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

without the need of body and they are
described as "Are you also become weak as we: have you become like unto us?"
"God is a Spirit" [John 4:24]; he has spirits without bodies described as weak and
being nothing more than mental thoughts, which according to him would include
God being described as weak and being nothing more than mental thoughts. Is his
God just weak mental thoughts; is that what your God is like?
3. HE HAS MADE THE ONLY DIFFERENCE IN A PERSON AFTER DEATH
AND GOD TO BE ONLY A DIFFERENCE IN INTELLIGENCE. Both are
nothing but mind. Thomas Jefferson in a letter to John Adams in 1820 said, "To
say that God, angels, and the human soul, are immaterial, is to say they are
nothing. At what age of the church the heresy of immaterialism crept in, I do not
know; but a heresy is certainly is--Jesus taught nothing of it."
4. HE HAS MADE GOD LIMITED: There is no way out for those who believe an
immortal spirit is now within a person for this spirit could have no solid substance
of any kind. If it did, then it could not now be inside of a person. God is spirit;
therefore, according to Morey, God cannot have any substance, He must, then be
only thoughts without a body. This has not entered the mind of most who believe
a person now has an immortal spirit in him and if it did most would reject it, but
their belief that an immortal spirit is now in a person, means a person, God, and
all heavenly being are nothing more than thoughts without a body. Robert Morey
and others who try to prove a person has an immortal spirit in him has been
pushed into this belief. The belief that a person has a dual nature dictates what
they can believe about the nature of God. They believe the immortal spirit in a
person cannot be seen for it has no substance, therefore, because God is spirit,
then He can have no substance; He can be only a mind with no body.
5. He has developed Plato's doctrine that the body is a prison to the soul, which is set
free by the death of the body, far beyond what Plato ever did. To put the soul (an
"energy being" "mind") back in a body at the resurrection would be to put it back
in a prison.
6. Also, Morey's Hell could only be mental anguish. There would be no body to
torment. He has made it impossible for Hell to be anything more than mental pain.
Only something in the mind of persons who are nothing but mind. None of the
other "orthodox Protestant" version of Hell could be possible, therefore, what
most Protestants have believed for centuries was wrong.
7. He has made Paul not know what he was talking about when he said, "It is sown a
natural body; it is raised a spiritual body...there is also a spiritual body" (1
Corinthians 15:44). He cannot believe in the resurrection. How could he when he
has made a person after death be composed only of "mind," just as he says the
angels and God now are composed only of mind? There could not be a mortal that
"must put on immortality" (1 Corinthians 15:54), for his "energy being" is just as
it will always be, and like God and angels now are. There cannot be a resurrection
of any kind of body, not one in the image of Adam or in the image of Christ. Not
the earthly body or the new spiritual body for there will be nothing but "mind."
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There cannot be a resurrection of the "mind or mental energy" for at death it will
be just as it will always be; therefore, THERE COULD NOT BE ANY KIND OF
RESURRECTION.
8. If the spiritual body that we will have is nothing but "mind," how is it that we do
not now have the spiritual body? Do we not now have "mind"? Will the "mind"
that we will have then, the spiritual body that we will put on at the resurrection [1
Corinthians 15:42-54], which according to Morey will be nothing but "mind," not
be the same "mind" that we now have?
WHAT IS THEIR NO SUBSTANCE SOUL? What could it be if it has no substance?
God made all things out of nothing. If the soul has no substance, it is still nothing. Are
they saying God made nothing out of nothing? And this God who made nothing out of
nothing is Himself nothing.
"The Hebrew rephaim denotes those who have 'sunk' to the unseen abode, descending into
Hades as the sun goes down to a fiery death in the west; the rephaim are those who 'sank,'
vanished, disappeared, passed away, departed. The best translation would be 'the departed.'"
Paul Haupt "American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literature"
NOTE: I have tried to give the views of the majority in each in the above versions of
Hell. In each of them, there are some individuals and/or small groups who believe in a
variation of that believed by the majority.
EIGHT OTHER VERSIONS OF HELL
[1] Church of Christ, Christian Church, Abraham's bosom or the after judgment
Hell, A newer version of Hell: This version is based almost entirely on an interpretation
of Luke 16:19-31 (see chapter eight, part two). Most members of the church of Christ, the
Christian Church and some Protestants, believe it although it is not generally accepted as
being orthodox or traditional Protestant. In this version all who do not obey Christ will go
to Hell, but Hell will not be unto after the coming of Christ and the judgment; and no one
goes to Heaven before the judgment [no instant rapture]. At death all are taken to an
intermediate holding place where the lost are tormented, and the saved are rewarded in a
place sometimes called "Abraham's bosom." Instead of all being in Heaven and Hell unto
the second coming of Christ, all are in the good and bad side of hades from which Christ
will take them out of hades at His coming and judge them a second time to see whether
He made a mistake the first time and put them on the wrong side of hades. A baby who
has not come to the age of accountability is not lost and will go to the good side of hades.
