The Watchtower Society and John and Morton Edgar - A2Z.org

k!,? crept into-the church by a back door as it w&e "St~idies'sttbsidiary td the works of Bishop Butler,. . ;pp. 187-198. That is it, dear friends. :TI@ doctrine - .of the netural imm~fiali~ of the soul is not taght .in the Scriptures at 911.1: it crept into the &ur~h ,-'through the baCk door of Greek philosophy. ,-It play be' asked : If the Scriptures do not .affirm . athat man hat; 'inherent in bim an -" immortal,*" never-dying " or " ever-living " sonl, does theWord of God state .that the sonl is .mortal, thatthe son1 .can die ? hmse who tielieve that it -i$* immortal generally .think that God has so conskitutedthe soul that He Himself cannot possibly, destroy it.. Is that true? In Matthews X., 28, weread that God is -able to destroy not only the bodybut also the soul in Gehenna. (We $ha1 see laterwhat is meant by " Gehenaa.") Now turn toEzekiel XVITI., 4. There we read : ':-Behold ailsouls are mine ; as the sonl. of the father so also thesoul of the son is mine; .%he sonl that sinneth itshall die."It-is the sonl, the sentient behg, which is respon:.sible for sin, and it is the soul, therefore, which isto bear the penalty- of sin, and that penalty isdistinctly stated to be death. The soul which shswill die; " f ~ the r wages of sin is death,"-noteternal torment-Romans V?. , 28.When once we understand this, the whole Biblebecomes luminous- Many passages formerlv obscuretiow become clear.' In I. Timothy VI., 15, 16, we.read : " The King of kings and Lord of lords . . .only hath immortality." DD not let any of US afterthis say that we have inimortalitp when- the Biblesb dlstiilctlv stat& that the King *of kings only3 has it. . .- .-.