A response of how Christ was dead and entombed, not just His body
It’s been awhile since ‘the immortality of the soul’ doctrine has come up. The following is a brief you-tube correspondence with a person that firmly believes that immortality is inherent in all people and Christ’s death was not necessary for it. In fact, Christ never died. His body died.
This person believes that Jesus Christ was in heaven while His dead, entombed body was doing the saving.
This is based on a video I created called ‘The Immortality of the Soul Cheapens Christ’s work.’ I will start with my detractor’s statement, then my response as I believe many good things can come out of this conversation.
Detractor:
Your assumption that Christ was not conscious when He was dead is completely false. You stated twice that when Christ was dead, “he didn’t go anywhere”. That’s not what the Bible teaches. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. (Luke 23:43) Jesus told this to one of the malefactors that was also crucified that day, and said that both Himself and the malefactor would be in paradise that day. Obviously their spirits and souls went to paradise, only their dead bodies remained buried. Further, your teaching that there is no consciousness after death is nonsense. And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? (Revelation 6:9-10). At the opening of the fifth seal, the apostle John saw the souls of those who were killed for their testimony talking to God. When you reference the scripture that the dead know not anything, you fail to accurately explain the context, which is “under the sun”, stated 29 TIMES throughout the book of Ecclesiastes, clearly referring to physical existence, which would include physically dead bodies.
My response:
The thief is immortal, has immortality…is that what you are saying? How can the thief have immortality when in 1 Timothy 6:16 Paul says that CHRIST ALONE has immortality? Paul wrote his letter to Timothy long after Jesus said those words on the cross. Your interpretation of Luke 23:43 does not fit what scripture clearly teaches on death.
The ancient manuscripts did not use commas so the addition of the comma in Luke 23:43 is based on interpretation of the translator based on preconceived theological preferences. In fact, the Codex Vaticanus, one of the most important Greek manuscripts, actually places the comma after the Greek word semeron (today). Therefore, the verse reads “Verily, to you am I saying today, with Me shall you be in paradise. This is the way it is translated in the concordant literal translation, which is a far better translation. Again, perfectly consistent with the fact that the thief could not be immortal because Paul says many years later, that Christ alone has immortality.
So, its obvious to you that Christ’s spirit and soul went to paradise and only His dead body was in the tomb. The very gospel that Paul preaches is “that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that He was entombed, and that He has been roused the third day according to the scriptures…(1 Corinthians 15: 3-5). You say only Christ’s body died. So, according to you, Christ did not save us. Christ was bouncing around in paradise, spirit and soul, while the part that saves us from sin, the dead body was in the tomb. If dying for sin is what saves us and you separate Christ from that death and entombment, then you are saying that Christ is separate from that which saves. That is exactly what you are saying when you say Christ was in heaven but His body was dead. We are not saved by a corpse, we are saved by Christ.
The truth is that Christ’s body died, His spirit went to God (unconscious), and His soul went to the unseen. He didn’t have conscious existence for three days. Why do you think we are saved by the faith of Christ (Galatians 2: 15-17)? Why do you think Jesus went through what he went through in the Garden of Gethsemane, sweating blood and all?
So that He would be in paradise the next day? No, because Christ knew He was entering death and that He would remain dead if God did not resurrect Him. How dare you take that away from Him. You reduce Christ’s work and His faith to a vacation in heaven when He went to death for all humanity.
God pronounced to Adam that to die you shall be dying. Yet, Satan says that ‘you will not surely die.” Which one are we to believe? Death is explained in Genesis as a return to soil and to what we were. We did not exist before we were born, so we could not return to anywhere consciously. Yet, you believe Satan’s lie that the dead are living? How many times does Paul refer to death as repose, sleep? Its not repose or sleep if the dead are living life somewhere else. Job 14:14 asks that if a man dies will he live again? You say don’t worry, it’s just his body. The man is alive. Not true. That man, all men, would remain dead if Christ didn’t enter death, all of Him, for all humanity.
Revelation 6: 9-10 is what John perceived when he saw this vision. His vision was personified so that he could understand it. The dead were not actually speaking, but were resting in death. Its like Genesis 4:10 where God says that Abel’s blood is crying to Him from the ground. God is illustrating a point to Cain, its not that Abel’s blood was literally speaking. You really think that all these martyrs were under an alter? Well, you probably think that Lazarus was actually in Abraham’s chest as well, along with thousands of other believers. No, this is personifying death in order to teach a literal truth.
Death is death my friend and it is not life somewhere else. You minimize Christ’s work and what He had to do to give us immortality by making the false claim that we already have immortality WITHOUT Christ’s death for sin, His entombment, and His resurrection.
Revelation 20: 5…The rest of the dead DO NOT LIVE until the 1000 years should be finished.
We, as humans, do not have immortality without Christ. This immortality for us and all creation was given through Jesus Christ’s death for sin, His entombment, and His resurrection. Amen!
Grace and peace.
Saved ignoble 
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