What does the Bible Say About the "Immortal Soul"?

Good New Magazine ^ | April 1999 | Gary Petty

[DouglasKC]

For education and enlightment...

[ConservativeMind]

I am aware of these arguments. An interesting post. Thanks.

[DouglasKC]

I am aware of these arguments. An interesting post. Thanks

You're welcome...I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[DouglasKC]

Ping to article...enjoy!

[goldstategop]

The idea of resurrection came to the Jews via the Zoroastrians. Ezekiel is the first figure in the Hebrew Bible to mention it but there he uses it in the sense of national rebirth. Later, the idea was extended by the time of Daniel to include individual resurrection as well. And of course the motif found its way into Christianity in the idea of the resurrection from the Cross. Eschatology or the "last things" does not presuppose we will all sleep forever. One day death will be abolished and we all awake and we will live again. Death in fact is unscriptural - see Isaiah who says God promises us, "I will wipe away the tears from all faces and death will be no more." We were meant to live forever but the moment we gained the knowledge of sin, we were fated to die. Let God mercifully pardon our transgressions so we may be bound up in eternal life in the Garden Of Eden.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[Frank Sheed]

Ping

[PetroniusMaximus]

***The idea of resurrection came to the Jews via the Zoroastrians.***

Not according to Jesus...

"The same day Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question, saying, ...

But Jesus answered them, "You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God... And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not God of the dead, but of the living."

(That's from Exodus 3:6 - Moses' era, but there are earlier examples.)





***Later, the idea was extended by the time of Daniel to include individual resurrection as well.***


Really?

"For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
yet in my flesh I shall see God,
whom I shall see for myself,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another." - Job 19

[DouglasKC]

The idea of resurrection came to the Jews via the Zoroastrians. Ezekiel is the first figure in the Hebrew Bible to mention it but there he uses it in the sense of national rebirth.

I'm not in agreement with that interpretation of Ezekiel 37. The physicality of the chapter is overwhelming. Flesh and sinew being added to bones, graves opening, etc.

Death in fact is unscriptural - see Isaiah who says God promises us, "I will wipe away the tears from all faces and death will be no more." We were meant to live forever but the moment we gained the knowledge of sin, we were fated to die. Let God mercifully pardon our transgressions so we may be bound up in eternal life in the Garden Of Eden.

I agree with this mostly. God promised death if Adam and Eve ate of the tree. Satan lied and said we would live.

[DouglasKC]

For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another." - Job 19

Good catch. Job is about the oldest book in the OT if i remember correctly.

[MHGinTN]

And what did Jesus mean when he cautioned the apostles to allow the 'dead' to go and bury 'the dead'? And what did Paul mean when he offered a blessing 'to sanctify you wholly, body, soul, and spirit'.

[goldstategop]

The Sadducees opposed resurrection. The Pharisees - the forerunners of Rabbinic Judaism, accepted it. Ezekiel speaks in the plural sense so it signified to the Jews in Exile their nation would be reborn. During the Hellenistic Era, in Daniel, the motif was worked further to differentiate between the righteous and the wicked - some who awaken to everlasting life and others abhorrent who sleep forever in the dust. There is the notion of resurrection in the nature of individual destiny and it depends on our good conduct. It also prefigures later Christian thought of the division of the afterlife into the realms of Heaven and Hell.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[DouglasKC]

And what did Jesus mean when he cautioned the apostles to allow the 'dead' to go and bury 'the dead'?

I think that verse means that Christ read the heart of the man and saw that he wasn't ready to follow him.

And what did Paul mean when he offered a blessing 'to sanctify you wholly, body, soul, and spirit'.

The soul is the vitality, or life, or a man or animal. The spirit is something that only man and God possesses. Paul's prayer was that our spirit, soul and body should be preserved until Christ returns and the resurrection happens.

[PetroniusMaximus]

*** During the Hellenistic Era, in Daniel, the motif was worked further to differentiate between the righteous and the wicked ***


Jesus is saying that when God said to Moses "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" He was saying that those people still existed. He is the God of the living (those existing) not the dead (those no longer existing). This is the truth out of which the resurrection springs.


I am aware that many of the higher criticism persuasion will insist that early Judaism knew nothing of the afterlife or resurrection.

