Eternal Life - Of Punishment?

 Eternal Life.  What do you think of when you hear those words- eternal life?  Do your thoughts automatically envision a life in heaven with Christ? Or does eternal life of punishment come to mind? 

Eternal life. Do you agree that life is the opposite of death? If you agree then death cannot be life.

Adam and Eve sinned but up until that point they had eternal life. Only after they sinned did they bring death into humanity. And death meant the end of their living.  Because God wanted the human race to continue to exist- a way was made for humanity to have the opportunity of life again in the future. The penalty of death for sinning was stayed temporarily for humans beings as Jesus enacted the plan of salvation. Man could live now with death overshadowing his existence, live with the opportunity to use their lives for God and God's purposes. The choice man would make would determine if they would ultimately be given eternal life when Jesus Christ our Lord would return in the very last day, when the trumpet would sound and… the DEAD IN CHRIST would rise, and the LIVING IN CHRIST would be taken to meet Christ in the air- both the risen dead and the living in Christ would be given immortality, they would be changed by Christ Jesus.

Those who do not choose to live for God and God's purposes in accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior are choosing not to live eternally.  The dead who are not dead in Christ- will not rise to meet Christ in the air. The living who are not Christ's will not be taken to meet Christ in the air either. Death is the opposite of life,  punishment is not the opposite of life. You need to be living to be punished. You don't punish something that is dead. To have eternal punishment would mean an eternal life in punishment and this eternal life in punishment doesn't exist in God's word.  Death exists in God's word and in death everything about man ceases. It can't be any plainer than allowing a dead thing to decay, to witness the death process from newly dead to long dead from flesh to bone, to no living action whatsoever, it's all over, all of it and it stays all over until our Savior calls us to life once more- to rise from the grave, from the state of being dead to being alive once more.  If we need to be called from our graves to be given eternal life, why do so many imagine we are given it instantaneously upon death. Death would be no punishment at all if it was just continued life. Death should have been termed second life, but it wasn't because death is the end of life.  

God did not say that in the day you sin you shall surely be given second life, He said you shall surely die.  

Believe it or not, believe Christ Jesus or not, but what you believe does matter, it matters eternally. 

May we comprehend ONLY truth! May we believe ONLY truth! May we LIVE ONLY truth! All through JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD AND SAVIOR NOW AND FOREVER AMEN!

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(Excerpt) The Judgment.

(The Immortality of the Soul, Is it a Scriptural Doctrine?) 

VI. CHRIST OUR LIFE

"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus

Christ our Lord." Rom. 6:23. "Sin entered into the world, and death by sin," and "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." But when man had sinned, and thus brought himself under the doom of death, then Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, presented himself, and was accepted of God, in man's behalf. God had before pronounced the penalty of death against transgression. And Adam would have died the day he sinned had not the Son of God interceded in his behalf, and presented himself in satisfaction of the demands of the broken law of God. But by the love of Christ and the mercy of God, man was given a second probation, a second opportunity to attain to righteousness. Only for the mediation of Christ, the race of man would have ceased the day that Adam sinned. Only for Christ there never would have lived a man after Adam. So that every man who has ever lived, or who shall ever live, from the sin of Adam to the end of the world, owes that life to the fact that Christ, the Son of God, offered himself when Adam sinned.

This is shown in the words of Christ: "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." John 10:10.

Christ offering himself in behalf of Adam is the only means by which men have life at all,-"I am come that they might have life." But this life is only temporal. It is only extended as an opportunity for man to approve himself worthy of eternal life, that he may show himself worthy of having life more abundantly; for as Christ said, he is come that they might have life, "and that they might have it more abundantly." The way in which men use the life which is already given, will decide whether they shall have life more abundantly, or whether they shall have life at all. The man who shows himself abusive of the trust of God, and ungrateful for his favor shown in granting this life, only shows himself unworthy of that which he already has, and much less can he be entrusted "more abundantly" with anything pertaining to life.

