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Waves

MY CURRENT BIBLE STUDY: 2 Samuel 

Conditional immortality- the belief that only the believers will land on eternity's shore- is a important cornerstone of my faith. "The tree of life does not grow on the desolate shores of the lake of fire and brimstone." (E. Petavel)  Knowledge is the key. “I want to know... how to land safe on that happy shore. God himself has condescended to teach me the way. For this very end He came from heaven. He hath written it down in a book. O give me that book! At any price, give me the book of God! I have it: here is knowledge enough for me. Let me be homo unius libri. Here then I am, far from the busy ways of men. I sit down alone; only God is here. In His presence I open, I read His book; for this end, to find the way to heaven.” (John Wesley)--> "Jesus has sent His Son that men may be cured of mortality, from an opened grave having the dew of eternal youth, imperishable health and incorruptible existence. His golden text is, that ‘God sent His Son into the world that we might live through Him.’ So, instead of preaching, up to men their imperishable nature, and making them vain in fancied native glory and power, he, placing the crown upon the brow of the illustrious Jesus, proclaims him The Prince of Life, The Author and Giver of Life, The Resurrection and the Life, and demands homage and gratitude to be given Him for the renewal and endless perpetuation of life in the world to come. To believers only, obedient to the Lord Jesus and with affection for the Heavenly Father, does he promise the boon of length of days for ever and ever—existence on earth long as the existence of God in heaven; as for the residue of men, holding that they are of fading nature even as the leaf, are destructible like as stubble, and believing God’s penal fire to be a destroying element, he teaches they will be consumed soul and body, cut off from life, inherit a curse and come to a final end in death and oblivion.” (Henry Constable)


Paul and John agree: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)  “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life,” etc. (1 John 5:12-13)

In my studies-- my morning manna-- I have compiled the topical quotes with links above pertaining to this doctrine. These are intended to handle pushback. In short, I have come to believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Creation supplies my belief of origins. Yahweh God breathed into Adam’s nostrils "the breath of life; and man became a living soul." (Gen 2:7) We do not possess a soul; we are a soul. Dust plus the breathe of God is a living being. I believe  the Creation narrative as true in six literal morning and evenings and God rested on the seventh day. I believe in the Fall narrative, as well, and the teaching of atonement in the covering provided in the skins of animals. And I believe in a Judgment to come in which the world would be judged in righteousness. And I believe that the wage of eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (The Ten Commandments) is death.

In my view, man is not meant to be looked at in his separate parts. “In this view, ‘body’, ‘soul’, ‘spirit’, and so on, are not separable ‘parts’, but merely different ways of describing the same individual person. The ‘body’ is the person viewed from a physical standpoint; the ‘mind’ is the person viewed from an intellectual standpoint; the ‘will’ is the person viewed in his or her capacity to make moral choices; and so on.  Adherents to this doctrine see the term ‘soul’ as equivalent to the ‘total personality’, pointing to the many references in Scripture where the expression ‘my soul’ is used to mean ‘I’; ‘his soul’, ‘he’; etc." (John H. Roller)


It is the whole person who sins. And it is the whole person who is the subject of the Judgment of God. “Future punishment for the sins of the present life is universally allowed to be taught in Scripture [by all Bible believers]; but with respect to its nature and duration, very different opinions have been and are entertained as being each of them the doctrine of God’s word. We speak only of punishment to be indicted subsequent to the General Resurrection and the Day of Judgment. There are three main opinions relative to this punishment. One of these makes it to be essentially of a purgative nature, to be temporary in its duration, and to have as its end the restoration of all to God's favour and eternal happiness. This was the theory of Origen. The second opinion makes punishment to be eternal in its duration; and to consist in an eternal life of misery and evil. This was the theory of Augustine. According to the third opinion, punishment is eternal, but it consists in eternal death—i.e. the loss of eternal life or existence... This is the opinion which we here maintain. Its establishment sets the other two aside. Its eternal duration overthrows that of Origen; its involving a state of death overthrows alike that of Origen and Augustine. We rest the proof of it on the express oft-repeated, and harmonious testimony of Scripture.” (The Duration and Nature of Future Punishment by Henry Constable)

“Most books about hell contain very little information from the Old Testament simply because their authors are looking for a certain image of hell, a place of eternal torment. The Old Testament provides no details about such a place, sending these authors back from their narrow search empty-handed and somewhat apologetic. We looked, they honestly reported, but we could find nothing. (Block, “The Old Testament on Hell,” page 44) This does not mean that the Old Testament has nothing to contribute on the topic of hell. It provides important information, but we must ask the proper information to access it. If we look for signs that say ‘hell, ’ or search for the traditionalist version or vision of hell, we find nothing. But if we move through the OT with a different question, we will soon discover so much material that we will need to make more than one trip to haul it all home.

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.... The question that opens the doors to biblical meaning is more general: What data does the Old Testament contain about the end of the wicked? In this chapter and the two chapters that follow, we will journey through the Old Testament Scriptures with that question clearly before us. But first we need to meet an earlier explorer of the Old Testament, whose past discoveries can encourage us as we begin.No one has mined the Old Testament for information about the end of the wicked more than LeRoy Edwin Froom, author of an encyclopedia two-volume study titled ‘The Conditional Faith of Our Fathers’, Froom finds fifty different Hebrew verbs that describe the final fate of the wicked—and all signify different aspects of destruction. Froom, ‘Conditionalist Faith, Pg. I:106) Such verbs are buttressed, he says, by figurative or proverbial expressions that also speak ‘everywhere and always’ of ‘the decomposition, of the breaking up of the organism and final cessation of the existence of being—never that of immortal life in endless suffering.’” ("The Fire That Consumes" by Edward Fudge)

 

Likewise in the New Testament Paul said: "For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God." (Acts 20:27) but never used the term for hell.See Paul, James, and Jesus on Hell (Gehenna) - Marg Mowczko (external link)

 

Some feel that  God would be letting sinners off by executing my understanding of future punishmentt. See "Are you saying there is no 'punishment' for the unsaved?" (link) from "Jewish not Greek" website. This is not a get out of jail free card. There is a supernatural resurrection followed by a Judgment and judicial punishment, according to the penal code of God. Thus, in my view, supported by the plain language of the OT and NT, the wage of sin is death- not eternal torment. And I hope that you will rejoice with me that the God of the Bible is much more humane than you once thought.This precept is true! Come and see!

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