 13:31
Jeremiah 51:39, 57; 1 Kings 2:10; 11:21, 43; 14:20, 31; 15:8, 24; 16:6, 28; 22:40, 50; 2
Kings 8:24; 10:35; 13:9, 13; 14:16, 22, 29; 15:7, 22, 38; 16:20; 20:21; 21:18; 24:6; 2
Chronicles 9:31; 12:16; 14:1; 16:13; 21:1; 26:2, 23; 27:9; 28:27; 32:33; 33:20; Job 3:13;
Isaiah 26:19; Matthew 9:24; 25:5; 27:52; Mark 5:39; Luke 8:52; John 11:11-14; Acts
7:60; 13:36; 1 Corinthians 15:6, 18, 20, 51; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-15; 5:10; 2 Peter 3:4].
THE SCRIPTURES OFTEN SPEAK OF A PERSON BEING ASLEEP AFTER DEATH
BUT NEVER SAY ANIMALS SLEEP WHEN THEY DIE. Why? If they were asleep,
they would wake up.
THE STATE OF THOSE WHO ARE ASLEEP
(1) They have perished if there is no resurrection [1 Corinthians 15:18].
(2) Their thoughts have perished [Psalms 146:4].
(3) They are as though they had never been [Job 3:11-18; Psalms 39:13; 146:2].
(4) They have no remembrance of God [Psalms 6:5].
(5) They rest in the dust of the earth [Job 17:13].
(6) They cannot give thanks to God [Isaiah 38:18].
(7) “The dead know not anything” [Ecclesiastes 9:5; 9:10].
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The resurrection is the only hope for the dead. Without it, the dead will never have life
again.
D. Padfield seems to make knowing or not knowing each other in Heaven to be
dependent on Abraham being awake with his people. He leaves out the resurrection and
makes Abraham be alive without it, therefore, Abraham will not need the resurrection for
he is not dead. He jumps from death in sheol before the resurrection to Heaven as if they
are the same place and everything will be the same in both. What we will be and know in
Heaven after the resurrection does not depend on what we will know while in the grave
and will not depend on being awake while we are in the grave. Is he not so desperately
trying to prove a person is now immortal that he is saying to God, "Abraham being with
the fathers proves he is not 'asleep with the fathers'?" This view is used by those who
believe in "Abraham's bosom" but it is so desperately an attempt to prove that the dead
are not asleep they makes the saved and the unsaved be awake together waiting for the
resurrection even though they are not dead to be resurrected from the dead.
This view makes:
1. The dead not be dead but alive.
2. Those who "sleep with the fathers" are not asleep but are "awake with the
fathers."
3. The resurrection impossible as no one is dead.
4. Makes the Bible not mean what it says. The many times it says "sleep with the
fathers" must be changed to be "awake with the fathers" and the many times the
Bible uses the metaphor of sleep for death are not true.
c) THE AWAKENING, WAKENING UP AT THE RESURRECTION: The
resurrection will be an awakening. Death is likened to sleep because it is a state of
unconsciousness, which will be followed by an awakening. Christ is the first fruits
and the rest will be resurrected "at his coming" [1 Corinthians 15:23]. Abraham and
his people fell asleep, and will be asleep unto the resurrection, "From the day that the
fathers fell asleep" [2 Peter 3:4]. The Bible says nothing about the state of a person
from the time he falls asleep unto the resurrection. THE CHRISTIAN HOPE IS
NOT ON DEATH, NOT ON BEING AWAKE ANYWHERE BEFORE THE
RESURRECTION BUT ON THE RESURRECTION, ON BEING RAISED
FROM THE DEAD AT THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST.
Albert Barnes said "In the Scripture sleep is used to intimate that death will not be final: that
there will be an awakening out of this sleep, or a resurrection. It is a beautiful and tender
expression, removing all that is dreadful in death, and filling the mind with the idea of calm
repose after a life of toil, with a reference to a future resurrection" Barnes' Notes On the New
Testament.
What is the resurrection?
• Is it spirits who are now awake and living in Heaven or Hell returning to their
earthly bodies?
• Or is it all that are asleep in the grave will wake up at the judgment?