After the judgment God will personally do the tormenting of all the lost for eternality.
Satan and his angels and all the lost will be tormented together.
This view has two places where God is going to torture the lost. One side of hades that
is a temporary place of torture and will last only unto the second coming of Christ, and
"Hell" which will be a permanent place where God will torture most of mankind without
end but no one is now in Heaven or Hell and will not be unto after the resurrection and
judgment. This is the view that I have been taught from the time I became a Christian and
believed it a long time. I have many books and tracts in which well-known preachers and
teachers, such as H. Leo Boles, E. M. Zerr, B. W. Johnson, J. W. McGarvey, and many
others who teach this view; but lately it seems to be dying out in the church and is being
replaced by going immediately to Heaven or Hell at death without the Resurrection or
Judgment particularly at funerals where preachers often say the dead person are now in
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Heaven. Most all think of and speak of their loved ones as now being in Heaven or with
Jesus, not in Abraham's bosom unto the judgment.
[2] Edward Fudge version: The short Hell: He uses the name Hell as if it was a
Bible name, but thinks it will last for only a limited time and will end with the total
destruction of those in it. He may have Hell, and the wrath and fury of God at the
judgment confused. Roger Dickson believes the duration of Hell will fit the crime and
then will end. It will be short for some and longer for other. He says, "After the stripes
have been given, then the destruction occurs for which there is no reverse" Page 162ff,
"Life, Death And Beyond." Is he renaming the Judgment Day and calling it "Hell?" If I
understand him right, he thinks the lost will go to Hell, but the not so bad will not be
tormented as long as the very bad. After the "punishment matches the crime," he says
they will then be destroyed [Page 163]. (1) "Shall be beaten with many stripes" [Luke
12:47]. This is used to prove there will be an end after the stripes. If this were after the
judgment, "Beaten with few stripes" could not be as long as "beaten with many stripes,"
therefore, could not take forever. Some will be tormented longer than others, but the
torment will end with death for all. (2) This short Hell is different from the Church of
God short Hell in that it may not be on this earth, and there will be no second chance.
In the Bible God limited "many stripes" to 40 lashes [Deuteronomy 25:3; Luke 12:47;
Acts 16:23; 2 Corinthians 11:24]. Yet, this "many stripes" is used by many to prove that
God will forever give not 40 but stripes without end to those in Hell.
[3] Christadelphians version of Hell: Those who never heard the Gospel will never
be raised. Death is the end of them. Only those who heard the Gospel will be raised at the
second coming of Christ and judged to see whether they were faithful. The faithful will
have eternal life on Earth, which will be restored to be like Eden before Adam sinned.
The unfaithful of those who heard the Gospel and were raised will be annihilated by the
second death.
[4] Church of God version of Hell (and others): Both Heaven and Hell will be on
this earth. After the resurrection of earthly bodies on this restored earth, all will be given
a second chance to accept Christ. Most will, but the few who will not accept Christ will
suffer the second death. Their torment will end in death from which there will never be a
resurrection. The saved will be raised and live on the earth restored to the way it was
before Adam sinned with a body like Adam before he was put out of the garden. No one
will ever be in Heaven. I have not been able to find how they think Adam's body was
different before he was put out of the garden than it was after. Many Premillennialists
who are in most Protestant churches believe this version of Hell or one that is very
similar to it.
[5] Universalist version of Hell, The "age lasting" Hell: Hell will last for only an
age; then all will be saved. Universalist calls it a time of "attitude adjustments," or "ageduring
correction." They do not see it as God torturing people in a literal lake or anything
like that, they see it as simply as a time when God will be correcting or teaching them
further unto they are fit for His kingdom. All, even the most evil, will eventually end up
in Heaven.
[6] Seventh Day Advent version of Hell: They believe that at the second coming of
Christ the unrighteous will be kill, the righteous will be taken back to Heaven for a 1,000
years. During the 1,000 years only Satan and his angels will inhabit the earth. At the end
of the 1,000 years Christ will return to earth with the saved and the unrighteous will be
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raised for judgment. Satan gathers his angels and will the help of the resurrected
unrighteous