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

and of the description of Babylon joining the other dead nations in sheol [Isaiah 14:9-10]. They do not seem to know whether they wanted to put Babylon in "Hell" or in the "grave." How inconsistent could they be? They were just as inconsistent throughout the Old Testament. "Maggots are spread out as your bed beneath you, and worms are your covering" New American Standard Bible. The worms that eat the body are in the grave, not maggots in Heaven or Hell; Babylon was dead and in its grave.
(2) Ezekiel 31:15 "Thus says the Lord God; In the day when he went down to the GRAVE [sheol-Hell] I caused a mourning." See notes on Ezekiel 31:16 where sheol is translated "Hell."
(3) And (4) Hosea 13:14 "I will ransom them from the power to the GRAVE [sheol-Hell]; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be your plagues; O GRAVE [sheol-Hell], I will be your destruction." This is God redeeming the nation of Israel from captivity, not individual Jews being resurrected from the grave. The whole chapter is about the nation of Israel; God brought them out of Egypt [Hosea 13:4]. "It is your destruction, O Israel, that you are against me, against your help. Where now is your king that he may save you in all your cities, and your judges of whom you requested, ‘Give me a king and a prince’? I gave you a king in My anger, and took him away in My wrath" [Hosea 13:9-11]. "O Israel, return unto Jehovah your God; for you have fallen by your iniquity" [Hosea 14:1]. The translators did not believe any one would be redeemed, individuals or nations, from Hell, therefore, they have the redeeming being from the grave; if they had translated sheol into Hell they would have had Hell being destroyed by God (“O sheol I will be your destruction”), but the Hell they believed in could not be destroyed and no one could ever be redeemed from it.
Because 1 Corinthians 15:54 says, “Then shall come to pass the saying that is written” many think Paul quoted Hosea 13:14 in 1 Corinthians 15:55 but it is difficult to see how “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death where is your sting?” is a quotation from “O death, I will be your plagues; O grave I will be your destruction" [Hosea 13:14]. Hosea was speaking of Israel rebellion being their plagues and destruction. Paul was speaking of death being swallowed up in victory by the resurrection at the second coming of Christ. Hosea was speaking of the destruction of Israel, Paul of the victory of the faithful. NEITHER HOSEA NOR PAUL WAS SPEAKING OF ETERNAL TORMENT AFTER DEATH.
Nations in Hell in 14 passages
FOURTEEN OF THE THIRTY-ONE PASSAGES TRANSLATED HELL IN THE KING JAMES VERSION, EIGHTEEN OF THE FIFTY-FOUR PASSAGES WITH SHEOL ARE THE DESTRUCTION OF NATIONS AND HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH INDIVIDUALS. ALTHOUGH WHAT IS SAID IN THESE EIGHTEEN PASSAGES DO NOT IN ANYWAY FIT WITH TODAY'S THEOLOGY OF "HELL," THEY ARE OFTEN USED ANYWAY, mostly by the Jonathan Edwards type of Hell fire preacher who take them out of their context of speaking about the end of nations and make they be speaking of lost individuals that they will have no end but will live forever being tormented by God.
• Changed from the end of nations
• To the endlessness of individuals
(1) Deuteronomy 32:22 GOD'S ANGER TOWARD ISRAEL. "For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest HELL [sheol], and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains." Hundreds of years from Genesis to Deuteronomy had passed, and it was not unto the seventh time sheol is used before the King James translators thought they could put the Hell they believed in into the Bible. But, what does this passage say? Jeshurun forsook God [32:15]. They (Israel) provoked God to jealousy with strange gods [32:16]. They (Israel) sacrificed unto devils [32:17]. They moved God to jealousy with that which is not a god and provoked Him to anger [32:21]. In God's anger, a fire is kindled which would burn to the lowest sheol [grave] and shall consume the earth. This fire is on earth, not in Hell. "I will heap mischief upon them (Israel); I will spend mine arrows upon them. They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust. The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs. I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men" [Deuteronomy 23:23-26, Also 1 Thessalonians 2:16]. ALL THIS, INCLUDING THE FIRE UNTO THE LOWEST GRAVE IS GOD'S PUNISHMENT TO THE NATION OF ISRAEL AT THAT TIME. ALL THESE PUNISHMENTS ARE THOSE THAT CAN ONLY BE INFLICTED ON THE LIVING, NOT ON AN IMMATERIAL, INVISIBLE PART OF A PERSON THAT HAS NO SUBSTANCE. THERE IS NOT ONE WORD ABOUT ANYONE BURNING IN HELL AFTER DEATH OR AFTER THE JUDGMENT. If it were a Hell, there would be beast, poison serpents, swords, etc. in Hell. Suckling babies would be destroyed in Hell.
The "how" of this burning "unto the lowest hell [grave-sheol]," is described in Deuteronomy 32:21-26 in a way that it could not be the "Hell" that is believed in by many today, but is God's anger with the nation of Israel. This is almost a repeat of Leviticus 26:14ff of what would happen to Israel if they did not obey God.
• Verse 21 "I will provoke them (Israel) to anger with a foolish nation."
