The Resurrection of the Dead is the BODILY resurrection where we wll get glorified BODIES - like Jesus had when He ascended to the Father (1 Thess. 4:15-17, 1 John 3:2).
Make NO mistake, however, Heaven is the dwelling place of MANY souls, which are the saints of the past.
Or don't you believe in the Word of God?
Rev. 6:9-11
When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.
I already knew what you believed it's typical of what Christendom believes. Yes the scriptures teach us that there will be those humans that The True God will choose to be of the heavenly resurrection, who like Jesus when they're resurrected will be given immortality and inherit incorruption. However these will not be the same bodies they had before they died. You honestly believe that the Alostles and disciples of Jesus Christ had immortal incorruptible bodies before they died? No they didn't, so when they are resurrected they are changed. As I said the word Soul has to do with that which is tangible, material, mortal. They are changed into those glorified bodies, it's not the bodies they had before they died. Jesus Christ wasn't resurrected with the same body because the scriptures tell us that when Jesus was resurrected he was given immortality and inherited in corruption. Jesus wasn't immortal nor incorruptible before he sacrificed his life. If he were immortal that would mean he was beyond death. Do you believe Jesus truly died for the world of mankind, because I do. So as I said Jesus was resurrected with a different body than he had before he sacrificed himself for mankind. All this shows that the word soul isn't some invisible immaterial thing inside us that separates at death.
The scripture you quoted regarding revelations, the one thing you must remember concerning revelation is that in the beginning of revelation John tells us:
"A revelation by Jesus Christ, which God gave him, to show his slaves the things that must shortly take place. And he sent his angel and presented it in signs through him to his slave John. So since Revelation is such a symbolic book what does Revelation 6:9-11 mean. Underneath this altar are “the souls of those slaughtered because of the word of God and because of the witness work that they used to have.” What does this mean? These could not be disembodied souls—like those believed in by the pagan Greeks. (
Genesis 2:7; Ezekiel 18:4) Rather, John knows that the soul, or life, is symbolized by the blood, and when the priests at the ancient Jewish tabernacle slaughtered a sacrificial animal, they sprinkled the blood “round about upon the altar” or poured it “at the base of the altar of burnt offering.” (
Leviticus 3:2, 8, 13; 4:7; 17:6, 11, 12) Hence, the animal’s soul was closely identified with the altar of sacrifice. But why would the souls, or blood, of these particular servants of God be seen underneath a symbolic altar in heaven? Because their deaths are viewed as sacrificial.
Indeed, all those who are begotten as spirit sons of God die a sacrificial death. Because of the role they are to play in Jehovah’s heavenly Kingdom, it is God’s will that they renounce and sacrifice any hope of life everlasting on earth. In this respect, they submit to a sacrificial death in behalf of Jehovah’s sovereignty. (
Philippians 3:8-11; compare 2:17.) This is true in a very real sense of those whom John saw under the altar. They are anointed ones who in their day were martyred for their zealous ministry in upholding Jehovah’s Word and sovereignty. Their “souls [were] slaughtered because of the word of God and because of the witness work [
mar·ty·riʹan] that they used to have.”
