The numerous passages of the Epistles that warn us concerning the consequences of sin are often preached to the unsaved, but none of them were written to unsaved people. Unsaved persons are already dead in their sins. It is the Christians who will lose their eternal life, who will slay their own resurrection, if they continue to live according to the lusts of their flesh.

But what do we hear from pulpit and pew? You shall not surely die!

"Ye shall not surely die." The emphasis in the Hebrew is on the word "die." You shall not die of a certainty. There is a question whether you actually shall die!

"The soul that sins shall die," the Scriptures declare.

Why is Satan so anxious to persuade us Christians that it is not certain we actually shall die when we disobey God? No doubt it is because he himself has been sentenced to eternal death in the Lake of Fire. Since then he has been attempting to rally the angels, and mankind as well, in an effort to overturn the sentence of God against himself.

You shall not certainly die. We hear it all the time today. For this reason or that reason, you shall not surely die!

The New Testament writings state clearly and emphatically that the Christian believer who continues in sin shall not inherit the Kingdom of God but shall die spiritually.

Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. (John 15:2)

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

Romans 6:23 (above) was written to people who had believed and had been baptized in water.

For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify [put to death] the deeds of the body, ye shall live. (Romans 8:13)

Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:21)

For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. (Galatians 6:8)

How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; (Hebrews 2:3)

But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned. (Hebrews 6:8)

Where does the cloud come from that prevents Christians from seeing what is written plainly in the Scriptures?

The passages above were written to Christians. Today they are preached to the unsaved regularly and vigorously, but they were not addressed to unsaved people. Unsaved persons are already dead in their sins. It is the Christians who will lose their eternal life, who will slay their own resurrection, if they continue to live according to the lusts of their flesh.

But what do we hear from pulpit and pew? You shall not surely die. The Scriptures, the Word of God, state that believers in Christ will die spiritually if they do not choose to live righteously. But the Christian theologians, reflecting Satan's attitude toward God and His Word, cry out in one accord, "You shall not surely die!"

To be continued.