Part I
Understanding God's Plan of Universal Reconciliation for All
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Part I Understanding God's Plan of Universal Reconciliation for All |
CHAPTER 23 THE LIE OF SATAN - ‘YOU WILL NOT SURELY DIE’
The Bible says that Satan deceives the whole world (Revelation 12:9). In the Garden of Eden, Satan deceived our first parents, Adam and Eve, and they believed the lie of Satan, which was ‘You will not surely die’, before they ate the forbidden fruit. Genesis 3:4 This is similar to saying, ‘You have an immortal soul’. The same lie has been universally believed throughout the history of humanity. It is believed that when a person dies, his soul continues to live on and he remains conscious in the same way as before his physical death. However, Scripture tells us differently. The key question is ‘Are dead people conscious or not?’ Let us consider what the Bible has to say in answer to this question. Ecclesiastes 9:10 Isaiah 38:18 Psalm 115:17 Why do Christians not believe these clear scriptures, which categorically disprove the doctrine of the immortal soul? Notice that the Bible says that when a person dies, his memory ceases, he cannot praise God and he has no knowledge or wisdom. In other words, the soul of a person without a body is not conscious. The concept of the immortal soul was the result of pagan beliefs developed by Greek poets and philosophers. The Greek philosopher Plato fully developed the concept of the immortal soul, and this belief infiltrated the Roman Catholic Church and subsequently the Protestant churches. The Bible teaches resurrection, which is a rising from the dead. This is in direct opposition to the pagan Greek belief in an immortal soul. Resurrection is the glorious central truth of the Bible. The Bible says that everyone will be resurrected because Jesus Christ was resurrected, and that Jesus earned resurrection (immortal life) for each and every person through His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead. 1 Corinthians 15:21-22 This proves that the dead will live again in a conscious state, but only when they are resurrected in their immortal bodies and not a second before that. Death is an enemy, which Jesus Christ destroyed through His death and resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:26). The victory, which Christ has won for Adam and Eve and all of their descendants, is the resurrected life, which God will give to everyone in the future; first to the Bride of Christ, the Firstfruits, in the First Resurrection, and then to the rest of humanity, the Great Harvest, in the Second Resurrection. The false teaching of the immortal soul undermines the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It makes redundant the need for the resurrection of the dead, and makes redundant the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. If a dead person remains conscious after his death and he is judged immediately to go to either heaven or hell, then why would there be a need for God to resurrect him or a reason for God’s Great White Throne Judgement? Let us now go on to understand what the Bible means by the term ‘a living soul’. Genesis 2:7 (KJV) 1 Corinthians 2:11 A person becomes a living soul when he is conceived. It is when his human spirit sent from God unites with his embroynic body, the zygote, at conception. The Bible says that an animal is also a living soul. The Hebrew word in Genesis 2:7 for the ‘living soul’ of human beings is nephesh. This same Hebrew word is also used for animals and translated as ‘living creatures’, for example, in Genesis 1:21. People and animals are all living souls. A person becomes a living soul, a human being, at conception. Likewise, an animal becomes a living soul, a living creature, when its animal spirit unites with its embryonic animal body at conception. So, both a man and an animal are living souls each comprising of a spirit united with a body. It is the human spirit that makes us human beings made in the image of God, giving us our unique individual characteristics body form and personalities. It is the animal spirit that makes animals unique to their species with their individual characteristics body form and behaviours. When a person dies, his fleshly human body goes back to the dust, but his unconscious human spirit with all of his individual characteristics and personality intact, returns to God who gave it, for safe keeping until the person’s resurrection. Ecclesiastes 12:7 The Bible clearly says that the body without the spirit is dead. James 2:26 The human spirit is not conscious without the human body. Therefore, after death, a person will only become conscious again when his spirit is united with his new immortal body at the resurrection. Once again, the person will become a conscious living soul, but this time in an immortal body that will never die. All people are destined to be resurrected to live forever because Christ conquered death for all people, through His death and resurrection. There is no indication in the Bible that a dead animal will be resurrected, so it appears that an animal ceases to exist at death. God will not obviously resurrect every cow, every mouse, every ant and every bacterium to enter His Kingdom. However, we have not totally discounted the possibility that God may choose to resurrect some loving pets. