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

person. They believed that death was a door to a new form of life, which may be higher or lower, depending on how good or bad a person was. They believed the body was evil and a prison to the soul. They built the pyramids and other tombs and put the things in them they thought would be needed in the next life. Death was a friend to them that freed the soul of the evil body; but it was the Greeks [Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato] who adopted this Egyptian belief of the dual nature of a person; and developed the philosophy of the immortal soul. Many church fathers were schooled in and believed in this Greek philosophy, and were only partly converted. They, after greatly expanding on the teaching of Plato, brought their Greek philosophy into the church in the apostasy. Unconditional immortality is the foundation of the doctrine of Hell. If a person had an unseen immortal part that could not die, there had to be a place to put the "souls" which were evil but could not die. The "souls" of the saved had to be put somewhere, therefore, the doctrine of a person going to Heaven or Hell immediately after death without a resurrection or a judgment came into being, and the New Testament teaching of the resurrection of the dead became unneeded and of little or no importance.
In the Greek philosophy a person never dies. Only the body dies, freeing the soul to a higher life. Christ taught the resurrection of man, not the Greek "immaterial, invisible part of man" (W. E. Vine) that never dies. The Greeks did not believe in or need a resurrection, or a savior, or redeemer; these would not fit into their belief. They believed in an immortal soul, therefore, there could be no death. The Greek philosophy of an immortal soul was opposed and opposite to the teaching of Christ on the resurrection. The immortal soul doctrine was believed by most pagan religions in the time of Paul, and when he was before Agrippa, he asked, "Why is it considered incredible among you people if God does raise the dead?" [Acts 26:8 New American Standard Version]. To Plato and Agrippa, the resurrection of the dead would have been a step backward. It would put the soul that was freed from its prison of a body back into the prison it had been freed from.
The Greek and heathen belief that the immortal soul is indestructible, demands that the soul cannot die, but must be alive forever somewhere. The resurrection as taught by Christ demands that a person be dead, if not, there cannot be a resurrection. The resurrection is a calling back to life the whole person God created, not a calling back to life some part of the person that is not dead. If the Greek doctrine of an immortal soul that cannot die, which is believed by many today were true, then the resurrection of Christ and our resurrection would be pointless.
PLATO AND SOCRATES -- VERSUS -- CHRIST
IMMORTALITY --------- VERSUS - LIFE AND RESURRECTION
DEATH A FRIEND ------ VERSUS - DEATH IS "THE LAST ENEMY"
PLATO: THE SOUL IS | IF THERE IS NO RESURRECTION
IMMORTAL, THEREFORE ONLY | DEATH IS THE END OF
"IT" IS ALIVE AFTER DEATH| ALL LIFE 1 CORINTHIANS 15:14-23
PLATO: ONLY THE BODY DIES| "THEN THEY ALSO THAT ARE
FREEING SOUL TO A HIGHER | FALLEN ASLEEP IN CHRIST
LIFE WITHOUT A BODY | HAVE PERISHED"
ONLY SOME INTER PART OF | A PERSON (WHO IN CHRIST) WILL BE
A PERSON IS IMMORTAL | IMMORTAL, NOT JUST PART OF A PERSON
ALL THE DEAD ARE ALIVE | CHRIST IS "THE FIRST BORN FROM THE DEAD"
PLATO'S IMMORTAL SOUL AND CHRIST'S RESURRECTION ARE NOT COMPATIBLE, BOTH CANNOT BE. ONE CAN BE TRUE, BUT NOT BOTH AT THE SAME TIME; THEY ARE ALIEN TO EACH OTHER.
Paul and Plato used the same Greek words, but not in the same way. Immortal, immortality, indestructible, never dying was used by Plato and by many today to describe the soul, but in the Old or New Testament, these words are never used referring to any lost person or to any part of a person after death. The expression "immortal soul" is very common in the writing of the pagan philosophers and today's preachers, but is not found in the Bible.