It was Lazarus who was asleep. Not just his body while his soul was alive [John
11:11]. Some of the saints had fallen asleep. Not just the body had fallen asleep, but the
"living being," the whole person [1 Corinthians 15:6]. The Bible nowhere speaks of the
body being asleep while some immaterial, invisible, inter part of a person is awake. It is
the whole person that sleeps unto the resurrection, and the whole person that will wake up
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at the resurrection. If only the body were asleep with the spirit alive in another world,
why would there never be a hint that the real person was not asleep in any of the passages
that use sleep as a metaphor of death?
ABRAHAM, WHERE ARE YOU?
Three views about where Abraham is
1. BIBLE VIEW: Abraham is asleep with the fathers.
2. CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT VIEW: Abraham is awake in Heaven.
3. A NEWER AFTER JUDGMENT VIEW: Abraham is awake in Abraham's
bosom, the good side of hades. This view has been widely taught in the church of
Christ and the Christian Church.
o Many who do not know whether they believe #2 or #3 will say some loved
one had gone to be with Jesus in Heaven, but if they are trying to prove
the soul is alive before the resurrection will use Luke 16. Abraham is
moved back and forth from Heaven to Abraham's bosom as they need to,
but most of them do not seem to know they are moving him.
[8] THE REINTERPRETATION OF THE LIFE
THAT CHRIST PROMISED TO THEM THAT OBEY HIM
John 4:14; 4:36; 5:21; 6:40 See chapter two, Life or death. If all are born with an
immortal soul that cannot die, all have eternal life and Christ could only give them a
reward, not life. Unconditional immortality gives both the sinners and the saved eternal
life without the death of Christ.
[9] THE REINTERPRETATION OF THE RESURRECTION
MAKES BELIEVING IN THE RESURRECTION FOOLISHNESS
Most Protestant churches believe the dead go to Heaven or Hell at the time of death.
After living in Heaven for hundred's of years, to come back to the earth and put the
earthly body back on to be judged; and then put off the earth body and go back to Heaven
or Hell would be nothing but pure foolishness.
TWO VERY DIFFERENT GOSPELS
UNCONDITIONAL IMMORTALITY AND THE RESURRECTION ARE TWO
VERY DIFFERENT GOSPELS Galatians 1:6-9. There is a dividing line between
unconditional immortality and conditional immortality so sharp that the two are
completely different Gospels as far apart as night and day. Both cannot be true. One is a
"delusion" [2 Thessalonians 2:11, King James Version] "A working of error" [American
Standard Version]. Do you believe a working of error? Unconditional immortality is very
different from anything preached in Paul's day [Galatians 1:6].
It is the "doctrines and precepts of men" [Matthew 15:9], and is wresting the writings
of Paul and the other scriptures [2 Peter 3:16]. It takes away a need for the death of
Christ, and the need of the resurrection.
TWO INCOMPATIBLE BELIEFS
Either one makes the other one impossible.
1. The resurrection: Makes an immortal never dying soul impossible. If it is not
dead, a soul that is alive cannot be raised from the dead.
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2. Unconditional immortality: 1. Makes the resurrection an unanswerable problem.
If the soul is immortal and never dies, what will be the use of the resurrection?
What will be raised from the dead? 2. Makes a real resurrection impossible.
These two Gospels are so opposed and contradictory to each other that if one is true, it
makes the other one a lie of Satan that will destroy you at the judgment. Believing it is
disbelieving God. Believing this doctrine, or not believing it, can be the difference in
whether you believe God or man. One came from man and is vain worship [Matthew
15:9]. The resurrection and an undying immortal soul are not compatible. If one is
true, then the other one cannot be. Christ taught the resurrection. It is our only hope,
not now having immortality and never dying. The undead cannot be raised.
THE SILENCE OF THE BIBLE
All the great doctrines of the Bible are clearly expressed. The doctrine of God, of
Christ, the resurrection, the church, the judgment, sin, etc., and are all as clear and plain
as our language can say them, but the doctrine of an "immortal soul" or "a never-dying
soul," which is constantly expressed today, cannot be found in the Bible. From where did
it come? If anyone believes, practices, or teaches anything in the name of Christ, they are
obligated to prove it from the Bible. If they do not or cannot, it is a sin to believe,
practice, or teach it. It is up to the person who affirms anything to prove it, and it is not
up to the person in the negative to prove something is not true. Have those who believe in
and teach Hell proved it to be from God's word? Hell MUST be proved if it is taught. At
the judgment, what will you say to