Within Christianity, there are many ideas about how one becomes part of the body of Christ. [1] The largest Christian denominations, those of the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches, believe that in order to be part of the body of Christ, one needs to first take the ‘sacraments’ (especially baptism and the ‘eucharist’ or Lord’s supper) throughout one’s life and confess one’s sins. In contrast, most Protestant churches believe that one becomes part of the body of Christ by praying a specific prayer called a ‘sinner’s prayer,’ in which one “accepts Jesus as one’s Lord and Savior.” [2]
Contrary to all of these viewpoints, Paul wrote that in order to be saved according to his gospel, one must simply believe in the message he communicated in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4:
Now I make known to you, brothers, the gospel which I evangelized to you, and which you received, and in which you have stood, and through which you are being saved if you hold fast to what word I evangelized to you, unless you have believed in vain. For I handed over to you that which I also first received: that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried; and that he was raised the third day, according to the Scriptures, and that he was seen by Cephas, then by the Twelve.
This gospel evangelized by Paul involves two separate truths, of Christ’s death and resurrection (cf. Rom. 10:9-10, 2 Cor. 5:15, 1 Thess. 4:14), as well as scriptural and physical evidence for each of these truths: [3]
1) “Christ died for our sins”
Scriptural proof: “according to the Scriptures”
Physical proof: “he was buried”
2) “Christ was raised the third day”
Scriptural proof: “according to the Scriptures”
Physical proof: “he was seen by Cephas, then by the Twelve”
Believing this “word of truth” causes one to be sealed by holy spirit, making one irrevocably a part of the body of Christ (Eph. 1:13-14, 4:30; cf. Php. 1:6).
According to Paul, this gospel is something which must be taught and learned (Col. 1:5-7), not intuitively understood. Despite this, the truths that Christ died for our sins and was raised the third day shouldn’t be too difficult to understand — unless, that is, one already holds beliefs that contradict these truths. Unfortunately, as I will show in this article, this is the case for most professing Christians, based on three key doctrines of Christianity which prevent them from believing in Paul’s gospel. Belief in these doctrines prevents most Christians from believing in the first part of Paul’s gospel, the simple truth that “Christ died for our sins,” thus preventing them from being in the body of Christ.
1. The Immortality of the Soul
The first fundamental truth of Paul’s gospel is that “Christ died for our sins,” for which he provides a physical proof: that “he was buried.” The fact that Jesus died and was buried is not difficult to understand. Even a child could tell you that death is the opposite of, and the absence of, life; in other words, the death of any human being, Jesus included, involves the complete cessation of existence.
However, despite the simplicity of the statements that Jesus died and was buried, virtually all Christians do not affirm them, though they may sincerely believe that they do. When pressed on this issue, Christians who believe in the soul’s immortality will admit that they actually believe that it was merely Christ’s body that died and was buried, whereas Christ Himself lived on. This is because of the doctrine of “the immortality of the soul” — the idea that humans are actually immortal souls which live on after death, who in fact cannot die.
The idea that one’s consciousness lives on after death is completely unscriptural, as I showed in another post. Instead, the Bible tells us that it is possible to kill one’s soul (Num. 31:19; 35:11, 15, 30; Josh. 20:3, 9; Matt. 10:28; Mk. 3:4), that a soul can be dead (Lev. 21:11; Num. 6:6; 19:11, 13; Josh. 2:13; Jas. 5:20; Rev. 16:3), and that “the soul that sins shall die” (Ezek. 18:4, 20). Souls, or consciousnesses, are the emergent property of a union between a body and a spirit (Gen. 2:7), and so cease to exist when the body and spirit separate at death (Ecc. 12:7). A person is always said to be where their body is after death, rather than their soul or spirit (Gen. 35:18-19; Job 34:14-15; Ps. 146:4; Acts 7:59-8:2).
The dead are repeatedly and emphatically said to be “no more” (Gen. 37:30; 42:13, 36; Job 27:19; Ps. 37:10, 36; 39:13; 104:35; Isa. 17:14; Jer. 31:15; Lam. 5:7; Ezek. 26:21; 27:36; 28:19; Matt. 2:18, etc.). They are completely silent and unable to praise God (Ps. 6:5; 30:9; 88:10-12; 115:17; Isa. 38:18), having no knowledge, thoughts, emotion, or ability to work (Ps. 146:4; Ecc. 9:5-10), thus apparently without any conscious experience at all. Indeed, it is as though they are asleep (Job 3:11-17; 14:10-12; Ps. 13:3; Dan. 12:2; Matt. 27:52; Jn. 11:11-14; Acts 7:60; 1 Cor. 15:20; 1 Thess. 4:13). Our only hope is in the resurrection; otherwise, there is no gain for the believer, and the dead have truly perished (1 Cor. 15:16-19, 29-32; 2 Cor. 5:4; 1 Thess. 4:13-18).
