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

restore Israel as a great nation and to set on the throne of David in Jerusalem, not to be killed and resurrected and set on His throne in Heaven. They may have thought Abraham, David, and others would be resurrected as mortals in the restored Israel under the savior they looked for. Whatever they believed about a resurrection, it could not have been the resurrection to eternal life in heaven, which was not known about before Christ. A resurrection of al
l, judgment, and eternal life in Heaven for believers after death was unknown to them. They had many traditions and were rebuked for making the Law void by their traditions. Jesus said to them, "You hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, this people honors my with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain do they worship me, teaching as their doctrines the precept of men" [Matthew 15:7-9]. Much of the teaching of Christ was a rebuke to them about their beliefs. See Matthew 19.
"In the resurrection; therefore, whose wife shall she be of the seven?" [Matthew 22:28. Notice the question or the answer did not mention an intermediate state. Although there were resurrections of the earthly body back to life just as it was before the death of the person resurrected in the Old Testament, there is nothing of a resurrection to immortality life with a spiritual body without the earthly body. The fact that they thought that if there were a resurrection she would have to be the wife of one of the seven points out that they were thinking of a resurrection of an earthly mortal body with life on this earth as it is now with husbands, wives, and children. This reply by Christ is one of, if not the first suggestion of a resurrection that will not be a resurrection back to a mortal life. This was a new teaching of Christ that was not known about before He brought it to light through the gospel [2 Timothy 1:10], therefore, could not have been known about by the Pharisees.
"The sons of this world (aion - age) marry, and are given in marriage: but they that are accounted worthy to attain to that world (aion - age), and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: for neither can they die any more; for they are equal unto the angels; and are sons of God" [Luke 20:34-36]. Jesus is speaking of life in two different ages, in this age where there is marriage and death, and life in an age (Heaven) where there is no marriage or death. The Pharisees view of the resurrection seems to be a resurrection to life as it now is in this age. Christians, while living on this earth, are (1) not immortal, (2) not deathless, (3) not spirits, (4) not equal unto the angels, (5) do marry.
Today most that are called Jews believe more like the Sadducees did, and do not believe the Old Testament says anything about an immortal soul or anything about anyone going to Heaven at anytime after death; they do not believe their savior had come, and believed when he did come he would restore Israel as a nation.
Alexander Campbell said, "1. That before the Captivity, and the Macedonian and Roman conquests, the Jews observed the most profound silence upon the state of the deceased, as to their happiness or misery. They spoke of it simply as a place of silence, darkness, and inactivity. 2. But after the Hebrews mingled with the Greeks and Romans, they insensibly aided into their use of terms, and adopted some of their ideas on such subjects as those on which their oracles were silent." Appendix to "The Living Oracles" Page 59.
The belief of the Greeks was reincarnation back to some kind of earthly life that would die again; they had no conception of eternal life in Heaven that was made known by Christ.
The Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection. "On that day there came to him Sadducees, they that say that there is no resurrection" [Matthew 22:23]. To prove there was no resurrection they tried to trick Jesus with a question that would prove there was not. The point of His answer was to prove there is to be a resurrection, not to prove anything about the state of the dead before the resurrection. There is nothing in their question or in Christ’s answer about a disembodied soul or spirit that is alive before the resurrection. Christ was asked, "The woman also died...in the resurrection; therefore, whose wife of them shall she be" [Luke 20:33]? They did not ask whose wife she would be at death but in the resurrection; their question was not who now has her disembodied spirit in the intermediate state. Christ said to them, "but they that are accounted worthy to attain to that world (aion-age) and the resurrection from the dead...but that THE DEAD ARE RAISED" [Luke 20:35-37], "But as touching the resurrection of the dead" [Matthew 22:31]. "For when they shall rise from the dead...But as touching the dead, that they are raised" [Mark 12:25-26].