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 that a believer’s whole spirit, soul and body are preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 This scripture is misused and misunderstood by many Christians to preach that man is a tri-partite being made of three different parts, which are spirit, soul and body. Based on this misconception, an unbiblical theology of spirit, soul and body has been developed and believed by many Christians. The truth of the Bible is that man is a living soul consisting of only two components, spirit and body, and throughout Scripture, this is what the term ‘soul’ means. Apostle Paul was well versed in the Word of God, which categorically teaches that man is a living soul consisting of spirit and body. So, we can be sure that Apostle Paul did not preach that man is a tri-partite being in contradiction to the Word of God. In the verse above, Paul was writing to a group of believers in Thessalonica. By referring to the ‘whole spirit, soul and body’, Paul was simply emphasising the fact that it is God Himself who will sanctify and preserve (keep) these believers blameless in all aspect of their Christian lives for them to be with Christ at His Second Coming. Please note that the Greek word for ‘soul’ is psychē, which means life. This confirms that Paul was emphasising the preservation of the spiritual life, which believers have in Christ. Our soul is not immortal because the Bible is clear that ‘the soul who sins shall die’. Ezekiel 18:4 The whole of the Bible consistently teaches that when a person dies he ‘sleeps’. The phrase ‘slept with his fathers’ occurs 36 times in the Old Testament as in 1 Kings 2:10 below. 1 Kings 2:10 (KJV) A person who is ‘sleeping’ in the grave is not conscious of his surroundings, and he has not ascended into either heaven or entered 'hell'. John 3:13 (KJV) Acts 2:34 Can we believe what these clear scriptures say? They say that no man has ascended to heaven and that the dead patriarchs, like David, have not gone to heaven, but are sleeping with their ancestors. The only Person who has ascended to heaven is Jesus Christ. The spirits of all dead people, both believers and unbelievers, are in God’s care in a state of peaceful slumber until their resurrection. Our Christian hope and focus must be on the resurrection, and not on the unbiblical pagan belief of the immortal soul. This is very important. We must get rid of this erroneous thinking of the satanic lie of the immortal soul. Job believed in the resurrection from the dead and not in the immortality of the soul. Job 14:13-15 Job, who died long ago, is ‘sleeping’ in his grave waiting to receive his change into his new immortal resurrected body. For Job, and all true believers, this change will occur in the First Resurrection, at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Resurrection from the dead is described as the victory over death, which Christ has won for Adam and Eve and all of their descendants. 1 Corinthians 15:54 Jesus was the first one to rise from the dead, and He will be followed by all true believers, who have died and ‘fallen asleep’, when they will rise from the dead at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:20 Notice that this verse once again confirms that when people die they ‘fall asleep’ and Christ, being the First of the Firstfruits, is the only Person to have risen from the dead. Apostle Paul powerfully preached resurrection and not the false doctrine of the immortal soul. The false teaching of the immortal soul nullifies the victory over death and the new resurrected life, which Jesus Christ won for everyone on the cross. Why does traditional Christianity, against all the clear verses given in the Bible, still believe in the survival of a conscious self after death? It interprets this as an ‘intermediate state’. What biblical support does it use to justify a belief in the immortality of the soul? The most quoted scriptures used by traditional Christianity to support their belief in the immortal soul are those written by Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians and Philippians. So let us look at these scriptures. 2 Corinthians 5:6-9 Philippians 1:21-23 In these scriptures, Paul says that when he is absent from the body or when he departs, he will be with the Lord. Notice, Paul does not say that immediately on his death he will be consciously present with the Lord. Yes, immediately on his death, Paul’s spirit went back to the Lord and is presently in a state of ‘sleep’. As far as Paul is concerned, he, like all dead believers, will become conscious again when he is resurrected in the First Resurrection, at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. A person who ‘sleeps’ is not aware of any time gap between the time when he falls asleep and when he wakes up from his sleep. So, for Paul, his first conscious waking moment, after death, will be him rising from his grave in his new immortal body to join with all of the saints to meet Jesus Christ in the air, at Christ's Second Coming. Notice, in the verse given below, Paul understood that all believers will be presented together, as a group, to Christ at His Second Coming, and no believer is ever consciously present with Christ before that time. Throughout his writings, Paul consistently emphasises resurrection and he has nothing to say about the immortality of the soul. Notice again what Paul has to say in the scripture below. 