Been discussing elsewhere about soul and spirit. This is excerpts from Rays letter to Hagee on this topic. SPIRIT When a man dies his spirit returns to God Who gave it (Lk. 23:46, Psa. 104:24-30). The spirit is never said to go to hades or sheol, and the soul is never said to go to Heaven at death. Men and beasts have the same spirit [ruach] and they go to the same place (Ecc. 3:18-21). There is no getting around this: when God takes away a living souls spirit, it always dies. The spirit gives life. No one can live without spirit, no matter how young and healthy he may be. There are no exceptions. If there are, where is the Scripture? A dead person cannot experience anything-not pleasure in Heaven or pain in a fabled hell. This is a serious thing. Rom. 14:23 says: Now everything which is not out of faith is sin. If one doesnt have Scriptures that show people go to eternal hell fire after death, then it is a sin to teach it. SOUL When a man dies his soul goes to the unseen or imperceptible [Gk: hades, Heb: sheol]. We also know that when man is in this condition (dead) it is likened to sleep (Psa. 13:3, Dan. 12:1-2, Jn. 11:11-14). God Himself likens death to sleep, The Lord said unto Moses [concerning his imminent death], Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers ... (Deut. 31:16) This is substantiated by the fact that: The living know that they shall die, but the dead know not anything (Ecc. 9:5,6). Again: ... for there is no work, nor device [contrivance, intelligence, reason], nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in sheol. (Ecc. 9:10). Do we think all of these Scriptures lie? According to what we just read in Ecc. 9:5,6,10, do dead people know anything? And these verses are correctly translated. The words soul and spirit have become corrupted through theology so that they are now used interchangeably, as if they were synonymous. They are not synonymous. There may be certain similarities between soul and spirit, but similarities do not make them one and the same. The soul is the seat of sensation, consciousness, and feelings, not the body or the spirit. It is the spirit that imparts life to the body and the body then becomes a living soul (Gen. 2:7). A thorough study of the word soul in the Scriptures proves that it is used of consciousness, feelings, and emotions. Hence, sensation is a good word to define its usage. souls can touch (Lev. 5:2) souls have knowledge (Pr. 2:10) souls have memory (Lam. 3:20) souls can love, and be joyful (Psa. 35:9; 86:4) souls can hunger and thirst (Deut. 14:26) souls can sin (Lev. 4:2) life can be given to a soul (Job 3:20) souls can die (Ezek. 18:20) souls can be converted (Psa. 19:7) none can keep alive his (own) soul (Psa. 22:29) honey is sweet to the soul (Pr. 16:24) even God has a soul (Lev. 26:11, I Sam. 2:35, Jer. 32:41) souls can hear (Acts 3:34) souls can experience pleasure (Heb. 10:3) souls die (Rev. 16:3) souls can be purified (I Pet. 1:22) and souls can receive salvation (I Pet. 1:9). These verses show the wide range of emotions and sensations that souls experience, but dead souls experience nothing in the unseen or imperceptible (hades). We need to pay close attention to the meaning of words. Hades comes from the Greek a(i)des. The a is a prefix which is equivalent to our un- and the stem -id means perceive. Thus we have UN-PERCEIVE, or imperceptible: the unseen. Etymologically, your doctrine of torment in hell falls flat on its face. From the words that God chose to call this condition of the soul after death, one thing is crystal clear: There is absolutely no perception there. And the soul has everything to do with perception and sensation as clearly seen from the verses above. So why do you teach that there is perception in death? The very meaning of the word itself (hades) is unseen or imperceptible, so how can a dead soul have perception in a condition of imperception? God Himself chose this word which teaches us that hades is UN-perceptible or IM-perceptible (NO perception). Your teaching is blatantly false and deceptive! Because of the shameful way these words are translated and interchanged in the Authorized Version, it is nearly impossible to understand their true meanings without an exhaustive concordance. FROM KING JAMES TRANSLATION: SPIRIT [pneuma] is translated LIFE in Rev. 13:15 SOUL [nephesh] is translated HEART in Prov. 23:7, etc HEART [leb] is translated MIND in Prov. 21:27, I Sam. 9:20, etc. SOUL [nephesh] is translated LIFE in Gen. 9:4, Lev. 17:11, etc SOUL [nephesh] is translated GHOST in Job 11:2 SPIRIT [pneuma] is translated GHOST in Mark 1:8 SOUL [nephesh] is translated BEAST in Lev. 24:18. BEAST [chay] is translated LIFE in Lev. 18:18. SOUL [nephesh] is translated BODY in Lev. 21:11, Hag. 2:35, etc. This kind of translating is not responsible scholarship-its confusing and contradictory. The Apostle Paul admonished Timothy to have a pattern of sound words (II Tim. 1:13) The Scriptures quoted above clearly show the translators disregard for this instruction. I am amazed that people put up with such irresponsible teaching. You teach that man has immortality in his soul. The Scripture says man is mortal, and Our Lord, Jesus Christ ... Who ONLY has immortality. Which do you think is true - your teaching or the Scriptures? What part of the word ONLY dont you understand, Dr. Kennedy? Man is mortal (Job 4:17). Not one Scripture says that man is immortal or has an immortal soul. Not one. Our Lord, Jesus Christ: the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; who only has immortality (I Tim. 6:14-16). It is by means of the resurrection that God causes dead people to live again. The Apostle Paul said: Concerning the expectation and resurrection of the dead am I being judged (Acts 23:6). The truth regarding the resurrection of the dead is not even taught in Christendom today. They teach that there are no dead people (only dead bodies). They teach that people are either alive on earth, alive in Heaven, or alive in Hell. What need have we for a resurrection of the dead if there are no dead people to resurrect? This, my friend, is heresy! Paul also stated: Now if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither has Christ been roused. Now if Christ has not been roused, for naught, consequently, is our heralding, and for naught is your faith (I Cor. 15:14-15). The very salvation of mankind rests on the resurrection. This is most important to understand: For, if the dead are not being roused [resurrected], neither has Christ been roused. Now, if Christ has not been roused, vain is your faith-you are STILL IN YOUR SINS. (Acts 15:16-18). That is just how important the resurrection is, and according to you and most Christian theologians, it isnt necessary at all, because you teach that man has an immortal soul that goes directly to Heaven or Hell without resurrection and thus make a mockery of the very Word of God. And where, Dr. Kennedy, is all the hell fire and brimstone in all these verses on body, spirit, and soul? Where? If you dont understand the Scriptures concerning Gods punishment and chastisement on mankind, fine, but dont force them into these versus regarding the dead. And dont turn ages into eternities either. Ill comment on punishment, gehennah, the lake of fire, etc. later.
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 20:49:58 +0000
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