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

punishment." Where does Matthew 25:46 say anything about suffering? Punishment must be changed to eternal suffering and a place added to have anyone suffering in Hell. If death row is not punishment, then why is the death sentence the worse punishment a person can get, for worse than life in prison; and how is being on death row considered by those on it to be in the worst part of a prison. What would those on death row say if someone told them death is not a punishment? Throughout all of history, death has been thought of as being the worst punishment there is. Why would most on death row love to get off it and have the punishment of life in prison instead of death? They are told they are not fit to live, and their punishment is to be death. For the sinner to stand before God on the judgment day and be told he is not fit to live and will be punished with the second death is the worst kind of punishment. Most fear death more than pain and will do all they can to live a little longer even if it is in pain. Death is worse because it takes everything from them and deprives of all the life and joy a person would have had, and the second death will deprive of eternal life in Heaven, of an eternity of ceaseless years of joy beyond any joy we can now even dream of, it is an infinite punishment in that it takes an infinite amount of life and joy from a person. We cannot vision all the joy that will be in Heaven for all eternity; therefore, we cannot know how much death will take from them. It is much more than we can know before the judgment. Death is a much greater punishment than any person can now imagine, and the second death will be an eternal punishment. Those who teach hell must make them selves and all others believe death is not a punishment, therefore, there must be torment in Hell. When a lost person comes to the judgment, he may see that the saved will have an eternal life of joy and bliss in a place of indescribable glory and to know that all this could have been his, but for him there will be only the blackness and darkness of nothing. And some say this is not punishment!
Summary: Whatever the punishment is in Matthew 25:46, it is the same punishment as Romans 6:16; 6:23; 8:6; Revelation 21:8; James 5:22; 2 Peter 2:1; 2:6; 3:7; Philippians 1:28; 3:19; 2 Corinthians 7:10; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9; Matthew 3:12; 13:40; John 3:16, etc. The Bible does not teach one kind of punishment in one verse and another in another verse. It does not teach the punishment is everlasting life with torment in one verse and death in another verse. It comes down to the question of,
• Is the wages of sin death, or is the wages of sin everlasting life with torment?
• Is the second death a death, or is the second death everlasting life?
• Did God really mean "the wages of sin is eternal life with torment" and mistakenly said "the wages of sin is death?"
A passage, which does not say what the punishment is, cannot override the many passages that does say what it is. From Matthew 25:46 alone, no one can say what the punishment will be. Just that it will be after the judgment and will be forever. The only way to know what is the punishment of Matthew 25:46 is to go to other passages that do say how God is going to punish the lost. THAT A PASSAGE WHICH DOES NOT SAY WHAT THE PUNISHMENT WILL BE IS THE #1 PROOF TEXT FOR HELL SHOWS THE WEAKNESS OF THE PROOF. Can they deny that they are going beyond what the Bible says when they say what the punishment of Matthew 25:56 will be, and that they are adding eternal life in Hell when it is not there?
Is the only difference in what the punishment will be? Robert A. Peterson, a strong believer in Hell, says, the Old Testament judgments, the Flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the Egyptian plagues and the crossing of the Red Sea, and the captivities of Israel, the punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah was the loss of human life. Page 23-24. Then on page 26, he says the punishments described in them are consistently earthly and temporal, resulting in physical death. None of these passages speak of life after death or eternal destinies, but Annihilationist err, for their belief would entail cessation of existence at death, not the resurrection and punishment of the wicked. "Hell On Trial" P & R Publishing. The New Testament used them as a type of God's judgment after the resurrection. He says they resulted in physical death. Peterson, Page 26. If the result of the judgment is not death, but an everlasting life of torment, then the types are not true for they do not show eternal life with punishment; but they would be true if death is the end. The New Testament writers used the Old Testament types to show the destruction of [Death], not the torment of the lost. He errs in that he does not give God the power to raise the dead for judgment and punishment if the punishment is to be death. God will raise and judge them and just as His judgments in the Old Testament resulted "in death," so will His judgment at the resurrection be a second death. His statement that Annihilationist err because they believe the first death to be the end of those not in Christ and the lost will not be raised for judgment may possibly be true of some Annihilationist (none that I know of), but it is not true of most. Most believe the Bible teaching that all the dead will be raised for the judgment, then for those not in Christ there will be the second death from which there will never be a resurrection. Did Robert A. Peterson just make a make believe man of hay or stubble so that he could pull down his stubble Annihilationist? The only difference is in what the punishment will be after the judgment. Annihilationist believes "the wages of sin is death" [Romans 6:23]. Believers in Hell believe the punishment, the wages of sin will be "everlasting life with torment." Those who believe in Hell often argue as if they think that those who oppose Hell do not believe in the resurrection, the judgment, or punishment. They know that if Annihilationist do believe in the resurrection, judgment and punishment they have loss much of their argument, For then the only question is what will the punishment be and there is no question that the Bible says it is death. In much of his book he does as many, he assumes that those who do not believe in "Hell" do not believe the lost will be raised for judgment, and he assumes that there is a Hell and that Hell is its name; then he unjustly puts this name into the mouth of Christ.
