DEATH: Where do we go when we die?

BODY, SOUL AND SPIRIT
'And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man BECAME a living soul. ` Gen 2:7

Let us examine the picture this presents. God formed a body out of the dust of the ground. At this point it is not a person; it is simply a body-or more accurately, a corpse. Then God "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life:" or in other words, moving air. As I mentioned earlier, the word "spirit" literally means air in motion. Breath is air in motion, and thus, spirit. Spirit is added to the body. Therefore, a body (corpse), plus spirit (breath), equals a LIVING SOUL.

Conversely, at death you have a body or a corpse again with no life in it. It is now a dead soul. Thus, "a living soul" is a body with a spirit. This is according to the Old Testament Hebrew language.
The Greek language In the New Testament has a slightly different connotation. The Greek word for "soul" is "psuche" (psoo-khay). In Greek thought, the word "psuche" actually meant the whole essence of a person. In other words the "soul" is the result of all the components together that make a person what he Is. However, in the New Testament, when it quotes from or refers back to the Old Testament, in these places we understand "soul" according to the Hebrew meaning.

 

I am going to leave you with this for now and come back later tonight or tomorrow to see what people have posted... this might give you all something to think about...


To begin with, we do not naturally have immortality of the soul:

Rom:2:7: To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:
1Cor:15:53: For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
1Cor:15:54: So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.


'Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits (test the spirits), whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit (not every ghost but every motive) that confesseth that Jesus Christ Is come In the flesh is of God. And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is the spirit of antichrist...' 1 J n 4:1-3 Gnostics held, according to the pre-existence doctrine, that Jesus was actually a spirit and not flesh. That, by definition, made them "antichrists." In Greek, "ANTI-CHRIST" means "IN PLACE OF CHRIST" (ANTE = in place of). The gnostic teaching of reincarnation described another Christ. This other Christ was the one whom the Gnostics claimed was not flesh. This imaginary non flesh christ was an "ante-Christ" - a christ who was put % place of" the true Christ. John was warning Christians against accepting a counterfeit ante-Christ.

This heresy is known as Gnosticism and it has serious implications concerning Jesus. "Gnostic" is a Greek word that means "to know." Therefore, a "Gnostic" is "one who knows." What does he claim to know? Simply this: that we are each immortal and cannot die. Therefore, the immortality of the soul was their salvation - omitting their need for Christ.
Now, if you think you have an immortal soul, then you must think that Jesus did too. If Jesus had an immortal soul, guess what? OUR SAVIOUR NEVER DIED FOR US! (Remember you cannot die if you are immortal). If you embrace the teachings of Gnosticism, you do not need Christ to die for you; all you need is someone to tell you that you are eternal -so you can "know" it. Of course, Gnostics do not believe Christ really died. They believe that Christ was not flesh because flesh is evil. Therefore, He was a spirit in a mere "envelope of flesh," and on the cross only the flesh died. Jesus, himself (the spirit), went right on living. In other words, Gnostics claim that Jesus did not die. Therefore, if He did not die He could not have been resurrected. That is Gnosticism. . Unfortunately, this very serious doctrinal error is believed by many in Christendom today.

 

sorry guys, I have to work on this one lady's webpage for her right now.... she is having problems

 

We all need to have confidence in the fact that we are going to heaven but the question is WHEN. And if the Scriptures tell us when then it is important.For several reasons.

QUESTION:

If the Bible tells us plainly that at the second coming of Christ, Christ will call the dead out of their graves and they will rise up to be with Him and meet the Lord in the air, "and so we shall ever be with the Lord" and that we need to comfort one another with these words...

WHY if we are already in heaven right after we die? it does not make sense. Does Jesus send us to heaven when we die, then come back at the second coming, stick us back into the grave and then pull us back up out of it all of us together?


1 Thessalonians 4:
13: But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
14: For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
15: For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
16: For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
17: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
18: Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

 

The Bible clearly tells that we "put on" immortality later on 1Cor:15:54, we dont have NATURAL immortality.. Adam and Eve were barred from partking of the Tree of Life when they sinned

Gen:3:24: So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Martin Luther didnt have good things to say about the false doctrine of natural immortality of the soul. He classed it with the "monstrous fables that form part of the Roman dunghill of decretals."--E. Petavel, The Problem of Immortality, page 255.

Commenting on the words of Solomon in Ecclesiastes, that the dead know not anything, Martin Luther says: "Another place proving that the dead have no . . . feeling. There is, saith he, no duty, no science, no knowledge, no wisdom there. Solomon judgeth that the dead are asleep, and feel nothing at all. For the dead lie there, accounting neither days nor years, but when they are awaked, they shall seem to have slept scarce one minute."-- Martin Luther, Exposition of Solomon's Booke Called Ecclesiastes, page 152.


This makes it a little difficult to talk to the Virgin Mary, doesnt it?:


"So man lieth down, and riseth not, till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep." Job. 14:12.

"If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will wait, till my change come." Job 14:14.

"If I wait, the grave is mine house; I have made my bed in the darkness." Job 17:13.

"His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them." Job 14:21.

"His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish." Ps. 146:4.

"For the living know that they shall die; but the dead know not anything." Eccl. 9:5.

"The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence." Ps. 115:17.

"For David is not ascended into the heavens." Acts 2:34.

"For in death there is no remembrance of thee." Ps. 6:5.

"Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead." Isa. 26:19.