Immortality or Resurrection by William West (philippa perry book txt) 📕

infinitely greater than would be possible for all men combined to do.
Many have tried to lessen the cruelty in a number of ways. [1] Perhaps the most common one is to make Hell be only in the mind of the lost. Billy Graham said, "I have often wondered if Hell is a terrible burning within our hearts for God, to fellowship with God, a fire that we can never quench." This does not help any and maybe makes it crueler. Mental pain is as bad and sometimes worse than physical pain. God tormenting most of mankind by making them live in mental pain for eternity would not make Him any less cruel. [2] Some have tried to justify this cruelty by saying the punishment must fit the crime. If a person commits a crime against a person he or she does not know, it is not as bad as the same crime would be if committed against his or her mother and the same crime committed against God is infinitely worse, but no one could know this without a revelation from God; where in God’s word does He say the same trespasses become infinitely worse when it is against God? Jesus teaches that what ever we do or do not do for mankind we do or do not do it for God [Matthew 25:40, 45], and He makes no distinction as to whom the sin was against. For centuries many of the best thinkers in the orthodox churches have tried to find a way to justify Hell. I think the best they have done is to say the same crime/sin committed against an infinite God demands an infinite punishment, and God would not be just if He did not torment all sinners forever; they have tried to make it look as if He has no way out and must torment in Hell. What new revelation do they have that makes God be wrong when He said, "The wages of sin is death"?
• First: they are speaking where the Bible does not say anything and are making God be bound by their theology; therefore, they give God no choice, making God be bound to forever torment most of mankind all to justify their "Hell."
• Second: God's law in the Old Testament had the same punishment if the sin were against man or against Himself. To lie was the same if the lie were to a person or to God. His law was an eye for an eye no matter whom the sin was against. Their theology makes it be one eye if the lie were told to a person, but if the same lie where told to God it would be an endless number of eyes.
• Third: If any sin against an infinite God demands an infinite punishment of eternal torment in Hell, all have sinned. If the only payment for our sin against an infinite God is eternal torment, Christ did not pay it for us. If the payment is death, Christ did pay it for us.
• Fourth: God made us and if He had chosen not to give anyone eternal life, to let us pass out of exists, to return to not existing, He would still be a good and merciful God for giving us the life we have. But, God has given us much more if we will only believe and obey Him. He has given His only Son that we may given life, not death. He has saved us from the wages of sin; the death that we deserve and given us life.
• Fifth: Who could love and worship a God that according to traditional doctrine would have made our father, mother, wife or husband, our children, and many we know and love just so He could torment them and He gives them no change to not be tormented.
Throughout the Old Testament, God destroyed His enemies, Sodom and Gomorrah, the flood, drowning in the Red Sea, etc. He did not torment them forever. The Bible does not teach it is the character or nature of God to torment the lost.
Not only is Hell an addition to the Bible but also Hell is many times crueler than anything the pagans ever even thought of. Because for most it is something that is far away and not something they can see now, I do not think they can see how cruel they are being too most, or how cruel they are making God be. Because it is not something that is not real to them, they are able to tell themselves "it is justice." If the Hell they teach was real and they could look over into it and see God tormenting most of mankind in the terrible way they now teach that He will be doing, they would be terrified of such an evil being as they say their God is. HOW CAN ANYONE NOT SEE THIS?
The doctrine of an immortal soul that cannot die and must forever be tormented is the most heartless doctrine any person ever believed. BELIEVING IN HELL IS AS HEARTLESS AS ANY PERSON CAN BE, AND IS LOVING AND WORSHIPING THE MOST CRUEL, SADISTIC AND FIENDISH OF ALL GODS. If being created in the image of God means mankind cannot die but must forever be tormented, then being in the image of God is a curse for most of mankind; it would have been better for them to be as animals are. God made all things that are, if Hell does exist, it could only have been God that thought it up and made it.
DO THOSE WHO TEACH THE DOCTRINE OF HELL REALLY BELIEVE IN HELL? The plain inference is that they do not believe in it. They see some of their family, their friends, those they work with or live next door, that they say are going to Hell at death, but do little or nothing about it. If they really believe in Hell when they see unsaved people they know and love dying all around them, why do they do so little to save them? They seem to care more about what is on television than they do about the eternal torment of those they say they love, and countess millions of others.
The Saints In Heaven Are Deprived Of Qualities God Has Given To Us, Sympathy, Pity, Love For Others.
