Posted June 12, 2005

Hello Mike,

Can you comment on this? I got it from J. Preston Eby’s website. Sounds like Abraham and everyone that dies goes to this state of the spiritual unseen. Please explain hell for me!

“And our Lord spoke of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, linking their names together as all being in the same place, and also added that their God is “not a God of the dead, but of the living,” thus affirming that they were alive at that time, even though they were in the Hadean state. Indeed, they were all in Hades – the invisible world of departed spirits.

Some have contended that hell (Sheol and Hades) is never associated with the idea of suffering, pain or torment. That is far from the truth! A careful examination of the Hebrew and Greek words in context reveals that there is both the positive and negative aspects of hell, and there are those passages which connect hell, either literally or metaphorically, to darkness, restraint, distress, sorrow, suffering, pain, and torment.

Hell is certainly a place, a realm, a dimension of consciousness and existence, yet more than a place – it is a state or condition – in its negative application the inner state of depravity, perverted desire, burning lust and ambition, devilish emotions, mental anguish and despair – and because it is so twisted and warped it cannot obtain lasting fulfillment, being tormented by the fires of its own unsatisfied passions. Heaven and hell both are states of the soul rather than the body, whether it be the natural or the spiritual body. The spirit possesses the qualities of soul apart from the body, for the soul is so closely united to the spirit that only the sharp two- edged sword of the Word of God can separate between them (Heb. 4:12). These are realities transcending place and time.”

THANK YOU, MIKE!!

Hi again J____,

You will just have to decide who you will believe. Will you believe these assertions of J. Preston Eby and the serpent that “you will not surely die,” or will you believe the words of God:?

Ecc 3:18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
Ecc 3:19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath [ Hebrew- spirit]; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
Ecc 3:20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
Ecc 9:5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing…

And then Paul tells us that if there is no resurrection, then all who are dead have perished:

1Co 15:17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
1Co 15:18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.

Mr Eby has not one verse of scripture behind his assertions. He is as deceived as anyone in orthodoxy.

Mike