That's true. However God can make a copy of us any time He likes. If it happens before death then it is easier to see that it is just a copy. If it happens after death, it is still just a copy.
What????
Why would God want to make a copy of me if I am still alive???
A real resurrection cannot happen until the person dies however, because it requires the spirit part of that person, the part that is the essence of the person, to re-inhabit a body, and thus make that body alive.
Where does it say this in the Bible?
The "spirit" is not the "soul". The "spirit" animates the "soul". It is not a conscious entity by itself.....its like the electricity that powers an appliance. Death switches the spirit off....like David said at Psalm 146:4
"When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing." (NIV)
"When his breath departs, he returns to the earth;
on that very day his plans perish." (ESV)
"Spirit" here is "
ruwach" translated "spirit" but referring to the "breath" of living things. It is breathing that keeps us alive. Adam "became" a "soul" when God started him breathing. The air in our lungs oxygenates our cells and the soul that is you and me, lives. When the breath departs (we breathe our last breath) the soul (man or animal) dies. (Ecclesiastes 3:19-20) The "spirit" in living souls is not a conscious entity. "The dead know nothing" (Ecclesiastes 9:5; 10) Dead means dead....the opposite of alive. Where does it say that at death we continue to live?
Jesus claimed that part exists when He said that the soul is not killed at the death of the body (Matt 10:28) and when He said that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were still living because Moses said that God is the God of the living and not the dead.
"He is eimi not ou God theos · de of the dead nekros, but alla of the living zaō! For gar to him autos they are all pas alive zaō.” (Luke 20:38 Mounce Interlinear)
Lets be clear here.....no one went to heaven before Jesus.
John 3:13...
"No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man".
If no one went to heaven before Jesus, then where were Abraham, Isaac and Jacob alive? Answer from scripture please.
It says as far as God was concerned, they were still living. But all who knew them, saw that they had died....and the ancient Jews had no belief in life after death....they believed in physical resurrection which Jesus and his apostles demonstrated whilst they were on earth.
The Sadducees, who did not believe in spirit (like the JWs) could see that there could not be a resurrection without one.
Acts 23:8 states:
“Sadducees say there is neither resurrection nor angel nor spirit, but the Pharisees publicly declare them all.” If the Sadducees were followers of the Hebrew scriptures, then denying the resurrection and angels makes them like JW's in what way? The ancient Jews did not believe in an immortal soul or spirit....that was accepted later under Hellenic influence. Jesus never taught that we have a conscious part of us that leaves the body at death.
Paul claimed that when he spoke of us our body as a tent and that we could be away from it and with the Lord or could be in it, and that it would be replaced with an immortal one. (2Cor:1-10)
Paul was talking about his fellow anointed "joint-heirs with Christ". These were the "us". (Romans 8:17) These were the ones who were selected by God for rulership and priesthood positions in heaven. Not all had "the heavenly calling". (Revelation 20:6; Hebrews 3:1)
And of course there are many other places with a similar teaching about our indwelling spirit,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,which is the totality of us when we are dead and so it seems that is why it is called our soul when we are dead.
For this to be true, it does not mean that the soul is immortal. Just that it does not die at the death of the body. It dies at the second death if that is the verdict.
There is more than one meaning of the word "spirit"....
Ruʹach (Hebrews) and
pneuʹma, (Greek) basically mean “breath” but have extended meanings beyond that basic sense. They can also mean wind; the vital force in living creatures; one’s spirit; spirit persons, including God and his angelic creatures; and God’s active force, or holy spirit. All these meanings have something in common: They all refer to that which is invisible to human sight and which gives evidence of force in motion. Such invisible force is capable of producing visible effects.
The second death is the one from which there is no resurrection.
Sleeping implied that the person still exists and there has to be something/someone to hear Jesus calling them to resurrect.
It certainly looks to me that God brings the souls of the dead in Christ back with Jesus when Jesus returns, so that they can be resurrected. (1Thess 4:14-16)
"Sleeping" implies a lack of consciousness. It conveys a period of time where the individual is conscious of nothing around them....not even how long they have slept. We need to look at a clock to see if we have slept for minutes, hours or even longer.
Where did Jesus call Lazarus from? Where did Jesus say he was? (John 11:11-14)
Just because something looks a certain way to you because you want to believe it, does not mean that scripture agrees with you. Those "sleeping in death" were not to 'come to life' until Christ's return. It is not the 'souls' that Christ brings with him, but those who are already resurrected at the time of the judgment.....he then collects the rest of his anointed who are still earthbound at that time, and transforms them into spirit beings in order to join him in heaven......the place he has "prepared" for them.
You are conflating these two words again. The "soul" is the whole living breathing person or creature....the "spirit" that animates all of the souls on earth, is their breath....
