Instead of accepting the light of the New Testament, Seventh Day Cultists, always retreat the darkness of the old testament. They read into those passages what they so desperately want to read. Unfortunately all those old testament passages simply refer to a physical death and not the annihilation of the human spirit.
When you show them the clear teachings of the new testament, they simply twist them and redefine the words. Torment = death, and so on.
Let's look at come clear teaching from the New Testament. Everybody loves the "Golden Text", but most people don't really believe it...
Joh 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life.
OK, first thing we should see here is that we can perish. What does it mean to perish? The word for perish is...
G622
ἀπόλλυμι
apollumi
ap-ol'-loo-mee
From G575 and the base of G3639; to destroy fully (reflexively to perish, or lose), literally or figuratively: - destroy, die, lose, mar, perish.
It does not mean life in some other place, it means to die, to be destroyed. On the other hand, the phrase "but have everlasting life" shows us something else. We do not have life inherent, it is a gift that must be given to us...
Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death;
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The whole idea of eternal torment presupposes one already posseses eternal life and that we are only deciding where it will be spent. In reality, we were created with a temporary existence that can become permanent by the gift of life from our creator. On the other hand, Paul here shows that those who continue in the way of sin receive death. Now there are those who will tell you that really means life in some other place, but the word for death here...
G2288
θάνατος
thanatos
than'-at-os
From G2348; (properly an adjective used as a noun) death (literally or figuratively): - X deadly, (be . . .) death.
And in no way implies life. It means death. But let's turn to the Final Authority...
Mat 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to
destroy both soul and body in hell.
Did Jesus mean spending an eternity in horrible anguish and torment? The word for destroy here is...
G622
ἀπόλλυμι
apollumi
ap-ol'-loo-mee
From G575 and the base of G3639; to destroy fully (reflexively to perish, or lose), literally or figuratively: - destroy, die, lose, mar, perish.
Remember that word? It is the same word we saw used earlier in the "Golden Text". God is consistent, He doesn't willy-nilly change His mind, He is the same yesterday, today and forever. About 6000 years ago, He said this...
Gen 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely
die.
die:
H4191
מוּת
mûth
mooth
A primitive root; to die (literally or figuratively); causatively to kill: - X at all, X crying, (be) dead (body, man, one), (put to, worthy of) death, destroy (-er), (cause to, be like to, must) die, kill, necro [-mancer], X must needs, slay, X surely, X very suddenly, X in [no] wise.
There is no implication of life in some other place here, it means what it says. Our first parents were persuaded by the nachash (the whispering enchanter) when he uttered the first recorded lie...
Gen 3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
And the world has believed it ever since...
Rev 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan,
which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
Not just some isolated tribe in Papua New Guinea, but the whole world.
