The state of the dead and the destiny of the wicked — John Shaqi
The state of the dead and the destiny of the wickedSmith, Uriah
Religion
The state of the dead and the destiny of the wicked
Smith, Uriah
Annihilationism; Death -- Biblical teaching; Intermediate state; Seventh-Day Adventists -- Doctrinal and controversial works
So with man. When the breath of life was imparted, which, as we have
seen was given in common to all the animal creation, that simply was
applied which set the machine in motion. No separate and independent
organization was added, but a change took place in the man himself. The
man _became_ something, or reached a condition which before he had not
attained. The verb “became” is defined by Webster, “to pass from one
state to another; to enter into some state or condition, by a change
from another state or condition, or by assuming or receiving new
properties or qualities, additional matter or a new character.” And Gen.
2:7, is then cited as an illustration of this definition. But it will be
seen that none of these will fit the popular idea of the superadded
soul; for that is not held to be simply a change in Adam’s condition, or
a new property or quality of his being, or an addition of matter, or a
new character; but a separate and independent entity, capable, without
the body, of a higher existence than with it. The boy becomes a man; the
acorn, an oak; the egg, an eagle; the chrysalis, a butterfly; but the
capabilities of the change all inhere in the object which experiences
it. A superadded, independent soul could not have been put into man, and
be said to have _become_ that soul. Yet it is said of Adam, that he, on
receiving the breath of life, _became_ a living soul. An engine is put
into a ship, and by its power propels it over the face of the deep; but
the ship, by receiving the engine, does not become the engine, nor the
engine the ship. No sophistry, even from the darkest depths of its
alchemy, can bring up and attach to the word “become” a definition which
will make it mean, as applied to any body, the addition of a distinct
and separate organization to that body.
To the inquiry of Prof. Mattison, “If he was ‘a soul’ before, then how
could he become such by the last act of creation,” it may be replied,
The antithesis is not based upon the word soul, but upon the word
living. This will become evident by trying to read the passage without
this word: “And the Lord God breathed into his nostrils the breath of
life, and man became a soul.” That is not it. He became a _living_ soul.
He was a soul before, but not a living soul. To thus speak of a dead
soul, may provoke from some a sneer; nevertheless, the Hebrews so used
the terms. See Num. 6:6: “He shall come at no dead body,” on which
Cruden says, “in Hebrew, dead soul.”
Kitto, in his Relig. Encyclopedia, under the term Adam, says:--
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