2 Timothy 4:6-8 When will Paul and all of God's Elect Saints receive their crowns of Righteousness? They will receive them on the Day of Christ’s appearing, which is the Day of Christ's Second Coming when all of God's Elect Saints will in the First Resurrection. Traditional Christianity also depends on a few other scriptures to prop up its belief in the immortal soul, which we shall now discuss. The thief on the cross Luke 23:42-43 Did the thief on the cross go to Paradise to be with Jesus Christ, immediately after his death? We know from scripture that Jesus did not go to Paradise immediately after His death. The body of Jesus was in His tomb for three days and three nights until His resurrection. So, the scripture above cannot be saying that the thief went to Paradise on the same day that Jesus was crucified. This scripture makes a lot more sense if the punctuation mark of a comma after the second 'you' is altered to read as follows: Luke 23:42-43 Please note that there were no verses, paragraphs, commas or chapter breaks in the ancient Hebrew and Greek Manuscripts, from which the versions of the Bible have been translated. These were added at a later date, and do not form part of the inspired writings. Sometimes the verses, commas and chapter breaks are placed inappropriately as in this case. Currently, the thief is dead and in a state of 'sleep'. His next conscious waking moment will be when he rises in his new immortal body, in the First Resurrection, to meet Jesus Christ in the air at Christ’s Second Coming. It will only be then that Christ establishes His Kingdom on earth. This will be when the thief, together with all of God’s Elect Saints believers, will enter Christ’s Millennial Kingdom (Paradise) on earth. Elijah and Enoch – are they currently in heaven? 2 Kings 2:1 and Genesis 5:21 are interpreted by traditional Christianity to mean that God took Elijah and Enoch straight from earth to heaven without dying a physical death. This is not true. God did not take Elijah and Enoch to heaven, the dwelling place of God, where God's throne is presently located somewhere in the universe. Let us remind ourselves that there are three distinct meanings of heaven/heavens in the Bible depending on the context. Firstly, heaven means earth's atmosphere, or the visible sky. Secondly, heavens mean the Universe. Thirdly, heaven means the dwelling place of God, where God's throne is presently located somewhere in the Universe. The Bible is clear that no man has ascended to heaven, the dwelling place of God (John 3:13). Therefore, we can be sure that Elijah and Enoch are not presently there. God lifted Elijah and Enoch from the earth into its heaven (earth’s atmosphere) and He must have placed them at another location on earth where they later died a natural death. The Bible says that all men of faith have died in faith (Hebrews 11:13). Like all men of faith who have died, Elijah and Enoch are presently sleeping, awaiting the promise of their resurrection from the dead at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. None of the dead men of faith have ascended to heaven, God’s dwelling place. Although spiritually speaking, in this life, all believers are seated together with Christ in heavenly places by faith (Ephesians 2:6). Jesus' Transfiguration when Moses and Elijah appeared with Him Matthew 17:2-3 This was a vision given to Peter, James and John in fulfilment of Matthew 16:28, when Jesus said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom’. Moses and Elijah are currently ‘sleeping’, and they will wake up from their ‘sleep’ in their glorified immortal bodies at the First Resurrection when Jesus returns. Peter, James and John were given a vision on the Mount of Transfiguration so that they could have a glimpse of what Jesus and His saints (represented by Moses and Elijah) will look like in their glorified resurrected bodies, when they meet Jesus at His return to set up His Millennial Kingdom. The rich man and Lazarus The story of the rich man and Lazarus is a parable and not a true account, and it does not in any way support the belief in an immortal soul. In Chapter 19, we give the true meaning of this parable in detail. Many Christians also rely on people's Near Death Experiences as further proof for their belief in an immortal soul. So, we shall also discuss this subject before we conclude the chapter. What about Near Death Experiences (NDEs) ? Thousands and some say even millions of people have experienced a Near Death Experience (NDE). Many NDEs have been reported by people who were pronounced as being clinically dead i.e. their hearts had stopped functioning and they stopped breathing. A NDE is an amazing phenomenon whereby some people experience themselves floating in the air looking down on their lifeless bodies. They remember many vivid details such as the hospital room and the doctors and nurses. In some cases, the person experiences leaving the location of his/her lifeless body and visiting other places and people, remembering details of conversations and places visited. These are known as Out-of-Body experiences (OBEs). Most NDEs last for only a few minutes. Does a NDE with an Out-of-Body experience prove that we are born with an immortal soul? The empathic answer is no. It does not prove the immortality of the soul. In order to appreciate this answer, we need to remind ourselves of how the Bible defines death. Ecclesiastes 12:7 Death occurs when the body goes back to the dust and the human spirit returns to God who gave it. In other words, we can be sure that death has occurred only when the body begins to decompose, which is when the human spirit leaves the body to return to God. The Bible’s clear definition of death is when the