Pt. 9- The Immortality of the Soul, Is it a Scriptural Doctrine? Continued

Pt. 9- The Immortality of the Soul, Is it a Scriptural Doctrine? Continued

'IV. A CLEAN UNIVERSE

To put away sin and plant righteousness in its stead, is the mission of Christ to this world. 

That he might accomplish this, he had to make the awful sacrifice of himself, the Creator of the universe. "Now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." Heb. 9:26. 

By the greatness of the sacrifice we may judge of the enormity of sin, and how abhorrent it is in the sight of God, and also how widely contrary it is to every principle of the government of the King of eternity. To deliver man from its thralldom he spared not his own Son. Rather than to see the blight and stain of sin upon the fair face of his universe, God gave up the "Son of his love" to die the cruel death of the accursed tree. John says: "He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil." 1 John 3:8. The work of the devil is sin; for he says, "He that committeth sin is of the devil." Therefore when it is said that the Son of God was manifested to destroy the works of the devil, it is simply expressing, in other words, that which we quoted from Paul, that Christ appeared to put away sin.

As therefore Christ's mission is to destroy the works of the devil-to put away sin-it follows that as long as there is a vestige of sin remaining, his mission is not accomplished. Whatever, therefore, tends to perpetuate sin, tends just so far to delay the accomplishment of the mission of Christ. And if by any means sin were made eternal, the inevitable result would be to nullify and subvert the mission of Christ.

 Now that is exactly what is done by the doctrine of the natural immortality of the soul. 

The very meaning of the word immortal being "not subject to death," it follows that if the soul be immortal, it must live eternally, whatever its condition may be; and from this again it follows that when the awful sentence is pronounced, "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still," whatsoever soul it be that shall then be unjust must live so to all eternity; which is simply to make sin eternal, and so to subvert the mission of Christ. 

That sin is to be eternal is strenuously maintained by those who believe that the soul is immortal. This is shown positively in the doctrine of the eternal torment of the wicked. In fact, the belief in the eternal torment of the wicked is simply the necessary consequence of the belief in the immortality of the soul. 

We know, for the word of God says it, that the wicked will be punished. We know likewise, by the same authority, that they will be punished as long as they live (aion-a lifetime). Now if they live eternally, it is evident that they will be in pain eternally. But the word of God says just as plainly that the wicked shall die as it says anything at all about them. "The wages of sin is death." Rom. 6:23. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." Eze. 18:4. 

That word tells us of a time when "every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them," shall be heard saying, "Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever." Rev. 5:13. This scripture can never be fulfilled if the doctrine of eternal suffering be true, or, in other words, if the doctrine of the immortality of the soul be true; for every living intelligence joins in the song of joy and praise. Again, we read of a time when "there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away." Rev. 21:4.

 If the doctrine of eternal suffering be the truth, it is literally impossible that there can ever come a time when there shall be "no more pain."

But there stands that faithful word, that there is coming a time when there shall be no more pain; there is coming a time when every voice in the universe will ascribe "honor, and glory, and power," "unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever." This is the truth of God; he has given his only-begotten Son that it might be accomplished; and we have seen that the mission of the Son is declared to be "to put away sin," to "destroy the works of the devil." And the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, in making sin eternal, and in immortalizing the works of the devil, frustrates the purpose of God and subverts the mission of Christ.

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

BY A. T. JONES.

((My Thoughts))

No more pain.  When the Bible tells us there will come a day when there is no more pain (Rev 21:4  .. neither shall there be any more pain…) do you believe this to be true?   

Is this only for the God-fearing, or is there no more pain in the world period, no more pain for anyone at all, ever? We believe the later, don't we? There is going to come a time when pain won't exist at all- this is God's word, God's truth.

If pain is wiped out of existence entirely that would mean no one would ever feel pain again, right? Right. 

Of course, at this time we find it impossible to believe. We live with daily pain. Most of the people I know (adults) live with some kind of pain. Chronic pain is so very common. We have pain management clinics everywhere. Relieving pain is so common, an opioid problem occurred. People would take pain relievers for real pain and then find it impossible to go without them, addiction, a whole different kind of pain would occur and from there it turned into a nightmare for many people. 

Pain.

To realize that one day pain won't exist, not physical, not mental, not emotional, not spiritual… no pain at all- truly this is a miracle we all look forward to experiencing. 

If you believe in the immortality of the soul and immediate judgment, and sentencing from that judgment at the time of your death, or a loved one's death then you cannot believe that there will ever be a day where pain is no longer in existence.  

It's true.  Why do I say that? Because if you are judged at death and your sentence is not to go to heaven but to a place of what you believe to be eternal punishment, then that punishment would include pain (as written so well by A.T Jones in the above excerpt). Pain will still be in existence, and our God tells us there will be no more pain.  He doesn't add notes to that, saying… 'except for…'  Just that there will be no more pain. 

There is no eternal punishment going to take place for an immortal being who has not made it to heaven. God's plan is so much more of God- of love, than mankind's Satan led delusions. God's ultimate plan is the complete and utter end to all pain for all time, for all. Those who have rejected salvation will be consumed by fire until they are nothing but ash that disappears into nothingness- this is Biblical truth, God's truth.  We have to keep studying God's word and pray to be able see through all of Satan's deceptions! 

May God bless us all as we seek ONLY TRUTH, for HE IS TRUTH!

All through Jesus Christ, our Lord, our Savior, now and forever!!!!!!!

Amen.

Just a note after rereading my thoughts- Some people believe that those who have rejected salvation and die, will get another opportunity to accept salvation in their immortally dead state.  

That is completely contrary to God's Holy Scriptures.

There is a lake of fire which will utterly consume all those who reject salvation. It is not a lake of fire meant to contain all the evil doers until they've learned their lesson.  That's not salvation by faith, but salvation by torture.  We all know that the majority of people undergoing torture succumb to their torturers demands and tell them what they want to hear rather than keep suffering. What they say more often than not will not be the truth, but a lie to end their pain. Those writhing in a lake of fire would most assuredly do anything to get out of it if that were an option. What sort of heart change could ever occur under such conditions? That is NOT HOW GOD LOVES!  That lake of fire will contain every unrepentant sinner for the length of time determined by God alone and ultimately every single one of them will be gone completely without any chance for any sort of restoration. Satan himself will be consumed completely never more to exist. 

People come up with all sorts of theories all meant to make excuses for their being able to keep on sinning. Their so called immortal soul will deal with the consequences later, but ultimately they'll have their 'sinful fun' now and eternity later. Some have the incomprehensible belief that God will take every single human to ever exist and bring them into the new world, that He's too 'GOOD' too 'LOVING' to destroy anyone forever. That's not true. 

Deu 4:24  For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God

Heb 12:29  For our God is a consuming fire.

Jesus would have had no reason at all to weep over the Jewish leaders of His day, if they weren't in any real danger of non-existence caused by their beliefs.

God help us all to believe only truth, not the lies told by authority figures duped by Satan.