Literal Eternal Life, and Literal Death.
By Epsilon
THE Bible clearly teaches that the reward of the saved will be literal eternal life, or immortality, with all its attendant blessings; and that the sufferings of the lost will terminate in literal death. In Rom. 6:23, we have eternal life and death in antithesis. "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." If we can show that the words eternal life are used with their literal meaning, it follows that the antithetic word death is also literal in meaning. In consequence of sin, the Lord passed sentence of literal death upon our first parents, Adam and Eve. For nothing can be plainer than, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Gen. 3:19. On the very day that they sinned, they received sentence of literal death and were driven from the tree of life. The whole tenor of Bible teaching is that the Son of God stepped in between an offended God and offending man, and the sentence of death was not immediately executed upon our first parents. Says one, "The sentence of death could not reach farther than to Adam's body; for his soul, being immortal, could never die." What is the soul? Any one who will lay aside traditional teaching and carefully study the scriptures in which the word soul occurs, will arrive at the conclusion that the word soul in the Bible is variable in meaning, and refers either to the whole man, or else to some attribute of the man, as life, mind, etc. When used in relation to something else than the body, it often means the attribute life. Is the Bible soul immortal? No. We read in Ezk. 18:4, 20, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." The invention, "the death that never dies," is equal to a sight that never sees, a motion that never moves, or a cessation that never ceases. A better invention would be, a dying that never reaches death; but it would only be an invention after all. In Ps. 89:48, we read: "What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave?" In Rev. 16:3, we read: "And every living soul died in the sea." According to the Bible the soul is as mortal as the body. Beginning at Abel's lamb and tracing the plan of salvation, we find that "the wages of sin is [literal] death." All those animals that were slain for sin offerings died a literal death. Their blood could not atone for sin, but they serve as so many indexes pointing to "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." Christ, "the Lamb of God," never sinned, but he was made "to be sin for us." "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the [broken] law, being made a curse for us." Gal. 3:13. On the cross, he paid the penalty of our transgressions of God's law. The death of Christ speaks in thunder tones, "The wages of sin is death." "But," says one, "the son of Mary died a literal death on the cross, but the Son of God went with the thief's soul to Paradise." But the soul of Jesus did die. In Isa. 53:10, we have the words, "When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin," and in verse 12 we have, "Because he hath poured out his soul unto death." In Matt. 20:28, we read: "Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life [Greek, psuche; English, soul] a ransom for many." Psuche is the only Greek word that is anywhere translated soul in the New Testament. Again, in John 10, Jesus repeatedly speaks of laying down his life (psuche, soul) for his sheep. Verse 11, "The good shepherd giveth his life [psuche, soul] for the sheep." Verse 15, "I lay down my life [soul] for the sheep." Verse 17, "Because I lay down my life [soul], that I might take it again." Does he say that he will lay down his body, that he may take it again? No; he did lay down his body, but he laid down his life (soul) also. But people sometimes object to the Greek Testament and insist upon the English. Let us look closely at the English. "Because I lay down my life, that I might take it again." Does the life belong to the body, or to the soul, or to both? Will any one say that the soul has no life? Place the life in the body, or in the soul, or in both, and this scripture declares that he lays down his life. Jesus has paid the penalty, literal death, for our sins. "Who was delivered [to death] for our offenses, and was raised again [to life] for our justification." Rom. 4:25. Then the saved will rise in the resurrection justified from all sin. They will then, and not till then, have literal eternal life with its attendant blessings. That the saved will not have eternal life, or immortality, till they are raised from the dead, is easily proved. In 1 Cor. 15, Paul first gives a synopsis of the gospel and goes on to show that the resurrection is the hope of the gospel. In verse 19, he says, "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." He evidently did not believe in the popular theory of the soul, but put all his hope in the resurrection. In verse 32, he deals a death-blow to this heathen doctrine, and looks to the resurrection as his only hope of a future life: "If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die." A heathen philosopher would have reminded Paul that his soul would go to Elysium at death, and that the resurrection was of no consequence. In verses 52 to 56, we learn that the saved will get the victory over literal death at the resurrection: "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." Now if one should claim that the incorruption, immortality, or eternal life, is not literal, it would follow that the resurrection will not be literal. Paul does not here use the words eternal life, but Dan. 12:2 does, and Luke 20:36 says, "Neither can they die any more; for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection." The proof is conclusive that the words, immortality, incorruption, and eternal life, are all literal or primary in meaning: "For thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just." Luke 14:14. In Ezk. 18:26, we have the first death and the second death mentioned in the same connection: "When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and dieth in them; for the iniquity that he hath done shall he die." We know that this first death is literal, and the language itself conveys the idea that the second death is also literal. In Matt. 16:25, we read: "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." The Greek word here translated life is psuche, meaning soul, or individual life. The same word, psuche, is used in Matt. 10:39, Mark 8:35, and in John 12:25. But in John 12:25, we have both the present and the future life in the same sentence; "He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." What can be plainer than these words of him who spoke as never man spoke. Reader, which would you rather believe, the words of the Lord Jesus, or the teachings of heathen philosophy from the mother of harlots? Remember, dear reader, that Babylon has corrupted the whole Christian world. Look here, "Because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication." Rev. 14:8; 18:3. What is the matter with the people? Why are so many different doctrines taught? Because the people are drunken with the wine (false teachings) of Babylon. The Bible, the Bible, is for the instruction of Christians.