The way of the tree of life being guarded by the cherubim teaches that immortality is to be found

alone in Christ.

Compare the words of Genesis 3:22, "lest he eat and live for ever" with John 6:51,53 :

"I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man EAT of this bread, he shall LIVE FOR

EVER ... Except ye EAT ... ye have NO LIFE in you".

Nothing but the necessity to defend the traditional view could extract from either Genesis 3 or John 6

man's natural immortality; true exegesis forbids it.

We read in Scripture of a living soul, of a dead soul: the soul is said to be cut off, slain, or killed.

Nephesh is actually used of the dead in thirteen passages, being translated in the A.V. "the dead", "dead

body", and "body", and in spite of all that may be said to the contrary, the soul not only goes to sheol, but

to shachath, a pit for taking wild beasts, or, as the Greek version renders it, by the derived sense of

corruption or destruction, all of which are directly opposed to the notion that the soul is immortal (Lev.

19:28; Num. 6:6; 9:6; Psa. 35:7; and Job 33:22).

The doctrine of the immortality of the soul is absent from Scripture, so that, although it is a principle of

the Protestant faith that nothing shall be received as an article of belief that cannot be proved from

Scripture, and although Paul was inspired to warn against the "vain deceitful philosophy" of men, and

declared that in Christ was to be found all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, orthodoxy must add to

the 857 references to the soul the philosophy of poor, darkened Greeks who were stumbling along the best

they could, and who put up the cry, "Oh for a word of God!"

The devil's first recorded lie uttered in the garden of Eden was, "Ye shall not surely die". Paul tells us

"in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of

demons" (1 Tim. 4:1).

The following quotations are taken from The Bible Echo, and report messages and resolutions made at

spiritist seances:

"If a man would become satisfied of modern spiritism, he must first be satisfied that he is an

IMMORTAL BEING".

"The first, the greatest and the grandest truth coming through modern spiritism is the IMMORTALITY OF

THE SOUL".

All our orthodox friends then have the first essential for the last great deception, and by their propaganda

are unwittingly helping forward the dreadful cause.

"RESOLVED - That spiritism, according to the modern acceptation of the term, EMBRACES ALL THOSE

WHO BELIEVE IN IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL ... Beyond this common faith, there is no doctrine or creed

necessarily incident to modern spiritism".

Is this the "common faith" of Titus 1:4 for which Paul lived and died? Is this embraced in the unity of the

Spirit that we are enjoined to keep? May the Lord open eyes to see, and send His children back to the

Word of truth.

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