Now, all of this scriptural evidence clearly points to one simple conclusion: that those who die are actually dead, without life or conscious experience. Death is an enemy and something which we must be saved from (1 Cor. 15:26, 55; cf. Hos. 13:14), not a transition to a “better place,” however disquieting that conclusion may be. But a better and more pertinent question is, when Christ died, was his experience the same as all other humans — that is, no conscious experience at all?
The scriptural evidence argues conclusively that the answer to this question is “yes,” that Jesus was well and truly dead for the three days between his crucifixion and resurrection. His spirit separated from his body when he breathed his last, as happens to all other humans upon death (Lk. 23:46; cf. Ecc. 12:7). Since, as noted above, the soul (or consciousness) is merely an emergent property arising from the combination of a body and spirit (Gen. 2:7), we may conclude that Jesus’ soul (or consciousness) ceased to exist when He breathed His last.
Furthermore, we are repeatedly told that it was Jesus himself — and not merely his body — that died and was entombed. Indeed, an integral part of Paul’s gospel is that “Christ died” and “he was buried.” Another important passage which teaches this is Matthew 28:5-6:
Now answering, the messenger said to the woman, “Do not fear, for I have known that you seek Jesus, the [one] having been crucified. He is not here, for he rose, as he said. Come, see the place where he had lain.”
It was Jesus, not merely his body, who was crucified and laid in the tomb. Because Jesus, for the three days between His crucifixion and resurrection, is always said to be where his body is (in the tomb), he cannot have been alive elsewhere as a ‘disembodied soul.’ Consider the following argument:
Premise 1. When Jesus died, his spirit returned to God (Lk. 23:46) and his body was entombed (Matt. 27:58-60).
Premise 2. It was Jesus himself who was entombed and laid in the earth for three days (Matt. 12:40; 28:6; Jn. 19:42; Acts 13:29; 1 Cor. 15:4; cf. Rom. 6:4; Col. 2:12).
Conclusion. It was Jesus’ dead body which fully constituted his personal remains during the time He was dead, and not His spirit or ‘disembodied soul.’ (For a more detailed defense of this argument, see this article by Aaron Welch.)
Thus, even apart from Paul’s clear statements that Christ (not just his body) actually died and was buried, the scriptural evidence allows us to conclude that Jesus’ death was real and he had no conscious experience during those three days.
Despite this, there are several passages which are thought by many to teach that Jesus was alive, in a disembodied form, for those three days. The first of these passages describes Jesus’ soul as being in Hades during that time:
“For David says about him [Jesus]: ‘I foresaw the Lord [God] before me through all, because he is at my right, that I may not be shaken. Because of this my heart was merry, and my tongue exalted, and now also my flesh will dwell in hope, for you will not desert my soul to Hades, nor will you let your holy [one] see decay. You have made known to me [the] paths of life; you will fill me with merriment with your face.’
“Men, brothers, it is permitted me to speak with freedom to you about the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God swore an oath to him to set the fruit of his loins upon his throne, having foreseen, he spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that neither was he deserted to Hades, nor did his flesh see decay.” (Acts 2:25-31)
Now, according to Peter, the prophecy that “you will not desert my soul to Hades” (Ps. 16:8-11) was written concerning Jesus’ resurrection. This means that for the time that Jesus was dead, his soul was in “Hades.” But what is Hades? It literally means “Unseen,” and often figuratively refers to a place of nonexistence. For example, Jesus prophesied that the city of Capernaum would “go down to the Unseen” (Matt. 11:23); this city did not go to a realm of ‘disembodied souls,’ but it was abandoned in the Middle Ages and ceased to exist as a city.
