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

that nothing is annihilated by fire; it just changes its form. They overlook the fact that the Bible is not a scientific book and is not written in today's scientific language, and that God made all things out of nothing and all things will go back to nothing. No one to whom Paul was writing would not have thought that if a book were burnt up that it was not destroyed.
In Matthew 10:28 there is no figurative language, but we are told that one word must be taken out of it’s literal context and used in a figurative way to mean just the opposite of its true meaning, that the one word "destroy" must be changed to mean "an eternal life of torment." There is no figurative language in 2 Thessalonians 1:9, but two words, "destruction" and "perish" must both be changed to figurative both to mean the same, "an eternal life of torment." One word must be made figurative even when nothing is figurative in the context that the word is in.
• Death, when made figuratively, is eternal life in Hell separated from God but definitely not dead.
• Destruction, when made figuratively, is only a loss of well being.
• Destroy and perish, when made figuratively, means to preserve forever. Did God intend to say imperishable when He said perish?
• Sleep, when made figuratively, is to be awake in Heaven or Hell but definitely not asleep, that would make their "immaterial, invisible part of men" be asleep in Hell; therefore, they have labeled this "soul sleeping." It is true that the Bible says nothing about "soul sleeping" of an "immaterial, invisible part of men," but it repeatedly says a person, not an immaterial something in a person, sleeps unto he or she wakes at the resurrection.
(6) PERISH like destruction and destroy, perish must be changed to mean, "can never perish or be destroyed but to live forever in an unhappy and miserable condition in Hell." Forever perishing but imperishable!
(7) FIRE destroys useless things like chaff, we know what fire is and what it does, fire consumes, devours and destroys. For today’s theology to be true fire must be changed into figurative language of something that is nothing like fire, something that is altogether different from fire, something that cannot consume. With this kind of "fire" you would only have to put wood in your fireplace one time and it would heat your house forever. It took some thought to come up with a fire that does not do what fire does, a fire that burns but never burns, which consumes but never consumes. Fire destroys, consumes; in figurative language there is always a parallel; if it were figurative language, just as real fire consumes the chaff the wicked will be consumed, devoured, destroyed by the wrath of God (Hebrews 10:27).
• Fire will burn up the useless chaff of wheat [Matthew 3:12, Luke 3:17]
• Fire will burn up the weeds, tares and bad fish [Matthew 13:30-50]
• Fire will burn up the withered branches [John 15:6]
Chaff, tares, weeds, stubble, dry branches are highly combustible materials, but the “figurative fire” of today’s theology is nothing like fire and the “figurative fire” burn up nothing.
(8) SPIRITUAL DEATH is not found in the Bible but has been added and is used repeatedly in today's preaching. To escape from death being death the word “spiritual” is added to death despite the fact that “spiritual death” is not in the Bible. The wages of sin is not spiritual death, which would be a death that cannot really be death to a spirit if that spirit can never be dead. The wages of sin is death to the person whom sins are not washed away by the blood of Christ. If adding to God’s word is a sin, why would adding and preaching “spiritual death” not be a sin?
(9) SLEEP does not mean sleep but awake. If the dead are being tormented in Hell, how could they in any way be sleeping? All the dead are sleeping unto the resurrection. The metaphor of the dead being asleep that is used repeatedly is made void and foolishness by the doctrine of an immortal soul being awake in Heaven or Hell. The Bible does not use words in such a self-contradictory manner. Death is referred as sleep about 67 times in the Bible, about 47 in the Old Testament and about 20 in the New Testament with both the righteous dead and the unrighteous dead being asleep.
"The body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory (Phil. 3:20, 21). We do not expect this at the moment of each one's death, for at death we sleep in Jesus and rest, but when He comes from heaven." Bill Reeves, Truth Magazine, February 15, 1973.
“May they rest in peace” that is often on graves would make no sense if the person in the grave was not in asleep in the grave but were awake and enjoying Heaven or suffering in Hell.
(10) KILL "And I will kill her children with pestilence" (Revelation 2:23). Kill is used interchangeably with die and destroyed. "To be killed," "to die," "to be destroyed."
