Wrested Scriptures (Part 1 of 0)

A Christadelphian Handbook of Suggested Explanations to Difficult Passages – Part two

In the last issue of The Tidings some excerpts from Bro. Ron Abel’s book were printed. This book, soon to be published God willing, is designed to be used by those brethren and sisters who have a desire to obey Christ’s command to “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel.” No soldier goes forth to battle without his weapons of war and we as soldiers of Christ are to go armed with the sword of the spirit which is the word of God. This book was written to help us to be more proficient in our use of this sword. The Tidings will soon be taking advance orders for copies of Bro. Abel’s book. These reprints from the book will help illustrate just how valuable it will be to the soldiers of Christ.

Elijah Restores to Life the Widow’s Son

I Kings 17-21 “And he stretched him­self upon the child three times, and cried unto the LORD, and said, 0 LORD my God, I pray thee, let this child’s soul come into him again.”

Problem: Only the hard pressed resort to this passage to prove the immortality of the soul. It is argued that when the child’s soul left him, his immortal entity departed to heaven.

Solution: 1. The passage neither states nor implies that the soul described is immortal or that it would depart to heaven. Such views must be read into this passage. They are assumptions for which this passage offers no support.

  1. The pronoun “him” describes the lifeless body. If the real child was the immortal soul tabernacling in a mortal, earthly body, then the pronoun should have been descriptive of the soul and not (as it is) of the body.
  2. It was not the child that had departed, neither was it the child which returned. The child was dead. He died when life was lost, he became living when life was restored. The Hebrew word “ne­phesh” translated “soul” in this passage is translated “life” in Gen. 9:4; Lev. 17:11; Deut. 17:23.
  1. If as some argue, that the soul of the child went immediately to bliss in heaven, would it not have been better for he prophet to have left the soul of the child to enjoy bliss in heaven rather than recall it to the travail of earthly life, and possible later consignment to the fires of hell?

Spirit Returns to God

Ecclesiastes 12:7 “The spirit shall return unto God who gave it.”

Problem: This passage is cited as evidence that man’s immortal spirit (or soul) leaves the body at death and returns to God.

Solution:

  1. The passage makes no distinction between “good” a n d “bad” spirits.
  2. If the spirit is to return to God, it must have come from God. But who would suggest one has a conscious existence before the earthly life begins? Therefore, there is no reason to expect a conscious existence when this life ends.
  3. The word, “spirit” (Heb. “Ruach”) is the same as in Ecc. 3:19 (trans­lated “breath”). Would any ar­gue that beasts have, or are, im­mortal “spirits?”
  4. The writer of Ecclesiastes emphatically teaches the mortality of man. (See Ecc. 9:5,6,10; 3:19, 30).