Christian Churches of God

No. P92z

 

Summary:

The Soul

(Edition 2.0 19950225-20010127)

The position of the religious systems generally has become one that asserts that the soul is eternal. This is not the true biblical position.

 

 

 

 

Christian Churches of God

PO Box 369, WODEN ACT 2606, AUSTRALIA

E-mail: secretary@ccg.org

 

(Copyright ã 1995, 2000, 2001 Wade Cox)

(Summary Ed. Wade Cox)

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The Soul

The last great heresy to enter the church was that the soul is eternal. This is also the position of most religions throughout the world also. The belief of the existence of a soul as an entity after death is an ancient idea stemming from Babylonian animism and originates from the lie Satan told Eve ‘you will not die’ in the Garden of Eden.

The biblical position is quite clear and simple. All die and remain dead until the resurrection, either the first or second. Nobody yet has been resurrected, other than Christ (Jn. 3:13), everyone else, including the elect are fallen asleep (1Thes. 4:13-18; 1Cor.15:20). But the dead will be raised (1Cor.15:16-18). The Soul Doctrine instils in the minds of humans that they have existence after death and so aren’t totally dependant on God for His gift of life in the resurrection and their continued existence.

People are also deluded into thinking they can consult with the dead and spirits of their ancestors, whereas they are really speaking to demons of the fallen host. Communing with spirits is witchcraft. It breaks the first commandment and thus is rebellion against God (1Sam.15:23).

Revelation shows two resurrections from the dead. The first occurs at the return of the Messiah at the beginning of The Millennium (Rev. 20:4-6). These elect or chosen of God are resurrected in the flesh then changed to eternal spiritual beings. Their function then will be to assist Christ in the rulership of the planet in His 1000-year reign. This work provides the standard against which the demons will be judged at the great white throne judgement which is developed in Revelation 20:5-15.

At the end of the Millennium the entire human race will be resurrected and retrained over a period that seems to last a hundred years (Isa. 65:20). The concept of the eternal soul has no place in the biblical structure. It is external to the will of God and relies on self, not God, hence polytheist. People will only get two goes at life. They can be redeemed under better circumstances in the second resurrection, but they do not have immortal life.

The teaching of transmigration of the soul is a perversion of the true resurrections. The resurrection of the flesh relies on the power of God for future existence. The basis for the transmigration of the soul theory as stated, started with the deception of Eve with the lie ‘you shall not surely die’ (Gen. 3:3-4) and goes on into the Babylonian mysteries. The theory was entrenched in the Buddhist and Celtic beliefs and eventually entered Christianity, especially the Gnostic teachings. It is the underlying lie of all this earth’s systems. The theologian Augustine in the fifth century even stated in his book ‘City of God’ that the soul doctrine was impossible to support with any evidence in the Holy Scriptures. But this didn’t stop him writing all those lies that changed the course of history!

The original elect church held to an absolute resurrection of the flesh and denied the soul doctrine as pagan. This error entered and corrupted the church later along with the mystery cults and the triune god. The soul doctrine is a rebellious proposition that says that man shall not die. It is an attempt at taking the certainty of the punishment for sin away from mankind. The argument that man shall be as an elohim (god), from knowledge alone, is asserted by Satan (Gen. 3:5). The truth is that the capacity to become elohim is entirely dependent upon the resurrection from the dead through the saving grace of Jesus Christ as Messiah.

The denial of the physical Millennium is also part of the deception and attempts to assert the unconditional inheritance of eternal life. Eternal life can only be obtained through the knowledge of The One True God and His son Jesus Christ. There is no such thing as the Immortal Soul. People want to believe the lie because they cannot obey God. Without the Holy Spirit their minds are hostile towards God (Rom. 8:7). They cannot obey God and conform to His nature. The Holy Spirit is the key to the resurrection to life (Rom. 8:11-14).

The elect possess the nature of God as partakers with Jesus Christ (2Pet.1:4). Only God is immortal (1Tim.6:16). He dwells in unapproachable light and no man has ever seen Him nor ever can see Him. Only as spirits (elohim) can we ever go into the presence of God. This is only possible through our obedience to the Laws of God and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who is our mediator with the One True God (Jn.17:3; 1Jn.5:20; Gal.3:19-20; 1Tim.2:5; Heb.8:6, 12:24).

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