PAUL USED|PLATO AND MANY TODAY SAY THE SOUL
DIE |CANNOT DIE
DEATH |NO DEATH
DESTROYED |CANNOT BE DESTROYED
CORRUPTION |IS INCORRUPTIBLE
MORTAL |IS IMMORTAL
PERISH |CANNOT PERISH
HENRY CONSTABLE, "In the very terms in which the punishment of the wicked is asserted in the New Testament. Where the latter says the soul shall die, Plato says it shall not die; where the latter says it shall be destroyed, Plato says it shall not be destroyed; where the latter says it shall perish and suffer corruption, Plato says it shall not perish and is incorruptible. The phrases are the very same, only that what Plato denies of all souls alike, the New Testament asserts of some of the souls of men. But the discussion of the question was not confined to the school of Plato or to his times. Every school of philosophy took it up, whether to confirm Plato's view, or to deny it, or to heap ridicule upon it. All the phrases we have been discussing from the New Testament had been explained, turned over and over, handled with all the power of the masters of language, presented in every phase, so that of their sense there could be no doubt, nor could there be any one ignorant of their sense before Jesus spoke, or an Evangelist or Apostle wrote. The subject had not died out before the days of Christ. It never could and never will die out. In every city of the Roman world were schools of Grecian thought in the days of the Apostles. In every school the question before us was discussed in the phrases and language of the New Testament" "Duration and Nature of Future Punishment," 1871.
CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA, "Plato established the basic Western tradition on this topic by defining the soul as the spiritual part of the human that survived death" 1991.
Many believe that in the afterlife we will be nothing more than a collection of disembodied spirits or souls that will be just as alive and just the same from the day of birth as these souls will ever be. Death and the resurrection are out of step with the belief of Plato.
A part of a person being deathless is a philosophy of man that Paul warned about [Colossians 2:8]. An immortal soul was copied from heathen philosophy and superstition. NOTE: Those who believe we now have "an immortal soul" get their belief from Greek philosophy, but are inconstant and self-contradicting. They say the soul cannot die, but it needs a Savior anyway. If we were born with an immortal soul, it would have no need for Christ to save it from the death it cannot die. CHRISTIANITY DID NOT DESTROY THE PAGAN DOCTRINE OF EGYPT AND GREECE; IT ADOPTED IT.
Death is the enemy [1 Corinthians 15:26]. It is the destruction of the life given by God. It is not the liberator of an immortal soul, as Plato believed it to be. It is death, which must be conquered by the resurrection. When we understand that death is really death, not another kind of life for an immortal part of a person that has no substance, the resurrection is all-important. Without a resurrection we can do what we want for this life is all there is [1 Corinthians 15:32]. Our only hope is the resurrection, and without it there will be no life of any kind for us after death. Plato's immortal soul needs no resurrection. "Set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ" [1 Peter 1:12]. It is at the resurrection that we "shall receive the crown of glory that fades not away" [1 Peter 5:4].
1. "Be patient; therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord" [James 4:7-8]. As the farmer is patient unto the harvest to receive his reward, the believers were to be patient unto the coming of Christ to receive their reward.
2. "It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body" [1 Corinthians 15:43]. It is not the spiritual body living in the natural body that will go to Heaven at the death of the natural body. "We shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible" [1 Corinthians 15:52].
3. "Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that, if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him; for we shall see him even as he is" [1 John 3:2].
4. The wrath of God will be "in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God" [Romans 2:5], not wrath at death before that day and not eternal wrath after the judgment day is over. On that day, it will be rendered "to them that by patience in well doing seek for glory and honor and incorruption, eternal life" [Romans 2:8], not to the souls of all on the day of their death. The judgment will be "in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men" [Romans 2:16], not at death. It is the judgment day when "we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of God" [Romans 14:10]. It is the day that the Lord will judge all, "Wherefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the hearts" [1 Corinthians 4:5, also, Ephesians 4:30].
5. "And to wait for his Son from heaven" [1 Thessalonians 1:10]. Death will not take anyone to Heaven without waiting for the second coming of Jesus.
6. When the Lord shall descend from Heaven, them that have fallen asleep in Jesus, "the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" [1 Thessalonians 4:17]. Their hope is to be raised from their sleep at the coming of Christ, not come back from living in Heaven or Abraham's bosom.
7. Paul says he will receive a "crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me at that day; and not to me only, but also to all them that have loved his appearing." [2 Timothy 4:8].
The Bible teaching, "The wages of sin is death" leaves no lost souls alive after the judgment and second death to be put anywhere. THE TEACHING OF CHRIST, THAT LIFE (EVERLASTING LIFE OR IMMORTALITY) WILL BE GIVEN ONLY TO THOSE WHO OBEY HIM, MAKES HELL IMPOSSIBLE. UNLESS CHRIST GIVES ETERNAL LIFE (IMMORTALITY) TO THE LOST, THEY CANNOT LIVE FOREVER ANYWHERE. The Greek teaching of an immortal soul must be made to stand, and the teaching of Christ that He will give life only to those who come to Him