Immortality or Resurrection (Updated), William West [black female authors .txt] 📗

was made by a sadistic and fiendish
God who knew before He made them that He would forever torment them.
USE OF FIRE IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
Consumed Or Not Consumed
Fire is always used for destruction, never for preservation. It is never used for torment.
Fire always destroys and never preserves anything.
• Burning of unfruitful trees and useless chaff of wheat by John the Baptist
[Matthew 3:4-12].
• Burning of trash in the city dump-Gehenna [see chapter four].
• Burning of tares at the end of the age [Matthew 13:24-50].
• Burning of unfruitful branches [John 15:6]. Unfruitful trees [Luke 3:9].
• Land that bears thorns and thistles is to be burned. To get rid of the thorns. Those
that fell away are likened or compared too thorns and thistles that are destroyed
by fire, not tormented by fire [Hebrews 6:1-7].
• God is a consuming fire. [Hebrews 12:29] See Luke 9:54.
• Sodom-punishment of eternal fire-was forever destroyed by fire, not forever
burning [Jude 7; 2 Peter 2:6].
• The heavens shall pass away, be dissolved, and the earth and the works that are
therein shall be burned up [2 Peter 3:7-14]. The lost are of the world, which will
pass away [1 John 2:16-17].
• 2 Thessalonians 1:7
• Lake of fire, which is the second death (not preserved alive) [Revelation 21:8;
2:11].
Fire is never used by God to torment, but for destruction. "Gather his wheat [the
saved] into the garner, but He will burn up the chaff [the lost] with unquenchable fire"
Matthew 3:12. Tares and bad fish are burned to get rid of them, NOT TO TORMENT
FOREVER, OR AS SOME SAY "TO BURN IN HELL FOREVER" Matthew 13.
Theology teaches the exact opposite of the Bible that the chaff will not be burned up but
will be tormented forever, but not burned, not consumed and destroyed as the farmer does
the chaff.
• Farmer: Burns up chaff to destroy it.
• God: Burns up sinful to destroy them.
• Fisher: Burns bad fish to get rid of them. [There is no parallel if you say, "torment
them." It would make God be using very poor metaphors, for the ones God used
do not teach torment, and would not make sense.]
o Tares are burned, the wheat is saved [Matthew 13:30]
o Lost are burned, the faithful are saved. Does the farmer burn the tares to
torment them or to destroy them?
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When tares are cast into a furnace of fire they are burnt. Like the chaff that is totally
consumed in the furnace, there is no suggestion of life beyond the burning in the lake of
fire.
FURNACE OF FIRE in the Old Testament, destruction not eternal torment or
preservation, Psalm 21:9; Malachi 4:1-3; Daniel 3:13-27; Psalm 12:6.
CONSUMED OR NOT CONSUMED: Those who believe a person has a soul that is
immortal also believe a person's soul can never be consumed. How is consumed used in
the Bible. Is a consuming fire one that burns up (consumes) or one that is forever burning
but cannot consume what it is burning? Why would God use "consumed" if a person has
a soul that cannot be consumed?
1. Leviticus 10:2: “And fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed
them, and they died before the Lord.”
2. Exodus 3:2-5: The burning bush was "not consumed." This was so unnatural of
fire that Moses said, "I must turn aside now, and see this marvelous sight, why the
bush is not burnt up."
3. Exodus 15:7 "You do send forth your burning anger, and it consumes them as
chaff." When chaff is consumed by fire the chaff no longer exists.
4. Exodus 32:10: "Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against
them, and that I may consume them; and I will make of you a great nation."
"Destroy" in New American Standard Version. They would no longer exist.
5. Exodus 32:12: "Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, saying, For evil did he
bring them forth, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the
face of the earth? Turn from your fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against
your people." They would have been completely removed from the face of the
earth.
6. Leviticus 9:23-24: The fat was on the altar. Fire comes forth and consumed it. The
consumed fat no longer existed.
7. Psalms 37:20: "They shall consume; in smoke shall they consume away."
8. Hebrews 12:29: "For our God is a consuming fire."
USE OF TORMENT IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
Those who teach the sinner will be tormented forever in Hell use:
1. The symbolic language in the parable of the rich man, which must be made literal
for it to support their teaching. [Luke 16:23; 24; 25; 28].
2. The symbolic language of Revelation, which must also be made literal, if not
neither would it support their teaching .
a. Revelation 9:5: Locusts out of the pit torment those who have not the seal
of God tormented for five months. Believers in Hell do not believe the
torment in the Hell they believe in will be for only five months.
b. Revelation 11:10: "Tormented them that dwell on the earth." A symbolical
picture of something on this earth, not in Hell.
c. Revelation 14:10, 11: Worshipers of Babylon tormented. Babylon:
"Roman Empire and its pagan religions that were the persecutor of the
church" [See Hailey, Wallace, and Ogden above].
d. Revelation 18:7 10, 15: Babylon tormented. "In one hour God is she made
desolate...for has judged your judgment on her." This is an evil nation on
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this earth, not the lost in "Hell" although it is often misused to prove
"Hell."
e. Revelation 20:10: The devil tormented by being cast into the lake of fire,
which is the second death. "Day and night," as long as there is day and
night, unto the ages of ages See [19] Revelation 20:10 above in this
chapter.
