The Bible itself says that you do not have an immortal part of you that survives death. All thought processes cease at death.
Ecclesiastes 9:5,6,9,10...
"For the living know that they will die, but the dead don’t know anything. There is no longer a reward for them because the memory of them is forgotten. 6 Their love, their hate, and their envy have already disappeared, and there is no longer a portion for them in all that is done under the sun. . . .Enjoy life with the wife you love all the days of your fleeting life, which has been given to you under the sun, all your fleeting days. For that is your portion in life and in your struggle under the sun. 10 Whatever your hands find to do, do with all your strength, because there is no work, planning, knowledge, or wisdom in Sheol where you are going." (HCSB)
Solomon makes no allowance for thought, planning, wisdom or activity in "sheol" which is the Hebrew equivalent of "hades" in Greek. "Hades" is translated as "hell" in most Bibles, but "sheol" is simply the common grave of mankind....the place where we all go....The Jews had no "hell".....so "hades" is just the grave too...nothing sinister about it....its the place where we "Rest In Peace".
"It is not the dead who praise the Lord,
nor any of those descending into the silence of death." (Psalm 115:17)
"His spirit [breath] departs, he returns to the earth;
In that very day his thoughts perish." (Psalm 146:4 NASB)
The ancient Jews had no belief in life after death except by resurrection, which they expected to be here on earth under Messiah's Kingdom. This is what their scripture taught.....Jesus did not teach anything different. In fact he reinforced that belief by resurrecting people during his ministry. (John 11:11-14)
The spirit that returns to God is not you, but symbolically means God's ability to recreate you and to reanimate you with his spirit, just as he did with Adam in the beginning...the whole person or soul is returned to life. Adam became a soul when God started him breathing.
This is a misunderstanding and even twisting of what the Bible says. But think for a moment...if you leave out the notion of an immortal soul, (which the Jews did when reading their scripture because they had no such belief,) then what part of them did they expect to be resurrected?
It was only when Jesus came that it was revealed that a certain number would be taken to heaven to become 'kings and priests' over mankind. (Revelation 20:6)
John 14:1-3...
"Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. 3 If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also."
As Jews, his disciples had no belief in an afterlife. When Jesus said that he would come back for those of "the elect", many of them would have been in their graves a very long time. No one knew when Christ was to come back. (Matthew 24:36)
Paul clearly stated that the resurrection of these 'elect' would not take place until Christ's return. Most people are unfamiliar with this.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-17...
"But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. . . . . For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord."
This is directed at the elect only. These who are "asleep" will be resurrected "first" because the Kingdom will then be set up ready for when Jesus comes to judge the world.
Can I ask, what it is that makes you...you? Is it your physical body? Is it your internal organs? Or is it your personality that resides in the brain? Once the brain has ceased to function, the personality is gone. That person is no longer alive. But when God resurrects the dead by means of his Christ, those who were dead in their graves are given a new body, complete with reprogrammed memories of who they are and who their loved ones are, and who they were in the past. Does it require molecules to be you? Do you understand that in the process of physical cell renewal, that complete replacement of all cells is accomplished in about 7 years? Every 7 years, you are a new person but you are still you because of your retained memories. God will recreate the body and reinstall the memories so that all who are resurrected, either with a physical body or with a spiritual one as Jesus was, will know who they are.
That is not true. From God's perspective no one has really died.....they all live in his memory.
"Moses even indicated in the passage about the burning bush that the dead are raised, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. 38 He is not God of the dead but of the living, because all are living to Him.” (Luke 20:37-38)
The dead are dead (asleep).....Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had been dead for centuries when those words were recorded, yet what does it say? That the dead are "all living to God"....he can bring them back as easily as awakening someone from sleep.
I think that you have misunderstood our beliefs.