There is also another more common meaning of “Unseen” in scripture, as referring to the grave. Job (17:16) equates “going down to the Unseen” with “descending to the dust of the earth.” In the Unseen there are said to be gray hairs (Gen. 42:38; 44:29, 31; 1 Kings 2:6, 9), bones (Ps. 141:7; Ezek. 32:27), worms and maggots (Job 17:13-14; 24:19-20; Isa. 14:11), and swords and shields (Ezek. 32:27) — all material objects which exist in the grave, not a realm of ‘disembodied souls.’ The Unseen is said to be a place where bodies decay (Ps. 16:10; 49:14; Hos. 13:14). It is also said to be under the earth, a location which can be descended to alive — synonymous with “the pit” (Num. 16:30-33; Deut. 32:22; Job 11:8; Ps. 30:3; Prov. 1:12; Isa. 14:15; Ezek. 31:16; Amos 9:2).
The context of Acts 2:31 confirms that this is the meaning of “Hades” being used in reference to Jesus. Using the Hebraic literary device of synonymous parallelism, David implies that the meaning of “you will not desert me to Hades” is the same as “you will not let your holy one see decay.” Obviously, decay is something that happens in the grave, not an abode of ‘disembodied souls.’ This is supported by v. 29, which emphasizes the fact that David’s tomb was still among them. So then, “you will not desert [the Messiah] to Hades” is merely an emphatic way of declaring that the Messiah would not be left in the grave, but would be resurrected. This does not in any way prove that Jesus was still alive in a spiritual realm of ‘disembodied souls’ during the three days between his crucifixion and resurrection.
Another passage which is sometimes purported to show that Jesus did not truly die is 1 Peter 3:18-20. This passage states that
…Christ also suffered once for sins, righteous on behalf of unrighteous, so that he might bring you to God, indeed, having been put to death in flesh, yet vivified in spirit, in which also he preached, having gone to the spirits in prison who once disobeyed when the longsuffering of God was waiting in [the] days of Noah…
This is often claimed to demonstrate that Christ, during the three days between his crucifixion and resurrection, was preaching to “the spirits in prison,” and so was not truly dead during that time. However, this is not at all the plain meaning of Peter’s words here. Rather, Peter says that Christ preached to the imprisoned spirits after being “vivified in spirit” — that is, after his resurrection. Therefore, this doesn’t show that Jesus was alive in a ‘disembodied’ state for those three days. [4]
Why is the doctrine of the immortality of the soul so dangerous, especially when applied to Jesus himself? Simply because, if one believes that the soul is immortal, this contradicts Paul’s gospel that “Christ died for our sins.” Of course, it’s possible to hold these two ideas in tension, as people do with so many other ideas (but cognitive dissonance isn’t very pleasant). Nonetheless, a belief in the immortality of the soul makes it difficult for one to believe Paul’s gospel and enter the body of Christ.
2. The Deity of Christ
Another fundamental Christian doctrine which contradicts the divine truth of Paul’s gospel that “Christ died” is the doctrine of the ‘deity of Christ.’ According to this doctrine, Jesus was and is the supreme God, Yahweh. In most traditions of Christianity, the ‘deity of Christ’ is also associated with the doctrine of the Trinity, the belief that “the one God exists as or in three equally divine Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” [5] The Trinity is the official position of the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, as well as the vast majority of Protestant denominations.
Essentially, what the doctrine of ‘deity of Christ’ postulates is that Jesus simply is the supreme Deity, Yahweh, to the same extent that his Father is (Jn. 8:54), although the relations between Jesus and his Father are variously understood by different doctrinal positions (one-self vs. three-self trinitarinism). In stark contrast to this position, the Bible presents Jesus as the fully human Messiah, the Son of the living God who lived his life in perfect obedience to his God and Father, died on a cross, and was resurrected to sit at the right hand of God in the heavens. For a detailed scriptural defense of this position, see the many other posts on this blog dealing with the doctrine of Christ’s deity. [6]
Here are a number of scripturally based arguments which show the ‘deity of Christ’ to be false:
Premise 1. Jesus’ authority was given to him upon his resurrection (Matt. 28:18; Acts 2:36; Rom. 14:9; Php. 2:9-11; Heb. 2:9).
Premise 2. God does not need to be, and has never been, given authority.
Conclusion. Jesus is not God.
Premise 1. “Yahweh our God” whose oneness is affirmed in the Shema (Deut. 6:4), apart from whom there is no other God, is the God of both Jesus and the Israelites (Mk. 12:29-30, 32).
Premise 2. The Father alone is the God of both Jesus and the Israelites (Jn. 20:17 cf. 4:21-24; 8:54).
Conclusion. The Father alone (and not Jesus) is “Yahweh our God” who is one, and apart from whom there is no other God.
Premise 1. There is no God apart from the one God (1 Cor. 8:4 cf. Deut. 4:35; 32:39; 1 Kings 8:60; 2 Kings 5:15).