• Verse 22 "And consumes the earth with it yield."
• Verse 23 "I will heap disasters upon them (Israel)."
• Verse 24 "They (Israel) shall be wasted with hunger, devoured with pestilence." See 2 Samuel 24:13-15; Exodus 9:15; 2 Chronicles 21:14
• Verse 24 "And the teeth of beasts I will send upon them (Israel), with the venom of crawling things of the dust."
• Verse 25 "The sword will destroy outside."
• Verse 26 "I would scatter them (Israel) afar, I would make the remembrance of them (Israel) to cease from among men."
If "lowest Hell" spoken of in this passage were the "Hell" that is taught today, was Israel forever tormented by God in this "lowest Hell"? Or was Israel in it for a period of time and came out of it? See Psalm 86:13 below where in the King James Version David says he was delivered out of the “lowest Hell.” Had David literally been in Hell and delivered out of it before his death, or had the nation of Israel literally been in Hell; or had both had been in exile and had returned to their homeland?
FROM GENESIS TO DEUTERONOMY, CENTURIES HAD PASSED BEFORE THE KING JAMES TRANSLATORS FIRST PUT HELL IN THE BIBLE ALTHOUGH SHEOL HAD BEEN USED OFTEN. HUNDREDS MORE YEARS PASSED BEFORE THE NEW KING JAMES TRANSLATORS TRANSLATED SHEOL INTO HELL THE SECOND TIME.
FIVE OUT OF THIRTY-SIX The New King James Version translates "sheol" into Hell only five times out of the first thirty-six times "sheol" is used.
1. THE 7TH TIME SHEOL IS USED IS THE FIRST TIME IT IS TRANSLATED "HELL" and then it is the nation of Israel, not individuals, that is in “Hell” Deuteronomy 32:22.
2. THE 20TH TIME SHEOL IS USED IS THE SECOND TIME IT IS TRANSLATED "HELL" where the wicked nations that forget God “return to sheol” Psalms 9:17. Psalms 9:17-20 is speaking of nations that forget God and are judged by Him. Centuries has passed from when Adam sinned and was put out of the garden before the King James translators thought they had found a second place where it was safe to put “Hell” in the Bible. Did it not mean Hell in eighteen of the first twenty times sheol is used? Did it mean "grave" a place on this earth for centuries and then the same word was changed to "Hell," a place not on this earth? A place where there is no life or torment changed to a place of eternal life in torment?
3. THE 28TH TIME SHEOL IS USED IS ONLY THE THIRD TIME IT IS TRANSLATED "HELL" Psalms 55:15. This is the first passage where it is an individual that the King James Version that is put in Hell (sheol, grave).
4. THE 33RD TIME SHEOL IS USED IS ONLY THE FOURTH TIME IT IS TRANSLATED "HELL" Psalms 139:8. Then it is David who said, “If I make my bed in sheol, behold, You are there.” The just will make the bed in sheol, will sleep in the grave unto the resurrection, but the just cannot make there bed in the Hell that is taught today.
5. THE 36TH TIME SHEOL IS USED IS ONLY THE FIFTH TIME IT IS TRANSLATED "HELL" Proverbs 5:5. All the other thirty one times sheol is used before this is either translated grave or pit. EVEN IN "HELL'S BIBLE," THE KING JAMES VERSION, THE TRANSLATORS DID NOT THINK SHEOL MEANS "HELL" IN THIRTY-ONE OF THE FIRST THIRTY-SIX TIMES IT IS USED AND DID NOT TRANSLATE IT "HELL."
(2) Psalms 9:15-17 "The nations have sunk down in the pit which they have made...The Lord is known by the judgment which he executes: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands ... The wicked shall be turned into HELL [grave-sheol], and all the nations that forget God" ["return to Sheol" New American Standard Bible, Psalms 9:15-17]. The same thing will happen to both the wicked persons and the nations that forget God. They both will go to sheol, the grave. Do some think evil nations live in torment in Hell after the nations no longer exists on this earth or that evil nations do not have some good people in them that would not be in Hell? Both will be in the grave, both will be dead, not both in eternal torment together in Hell. According to the American Standard Version the wicked are the wicked nations. "The wicked shall be turned back unto sheol, even all the nations that forget God." Psalms 9:15-20 is speaking of the nations that forget God. There is no threat of after-death punishment of individuals in this passage.
(3) Isaiah 5:14 "Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honorable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst. Therefore, HELL [grave-sheol] has enlarged herself and opened her mouth without measure." Because they had left the Lord, they went into captivity. See Proverbs 27:20 above. Their captivity was a grave [sheol] to them as a nation; grave is used as a metaphor of their captivity, their death as a nation, a literal grave cannot enlarge herself and has no mouth. Can anyone tell my why the translators put the nation of Israel in Hell; does a nation in captivity being make Hell be on the earth and end when the captivity of that nation ends?
(4) Isaiah 14:9 "HELL [sheol "grave" in margin of King James Version] from beneath is moved for thee to meet you at your coming: it stirs up the dead [rephaim] for you, even all the chief ones of the earth; it has raised up from the earth; it has raised up