Monday Night Study Papers
1-30-06
Can Spirit Be Destroyed?
There are only two proof scriptures for this belief.
1, Revelation 20:10, “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”
From an article entitled Satan’s Fate, which first appeared in the July 1957 Good News, GTA draws this conclusion from this scripture; “Satan Will Not Be Destroyed!...Since Satan is to be tormented FOREVER, and the fire is to finally consume the physical objects it is burning until it burns out, Satan does not remain in this lake of fire forever! Satan is a spirit! Fire cannot consume spirit - and A SPIRIT CANNOT DIE!”
Luke 20:34-36, “NEITHER CAN THEY DIE ANY MORE, for they are equal unto the angels and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.”
From which Ted then drew this conclusion; “Jesus tells us the angels cannot die! Satan is a fallen angel! Therefore Satan cannot die!” These conclusions are riddled with assumptions and they are far from all the Bible has to say on the matter.
The Greek word aion, used in Revelation 20:10 and translated ever in the KJV, should be translated age—an “indefinite period of time,” the exact meaning of which must be understood by the context. The Interlinear Greek NT says, “… they shall be tormented day and night for (or to) the ages of the ages.”
God’s whole purpose is to preserve righteousness and to destroy sin. Therefore to assume that since righteous angels cannot die, fallen angels cannot die, is a big jump. These scriptures do not say spirit cannot be destroyed—only that the Devil will be tormented to the ages of the ages and that the children of the resurrection cannot die because they are like the angels. This careless assumption completely overlooks the simple truth that nothing righteous will ever die! It does not say that if they are evil they cannot be killed by the God who made created them!
Remember Isaiah 14:13-15, “For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to HELL, to the sides of the pit.”
The word here for HELL is Sheol. It corresponds to the Greek word Hades—meaning the grave, so Satan will be brought down to the grave!
Ezekiel 28:18-19, “Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and NEVER shalt thou be any more.”
HWA performed a little slight-of-hand with this scripture, switching back and forth between the physical king of Tyre and Satan at will, forcing the Bible to fit what he believed.
We are asked to believe that it lies within God’s nature to endlessly torture a being—long after the last vestigial memory, of the last sin, has faded into the dim antiquity of past eternities—that He will embrace and cling to his fierce anger and vengeance forever, when there remains no hope of repentance?
Is this a Loving God, or does this doctrine paint a picture of the heart of another being—a vile, sadistic, hate-filled, eternally resentful being?
Finally, Jesus
was with the Father in glory before the world was. He was spirit. He
created Satan. He was made flesh and He died! Therefore spirit can
definitely be destroyed!
Matthew 25:41 (Phillips) "Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Out of my presence, cursed as you are, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels!
This says there is a fire especially prepared for spirit beings
Hebrews 2:14, “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;”
Conc: God created everything both physical and spiritual. As long it is His will both will stay in exitstance. His laws apply to both. If the spirit beings break God’s laws they then will no longer exist.
Revelation 4:11 "You are worthy,
O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all
things, And by Your will they exist and were created."
Romans 6:23 The wages of sin is DEATH
And in another place, it says...
Ezekiel 18:4 Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.
This is the judgment, the penalty of BREAKING God's law. Nowhere does it say that “spirit”, whether your spirit, or an angelic spirit, is exempt from that. If anyone is exempt from a law, that makes God a respecter of persons, which we know He is not.
So WHY have you been taught that spirit cannot be destroyed? Because that is what SATAN WANTS TO BELIEVE! He doesn't want to believe that God can destroy him - as far as we know, no angel has ever yet been destroyed - and in his arrogance and pride, Satan doesn't think God can do it!
But think about the famous paradox, which asks... Can God make a rock so big, He can't move it? Can He make a bowl of soup so hot He can't drink it? Can He make something He can't destroy??
Think about it – Man's destructive power seems to be equal, or greater, than His creative power. Can YOU build something you can't destroy - ever? Can you make a concrete wall so thick, so strong, that you can't turn it into rubble? Or a car so strong you can't wreck it - if you try hard enough, and long enough?
1 Timothy 6:16 Who ONLY hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.
The very definition of immortality is something that cannot die, or be destroyed. If God ONLY has immortality, then EVERYTHING ELSE CAN BE DESTROYED! From a spirit, to YOU, to the entire macro-cosmic universe! Nothing, save only GOD HIMSELF, has immortality! Thus Saith The Lord!