Premise 2. The Father alone is the one God, whereas this title is repeatedly distinguished from Jesus (Jn. 5:43-44; 8:40; 17:3; 1 Cor. 8:6; Eph. 4:5-6; 1 Tim. 2:5).
Conclusion. The Father alone (and not Jesus) is the one God, and there is no God apart from him.
Premise 1. Yahweh God is greater than all (Exod. 18:11; Ps. 113:4-6).
Premise 2. The Father alone is greater than all (Jn. 10:29; Eph. 4:6), including Jesus (Jn. 14:28 cf. 20:17; Rom. 15:6; Rev. 1:6; 3:12; etc.).
Conclusion. The Father alone (and not Jesus) is Yahweh God.
Premise 1. Singular pronouns and verbs are used when describing God’s uniqueness; e.g., “you [singular] alone are God” (Ps. 86:10), “I am the first, and I am the last, and beside me there is no God” (Isa. 44:6), “I am Yahweh, and there is no other, beside me there is no God” (Isa. 45:5).
Premise 2. When Jesus and the Father are spoken of together, plural pronouns and verbs are used (e.g., Jn. 10:30; 14:23).
Conclusion. The one God, Yahweh, is not more than one person (not both Jesus and the Father) but is the Father alone.
All of these scripturally informed arguments demonstrate conclusively that the one God, Yahweh, is the Father alone, and thus that Jesus is not the supreme Deity. Although there are a number of verses purported to show that Jesus is God, none of these are conclusive at all; rather, when examined in context, it is clear that the doctrine of Christ’s deity is being read into them. [7]
Jesus is certainly the greatest man who ever lived, who now sits at the right hand of the Father with all authority in heaven and earth having been given to him. But it is a great dishonor to both God and Christ to claim that Christ is God. Rather, Christ is a fully human being (Jn. 8:40; 1 Tim. 2:5), the Son and servant of God (Matt. 16:16; Lk. 1:32-35; Acts 3:13, 26).
Why is the fact that Christ is not God so important, and the belief that he is, so dangerous? Well, first of all, the greatest commandment is to love God with all your being (Mk. 12:29-30), and so a proper understanding of who God is (the Father alone) is of paramount importance. Worshipping Jesus as supreme God, in place of the Father, is idolatry, [8] and Christians who believe in Christ’s deity are particularly prone to this form of idolatry. [9] On the other hand, worshipping Jesus as God’s son is, of course, more than acceptable! (Matt. 14:33; Heb. 1:6; Rev. 5:13-14)
Perhaps even more importantly, the doctrine of Christ’s deity (like that of the immortality of the soul) also contradicts Paul’s gospel that “Christ died,” thus disqualifying any who believe in it from entry into the body of Christ. Although humans are not immortal in any way, God is both immortal and incorruptible, and thus unable to die (Rom. 1:23; 1 Tim. 1:17; 6:16). His years shall never end (Ps. 102:27). Indeed, as he is the source of all life and being (Acts 17:25, 28), if he ever died, the entire universe would simply cease to exist. Thus, it logically follows that either Jesus is not God, or he did not die.
Since we know that Christ did die, we can easily conclude that he is not God. Yet the reverse is also true: if we believe that Christ is God, then we must also believe that he did not truly die, for God cannot die. Even if, as some trinitarian apologists argue, Christ’s ‘human nature’ died while his ‘divine nature’ lived on, [10] this still would mean that some conscious part of Jesus lived on, and so he did not truly die. Consistent trinitarians acknowledge this, and, surprisingly, admit that they do not believe Christ truly died. For example, consider the following excerpt from a debate between unitarian Dale Tuggy and trinitarian Michael Brown:
Tuggy: Right, so you just said that a body died on the cross… then you said a man died on the cross. It sounded like you think there’s this ‘other self’ there, the eternal Son. Do you have two Sons? Do you have a man and do you also have this eternal spirit?
Brown: …I’m not, I don’t think I follow the question, but to be clear, you said that a man, Jesus, hangs on the cross, he says, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” I’m assuming you believe that he had a spirit, he wasn’t just a physical being only, [he] had a spirit, right?…
Tuggy: Right, but Dr. Brown, you said that the Father and the Son are the same God at one time… But that’s just nonsense. [The same God] can’t be dead and [alive at the same time].
