In bringing about mankind, God proceeded as follows:
He formed the body of man (Genesis 2:7); He made the soul of man (Genesis 2:7); and God created man in His image which is spirit (Genesis 1:27 and John 4:24).* God formed the body of man in the same substance or elements that one finds in the "dust of the earth." All substance eventually returns to its original state and the body therefore goes back to dust (Genesis 3:19).** The soul life is the "breath of life" of man (Genesis 2:7); and the life of the soul is in the blood (Leviticus 17:11). A man of body and soul is called in the Bible the "natural man," the man of the flesh, the carnal man. The soul is also called the "spirit of man" for the soul is physical life and is frequently referred to as "spirit" in its generic usage.* All life is spirit, but not all life is eternal-life spirit. Soul life is spirit, but not eternal. But the spirit from God in a man is eternal-life spirit. Soul life is the spirit of man which is passed on of ovum fertilization, which event begins the life of a new organism, the end result being an offspring. Soul is attested to by breathing. When breathing ceases soul life is no more. All living animals have a soul. In Genesis 1:20 and 30, "life" is the word for soul. In Genesis 1:21 and 24, "creature" is also the word soul.In Ecclesiastes 3:21, the "spirit of man" and the "spirit of the beast" is breath-life, the soul and is also the word "spirit" in Ecclesiastes 8:8.Can anyone see breath life? When one dies, does the last breath go upward or downward? Does a man's last breath go up and the beast's go down? How do you know when you cannot see it? We do know that no man can stop the last breath from leaving, and when breath is gone soul life for that man and for that beast is gone. Soul life continues by being passed on to one's progeny. God made soul life only once in the original man and has never made it again in man. {Except in the case of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, for whom He created soul life in Mary.) That same soul life is in all men today having been passed down from one generation to the next. Acts 17:26 says, "And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation."** In Ecclesiastes 12:7 "spirit" is not soul life---the spirit of man; it is the Spirit of God. God created man in His image, and the image of God is Spirit - John 4:24; "God is Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." God as spirit can communicate with spirit only, the same as senses-communication is related only by the senses. The spirit which God originally created in man was on a condition - Genesis 2:16, 17 "And the Lord God commanded man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."**When man did not fulfill God's conditions, man sinned and was then dead in trespasses and sin. God had revoked His gift of spirit and therefore could no longer communicate with man unless God chose to come into concretion in one form or another in the senses realm. In not fulfilling the conditions which God had prescribed, man became a two-fold being of just body and soul. He became then a natural man limited to information gathered by the senses. Physical man looked the same both before and after he lost the spirit, but he was not the same. Man had lost his communication with God and, consequently, had to live with the faulty aid of his five senses.** After the original fall of man, God's gift of spirit was at times put on some people of God for a special mission at a special time, and even then the spirit was on them only "in measure," to a limited degree. Never did God fully put His spirit in man until the day of Pentecost, when every believer for the first time could have the spirit of God "born" within so man could again become a tripartite being of body, soul and spirit. This anointing with spirit from God places the believer again in the position where God can communicate directly with tripartite man. At the time of death this spirit goes back to God who gave it. Thus, as the body is formed of the dust, it must, according to all laws of life, return to dust. The soul was made in the blood and becomes non-existent with a man's last breath (except in offsprings). The spirit of God from God is created in the believer and at the end of natural life this created spirit must return to God of whom it is a part. When Christ returns for the Church "of the Body" (born-again believers), those who are dead (in Christ) are made alive and will put on incorruption - they shall receive new spiritual-bodies. Those who are alive and their bodies have not decayed or corrupted, they shall put on "immortality" - new spiritual bodies.
I Corinthians 15:51-54:51. Behold, I shew you a mystery: We shall not all sleep [not all will be dead at Christ's return] but we [the members of the Church] shall be changed.
52. In a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we [which are alive at his return] shall be changed.
53. For the corruptible [the dead of the Church of the Body] must put on incorruption, and this mortal [the living of the Church of the Body] must put on immortality.
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. When the mortals have put on immortality and the dead and corrupted ones have been raised incorruptible, all shall have new bodies as is set forth in chapter 15 of I Corinthians. The natural body, the body of a person has before the return of Christ, has its limitations; but the spiritual body that He gives at His return is like His resurrected body --- unlimited in scope and activity.
I Corinthians 15:44-50:44. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body.
45. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam [Jesus Christ] was made a quickening spirit.
46. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
47. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
48. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
49. And we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall [future] also bear the image of the heavenly.
50. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither then does corruption inherit incorruption.Our fleshy body is a natural body. But with the gathering together, we shall have a new look, a new type of body --- a spiritual body. Until Christ comes, the dead remain in hades with corruptible physical bodies and unconsciousness. Love in Christ,Agape