(SwampFox;3362)
Ecclesiastes 12 has two verses that say it better than any.Ecclesiastes 12:6-7Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.The first section is, metaphorically, refering to the body as a creation of God such as the creations of man will break. Upon death, your body returns (decomposes) back to the earth from whence it was created. Your soul, which belongs to God, returns to God, for:Ezekiel 18:4Behold, 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.
Hi, For discussion sake, what scripture points to the soul going to heaven at death? I hope you find this to be a valid question since we may be assuming a great deal without such scripture. What is a soul? Adam "became a living soul," not that God "put" a living soul into him. That is fair to say. Gen. 2:7, soul is nephesh. It is the exact same word in Genesis 1:21 referring to living "creature" (nephesh). In Genesis 2:19, Adam was asked to name every living "creature"--again the Hebrew expression is nephesh. The first lie in the garden from Satan was, "You shall not surely die" (Genesis 3:4, 5). "For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing" (Ecc. 9:2,5). "...the King of kings and the Lord of lords, who alone has immortality" (1 Tim. 6:15, 16). Where do we draw the line, does the "soul" go to heaven when the body dies since they are regarded as a separate entity? ... Historical evidence points to Plato's teaching of a dualistic nature, separate entities, soul and body. The Catholics, as you know, took this page right out of Plato's teachings. Many reformers, two specifically, protested against such. Luther and Tyndale. Why do we accept Plato and and the Catholics viewpoint and we seem to denounce the reformers teaching which is Biblical based? Something to consider:MARTIN LUTHER (1493-1546), German Reformer and Bible translator "That the bread and wine are transubstantiated in the sacrament; that the essence of God neither generates nor is generated; that the soul is the substantial form of the human body that he [the pope] is emperor of the world and king of heaven, and earthly god; that the soul is immortal; and all these endless monstrosities in the Roman dunghill of decretals." Martin Luther, Assertio Omnium Articulorum M. Lutheri per Bullam Leonis X. Novissimam Damnatorum (Assertion of all the articles of M. Luther condemned by the latest Bull of Leo X), article 27, Weimar edition of Luther's Works, vol. 7, pp. 131, 132 (a point-by-point exposition of his position, written Dec. 1, 1520, in response to requests for a fuller treatment than that given in his Adversus execrabilem Antichristi Bullam, and Wider die Bulle des Endchrists).WILLIAM TYNDALE (1484-1536), English Bible translator and martyr"And ye, in putting them [the departed souls] in heaven, hell, and purgatory, destroy the arguments wherewith Christ and Paul prove the resurrection.... And again, if the souls be in heaven, tell me why they be not in as good case as the angels be) And then what cause is there of the resurrection?"—William Tyndale, An Answer to Sir Thomas More's Dialogue (Parker's 1850 reprint), bk. 4, ch. 4, pp. 180, 181."The true faith putteth [setteth forth] the resurrection, which we be warned to look for every hour. The heathen philosophers, denying that, did put [set forth] that the souls did ever live. And the pope joineth the spiritual doctrine of Christ and the fleshly doctrine of philosophers together; things so contrary that they cannot agree, no more than the Spirit and the flesh do in a Christian man. And because the fleshly-minded pope consenteth unto heathen doctrine, therefore he corrupteth the Scripture to stablish it."—lbid., p. 180.John S.