XPost: alt.christnet.christnews, alt.bible   
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   You claim to agree with Paul’s words, then deny what Paul and Jesus   
   actually taught about man, death, and salvation. The problem is not   
   anthropology versus the gospel. The problem is that your view of death   
   rewrites the gospel itself.   
      
   You claim churches teach a “different gospel,” yet the apostles preached   
   salvation from sin through Christ’s death and resurrection, not   
   salvation through dying. Death never erases sin. Christ does.   
      
   Romans 6:7 does not say death men's physical death atones for sin. Paul   
   speaks of union with Christ by faith to His death to sin, not our own   
   physical death. The context controls the meaning, and it's talking about   
   those who have already been placed into Christ's death to sin and   
   resurrection to newness of life through faith. You promote blatant,   
   easily discernible LIES about that passage..   
      
   “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that,   
   just as Christ was raised from the dead … we too might walk in newness   
   of life” (Romans 6:4, ESV).   
      
   Paul explains the meaning himself:   
      
   “Our old self was crucified with him … so that we would no longer be   
   enslaved to sin” (Romans 6:6, ESV).   
      
   The “death” in Romans 6 refers to participation in Christ’s death by   
   faith, not the biological event of dying. If physical death erased sin,   
   then Christ died for nothing. Scripture rejects that conclusion.   
      
   “If righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose”   
   (Galatians 2:21, ESV).   
      
   Your reading of Romans 6:7 contradicts the entire argument of Romans   
   3–5, where Paul insists that justification comes through Christ’s blood,   
   not through anything inherent in man.   
      
   “We are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is   
   in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24, ESV).   
      
   Now to the soul.   
      
   You appeal to encyclopedias and magazines to dismiss the soul’s   
   survival, then claim Scripture agrees with you. Scripture does not.   
      
   Ezekiel 18:4 teaches moral responsibility, not annihilation. “The soul   
   who sins shall die” speaks of guilt and judgment. If you press this as   
   extinction, you must also say the righteous soul never lives, since all   
   have sinned (Romans 3:23, ESV). Ezekiel addresses accountability under   
   God’s law, not the metaphysics of existence after death.   
      
   Jesus directly refutes your position.   
      
   “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather   
   fear him who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna” (Matthew 10:28,   
   ESV, Gehenna).   
      
   If the soul simply equals the body or life-force, Jesus’ statement   
   collapses. Men kill the body. They do not kill the soul. God alone   
   judges both after death. The contrast only works if the soul survives   
   the death of the body.   
      
   You argue that “destroy” must mean annihilate. Scripture does not use   
   the word that way. The same verb describes ruined wineskins that still   
   exist (Matthew 9:17, ESV). Destruction speaks of ruin under judgment,   
   not cessation of being.   
      
   Jesus also taught conscious existence after death without qualification.   
      
   “And he said to him, ‘Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in   
   Paradise’” (Luke 23:43, ESV).   
      
   There is no salvation-by-dying here. The man receives assurance through   
   faith in Christ while dying. If death erased sin, Christ’s promise would   
   be pointless.   
      
   Paul teaches the same truth.   
      
   “We would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2   
   Corinthians 5:8, ESV).   
      
   “To depart and be with Christ … is far better” (Philippians 1:23, ESV).   
      
   Paul never says, “to depart and cease to exist.” He expects conscious   
   fellowship with Christ.   
      
   You list passages showing that nephesh and psychē can refer to a person,   
   an animal, or life. That is true. It does not follow that the soul   
   cannot exist apart from the body. Scripture uses the same word with   
   multiple senses depending on context. Context, not lexicons, decides   
   meaning.   
      
   Your view also collapses moral accountability. Jesus warned of degrees   
   of judgment.   
      
   “It will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for Sodom than for   
   you” (Matthew 11:24, ESV).   
      
   “There would have been better for that man if he had not been born”   
   (Matthew 26:24, ESV).   
      
   There are no degrees of nonexistence. These statements require conscious   
   judgment after death.   
      
   You say the gospel alone saves, yet you redefine death as the mechanism   
   that removes sin. Scripture says otherwise.   
      
   “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures” (1   
   Corinthians 15:3, ESV).   
      
   “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24, ESV).   
      
   Your own death does not cleanse you of sins. Faith in Christ's death for   
   our sins does. Resurrection vindicates. Faith receives.   
      
   The gospel you claim to defend depends entirely on Christ’s   
   substitutionary death and bodily resurrection. When you make physical   
   death the eraser of sin, you promote a false, heretical gospel, which   
   will certainly lead men to the eternal, conscious torment you feign   
   indignation over.   
      
   Salvation rests on Christ alone. Not Plato. Not Aristotle. Not human   
   death. Christ died. Christ rose. That is the power of God for salvation.   
      
   --   
   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)