Quote:
Originally Posted by tbpew
If we take as a given that there are three aspects of the human creature:
body
soul
spirit
...and if we take as a given that:
The body is of the earth (formed from the elemental components pertaining to the visible realm)
AND
will return to the earth from where it came
AND the human creature has a spirit that is from God and will return to God
The soul becomes the entire stage upon which everlasting life, everlasting death, everlasting dying, or everlasting annilation is played out.
I presently fully reject any concept of EVERLASTING DYING.
Death is the antithesis of LIFE; it is the absence of life. Death can not be the state of something that is alive.
The issue we need to wrestle with is whether or not the SOUL lives (animated with a conscience) beyond the second death.
I think we are poorly served by the variety of context that the English word SOUL appears in our beloved KJV. Life and Soul seem to be an interchangeable English word choice in many of the context where we read "Soul".
God is able to destroy body and soul in HELL. If he is able to do this, I see no reason why a merciful God would not.
The creature/entity whose SOUL is destroyed in HELL will have the result of an everlasting separation from God.
I understand that folks will want to say that I am advocating a scriptural witness of anilation, but I think we are better off staying with the thread topic terminology of "Is the immortal".
Does the sensitivity of this discussion center around the effectiveness of "eternal torment" as a preaching tool to get a fence sitter to commit?
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It does not seem to me eternal torment preaching gathers any more souls than annihilation teaching. I do believe in the strong teaching of eternal judgment-the destruction of the soul and body in Gehenna fire. We should preach a powerful message of judgment and doom to the lost. Yet it must be credible. Since the Old and New Testament both teaches the soul that sins shall die that should be the message.
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