3. Torment is used in non-symbolical language in the New Testament, but it is never
applied to the lost after Judgment Day. Matthew 4:24; 8:6; Mark 8:6, 18:34;
Hebrews 11:37; 1 John 4:18. Unconditional immortality uses only the symbolic
language passages to prove torment in Hell. Yet in their preaching they frequently
use it literally, saying God will forever torment the lost, and then say they are
"speaking where the scriptures speak, and keeping silent where the scriptures are
silent."
Demons tormented [Matthew 8:29; Mark 5:7; Luke 8:28] Knowles on page 203 in
"What the Bible says about Angels and Demons" said, "Demons Believe in Hell," and he
uses "BEFORE the appointed time" in Matthew 8:29, as his proof. "To torment us
BEFORE THE APPOINTED TIME?" The question is WHEN and WHAT torment is
being spoken of. What is "the appointed time?" The only torment in this is what the
demon's thought Christ was going to do to them THEN AT THAT TIME ["before the
appointed time"], not in Hell. [Torment "...2. to agitate or upset greatly 3. to annoy,
pester, or harass." American Heritage Dictionary]. They asked Christ if He came to
torment [harass] them at that time. Nothing is said about Hell or TORMENT AT THE
APPOINTED TIME [at the judgment], OR TORMENT AFTER THE APPOINTED
TIME [after the judgment], but many read it in. THE DEMONS DID NOT ASK
CHRIST IF HE WERE GOING TO TORMENT THEM AT THE JUDGMENT (the
appointed time) BUT WAS CHRIST GOING TO TORMENT THEM AT THE TIME
HE WAS TALKING TO THEM (before the appointed time). How does he find Hell or
the Demons believing in Hell in this passage?
Thomas P. Connelly in "A Debate On The State Of The Dead" makes the argument
that demons are the departed souls of dead men. For this to be true, it must first be shown
that men do have a part that lives after the death of the body, and second, contrary to the
Protestant theology that the lost goes to Hell at death, and contrary to the Abraham's
bosom view that the lost are not on the bad side of hades, but that the lost dead are on this
earth; it would have to be shown that are now roaming around on this earth. If the lost
were in Hell it would make them able to leave Hell and return to earth.
As was said at the first of this chapter, those who believe in the Pagan doctrine of an
immortal soul from birth and Hell have no plain statement. That they must make
figurative language, metaphors and symbolic passages into literal statements,
WHICH SHOWS THE WEAKNESS OF THEIR BELIEF, that it is from man and not
from God. They must make parables, and figurative language to be superior over plain
statements. What is clear language must be made to agree with what they think is said in
the symbolic language.
Both the Old Testament and the New Testament are completely silent on today's
concept of a place where God will unending torment most of mankind. HOW CAN
ANYONE BELIEVE IT IS NOT A SIN TO ADD SUCH A PLACE TO GOD'S
WORD? WHAT DO THEY THINK GOD WILL SAY AT THE JUDGMENT TO
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THOSE WHO ATTRIBUTE SUCH AN EVIL TEACHING TO HIM? Does not
attributing this evil to God make them a sinner?
CHAPTER FIVE
Sheol, Hades, Tartarus
In the King James Bible, there are four words translated Hell [sheol, hades, Tartarus,
and Gehenna]. Most Bible students now admit that sheol, hades and Tartarus should
never have been translated into Hell, but many still hold onto the badly mistranslated
King James Version, and Gospel preachers and Bible teachers do little or nothing to teach
the truth. Many, who do all they can too correct any lesser error just do not seem to care
about this one.
[1] SHEOL in the King James Version is translated grave 31 times, Hell 31 times, and
pit 3 times. The American Standard Version used the untranslated Hebrew word "sheol."
The New International Version translated it "grave" 60 times and "death" 5 times. The
New Century Version and others also translated it grave. The American Standard Version
and other newer translations knew Hell as used today [a place of eternal punishment after
the resurrection] was not right, but did not translate it "grave"; they left the Hebrew word
untranslated. Maybe they thought it would make their translation unacceptable if they
translated it, and it most likely would have. Neither sheol nor hades have any meaning in
English and left all free to use any theological definition they wanted. Hamilton says
contrary to popular opinion it does not mean Hell as we use this term, Page 384, Truth
Commentaries.
The King James Version makes sheol be three different places, the grave, Hell, and a
pit. How did they know the same word means three different places? "HELL" AS IT IS
USED TODAY IS NOT A THIRTY-FIRST COUSIN TO GRAVE YET IT IS THE
SAME WORD IN THE HEBREW OLD TESTAMENT. How did they know when the
same word in one place was a grave for the dead, and when the same word was an
entirely different place, a place of torment for those who can never be dead?
"THERE DOES NOT SEEM TO BE A VERY CLEAR DISTINCTION IN THE O. T. BETWEEN THE
FINAL DESTINY OF THE GOOD AND THE EVIL. THEY ALL ALIKE GO TO THE GRAVE" Baker
Encyclopedia of the Bible, "SHEOL," Volume 1, Page 953. The reason for there being no
distinction in the Old Testament is that both the good and the evil do go to the grave, and will
not come out unto the resurrection.
The Hebrew word "sheol" is left untranslated all sixty-five times it is used in the
American Standard Version, New American Standard Version, and many others. An
untranslated Hebrew word in an English translation does not help the English reader
understand