"The smoke of their torment shall ascend up in the sight of the blessed forever and serve as a most clear glass always before their eyes to give them a constant, bright, and most affecting view... this display of the divine character and glory will be in favor of the redeemed, and most entertaining, and give the highest pleasure to those who love God, and raise their happiness to ineffable heights. Should this eternal punishment and this fire be extinguished, it would in a great measure obscure the light of Heaven and put an end to a great part of the happiness and glory of the blessed." Samuel Hopkins, "The works of Samuel Hopkins, D.D." Page 458.
What kind of sick man could get the highest pleasure from seeing a cruel God doing his cruel work on billions and even on many he knows and loves? He makes the saints in Heaven be deprived of qualities God has given to us, sympathy, pity, love for others, caring for others; and made them to be cruel monsters that delight in the pain of others, and loves to hear the groans of those they now love, and the groans of the countless millions of the lost. He makes the saints in Heaven taking satisfaction from seeing God inflict eternal pain without end on those who they loved on earth be more cruel and blood thirsty then those in Rome who took satisfaction in seeing lions eating Christians.
Saints On Earth Become Like The God they Worship: (See “The Crusades, bloody Mary” in chapter one.)
“I am reminded of this talk show, which showed a group of religious “Christians” screaming at people in a department store parking lot. Waving their bibles, they were shouting lines like ‘You’re all going to hell!’ (Of course what they really meant by this was ‘You’re all gonna be tortured forever and ever!)’ Needless to say, they looked like hideous fiends, and to think that such people actually believe they’re obediently doing God’s will. What deception. I can’t help but be a mite suspect of the character of those who unswervingly defend the eternal torture doctrine…I personally believe that these people who staunchly support eternal torture – these folks who almost seem to relish the idea of human beings consciously roasting in agony for all eternity and who become ridiculously irate when a fellow Christian rejects such a ghastly view (even though based upon a thorough biblical analysis) – I believe that such people have given reign to their flesh in this one area. Their very character must be questioned; it has somehow become warped and perverted. I say this because they would zealously do everything in their power to oppose supporters of everlasting destruction. Some go as far as to teach that adherents of literal destruction aren’t even saved, that they aren’t fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord. Such people have such a sinister, repulsive, hostile air to them that I wouldn’t doubt that, if this was the Inquisition era of medieval infamy, they would not hesitate to put to death or torture adherents of everlasting destruction” From a web page www.hell-know.net chapter eight.
“The smoke of their burning flesh shall be as a sweet smelling savor in the nostrils of the Almighty” Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”
Summary: THE REAL ISSUE IN THE DOCTRINE OF HELL IS THE NATURE OF GOD. IS HE A GOD OF LOVE AND MERCY OR IS HE A CRUEL, SADISTIC, AND FIENDISH GOD TO MOST OF MANKIND AND MADE THEM JUST SO HE COULD TORMENT THEM AND GIVE THEM NO CHANCE TO NOT BE TORMENTED AND WILL NOT LET THEM DIE? THOSE WHO BELIEVE IN SUCH A GOD MUST DEFEND EVERLASTING TORMENT AND THE GOD WHO MADE MOST OF MANKIND KNOWING THAT HE WOULD TORMENT THEM FOREVER; AND ACCORDING TO THE CALVIN AND JONATHAN EDWARDS VERSIONS OF HELL THIS GOD WILL DELIGHT IN IT, AND ACCORDING TO CREEDS, AUGUSTINE, SPURGEON AND MANY OTHERS, THOSE IN HEAVEN WOULD FIND DELIGHT IN SEEING THOSE IN HELL BEING ROASTED IN FIRE. SUCH A GOD AND HEAVEN CANNOT BE DEFENDED. A GOD WITH SUCH VINDICTIVENESS IS A TOTALLY CONTRADICTION TO THE GOD WHO WOULD HAVE ALL MEN COME TO REPENTANCE. God is not an eternal prison keeper who loves to torments all that are in His prison. Those who believe in an immortal soul must believe in an eternal hell, and in eternal punishment that has no purpose, a punishment that is not proportionate to the sin, and in a god with a nature that the basest of men would not defend; eternal torment in Hell requires a god that is so dreadful that it make many reject him and his bible. When I gave up the evil God of Hell, and believed in the true God; it brought a peace and joy I never believed possible. I now worship a God who is worthy of being loved and worshiped.
THE FATE OF THOSE WHO ARE NOT IN CHRIST
[1] UTTERLY DESTROYED [Acts 3:23]
[2] DEATH [Romans 6:23; 6:21; 7:5; 4:17; 8:6; 1 Corinthians 3:22]
[3] MUST DIE [Romans 8:13; John 8:24; 6:50]. This is not the first death, which comes to all,