Immortality or Resurrection, William West [best romance books of all time txt] 📗

of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen." The Jews killed the prophets God send to them, and they and their city were destroyed and the Gentiles were brought into the kingdom.
[6] THE NARROW DOOR Luke 13:24-30: "Strive to enter in by the narrow door: for many, I say unto you, shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the master of the house is risen up, and has shut the door, and begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, open to us; and he shall answer and say to you, I know you not where you are; then shall you begin to say, we did eat and drink in your presence, and you did teach in our streets; and he shall say, I tell you, I know not were you are; depart from me, all you workers of iniquity. THERE SHALL BE WEEPING AND THE GNASHING OF TEETH, WHEN YOU SHALL SEE ABRAHAM, ISAAC, JACOB AND ALL THE PROPHETS IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND YOURSELVES CAST FORTH WITHOUT. AND THERE SHALL COME FROM THE EAST AND THE WEST, AND FROM THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH, AND SHALL SIT DOWN IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD. AND BEHOLD, THERE ARE LAST WHO SHALL BE THE FIRST, AND THERE ARE FIRST WHO SHALL BE LAST" This is about the coming rejection of Israel and the Gentiles being accepted into the kingdom of Heaven, which is the church. Not about some being cast out of Heaven, which is what it would be if the weeping and gnashing of teeth were in Hell. ISRAEL WAS THE "SONS OF THE KINGDOM" ["children of the kingdom" King James Version] THAT WAS CAST INTO OUTER DARKNESS, NOT THOSE WHO NEVER BELIEVED. THE JEWS, WHO WERE THEN THE CHILDREN OF THE KINGDOM, WERE CAST OUT OF THE LIGHT AND ARE NO LONGER GOD'S CHOSEN PEOPLE, INTO THE DARKNESS OF THE WORLD WITHOUT THE LIGHT OF GOD'S REVELATION. "O JERUSALEM...BEHOLD YOUR HOUSE IS LEFT UNTO YOU DESOLATE" [Luke 13:34-35]. Those who believe in Hell leave out the rest of what Christ said in the next two versus when He says the Gentiles will come into the kingdom, and verse 30 the Gentles who were last become first. If this were after the judgment, the Gentiles would be coming into the kingdom in Heaven after the judgment.
"Therefore say I unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken away from you [the Jews], and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof" [Matthew 21:43].
WEEPING AND GNASHING OF TEETH
Both are used in the Old and New Testament.
1]. WEEPING for miseries and grief, both for personal miseries and as a nation [too often to list them: use any good concordance]. It is used in the New Testament the same way it was in the Old Testament. See Matthew 2:18; Mark 5:28; Luke 7:38; 8:52: John 11:33; 20:11 Acts 9:39; 21:13; Philippians 3:18 and James 5:1. The weeping is the Jews when they see Israel being cast out as God's chosen people, and Jerusalem and the Temple being destroyed, and the end of their national identity See Matthew 24, Daniel 9 and 10.
2]. GNASHING OF TEETH shows anger and rage of the persons gnashing their teeth, not pain, and is used in both the Old and New Testament. "They hiss and gnash the teeth" Lamentations 2:16, See Psalms 35:16; Micah 3:5. Used the same way in the New Testament. "And they gnashed on him with their teeth" [Acts 7:54]. Those who stoned Stephen were angry with him, not in pain; they were not dead and in Hell, they were alive and on this earth. If gnashing of teeth were in Hell, as many teach it is, whom are they going to gnash with their teeth? Does anyone believe some in Hell will be angry with others in Hell and gnash them with their teeth? The gnashing of teeth is the anger and rage of the Jews towards those doing the destroying [the Roman army], and maybe even toward God for letting the destroying be happening. GNASHING OF TEETH IS BECAUSE OF ANGER OR RAGE. IT IS NOT BECAUSE OF THE PERSON DOING THE GNASHING OF HIS OR HER TEETH ARE BEING TORMENTED IN HELL. IN THE BIBLE IN BOTH THE OLD AND THE NEW TESTAMENT, GNASHING OF TEETH IS ALWAYS BECAUSE OF ANGER OF THE PERSON DOING THE GNASHING ON ANOTHER PERSON. IT IS MISUSED TODAY TO SHOW THOSE BEING TORMENTED IN "HELL" ARE GNASHING THEIR TEATH BECOUSE OF THEIR OWN PAIN.
• In the Old Testament: Gnashing of teeth is because of anger on the part of the one doing the gnashing.
• In the New Testament: Gnashing of teeth is changed by those who believe in Hell to be a person in Hell gnashing his or her teeth because of pain.
Weeping and gnashing of teeth are two different things, which are sometimes both found together, but most often are not together. Neither one ever occurs in the same passages with hades or Gehenna. That either one or both will be in Hell is an assumption that is preached over and over. Could an immaterial, invisible part of a person gnash its teeth?
