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He alone possesses immortality and lives in unapproachable light, whom no human has ever seen or is able to see. To him be honor and eternal power! Amen. --- (1 Timothy 6:15-16, NETfree version).
"For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has given to the Son to have life within Himself" John 5:26
"I am the First and the Last, and the Living One, and I became dead, and behold, I am alive for ever and ever, Amen. And I have the keys of hades and of death." Revelation 1:17-18.
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Eternal life | immortality is in Christ, through whom and by whom all things were created, and who alone has (eternal) life | immortality in Himself.
That immortality of Christ is not in us, i.e in ourselves, and never will be, because we are not God, we are the creature, we are created.
God told Adam, who was immortal at the time the one commandment was given to him, that if he disobeys the commandment,
".. you will most definitely die." (Genesis 2:17).
Those whose eternal life is in Christ also have only one commandment:
"And this is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave us commandment.
And he who keeps His commandment dwells in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit which He gave to us. " (1 John 3:23-24).
This was the result of Adam's turning aside from the one and only commandment that was given to him:
"And the LORD God said, Behold, the man has become as one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever, therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he had been taken.
And He drove out the man. And He placed cherubs at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life." (Genesis 3:22-24).
Adam was immortal before he sinned, but his immortality, i.e his eternal life, was in Christ our Creator, the Word of God through whom and by whom all things were created, in whom is life, and in whom all things consist, but Adam was only immortal until he believed the word that says,
"You will NOT 'most definitely die'. You will be like God" Genesis 3:4-5
God alone is immortal, God alone has (eternal) life in Himself. Jesus is God. Mankind is a created being. We are not God. Immortality | eternal life can only exist in Christ.
The lie that Satan told Adam and Eve was not that Adam and Eve would know good and evil. They did know good and evil, once they had partaken of the fruit of that tree. The lie was that because Adam and Eve were immortal at the time when they were eating freely of the tree of life, they would NOT die.
However, their immortality was in Christ, so when they turned aside from the Word of God, death came into the experience of mankind:
1. Death:
Mankind's first death is Adam's death. It came to all the children of Adam:
Through one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed on all men inasmuch as all sinned Romans 5:12
2. Resurrection:
Mankind both has already, and will yet experience one resurrection from death - Christ's resurrection, which takes place in Him just as much as death took place in Adam:
-- I am the Resurrection and the Life!
He who believes in Me,
though he die,
yet he shall live.
And whoever lives and believes in Me
shall never die -- John 11:25
He who believes in Me,
though he die,
yet he shall live.
And whoever lives and believes in Me
shall never die -- John 11:25
Whoever lives and believes in Jesus shall never die.
Therefore only those who live and believe in Jesus shall never die the 2nd death (John 11:25-26), but this is not the case with those who turn aside later, if anyone were to turn aside later.
3. 2nd death:
There will be no 2nd sacrifice for sins, and no 2nd resurrection from the 2nd death - and the lake of fire IS the 2nd death (Revelation 20:14; Revelation 21:8):
I'm a pre-millennialist. However there is a lot I'm in disagreement with most other pre-millennialists about.
For example, very few pre-millennialists seem to notice that it will already be known before the return of Christ and the resurrection of the dead whose names were not in the book of life, because those whose names were found written in the book of life, did not worship the beast, but all those whose names were not written in the book of life, worshiped the beast.
There will be no souls whose names have not been written in the Book of Life going into the millennium:
"If anyone worships the beast and its image, and receives a mark in his forehead or in his hand, he also will drink of the wine of the anger of God, having been mixed undiluted in the cup of His wrath. And he will be tormented by fire and brimstone before the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.
And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. And they have no rest day or night, those who worship the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.
Here is the patience of the saints. Here are the ones who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." Revelation 14:9-12
Yet after the close of the millennium we read again that "If anyone was not found having been written in the Book of Life, he was cast into the Lake of Fire." (Revelation 20:15).
The lake of fire is the 2nd death.
Those who do not remain in the Vine do not have immortality | eternal life in themselves any more than Adam did. The 2nd death is their destiny too. It's not the destiny of everyone who was resurrected, but only of those who had life in Christ, but turned aside to follow Satan when he was released again at the close of the millennium, believing that they will NOT most definitely die.
It is only those who were martyred for their refusal to worship the beast who are promised that the 2nd death will have no power over them. The verse is silent about all the others who died in Christ without ever having been tested as these were.
This is also the case before the resurrection in respect of those who will take part in the apostasy mentioned in 2 Thessalonians 2.
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