Brown: I think it’s much, much better if you didn’t put words in my mouth. I never said the Son died, I said the Son didn’t die, and now you say I said he did die. (video here, timestamp 1:11:08)
This surprising admission, I believe, highlights an inconsistency in the minds of Christians who believe in the deity of Christ. Although they claim to believe that Christ died, they actually believe that it was merely his body (or at most, his ‘human nature’) which died on the cross. In the minds of trinitarians, Christ himself, the ‘divine person,’ did not die, and could not have actually died.
Because of this, the doctrine of the deity of Christ is incompatible with the actual message of Paul’s gospel that “Christ died for our sins.” Although there are inconsistent trinitarians who believe in the deity of Christ, while also believing that he truly died — for example, the official position of the Seventh Day Adventist denomination includes both Christian mortalism (the belief that death is a true loss of life) and trinitarianism — it’s safe to say that a belief in Christ’s deity makes it difficult to also affirm the truth that “Christ died.” Ironically, the belief that Jesus truly died is considered extremely heretical by the majority of Christianity, despite the fact that this belief is necessary for salvation under Paul’s gospel and inclusion in the body of Christ.
3. Particularism [11]
The first two doctrines, the immortality of the soul and the deity of Christ, all result in a denial of the fact that “Christ died.” However, Paul’s gospel also contains the message that Christ’s death was “for our sins” (huper ton hamartion hemon, lit. “on behalf of the sins of us”). Though the fact that Jesus died is easy to understand, what Paul might have meant that this was “for our sins” is more confusing — for example, who is included in “our?” And how, exactly, did his death deal with sin?
The reason that Paul did not elaborate on what he meant by “for our sins” is probably because the intended recipients of the letter, the Corinthian church, were already aware of the details of Paul’s gospel (1 Cor. 15:1). Thus, we must look elsewhere in Paul’s epistles to determine exactly what he meant by this. Probably the most important passage for understanding the meaning of “for our sins” is 1 Timothy 2:4-7:
God our Savior… wills all mankind to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a correspondent ransom for all, the testimony in its own seasons, for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am speaking the truth in Christ and not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
Significantly, this passage states that it was for the testimony that Christ “gave himself a correspondent ransom for all” that Paul was appointed a preacher, apostle, and teacher of the Gentiles. Elsewhere, it is said that Paul was appointed to these positions for the gospel (2 Tim. 1:10-11 cf. Rom. 1:1; 1 Cor. 1:17). Thus, this testimony must be an essential part of Paul’s gospel. Paul must have considered the statement that Christ “gave himself a correspondent ransom for all” to have basically the same meaning as “Christ died for our sins.”
This still leaves the question, what exactly does “correspondent ransom for all” mean? The first word of this phrase, antilutron (which is translated “correspondent ransom”) describes a ransom price which is paid in full. Translating this word hyper-literally, it means “instead-of-loosening” — that which fully corresponds to the ransom price needed, and thus looses the prisoner from their captivity. Thus, Jesus’ death resulted in our loosening from the consequences of sin, and ultimately, our sins being no longer reckoned to us (cf. Rom. 4:7-8; 2 Cor. 5:19).
The second word of this phrase is huper (translated “for”), which also appears in the statement, “Christ died for our sins.” The force of this word might be better translated as “on behalf of.” When used of a transaction, it describes an exchange which is decidedly a benefit to the party under consideration. [12] This word is especially used to describe the effects of sin offerings made by the high priest (Heb. 5:1, 3; 7:27; 9:7; 10:12), which resulted in the sins of the people on behalf of whom the offerings were made being blotted out and forgiven (Lev. 4:20, 26, 35; 5:10, etc.). Since Jesus is both a high priest (Heb. 7:11-28) and a sin offering (2 Cor. 5:21), the use of huper here is especially fitting.
It’s worth noting that, when the yearly sin offering was made by the high priest on behalf of (huper) Israel, it was entirely a transaction between the high priest and God — the people themselves were not involved (Lev. 16:15-19, 29-34; cf. Heb. 9:7, 12). So when Christ offered himself as a “correspondent ransom for [huper] all” to God, this sin offering would have been immediately efficacious for all those on behalf of whom it was offered, without any reaction needed on the part of the people. Thus, we can conclude that all those huper whom Christ offered himself as an antilutron will necessarily be ransomed from the consequences of sin, without qualification. [13]
Finally, the last word of the phrase “correspondent ransom for all” is pantōn (translated “all”). The word pas describes the whole of whatever group is in view; [14] for example, when Paul spoke of praying for “all [pantōn] those in authority” (1 Tim. 2:2), he was necessarily referring to every person who is in an authoritative position. Although this word is sometimes used hyperbolically (e.g., Matt. 3:5-6), as it is in English, there is no indication that pantōn in 1 Tim. 2:6 is hyperbole. So what group is in view in 1 Tim. 2:6, then? In v. 4, the focus is on “all mankind,” and again in v. 5, we are told that Jesus is “mediator between God and mankind.” Because of this, it is safe to assume that panton in v. 6 refers to “all mankind.”
