To Kim's response of 01-27-98
Although many believers would disagree with me on this, I have not held the "traditional" view that a person's "soul" departs their body at death and exists independantly in heaven or hell for some years now. Nor do I believe that anyone has an eternal existence apart from Christ.
I readily acknowledge that the "traditional" view is in fact the majority view at this time. Nevertheless, my understanding of the inspired scriptures binds my conscience so that I must dissent from this view.
The view I hold, called "conditional immortality," is/has been held by Wycliffe, Tyndale, Luther (in his early years), the Christian Adventists, various Anabaptist groups, pioneer Pentecostal Charles Parham, Anglican Philip Hughes, the late John Wenham, Church of Christ author Edward Fudge, the Worldwide Church of God, and many others.
Even so, I would never dream of denying fellowship to my many brothers and sisters in the Lord who would disagree with me. Kim Andreas is one sister who does. I would encourage you to visit her website; there is much good material there.
Below is the first letter I wrote to Kim concerning her online Bible study which advances the Augustinian view of the soul's immortality. At the bottom are links to the rest of the correspondence.
Subject: The State of the Dead
Date: Fri., 23 Jan 1998
From: William Kilgore
To: Kim Andreas
I find great fault with your Bible study on what happens when we die. For one, "Gehenna" and the Lake of Fire are ONE & THE SAME = the final destination of the wicked. Also, Luke 16 is a POOR basis for your doctrine, and can easily be shown to be a parable. Third, the idea that the state of the righteous dead has somehow CHANGED since the cross is sheer NONSENSE and has no basis in Scripture (in Acts 2, for example, Peter affirms that David has STILL "not ascended into the heavens." Rather, Peter says, he is STILL "dead and buried."). Man was created by God a UNIT, not "3 in 1". Read GENESIS 2:7 ... body + breath (i.e., the "spirit") = "soul" (i.e., "being" = the WHOLE PERSON). The dead (both righteous AND wicked) SLEEP until the resurrection, as so often is affirmed in Scripture! There is much more that I could say here and I welcome your comments or questions.