Notice! The Elect, who find the way of life without death, are a small number-not a company that no man could number, for they are numbered in Revelation, 7th and 14th chapters, 144,000, who are redeemed, spirit, soul and body from among men, and not from the grave like the great host. Remember there are different glories for man, as Paul speaks of the glories of the sun, moon and stars, etc. All receive their glory according to their faith and works, John says, Behold I come quickly, to give every man according as his works shall be. And Jesus said, When the Son of man shall come, he will render unto every man according to his works. Which will you have - the glory of the sun, immortality without death, and receive an hundred-fold, or will you choose death and get only the soul salvation, the glory of the moon, sixty-fold, a spiritual body like unto the angels? for he is coming to receive his bride; and those who are so found doing and keeping his sayings, will be his immortal Bride - a body of flesh and bone - changed and fashioned like unto his glorious body. The blood will be taken away, and Christ, the Spirit, will take its place; then their bodies will be like his after he arose - sons of the living God. Jesus said, If a man will keep my sayings, he shall never see death. And he said, Whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die. Believest thou this? Herein is the mystery: We shall not all sleep (die), but be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. But your bodies are to be prepared for this great change by the cleansing of the blood. Joel 3-21. He said, Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life - the more abundant life, the life of the body, which is more than the life of the soul. Jesus offered them the bread of life, and they said, Our fathers did eat manna in the wilderness. But Jesus said, Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead, but I am that living bread that cometh down from heaven. If a man eat this bread he shall live for ever - not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead; he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever. This bread is for the life of the body; for those referred to in the wilderness got the soul salvation, for it plainly says, They all drank of that Spiritual Rock, (which Rock was Christ,) and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; therefore this bread was for the life of the body, as Jesus' teachings and all the Scriptures plainly show. Jesus said, This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. John 6-50. Paul referred to those who ate manna in the wilderness, and said, Was it not those who had sinned that their carcasses (bodies) fell in the wilderness? - showing that it is sin that kills the body; and he said, The sting of death is sin.
Bodies that go to dust come up no more. And Samuel says, It is as water spilt upon the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. And Paul rebuked them who believed in the resurrection of the body, and said, Thou fool. thou sowest not the body that shall be, but God giveth it another body - not the same body, but another body. It is sown (or laid down in the grave) a natural body, but raised a spiritual body - i.e., the soul. Therefore you see by these witnesses that all flesh that goes to the grave is lost, and the soul is raised a spiritual body. Not discerning the difference between the spirit and the soul, most people claim they are one and the same thing; but this is not according to the Word, for it is written, The Word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. See it is divided; and Eccl. 12-7 tells us the spirit returns to God who gave it - which is one part; and the bodies of all who go to the grave return to dust, and as we have proved, come up no more - which is two parts of man - then what is it that is raised if it is not the soul? for Daniel says, Many that sleep in the dust - not the dust, but that which sleeps in the dust - shall awake. And Jesus says, Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves (i.e., the souls) shall hear his voice and come forth- they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation; as John the divine says, They live not again till a thousand years are expired, etc. What comes forth? Not the spirit, for it went to God, therefore it did not go to the grave; and it could not be the body, for it went to dust and comes up no more, as the proofs have just shown; therefore it remains plain to be seen that it is the soul that is raised and reunited with the spirit in the resurrection, being made like into the angels - not sons, for to which of his angels has he said, Thou art my son? Angels are not called sons. But the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God, who are to have a body of flesh and bone made immortal, like unto his glorious body - the Firstborn among the many brethren of the sons of God (144,000), the Elect; and for their sake the time is shortened, or no flesh would be saved; for, This mortal (flesh) must put on immortality. Jesus prayed that they be taken not out of the world, but kept from the evil; and Paul also prayed, May the God of peace sanctify you wholly, and that your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved (not destroyed in the grave, but preserved) blameless unto the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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