DISPUTE BETWEEN THE BIBLE AND THE DOCTRINE OF THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.
By A. W. Cone
Bible.—In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Gen. 2:17. Doctrine.—Ye shall not surely die, for God has made your real being immortal; therefore ye cannot die. B.—The soul that sinneth shall die. Eze. 18:4. D.—The soul that sinneth can never die, but must live eternally in torment. D.—Man does not die. He is only separated from the body in which he has been staying, to be sent either to Heaven or to the place of torment. B.—For yet a little while and the wicked shall not be; yea thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. Isa. 37:10. D.—That is not true, for both the wicked and their place of torment shall always exist. B.—And the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away. Ps. 37:20. D.—They shall not consume away into smoke, for they are indestructible. B.—The day cometh that shall burn up all the wicked so that they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet. Mal. 4:1-3. D.—No; it will not do that. It will burn them eternally; but they never can become ashes. B.—For while they be folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry. Nah. 1:10. D.—They shall never be devoured as stubble fully dry, but shall learn to live forever in the fire, like the fabled salamander. D.—Oh! yes they do. They know more than all the living. B.—Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. Isa. 26:19. D.—Not so. Men are not dwelling in the dust, but in Heaven or hell, from whence they must come to be judged, and then be sent back again. D.—A part of the dead praise him; and the rest curse him in hell, which will be their employment to all eternity. B.—His fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into his garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. D.—He may purge the floor, and gather the wheat (the righteous), but he can never burn up the chaff (the wicked). B.—Fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Matt. 10:28. D.—There is no one able to destroy the soul, therefore there is no one to be feared. B.—But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead,— D.—The real man is not dead, and therefore he cannot have a resurrection; nor is there any use for one; for, at the separation of the real man from the body, he goes right to Heaven in full possession of all his faculties. What use of thrusting him back into that old clog? B.—Marvel not at this; for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice. John 5:28. D.—There are none in the graves to hear his voice; all are gone to their everlasting reward beyond the bounds of time and space. B.—For David is not ascended into Heaven. Acts 2:34. D.—David did go to Heaven at his separation from the body—at death. D.—The wages of sin is eternal life in misery. B.—The King of kings and Lord of lords, who only hath immortality. 1 Tim. 6:15, 16. D.—Not so, for all mankind have immortality. I conclude that a doctrine that so squarely contradicts the word of God must be false. A. W. Cone.