spirit has left the body. James 2:26 People who experience a NDE do not die as the Bible defines death. These people may clinically die for a short time, but their human spirit does not leave their seemingly ‘dead’ bodies to return to God. This is why they can be revived back to life. These seemingly unconscious people experience a special state of consciousness because their human spirit is still joined to their bodies. Hence, we can categorically conclude that an Out-of-Body NDE does not prove that a person’s soul remains conscious after death. This is because the person did not die in the first place, in the way in which the Bible defines death. In John Chapter 11, the Bible records the powerful account of Lazarus who died, lay in his tomb for four days, and then was resurrected to life again by Jesus Christ. Lazarus truly died, as the Bible defines death, because His body was already in an advanced stage of decomposition. However, Jesus Christ was able to recall Lazarus’ ‘sleeping’ spirit from God to reunite it with his fleshy body and bring him back to healthy physical life again. Surely, if Lazarus’ ‘soul’ had remained conscious after death, then this would have presented a great opportunity for Lazarus to tell the world about his after death experience - the things he saw in heaven during the four days of his death. However, there is absolutely not a word written in the Bible to indicate that Lazarus remained conscious during the four days of his death. The truth of the Bible is that when a person dies he is not conscious. He ‘sleeps’ until his resurrection. The Bible says that a dead person cannot thank God, the dead cannot praise Him and the dead cannot hope to find any truth. Isaiah 38:18 So how do we explain ‘the special state of consciousness’ people experience during NDEs? There is no doubt that NDEs can be very real and life transforming for the people who experience them. One researcher on NDEs wrote, “You will find that the Near Death Experience is an interactive communication between the experiencer and the spirit world.” This is exactly what we believe happens during a NDE. The experiencer is impacted by the reality of the spirit world. The Bible abundantly confirms that there is a real spirit world and we are surrounded by it. There is the good, benevolent spirit world of God and His holy angels. However, God has also temporarily allowed a bad, malevolent spirit world of Satan and his fallen angels to exist and operate. It appears that during a NDE, the spirit world communicates with the person in a dramatic way and he/she is influenced by either the good spirit world of God or the bad spirit world of Satan. If a person’s NDE transforms him/her to be a loving, forgiving, humble God fearing person, then praise God that he/she has been impacted by the good spirit world of God. We can be sure that all NDEs, which are in line with the Word of God, impacting people's lives in a Godly way, are visions from God. Apostle Paul experienced a vision from God when he was ‘caught up to the third heaven’ as he explains in 2 Corinthians 12:1-4, which we cover in Chapter 14. Apostle Paul had a wonderful Godly experience, which seems to have been an Out-of-Body NDE. This was a glorious vision, which Paul was privileged to receive from God. It is very important to note that God did not permit Apostle Paul to utter any details of what he saw in his vision of the third heaven. Therefore, we need to be very careful about people who describe heaven or ‘hell’ in graphic detail because of their NDEs. Some people say that they met Jesus and talked with Him, or talked with dead relatives during a NDE. Such experiences are contrary to the Word of God and they are deceptions and lies from Satan. The Bible says that Satan deceives the whole world, and that he masquerades himself as an angel of light. So, there is a real possibility that the experiencer has been influenced by the bad spirit world of Satan and his sinful fallen angels. Revelation 12:9 Conclusion Our Christian hope is firmly based on the resurrection of the dead and not on the pagan teaching of the immortal soul. The Bible does not support any teaching of an intermediate conscious state between death and resurrection. It cannot be over emphasised that the teaching of the immortal soul undermines the central truth of the resurrection from the dead in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and it is a deception from Satan. If a disembodied soul can see, think, speak and enjoy the joys of heaven or suffer the anguish, pain and punishment of 'hell', then please tell us why there is a need for the resurrection from the dead, and why there is a need for God’s Great White Throne judgement? We challenge any proponent of the doctrine of the immortal soul to answer these questions adequately from the Bible. The plain teaching of the Bible is that all people will receive immortality only when they are resurrected from the dead, either in the First Resurrection or the Second Resurrection. Resurrection is the victory over death, which Jesus Christ won for all people through His sacrifice on the cross. Let us stop believing the lie of Satan – ‘You will not surely die’. |
Part II Complete and Comprehensive Answers to Why, When, & How the Doctrine of Hell crept into Christianity Part III Additional Important Information for Understanding God's Plan for All |
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God's Plan for All |
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