The fact that Christ’s death was for all mankind, every person without exception, is confirmed elsewhere in Paul’s epistles. We are told that Christ “died for all” (2 Cor. 5:14-15), that every person condemned by Adam’s sin is also justified by Christ’s death (Rom. 5:15-19), and that all who die in Adam will be given life in Christ (1 Cor. 15:22). Even elsewhere in the first epistle to Timothy, Paul wrote that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1:15) [15] and that God is “Savior of all mankind” (4:10). Thus, the “all” (panton) in 1 Tim. 2:6 is undoubtedly “all mankind.”
Taking all of this together, we can conclude that Christ giving himself as “a correspondent ransom for all” (antilutron huper pantōn) means that Christ, through his death, has paid the ransom price in full for all mankind, and so all mankind will undoubtedly be saved. Consider the following argument:
Premise 1. Every person who was ransomed by Christ will be saved.
Premise 2. All mankind has been ransomed by Christ.
Conclusion. All mankind will be saved.
These premises are fully supported by scripture, as is the conclusion. [16] One might ask, however, if Christ gave himself as a ransom, what exactly is he ransoming us from? According to most Christians, what Christ ransomed us from is ‘eternal conscious torment.’ However, the truth is much simpler. Because we know that the consequence of sinning is death (Gen. 2:17; Rom. 1:32; 6:21, 23; 1 Cor. 15:56), the ransom which Christ paid “for our sins” (cf. Matt. 1:21) must be to free us from the grip of mortality and death.
The fact that Christ ransomed us from mortality and death is confirmed elsewhere in Paul’s epistles. In Hosea 13:14 (which Paul quotes in 1 Cor. 15:55 after discussing the resurrection to immortality), God states, “I will ransom them from the power of the Unseen; I will redeem them from death” (cf. Ps. 49:15). And in 1 Cor. 15:16-19, Paul writes,
For if dead do not rise, then Christ has not risen. And if Christ has not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then also those who fell asleep in Christ have perished. If only in this life we have hope in Christ, we are the most pitiable of all men.
Here, Paul equates being “in your sins” with having “perished,” which in context means dying without hope of resurrection (cf. Jn. 8:24). And as Paul goes on to say, while Adam’s sin results in death for all, in Christ, all will be vivified, or placed beyond reach of death (1 Cor. 15:22 cf. Rom. 5:18). Death, not ‘eternal conscious torment,’ is the greatest enemy and will one day be abolished (1 Cor. 15:26). The transformation of our bodies into immortal, glorified bodies is the same power by which Christ will subject all to Himself in the end (Php. 3:21 cf. 1 Cor. 15:27-28). Finally, and most significantly, we read in 2 Timothy 1:11 that
Our Savior Christ Jesus… abolished death and illuminated life and incorruption [i.e. immortality] through the gospel of which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.
Thus, what Jesus procured through his death is the ultimate abolition of death, and immortality for all mankind. (After all, death cannot be fully abolished unless every person is placed beyond its reach.)
Since Paul’s gospel includes the essential truth that “Christ died for our sins” (which, per 1 Tim. 2:6-7, is the same truth as “Christ gave himself a correspondent ransom for all”), a belief that all mankind has been ransomed by Christ is necessary for salvation under Paul’s gospel and inclusion in the body of Christ. However, in stark contrast to this truth, the vast majority of Christians believe that not all mankind — indeed, very few people — will ultimately be saved, and that those who are not saved will undergo ‘eternal conscious torment’ in ‘hell’ in the afterlife.
This is an abominable doctrine, and is based entirely on the mistranslation of the Greek words aiōn and aiōnios as “eternal” and misinterpretation of key passages like Matt. 7:13-14 and Matt. 25:46. [17] Although it is true that few are saved to enter the Messianic Age and kingdom (Lk. 13:22-30), this does not change the fact that all beings, including God’s enemies, will be saved and reconciled at the end of the ages (1 Cor. 15:22-28; Col. 1:20), an idea which Paul expressed many times over in his epistles. But unfortunately, like the immortality of the soul and the deity of Christ, the gospel-denying doctrine of eternal torment is simply taken for granted by most Christians.