In this view is contained the very basic principle of the lesson inculcated in the parable of the unjust steward: "He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much; and he that is unjust in the least, is unjust also in much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous riches, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?" Luke 16:10-12. And also in the lesson of the parable of the talents: "Unto everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance; but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath." Matt. 25:29. If men will turn to purposes of iniquity, and transgression, and sin, a life which is committed to them for a time, how can the Lord commit to them this gift for eternity? If this life, which is not their own, they will devote simply as an instrument of unrighteousness unto sin, to rebellion, and unfaithfulness to Him who giveth it, how shall He give to such immortal life-a life which, not being subject to cessation, may properly be called their own? To do so would be only to subvert His own authority and the principles of His government. Such a thing He will never do. But such as devote this life to the honor of Him  who giveth it, and to righteousness before Him, to them will be given life "more abundantly," even eternal life, in which to honor and glorify Him; while from all who do not so shall be taken away even that which they have. "Of a truth . . . God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him." Acts 10:34, 35.

The righteousness which is acceptable with God is the righteousness "which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference; for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Rom. 3:22, 23. "He became the Author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him." Heb. 5:9. And "God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16. Christ's coming to this world was not in vain. He came for a purpose, and that purpose is that those who will believe in him may not perish, but have eternal life; and as surely as those who believe in him shall have eternal life, just so surely those who do not believe in him shall perish. If not, if those who do not believe in him do not perish, then this record which he has given cannot be true. If, by virtue of the immortality of the soul, those who do not believe in Christ live as long as those who do, then where is there any point in these scriptures? 

We know full well the meaning that is put upon the word "perish" by those who believe in the doctrine of the natural immortality of the soul; that is, that it means eternal life in misery. But no such idea is contained in the Scripture. Eternal life is the heritage of those who believe in Christ, and of those alone. Nor will language allow any such meaning to be put upon the word "perish." That word is defined thus: "To be destroyed; to go to destruction; to pass away; to come to nothing; to be blotted from existence; to die; to lose life." This is Webster's definition of perish; and every part of it can be duplicated time and again from the Scriptures. But no part of this definition can be true if the soul be immortal.

In Ps. 37:10 we read: "For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be; yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be." Again, in Isa. 41:11, 12, we read a promise of what the Lord will do with those who contend with the "seed of Abraham," "the friend of God:" "Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded; they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish. Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee; they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of naught." But to the meek, to those who learn of Christ, it is promised: "But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace." "The seed of the wicked shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein forever." Ps. 37:11, 28, 29. 

All is summed up by the Lord Jesus in one sentence, as follows: "He that

believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life." John 3:36. And again: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." John 6:53.

If these scriptures, from the first to the last, do not show that future life is obtained only in Christ, then it would be impossible for the Lord himself to put words together that would show such a thing. If the Lord wanted to tell men that without believing in Christ they could have no life; that without believing in him they should perish; if he wanted to tell them that the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, how would it be possible to tell them so more plainly than he has already told, in the words quoted? Yet in defiance of these plain, positive scriptures, and in direct subversion of them, the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, which gives to all men immortal life irrespective of Christ, is held by the majority of professed Christians as a veritable article of Christian faith. Why is it that men will not believe the record that God has given on this subject? Why is it that they will not believe that future life is given alone through Christ? It is no light thing to disbelieve this. Many seem to think, and will even so express themselves, that it makes no difference particularly whether this be believed or not. But it does make a difference. We state it as the simple truth that not to believe that eternal life for man is in Christ alone, is one of the greatest insults that can be offered to the God of heaven.

Please read carefully the following scripture, and see whether we have stated more than the exact truth:- 

"He that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." 1 John 5:10-12.

Here is the plain statement that to believe not a certain "record" is to make God a liar. That record is just as plainly stated to be that the eternal life that is given us "is in the Son" of God, and that "he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." Now the doctrine of the immortality of the soul causes men not to believe that record. They who believe the doctrine of the immortality of the soul do not believe that they who have not the Son of God have not life. Therefore the doctrine of the immortality of the soul "hath made God a liar," because it causes men to "believe not the rec ord that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." Therefore we say that not to believe that future life is given us in Christ alone, is to insult the God of heaven by making him "a liar." It does make a difference how we believe on this question; for when God is made a liar, he ceases to be Jehovah, he ceases to be God.