Page 6 - lesson24.vp

6 Hope of Israel Ministries BIBLE Correspondence Course Lesson 24

Ages. Thomas Aquinas (about 1225-1274), Notice! The belief that man is essentially
Italian scholastic teacher and theologian, a spiritual soul housed in a material body is
stamped the doctrine of the immortality of the derived from ANCIENT PAGAN SPECU-
soul permanently on the Catholic Church. Fifty LATION!
years later, Durante Alighieri, popularly known The apostle Paul wrote about this very
as Dante, wrote the immensely famous poem, kind of speculation: “BEWARE lest any man
The Divine Comedy, in which he pictured for the spoil you through PHILOSOPHY and vain
common people the PAGAN CONCEPT OF deceit, after the tradition of men, after the
HELL, PURGATORY and PARADISE -- rudiments" -- or fundamental concepts -- “of the
which FALSE DOCTRINES have been widely world, and not after Christ” (Colossians 2:8).
believed since that time. The BIBLE CONDEMNS the philo-
sophic SPECULATIONS of the pagans! -- AND
False Idea Imposed by Roman Church THAT INCLUDES THEIR DOCTRINE THAT
MAN IS AN IMMORTAL SOUL IN A
Just before the Protestant Reformation MATERIAL HOUSE OF FLESH!
broke out in Europe, the Catholic Church
imposed the death penalty on all who refused to The Original Protestant View
believe the pagan doctrine of the soul’s
immortality. At the Lateran Council, held in Even the ORIGINAL leaders of the
1513, this decree was issued: Protestant Reformation recognized that the
“Whereas some have dared to assert doctrine of the immortality of the soul did not
concerning the nature of the reasonable soul that come from the Bible. Martin Luther declared
it is mortal, we, with the approbation of the that it was the Pope, not the Bible, who taught
SACRED COUNCIL, DO CONDEMN AND that “the soul is immortal” (Defense, proposition
REPROBATE ALL THOSE WHO ASSERT section 27).
THAT THE INTELLECTUAL SOUL IS The Catholic Cardinal Du Perron
MORTAL, seeing, according to the canon of charged specifically that “Luther held that the
Pope Clement V, that the soul is ... immortal; soul died with the body, and that God would
...and we decree that all who adhere to like hereafter raise both the one and the other"
erroneous assertions shall be shunned and (Historical View, p. 344).
PUNISHED AS HERETICS." How different were Luther’s first
Little wonder that the Protestant teachings from the Protestant doctrine today.
reformers found the people unwilling to change Here are Luther’s early views as expressed about
their doctrines. The reformers quickly took the the year 1522:
popular road, rejected the faith once delivered “It is probable, in my opinion, that, with
for all time to the saints, and began to follow very few exceptions, indeed, the DEAD SLEEP
tradition -- Catholic tradition which has its roots IN UTTER INSENSIBILITY TILL THE DAY
in pagan philosophy and doctrines of demons! OF JUDGMENT...On what authority can it be
And THAT IS WHY MOST OF YOU said that the souls of the dead may not sleep...in
were reared to BELIEVE in the IMMOR- the same way that the living pass in profound
TALITY OF THE SOUL! slumber the interval between their downlying at
Now we give you the startling Catholic night and their uprising in the morning?" (From
admission about the doctrine of the immortality Michelet’s Life of Luther, Bohn’s edition, p.
of the soul: “It enshrines the principles of ancient 133.)
SPECULATION" (The Catholic Encyclopedia, Luther’s original teachings have never
from article “Soul,” p. 157). ceased to embarrass Protestant theologians who

DEATH -- Where Is Your Sting?