XPost: alt.christnet.christnews, alt.bible   
   From: usenet@christrose.news   
      
   Your reply again treats “symbolic” as a solvent that dissolves meaning.   
   Scripture never uses symbolism that way. It uses symbols to communicate   
   realities, not to negate them.   
      
   Acts 17:2 shows Paul reasoned from the Scriptures. He did not reason   
   against what the Scriptures plainly said. Reasoning submits to the text.   
   It does not redefine it.   
      
   Revelation 6:9–10 does not say the souls were recalling what they would   
   say if alive. It says what they did say. John saw souls. They cried out   
   with a loud voice. Crying out requires consciousness, awareness, memory,   
   moral judgment, and expectation of future vindication. None of those fit   
   non-existence. Saying they were “slain” describes the cause of death,   
   not the condition of the soul after death. Scripture regularly   
   distinguishes body and soul (Matthew 10:28, ESV).   
      
   Your appeal to “sleep” confuses metaphor with ontology. Scripture uses   
   sleep as a figure for the body’s death because of its temporary nature   
   and future awakening. It never teaches the soul lapses into   
   non-existence or unconsciousness. Jesus used “sleep” of Lazarus while   
   also teaching conscious existence after death elsewhere. Metaphor does   
   not cancel doctrine.   
      
   Ecclesiastes 9 speaks from the perspective of life “under the sun.” It   
   describes what the dead no longer participate in among the living. It   
   does not address the state of the soul before God. Progressive   
   revelation matters. Later Scripture clarifies what earlier Scripture   
   leaves undeveloped.   
      
   Matthew 11:23–24 cannot be reduced to cities only. Jesus explicitly says   
   “it will be more tolerable… on the day of judgment.” Judgment applies to   
   persons. Degrees of tolerability require degrees of experience. There   
   are no degrees of non-existence.   
      
   Matthew 26:24 cannot be explained by annihilation. “It would have been   
   better for that man if he had not been born” makes sense only if Judas   
   faces a fate worse than never existing. Not being born and ceasing to   
   exist are functionally identical. Scripture treats them as different.   
      
   Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit means unforgiven guilt, not   
   non-existence. Scripture never says unforgiven sin results in   
   annihilation. It results in judgment.   
      
   Matthew 10:28 explicitly distinguishes what men can do and what God can   
   do. Men kill the body. God destroys both body and soul. That text proves   
   the soul survives bodily death. “Destroy” does not mean annihilate. It   
   regularly means ruin, loss, or judgment, as when wineskins are   
   “destroyed” yet still exist.   
      
   2 Corinthians 5:8 does not describe a centuries-long unconscious gap.   
   Paul contrasts present bodily life with immediate presence with the   
   Lord. He does not insert a pause of non-being. He comforts believers   
   with conscious fellowship, not eventual awareness.   
      
   Luke 23:43 does not conflict with Matthew 12:40. Paradise and “the heart   
   of the earth” are not the same referent. Jesus’ body lay in the grave.   
   His spirit went where He said it would go. Scripture elsewhere affirms   
   this distinction.   
      
   Revelation’s symbolism follows consistent rules. Symbols clarify   
   reality. They never reverse it. Beasts signify kingdoms, but kingdoms   
   still act. The harlot signifies false religion, but false religion still   
   corrupts. Souls under the altar signify martyred believers, but   
   believers still speak, remember, and await justice.   
      
   Annihilation requires redefining words so they mean their opposites:   
   life becomes death, awareness becomes silence, judgment becomes   
   disappearance. Scripture never teaches that.   
      
   Romans 6:23 contrasts death with eternal life. It does not redefine   
   death as non-existence. Scripture elsewhere defines that death as   
   exclusion, judgment, and punishment before God. Eternal life and eternal   
   punishment stand in parallel (Matthew 25:46, ESV). Parallel terms carry   
   parallel duration.   
      
   Scripture repeatedly describes judgment as conscious, personal, and   
   accountable. Denying that does not protect God’s character. It   
   contradicts His revealed word.   
      
   The issue is not symbolism. The issue is whether Scripture may speak   
   plainly even when it offends a system. Scripture does. And it does so   
   consistently, coherently, and Christ-centrically.   
      
   Christ bore judgment so sinners would not bear it themselves (1   
   Corinthians 15:1–4, ESV; Romans 3:23–26, ESV). Emptying judgment of   
   consciousness empties the cross of its weight. Scripture does not allow   
   that.   
      
   --   
   Have you heard the good news Christ died for our sins (†), and God   
   raised Him from the dead?   
      
   That Christ died for our sins shows we're sinners who deserve the death   
   penalty. That God raised Him from the dead shows Christ's death   
   satisfied God's righteous demands against our sin (Romans 3:25; 1 John   
   2:1-2). This means God can now remain just, while forgiving you of your   
   sins, and saving you from eternal damnation.   
      
   On the basis of Christ's death and resurrection for our sins, call on   
   the name of the Lord to save you: "For 'everyone who calls on the name   
   of the Lord will be saved'" (Romans 10:13, ESV).   
      
   https://christrose.news/salvation   
      
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   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)