THE CENTURION GENTILE Matthew 8:5-13: "And when he was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, and saying, Lord, my servant lying in the house sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. 7 And he said unto him, I will come and heal him. And the centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant shall be healed. For I also am a man under authority, having under myself soldiers: and I say to this one, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes; and to my servant, Do this, and he does it. And when Jesus heard it, he marveled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, NOT IN ISRAEL. And I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven: BUT THE SONS OF THE KINGDOM SHALL BE CAST FORTH INTO THE OUTER DARKNESS: THERE SHALL BE THE WEEPING AND THE GNASHING OF TEETH. And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go your way; as you have believed, [so] be it done unto you. And the servant was healed in that hour." After seeing the faith of this Gentile, Jesus says the Gentiles will sit in the kingdom and the sons [Jews] will be cast forth. The same as at the marriage feast (above), the Jews, because they rejected Christ as their king was cast out of the kingdom. The church, not Israel, is now God's kingdom. Those who teach Hell read the prophecies of Christ about the judgment of Israel in AD 70 and move the weeping and gnashing of teeth to Hell after the Judgment Day is over. They have not found one passage that says anything about the lost after the judgment. Nothing can happen to nothing. After the second death there could be nothing said, for there will be nothing to say anything about. There is this life, then the first death, a resurrection to life from the first death, then the second death for the lost, but nothing is said about a third life for the lost after the second death. They need something to prove eternal life in their Hell, and try to make it look as if weeping and gnashing of teeth could only be because of eternal torment in Hell; although both weeping and gnashing of teeth are used throughout the Old Testament and those who believe in Hell do not believe weeping and gnashing of teeth in the Old Testament have any reference to a time of punishment after the Judgment Day, but they assume that in the New Testament both are used in reference to punishment in Hell after the judgment day. Weeping and gnashing of teeth has a reference to Hell only when they want or need them to.
WEEPING AND GNASHING OF TEETH: God says the "wages of sin is death," not an eternal life of weeping and gnashing of teeth in Hell that will go on forever, for there is no death for the soul that cannot die. We would never be able to know that this weeping will be in Hell unless:
FIRST: Many say that there is a Hell, but there is not one word about it in the Bible.
SECOND: Then they tell us that this weeping shall be in Hell. How could they know this when there is not one passage that says there will be weeping in "Hell"?
Some of the words used by Christ to describe the Jews: blind guides, hypocrites, murderers, adulterous, transgressors, faithless, perverse, fools, generation of snakes. "O JERUSALEM, JERUSALEM...BEHOLD, YOUR HOUSE (the temple Christ had just left) IS LEFT UNTO YOU DESOLATE" [Matthew 23:38].
B. W. Johnson, Matthew 23:33-39, "The People's New Testament With Notes" Gospel Light Publishing Company, 1889. “33. You generations of vipers, how can you escape? Etc. Brood of vipers, full of venom, deadly as serpents, treacherous as the lurking serpent. So John had called them nearly four years before (Matt. 3:7). 34. Wherefore, I send unto you prophets and wise men. In Luke 11:49, is a passage much like this. The men sent were inspired apostles and evangelists. By giving the Jews still further opportunities after the sin of the cross, the guilt of those continued to reject the crucified Lord was aggravated. Prophets. Inspired teachers, like the apostles, Philip, Stephen, etc. Wise men. Faithful, devout and learned, but uninspired preachers. Scribes. Usually, those who copy and teach the wisdom of others, but I suppose also embracing those who wrote the New Testament Scriptures. Some of them you shall kill and crucify. Literally fulfilled in the next few years. 35. That upon you may come all the righteous blood. Thus would they fill the measure full and become guilty of all the righteous blood shed by the whole army of martyrs. Unto the blood of Zacharias. The reference is probably to 2 Chron. 24:20. 36. VERILY, I SAY UNTO YOU, ALL THESE THINGS SHALL COME UPON THIS GENERATION. As the Amorites were spared until ‘their iniquity was full’ (Gen. 15:16), so the iniquity of Israel was allowed to accumulate from age to age, till in that generation it came to the full, and the collected vengeance of justice broke at once upon it. So it is often in the destruction of a nation. The French Revolution of 1793 is another example. 37. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kills the prophets. The intense feeling that spoke in this utterance comes out first in the redoubling of the word Jerusalem; next in the picture of the sins of the city which he draws--a city so wicked that it was not content with rejecting the messengers of God, but even slew them. I know of nothing more touching than this apostrophe. How often would I have gathered your children together. Not only had the city been warned again and again by the prophets, but the Lord had visited it at least six or seven times, and had for months taught in its streets. Nor did his solicitude end with the cross. His long suffering, patience and love are shown by his charge in the commission to the apostles: ‘To preach repentance and remission in his name among all