Amore basic question than what the punishment will be after the resurrection is "what is the resurrection?" If he is right, that there is that a part of a person NOW has immortality and there is no death for it, then there cannot be a resurrection for it, and his belief makes him be the one that does not believe in the resurrection that those he calls Annihilationist do believe in. Will what he falsely calls the resurrection be only a bringing of those who are alive in Heaven and Hell, therefore already judged, back to earth for a second judgment, or will the resurrection be as annihilationist believe, a raising the dead that are really dead and bringing them back to life? On page 68 Peterson says God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the lost, but to rescue them from hell. This is a typical example of the way Hell is added to the Bible. The Bible is changed to read the way they want it to read and Hell is added where it is not. How could he know the lost shall be rescued from Hell? Is he saying the lost will be rescued from Hell before their death, or the lost will be rescued from Hell after they are in Hell? Does he have a revelation that is not in the Bible? There is no revelation in the Bible that says the lost are rescued from hell, but there is much revelation that says the lost are saved from death. "Let him know that he who converts a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death" [James 5:20]. Salvation is from death, the wages of sin [Romans 6:23] not from an everlasting life of torment. "God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in him Son. He that has the Son has the life; he that has not the Son of God has not the life" [1 John 5:11-12].
“The word ‘PUNISHMENT’ is not a puzzling word. One of the most familiar terms in the English language. Do you know its meaning? Just think a moment and try to define it. The Dictionary tells us it is the infliction of PENALTY for an offence. IS IT? If the teacher tells the pupil she will ‘punish’ him a question would spring up in his mind, WHAT WAY? Even the child knows there are many ways to punish. Though our theologians, after losing sight of the definition of the word, at last give it but one idea, that of misery. Cunning enough, indeed, to separate it from its primary meaning in the New Testament. As if death inflicted for sin was not a punishment. If it is a recompense of the some nature, WHAT IS THE NATURE, HOW SEVERE? The term punishment as a retaliation for offence, NEVER DEFINES THE NATURE OF THE INFLICTION TO BE EXECUTEE. It only announces the fact that a judicial penalty is due, without revealing the severity of it. Punishment, retaliation, recompense, penalty, are synonymous words, and may be used interchangeably. So if the Lord had said, ‘These shall go into everlasting recompense’ or penalty, or retaliation, we would still be forced to seek other scriptures to learn WHAT KIND OF RECOMPENSE IS MEANT. We are told there can be no punishment without pain. I deny the assertion. I challenge the reader to search the Old Testament for the hundreds of instances where the infliction of death was the penalty for crimes. And that it was inflicted to satisfy the offence regardless of the pain accompanying it. Punishment lasts so long as its results last, and where death has been administered for the satisfaction of crime, THE PUNISMENT CONTINUES TILL LIFE IS RESTORED, AND IF NEVER RESTORED, IT IS AN EVERLSATING PUNISHMENT. Lost of property, loss of liberty, loss of life, may all be meted out to the transgressors under the label of punishment. And death as the capital punishment, legalized on the statutes of all civilized nations of the world, is the highest punishment man can inflict—or so recognized,--being the deprivation of life, the first source of all pleasures and enjoyments, and recognized as being forfeited for certain crimes.” E. D. Slough, “The Indictment Of Eternal Torment—The Self-negation Of A Monstrous Doctrine,” Page 196-197, F. L. Rowe, Publisher, 1914, evangelist, church of Christ.
Summary: There is no way that those who believe all are born immortal could really believe in the resurrection or in the need for it. By teaching that all are born with an immortal