The False Gospel of Christianity
Paul’s gospel is not difficult to understand. It is the simple truth that Christ actually died (i.e., entered a fully unconscious state), and that as a result of this, all people will eventually be ransomed from the consequences of sin and placed beyond the reach of death. This is expressed many times over throughout Paul’s epistles. So why are so many Christians unable to understand Paul’s gospel in order to enter into the body of Christ?
According to Paul, the answer is this:
Even if our gospel is concealed, it is concealed in those who are perishing, in whom the god of this age blinds the minds of the unbelieving so that the illumination of the gospel of the glory of the Christ, who is the image of God, does not shine on them. (2 Cor. 4:3-4)
It’s not at all surprising that the religious majority is incorrect on so many crucial points. When Jesus’ disciples asked him why the “many crowds” were unable to discern the meanings of his words, while his relatively few disciples were able, he simply replied, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of the heavens, but to them it has not been given” (Matt. 13:11 cf. Mk. 4:11-12). And as our Lord said in his sermon on the mount, “Narrow is the gate and difficult the way which leads to life, and few find it” (Matt. 7:14). God’s modus operandi in “this present wicked age” (Gal. 1:4) is to work with only a small remnant (Rom. 11:5). In light of this, it would be more surprising if Christianity, the largest religion in the world, did have the correct interpretation of scripture.
One common objection to this view is that, because Christianity’s interpretation of scripture has been accepted since soon after the New Testament was written, it must be correct. However, this is merely a fallacious argument from authority. And in fact, it is false that these doctrines have been accepted since sub-apostolic times. Instead, their introduction into Christianity was gradual: the immortality of the soul was accepted only in the second century because of Platonic influences, and the doctrines of the deity of Christ and particularism were only fully approved as ‘orthodox’ in the fourth and sixth centuries respectively. [18]
Even if these three doctrines had been accepted since the sub-apostolic era, this would still not be evidence for their truthfulness. The New Testament writers never expected gospel truth to be accurately upheld by the succeeding ‘church fathers’ — quite the opposite, in fact. In his later epistles, Paul’s warnings against false teachings became more frequent and urgent, as he warned that profane and impious words would “grow like a gangrene” and that false teachers would “advance to the worse, leading astray” (2 Tim. 2:16-17; 3:13). He noted that already the entire province of Asia Minor had fallen away from his teachings (2 Tim. 1:15), and prophesied that his gospel would be abandoned by most soon after his death (Acts 20:28-32).
Postscript
Does this mean that the majority of Christians are hopeless and unsaved? Quite the contrary! Along with all other people, every Christian who does not know Paul’s gospel will eventually “be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:3-6). All that it means is that they’re not part of the body of Christ now. This can’t be counted against them, because it only means God hasn’t given them the faith needed to believe the gospel (Rom. 9:15-18; 12:3; Php. 1:29; 2 Thess. 2:13; cf. Matt. 11:25; 13:10f). We should pray, as Paul did for his opponents, that God will grant them knowledge of the truth (2 Tim. 2:25f).
Furthermore, there is a broader definition of salvation in the New Testament, which appears to be available for those who don’t believe Paul’s gospel (and are thus outside the body of Christ). To qualify for this salvation, one must simply believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and follow his commandments to love God and others (John 14:15-24; 15:10-12; 20:31; 1 John 2:3-11; 3:18-24; 4:7-5:5; cf. Matt. 22:35-40). If one does this, then they have the “life of the [Messianic] Age,” which is to “know you, the only true God, and Jesus the Messiah whom you sent” (John 17:3).
This is more than a mere intellectual knowledge, and involves God and his Son actually coming to dwell in communion with us (John 14:23; 1 John 1:3; 2:24; 3:23-24; 4:12-13; cf. 1 Cor. 3:16; Eph. 3:17). The love of God is being “perfected” in those who are in communion with the Father and the Son (1 John 2:5; 4:12, 18), so that we are being “conformed to the image of his Son” (Rom. 8:29; cf. 2 Cor. 3:18). According to Paul, this “life of the [Messianic] Age” is defined by “glory, honor, and peace,” and is available not just to those who believe his gospel, but to all those who “persist in doing good” (Rom. 2:6-11), and recognize Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God (this extra qualifier is added by John 20:31; 1 John 4:7-5:5). [19]
Therefore, Christians who fail to believe Paul’s gospel are not without salvation, so long as they recognize Jesus as the Messiah and persist in loving others. In fact, this salvation is available not just to Christians, but to Messianic Jews and many Muslims as well, so long as they love God and others. [20] Note, however, that because they don’t believe Paul’s gospel, they are not in the body of Christ. We who are in the body of Christ have the added benefit of being “the first fruits of salvation through... belief in the truth” (2 Thess. 2:13), and the extra task of being “ambassadors for Christ” (2 Cor. 5:17-20).