Summary: Like death, these words must be changed into figurative language even when they are in plain passages. All these words must be given a theological meaning that is not found in the words, but they never tell us how they know what this theological meaning is. But, one thing is clear, if they did not change them into figurative language, their theology would be destroyed. Death, destruction, destroy, and perish are simple words and there is no hint of them being figurative language when they are used in plain passages, therefore, they must be taken in their simple literal meaning. They cannot be changed to be figurative and given a meaning not found in the words to save a theologically that is not in the bible. They can and therefore should be taken literally. The only reason these words are made to be figuratively language is that if these words are taken with their literal meaning they make the doctrine of an immortal soul and eternal life in Hell not passable.
When figurative language (Lake of Fire) is made literal, then the literal language must be changed to agree with the figurative language that has been changed into literal language. If not, the Bible would say in one place, that destruction is not destruction, and in many others that destruction is destruction; and say that there is no death.
• When figurative language is changed to literal language
• Literal language must be changed to figurative language in order for them not to conflict with each other
To say an immortal soul can die, be destroyed or perish is a contradiction of words or terms. The present definitions of words must be destroyed, and new definitions given. The new definitions end up being the opposite of the old definition, death is no longer death; death is life, eternal life in Hell. When we say anything, a plaint, animal, or person is dead, we do not mean that plaint, animal, or person is alive and being tormented. Death must be made to mean one thing when it is a plaint or animal that is dead, and another when it is a person that is dead. Where is the revelation by which this is known; where is the book, chapter and verse for it? Is there any word God could have used that they would not say it does not mean what it says? No, there is not a one that would not be changed if it would conflict with their theology.
"My mind fails to conceive a grosser misinterpretation of language then when the five or six strongest words which the Greek tongue possesses, signifying 'destroy,' or 'destruction,' are explained to mean maintaining an everlasting but wretched existence. To translate black as white is nothing to this" R. F. Weymouth, Life In Christ, page 365. R. F. Weymouth is the translator of "The New Testament in Modern Speech."
Dr. C. Campbell, who believed in eternal torment said, "If the words and phrases employed by the apostles and evangelist, in delivering the revelation committed to them by the Holy Spirit, had not been agreeable to the received usage of the people to whom they spoke, their discourse being unintelligible, could have conveyed no information, and consequently would have been no revelation to the hearers" Preliminary Dissertation, Part 1, Sect. 1, 1854.
"There must exist some argument of almost overpowering influence which has thus determined the interpretation of masses of language to a sense exactly contrary to its natural meaning. For the process by which such terms as death, perishing, destruction are made to stand for the idea of endless misery, is one so remarkable as to arrest attention and demand instant inquiry. A corresponding action on the word 'life' so often used in the Bible to denote the eternal reward of the saints would result in making it stand for the strange idea of a happy extinction, or a blessed abolition of existence--an euthanasia. The radical idea of destruction, that is extinction of being, if first taken out of the term Death; then the word is made to stand for its opposite, eternal being; and then the associated idea of misery is grafted upon the stock of the converted primary; the result being, that destruction stand for endless misery. An exactly parallel treatment of the promise of Life, therefore, will result, first, in taking out of it its radical idea or conscious existence--next, in making it stand for its opposite, extinction--and lastly, in joining the idea of happiness with the converted primary, -so that you obtain the complex result of a happy extinction. It would require some argument of overmastering force to persuade nine-tenths of the scholars of Christendom to perform this operation upon the promise of life to the righteous" Edward White, "Life in Christ," page 357.
The Bible must be made to use opposite word than what it means. The theological use of these words today is the same as saying white is black, sweet is bitter, night is day.
• White must be changed to mean black
• Sleep must be changed to mean awake
• Death must be changed to mean life
• To die must be changed to mean to live forever in torment
• Destruction must be changed to mean eternal torment
• To perish, be destroyed, must be changed to mean to be preserved incorruptible and imperishable in Hell. Perish and destroy do not mean a loss of well being and never has
• Fire must be changed into something that preserves, not something that devours or consumes.
With definitions such as are given by today's theology, anything, whatever anyone wants can be proved; and whatever anyone does not want can be disproved.
Those who believe in Hell give God the power to "destroy both body and soul in Gehenna," but only after they put their own meaning on both destroy and Gehenna, and they say the meaning of both is an eternal life of misery and suffering in Hell.
There is no way anyone could know that death is not death but eternal life in torment. How could the wages of sin be death when the sinner will have an eternal life in Hell? Without a