Here we have the common case, i.e. Jesus versus the Higher Critics. One must ask one's self who is more wise regarding God's will and His ways, the Higher Critic of Jesus Christ?

[MHGinTN]

And what did Jesus mean when he cautioned the apostles to allow the 'dead' to go and bury 'the dead'? ... I think that verse means that Christ read the heart of the man and saw that he wasn't ready to follow him. The Lord spoke of the condition of the soul and spirit of the young man going to bury his dead in body father ... mercifully, Jesus didn't speak of the father's spiritual state, but he spoke clearly of the son's. The son was walking away from the invitation, alive in body and soul and dead in spirit in his trespasses and sins. The soul is the vitality, or life, or a man or animal. The spirit is something that only man and God possesses. Please, don't leave out the Angels, who are spiritual. And that begs the unspoken issue: if the spirit is not corruptible, then the spirit will be eternal in some where/when, Heaven or elsewhere. As Christians we are to have a new body, real, physical, but incorruptible ('for we shall not all sleep, but we will be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye' ...). I take that to mean that our body then will be 'time-transcendent'.

[PetroniusMaximus]

***the Higher Critic of Jesus Christ?***

Sorry, should read...


"the Higher Critic OR Jesus Christ?"

[kosta50]

Just for the record: Eastern Christianity refers to those who died as being "asleep in the Lord." To the Eastern (Orthodox) phronema or mindset, the only source of life is God, not our soul. God is the only true and sole Existence. We exist because of Him and not in spite of Him. God breathed the life into us (Gen 2:7):

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. (KJV)

Here, again, the word "soul" is translated into English from the Hebrew and Greek terms described in the article -- but the meaning is that by breathing His breath into Adam, man came to life. Thus physical death occurs when that "life force" leaves the body and either goes back to God or doesn't.

Eastern Christianity teaches that God does not reject the soul, but rather that the soul rejects God. If the "soul" is God's breath, then it certainly cannot die, for everything of God is eternal, and "life force" is no different. Thus, souls that reject God at the moment of death, eternally condemn themselves to that separation forever.

[kosta50]

The soul is the vitality, or life, or a man or animal. The spirit is something that only man and God possesses

Through the Spirit we know such non-things not found in the Creation as the knowledge of God, love and justice.

[DouglasKC]

The Lord spoke of the condition of the soul and spirit of the young man going to bury his dead in body father ... mercifully, Jesus didn't speak of the father's spiritual state, but he poke clearly of the son's. The son was walking away from the invitation, alive in body and soul and dead in spirit in his trespasses and sins.

That's what I was trying to say.

The soul is the vitality, or life, or a man or animal. The spirit is something that only man and God possesses. Please, don't leave out the Angels, who are spiritual.

An oversight...sorry.

And that begs the unspoken issue: if the spirit is not corruptible, then the spirit will be eternal in some where/when, Heaven or elsewhere. As Christians we are to have a new body, real, physical, but incorruptible ('for we shall not all sleep, but we will be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye' ...). I take that to mean that our body then will be 'time-transcendent'.

I don't disagree substantially. I think the bible clearly illustrates that our spirit (not soul, or life force) returns to God at death. But I think the bible doesn't explain much about the state of the spirit between death and resurrection other than that death is likened to sleep...i.e. an unconscious state. I also believe that Christians will resurrected with a spiritual body...a body that exists outside of our normal physicality.

[MHGinTN]

'I don't disagree substantially' ... dittos. It's sure an interesting time we're in for because of The Grace Of God in Christ!

[DouglasKC]

Here, again, the word "soul" is translated into English from the Hebrew and Greek terms described in the article -- but the meaning is that by breathing His breath into Adam, man came to life. Thus physical death occurs when that "life force" leaves the body and either goes back to God or doesn't.
Eastern Christianity teaches that God does not reject the soul, but rather that the soul rejects God. If the "soul" is God's breath, then it certainly cannot die, for everything of God is eternal, and "life force" is no different. Thus, souls that reject God at the moment of death, eternally condemn themselves to that separation forever.

Normally souls die:

Jam 5:20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.

Eze 18:4 Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.

Psa 116:8 For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.