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[1] This idea is usually framed in terms of “getting saved,” but I would argue that the question is not about being saved. Everyone will be “saved” in the end, because Christ died as a ransom for all (1 Tim. 2:6) so that all people will eventually be ransomed from death and made immortal (1 Cor. 15:22-28, 55; cf. Hos. 13:14). Rather, it is about becoming part of the body of Christ and thereby reigning with him in the oncoming ages (Eph. 2:6-7).
[2] Of course, there are variations on this idea, but most Protestants believe that the “faith” which Paul spoke of as resulting in justification is an ambiguous faith “in Jesus” (largely because of a mistranslation of the phrase pistis Christou, which should be rendered “faith of Christ” rather than “faith in Christ”) which comes from trusting Jesus as one’s Lord and Savior.
[3] https://doctrine.org/the-gospel
[4] Nor are the “spirits in prison” disembodied human souls, as is sometimes supposed. Rather, as the context shows, these are the angelic beings who disobeyed God in the days before the flood of Noah (Gen. 6:1-2 cf. 1 Pet. 3:19-20, 2 Pet. 2:4-5, Jude 6).
[5] https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/trinity/
[6] See my posts on the evidence for unitarianism, and the nature of Messiah, as well as my refutation of Answers in Genesis’ article, “Is Jesus God?” Also see Troy Salinger’s article “Who Is God According To The Authors Of The NT?” which demonstrates that the authors of the New Testament viewed God as the Father alone, and not his son Jesus.
[7] See my comprehensive series of posts refuting trinitarian prooftexts, and my refutation of Answers in Genesis’ article, “Is Jesus God?” Also see the Biblical Unitarian and Trinity Delusion websites, which are great resources refuting prooftexts for the Trinity and deity of Christ.
[8] Since those who do so fail to properly recognize the true and living God, of whom Jesus is the Son (1 Thess. 1:9-10 cf. Jer. 10:9-11, Matt. 16:16). Worshipping Jesus in His proper place, as God’s Son, is of course approved and applauded.
[9] Case in point: the contemporary Christian song which states, “I’m comin’ back to the heart of worship, and it’s all about you, it’s all about you, Jesus.” Although worship of Jesus is proper and good, He is not the heart of worship. When done properly, our worship of Jesus ultimately is for the glory of the Father (Php. 2:11 cf. Jn. 5:23, 12:44, 13:20).
[10] For example, http://www.centerforbaptistrenewal.com/blog/2019/12/14/did-god-die-on-the-cross-the-trinity-and-the-crucifixion
[11] Particularism is the belief that not all will be saved, the opposite of universalism.
[12] https://biblehub.com/greek/5228.htm
[13] This is the basis of the Reformed doctrine of “limited atonement,” although I believe that Calvinists are incorrect to think that God and Christ do not will the salvation of all, as I argued in more detail elsewhere.
[14] https://biblehub.com/greek/3956.htm
[15] Since Paul adds no qualifications to “sinners,” we can conclude that Jesus came to save any person who is a sinner, which is, of course, every person without exception (Rom. 3:23).
[16] See my earlier post, “Pauline Universalist Prooftexts in Context.” Also see “The Ultimate Outcome of Christ’s Death According to Paul” by Aaron Welch.
[17] See my series of posts delving into the meaning of the words aiōn and aiōnios, as well as their Hebrew equivalent olam, throughout the Bible.
[18] See the series of posts discussing the popularity and eventual demise of universal salvation and unitarianism in the early Church.
[19] “Glory, honor, and peace” are spiritual blessings which are enjoyed in our present life as believers (see Rom. 8:6; 14:17; 15:13; 2 Cor. 3:18; Gal. 5:22-24; Phil. 4:7, 19; Col. 1:27; 2 Thess. 2:14; 3:16; etc.).
[20] Although they disagree on other key points, all these religions recognize Jesus as the Messiah, which is the main issue with regard to “life of the [Messianic] Age” (John 20:31; 1 John 5:1-5).
Great work Andrew, keep churning out these articles!
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