[6]. THE GOD OF ABRAHAM
Matthew 22:32 “But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have you not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.’” Christ was proving to the Sadducees that there will be a resurrection, not that Abraham was alive at the time He was saying this; at that time Abraham was not alive in Heaven, Hell, in Abraham’s bosom, or alive any other place. If the dead are living in a disembodied state, for God to say he was the God of Abraham would not prove there will be a resurrection, but would prove one was not needed. If Abraham were not dead, Christ could not have used Abraham to prove the dead will be raised. The dead must be dead to be raised; a living Abraham would not need to be raised, would not need a resurrection to make him alive. The whole point Christ was making is that there will be a resurrection, not that none are dead to be resurrected. Not that a disembodied spirit is the only part of a person that will be in Heaven or Hell, and this immaterial part of a person is now alive in Heaven or Hell while his or her dead body is in the grave. If this disembodied part of a person were alive anywhere it would make the resurrection impossible. A resurrection of those who are living would be an empty show, a fraud, not a resurrection. The belief of many says, "Not so Christ, I was born immortal and cannot die, therefore, I cannot be dead or raised from the dead"? This theology destroys the Biblical doctrine of the resurrection.
If Abraham were alive, as many teach he was, then he was never asleep. Many believe we have an immortal part of us that can never be dead but despite the fact that it is alive, it is going be resurrected from the dead to be in Heaven? Paul said of Able, "He being dead" [Hebrews 11:4], if language has any meaning, Abel was dead, not alive at the time Paul said this. "For David...fell asleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption" [Acts 13:36]; if David were living (awake) at this time, if only his body was in the tomb, Peter had no point or argument; what Peter said had no meaning. "From the day that the fathers fell asleep" [2 Peter 3:4] shows that Abraham and David are still asleep, along with all other's that "are fallen asleep" [1 Corinthians 15:6]. To say that Abraham has been raised is to say the resurrection is past, and Christ was not the "first fruits" [2 Corinthians 15:20], or the "first born" [Colossians 1:18, Revelation 1:5]. To say that an immortal part of Abraham was never dead is to make a resurrection impossible. The resurrection at the coming of Christ is the subject, and nothing is said about what will be between death and the resurrection. Abraham "believed, even God, who gives life to the dead, and calls the things that are not, as though they were" [Romans 4:18]. "For none of us live to himself, and none die to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord; whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living" [Romans 14:7-9]. How could Christ be Lord of the dead if no one is dead?
Summary: If the dead are more alive than when they were living, it both takes away the need for a resurrection and made it impossible. Christ's argument that there will be a resurrection is totally destroyed. When this passage is used to prove the dead are not dead but are conscious then it would proves that there is no resurrection. If the dead are alive then how would His answer prove there would be a resurrection, and what would be the need of one? This is a serious problem for those who teach unconditionally immortality. IT CANNOT BE TAUGHT THAT THE DEAD ARE MORE ALIVE THAN THE LIVING WITHOUT DESTROYING THE BIBLICAL DOCTRINE OF THE RESURRECTION. If Abraham, David, Job, and other saints are alive in Heaven, death has already been destroyed. Death would have been destroyed for all at death, not at Christ's second coming; and even those in the Old Testament would have had life, eternal life, without the death of Christ and without the resurrection and judgment. Take away the fact that Abraham was dead, which is the very thing that those who say a person is born immortal and can never die are trying to do; and you take away the point of Christ's argument, and make Him be saying just so many words that say nothing. Christ's argument, that there will be a resurrection, requires that Abraham is dead at the time Christ made the argument. Abraham being alive would have requires that he never died or that his resurrection was past before the death and resurrection of Christ. When did it happen? The resurrection of Christ, Abraham, or anyone requires that they be dead at the time of the resurrection for they could not be resurrected if they were alive. How could anyone think that a coming back of the living from Heaven is a resurrection of the dead? If David were not still in the tomb then he had been raised the same as Christ, but before Christ, therefore, Christ was not the first fruit. Today's theology has changed this to read, "But that the dead are not dead to be raised," or "But that the separated are not dead to be raised." If He were saying Abraham is alive now, He would be denying the point He was making, that there will be a resurrection, for Abraham could not be raised if he were alive. If Abraham were alive at that time then Luke 20:27-38 proves that there will not and cannot be a resurrection. This passage teaches a "resurrection of the dead," not "no one is dead to be resurrected from the dead."
[7]. THE TRANSFIGURATION: A RESURRECTION or A VISION?
Matthew 17:1-9, Mark 9:2-9.
A VISION: Christ said